Modern Day Hero Essay

H. English 12 February 27, 2013 Hines Ward as a Modern Hero There are very few people in the world today we can consider heroes. These people are almost always brave, honest, compassionate, and smart. These qualities can all be found in Hines Ward. The things that make him a modern hero are his outstanding football career, dedication to charity, and perseverance for equality. Hines Ward would have never been able to achieve any of his goals or aspirations without his football career. It is the vessel that carried him forward in life, and it is what put him on top.Ward started out at a small high school in Atlanta, and then he went to The University of Georgia where he was drafted to the professional football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ward was easily one of the best receivers to play in the NFL by far. In an article written about one of Wards hits where he broke Keith Rivers jaw, Larry Brown says â€Å"Lesson be learned: always go hard and stay on your toes when you’re oc cupying the same space as Hines Ward. Otherwise you’re going to wind up hurt. † (Brown).Just the idea that other players would have to pay attention to a singular player shows his ability. Even if Wards big hits weren’t enough, he is also one of eight people in NFL history to achieve a landmark 1,000 receptions. Hines is also the second player to have 1,000 receptions while also having multiple Super Bowl wins. Ward has been in multiple Super Bowls. In Super Bowl XL, he was recognized as the game’s MVP. Ward caught five passes for 123 yards, and had a touchdown. Even though he won this, he was still as humble as ever.Ward dropped a pass, and in an interview his teammate and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said â€Å"Hines was going to kill himself because he dropped a touchdown pass. But you know what? He came out and made plays when he had to and that's what he does. † (Super Bowl XL MVP). Ward is and forever will be one of the best players to play the game. There will never be many players who can match his intensity and ability. Although Ward ended up in a not so obscure place, he started very close to the bottom. He was born in Seoul, South Korea to his African American father nd his Korean mother. They moved to Atlanta, and his father left their family. Ward worked his way up from the bottom and had to deal with many obstacles along the way. Ward is very dedicated to helping other people overcome the same obstacles he himself overcame. In South Korea, Ward had to deal with discrimination due to being a mixed race child. After Ward became a professional football player, he was compelled to start a charity that would help deal with the issue of mixed-race discrimination in Korea and everywhere else.Ward called his charity The Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation. Ward not only donates money, but much of his time to his foundation. In an interview about his charity Ward said â€Å"When I went to Korea and saw, firsthand, the biracial children, I could easily identify with them and they embraced me, like a hero. I do not want to let them down. I want to encourage them by providing them with resources and programs that will enhance their lives and chances for success in life. † (Interview with Eric Kuhn). Ward clearly wants to do his best to help these kids.He shows perseverance and helps to provide these underprivileged children with hope for their future. Other traits that make a modern hero are humility and a positive attitude. Ward is a player that demonstrates both. He is one of the hardest hitting players in the NFL, and one of the most humble. Ward says that â€Å"It's like my mother still tells me, ‘Always be humble, and never forget where you came from. My story is kind of a perfect story, of how I was able to overcome all that. Maybe some other kids can use that as motivation. † (Hines Ward).Ward knows how lucky he is to have all the opportunities he was granted, and he doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t take these opportunities lightly. Ward also has a very positive attitude. Many players recall after hitting him, or being hit by him that he always had a smile on his face. In a play against the Seahawks, Ward caught a pass and ran into the endzone for a touchdown. It wasn’t the play that was extraordinary, but it was how Ward made the play. He ran the ball in the whole way, smiling. The NFL even took the picture taken of him making the play and made it into one of their go to advertisement pictures for the next year.The NFL put it on a raft of official publications the next year; it was that iconic, that unusual. â€Å"The NFL put it on a raft of official publications the next year; it was that iconic, that unusual. † (Collier). This one picture shows off Wards entire football career. Ward is just a regular guy, playing the game he loved every day, and doing it all with a smile on his face. He is an inspiration and a role model for all young people to look up to. Ward is easily one of the best people to ever play football, both on and off the field.His positive attitude mixed with his humble upbringing and overall ability is what makes him a modern day hero. Ward retired from the NFL with an unparalled dedication to his team. â€Å"Hines Ward believes he can still play football. The longtime Pittsburgh wide receiver known for his high-wattage smile and his bone-crunching blocks just couldn't stomach the thought of doing it in some strange uniform on some strange field with nary a Terrible Towel in sight. † (Hensley). Ward retired with dignity as an all-time best Steelers receiver, and he is a person that everyone can find some inspiration in.

