Address Customer Needs Essay

Task 1: The first customer contact transaction discussed in the Task 1 is when the customer drops in the shop to buy a particular commodity & fetches help from the sales personnel. This is an incident which happened in one of the leading clothing store i.e. Marks & Spencer’s. The customer contact was in person. The duration of the entire transaction was 15 minutes. The customer was unable to fetch a product which suits her requirement. Her need was to buy a pair of navy blue jeans with size 28 inches (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). She was unable to locate the counter where in the jeans were placed. The person who was doing the customer contact was responsible to handle sales within the store. The line of work or industry they cater to is the merchandise sector. Marks & Spencer’s deals in providing its customer with high end clothes ranging from fashionable tops to formal shirts, sporty t-shirts, jeggings, leggings, skirts, knee length dresses, party wear clothes & lingerie. Yes, there is evidence that, the sales person was prepared for such type of transaction. It is seen that, the sales person deals with such type of transactions every day. Therefore, he has ways to sort out the things & satisfy the needs of the customer. The evidence which was seen in this particular situation was that, he accompanied the customer till the rack where in 28 waist size jeans were kept. He was there with the customer all through her buying process. The listening skills of the sales person were up to the mark. He did his bit to sort out the things at his part. The sales personnel was both listening as well as questioning the customer in order to know the needs of the customer in a well defined manner. The sales person asked the customer the right kind of questions such as the waist size, preferable color, pattern of the pair of jeans, etc. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay This shows that, the sales person was able to stimulate the thoughts of the customer & provide solutions for the same. In case of this situation, the non verbal communications which were looked upon from the sales person were appropriate to the current problem. In case of this situation some of the nonverbal communications which were used by the sales person were use of his arms, facial expressions, maintaining eye contact with the customers to show case high levels of interest, body movements & postures, etc  (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). The sort of language which was used by the sales person was apt according to the problems faced by the customer. The customer believed it to be suitable as the sales person was able to resolve the problems in the best possible manner. The customers did not ask for any type of clarification as the language by the sales personal was quite simple to understand & comprehend. There was no different way of talking to the other customers within the store. The sales person used a simple way of knowing the needs of the customers. The sales person communicated with the customer & tried to take feedback from them which helped him to know the needs of the customer in a better manner. No, there was no conflict between the salesperson & the customer. Yes, the salesperson was able to understand the needs of the customer. The tools & techniques used to express empathy with the needs of the customer were done by maintaining fair eye contact, practice empathetic listening, etc. In the end, the need of the customer was satisfied. The customer was happy while moving out of the store. The need of the customer was to buy a 28 waist size navy blue pair of jeans. Initially she was unable to locate the rack which consisted of 28 waist sized jeans. This lead to a problem & the salesperson identified the same to satisfy the needs of the customer (Martin, 2006). The second customer contact transaction discussed in Task 1 refers to a sales call done in a call centre. The customer contact was done over the phone. The duration of the customer contact over the phone was for approximately 7-10mins. The duration of the customer transaction totally depends upon the product or service rendered to the customer. The expert providing the information over the phone would be referred to as the sales & support team who will push the levels of sales. The line of work or industry they are in is the banking industry that provides the financial services to its clients. Yes, there is evidence that the salesperson had prepared for the transaction. The way with which the sales person has been talking to the client portrays the way he has been handling such situations in the past (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). The listening skills of the sales person were quite empathetic. The sales person cross questioned the client & tried to judge the requirements of the client. The sales personnel used the possible information to tell about the services being offered by him & its usefulness to the client in the near future. Since, it was a sales call carried over phone non verbal  communication techniques could not be observed. The language used by the sales person was a bit complex. The client asked for reconfirmations & clarifications in terms of the meaning of the words, etc. The sales person used the RATER Model to identify the needs of the customer (Martin, 2006). The needs of the customer were divided amongst various categories such as reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy & responsiveness. There was an agreement amongst the salesperson & the customer. The sales person handled the argument in a very tactful manner. The sales person understood the needs of the customer but was unable to convince the client on certain points. The sales person acted as a patient listener which portrays that he was empathetic towards the needs of the customer. The customer was not fully satisfied with the service provided by the sales person. The type of information which was provided by the sales person to the client was the fair view of all the financial services offered