Black Hole. Characteristics and nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Black Hole. Characteristics and nature - Essay Example 87, 2004). The presumption of ‘general relativity’ calculates that an adequately dense mass will distort space-time to shape a black hole. In the region of a black hole there is a scientifically described surface known as event sphere that considered being the ‘point of no return’. It is termed black as it soaks up all the radiance that strikes the sphere, not reflecting anything, just similar to an ideal black substance in thermodynamics. According to quantum mechanics, black hole discharges emission similar to a black substance with a restricted temperature. â€Å"This temperature is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole† (Taylor & Wheeler, p. 194, 2000), and makes it complicated to examine this emission for black hole of astrophysical mass or bigger. It is currently believed that at the core of every galaxy, there is an extremely enormous black hole that is billions of times weightier as compared to the sun. The enormous black hole c onfines nearby stars and pulls them into a spinning accumulation disk. A ‘torus’ within the internal accumulation guards the black hole within those structures that are considered edge on. In a number of these structures, a jet is emitted at a 90 degree angle to the disk and is observed within the visual as well as radio wavebands. In the extreme innermost regions, the disk turns so warm that the discharge is within the â€Å"X-ray and Gamma-ray bands† (Susskind & Lindesay, p. 103, 2004). In spite of its imperceptible centre, the existence of a black hole can be deduced by its contact with other matter. Astronomers have recognized several astrophysical black hole in ‘binary systems’, by learning their contact with their cohort stars. There is rising consent that extremely enormous black holes are real and present at the cores of the majority of galaxies. Specially, there is strong proof of a black hole of above 4 million solar masses at the core of t he ‘Milky Way’. A black hole has a dominant gravitational field that catches all that goes in its vicinity. Scientists now think that a number of galaxies have enormous black holes at their cores. These black holes discharge massive quantities of energy that controls the active happenings that take place in the galaxy. According to scientists, the energy for the black hole may be the â€Å"trapped gas, stars, and dust† (Taylor & Wheeler, p. 78, 2000) that are drawn into the hole. Gas that is drawn into a black hole spins down within the hole much similar to a whirlpool. By means of a â€Å"spectroscope, the Hubble Space Telescope† (Raine & Edwin, p. 28, 2009) has the facility to watch the pace of this gas as it spins around the opening to the hole. The pace with which the gas whirls is said to be the ‘black hole's signature’. By identifying the pace of the gas, the mass of the black hole can be estimated. A black hole at the core of a galaxy i s said to have a â€Å"mass equal to that of 3 billion Suns† (Raine & Edwin, p. 73, 2009). When an object drops into a black hole, any fact regarding the form of that object or allocation of charge on it is consistently spread all along the sphere of the black hole, and is vanished for external viewers. The behaviour of the sphere during this condition is a dissipative structure that is directly equivalent to that of a conductive flexible covering with friction as well as electrical resistance - the covering theory. This is not similar to other field theories such as electromagnetism (Raine & Edwin, p. 70-75, 2009), which have no friction or resistivity on the microscopic point, since they are time reversible. In view of the fact that a black hole ultimately

Mats Berglund Essay Example for Free

Mats Berglund Essay At BioMedCental, an online peer-reviewed journal, the research article entitled â€Å"Repetition and severity of suicide attempts across the life cycle: a comparison by age group between suicide victims and controls with severe depression† was submitted on 22 February 2009, and after a number of revisions was accepted on 29 September 2009, and published the same day. Written by Louise Bradvik and Mats Berglund (2009), researchers for the Department of Clinical Sciences and the Department of Clinical Alcohol Research, respectively, of the Division of Psychology of the Lund University Hospital, the study investigates the â€Å"reduced incidence for initial, repeated, or severe suicide attempts† for accomplished suicides according to age and gender controls. The initial hypothesis is that age has a predictive value on multiple and severe suicide attempts for accomplished suicides by gender; for this, the histories of past suicide victims as well as matched controls needed to be reviewed and analyzed. Due to the introduction of the diagnosis of severe depression/melancholia in 1956, and the practice of rating inpatients on a multiaxial diagnostic schedule at discharge at the Department of Psychiatry of the Lund University Hospital in Sweden until 1969, the sample consisted of 100 records of suicide victims, 44 men and 56 women, with severe depression and matched controls who were admitted in the hospital between 1956 and 1969. Since this study involved retrospective evaluation, a blindfolded procedure was used to choose the sample case records from the total sample wherein three evaluations of the cases were performed with the evaluator unaware of the outcomes of the suicides. The selections of matched controls, one for each suicide victim within the sample population, were based on the sex, age, and diagnosis. The retrospective evaluations of these records of the sample subjects were for the entire course of the depressions up to the deaths of the victims; these were monitored up to 2006. The evaluations and analysis of the records were based on the occurrence of the suicide attempts, whether they were first, repeated, or severe, and the main considerations were based on their age groups and respective genders, with the number of observations years also factored in. For the quantitative part of the analysis, a Poisson regression was used to compare between age groups (5-year intervals) for both suicide victims and controls by gender, and between the sample of suicide victims and controls, also by gender. With a significance level set at 5%, two-tailed tests were used for this analysis. After the evaluations and corresponding analyses, the researchers found that for both suicide victims and controls, older females had a reduced risk for initial suicide attempts, while only the controls and not the suicide victims showed this reduced risk in older males. On the other hand, repeated suicide attempts for older age groups appeared to be reduced for the female controls when compared to the female suicide victims. Lastly, for severe suicide attempts, a reduction in this risk appeared in the older age groups of female suicide victims, as well as the male controls relative to the male suicide victims. Thus, taking all of these into consideration, it appears that in the older age groups, repeated suicide attempts can be predictive in women and severe suicide attempts can be predictive in men. Works Cited: Bradvik, L. and Berglund, M. (2009, September 29). Repetition and severity of suicide attempts across the life cycle: a comparison by age group between suicide victims and controls with severe depression. BMC Psychiatry, 9:62. doi:10. 1186/1471-244X-9-62 Retrieved from http://www. biomedcentral. com/1471-244X/9/62

A Journey Through Writing :: essays research papers

Writing is and essential part of communication in our society. Soon after children are taught the letters that make up our English language, they are taught the basics of formatting them into effective writing. On the job, usually no matter what it is we usually can’t escape the written application, and we almost always find ourselves in a position which warrants the use of food communication skills. Among theses common forms of writing, others are integrated within the daily lives of people around the world. Some people choose to keep journals as a permanent hardcopy of their existence, and others like to write professionally. No matter what the occasion, there are always a few basics that can make your writing better understood, and more openly accepted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this essay I will explore some of the various writings that I have done, and compare and contrast them to some of the more formal writing laws that have been bestowed upon the craft. The coy bought the bat. Such a simple sentence that I have written so many times in the past in my more youthful days. Sentences like this at the time seem like redundant practice exercises, and they are. But when we grow up (literally speaking) and face the real world, we come to appreciate the process greatly. In that sentence we have all the basics or written communication, and then some. Amongst the noun and subject and so on, you find alliteration for example. Alliteration, when used correctly can be a powerful way to enhance your writing, and make it seem more sophisticated. And that’s what everyone wants to do right, come off as intelligently as possible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Let’s explore that in a little more depth. When I am writing on an assignment, or some other formal; type of writing, the style is usually much different. For example I don't try to use fancy techniques and a whole lot of jargon to sound good, I just write. On the flip side, I don't like using poor language and slang terms in formal writing. It just seems to be more appropriate the way that I do it. But, there is a limit. For instance, the more technical terms and jargon that you insert the more people that you exclude and possibly turn off from your work. Most likely if you are looking in a dictionary or a thesaurus all of the time, other people will have to do the same, and most would rather not go through the trouble.

Integrative Learning Project: Organizational Setting Essay

The Kennedy Law Firm, PLLC, serves the north-central part of Tennessee and south-central part of Kentucky, with offices in Clarksville, Tennessee. The firm was established on Christian principles, focusing on helping individuals through their greatest times of need, in 1984. The firm handles a wide array of types of cases, including personal injury, criminal defense, bankruptcy, divorce, and custody matters in state, federal, and military courts. Kevin C. Kennedy is its founding member and managing partner, yet still practices and is still active in the firm’s operations. There are three office locations across the city; with a main office by the county courthouse, another office close to Fort Campbell’s gates, and the last location provides a location closer to individuals on the northeastern part of town. Mission The Kennedy Law Firm’s main mission is â€Å"to be that rock in times of trouble by providing quality legal advice and support to people going through divorce, an arrest, injury or bankruptcy† (Google+, 2015). The firm seeks to provide its services based on Christian ideals, which the founding partner pursues by actively participating in numerous community events. The office by Fort Campbell is even being used by a church for services and other meetings. Mr. Kennedy does not hide his commitment to God, and he boldly proclaims his views in advertising and other interactions. The firm meets this mission by opening at 7:00 AM Monday through Friday, staying open until 6:00 PM Monday through Thursday, and being open on Saturdays from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There is not one other firm in the Clarksville area that has hours which are as accommodating to their customer base. Mr. Kennedy even encourages his attorneys to schedule appointments outside of those hours, should it be something that the customer needs to get the legal service desired. Customers The Kennedy Law Firm’s external customer base is made up of individuals from all walks of life, from rich to poor, Christian to non-believer, and any and all race or ethnicity. Virtually anyone may fall victim to the perils of a legal battle, so the firm’s customers cannot be classified as falling within any particular â€Å"type† or â€Å"category†. Internally, the firm’s customers are made up of the attorneys. The paralegals, assistants, and other support staff must ensure that the work they are doing meets the needs and wants of the attorneys. Furthermore, the attorneys must work hard to meet the high standards for a Christian organization, as set by the managing partner. Value As an attorney for the firm, I provide legal services for the customers that walk through the door. More specifically, I am one of only a couple of attorneys that have committed to remain in the office until 6:00 PM to ensure that an attorney is available when the office is open. Furthermore, I provide greater payment flexibility to clients so that they might actually be able to afford quality legal representation without taking on an insurmountable debt. Even though as a young attorney with a growing client base I do not make an income which many may attribute to attorneys when they think of them, I still attempt to take on pro bono work to help those individuals that cannot even afford the flexible payment arrangements which we try to establish. My previous work for Westlaw, a legal research provider, has also made me invaluable to the firm. I have helped other attorneys and paralegals in the firm with posing research queries and setting up their accounts to get the most from the system with the least amount of effort. I was able to increase the efficiency of research efforts for practically every individual within the firm. This means that the services we provide can be done at less cost, a saving which can be passed on to clients in an effort to make justice more accessible for all. Biblical Integration Christianity plays a huge role in this firm, and it was one of the major factors which drew me to seeking employment with the firm. Not only does the firm unashamedly advertise its Christian ideals and roots, the  atmosphere in the office shows the same strong embrace of such ideals. Employees are free to discuss their religious viewpoints with one another, which only further solidifies the family-like environment which permeates the firm. Every meeting is closed with a prayer, and every morning a Bible study session is offered in the conference room for those employees wanting and able to attend. Reference The Kennedy Law Firm, PLLC. Google+ profile page. Retrieved on January 25, 2015, from https://plus.google.com/110251003608330856023/about?hl=en