Indian Institutes of Management and Interview Essay

With academic internships on Internshala (likes of CERN, JNCASR, EPFL etc.) ruling the roost, we have been inundated with requests for tips on how to write an impressive Statement of Purpose (SOP). The kind which grabs selection committee’s attention and forces them to accept you in one go. We present, a been there and done that, expert telling you the finer nuances of how to write an effective SOP. About the author: – Nirmal Jayaram graduated from IIT Madras in 2006 post which he did his M.S & Ph.D from Stanford University. Whether Nirmal is synonymous with the term Academic Brilliance or coined it; I am not sure. Sample this – he graduated with a CGPA of 9.54 from IIT Madras (last 4 sem GPA being 10/10), he had calls from all 6 IIMs and attended interviews of only 2 and converted both including IIM Ahmedabad. But of course he did not join it. He had admits with full scholarships from Stanford, MIT, Berkley, Cornell, UTA, & Purdue. Rumors has it that MIT admissi on committee stalked him for weeks to swing his decision in their favor and sulked for months when he went to Stanford instead. With these credentials, if I were you I would pay VERY close attention to what he has to say on SOP writing. Happy reading†¦ 1. Understand what a statement of purpose means: You’ve probably been in situations where you have to choose one among several exciting alternatives. Recruiters face the same scenario while dealing with several good resumes intended at the same job opening. The statement of purpose gives you an opportunity to connect all your application materials together and express to the recruiter why you fit the role the best. To understand what goes into a good statement of purpose, you need to put yourselves in the recruiter’s shoes, and try to get a feel for the two burning questions a recruiter has: 1.Why are you interested in the opening? Sometimes the answer to this might be obvious. You current area of study/ work could well be closely related to the job opening, but it still can’t hurt to clearly enunciate your interest in this area of work and how that helps you move further in your intended career path. Naturally this is much more important whe n the job opening is in an area unrelated to your current area of work, although you might believe that the new area is really your calling. The end goal is that the recruiter needs to believe that you are very serious about this opening and you would give it your all once you actually get the job. More on this later. 2.What do you bring to the table? So, you have shown the recruiter that no one could be any more serious about the opening than you are. You’ve won half the battle, but you still need to prove that you are not all bluster and you are capable of performing the work at a very high level. Your resume does this for you partly, but the statement of purpose gives you an opportunity to highlight some of your major achievements and skill sets that are closely related to the job of interest. 2. Tell a story, your story! Let’s talk about structuring your statement of purpose for a bit. Your statement of purpose needs to tell your story in such a way that the recruiter clearly understands your background, your capabilities and your suitableness for the job. There are many ways to structure a statement of purpose, and this would be one: †¢Who are you and what do you do currently? Start out with your current education background and what got you there. Maybe you were inspired by pure science as a kid and ended up as a physicist. Maybe you were excited by the world of algorithms in high school that inspired you to pursue the field of computer science. Or maybe you even wanted to build the next Eiffel tower and decided to become a Civil Engineer! †¢What are your current academic credentials? Dedicate some part of your statement of purpose to explain your academic achievements and credentials in your current education program. If you did great in your college entrance exam or in your college exams, state it here and explain how this reflects your dedication to your current field and the hard work you are ready to put in. If you won scholarships through, for example, the National Talent Search Examination, make sure the recruiter kn ows that. †¢What is your current state of knowledge? Most disciplines are very broad and diverse, and it is imperative that you explain your specialization in more detail. Discuss your coursework and explain why you chose to specialize in the area that you did. Suppose that the job opening requires an intern that pursues research in the analyses of large data sets. You could be a mathematician and might have pursued a diverse set of courses, but you need to explain why the field of data mining excites you the most. You need to specifically identify your data mining-related coursework that clearly illustrates that you have the theoretical background to succeed at this new job. †¢Discuss your past projects: This is particularly critical for research based jobs that require that you be creative, comfortable working in open-ended problems, good at communicating orally and in written, and will not get easily frustrated by occasional difficulties in furthering the project due to research complexities. Some jobs also require that you be capable of working without much guidance or work as part of a large team. The most obvious way to communicate that you possess the above-mentioned skills is to provide a brief description of all your past proj ects and the skill sets you demonstrated along the way. Any journal or conference papers that you published as part of your projects will go a long way in helping you get a research-oriented job! †¢Discuss your non-technical skills: A lot of successful people are technically sound but also charismatic and possess excellent interpersonal skills. These are almost essential qualities in modern work places and activities that you’ve been part of where you have demonstrated these skills should help you big. Such activities include playing a leadership role in a department or college level association, being part of NSS, or maybe even running your own small startup! †¢Identify yourself with the company/ university: It is of utmost importance that your statement of purpose does not look generic, rather seems well crafted to the specific job opening. It would be wise to discuss briefly about your interest in the specific workplace and not just the nature of work, and in particular detail the attempts you’ve made to learn m ore about the workplace. 3. Ensure that the statement of purpose is written in a professional manner: A poorly worded statement of purpose with spelling or grammatical errors is a big turn off that would certainly hurt your cause. Request help from friends and colleagues regarding possible wording changes that would make the essay look more professional. Avoid terminology and wording that aren’t obvious to the reader, and remember that different countries may use different terminologies to refer to the same word. Keeping these sensitivities in mind will help. 4. Be brief: Recruiters do not have the time or energy to read through a rambling 4 page essay. The statement of purpose shouldn’t exceed a couple of pages and should be to the point. We are not trying to author the next Lord of the Rings here! Statement of Purpose (SOP) is a document containing one’s personal and professional details which makes the task of knowing a candidate for the MBA school much easier. It is a concise essay about one’s career goals, identified means to achieve them, and accomplishments so far in reaching towards those goals. An SOP often acts as the yardstick for assessing the capabilities of a prospective student of the MBA School. What should your SOP contain? According to top experts the answers to the following queries must be there in your SOP: — You, your background and personality — The reason or reasons for making a particular career choice — Your hobbies — Your short-term and long-term career goals — Social initiatives taken by you, if any — Leadership qualities demonstrated by you — How you have dealt with failure — Example of teamwork at the workplace — Strengths and weaknesses — Ethical dilemmas faced by you Preparing for writing the SOP Some suggestions on how to prepare for writing the SOP: — Think deeply about matters concerning you, your choices and aspects of personality. — Adopt pre-writing strategies and jot down thoughts as they occur — Prepare a rough draft and proofread it to remove any errors. — Start well in advance. While writing the SOP SOP is an extremely important document that you will have to prepare before you will be accepted into any MBA School. You must ensure that your SOP lacks any kind of spelling or grammatical error. Your ability to write at an acceptable level will tell a great deal about you as an overall student, so do not neglect to proofread your document before submitting it. The SOP must make an interesting read; otherwise it won’t leave any impact on the readers’ minds. Integrate your knowledge about the B-school with your career goals, as this will make it seem as though there is really no other school that you are thinking of attending. Some important points to keep in mind while writing the SOP: Originality The answers have to reflect the distinctive ‘you’ all the way. So, be original. Copy –Paste exercises will do more harm than good as one shoe size does not fit all, especially in terms of personality. Relevance Read the question very carefully before you start framing your essay. Consider the question: â€Å"Please detail your long-term career goals. Why have you classified them as long term? Do you foresee any change in these goals in the future?† Now, you must be careful in crafting a reply to each question in a convincing manner. Concentrating only on the first segment will make the statement lopsided and put off the admissions panel. Conciseness Every word, every sentence should be present in the essay for a purpose. Rambling and undirected thoughts are a no-no as your essay will be given a couple of minutes within which the panel member has to locate something memorable and distinctive. Imagery Imagery means using words that enable pictures to form in the minds of the reader. For example, the phrase ‘turning point’ is better than writing ‘The course of my life changed decisively at that point because it succeeds in giving rise to a picture in the mind of the reader. Avoiding jargon Using too much jargon clichà ©s or long-winded sentences obscure the point you want to convey. Professional tone and elements of standard usage There is a world of difference in the way we speak and the way we write. You should avoid informal style or slang while penning the academic essay. Keeping the standard elements of usage in mind will go a long way in ensuring admittance in the MBA School. It takes a lot of time and engages your mind to undergo lot of thinking before you come up with the perfect SOP. So you should start much before. All this takes time, so begin writing the SOP well in advance. Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on MBA admission tips! CAT Toppers share their GD, PI & WAT experiences When a student is selected by a top B School, it is ensured that he has not just scored well in CAT but has also performed well in the Group Discussion, Personal Interview and or Written Ability Test (WAT) or Essay Writing rounds. This page will give you the GD, PI & WAT experiences of the CAT 2011 toppers who are now students of the academic year 2013-15 of the top B schools. I had an enjoyable WAT & PI experience of IIM Ahmedabad B Sekhar Anand IIM Ahmedabad Tricky WAT by IIM Indore Vishal Vyas IIM Indore My interview at XLRI lasted for 15 minutes Arjun Gupta XLRI Jamshedpur I had a grilling interview session at Common Admission Process of new IIMs Siddhant Gupta IIM Raipur WAT & PI experiences of top 3 IIMs Anusha Subramanian IIM Bangalore If you are a fresher, be thorough with your subjects for PI Parag Poddar IIM Indore My WAT topic was on foreign coaches at Indian sports Aditya Agar IIM Bangalore My interview experience was different in the top four IIMs Mohit Srivastava IIM Bangalore There was no stress at my interview; it was a candid conversation with learned men Tanishq Goyal IIM Ahmedabad I had an enjoyable WAT & PI experience of IIM Ahmedabad, B Sekhar Anand IIM Ahmedabad Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: My WAT/PI experience was very enjoyable. The topic for WAT was on corruption’s affects- a topic that I was comfortable with. The PI on the other hand was skewed towards my academics. A lot of preparation beforehand helped me answer most of the questions. Though I could not answer a few, the interviewer was fairly satisfied with my approach to those questions. Tricky WAT by IIM Indore, Vishal Vyas IIM Indore Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: WAT and PI were the two vital stages of IIM Indore selection process. WAT was somewhat tricky with a question on prà ©cis writing and another asking about my opinion in a given situation where a choice was to be made between a family managed business and a professionally run organization. PI probably was the most challenging part, with the interviewers asked extensively about by job profile and nature of work apart from a good amount of general knowledge. Work experience was somehow a difficult part to tackle with questions ranging from basic programming concepts to industry quality standards and their constituents. Overall, it was a mixed kind of interview which had its own high points and lows. I was hoping to convert with a good performance on almost all the measures which I later did. My interview at XLRI lasted for 15 minutes, Arjun Gupta XLRI Jamshedpur Q: How many GDPI rounds have you had? Please share your experiences in detail. A: I attended the GDPI rounds for the following institutes: †¢ NMIMS, Core †¢ XIMB, PGDM & PGDM(HRM) †¢ SPJIMR(FIN) †¢ XLRI (BM & HRM) SPJIMR’s admission process is unique in the sense that they call you on the basis of your profiles. In the group interview rounds also, the emphasis is on ethics and values. They question you comprehensively on your work-experience, if any. XLRI has a single PI round for the BM program. The interview covers all the important points, viz., work-experience, Graduation subjects (Math, especially for Engineers), current affairs and ethics. Highly unpredictable stuff, I must say. The HRM program has both GD & PI components. My interview went on for around 15 minutes in which I was questioned a lot about cultures, economies and technologies. I was asked to relate the factors citing suitable instances. Some questions on work experience and mathematics were also there. GD topic was related to IT sector. It was pretty basic hence I did not face any problem during the GD. XIMB had a single GDPI round for its BM and HRM programmes. The GD was related to Income disparity and was manageable. The interview again revolved around my work-experience. We had a very candid discussion instead of an interview. I could easily answer all their queries related to work. NMIMS’s GD was related to the airline sector. The interview was about Petrol/Diesel pricing, Basic Share Markets term and history about my parent company. For all the above GDPIs, I brushed up my Graduation Subjects well. Read about the major issues which are plaguing the nations, basic indices to measure economic health & society, knowledge about the parent company, its product profile, job role, etc. I had a grilling interview session at Common Admission Process of new IIMs Siddhant Gupta IIM Raipur Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail A: I had my WAT/PI in Delhi. I was given a topic on financial crisis in Europe. I was asked to speak on any topic from current affairs during the interview. I chose to talk on KFA bailout. I explained the problem and was asked for possible solutions. I suggested some solutions and a few cross questions were fired. Then I was asked a few questions on chemistry (I am a chemical engineer). Towards the end, I was grilled on â€Å"Which IIM will I choose if I happen to get multiple converts†. I linked it to the question related to the meaning of name and the panel seemed impressed. WAT & PI experiences of top 3 IIMs, Anusha Subramanian IIM Bangalore Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: Let me share my experiences of attending IIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore. IIM Calcutta – I had a good WAT and GD. My interview was mostly about events doing the rounds, a few maths questions, logic puzzles and some general questions about my future plans, etc. IIM Ahmedabad – The WAT was tricky as we were given only 10 minutes to complete the essay. I was questioned on a wide range of topics ranging from work, recent happenings in the software industry and academics. IIM Bangalore – My interview with IIM Bangalore was almost entirely based on the statement of purpose submitted earlier. I was quizzed in great detail about specific points in my SOP, regarding my work experience and future plans. If you are a fresher, be thorough with your subjects for PI, Parag Poddar IIM Indore Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: The WAT process for IIM Indore involved summarizing an article in one-third word limit and was followed by essay writing. I had been practicing essays during my GD/WAT preparations and this helped me perform well in the WAT section. This was followed by PI. Being a fresher, I was questioned thoroughly on my subjects. Professors checked every aspect of my personality through questions on general awareness, GK, current affairs and my background. The interview was a great learning experience and helped me gauge myself better and identify areas of improvement. My WAT topic was on foreign coaches at Indian sports, Aditya Agar IIM Bangalore Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: At IIM Bangalore’s WAT/PI process, I was asked to first write an essay on ‘Foreign coaches are a waste of money in Indian sports.’ My interview was centered on my experience at work and I was asked a lot of questions on the contributions I made to the organization. All in all, the interview was a big test of finding out what I gave to the organization I worked for and to the college I came from, which, trust me is very difficult to comprehend. My interview experience was different in the top four IIMs, Mohit Srivastava IIM Bangalore Q: How was your WAT/PI experience? A: The interview experience was very different at all the four IIMs. IIM Lucknow was focussed more on general affairs. IIM Bangalore was mostly academics and SOP based (they actually asked me an algorithm) IIM Calcutta was purely quant based in terms that the first five questions were based on Permutations and Combinations. After I satisfactorily answered them the interviews started asking me questions on Seattle and where all I had been in Seattle. IIM Ahmedabad was very unpredictable in terms that most of the questions were not from my strength. It was somewhat less academic. There was no stress at my interview; it was a candid conversation with learned men, Tanishq Goyal IIM Ahmedabad Q: Please share your WAT/PI experience in detail. A: I got calls from all 13 IIMs, but I gave interviews for the top four only. In IIM Ahmedabad, the WAT topic was In today’s world, business and ethics don’t go hand in hand. The questions ranged from my work experience, solving math problem, my hobby tennis to politics. The entire interview was like a candid conversation with learned men on some random topics. There was no stress at all. Personal Interview A personal interview is aimed at knowing a candidate more intimately – assessing the clarity of thinking process, future goals and the ‘fit’ with the B-school. A personal interview is aimed at knowing a candidate more intimately – assessing the clarity of thinking process, future goals and the ‘fit’ with the B-school. Personal Interview – What does it test? Analytical Skills †¢ During the personal interview, Interviewer will check the analytical skills of the candidate in ways that cannot be done with a written test. Certain questions during the personal interview are devised to see how the candidate can analyze a situation and create a solution. For example, an employer may ask a candidate to explain a time when the candidate had to work quickly against a pending deadline. In the personal interview, the employer can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into the candidate’s critical thinking process, to see if he/she fits to be a part of the Institute/organization Goal Clarity †¢ Why do want to do an MBA? How does it fit into your career goals? What do you wish to do after your MBA? These are some hard questions that you will have to answer almost invariably in all Interviews. These questions search the ‘inner motivations’ of a candidate, and there are no ‘right answers’. The only way to answer these questions is to introspect: what excites and motivates you; what makes you perform your best; what would you really like to do in your life, and how do you genuinely see an MBA helping. Tough questions, but answering them honestly is critical for your success! ‘Why MBA?’ is the most important question that MBA aspirants need to answer. There is no â€Å"good answer† for this. The answer needs to be your answer. In other words, you need to think deeply, introspect and find out what it is that really drives you. So put on your thinking cap, do some soul searching and then jot down the answers to ‘what†™s your goal’ questions. Communication †¢ When an employer is engaged in a personal interview with a candidate, he will listen to hear how the candidate gives answers to questions, watch for body language that can indicate the candidate is not being truthful or is uncomfortable; determine confidence by gauging eye contact. Is the student is able to effectively communicate using his entire body, etc and these skills can only be judged during a personal interview. Domain Knowledge †¢ Given that a good MBA is a demanding programme, B-schools would like to know how you will be able to cope up with the academics and the extra-curricular 24 x 7 demands of your new campus. They are also keen to assess how you have utilized the earlier learning opportunities. Be prepared to discuss different specialty areas in business and their responsibilities. Interviewers will also expect you to discuss current issues in business, including the economy, taxation, foreign competition, the role of technology and ethical challenges in the field. So be careful about the gates you open, and be very sure you have in-depth knowledge about whatever you mention. For e.g. if you say you have an avid interest in Badminton, be ready for questions pertaining to Prakash Padukone, Deepika Padukone, plastic shuttles v/s feather shuttles, Saina Nehwal etc. It is advisable to brush up 2-3 subjects from your graduation thoroughly if you are a student fresh out of college. Also, contextual knowledge of the environment around you as well as â€Å"general knowledge† comes quite handy. Presentation †¢ Candidates who do not take the time to create a professional presentation for a personal interview can hurt their chances for getting the job. A personal interview gives the employer the opportunity to see what the candidate considers to be professional grooming, professional attire and a professional attitude. A candidate’s resume may be impressive, but if he shows up to the interview 30 minutes late and is not dressed in professional interview attire, then he may not be the candidate you are looking for. Attitude †¢ In a personal interview it is not always the answer you give to a question that is important, but how you give that answer. An interviewer is well aware of the corporate culture within his institute and a personal interview gives the interviewer a chance to gauge the candidate’s attitude to see if there is a match with the institute. Importance of an Interview: Who Conducts MBA Interviews? Every business school has different policies when it comes to MBA interviews. Typically, an MBA interview is conducted by one or more members of the admissions committee. However, it is not unusual to be interviewed by current students or alumni. Professors do not normally conduct admissions interviews, but there are a few schools who do assign faculty members to the task. No matter who interviews you, expect a lot of questions and an evaluation. Most admissions committees have a form that they work off. They will ask you specific questions from the form. If you are being interviewed by other students or alumni, don’t expect anything different. They have probably been trained by the admissions committee to use the form or ask specific questions. Read more about the different types of MBA interviews. Personal Interview can also turn out to be an opportunity to ‘sell’ yourself. While intimidating for some MBA-hopefuls, the personal interview represents a prime opportunity. Interviews allow you the chance to not only put a face and personality to the name and credentials on your application file, but also to express your academic, personal, and professional accomplishments, experiences, and intentions.