by the same. The information provided was appropriate which helped to identify the own needs of the client. In order to satisfy the needs of the customer either the sales personnel should have forwarded the call to the senior sales person or an in depth analysis of the financial services should have been provided to the client (Jane, 2013). Task2: Collect three different instruments or tools used to collect feedback from customers. Attach screenshots of these instruments in your answer. In a simple report, answer the following questions about each of the three instruments or tools. The three instruments or tools used to collect feedback from customers have been discussed in this section of the report. * Crowd Sound: 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? The information which Crowd Sound collects from the customer is in form of a productive dialogue. The dialogue takes into consideration a brief conversation upon the product or service opted for. It is one of the easiest ways to communicate with the customers in order to know their suggestions regarding the product or service. The portal will constantly benefit the organization with the introduction of new ideas, improvements within the existing products, etc. 2. What information does the  instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? The information collected by Crowd Sound with respect to a particular product or service is in the form of suggestions or comments produced by the users. This information would help the service provider to moderate its products or services based upon the needs of the customers. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? Crowd Sound has been referred to as an instrument or a tool to collect feedback from its users. The tool collects information in form of vote, suggestions with the help of a customizable widget. This tool is one of the easiest ways to gather feedback regarding on a company’s website or intranet. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The instrument i.e. Crowd Sound is an effective method of collecting up to date and relevant feedback. This is because, the users of this site has a convenient way to send in their suggestions, feedback, etc. The suggestions are collected in a systematic manner and are moved from one bucket to another. It is the only instrument which provides features such as suggestions, moderation, feedbacks and iPhone compatibility. * Ideaffect 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? Ideaffect will provide the customers a portal to share their views, post suggestions & provides feedback about a given product or service. 2. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? Ideaffect refers to a feedback community where in the users can log in post their suggestions regarding a particular product or service. Ideaffect integrates the website with a particular website through an embeddable feedback widget tab. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? The ways with which Ideaffect allows the customer to provide feedback about the  organization or product or service can be seen with the help of a feedback widget tab attached along the website, page ratings, and single sign on the public API & domain aliasing. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The tool i.e. Ideaffect is an effective method of collecting an up to date and relevant feedback. This is because of the various features attached to it. Some of the features attached along this portal are single sign on & public API, a dedicated feedback website, feedback widget for the concerned website and page ratings. With the help of this tool, the customer will be able to customize the design, embed the widgets & moderate the SSL connections. * User Voice 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? Ser Voice would be referred to as a feedback tool which would help to gather feedback by the users in a well defined manner. The interested parties then can use the information to get answers, share ideas & learn from its mistakes. Some of the features attached along this tool are ongoing discussions, simple sign up, integration with face book (Ioana, n.d). 2. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? The information which is being collected by this tool is to provide an actionable idea as to how to improve the product (Gregory, 2010). User Voice provides a structured forum to its users for voting a particular product or service. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? The various ways with which the tool i.e. User voice allows the customer to provide feedback about the product or service is with the help of feedback forums (which allows the users to post blogs, suggestions, etc), providing support systems, etc (Buleen, 2013). User Voice provides a support system which allows the users share stories as well as understands the customer’s blog. All this is done by building a tool which connects the customers with what is important & what does he want. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting  up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The instrument i.e. User Voice is an effective method of collecting an up to date as well as relevant feedback. It delights its customers with the help of customer support. A help desk was launched in the year 2011 which made it one of the powerful portals to collect the information & provide a solution for the issue. References Buleen, C 2013, Body Language Sales Tips, viewed on 8th January 2013, . Gregory, A 2010, 10 Customer Feedback Tools to Help You Improve Your Client Relationships, viewed on 5th January 2013 . Ioana, B n.d., â€Å"THE USE OF READING NONVERBAL MESSAGES FROM CUSTOMERS†, University of Bacau Faculty of Economic Sciences. Jane, M 2013, Customer Empathy, viewed on 8th January 2013, . Martin, S 2006, Heavy Hitter Selling: How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade Customers to Buy, John Wiley & Sons, US. Ramsey, R & Sohi, R 1997, â€Å"Listening to Your Customers: The Impact of Perceived Salesperson Listening Behavior on Relationship Outcomes†, RESEARCH NOTE.