Early Identification of Gifted Children Essay

Gifted children are special children that need to be given the right education and attention. They are usually categorized on their capacity to do and produce. Huang (2008) wrote an article on the necessity of identifying them at the earliest time possible in order to nurture, cultivate, and lead them to a successful life. The article is entitled â€Å"Early Identification: Cultivating Success for Young Gifted. In its abstract it stated that â€Å"early identification and cultivating gifted preschoolers provides appropriate education for young children† (Huang, 2008). The kind of education that must be provided to learners must indeed depend on their capacity to learn and understand the concepts and the skills. It is difficult to impose concepts and to require mental and physical exercises beyond the capacity of the children. However, it is also equally frustrating for children of higher capacity to do lesser tasks when they have higher level of comprehension and performance. It is important therefore that parents must be able to assess the capacity of their children. It is imperative that parent must be able to detect that their children are not the usual children who can easily cope up with the environment and different situations as they expect them to be. The question however, would be the capacity of the parents and family members to identify the giftedness of their children. Parents could not waste time. The earlier time they can identify that there children are gifted, the greater the chances of leading their children to a fuller and happier life. This is what many other researchers have stressed on child giftedness: â€Å"There is no more crucial period in human development that childhood for maximizing the potential of gifted preschoolers (Odorn, Hanson, Blackman & Kaul, 2003 as cited by Huang, 2008)†. There are many ways in which child giftedness may be identified at an earlier stage. In Huang’s study where he utilized earlier researches and studies and reviewed relevant documents, he pointed out that early identification that were used in the 21st century were simple activities such as arranging of puzzles, building of blocks, and figuring of words on the back of cereal boxes. Huang investigated on the effectiveness of the implementation and the service treatment in three (3) phases: (1) â€Å"integrating the rationale of a development system of products; (2) analyzing service support and coordination and service approach about service treatment and benefits; and (3) outlining the future perspective. What Huang tried to establish in his study were also seen by other researchers such as Silverman (2007) who along with other researchers studies the development of gifted children. The following are some of the highlights in the study of Silver man that supports the thesis of Huang’s study: â€Å"(1) parents are excellent identifiers of giftedness of their children; (2) giftedness can be observed in the first three years; (3) when parents fail to recognize giftedness of children, teacher most likely do the same; (4) ideal age for testing is between five and eight; (5) second children are most likely gifted than firstborn children; (6) gifted children have different coping mechanisms and are likely to face problems; (7) they are asynchronous with uneven developments; (8) they have better social adjustment in classes with children like them; (9) traits such perfectionism, sensitivity, and intensity are associated with them; (10) most of them are introvert; (11) they have learning disabilities; and (12) giftedness cuts across all social groups (Silverman, 2007). The concept of Huang who stressed the need to identify giftedness was confirmed by Elhoweris (2008) who also explained what Silverman and her fellows found out in their years of practice. Elhoweris also pointed out that the gifted children are neglected in terms of educational and development programs: â€Å"One of the most serious problems plaguing in the field of gifted education is the need for the development of appropriate programs and identification procedures for gifted and talented students from different culturally and diverse backgrounds (Ford & Harris, 1991; Maker, 1996 as cited by Elhoweris, 2008)†. There is so much about child giftedness. Parent and teachers and the whole society must be work together in order to draw a better program that would bring out the best from the gifted children. Huang in his abstract of the study states: The experiences of early intervention in education can powerfully impact on attitudes toward learning confidence and later achievements for all children. The optimal development for gifted pre-school with individual special needs can be enhanced with intervention at early age (Huang, 2008). Parents and teachers then must be gentle and patient with their children and find every time and effort to identify the condition of their children or their students.The chance for the gifted children to succeed lies with the commitment of the parents and the educators. References: About. com. (1999). Young gifted children. GABC Newsletter. 1(1): 1 Retrieved October 5, 2008, from http://giftedkids. about. com/gi/dynamic/offsite. htm? zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn= giftedkids&cdn=parenting&tm=221&gps=101_1013_796_713&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www3. telus. net/giftedcanada/erlychild. pdf Elhoweris, H. (2008). â€Å"Teacher judgment in identifying gifted/talented students. † Multicultural Education. Retrieved, October 5, 2008 from http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_qa3935/is_/ai_n25500441 Goliath. com. (2008). â€Å"Considerations for conducting culturally responsive research in gifted education,† Gifted Child Today. Retrieved October 5, 2008 from http://goliath. ecnext. com/coms2/gi_0199-8043736/Considerations-for-conducting-culturally-responsive. html Goliath. Com (2006). â€Å"Closing the achievement gap: How gifted education can help,† Gifted Child. Retrieved, October 5, 2008 from http://goliath. ecnext. com/coms2/gi_0199-5841295/Closing-the-achievement-gap-how. html Huang, Y. H. (2008). â€Å"Early identification: Cultivating success for young gifted children,† Gifted Education International 24 (1): 118-124. Silverman, L. (2007). â€Å"What we have learned about gifted children,† Gifted Development Center. Retrieved October 5, 2008 from http://www. gifteddevelopment. com/ What_is_Gifted/learned. htm

Evaluation of revenue management application in Nigerian hotels. The WritePass Journal