Human resources in hospitality & Marketing Hospitality Research Paper

Human resources in hospitality & Marketing Hospitality - Research Paper Example Managing human resources in hospitality is a challenging experience that requires effective planning and high level of competency (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2009). An article by Jarpi (2007) explains more about human resource in hospitality. The article explains that owners of hospitality business must be rational critical thinkers and have deep understanding on the changing rules and regulations. The author further argues that promotion of employees in the hospitality industry should be based on skills and experience. Incompetent workforce is dangerous to work with since it contributes to poor performance of the business. In this regard, effective policies should be put in place to ensure smooth operation of the workforce in an organization (Ming-chih, Haiyan & Kevin, 2011). Marketing hospitality refers to the process of selling out products and services of a hospitality firm to the target market. Marketing hospitality takes different forms, for instance; advertising, product promotion, offering of competitive prices, branding and many others.. According to Reid & Bojanic (2010), effective marketing strategies should be employed in order to boost sales and profitability in the hospitality sector. Fields (2014) wrote an article postulating various hospitality marketing strategies that can be used to boost the profits of a hospitality firm. The article states that extensive market research and establishment of realistic plans for achieving the foreseen goals and objectives of a business firm are the basic factors to success. In addition, Fields further states that, accountability is a crucial factor to consider as far as marketing hospitality is concerned. The article outlines that advertisements can be done through the print and electronic media, depending on the target market and the firm’s financial position. The modern technology has aided in providing numerous avenues for posting advertisements. For instance, the use of social media

Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing - Research Paper Example Average consumers Another attribute that I would use to segment the market is by the level of the consumption by the consumers. Most particularly I would focus at needs of the teenagers who are key part that forms average consumers. In this regard, I will undertake an intensive advertisement especially via the social sites such as face book and twitter in order to capture the attention of the average consumers. Benefits One of the key aspects that I would consider in the product segmentation is the benefits provided by the product. TM new products will create a strong positive relationship with our consumers thus enhancing the sales and profitability of the company. Additionally, the new product will be a favorite brand for young people in colleges especially during social occasions. Usage Based on the usage of the brands, consumers of the soft drink can be classified into light, medium and heavy consumers. Task 2. Major segments of the soft drink product Based on the psychographic a spects described in task 1, this section identifies key segments that I will focus at in order to maximize the sales and the consumption of the TM new product. Fashionable brand conscious customers This is one of the major soft drink segments that include young people in colleges and universities. ... Average consumers are mostly pressurized to buy due to advertisement and intensive promotions. The major group under this category is the teenagers. Additionally, this group of consumers looks for quality and the ingredients that make up the brands that are useful in making them strong and energetic. In this regard, I will undertake an intensive advertisement especially via the social sites such as face book and twitter in order to capture the attention of the average consumers. Benefits As mentioned earlier, consumers are attracted by products that offer them maximum benefits. By ensuring that TM new product is effectively packaged and that customers will easily carry the products, a positive product-brand relationship will improve the profitability and the sales of the company. To ensure that our consumers are aware of the benefits of the new product, an extensive advertisement and adequate training of new and existing consumers will be carried out. Usage The new product will be di rected to average consumers. This is based on the fact that by ensuring the loyalty of the average consumers, the product will be highly demanded when the average consumers changes to heavy consumers. Task 3. Profile of each of the major segments Market segment Profile Fashionable brand conscious customers The new products needs to look attractive thus attracting the attention of the young consumers. Additionally, it will portray a feeling of coolness. Average consumers Consumers are teenagers who will be attracted by advertisement and promotions through social media including face book and twitter. More advertisement will be conducted before evening prime news in major TV channels. Benefits

A Description of Human Geography Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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What Makes Advertising Effective