Spondylolysis Spondylolisthesis In Athletes Health And Social Care Essay

Spondylolysis is the loss of the structural unity of the vertebral pars interarticularis, whereas spondylolisthesis is associated with a bilateral spondylolysis and describes a comparative anterior interlingual rendition of one vertebral section relation to the following caudal section ( Herman et al. , 2003 ) . This essay will reexamine literature associating to the diagnosing and direction of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis in jocks. To farther understand the diagnosing and direction of these conditions, the prevalence and cause of oncoming will be covered alongside the clinical presentation and imagination, and conservative and surgical direction.PrevalenceThe largest CT survey of the prevalence of lumbar spondylolysis in the grownup population was conducted by Brooks et Al. ( 2010 ) . The 2555 topics, holding been referred for a CT scan including the lumbar spinal column, were indiscriminately selected. The inclusion standard was topics aged over 20 old ages and the ground fo r referral non being low back hurting. The consequences highlighted 8 % of instances of lumbar spondylolysis. There was a ratio of 1.5:1 male to female and no important differences between the ages. The survey, although big, was non ideal. The CT scans were originally taken for different grounds for referral and hence assorted axial piece thicknesses were used and some with and without contrast agents. They were besides interpreted by three different radiographers for this survey. Therefore the survey, although randomised, was non standardised. Rossi and Dragoni ( 2001 ) conducted a big retrospective survey including both genders between ages 15 and 27, referred with back hurting impacting their athletics, to find the incidence of the pars defects, utilizing skiagraphy, in diagnostic elite jocks. Plain radiogram showed that 13.9 % had spondylolysis, with a male to female ratio of 4.5:1, and 81 % of lesions were at L5. These figures are higher than consequences by Micheli and Wood ( 1995 ) , where 100 topics aged 21 old ages and over and 100 topics aged 12 to 18 old ages, who presented with low back hurting, were retrospectively indiscriminately selected. They found 5 % of the grownup population, over 21 old ages, had spondylolysis. This figure along with the consequences from the Rossi and Dragoni ( 2001 ) survey are both much lower than the age group in the Micheli and Wood ( 1995 ) survey where 47 % were diagnosed with spondylolysis. The size of the survey was acceptable but it was a retrospective survey utilizing differe nt imagination, including field radiogram, bone scanning, MRI and individual photon emanation computed imaging ( SPECT ) to diagnos spondylolysis, so was non standardised. Gregg et Al. ( 2009 ) conducted a retrospective survey to place variables including age, gender, injured periodm athletics engagement, oncoming of symptoms and the individual leg hyperextension trial, associated with active spondylolysis. 82 patients who were referred for SPECT with low back hurting were included, 31 % of them had active spondylolysis. The consequences showed that age and gender have a important association with spondylolysis, bespeaking that a male who is less than 20 old ages of age is 3.5 times more likely to hold a positive bone scan. There was no item in the survey as to who assessed the individual leg hyperextension trial or interpreted the SPECT so is non known if the assessors were blinded. The variables were non specific and lacked item, like degree of sport engagement doing it hard to separate between school physical and elect sports. This could be why the survey found no relation between spondylolysis and athletics. The writers suggest that male childs are more susceptible to pars defects as, during adolescence, they have a reduced degree of lumbar spinal column bone mineral denseness in the cortical bone, which is the chief constituent of the pars interarticularis. Besides there were more males take parting in higher speed athleticss with torsional burden, like cricket, than females ( 70-40 % ) . Rossi and Dragoni ( 2001 ) found that the athleticss with the highest figure of spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis were plunging ( 40 % ) , wrestling, weight lifting, path and field, sailing, gymnastic exercises and football ( 16 % ) . These surveies demonstrate that the highest prevalence of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis are in adolescent jocks, particularly male.Clinical PresentationActivity related back hurting has been related to diagnostic spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis in jocks ( Rossi and Dragoni, 2001 ) . El Rassi et Al. ( 2005 ) reported that 40 % of the 57 pediatric association football participants with spondylolysis remembered maximal speed kicking to be a trigger of the back hurting. In jocks low back hurting is the chief symptom, but