Evaluation of revenue management application in Nigerian hotels. Abstract Evaluation of revenue management application in Nigerian hotels. Abstract1.0  Introduction1.1  Aim1.2   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONSResearch questions:  Limitations  FinanceAuthenticity of informationTime constraintsResearch OutlineLITERATURE REVIEW ON REVENUEMANAGEMENTRevenue ManagementDefinitionPurpose of Yield ManagementRM ToolsPricing strategiesDisplacement analysisInventory controlForecastingDemand forecastingBIBLIOGRAPHYRelated Abstract This thesis has provided a structured literature review which gives a broader definitions of the major concepts in revenue management in terms of the applications and the long term relationship with customers. It then explores the extent to which revenue management is been applied in the Nigerian hospitality sector. The aim of this thesis is to analyze revenue management application in some selected hotels in Nigeria, Nigeria is made up of 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory. Three hotels will be selected from the 36 states adding up to a total of 108 hotels to which questionnaires will be sent, the result will give how RM is been applied in line with the manipulation techniques involved, above that, from the research, it will conduct a development plan for other hotels under utilising the full strength of RM tools. The goal of this thesis is to improve the profitability of the room capacity with the tools of revenue management being explored, The theoretical data for this thesis will be collected from the selected hotels, hospitality management literatures, and Internet. In addition, other important information sources will be from the author’s personal experience and a result from the questionnaires rolled out to gain a reliable and comprehensive information of the RM adoption. 1.0  Introduction This chapter gives an introduction to RM, following literatures by Orkin, (1990), Jones and Val, (1993), Karaesmen and van Ryzin, (2004), Kimes, (2000, 1998), Rothstein (1971, 1975), Bitran and Caldentey, (2003), and Weatherford, (2003). We start with an elaborated explanation of revenue management, the history and its origin (Rothstein (1971, 1975), Bitran and Caldentey, (2003), and Weatherford, (2003)). Afterwards, a conceptual framework for understanding the objectives of revenue management, the business platform on which RM can be adopted (Kimes, 1989), the way the system works and finally, this thesis will conclude by giving an outline of the remaining chapters of the thesis. We here trace the history of revenue management as practiced in the hospitality industry in an effort to illustrate what Jones and Lockwood, (1998), said about RM, they said that Revenue management is a well researched and explored manipulation technique for maximising revenue. Unfortunately, revenue management practice in Nigeria is little known, for example, it has been a commonplace to sell a room twice a day if the opportunity arise, increasing the revenue generated directly leading to RM application indirectly, this form the bisis of this dissertation and it is a gap this research is seeking to fill by exploring the extent to which RM is practised in Nigerian hotels directly and not been blind folded by an indirect approach of the application of Revenue Management. RM can be define as a management tool or technique which is currently being utilized by an increasing number of international chain of hotels and independently owned hotels in order to maximize the effective use of their available room capacity and ensure a boost financially, (Salmon, 1990). Furthermore, Jones and Lockwood, (1998), researched and concluded that RM is not entirely a new capacity manipulation tactic in the world, and most hoteliers practice some form of RM, such as the adjusting of room rates to temper fluctuations between peak and off-peak seasons, mid-week, and weekend rates. This Research, therefore, examines the use and application of RM in the hotel industry in Nigeria and aims to demonstrate its application towards effectively maximizing room revenue and profit maximization. For the sake of this thesis, a comprehensive literature review based on secondary sources in order to explore RM application will be established as a guide to the fieldwork and the areas of interest will be extracted from the literature review. Above others, these areas and issues will be investigated through the method of collecting primary data. Furthermore, all collected documentations will be made available in order to validate the information given during these interviews. This thesis is a very satisfying and challenging process since it focuses on the gap which has never been researched in the hospitality industry in Nigeria. Nevertheless, it is a valuable learning experience which will be cherished by revenue managers in Nigeria in order to enhance the revenue generated in their respective hotel(s). This thesis seek to give a proper understanding of revenue management tools including; Overbooking, Inventory control, displacement analysis pricing and lastly forecasting method, their impacts on the corporate performance in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty leading to customer retention will be of secondary concern. 1.1  Aim This thesis seeks to explore the extent to which revenue management is being practised in Nigerian hotel in terms of the usage of RM tools which is afore mentioned. This will be achieved by exploring three hotels from each 36 states in Nigeria, some which will be from an international chain of hotels and others an independently owned hotels. Questionnaires will be rolled out to these selected hotels in other to have a generic perception towards the adoption of RM following the literature by Vinod (2004) in that the value of revenue management is assessed in the hotel industry. 1.2   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS Every seller is faced with fundamental decisions, juxtaposing this, a BBQ restaurant selling chicken and chips should be able to decide on which period to make her maximum sale, the price to give and when to reduce the price. A cinema ticket or stadium ticket must be sold within a certain period, therefore, the manager must decide when to start selling tickets, what the asking price should be, and when to drop price if necessary. In the Hotel industry, it is similar; hotel managers should know when to drop prices on rooms, when to stop selling rooms, when to increase the prices of rooms. Following these examples, the Nigerian hotels’ operations led us to the objectives of the thesis: To explore the extent to which revenue management is applied. To seek the awareness of RM within the Nigerian hotels. Research questions: How is revenue managed in Nigerian hotels? To what extent do Nigerian hotels consider Customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and customer retention a priority?   Limitations   For the sake of this thesis, only three hotels will be explored from each of the 36 states in Nigeria, because there are several unregistered hotels and there is no proper list of all the hotels in Nigeria. However, some of the hotels are part of international chain of hotels operating on an international level while some are independently owned. Furthermore, we have limited the research to RM application and from the survey, the sensitive areas as regards to customer loyalty, satisfaction and long term retention will be explored, in other words, the loyalty, retention and satisfaction will be our secondary aim. Nonetheless, there may of course be other operations or practices within these hotels that affect revenue but our research is focused on the five RM tools been employed as afore mentioned. The followings under listed are the possible limitation this thesis might face. Finance One of the major problems for the research is finance, the financial aspect in terms of travelling to Nigeria to schedule   and execute an interview with the managers of the selected hotels and therefore, questionnaires will be sent via the wireless network (internet) using kwicksurvey; an internet based questionnaire software. Authenticity of information Secondly, Some of the managers to fill the questionnaires might accept the purpose of the study and fill, but some might be offended by it and feel it is a time wasting process and give a biased information. Time constraints Lastly, the risk for the study of not been able to find the information it needs at the allowed time. Finding the information may take more time than the limited time given (time constraints). Research Outline Chapter one will set a solid foundation for this thesis, therefore, the research   will continue by presenting a comprehensive literature review as far as revenue management is concerned in Chapter Two. A concise description and critical understanding of RM background will be the aim of the literature review (Chapter two). Furthermore, an overview of the literature within the following RM tools including; overbooking, displacement analysis, price control, inventory control (length of stay restriction) and as they lead to customer management will be given in order to set the base and create an understating of how these tools influence revenue generated. Chapter Two concludes with a brief structured analysis of the literature review presented. Chapter three will seek to explore and examine the aim of the research process and how the fieldwork will be conducted. Research limitations will be presented, the fieldwork and how information will be handled. This chapter describes what happens in all the stages on the fieldwork.   (Before, during, and after the fieldwork). In Chapter Four we present a generic practice within the studied hotels and give a short generic presentation of the hotels participating and describe how RM tools are used in terms of the followings; overbooking, displacement analysis, price control, inventory control (length of stay restriction). Concluding the chapter with a description of how the respondents recognize the external environment followed by their perception on revenue management and their practices of RM techniques. In Chapter Five, the empirical findings will be evaluated and analysed in a way that it can be linked with the literature overview presented in Chapter Two. This will be done through a critical analysis. These analyses will illustrate the effectiveness of RM application in Nigerian hotels and how it is been adopted, therefore, Chapter Six will be based on the analysis of revenue management tactics. Chapter Six gives the implication of our main findings and conclusions, as this will be based on the entire research carried out, Furthermore, suggestions of areas which is felt to be further developed after critical evaluation of RM application in Nigeria is made following Choi and Mattila (2004)’s investigation on the impact of revenue management as regards to customers’ perceptions on fairness. LITERATURE REVIEW ON REVENUEMANAGEMENT Revenue ManagementDefinition In this chapter, RM literature will be explored, following all the five application tools afore mentioned. In the literature, Burgess and Bryant, (2001) said, many authors are conversant with the use of interchanging the term revenue management (RM) with yield management (YM). Some consider YM only to be related with revenue derived from accommodation whereas RM may encompass all areas of hotel revenue Therefore, it is important to highlight the term YM and clarify its meaning for the purpose of this thesis. Many definitions are available on YM. Jones and Val, (1993) said, yield is calculated by taking revenue realized and dividing it by revenue potential. However, RM is often associated with the following definition by Kimes, (2000, p. 121) â€Å"The application of information systems and pricing strategies to allocate the right capacity to the right customer at the right place at the right time.† further assessment conducted by Mitchell (1992) states that revenue management is the process of controlling room availability by opening, closing and restricting different room rates based on forecast demand in order to maximise room revenue. Jauncey et al. concluded through an analysis of literatures, came up with the term â€Å"best fit† definition for RM, which is â€Å"An integrated, continuous and systematic approach to maximizing room revenue through the manipulation of room rates in response to forecasted patterns of demand.† Jauncey et al., (1995, p. 25) and a description of RM, according to Jones and Val (1993), is to apply basic economic principles to pricing and to control the supply of rooms for the purpose of maximizing room revenue. Which means that in order to have an effective RM technique in place one would need to understand the basic economics of supply and demand so that the right price could be set in order to increase room revenue for the company, following what kimes (1998a) said about selling the right product to the right customer at the right time and the right place. Nevertheless, some conditions for the application of revenue management must predominate according to kimes (2000). These conditions include; Capacity must be relatively fixed, RM tactics is primarily designed for a capacity constrained firms but firms not having this capacity constraints can make use of inventory as a buffer dealing with fluctuations in demand. Service should be perishable, service ends when ends. Service could be sold well in advance of cunsumption, to maximize room revenue, some sort of reservation system which allows inventory bookings to be received well in advance should be put in place. The cost of a sale should be relatively low, this simply means the cost of putting a guest in another unoccupied room is relatively lower than building another room. Demand should flunctuate substancially, peak and off peak seasons, festive periods are all examples of demand fluctuations. Market could be segmented e.g Leisure travellers and business travellers. When looking at the literature from a historical perspective, it was the airline industry that has been credited with the development and refinement of RM following the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in the 1970s, Kimes, (1989a), and McMahon-Beattie et al., (1999). This deregulation resulted in a heavy competition within the airline industry and led to a price cutting war. Nevertheless, from the literatures of Rothstein (1971, 1975), Bitran and Caldentey, (2003), and Weatherford, (2003), managing inventory became an important part of running a successful business in the early 1970s. As a result of this competitive circumstances, McMahon-Beattie et al., (1999) said, the adoption of RM began in the hotel industry in the middle of the 1980s as the industry was faced with excess capacity, severe short-term liquidity problem and increasing business failure rates. Purpose of Yield Management Jones and Hamilton (1992) among others said, RM in the hotel industry tries to maximize the available guest room rates when room demand exceeds available room and to maximize occupancy when available room exceeds room demands, even at the expense of the average room rate. Nevertheless, some authors like Jauncey et al., (1995), McMahon-Beattie et al.,(1999), Siguaw et al., (2001) all agree that the purpose of RM is the maximization of room revenue through the manipulation of room rates in a structured fashion, so as to take into account forecasted patterns of demand. It is a technique that attempts to maximize profits by using information about buying behaviour and sales to create pricing and inventory controls, Lee-Ross and Johns, (1997). Why RM. Donaghy et. al., (1995), and Kimes, (1989b) just to mention a few, has examined RM applications and studied its definition, researchers like Donaghy and McMahon, (1995), Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, (1998), Hiemstra, (1999), Kimes, (1989a, b, 1997), Yeoman and Watson, (1997), looked at the critical factors that are likely to influence the application and implementation of RM and finally, the ethical issues in terms of customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty over a long period of time can be seen in the following literatures, Cross, (1992, 1997), Jauncey et al., (1995), Kimes, (1994), and Lieberman, (1993). Cross, (1997) added that within one year of the adoption of RM, Delta airline generated $300 million increment, $500 million annually was recorded annually by American airline, over $100 million is annually generated by   Marriott jr Hotels and $2 million gained in the first two weeks, following the adoption of RM techniques at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. RM Tools Pricing strategies First and foremost, RM tools are intertwined, one tool depends on the other to function effectively. Pricing strategies used to be a decision by the overall managers before, but in recent years, that schedule has been given to a revenue manager but the principle of differential pricing is said not to be attributed to the immergence of RM by Donaghy, et al (1995). Hotel managers have long been using various pricing strategies to maximize their profits by bringing the seasonal demand for rooms and capacity limitations into a balance (Choi and Cho, 2000), even before the deregulation in the airline industry that gave birth to RM in the 1970’s. Differential pricing strategies including; price discrimination, off peak pricing and demand based pricing may change the reference price and reference transaction which could cause customers to feel the current transaction is unfair and the customer could even perceive such differential pricing as price gorging. (Whirtz et al (2003; pg 220 )), A stochastic or probabilistic demand seemed justified on the basis that consumers ‘arrive’ at random times before consumption. From the pricing perspective, though, a theoretical structure was needed to explain how demand is shaped or why it would follow a particular pattern across time. Otherwise, there was no assurance that the past is able to predict