What Makes Advertising Effective The aim of this report is finding the most correct answer to the question: what makes advertising effective. This issue is essential because it is the key for achieving -or not- the goals pursued by every company that invests in advertising. The general question has been divided in three areas, depending on the type of consumers response that advertising aims to arouse: cognitive, affective or conative, according to the famous Hierarchy of Effects model proposed by Lavidge and Steiner in 1961. In addition, the report focuses on the role of Music in advertising, with the purpose to highlight how its use can help to achieve efficacy in advertising. Five recommendations are identified through the report. Advertisers should first choose the media mix able to reach as many consumers as possible from the target audience (Ogilvy, 1985). Using appealing creativity (Dahlen et Al, 2010) and increasing the frequency of the message (Pickton and Broderick, 2005) is required to pass successfully through all the selective phases of consumers influence process, in order to make them memorize the contents of advertising. Music can be very helpful both for gaining consumers attention and giving a mnemonic quality to the message (Sutherland, 2008). An effective way to build an emotional link with consumers is referring to common culture (Godin, 1999). Jingles are able to involve consumers, at the point that they can become part of consumers cultural background of people (Sutherland, 2008). It is necessary to understand how the purchasing decision is taken by consumers in order to effectively affect their behaviour; the FCB matrix by Vaughn (1986) identifies four types of purchasing process and suggests the quantity and quality of information to provide for each of them in order to have an impact on the decision making process. Since music sets up an entertainment mood, its use appears to be appropriate for the feel products and not for the think products (Arens et Al, 2011). As most of these factors refer to the ability of understanding consumers mind, the report has confirmed that psychology represents a basic support for marketing functions as the making of effective advertising (Foxall et Al, 1998). INTRODUCTION This paper aims to identify the factors able to make advertising effective. The research starts stating a basic condition then, since efficacy is the ability to bring about the intended result (Oxford dictionary, 2007), the report analyses which are the marketing objectives pursued by advertising. The Hierarchy of Effects Model proposed by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) is considered as pivotal in the communication process. People progressively express three kinds of response to a received message: cognitive, affective, conative (also known as the think-feel-do process). Accordingly, the report uses a tripartite approach in order to better isolate and identify the factors that make advertising successful whether the response sought from consumer is cognitive, affective or conative. The report then operates a specific analysis on the role of Music in advertising, showing how music can be a very useful tool to reach efficacy (Sutherland, 2008) for all the three pursued responses shown previously. Recommendations and Conclusions about the topic complete the analysis. Practical examples chosen among the most famous companies provide evidence to the theoretical analysis; further examples are reported in the appendices to enrich the content. This research has been performed through the method of the literary review: books, papers and articles of famous Marketers and Psychologists are used as sources. A Basic Condition Advertising is undoubtedly a central part of promotion, but compared to the 4 Ps of marketing mix theorized by McCartney (1960), it represents only an aspect of the marketing effort made by the company (Pickton and Broderick, 2005). To reach and maximize the efficacy of advertising, firms should develop a deep know-how of their market, becoming what Llambin (2008) calls market-driven companies. This is achievable only by large investments in market researches, in order to know as much as possible about consumers and competitors. As Cowles and Kiecker stated (1998), market research is important not only to identify the most profitable target segments, but also to develop a message content that is appealing to them, and to identify the most effective and efficient marketing communications mix elements and media. Companies have to focus all their functions to the market: only Market-driven companies will be really able to set the most effective advertising (Llambin, 2008). The HoE model: three responses to be aroused As advertising is a non-personal form of communication (Fill,2009), marketing can be supported by the studies on the communication process. Among them, this report focuses on the famous hierarchy of effects model proposed by Lavidge and Steiner (1961); when the advertising message reaches the consumer, following the steps of the well-known SMRC communication model (Berlo, 1960), the receiver responds by progressively undertaking three phases: the cognitive phase as first, then the affective and finally the conative. Specifically, consumers will pass through these sequential stages: Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, Conviction, Purchase. [Figure A] Figure A : Sequential stages of Lavidge and Steiner model (1961) Source: http://www.learnmarketing.net/Hierarchy%20Of%20Effects.jpg Using this tripartite approach, the marketing objectives become more definite and therefore it is possible to identify more precisely the key factors for achieving efficacy; firms should then set up a specific advertising campaign targeted for each of the three macro-responses they want to arouse in the audience (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961). The following three Mc Donalds adverts clearly show this differentiated approach. In the first one [Figure B], nothing but the apposition of the two logos (the wi-fi one made by chips) is used: since this ad wants to make the audience learn the service provided, it refers to the cognitive phase. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpnlYrrK9Y7gTbt3mM5U5EEVNQ92shybUYzqCrr7VSUoLs_TWlUlflwZXKfcWy_u5n5OXj5UZFu0mMpnUZhNfld-dHCtFRpOj2utxJVt3xmLtjtMt9Iif700QlMfpYyPy8hVXVLXtIJo/s400/Cool+and+Beautiful+McDonald%E2%80%99s+Advertising+10.jpg) Figure B. Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpnlYrrK9Y7gTbt3mM5U5EEVNQ92shybUYzqCrr7VSUoLs_TWlUlflwZXKfcWy_u5n5OXj5UZFu0mMpnUZhNfld-dHCtFRpOj2utxJVt3xmLtjtMt9Iif700QlMfpYyPy8hVXVLXtIJo/s400/Cool+and+Beautiful+McDonald%E2%80%99s+Advertising+10.jpg In the second one [Figure C], the baby approaching the hamburger evokes feelings of affection for the food offered by the company; an home atmosphere is aroused. Emotional persuasion is the first aim for the affective phase. http://www.breastfeedingsymbol.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/mcdonalds.jpg Figure C. Source: http://www.breastfeedingsymbol.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/mcdonalds.jpg In the third one [Figure D], the invitation to take an action is extremely clear: consumers should have breakfast at Mc Donalds on Mondays, convinced by the free coffee. This ad aims to induce a change in the consumers behaviour: it refers to the conative phase. http://www.mcdonaldsstl.com/images/FreeCoffeeMondays-graphic.jpg Figure D. Source: http://www.mcdonaldsstl.com/images/FreeCoffeeMondays-graphic.jpg The main limit of HoE is its rigidity: consumers do not always undertake these steps sequentially, because of their irrationality; however, the existence of these three kinds of responses is widely accepted also among the critics (Barry and Howard, 1990). Accordingly, it is possible to  reformulate the central question in a more detailed way: which elements are necessary in advertising, in order to improve the companys performance in brand awareness (1), in the affective relationship with the consumers (2), and in the sales (3)? 1 Cognitive response The goal of these campaigns is to ensure that customers are properly aware of the brand; making clear the brand positioning is the main aim (Egan, 2007). Reach is the first key factor. Pelsmacker (2007) defines it as the number or percentage of people who are expected to be exposed to the advertisers message during a specified period . Reach plays the either/or role in the SMRC process: if the company does not reach the consumers, no response can be aroused. Therefore, the choice of the most appropriate media mix to reach the target segments becomes crucial for the success of the advertising campaign (Ogilvy, 1985). According to the selective influence process theories, people play a very active role as receivers in the communication process (Karlz and Lazarsfeld, 1955). There are unconscious and social intervening variables which affect the final internalization of the message. Since only the memorized information is able to affect the consumers behaviour the ability to pass through the selective phases of the consumer influence process is the second key factor (Karlz and Lazarsfeld, 1955). To win the receivers attention, it is required to overtake what Wundt (1896) calls the absolute threshold, that is the minimum psychic intensity an individual needs for reacting to a stimulus. For this reason, the effort to provide appealing creativity to the advert gains great importance (Dahlen et Al, 2010). Since the traditional media today are overcrowded by adverts (Levinson, 2007), appealing creativity can make an advert emerge to the consumers eyes. A clear example can be represented by the winner of the Best Use of Blu Tac in a Shop Window Postcard Space category in the Chip Shop Awards 2012. Clearasil posted a completely and intensely white postcard: impossible not to see. Figure E. Source: http://www.chipshopawards.com/ Clearasil is a brand of beauty products against skin imperfections (www.clearasil.co.uk) Use of creativity can also have negative impacts: it is difficult to define the line between great effect and great scandal (Godin, 1999). [see Appendix I] In choosing how often to transmit the advertising message, psychology supports marketing once again (Foxall et Al, 1998). I.V. Pavlov developed the notion of conditioned reflex (1927): opposed to the innate reflex it is a learned reaction to a positive or negative stimulus. In marketing, this means that the repetition of a message will increase its understanding; thats why frequency plays a key role. Frequency measures the number of times, on average, that a member of the target audience is exposed to a message or, more accurately, to the media (Pickton and Broderick, 2005). Increasing the frequency helps making the advertise effective but, according to the Curve of Wundt (1896), if the intensity of the stimulus exceeds a certain limit it is even possible to arouse anxiety, nervousness and irritation in the receivers. 2 Affective response Here, the main goal is to create an affective link with consumers, in order to persuade them appreciating the brand and making a preference for it (Fill, 2009). The more the content of a message is associated to paradigmatic knowledge, the more immediate and simple is its decoding by the receiver (Grandori, 1999): thats why advertising should carry associations recalling to the common culture to be effective in building an emotional link with the audience (Godin, 1999). Among all the cultural aspects, political studies have shown that the more compelling ones are common roots ; common habits ; famous figures (Gabrielsen, 2010). The use of cultural associations can be clearly found in Chryslers spot for the launch of the new 200 model, shown during the 2011 edition of Super Bowl. The core of the message highlights the origin of the machine, manufactured in Detroit: (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Thats who we are. Thats our story. (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Because when it comes to luxury, its as much about where its from, as who its for. Now were from America, but this isnt New York City, or the Windy city.(à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) And were certainly no ones Emerald city. This is the Motor city. And this is what we do. The new Chrysler 300 has arrived. Imported from Detroit. [see Appendix II] Casting famous figures (VIP) as testimonial can provide good advantages: a VIP well known among the target audience can better win consumers attention; it allows to make the advertising message more personal, exploiting the VIPs familiarity with the consumers ; people will associate the appreciated qualities of the VIP to the product. (Arens et Al, 2011). [see Appendix III] Another effective way to involve the audience is taking part at the big events widely enjoyed and cherished by people, as the recent Olympics in London 2012. [see Appendix IV] Thanks to these associations, every time that consumers get in touch with the reminded cultural aspect, they will also remember the linked brand (Godin, 1999).[see Appendix V] This cultural approach shows some limits. Since culture is a sphere of meanings related to the past, the new products which aim to highlight innovation as their core quality cant take the best benefits from cultural associations (Ogilvy, 1985). Moreover, relying on VIP means accepting the risk of linking to them the name of the brand also when something negative is referred to them (Arens et Al, 2011). [see Appendix VI] 3 Conative response In order to effectively affect consumers behaviour with advertising, it is necessary to understand how their decision making process works. The model developed by Richard Vaughn for Foote Cone and Belding in 1980, known as the FCB matrix, considers it as driven by two variables: the level of consumer involvement (high-low) and the type of approach to the purchase (rational-emotional). (McWilliam, 1997; Vaughn, 1980 and 1986). The result is the identification of 4 macro-type of purchasing process, each one requiring different kinds of information to be affected: differences are both in quantity high and detailed or low and summarized- and quality -emotional or rational of information. (Vaughn, 1986). In Figure F, some exemplar products are placed in the 4 quadrants of the FCB matrix. Figure F. Source: Vaugh, 1980 Therefore, advertising can be effective only if it provides the consumers with the kind of information they look for in their decision making process, this one being identified by the quadrant the product is placed in. (Vaughn, 1986). The analysis of 4 different decision making processes is now addressed, referring to the model of Vaughn (1986): High involvement / rational. People look for the real facts, they need to gain the confidence they are doing the right choice (e.g. Mortgage). The way to be effective is to highlight all the product competitive benefits as well as the company know-how, and to provide the consumers with positive feedbacks . [Figure G]http://www.okeefeestateagents.com/_microsites/paul_okeefe/docs/images/homepage/rightColAdvert/need-a-mortgage.jpg Figure G. Source: http://www.okeefeestateagents.com/_microsites/paul_okeefe/docs/images/homepage/rightColAdvert/need-a-mortgage.jpg High involvement / emotional. Consumers want to learn about and feel the experience (e.g. Holidays). Companies should provide content rich media with compelling personal feedbacks, music and everything else able to make the consumers taste the experience. [Figure H] Figure H. Source: www.adcracker.com Low involvement / rational. People usually buy by habit (e.g. toothpaste). Underlining the incentives to change habits as sale coupons can be effective. [Figure I]http://c3240dd96f54819fb6f2-90846526673b19d9a04c27097b58cb86.r6.cf2.rackcdn.com/2011/09/optic-white-coupon.jpg Figure I. Source: www.cuckooforcoupondeals.com Low involvement / emotional. People often looks for sensory or psychological gratification (e.g. Movies). Showing sensory rich imagery can be successful. [Figure J]http://www.filmjabber.com/movie-blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/the-eye-poster.jpg Figure J. Source: http://www.filmjabber.com/movie-blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/the-eye-poster.jpg The limit of the FCB matrix is the difficulty to plot the product in the right quadrant, because of the inconsistencies between consumers and companies perceptions of it (Dahlen et Al, 2010). Moreover, as marketing environment is rapidly changing, products and services can fast move from one coordinate to another in the brand image of consumers (Fill, 2009). The Role of Music in Advertising Music can be a very useful tool to reach efficacy in advertising, whether the aim is to arouse a cognitive, affective or conative response in the consumers (Sutherland, 2008). The analysis aims to show how the use of music can aid or hinder the effective factors identified in the general part. COGNITIVE PURPOSE Music can help to win consumers attention: reproducing a song well-known among the target audience or a catchy rhythm greatly helps to get its attentions (Sutherland, 2008). The use of creativity in music can be found in the production of jingles, where companies set their own words to Music. Jingles are among the best -and worst- ad messages produced. Done well, they can bring enormous success, well beyond the non-musical commercial. Done poorly, they can waste the advertising budget and annoy audiences beyond belief (Arens et Al, 2011). As an example, in the 1970s Coca-Cola was so successful with its jingle Id like to buy the world a Coke that it was then extended and released to become an international chart hit called Id like to Teach the World to Sing (Sutherland, 2008). Moreover, what Sutherland (2008) calls the three Rs rhyme, rhythm and repetition give words a mnemonic quality, making the message more catchy and enduring in memory. AFFECTIVE PURPOSE Research has shown that the positive mood created by music makes consumers more receptive to an ad message (Belch and Belch, 2009). When words are set to the music, a desire for repetition can be created: thats why jingles are able to involve consumers, at the point that they can become themselves part of the cultural background of people (Sutherland, 2008). A chart of the top 10 jingles of the century has been made, according to peoples preferences: a prove of the attachment consumers have towards them (Belch and Belch, 2009). Figure K. Source: Belch and Belch, 2009 The case of Oscar Mayers spots clearly shows the emotional power of jingles in advertising. [see Appendix VII] Jingles are used less frequently today, replaced by an increasing use of current or classic pop songs: in the age of the technologic way to live music companies must be careful not to appear old-fashionable while using jingles (Belch and Belch, 2009). CONATIVE PURPOSE Music can also affect the way people behave, but since it better vehicles an emotional message, it seems to be effective especially -if not only- with the feel products (Sutherland, 2008). A great example of how music can be focused on action is the jingle created by the pizza chain Pizza, Pizza in Toronto: the company put its phone number in the lyrics, so that Toronto residents could memorize it easily. [see Appendix VIII] On the other hand, music causes what Sutherland (2008) calls the wash-over effect: when we listen to lyrics, we process the message as an experience that we can enjoy or not rather than judging the reliability of its meaning. The entertainment mood set up by music is inappropriate when consumers want to focus on the rational information, as for think products (Arens et Al, 2011). As the analysis of consumers response to music in advertising carried by Oakes (2007) shows, reaching a congruity between music and advertising in mood, genre, image and tempo contributes to the efficacy of an advertisement by enhancing recall, brand attitude, affective response and purchase intention. Since the negotiation of the license rights often needs large sums, marketers should carefully decide if and in which way music can be coherent with the marketing campaign, in order to avoid an expensive disorientation of consumers(Belch and Belch, 2009). RECOMMENDATIONS As shown through the report, advertisers should first ascertain to find the media mix that will maximize the reach of the audience (Ogilvy, 1985). Passing successfully through all the selective phases of consumers influence process is necessary to make them memorize a message (Karlz and Lazarsfeld, 1955). Concretely, this can be achieved by using appealing creativity (Dahlen et Al, 2010) and by increasing the frequency of the message (Pickton and Broderick, 2005). The use of Music can be very effective both for winning consumers attention and adding a mnemonic quality to the message (Sutherland, 2008). When aiming to build an emotional link with consumers, a successful choice is including associations recalling to common culture in the message sent to consumers (Gabrielsen, 2010). Jingles can be such able to involve consumers, that they can become themselves part of the cultural background of people (Sutherland, 2008). To effectively affect consumers behaviour, advertisers must understand how the purchasing decision for their products is taken by consumers; the FCB matrix by Vaughn (1986) suggest the quantity and quality of information to provide for each of the 4 types of purchasing process identified by crossing the level of involvement (high or low) and the kind of approach (emotional or rational). Music can be effective for feel products, but not for think products, since it sets up an entertainment mood inappropriate for rational decisions (Arens et Al, 2011). The overall recommendation for companies is to consider advertising as a process that involves the entire business as connected with it by a close cause-effect relationship: when an advert is not effective, it can be the symptom that theres something wrong in the marketing decision making process, or it can be the cause leading to future problems in the relationship with the market (Llambin, 2008). CONCLUSIONS It has been shown how a tripartite approach to the central question which factors can make advertising effective? is able to better analyse the issue and to define an accurate answer. Since all the factors except the maximisation of Reach refer to the ability of reading consumers mind, the report has confirmed how psychology can be a great support for marketing functions and, specifically, for making advertising effective (Foxall et Al, 1998). Thats why Market-driven companies, which have developed a deep knowledge of their consumers thanks to large investments in market researches, have the concrete possibility to apply these factors in the most effective way (Llambin, 2008). APPENDICES As an example, the historical testimonial used by Danish Frisbee Sports Union for the 2012 campaign will be definitely able to catch consumers attention, but it can reasonably arouse perplexity and disgust in a high number of people. Source: http://www.chipshopawards.com/ Nestlà ¨ chose to set a totally VIP-focused campaign to promote Nespresso brand: George Clooney has being appeared in every adverts of the famous espresso machine, with the aim to take advantages from his style and world-wide popularity. Source of Image: http://www.generation-flux.com/images/Nespresso-site.jpg A great example is represented by the marketing campaigns of PG, created to promote their laundry products Ariel in UK and Tide in USA during the Olympics. The compelling references on the athletic competition were present in both the spots: Before the Gold, Silver, and Bronze, its the red, white and blue.At the Olympic Games, its not the color you go home with that matters, its the colors you came in. When colors mean this much, trust them to Ariel (UK)/ Tide (USA). The meaning of the final sentence Proud keeper of Our Countrys Colours was certainly influenced by the images of the athletes shown in the video: for Ariel, a high number of British participants ; for Tide, almost only American players. Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoF9DROHYnU Tide for USA; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jipn-MGg0DA Ariel for UK. A great example of the power of cultural associations can be found in politics. The ex-Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, considered the biggest innovator in the Italian political marketing in a negative or positive way depending on the political conviction (Palmieri, 2012), named his first party Forza Italia (1994), that is the same slogan used by Italian people as an incitement for the national football team. The result was a widespread embarrassment (ibidem) when people not voting for Berlusconi wanted to support the football team, but they had to shout the name of his party: they could not manage not to think about this political association. Cirio is an Italian company founded in 1856 specialized in canned food, especially in tomato paste. (www.cirio.co.uk) Cirio managers werent happy to learn that their testimonial Gerard Depardieu was founded drunk and misbehaving on a plane just two weeks later the advertising campaign was launched. The spot is accessible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReGPNs-HfH0 The episode reported: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8706992/Gerard-Depardieu-accused-of-urinating-on-floor-of-plane.html Oscar Mayer is a brand owned by Kraft Foods. At the end of last century the company held local auditions in search of American children to continue the 30-year tradition of singing the catchy bologna and wiener jingles: they were such known that Oscar Mayer decided to be self-referential in order to best cultivate the relationship with the consumers. Thompson, S. 1997. Promotions: Nostalgia Bolognese, Brandweek, April 14, 1997 Original videos are available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmPRHJd3uHI (Bologna); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNddW2xmZp8feature=related (Wieners) The example and the text of the jingle are reported in Sutherland (2008, p 122): nine-six-seven, eleven eleven / phone Pizza Pizza, hey hey hey!