may radiate into the leg. This can be straight associated with the spondylolysis where an extraosseous hematoma and hydrops occur at the site of the early break, which can compact the traversing nervus root and cause radiculopathy ( Sairyo et al. , 2009 ) . Patients with advanced spondylolisthesis may show with an antalgic pace with a vertically orientated sacrum and perchance a seeable step-off at the lumbosacral junction ( Herman et al. , 2003 ) . Hyperextension of the lumbar spinal column may do hurting ( Hu et al. , 2008 ) . The diagnostic one legged hyperextension trial was studied by Masci et Al. ( 2006 ) . Masci et Al. ( 2006 ) suggested the trial is non sensitive due to the subjective nature and besides because the motion can set emphasis on constructions other than the pars interarticularis, such as the aspect articulations and posterior phonograph record. It is hence priceless in clinical pattern.ImaginationImaging is indispensable to do a true diagnosing of a spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis ( Rossi and Dragoni, 2001 ) and to find the phase of the lesion, from active and acute to chronic and inactive, to be able to urge suited direction ( Brooks et al. , 2010 ) . The survey antecedently mentioned by Rossi and Dragoni ( 2001 ) concluded with a recommendation to execute radiological scrutinies in diagnostic jocks considered high hazard of spondylolysis. This was a surprising decision as although the survey confirmed a high incidence of spondylolysis, they had stated earlier in the paper that the value would most likely addition with add-on of different imaging modes and this survey had no comparing group to be able to do this recommendation. In the big survey mentioned antecedently by Brooks et Al. ( 2010 ) utilizing computed imaging ( CT ) imagination in the grownup population, it was hard to find whether CT scans are the best imagination for spondylolysis due to a deficiency of a comparative group to find whether all defects present were really diagnosed. Gregory et Al. ( 2004 ) assessed the value of uniting SPECT, which assesses metabolic activity of the bone, with rearward gauntry computerised imaging ( rg-CT ) , supplying morphological information, to look into spondylolysis. Patients who presented with low back hurting related to activity and hurting on lumbar extension were investigated by planar bone scintigraphy and SPECT. Reverse gauntry CT scans were so performed in all those with a positive SPECT. One of the writers viewed the images which may do some prejudice, and reported the rg-CT without blinding to the consequence of the SPECT. There were countries of increased scintigraphic activity on SPECT in 67.8 % and spondylolysis was confirmed on rg-CT in 44.9 % . They concluded that SPECT should be the first line probe for spondylolysis. Reverse gauntry CT identified chronic lesions which did non hold scintigraphic activity, but the writers suggest that magnetic resonance imagination ( MRI ) would be a better follow up probe as it has more possible to name pathologies other than spondylolysis. MRI, SPECT and CT consequences of 72 persons of a average age of 16 old ages, with extension back hurting were studied by Campbell et Al. ( 2005 ) . Each patient was screened with CT, SPECT and MRI on the same twenty-four hours. The writers assessed each image mode, but were blinded to the consequences of the other image modes. Pars defects were detected in 23 patients with a sum of 40 defects. When comparing combined CT and SPECT with MRI, the latter right graded 29 of the 40 defects. MRI was able to observe acute complete defects and chronic established defects, but limited in naming stress reaction and uncomplete defects. They conclude that MRI can be used as the first line scrutiny for striplings with back hurting and CT to be used in patients with acute defects or stress reaction, even though it failed to place a figure of patients diagnosed with stress reaction. Conflicting decisions recommend SPECT and CT for naming spondylolysis, where MRI detected 80 % of the lesions found on SPECT, with CT holding the same consequence ( Masci et al. , 2006 ) . From these surveies, either SPECT or MRI is suggested to be the first line of imagination for spondylolysis and spondylolysthesis, with a possible follow up with CT for acute defects or stress reaction. SPECT is highly sensitive for early diagnosing of acute spondylolysis, but non good for chronic lesions. CT is non really good at separating between active and inactive lesions, but utile to observe spondylolytic defects, nevertheless has high radiation. MRI has no ionising radiation and can separate between stress reaction, active and inactive spondylolysis ( Campbell et al. , 2005 ) . Therefore subjective information about the continuance of the status may be utile to make up one's mind which mode would be suited as it is indispensable that early phase emphasis breaks are indentified fleetly so as to pull off to