the future [Bernstein, 1996; Ng, 2004]. Accordingly, despite tremendous computing power available today, pricing based on demand forecasts faces the same old problem in conventional probability theory, where, according to Bernstein [1996: 334], ‘the raw material of the model is the data of the past’. Some research studies have attempted to shed some light on the behaviour of the advance buyer. The literature is scant, dominated by marketing, and not commonly brought into revenue management research. For example, Desiraju and Shugan [1999] evaluated strategic pricing in advance selling and found that yiel d management strategies such as discounting, overbooking and limiting early sales work best when price-insensitive customers buy later than price-sensitive customers. Shugan and Xie [2000] showed that due to the state dependency of service utility, buyers are uncertain in advance and become certain at consumption time while sellers remain uncertain of buyer states at consumption time because of information asymmetry. They suggest that advance selling overcomes the informational disadvantage of sellers and it is therefore a strategy to increase profit. Xie and Shugan [2001] studied when advance selling improves profits and how advance prices should be set. They have also investigated the optimality of advance selling, investigating selling in a variety of situations, buyer risk aversion, second period arrivals, limited capacity, yield management and other advance selling issues. Png [1989], on the other hand, showed that costless reservations in advance is a profitable pricing strate gy as it induces truth revelation on the type of valuation that the consumer has for the service (which is private information). If the consumer has a high valuation i.e. ability to consume, s/he will use the reservation and pay a higher price. If not, the consumer will not use it. In another paper, Png [1991] compared the strategies of charging consumers a lower price for advance sales and attaching a price premium at the date of consumption versus charging them a premium and promising a refund should consumption prices be lower than what was purchased. Despite these models that aim to capture primitive advance demand behaviour, there has not been much effort to integrate them into a unified framework, nor have there been any attempts to bridge the behavioural aspects of demand with revenue management research. Models of the former capture individual consumer behaviour (or homogeneous consumer segments) and it was difficult to see how that could be aggregated and applied to revenue management that mostly dealt Overbooking, cancellations and no-shows Overbooking, is simply defined as a concept of accepting more reservations than the physical available capacity with the knowledge that some bookings will end up as a no-show, or cancellations furthermore, this serve as a hedge against early check outs, this is said in the literature that overbooking is one of the oldest form of RM tactics Karaesmen and van Ryzin, (2004). Overbooking is actually not a bad concept, but if not managed well, it could lead to overselling. Overselling happens when the number of arrivals exceeds the available room capacity.   Authors have examined how hotels could secure themselves in other to avoid no-shows or cancellations by guests, through appropriate reservation policies, (Alstrup et al., (1986), Belobaba, (1989), Hersh and Ladany, (1978), Lieberman and Yechiali, (1978), Rothstein, (1971, 1974, 1985), Thompson, (1961), and Toh, (1985)) airlines. Under this strategy, the seller deliberately oversells capacity if high-paying consumers show up, even when capacity is already fully booked. The seller then cancels the sale to some low-paying customers while providing them with appropriate compensation. We derive a new rule to optimally allocate capacity to consumers when overselling is used, and show that overselling helps limit the potential yield and spoilage losses. Yield loss is reduced because the seller can capture more high-paying customers by compensating low-paying customers who give up their right to the product. Displacement analysis Displacement analysis has been a very challenging exercise for function room analysis. It is challenging to determine what to negotiate when considering booking a group with a significant lead time, because when compression does hit it is possible that more money could have been made by waiting and taking the last-minute groups that are willing to pay higher prices. But that requires hotels taking significant risks and gambles The concept of displacement is defined by Abbort and Lewry, (1991) is said to be â€Å"those prospective customers who are unable to obtain a higher rate because the rooms have already been booked by customers paying lower rate.†Ã‚   Furthermore, Biyalogorsky, (1999) added that displacement concept is â€Å"selling at a low price, and losing a better price later†. Displacement analysis is divided in to two parts, including; Primary displacement and Secondary displacement. Primary displacement is also known as the direct displacement, and these are those prospective guest who are willing to increase the room rate themselves just to get booked for a particular date of arrival but could not be booked due to the fact that the available rooms are already been booked by guests with lower rates. Secondly, the secondary displacement which is also known as indirect displacement and are said to be those subsequent rooms lost due to primary displacement. Example of this displacement analysis can be seen in appendix 1. Inventory control 1 The Mechanics of Inventory Control Distribution and Central Reservation Systems Traditional revenue management is intimately related with distribution and central reservation systems. Distribution and central reservation systems represent a broad and fascinating topic in their own right. An excellent high-level account of airline planning, marketing, and distribution activities and their relation to operations research can be found in Smith et al. (2001). Here   we provide only sufficient background information to facilitate discussion of the main topic of this paper, revenue management. Forecasting Forecasting is an important strategy of RM in any organisation adopting its techniques; but it is particularly critical in hotel revenue management because of the direct influence forecasts have on the available room booking limits that determine hotel profits. Not surprisingly, forecasting is concurrent with the literature on overbooking because overbooking calculations depend on predictions of ultimate demand, cancellations, and no-shows. Demand forecasting Jauncey et al., (1995), Pak and Piersma, (2002), Kime, (1999), 2003), all agreed that forecasting is one of the key principles of revenue management. Jauncey et al., (1995), Donaghy et al., (1995, 1997), juxtaposed the effectiveness of a good RM system by adding that it should be able to predict demand conditions and fluctuations by analyzing reservation patterns, arrival, departures and a score of other demand characteristics. Recently, the following literatures by Anderson and Blair, (2004), Desiraju and Shugan, (1999) suggested that revenue management systems with forecasting algorithms are expensive to implement in real terms. Lahoti, (2002) added by saying that, a typical RM system costs between $1 million to $3 million and takes more than two years to implement. Moreover, research has proven and showed that these complex and sophisticated revenue management systems are not liable to mislead, deceive, or disappoint. In fact, Ng et al., (1999) added that, using the data of the pa st and sales department using present day information, conflicts often occur, and many revenue management tactics should employ some level of human intervention, in other words, making use of RM as a guide but human intervention is still relevant. Forecasting has four limitations, following the literatures by c.f. Chase, 1999; Lieberman, 1993; Relihan, 1989; Boyd, 2004; Desiraju and Shugan, 1999. Firstly, A proposition upon which forecasting is based or from which a forecasting conclusion is drawn, should be based on fundamental concepts of consumer behaviour, (Chase, 1999; Lieberman, 1993, Relihan, 1989).   It will be of great importance to bring to revenue managers attention according to Carry, (2004) revenue manipulation and maximisation using forecast method. Consequently, this may not be a good indicator of the subsequent or present bookings, and cannot be determined by using only RM system by studying historical pattern of demand, because the reason why consumers act or react the way they do is just as important as how they are behaving. Secondly, forecasting tactic at its best when adopted is still a combination segments that could, if possible, be desegregated for higher revenue. Thirdly, demand records are subject t o many factors, including the pricing strategies of the existing competitors at that time. We can only assume and predict based on the historical data. Finally, demand can be influenced, not merely be known. As early as 1951, Schumpeter, (1951), Liebhafsky, (1968) said that wants cannot be taken as independent and consumers could be taught by producers to want new things. Figure 1 duration price fixed variable predictable Quadrant 1MoviesStadiums and arenasConvention centres Quadrant 2HotelsAirlinesRental cars Cruise lines unpredictable Quadrant 3RestaurantsGolf CoursesInternet service providers Quadrant4Continuing careHospitals (Kimes. 2000. p.127) The industries found in quadrant 2, such as airlines and hotels, are generally those associated with RM, Weatherford et al., (2001). That is because these industries tend to use variable pricing for services with a specified or predictable duration. Nevertheless, Donaghy and McMahon (1995) state that a successful application of RM techniques results in fluctuating room prices. RM therefore, consists of not two, but three separate, interrelated parts; inventory management, duration control, and pricing. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbott, P. and Lewry, S. (1991) Front Office Procedures, Social Skills and Management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bitran, G. and Caldentey, R. (2003). â€Å"An Overview of Pricing Models for Revenue Management†. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 203-229 Chang, Y.N and Chanpo-Flores, F.C (1980). Business policy and strategy: text and cases. Goodyear pub. Co: Santa Monica, Calif Chase Jr., C.W. (1999) â€Å"Revenue management: A review’,   Journal of Business Forecasting Methods and Systems, Vol. 18, pp.2 28. Choi, T.Y., Cho, V., 2000. Toward a knowledge discovery framework for yield management in the Hong Kong hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management 19 (1), 17–31. Choi, S., Mattila, A.S., 2004. Hotel revenue management and its impact on customers’ perception of fairness. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management 2 (4), 303–314. Cross, R.G., (1992). The ethics of yield management. In: Davis, D.T., Harless, M. (Eds.), Ethics in Hospitality Management. Educational Institute Of American Hotel Motel Association, Michigan, pp. 235–248. Cross, R. G (1997). Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for profit making and Market domination. Broadway books: New York, NY Donaghy Kevin , Una McMahon and McDowell David (1995). â€Å"Yield Management: An overview†: Intenational Journal of Hospitality Management.   14. 139-150 Donaghy, K., McMahon, U. and McDowell, D. (1997) Implementing Yield Management : Lesson from the Hotel Sector, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management., 9 (2), pp. 50-54. Donaghy, K and McMahon, U, (1995).†Managing Yield: A Marketing Perspective†, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp 55 62 Fitzsimmons, J.A., Fitzsimmons, M.J., 1998. Service Management. McGraw-Hill, Singapore. Griffin,R.K (1995). ‘A categorization scheme for critical success factor for lodging   yield management systems’. International Journal of Hospitality management. 4, 325-338 Hiemstra, S.J., 1999. Economic pricing strategies for hotels. In: Thomas, B., Ram, M. (Eds.), Economic and Management Methods for Tourism and Hospitality Research. Wiley, West Sussex, pp. 215–231. Jarvis, N, Lindh, A and Jones, P(1998). ‘An investigation of the key criteria affecting the adoption of yield management in UK hotels’. Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research 4, 207-216 Jauncey, S., I. Mitchell,   and Slamet, P. (1995) The Meaning and Management of Yield in Hotels, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,   7 (4), pp. 23-26. Jones, P and Lockwood, A (1989). The management of hotel operations. Casell Education Ltd: London. Jones, P. and Hamilton, D, (1992).† Yield Management: Putting People in Big Picture†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, February, pp 89-96. Karaesmen, I., and van Ryzin, G. (2004) Overbooking with Substitutable Inventory Classes, Operations Research, Columbia University, New York, NY, 52 (1), pp. 83-104. Kimes,S.E, (1989), ‘Yield Management a tool for capacity constrained service firms’. Journals of Operations Management8.(4), 348-63. Kimes S.E. (1997), Yield Management: An Overview, in I. Yeoman. and A. Ingold (eds.), Yield Management: ‘Strategies for the Service Industries’. Cassell:London Kimes S.E, 1997. ‘Yield Management: An overview’ in Yeoman, I and Ingold, A (eds), Yield management: Strategies for service industries. Cassel Education Ltd: London. 3-11. Kimes, S, (1989a). â€Å"The Basic of Yield Management†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, November, pp 14 19. Kimes, S.E., 1989b. The basics of yield management. The Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly 30 (3), 14–19. Kimes, S.E., 1989c. Yield management: a tool for capacity-constrained service firms. Journal of Operations Management, 8 (4), 348–363; In: Lovelock, C. (Ed.), 1992. Managing Services. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, pp. 188–201. Kimes, S, (1994). â€Å" Perceived Fairness of Yield Management†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, February, pp 22 29. Kimes, S, (2000). â€Å"Revenue Management on the Links: Applying Yield Management to the Golf-Course Industry†, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp 120 127. Kimes, S. (2002). â€Å"A Retrospective   Commentary on Discounting in the Hotel Industry: A New Approach†. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, August, pp. 92-93. Lee-Ross, D. and Johns, N, (1997).   †Yield Management in Hospitality SMEs†, International Journal of   Contemporary Hospitality Management,   pp. 66-69. Lieberman, W.H, (1993). Debunking the myth of yield management. The Cornell HRA quarterly 34(1). 34-41 Lieberman, V., and Yechiali, U. (1978) On the Hotel Overbooking Problem: An Inventory Problem with Stochastic Cancellations, Management Science, 24, pp. 1117-1126. Liberman V. and   Yechiali U., (1977). â€Å"Hotel Overbooking Problem- Inventory System with Stochastic Cancellations,† Adv. Appl. Probab. 9, 220 –230 Lieberman, W.H. (1993) ‘Debunking the myths of yield management’, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 34, pp.34-41. Liebhafsky, H. H. (1968) The Nature of Price Theory (Revised Edition). The Dorsey Press, Inc., Homewood. Lockwood, A. and Jones, P. (1990). â€Å"Applying value engineering to rooms management†. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,Vol.2, pp. 27-32. McMahon-Beattie, U., Donaghy, K and   Yeoman, I. (1999). â€Å"Yield Management in Hotels†.   In Constantinos, S. and Wood,   R.C. (Eds.). Accommodation Management Perspectives from the International Hotel Industry. UK: International Thomson Business Press. Orkin, E.B, (1990). â€Å"Strategies for managing transient rate†. The Cornell HRA quarterly. 30, 34-39. Relihan III, W.J, (1989). â€Å"The yield management approach to hotel room pricing†. The Cornell HRA quarterly. 30 (1). 40-45 Rothstein, M. (1971). â€Å"An Airline Overbooking Model†, Transportation Science, Vol. 5. Issue 2, pp. 180- 192. Rothstein, M. (1975). â€Å"Airline Overbooking: Fresh Approaches Are   Needed†, Transportation Science, Vol. 9. Issue 2, pp. 169-173. Rothestein, M. (1974). â€Å"Hotel Overbooking as a Markovian Sequential Decision Process,† Decision Sci. 5, 389 – 404 Salomon .A.(1990). yield management. Leaders shed light on the â€Å"dark science† Hotel and motel management part 205, 85 and 88 Schumpeter, J. A. (1951) Economic Theory and Entrepreneurial History. In R. V. Clemence (eds), Essays on Economic Topics of Joseph Schumpeter, Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press. Siguaw, J., Kimes, S, and Gassenheimer, J. (2001). â€Å"B2B Sales Force Productivity: Applications of Revenue Management Strategies to Sales Management†. Industrial Marketing Management, No. 32. pp. 539- 551. Subramanian, J., Lautenbacher, C. J. and Stidham, S. J. (1999). â€Å"Yield Management with Overbooking, Cancellations and No Shows,† Transp. Sci. 33, 147–167 Vinod, B. (2004). â€Å"Unlocking the Value of Revenue Management in the Hotel Industry†. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 178-190. Wang, X.L., Mitchell, I. (2001), ‘Yield management: not only yield from capacity, but also your customers’, 10th Council for Hospitality Management Education conference proceeding, Southbank University: London Weatherford, L. (2003). â€Å"Disappeared Fares Within a Fare Class: How Can the Reality be Harnessed?† Journal of Pricing and Revenue Management, Vol. 3. No. 1, pp. 26-40. Weatherford, L. R., and Bodily, S. E. (1992) A Taxonomy and Research Overview of   Perishable-Asset Revenue Management: Yield Management, Overbooking, and Pricing, Operations Research, 40, pp. 831–844. Wirtz, J., Kimes, S., Ho, J. and Patterson, P. (2003), â€Å"Revenue management: resolving potential customer conflicts†, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 216-26.Yeoman, I., Watson, S., 1997. Yield management: a human activity system. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 9 (2), 80–83. [/level-freee-rstricted]