The Voice of the Sea in The Awakening Essay -- Chopin Awakening Essay

The Voice of the Sea in The Awakening  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many different symbols were utilized in Kate Chopin's The Awakening to illustrate the underlying themes and internal conflict of the characters.   One constant and re-emerging symbol is the sea.   The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.   The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.   The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace (Chopin 25).      In the novel, â€Å"the ocean symbolizes Edna's "awakening" to a life filled with freedom and independence† (Nickerson). On a hot summer evening Robert and Edna go bathing.   Although Edna does not wish to go and initially declines his offer, something inside is compelling her to go down to the water.   It is there in the seductive ocean that Edna's awakening begins.      A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her... [she] was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her (Chopin 25).      That warm ocean environment is in direct contrast to the responsibilities and rules of the cold, hard city.   And it is there in that relaxed and   forgiving atmosphere that Edna can explore her new found freedoms.  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While relaxing on the beach with Mrs. Ratignolle, the sight of the endless ocean brings back memories from Edna's childhood.   She suddenly recalls a summer day in Kentucky and "a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl...and I felt as if I must walk on forever without coming to th... ... on, thinking of the bluegrass meadow...believing that it had no beginning and no end" (Chopin 190).   It is there in the ocean that she first realizes her physical, mental, and emotional potential. It is only natural that the water, which has seduced her with its sound reclaims her.    Throughout the story the ocean represented Edna's constant struggle for self-realization and independence.   From her first flow of emotion on the beach to her last breath of life in the sea, the ocean beckons her.   The voice of the sea lures her onward in her journey toward liberation and empowerment.    Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Kate Chopin. New York : Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Chopin, Kate.   The Awakening.   1993: Bedford Books, New York. Nickerson, Meagan. "Romanticism in The Awakening", The Kate Chopin Project. America On-line. February 2000.   

Rap is Crap Essay examples -- essays research papers

Rap is Crap â€Å"She ain’t nuttin but a hoochie mama†¦Smackin’ on your lips, put your hands on your hips†¦She ain’t nuttin but a hoochie mama†¦Oh I love those big brown eyes and the way you shake your thighs, acting like you’re so damn cute...† Rap music with lyrics like this play on the radio and in home stereos every day. Rap music pounds messages of sex and violence into the minds of young adults leaving behind their sexist and repetitive influential messages. Music has a very powerful influence on our emotions, moods, and behavior. Rap music influences teenagers negatively by increasing violent attitudes and promoting sexual aggression against women. Very few people would argue the power of music. Mothers use it to rock their babies to sleep. Patriotic hymns can be used at rallies to evoke strong emotions of nationalism. Ballads have been used to incite rebellion. Some governments have viewed music so powerful that they ban it. In white dominated South Africa, centers of African music were destroyed and western music was declared forbidden in China during the Cultural Revolution. Is music powerful enough to incite antisocial and violent behavior? According Johnson, Jackson and Gatto’s study on the deleterious effects of exposure to rap music, subjects in the violent exposure conditions (rap music) expressed greater acceptance of violence. Subjects in the violent exposure condition also reported a higher probability that they would engage in violence (Johnson). Music plays an i...