optimize the long term result Masci et al. , 2006 ) .Conservative ManagementThe purpose of direction is to accomplish a bony or hempen brotherhood of the pars interarticular is to assist extinguish motion across the pars defect ( Debnath et al. , 2009 ) . A survey by Iwamoto et Al. ( 2004 ) reviewed 104 athletic topics with low back hurting and diagnosed spondylolysis. The topics were managed with discontinuance of the exacerbating athleticss and application of an antilordotic brace. Individual preparation was initiated harmonizing to each sporting activity, but developing type was non indicated. They reported on the 40 topics that had to halt athletics due to trouble and reported that 35 ( 87.5 % ) returned to their original athletics in an norm of 5.4 months ( and every bit early as 1 month ) and could go on activities despite non brotherhood of the pars defect. It does non advert the other 64 topics who were ab initio included in the survey and it was non clear how the topics were followed up. Similar direction is reported in the article by Sairyo et Al. ( 2009 ) , mentioned antecedently. After halting athletics and utilizing a brace symptoms had disappeared and MRI consequences after 3-6 months showed normal signal strength in all seven topics who had spondylolytic radiculopathy. El Rassi et Al. ( 2005 ) conducted a retrospective survey of 57 kids, average age of 13 old ages, with spondylolysis, diagnosed with radiogram and, if questionable pars defect, SPECT. The inclusion was extended association football engagement, radiographic grounds and two twelvemonth follow up. The imagination were evaluated by the same writer which could take to bias. The intervention was an antilordotic thoracolumbosacral brace worn full clip for three months and surcease of athleticss activities for at least three months. When the patient became symptomless a rehabilitation programme was initiated, including abdominal strengthening, hamstring stretching and pelvic joust exercisings. There was an issue with conformity, likely due to the age of the topics. Out of the 57 topics, 33 had first-class consequences and returned to their original degree of athletics and 20 had good consequences ( minimum hurting with vigorous athletics ) . All 27 patients in the compliant group had first-c lass consequences. Patients who stopped athletics had the best consequences. Radiographic healing was shown in 18 of the 57 but there was no statistical difference between those who stopped athletics and those who continued. Of the 32 who stopped athletics, all returned to the same degree of drama. Of the 25 topics who did non halt athletics, 18 returned to play, but merely 2 at the same degree. A good randomised controlled prospective clinical test by O & A ; acirc ; ˆâ„ ¢Sullivan et Al. ( 1997 ) studied specific bracing exercisings in patients with spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. This is one of the few surveies in this country to hold a control group and a blinded research worker. Those recruited had low back hurting for longer than three months and spondylolysis or spondylolysthesis, diagnosed with radiogram or CT. Measurements of hurting, map, lumbar spinal column and hip scope of motion and abdominal enlisting forms were taken. Patients had to finish a conformity signifier. The specific exercising group had a standardised protocol following specific guidelines on deep abdominal and multifidus preparation. They progressed to functional keeping places and walking. The control group was non specific at all. They were educated by changing practicians with general exercising, such as swimming, walking, gym work and supervised exercising programmes, but no informa tion about the exercisings advised was given. Some patients in the control group besides received massage, heat and ultrasound intervention. Following 10 hebdomads of intercession, they had postal follow up at 3, 6 and 30 months. The consequences showed a lessening in hurting strength and hurting form tonss and decrease in functional disablement degrees in the specific exercising group. The control group had no important difference. The 30 month follow up found the decrease in hurting was maintained. This survey is utile with instances of spondylolysis and spondylolysthesis one time the symptoms have been there for three months. It would be interesting to compare the specific exercising group with brace in the acute conditions. The retrospective survey by Seitsalo ( 1990 ) compared conservative and surgical direction of spondylolisthesis. The operative group included 77 patients who had undergone merger, utilizing posterior or posterolateral attack, followed by the usage of a girdle for four months. The conservative group had remainder, limitation of activities and bracing exercisings for the spinal and abdominal musculuss. At follow up, 25 % of the conservative group and 13 % of the operative group had occasional mild hurting. Sport was enjoyed by 43 % of