Free Essays on Disco Music

Disco Crowd I would have belonged to the â€Å"disco crowd†, because the rhythm is energizing and simply ear friendly. The environment in which disco is played is unreal with its disco balls and lights like an outer space feeling. Disco has a magical way to make you feel good about yourself. It can make you feel sexy, when wearing those totally sparkly and flashy colors with ridiculous high boots that adds a little color to life; the kind of clothes and free attitude that I don’t wear in my everyday life. Disco is easy to listen to. It is not a music that makes you reflect on life’s struggles or the meaning of life. It is about love and daily facts that everybody can live or dream about. For example, the Bee Jee’s song â€Å"Saturday Night Live† what a fantastic song; I can see myself dancing with John Travolta. With disco, it is simply impossible to be in a sad mood. The sounds are tinselly. Strings, horns and cymbals are a vital part of this music. Disco is a good way to lay back, goof off and show your hidden side. It is not outdated and from time to time interesting and amusing to listen to. The key to disco is timeless rhythm .... Free Essays on Disco Music Free Essays on Disco Music Disco Crowd I would have belonged to the â€Å"disco crowd†, because the rhythm is energizing and simply ear friendly. The environment in which disco is played is unreal with its disco balls and lights like an outer space feeling. Disco has a magical way to make you feel good about yourself. It can make you feel sexy, when wearing those totally sparkly and flashy colors with ridiculous high boots that adds a little color to life; the kind of clothes and free attitude that I don’t wear in my everyday life. Disco is easy to listen to. It is not a music that makes you reflect on life’s struggles or the meaning of life. It is about love and daily facts that everybody can live or dream about. For example, the Bee Jee’s song â€Å"Saturday Night Live† what a fantastic song; I can see myself dancing with John Travolta. With disco, it is simply impossible to be in a sad mood. The sounds are tinselly. Strings, horns and cymbals are a vital part of this music. Disco is a good way to lay back, goof off and show your hidden side. It is not outdated and from time to time interesting and amusing to listen to. The key to disco is timeless rhythm ....

Writing Styles How to Find Yours With Writing Style Examples

Writing Styles How to Find Yours With Writing Style Examples Writing Styles: How to Find Yours With Writing Style Examples Writing styles as authors can differ from person to person. As a writer, you have a gift of creativity in using your art as something that can elicit feelings. Writing a book may make people laugh, take people on a journey or fill them with knowledge. Writing is and can be an art form if you use it to express yourself and learn the art of doing it well. Most writers will find themselves falling into a specific style of writing. That could be writing poetry, non-fiction, writing a novel, children’s literature or even screenplays. This will usually happen around your interests, your education, knowledge of writing and the books you read. Heres what youll learn about writing styles: What is writing style?Types of writing stylesWriting styles examplesHow to find your writing styleRead a lot to find your writing styleBe honest about yourselfWrite what comes with easeExpress yourself to show your writing style NOTE: We cover everything in this blog post and much more about the writing, marketing, and publishing process in our VIP Self-Publishing Program. Learn more about it here What is writing style? Your writing style is the way in which the narrative of your writing comes across to other readers, including your sentence structure, syntax, and overall voice in order to provide your writing with an overall tone or mood. Each writer has their own, natural style and this can change from project to project. However, you may find that certain authors typically maintain a cohesive writing style. Essentially, an authors writing style can be recognized from work to work. Types of Writing Styles There are a few different ways to think of writing styles as an author. Firstly, you have your personal writing style as an author, which is what we explained above; its the specific way your writing reads. Here are some examples of how an authors writing style may vary: Wordiness How much your narrative uses longer, run-on sentences versus short and choppy ones.Syntax The structure of your sentences, the emphasis, pauses, word order and general style of writing typical sentences.Word choice This can mean swearing or not, using more complex words versus simpler ones, and more. The word choice in your writing style can help readers understand the perspective of the narration.Tone The tone in writing is like the attitude the author has toward a subject matter. If they dislike something, the tone could be short and negative, the opposite if they enjoy what theyre writing about.Mood The mood differs from tone because its the overarching feeling readers take away through the writing. The mood can be altered through the use of tone, word choice, and other literary devices. However, writing style also refers to the intent of what youre writing. Here are the 4 main writing styles: Expository Writing This is the most common type of writing. This blog post is an example of expository writing, as Im explaining a concept and providing information. However, expository writing often doesnt include the authors opinions.Descriptive Writing Youll most often find descriptive writing in fiction (and creative non-fiction too!), as its when authors write in a more descriptive style, creating more of a visual rather than just relaying facts.Persuasive Writing This writing style is mostly used in order to persuade others to take some sort of action and includes cover letters, reviews, advertisements, web copy, and more. The goal is to convince the readers of something one way or another.Narrative Writing This type of writing style is usually exclusive to fiction and is when the writer is constructing a story and plot by using descriptive writing to help you visualize it. These different writing styles arent typically exclusive to one project. You can use various of them in a single work, which is often what books are. Well cover some specific examples to help you understand further below. Writing Style Examples Sometimes its easier to understand through examples than just simply reading a definition. Here are some examples of the different types of writing style to help you get the gist for understanding what writing style is and how you can use that to adapt and create your own. Expository Writing Style Examples: As stated above, expository writing is the most common type and basically just relays necessary information. Here are some examples of expository writing: TextbooksRecipesHow-tosInstructions Technical writingBusiness writingScientific writing Descriptive Writing Style Examples: You can write in a number of different ways with descriptive writing. Even expository writing can include descriptive within it. Here are examples of descriptive writing: Fiction novelsPlaysSongs PoetryJournaling or DiariesNature/Animal descriptions Persuasive Writing Style Examples: Remember when you had to write a persuasive essay in school in order to learn how to make an argument? Thats what persuasive writing is. You want your readers to leave agreeing with you on some matter. Here are examples of persuasive writing: Resumà ¨sCover LettersProduct/service reviewsLetters of recommendation Newspaper articlesAdvertisementsWebsite sales copyLetters of complaint Narrative Writing Style Examples: When you think of books, theyll typically fall under this writing style. If youre trying to discover your personal writing style, youll likely be writing in the narrative style. Here are examples of narrative writing styles: Short storiesNovelsPoetry AnecdotesOral historiesNovellas This writing style is the type were really going to focus on in this next section all about how to develop your own writing style and find your natural flow as a writer. How to Find Your Writing Style I myself, like to write in two different styles to express who I am as a person and access my creativity. For these two styles, I actually own two separate blogs; one on travel parenting and one on my faith. My travel/parenting blog allows me to express myself with humor. This allows parents to identify with me by seeing the lighter side of parenting. My faith blog is a more serious destination where readers can come to learn more about the bible. I enjoy writing in both styles. The two blogs allow me to enjoy these writing styles without confusing my readers. So how do you, as a writer, find your place in the writing world and develop a writing style that suits you? Here a four ways that you can find and develop your own writing style: #1 Read a lot Why is reading so important? Reading allows you to learn from other people’s knowledge and lets you immerse in their world. It allows you to develop your own writing style. Reading other people’s work will influence your own writing. This is because we tend to write in a similar way to what we read on a regular basis. If you aren’t currently reading every day I would encourage you to do so. Find something that interests you and start reading, whether it be in a book, via a website, or another place. Make it a daily habit to spend at least half an hour devouring someone else’s work. As you read more and more, your own style of writing will deepen. It will develop based on your own experiences and the influences you have had. You can broaden your own horizons as an author by reading various styles of writing. Reading will show you new ways of wording sentences and creative ideas you hadnt thought of. #2 Be honest to who you are When you write, remember to stay true to who you are. Writing is an art-form that allows you to express yourself from within. Trying to be someone you are not will hinder your writing journey, not help it. When I say be honest with who you are, I mean staying true to yourself. This will include your own values, your beliefs, your feelings and who you are as a person. Trying to write a comedic piece when you dont usually use humor will be difficult and often not read well. This is because you may be forcing this writing and the piece will not flow. When you write something that is not from who you are, it can confuse your reader. This is because it will be difficult to sustain your voice as a writer. When your style changes or doesnt flow well, it makes it harder for the reader to identify who you are. As a result they may not want to read more of your work. When you writes from within, the reader is able to see parts of who you are as a person and can get to know you better. I read a book a while back on business growth. It was a good book and I learnt a lot from it. As a result I then followed the author and starting reading her other books. Shortly after this she changed styles. The trend at that time was beginning to bring in swear words to make someone seem †kick ass†. This author jumped on that trend and began swearing through all her books. I don’t mean one or two swear words dispersed throughout. One of her books had so many swear words in it that her book would have been several pages shorter if she had left them out. This writer delighted in telling her readers that this particular book had only taken her four hours to write. The problem was you could tell that it didnt have the flow or content of her other books. It felt forced and more as if she created it to make money rather than give to the reader. To me as a reader I felt like she was trying to be someone she wasn’t and I lost interest in her work and didn’t bother after that. It felt a bit sad because she had some good information to share but appeared to lose sight of who she was as a writer. When you write from who you are you will not need to change your style part way through. Find your own style of writing and own it! #3 Write what comes with ease Writing as part of who you are should come to you naturally and not feel weird or be a huge struggle. You may have times that you feel like you have writer’s block, or struggle to come up with what you want to say but this shouldnt be the norm. If you find that writing in general is difficult it could be for several reasons: You have not created a writing habit to allow it to flow for youYou are lacking in inspiration for your topicYou are not writing in a style that is true to you If you have created a proper writing habit and you are stuck, try getting inspiration. This could mean reading other forms of writing to refresh you or taking a break from writing. A half hour walk while you listen to music may be all it takes to put you back on track. If you are still struggling, then chances are, you are not writing in a style that is congruent to who you are. #4 Express yourself naturally I’m an extrovert and I thrive from the people in my life who I spend time with. As you can tell I love to use a conversational writing style when I put pen to paper. For me it feels like I am able to share my thoughts and feelings with someone like I would if they were sitting next to me. That style of writing comes naturally to me and flows easily. When you write, choose a style that allows you to express yourself. That may be in expressing yourself through creative writing, allowing the poet in you to come alive or sharing your life experiences in a helpful how-to form. Whatever it is, it should leave you feeling like you have shared what you want to. You should feel energized and excited about your work, not drained and struggling to create more. Once you have found your style the only other thing you can do is write, write, and keep writing. The more you write, the easier it will come to you and the better you will become at expressing yourself through your words. You have a gift to write and you need to use it to share your message with the world. Today plan your daily habit of reading and writing and watch your life grow and move you to the next level of your writing career. Are you ready to find your style and finish your book? If youre ready to discover your writing style in your newest book, let us help you get it done better and faster With your FREE training!