Maturity :: essays research papers

Maturity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Maturity is not something that happens overnight. Maturity comes through trial and error; it’s a process which has to be perfected. Life throws curveballs and there are always multiple ways to deal with the situations. Being mature is making the right choices and knowing right from wrong.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When you turn eighteen you are expected to just be mature. You’re allowed to buy a house, a car, get a credit card, it seems like you can do whatever you want. Maturity basically gets thrown at you, so hopefully you are prepared for it. High school responsibilities, like getting a job, budgeting your time and learning to drive teach you skills that you can use in your adult life, if you choose to apply them. Maturity is about choice. You can be given every skill that you need to survive and if you are mature enough you will use them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For me, driving a car, going to Europe, graduating, and having a job have all contributed to my maturity. I have to make life and death choices every day while driving, and my choices affect other’s lives- and that bring a lot of maturity. I went to Europe basically by myself, with no parent there to hold my hand. I had to make good choices, be safe and be mature while I was half way across the world from my parents. I am graduating this year as well. After this summer I am going to college, being a real â€Å"adult† and I will be able to make my own choices. Maturity will help me keep my head on straight while I am being my own boss. For the past two years I have held the same job. This job has taught me responsibility, how to deal with money and people and basic life skills. If I were not mature I would not be able to hold a job for that long.

History of HTML Essay

HTML or HyperText Markup Language is the predominant and most currently most popular language for creating web pages. It is a well-designed language to describe the structure of text-based information in a document by using certain tags referred to as HTML tags and using certain text links, heads, paragraphs, tables, lists and headings. While HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angle brackets. HTML can also describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document, and can include embedded forms, and other scripting language codes, which can affect the behavior of Web browsers and other HTML processors. It is assumed that what made this language a very popular web development language is its English-like characteristic which makes it relatively easy to comprehend, and memorize the tags as compared to most other languages. It was in the late 1980’s, when the physicist Tim Berners-Lee, who was an independent contractor at CERN, proposed and prototyped ENQUIRE, a system for CERN researchers to use and share documents. In 1989, Berners-Lee and CERN Robert Cailliau, a data systems engineer from CERN, each submitted separate proposals for an Internet-based hypertext system providing similar functionality. The following year, they collaborated on a joint proposal, the Worldwide Web (W3) project; this proposal was accepted by CERN and as of now, and the project continued to grow from the day that it was developed, and continuous to grow up until present. In the advent of the interne and in the continuous increase in its popularity, came parallel the advent of the web-development language HTML. Although it has already been an accepted and established concept in the field of academics as early as the 1940s. It was with the advent of he personal computer that hypertext came into popularity. Bill Atkinson came up with the astounding idea in the late 1980s. It was then the he and his team developed Hypercard, an application for the Macintosh Operating System. Hypercard allows users to construct a series of on-screen `filing cards’ that would be able to contain text and graphics. Users can also navigate through these filing cards by pressing on-screen buttons, which were designed for simple and plain navigation. Hypercard easily became popular and was integrated on many other applications. Toolbox, for Personal Computers was developed and popularized in the 1990s for hypertext training courses. These courses came up with a more advanced navigation system wherein viewers or users were able to view pages with buttons which can help them navigate forward or backward or jump to a topic. Hypercard and its co-programs easily became popularized, however they were still held back by certain limitations. The major limitation was that hypertext jumps were only allowed to be made to files on the same computer. Hypertext umps to computers on other countries or on the other side of the world were still not possible. Hypertext communication was still on the local scale and not available in the global scale. It the increasing demands for global scale hypertext communication that the HTML came into advent. HTML has had a development-span of roughly seven years. During that time, it has evolved from a simple language with a small number of tags to a complex system of mark-up tags, enabling authors to create visually stunning web pages complete with sound and animation. Basically, the language developed from HTML+, HTML 2, HTML 3. 2, HTML 4. And finally HTML 5, which was released in 2008. A document called â€Å"HTML Tags†, was the first publicly available description of the HTML. This was known to public by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. It describes 22 elements comprising the initial, relatively simple design of HTML, thirteen of these elements still exist up to HTML 4. At that time, Berners-Lee considered HTML to be an application of Standard Generalized Markup Language or SGML. However, it was not formally announced until the mid-1993 publication, by the IETF, of the first proposal for an HTML specification. Berners-Lee and Dan Connolly’s made an internet draft, â€Å"Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)†. This included an SGML document type definition to define the grammar. The HTML and HTML+ drafts expires in 1994, and that was when IETF created an HTML Working Group, which in 1995 completed â€Å"HTML 2. 0†, the first HTML specification intended to be treated as a standard against which future implementations should be based. HTML 2. 0 included ideas from the HTML and HTML+ drafts. HTML 2. 0 became the standard for website design until the year 1997. By then, more people were using HTML, and while the previous standards offered some decent abilities, people thirsted for more abilities and tags as to be able to better enhance the appearance of their websites. At this time, a HTML working group, led by Dave Raggett introduced HTML 3. 0. It included many new and improved abilities for HTML, and promised far more powerful opportunities to HTML users. HTML 4. 0 was recommended by W3C in 1997 and became the official standard in April 1998. Browser support was undertaken surprisingly earnestly by Microsoft in their Internet Explorer browser HTML 4. 0 was a large evolution of the HTML standards, and the last version of the classic HTML. At present, the newest version of the HTML is HTML 5. 0. It was published as a working draft by W3C last January 22, 2008, and includes major revisions in the core language of the World Wide Web, HTML. In this version, new features, elements and functionalities had been introduced to aid web developers to further improve the appearance and back-end structure of websites.