MGM626-0902A-03 Economics for Decision-Making - Phase 3 Discussion Essay

MGM626-0902A-03 Economics for Decision-Making - Phase 3 Discussion Board - Essay Example Price elasticity will be elastic if a change in price causes a proportionately higher change in demand, i.e., the price elasticity of demand will be greater than 1. Hence a unit change in price will cause a change in demand which is larger than one unit. Inelastic price elasticity is where a change in price causes a proportionately smaller change in demand. In this case the value of price elasticity will be lesser than 1, i.e., a unit change in price will cause a change in demand which will be lesser than one unit. Unitary price elasticity is a case where the quantity demanded changes in proportion to the change in price, i.e., the change in price is equal to the change in demand. Hence the value of unitary price elasticity, as the name indicates, is 1. The reasons for the price elasticity being higher in the Brazil market can be analyzed and researched to find any possible alteration or substitute to the product that will reduce the price elasticity. Also, the trend of the currency exchange rate of Real to Euro over can be analyzed to predict the future values. This will indicate the potential revenue in Euro that can be earned from Brazil market and give a clear indication whether the venture will be profitable. Also, the prices in Real can be set in such a way that would attract more customer base and when the currency is exchanged, the company earns a significant profit

Social Research problem statement Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Research problem statement - Coursework Example pt of security today, is not restricted to political or social factors alone but engulfs a wide range of aspects including environmental, social economic and climate change (Homer, 1991). The issue of Global warming and its potential hazardous aftermath has been addressed by various security experts and academic scholars as being of crucial significance and raised alarm over the capacity of such environmental issues to foreshadow critical issues such as food and water scarcity, and fair and equal allocation of resources, which would in turn lead to large scale migration resulting in heightened tensions and widespread, disputes (Matthew, 1989). Environmental change has been, since long, considered as a major security threat by security analysts the world over and as a consequence several polices have been implemented to address and tackle the issue and recognize the repercussions of sudden and unexpected changes in the climate as an impending menace for international security. For instance, according a report presented in 1994 by Sir David King, chief scientist – British Government, climate change is a far greater threat to the world’s stability than international terrorism (BBC news, 2004). Similarly climate change was acknowledged as a major concern and hence included in the British Foreign Policy, as a major security threat, by the then Foreign Secretary of Britain, Mrs. Margaret Beckett, in the year 2006 at a conference in Berlin (British Embassy – Berlin, 2007). A report presented to the U.S. government suggested declaring ‘climate change’ as a major security issue owing to its potential to cause serious damage to the security of American citizens as well as its impact on the United States military operations. The study titled National Security and the Threat of Climate Change seeks methods in which the impending environment change is a threat multiplier in already feeble regions and aggravating conditions that result in failed states which in

Environmental radiation survey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Environmental radiation survey - Essay Example It is paramount for the user to wear protective gears owing to the health hazards that radiations cause. When taking measurements, it is significant for the user to adjust the device accordingly so as to have the reading in desired units. In addition, the user needs to turn on the alarm component that activates the auditory and indicating lamp whenever the set-point is exceeded. The alarm system will be operated by an acknowledgement switch that can also serve to adjust the rating that further widens the range. This precaution will prevent exceeding of the range where the maximum reading will not be the correct one. After taking these precautions, the user should make the reading and record the same accordingly. After making the required reading, the user should disengage the device from all presetting done on it. This is a precautionary exercise that will make it easier for a consecutive user to work with the device. Being a lab apparatus or industrial equipment, the device requires proper handling and storage. If the device will not be used in the near future, it is advisable to remove the

Entrepreneur Interview Paper (small business) Essay

Entrepreneur Interview Paper (small business) - Essay Example At one point in the interview, he defined an entrepreneur as â€Å"Someone who works ninety hours a week to avoid working forty hours a week for someone else†. It takes a lot of stamina and patience. â€Å"Entrepreneurs are not easily discouraged† (Schramm cited in Petrecca, 2010). The first and the foremost challenge an entrepreneur is exposed is of the management of cash. There has to be adequate cash flow particularly in the initial four to five years as they are very intensive in terms of cash flow. To achieve this, the entrepreneur must have stable and reliable sources of funds identified at the outset. Starting a new business is a risky process as on the entrepreneur’s part, as it requires him/her to be determined and consistent. Good business takes time to evolve. Still, not all businesses grow with time. It depends to a large extent upon the entrepreneur’s fortune. If circumstances are unfavorable, and the business does not yield the intended benef its, the entrepreneur’s time, money and often repute are at stake. However, if the business turns out to be successful, rewards included profitability, success and psychological satisfaction. Another factor that carries immense tendency to destroy the business is the influence of generations on it. Originally, the person from the first generation starts the business in a certain way following certain principles that become the secrets of the company’s success. The following generations tend to run the business in their own ways and often have inadequate knowledge or understanding of the fundamental principles that helped the first generation take the business to the level where it stands. While it is advisable for the future generations to gain proper schooling and education in business,... The paper tells that to start a new business and make it successful also requires the entrepreneur’s passion which fundamentally drives his/her motivation to chase the goals. However, for an entrepreneur to be successful, there are certain things that need to be taken serious care of. The entrepreneur must have done sufficient homework on such aspects of the business as demography, capital required, sources of capital and the insurances involved. Alongside, the entrepreneur needs to assess how much time he/she can reserve for his/her personal life apart from work. Outright and rational assessment enables the entrepreneur to make informed decisions along the way. Every business has an obligation towards the society. While a business is meant to be profitable for the entrepreneur, it needs to play a positive role in enhancing the economic strength of the country. Small businesses have a huge contribution in the national economy. Particularly, in the contemporary society, when th e notions of corporate social responsibility and green working are being much emphasized upon, entrepreneurs are expected not only to be more ethical in their works, but also make the world a better place to live in by producing useful services and products. The Saver Systems achieves this by providing people with high quality and cost effective solutions for their masonry chimneys.

Find a dataset of your own choosing. The dataset can be from your own Essay

Find a dataset of your own choosing. The dataset can be from your own place of work, your own country, or connected to your MSc, although it does not have to be Financial or monetary data - Essay Example In the current complex business environment, dataset is widely used in several forms to analyse and interpret data and to draw up meaningful conclusions. With the recent developments in the computing technology, it is easy for individuals or businesses to prepare datasets and transform them into meaningful information. Today, MS Excel is widely used to develop datasets because even a non-tech savvy person can use this programme for arranging the relevant data in the form of a dataset. It is important to note that a data set must not necessarily contain financial or monetary data but it may contain any other form of data that can create a deep understanding of the given topic. This paper will analyze a dataset prepared by IC Insights about the sales performance of top 12 smartphone companies during the 2011-2013 fiscal periods. The paper will provide an explanation of the dataset, identify the meaning of the variables, and comment on its overall purpose and limitations. The dataset chosen for this project contains the data of smartphone sales of leading 12 companies for the three consecutive years beginning from 2011. Samsung, Apple, LG, Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, Sony, Yulong/Coolpad, Nokia, HTC, RIM, Google/Motorola are the companies discussed in this dataset. In addition to presenting the sales data of smartphone sales, the dataset provides percentage change of increase/decrease in sales from year to year under consideration and also the industry ranking of these companies during the same period. An analysis of this dataset may assist the reader to form a clear understanding of the market growth of each company over the 2011-2013 period. From the dataset, it is clear that Samsung was at the #1 position of the global smartphone industry for the three consecutive years with convincing increases in sales each year. The company’s sales rose from 95 million units in 2011 to 218 million units in 2012, achieving 129% increase in sales. In 2013, the

Entrepreneur Interview Paper (small business) Essay

Entrepreneur Interview Paper (small business) - Essay Example At one point in the interview, he defined an entrepreneur as â€Å"Someone who works ninety hours a week to avoid working forty hours a week for someone else†. It takes a lot of stamina and patience. â€Å"Entrepreneurs are not easily discouraged† (Schramm cited in Petrecca, 2010). The first and the foremost challenge an entrepreneur is exposed is of the management of cash. There has to be adequate cash flow particularly in the initial four to five years as they are very intensive in terms of cash flow. To achieve this, the entrepreneur must have stable and reliable sources of funds identified at the outset. Starting a new business is a risky process as on the entrepreneur’s part, as it requires him/her to be determined and consistent. Good business takes time to evolve. Still, not all businesses grow with time. It depends to a large extent upon the entrepreneur’s fortune. If circumstances are unfavorable, and the business does not yield the intended benef its, the entrepreneur’s time, money and often repute are at stake. However, if the business turns out to be successful, rewards included profitability, success and psychological satisfaction. Another factor that carries immense tendency to destroy the business is the influence of generations on it. Originally, the person from the first generation starts the business in a certain way following certain principles that become the secrets of the company’s success. The following generations tend to run the business in their own ways and often have inadequate knowledge or understanding of the fundamental principles that helped the first generation take the business to the level where it stands. While it is advisable for the future generations to gain proper schooling and education in business,... The paper tells that to start a new business and make it successful also requires the entrepreneur’s passion which fundamentally drives his/her motivation to chase the goals. However, for an entrepreneur to be successful, there are certain things that need to be taken serious care of. The entrepreneur must have done sufficient homework on such aspects of the business as demography, capital required, sources of capital and the insurances involved. Alongside, the entrepreneur needs to assess how much time he/she can reserve for his/her personal life apart from work. Outright and rational assessment enables the entrepreneur to make informed decisions along the way. Every business has an obligation towards the society. While a business is meant to be profitable for the entrepreneur, it needs to play a positive role in enhancing the economic strength of the country. Small businesses have a huge contribution in the national economy. Particularly, in the contemporary society, when th e notions of corporate social responsibility and green working are being much emphasized upon, entrepreneurs are expected not only to be more ethical in their works, but also make the world a better place to live in by producing useful services and products. The Saver Systems achieves this by providing people with high quality and cost effective solutions for their masonry chimneys.

Business and organizational aspects of HCI (HW) Research Paper

Business and organizational aspects of HCI (HW) - Research Paper Example IBM’s HCI research is the most extensive to date. The company has designed its business agenda around HCI. The challenge that IBM faced was to treat their employees as the most valuable asset that can be turned into the company’s competitive edge. The design of IBM is visualized on the belief that future social collaboration functions will be sophisticated making consumer access and commercial services cost-effective over the internet. Since at IBM, design is the vital component for products and services to be successful, the affects of the design directly impact the product use, service cost and customer loyalty. For this purpose, the designs of IBM are focused on providing user experienced services to the customers. The designs at IBM are built to tackle the architectural issues of large-scale information portals and cities that are opened for social and economic commerce. The IBM Services such as Dojo Globalization, IBM Lotus Sametime 8.5, and Dojo Enhanced Grid help the businesses for integration of people is based on the HCI. The development of technologies that allows for speech recognition, and interaction designs, the HCI research at IBM is there since 20 years. IBM designs it HCI technologies from disciplines of computer science, sociology, industrial design, anthropology and psychology to provide on-site collaborations with its users and other customers. Some of the research projects of IBM on HCI are Koala which uses the HCI technology to record and share business processes over the Web between different users; Unified Activity Management is used to understand how the employees plan, manage and share their activities amongst themselves; and Shape Writing technology is the new and latest in HCI technology which highlights the importance of users’ interaction with mobile phones, PDAs, and handheld devices. As IBM is a business and consumer solution provider, it

The atmospheres of Sonnet 43 Essay Example for Free

The atmospheres of Sonnet 43 Essay Love’s many contradicting forms are portrayed in two dramatically different sonnets, Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 29. Though both poems are written in Petrarchan sonnet form, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edna St. Vincent Millay chronicle two contrasting marriages and their distinct attitudes towards love. Millay’s pessimistic Sonnet 29 depicts unrequited love as a passive force causing her disillusionment. On the other hand, Sonnet 43 attempts to quantify Browning’s endless and divine love for her spouse, Robert Browning. Through their respective poems, the writers convey outpours of emotion and how their personal experiences with love have changed both their lives. Common themes explored in the two poems consist of marriage, love and loyalty. Elements of the poems that enable this include their atmospheres, diction, tones and various poetic techniques. The atmospheres of Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 29 allude to Browning and Millay’s outlooks on their respective marriages. Sonnet 29 exposes a woman’s grief for her deteriorating marriage and her husband, who â€Å"no longer looks with love on me (the poet)†. Readers are overwhelmed by an anger-filled, threatening opening atmosphere in which the poet imposes on them to â€Å"pity me not† for the â€Å"light of day [that]†¦no longer walks the sky†. Millay’s despair is seen through the metaphor of her happiness and spirit as a diminished â€Å"light†, repressed by the turmoil of her relationship. A sense of helpless sympathy is thus evoked by the melancholic, oppressive imagery and bitterly ironic diction. In contrast to Sonnet 29, Elizabeth Barrett Browning begins with a grand portrayal of her love using numerous hyperboles, thus creating a majestic atmosphere. The poet loves her husband â€Å"to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach†¦for the ends of Being and ideal Grace†. Enjambment is employed to represent the ceaseless flow of love in Browning’s marriage. However, the sonnet concludes with a darkly ambiguous atmosphere that contrasts greatly to its optimistic introduction. The poet confesses that she shall â€Å"but love thee (Robert Browning) better after death†. In addition to its implications of Browning’s eternal love, this reference to her marriage vows also has forbidding connotations of marriage causing her ultimate death. Consequently, it may be seen that the poet’s marriage and reliance on her husband is detrimental to her fragile character. From being bitterly resentful to miserably conscious of a love that is â€Å"no more†, Millay’s emotions are depicted by the developing atmosphere of Sonnet 29. Similarly, Sonnet 43 alludes to Browning’s inner thoughts beyond the divinity and grandeur of her marriage through the dismal change in its atmosphere. Religious diction is applied in Sonnet 43 where Browning expresses a spiritual bond that transcends her religion and beliefs. Her pious worship for her husband has replaced a love for her â€Å"lost saints†, as illustrated by the reverential tone extending through the sonnet. Furthermore, it is the poet’s marriage that compels her to persevere, guiding her when she is â€Å"feeling out of sight†. From the â€Å"ends of Being and ideal Grace† to the contradicting subtleness of â€Å"everyday’s most quiet need†, Browning’s compassion is as unwavering as it is strong. When its is revealed that she loves her husband â€Å"with the passion put to use in [her] old grief’s†, readers are given implications of the poet’s possibly troubled past, which becomes irrelevant in the face of her marriage. Moreover, Browning’s love appears to defy the acts of God, as she claims to love her husband â€Å"better after death†. This sense of an immortal love is further compounded by the repetition of â€Å"I love thee†, creating a constant flow in the sonnet and giving it an intimate, personal touch. Contrastingly, Sonnet 29 directly confronts Millay’s husband using spiteful diction to convey her deep resentment for the state of her marriage. Rather than reciting, â€Å"I love thee† like Browning in her Sonnet 43, Millay repeats, â€Å"Pity me not† for the grievances in her marriage, thus evoking sympathy from readers. In comparison to Browning’s theory of love being an eternal, resilient force, Millay describes a relationship that is susceptible to external forces that surround it. â€Å"As the year goes by†, the â€Å"beauties† of her marriage have been overcome by a â€Å"man’s desire†¦hushed so soon†. Her husband’s â€Å"waning† loyalty and fickleness is exposed by the comparison of their relationship to an â€Å"ebbing tide [that] goes out to sea† and never returns. Such negative diction alludes to the passive nature of Millay’s unrequited love as opposed to Browning’s prosperous, active affection for her husband.