Infant Observation

His parents are part of the Chinese Culture. He has black hair and beautiful big brown eyes. His little arms and legs are chunky. In proportion to his body his head seems to be bigger but It's not. 2) When I was doing my observation he was playing. Perception: 3) TTT mostly observes objects with bright colors about few seconds before he drops It to find the next curious object. When put down onto the floor he crawls right towards the toys, telling his mom that he prefers colors.As his mom move a toy In front of his face side to side, he follows It with his eyes and his head. When his mom play some music he turns his head towards the source of the sound and starts to crawl closer to the music. 4)No real regular actions to make his mom believe he Is In need of any special Item other than food when he Is hungry. Motor Development: 5) Blinking reflex-when his mom blow on his face his eyes respond by blanking. 6) I see him exploring his surroundings, at objects and feeling them. He Is cra wling, he an walk while holding onto furniture or he is sitting when examining a toy. ) He moves his head in a normal way. 8) He can reach sitting position alone. He does so by bending one knee and backing down onto his behind. 9) He grasps an object on right hand while holding his upper body with his other hand (left) onto the floor. He lets go of the object by dropping it at his side to grab the next. Cognitive Development: 10) To find out if TTT has a concept of object permanence his mom used the Pigged method. His mom shoved TTT a toy and then his mom covered it with a blanket. He grabbed the blanket off the toy.That tells his mom has a clear concept of object permanence 1 1) Seniority activity -His eyes focus on bright colors and he responds to sounds by looking toward the sounds. Language Development: 12) When IT'S mom said â€Å"this is ball? ‘ and TTT looking at the ball. 13)TTT used babbling and single words to express his language he would say â€Å"bababababababaà ¢â‚¬  â€Å"tetetetetetetetete† deadheaded†. When he looked at him mother he would Sara†. I understand that there are many factors influencing the upbringing of children with ultra similarities as well as differences. All mothers encourage . Heir children to play and talk. Yet prior research have shown that U. S. Children learn object names more rapidly than children elsewhere, Even Chinese culture encourages people to see themselves in active relationship to others rather than separate individuals. Proportion to his body his head seems to be bigger but it's not. 2) When I was doing it to find the next curious object. When put down onto the floor he crawls right towards the toys, telling his mom that he prefers colors. As his mom move a toy in Ron of his face side to side, he follows it with his eyes and his head.When his mom crawl closer to the music. 4)No real regular actions to make his mom believe he is in need of any special item other than food when he is h ungry. Motor Development: 5) Blinking reflex-when his mom blow on his face his eyes respond by blinking. 6) I see him exploring his surroundings, at objects and feeling them. He is crawling, he 12) When IT'S mom said â€Å"this is ball? † and TTT looking at the ball. Infant Observation On Wednesday, July 19th, I had a chance to observe carefully an infant for about half an hour in my psychology class at Santa Monica College. The infant, Ali Osman is a healthy, playfull boy, appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. He is 15. 5 months old, 32 tall and weighs about 24 lbs with brown curly hair, dark brown eyes and fairly tanned skin. 1. There were several kinds of toys like blocks, dolls, automobiles†¦ in the room. However, when he just came in, he was immediately drawn to the dolls with intense focus. Eventhough there wasn't any way to measure his heart rate or brain wave, I could easily tell how interested he was by the way he gazed, touched and played with the dolls. This could be explained by the fact that the perception of an unfamiliar stimulus usually elicits physiological responses (Berger, p. 156). Later, this explanation of mine for his behavior was confirmed to be correct by his mother that he had never seen a doll before. Clearly, he was sensing the strange object and trying to perceive it. And exactly as the text said, eventually, habituation occurs, in which the stimulus becomes so familiar and uninteresting that these responses slow down. (Berger, p. 156), he got tired of the dolls and began to pay attention to other toys and people around. 2. According to table 5. 2, the Age Norms for Motor Skills in Berger, p. 153, for his age of 15. 5 months, 90% of all babies master the skill of walking. Beside being able to walk, just like the majority of infants at his age (from 1-2 years old), Ali is quite a toddler, for the characteristic way they move their bodies, toddling from side to side. (Berger, p. 151). Still toddling but Ali obviously belongs to the upper half of the population in mastering his gross motorskill since he is also able to walk backward, a skill that only 50% of infant could master at his age according to again table 5. 2. 3. Ali is quite a friendly kid, he is not afraid to be with strangers proving by the fact that he could interact very comfortably with me, my classmates, and other babies. However, when there was some unfamiliar things happened, he always looked for and ran to his mother as described in proximity-seeking behaviors (like when the new baby twins came in or when someone made a scary face to him) (Berger, p. 26). He is a representative of secure attachment by showing that he had no problem with being away from his mother and exploring on his own (Berger, p. 228). Besides, he also reacted to the Strange Situation the way we expected from a secured child as stated in Berger on page 228 and table 7. 1, p. 230. 4. After playing for awhile, he came up to me w ith a book and showed me the content, then he gurgled something, clearly wanting me to read it to him. His intention was well understood. Without sufficient vocabulary, using only hollowphrases, he still has no communication problem, afterall, communication is about understanding not vocabulary anyway (Berger, p. 198). He showed clear signs of understanding his mother's commands such as up, down, kiss, bye†¦ by following them. His spoken language has been developed normally according to table 6. 2 in Berger, p. 194. One interesting thing was that when he was sitting in the chair and reading the book, he did not make any recognizable word but bla.. bla.. la†¦ , however, the way I see it, that was not babbling, he was probably pretending to read but he could not find any word that matched with the content of the book so he ended up with that one-size-fits-all babble. 5. At the age of 15. 5 months, Ali is falling into Piaget's stage five, the stage for experimentation and exploration (Berger, pp. 192-193). Piaget referred to the stage-five toddler as the little scientist who experiments in order to see. (Berger, p. 193). Ali is a very active, playful and curious boy. Just look at the way he studied the dolls at the beginning and how he played and discovered how to roll some round thing (I don't know what it was) later, you will see. And fitting the blocks into their right holes also shows that Ali is in fact a little scientist with his trial and error experimentation. 6. Ali is passed the age to be awe by peek-a-boo because he has achieved Object Permanence, the realization that objects still exist even when they cannot be seen, touched or heard (Berger, p. 181), as early as 4. 5 months old. As stated in Berger on page 182, to find a hidden object requires at least two abilities: setting a goal and knowing how to achieve it. , and a child will not have those abilities until he is at least 8 months old. Ali is way passed that so he could find something that Dr. Berg was trying to hide under a towel easily. He still enjoys this hide-and-seek game, but it is much less fun at his age unless the hiding is less obvious (Berger, p. 183). 7. Ali has a wonderful personality, which is the emotions, behaviors, and attitudes that make an individual unique (Berger, p. 16), or as least I think so for the following reasons. He is outgoing, assertive, active, easygoing, kind and helpful†¦. This characteristic puts him into the 40% easy-temperament (Berger, p. 221). With further observation, I can safely conclude that Ali belongs to the first two dimensions of temperaments in the big five, which are Extroversion and Agreeableness (Berger, p. 221). I cannot believe that I was able to see so much in a child the way the text shows in such a short period. I was particularly impressed with how incredibly secured Ali was, which shows through his friendliness, kindness and curiosity. In addition to his well developed cognitive skill (in communicating, learning, playing†¦ ), his general physical conditions as well as his motor skills are also astounding. I would be very happy if I could raise such a healthy child in the future. Finally, I cannot find any problem in your observation setup. Well, afterall, you've been doing this for years, I just don't see how I can beat that. Infant Observation On Wednesday, July 19th, I had a chance to observe carefully an infant for about half an hour in my psychology class at Santa Monica College. The infant, Ali Osman is a healthy, playfull boy, appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. He is 15. 5 months old, 32 tall and weighs about 24 lbs with brown curly hair, dark brown eyes and fairly tanned skin. 1. There were several kinds of toys like blocks, dolls, automobiles†¦ in the room. However, when he just came in, he was immediately drawn to the dolls with intense focus. Eventhough there wasn't any way to measure his heart rate or brain wave, I could easily tell how interested he was by the way he gazed, touched and played with the dolls. This could be explained by the fact that the perception of an unfamiliar stimulus usually elicits physiological responses (Berger, p. 156). Later, this explanation of mine for his behavior was confirmed to be correct by his mother that he had never seen a doll before. Clearly, he was sensing the strange object and trying to perceive it. And exactly as the text said, eventually, habituation occurs, in which the stimulus becomes so familiar and uninteresting that these responses slow down. (Berger, p. 156), he got tired of the dolls and began to pay attention to other toys and people around. 2. According to table 5. 2, the Age Norms for Motor Skills in Berger, p. 153, for his age of 15. 5 months, 90% of all babies master the skill of walking. Beside being able to walk, just like the majority of infants at his age (from 1-2 years old), Ali is quite a toddler, for the characteristic way they move their bodies, toddling from side to side. (Berger, p. 151). Still toddling but Ali obviously belongs to the upper half of the population in mastering his gross motorskill since he is also able to walk backward, a skill that only 50% of infant could master at his age according to again table 5. 2. 3. Ali is quite a friendly kid, he is not afraid to be with strangers proving by the fact that he could interact very comfortably with me, my classmates, and other babies. However, when there was some unfamiliar things happened, he always looked for and ran to his mother as described in proximity-seeking behaviors (like when the new baby twins came in or when someone made a scary face to him) (Berger, p. 26). He is a representative of secure attachment by showing that he had no problem with being away from his mother and exploring on his own (Berger, p. 228). Besides, he also reacted to the Strange Situation the way we expected from a secured child as stated in Berger on page 228 and table 7. 1, p. 230. 4. After playing for awhile, he came up to me w ith a book and showed me the content, then he gurgled something, clearly wanting me to read it to him. His intention was well understood. Without sufficient vocabulary, using only hollowphrases, he still has no communication problem, afterall, communication is about understanding not vocabulary anyway (Berger, p. 198). He showed clear signs of understanding his mother's commands such as up, down, kiss, bye†¦ by following them. His spoken language has been developed normally according to table 6. 2 in Berger, p. 194. One interesting thing was that when he was sitting in the chair and reading the book, he did not make any recognizable word but bla.. bla.. la†¦ , however, the way I see it, that was not babbling, he was probably pretending to read but he could not find any word that matched with the content of the book so he ended up with that one-size-fits-all babble. 5. At the age of 15. 5 months, Ali is falling into Piaget's stage five, the stage for experimentation and exploration (Berger, pp. 192-193). Piaget referred to the stage-five toddler as the little scientist who experiments in order to see. (Berger, p. 193). Ali is a very active, playful and curious boy. Just look at the way he studied the dolls at the beginning and how he played and discovered how to roll some round thing (I don't know what it was) later, you will see. And fitting the blocks into their right holes also shows that Ali is in fact a little scientist with his trial and error experimentation. 6. Ali is passed the age to be awe by peek-a-boo because he has achieved Object Permanence, the realization that objects still exist even when they cannot be seen, touched or heard (Berger, p. 181), as early as 4. 5 months old. As stated in Berger on page 182, to find a hidden object requires at least two abilities: setting a goal and knowing how to achieve it. , and a child will not have those abilities until he is at least 8 months old. Ali is way passed that so he could find something that Dr. Berg was trying to hide under a towel easily. He still enjoys this hide-and-seek game, but it is much less fun at his age unless the hiding is less obvious (Berger, p. 183). 7. Ali has a wonderful personality, which is the emotions, behaviors, and attitudes that make an individual unique (Berger, p. 16), or as least I think so for the following reasons. He is outgoing, assertive, active, easygoing, kind and helpful†¦. This characteristic puts him into the 40% easy-temperament (Berger, p. 221). With further observation, I can safely conclude that Ali belongs to the first two dimensions of temperaments in the big five, which are Extroversion and Agreeableness (Berger, p. 221). I cannot believe that I was able to see so much in a child the way the text shows in such a short period. I was particularly impressed with how incredibly secured Ali was, which shows through his friendliness, kindness and curiosity. In addition to his well developed cognitive skill (in communicating, learning, playing†¦ ), his general physical conditions as well as his motor skills are also astounding. I would be very happy if I could raise such a healthy child in the future. Finally, I cannot find any problem in your observation setup. Well, afterall, you've been doing this for years, I just don't see how I can beat that.