What Is Postmodern Culture Religion Essay

What Is Postmodern Culture Religion Essay Some people see postmodern culture as liberating because it has broken away from the limitations of modern culture. Others see postmodern culture as superficial and pastiche of the worst aspects of modernism. Before we can explore these cultural themes and what they stand for, we must first define them. For the purpose of this essay I will not be going into much detail about the origins, features and differences when considering the concept of culture. But I will be focusing on the differences of modern-and post modern culture. To start with a simple definition according to Kidd (2003), culture means the way of life of a group of people. The patterns of social organisation and the normal ways in which we are supposed to behave in society touch all aspects of our daily lives. For obvious reasons not all cultures are similar, for example, just because social life, for us, happens to be structured in a certain way, does not mean that it has to be like this, nor that it was like this in the past or even like this in other societies around the world (Kidd, 2003:5-6). The sociologist Raymond Williams (1983), in his book Key Words: a vocabulary of culture and society, says: Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. This is partly so because of its intricate historical development, in several European languages, but mainly because it now come to be used for important concepts in several distinct and incompatible systems of thought(Kidd, 2003:9). Two of these incompatible systems of thought can be considered to be modern- and postmodern culture. Modernity According to Kidd (2003), what we call modernity is usually associated with the era of industrialisation and the time when sociology was developed by its founders. Modernity-the period of the modern-comes from the Latin word modo, which means just now, and this key feature in the modernist spirit is: the founders idea that life and society had changed. Their times their just now were totally different from those of the traditional preindustrial societies of the past (Kidd, 2003:85). Modernity can be characterised by the following elements: industrialisation; urbanisation; a rise in the importance of science; the growth of the manufacturing industry, secularisation (the decline of religion); the invention of more advanced technology; rationalisation (Kidd, 2003:85). Modernity was the age of science, sociologists and discovery, based on the belief that humans could understand and control everything. The world of nature (uncertainty) was the slave and humans were now in charge. The mission statements of these scientists and sociologists were to find absolute truth, develop universal and general laws, to control the present, to predict the future and to control the shape and direction of the future (Kidd, 2003:85-86). Modernity was based on what is called the spirit of the Enlightenment- the eighteenth-century philosophical movement that addressed the importance of reason and the replacement of religion and superstition with science and rationality. According to Kidd (2003), Max Weber provided an excellent illustration of the modernists preoccupation with rationalisation in his sociology of music (1968, originally written in 1910-110). Weber saw the historical development of society as the development of rationality in all spheres of social life and social organisation. In this context rationalisation means the breaking down of an object of study into constituent parts in order better to understand the whole. Rationality is thus seen as a fundamental part of the rise of both science and technology in the industrial era, and as providing the momentum for industrialisation itself a highly modernist image of social change. Weber illustrated the historical development of rationality with reference to musical notation. For example in preindustrial traditional society, music was passed down the generations as part of folk culture. Songs were passed down by word of mouth and instrument making was the task of skilled people. With the onset of rationalisation there developed a concern to analyse what music actually was to break it down in order better to control it. Hence the creation of a universal system of notation, scales, tabs and so on. Just like the documentation and notation of music, the making of music instruments became a matter of mass production. The rationalisation process was seen as helping people to control the world around them: to seek out absolute truth and to make order out of the chaos of nature (Kidd, 2003: 86-87). Postmodernism It is very difficult to define the term postmodernism in one short definition because it covers such a large academic field and so much has been written on the subject. Let`s begin with a few short definitions and take it from there. Postmodernism refers to the intellectual mood and cultural expressions that are becoming increasingly dominant in contemporary society. These expressions questions the ideals, principles and values that lay at the heart of the modern mind-set. Post modernity, in turn, refers to the era in which we are living, the time when the postmodern outlook increasingly shapes our society. The adjective postmodern, then, refers to the mind-set and its products. Post modernity is the era in which postmodern ideas, attitudes, and values reign-when the mood of postmodernism is moulding culture. This is the era of the postmodern society. (Grenz, 1996: 12-13) According to Klages (2003) Postmodernism, which became an area of academic study in the mid eighties, is a term used to define the era after modernity. The Premodern (medieval) age was labelled the age of faith and superstition, followed by the modern age, the age of reason, empiricism and science. The postmodern age of relativity and, recently, the newest form of postmodernism, the age of holism and interdependence, followed. Respectively, the guiding metaphors are the created organism, the machine, the text, and the self-organizing system (de Quincy, 2002). Modernism has been introduced as a benchmark for the discussion of postmodernism, and two related terms, postmodern and postmodernist. One of the first writers to use the term postmodern was the American literary critic Ihab Hassan. In the second edition of his groundbreaking book from 1971, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature (1982), he draws up a list of differences between modernism and postmodernism. This list tries to present the focus between modernism and postmodernism and the terms used. Although many of the categories have remained highly controversial, it still is worth reproducing here as a guideline between the difference in mindsets between the two eras: Postmodernism Pataphysics/Dadaism Antiform (disjuctive, open) Play Chance Anarchy Exhaustion/Silence Process/Performance/Happening Participation Decreation/Deconstruction Antithesis Absence Dispersal Text/Intertext Rhetoric Syntagm Parataxis Metonymy Combination Rhizome/Surface Against Interpretation/Misreading Signifier Scriptible (writerly) Antinarrative/Petite histoire Idiolect Desire Modernism Romanticism/Symbolism Form (conjunctive, closed) Purpose Design Hierarchy Mastery/Logos Art object/Finished work Distance Creation/Totalization Synthesis Presence Centring Genre/Boundary Semantics Paradigm Hypotaxis Metaphor Selection Root/Depth Interpretation/Reading Signified Lisible (readerly) Narrative/Grande histoire Master code Symptom Mutant Polymorphous/Androgynous Schizophrenia Difference-differance/trace The Holy Ghost Irony Indeterminacy Immanence Type Genital/Phallic Paranoia Origin/Cause God the Father Metaphysics Determinacy Transcendence (Hassan, 1982: 267-8; Malpas, 2005: 7-8) According to Anderson (1996) we are living in a new world, a world that does not know how to define itself by what it is, but only by what it has just-now ceased to be. This view takes the position that the world has changed so drastically that confusion has taken over from certainty. The modernist world was fixed and it had a definite character. The post modern perspective explains that the absolute truth and definite standards, that modernity held, has collapsed. In post modernity truth, certainty and reality are provisional and relativistic. This is the case according to Kidd (2003), not just for morality, but also for the knowledge we have about the world around us. There are too many choices out there, all claiming to be the real version of the truth. Religion, politics, the sciences and so on all claim special access to the truth, but how can we tell which is correct? Knowledge has become a commodity and a form of power, rather than an absolute, a truth. Just as truth fragments into a plurality of truths, so the traditional means of identity formation based on class, gender, ethnicity and so on has been replaced by an individual search for meaning, and life-style has become a matter of choice. Ultimately, uncertainty, confusion, ambiguity and plurality will be all that is left. The French thinker Jean-Francois Lyotard, in his book The Post modern Condition (1984: xxiv), defines postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives. What he means by this that in the postmodern age knowledge has become provisional and as humans we see the old claims to truth for they really are fictions, stories or narratives. Leyotard suggested that science and scientific knowledge have been exposed for what they are once powerful illusions that are powerful no longer. Hope can no longer be placed on the highly modernist notions of progress or reason since what claims to be knowledge depends on where one is, and how one chooses to see what is around one. There is no such thing as a single truth nothing more than a commodity. Knowledge can be bought and sold, and in the age of computer technology those who have the most knowledge have the most power (Kidd, 2003:90-91). According to Kidd (2003) a great deal of postmodern thinking is characterised by a belief called relativism. Relativism in postmodernism suggests that there are no absolute standards of truth, reality, morality and correctness, instead everything comes down to a matter of choice. This concept of relativism is in direct opposition to the modernist thinking discussed in the Modernity section of this paper. The founders believed in progress, development and objectivity but these are seen by postmodernists as nothing but stories, which in their time were powerful and shaped our thinking, but no longer. Critique of postmodernism While post modernism in itself serves as a critique on the principals of modernism, we havent explored any critique on post modernism yet. While many have embraced postmodern ideas, some have rejected them. According to Kidd (2003) the critics of postmodernism are concerned about the implications of these ideas for the future of sociology itself. If there is no such thing as truth, then what is the point of sociology trying to determine what the world is like? There are five main criticisms of postmodernism. First, according to Kidd (2003) is Norris (1992,1993), he considers that postmodernism is far too sceptical and relativistic to be of any use. Norris (1992) quotes an observation made by Tony Bennett: If narratives are all that we can have and if all narratives are, in principle, of equal value as it seems they must be if there is no touchstone of reality to which they can be referred for the adjudication of their truth-claims then rational debate would seem to be pointless. Secondly, according to Kidd (2003), Giddens (1990, 1991) notes with some concern that postmodernism does not give sociology a future. It denies the very Enlightenment spirit that led to the creation of sociology. For Giddens the postmodern denial of truth and reason leaves us with nothing upon which to gain knowledge and truth about the world. Third, according to Kidd (2003), many Marxists have showed that postmodernism may preach about the individual freedom and liberation from the modernists` past, but this freedom is an illusion since it is based on consumption. Given that consumption cost money, then surely some people are going to be more free than others? Postmodernism is said to provide a thinly veiled justification for the false needs created by the capitalist economy these simply ensures more profits for the capitalists themselves and thus ensures the perpetuation of an exploitative society. Fourth, according to Kidd (2003), if morality is indeed relative then this leaves us with no means of challenging, discrimination and prejudice in society. Finally According to Aylesworth (2005) the most prominent critic of postmodernism is Jà ¼rgen Habermas. In  The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity  (Habermas:1987), he criticises postmodernism at the level of society and communicative action. He defends modernists` argumentative reason in inter-subjective communication against postmodernism`s experimental, avant-garde strategies. For example, Habermans claims postmodernists commit a performative contradiction in their critiques of modernism by employing concepts and methods that only modern reason can provide. Which positions do I agree with? To conceptualize these two culture phenomenas in simple terms it would seem that modernism tends to be much more conservative than the liberal postmodernism. I will explain my position using the controversial animated TV show, South Park as example, from the view point of the episode I`m little bit country(Parker:2003). This episode originally aired during the build-up to the  2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The people of the town South Park are divided about the war. After splitting in two groups, both groups plan rallies: one pro-war (conservative: modernist), one anti-war (liberal: postmodernist), both on the same day in the same street. They end up having a great argument during both rallies, and in the end they get into a huge fight where they begin to kill each other. Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers)  appears in the charracter, Eric Cartmans coma-dream and explains to him that the new country must not seem to be a war-monger to the rest of the world; at the same time it cannot seem to be weak either. Therefore it must go to war, but allow protests. The United States will go to war on one hand, and use protest to oppose the war on the other. He refers to the this as saying one thing and doing another. He refers to this as having our cake and eating it too. Cartman wakes up from his coma and delivers this message to the two fighting groups in the town, who see`s the truth of that statement and then break out into song (South Park Studios:2003). Thus my point is that we should apply both cultural phenomenas when living our lives but when doing so we should consider a healthy balance between the two. It would seem unreasonable to consider that everything has an absolute truth about it, because people and things change all the time and not everything is constant and controllable as the modernists would like to believe. On the other hand everything can`t be relative because there has to be absolute truth in world otherwise our lives would be uncertain in so many ways. For example all metals expand when heated is an absolute truth, when you jump of a 50 ft bridge, you are probably going to die. We need truth and freedom to coexist with one another, so if I have to label myself as a modernist or a postmodernist, then I am neither, I will take what I need when I need it . 2501 words