the conservative group and 57 % of the operative group, although it does non stipulate what the degree of athletics was. From these surveies, the recommendation for conservative direction would be specific bracing exercisings and surcease of athletics until symptom free. The biggest job with this direction in this patient group is conformity.Surgical ManagementSurgical intervention is normally reserved for jocks with diagnostic spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis who have failed conservative intervention of at least six months or for skeletally immature patients with a faux pas of 50 % or more ( Radcliff et al. , 2009 ) . A survey including 22 immature jocks, average age 20 old ages, was conducted to measure the result and return to feature after surgical fix of spondylolysis ( Debnath et al. , 2003 ) . Bucks merger uses a prison guard to mend the pars defect and was used in 19 of the patients. The follow up used spinal stabilization exercisings started at six hebdomads and a cardiovascular programme at 12 hebdomads. The Scott technique involves puting a wire around the transverse procedure bilaterally and was used in 3 patients. A lumbosacral girdle was worn following this process and an exercising programme commenced at 12 hebdomads. It does non province why each method was used although subsequently in the survey it mentions that the two groups were dissimilar in the degree of the defect. The result demonstrated 94 % of the Bucks fix group returned to active athletics ( professional football, cricket, professional golf and hockey ) within seven months of surgery and none of the Scott technique grou p were able to return to feature. Meaningful decisions were unable to be made though due to the little sample size and the two groups being excessively dissimilar in the degree of the defect. Nozawa et Al. ( 2003 ) assessed the result of 20 jocks treated surgically with segmental wire arrested development, which was similar to the Scott technique. At a average period of 3.5 old ages follow up, cadaverous merger was achieved in all instances and all of the patients returned to feature, but at varying degrees. Diagnostic spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis, which surveies demonstrate are more prevailing in the kid and stripling, can be a traumatic diagnosing for an jock ( Brooks et al. , 2010 ) . It is indispensable that the status is diagnosed fleetly with a thorough scrutiny, and referral for SPECT, CT or MRI is indispensable. Conservative direction is ever the first line of intervention, affecting surcease of athletics and specific stabilising exercisings. If the jock does non react to this intervention after six months, surgical direction should be undertaken ( Radcliff et al. , 2009 ) . In both cases it is likely that the jock would be able to return to feature albeit at varying degrees but it is still possible that they can go on at the same degree they participated in anterior to the status. A batch of the surveies were retrospective, non randomised and had no control. Better prospective, randomised, controlled surveies need to be undertaken. Future research would be utile in countr ies of bar and result. Prospective surveies affecting immature athletic groups with bing specific stabilization programmes would be valuable to see if these conditions could be avoided.

Exploring the Meaning of Blood, Nature, and Rationality in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Through the course of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the play’s protagonists plague themselves over the fight between blood and nature among many other things. Blood, be it the kind shed upon ones death or the kind that carries entitlement and stature, parallels and collides with the most basic ideas of nature, and what is natural for a human being. Throughout the play, blood, nature, and rationality are equivocated to highlight Macbeth’s underlying irrationality, justifications, 1 and deeply seeded desires.The issue presented by nature is one that is vital to this play. Macbeth goes against the nature of a human when he slays Duncan, and doesn’t allow him to die in the way that nature intended. Macbeth further defies nature, when he hired the murderers to kill Banquo, because fears of â€Å"[Banquo’s] royalty of nature† (3. 1. 51) have Macbeth convinced that if he doesn’t murder Banquo, it is â€Å"for Banquo’s issue have [he] filed [his] mind† (3. 1. 66). Shakespeare uses very specific language here when he uses â€Å"filed† instead of a word with less, almost intrusive intensity.A word like â€Å"filed,† which is a shorter version of defiled, creates the idea that Macbeth has truly done something horrible to the nature of his being (his brain)2. By corrupting nature and its course, Macbeth changes his own nature, and we see this change often coupled with blood, and the spilling of blood. Blood, another common theme throughout the play, has a double meaning, or is equivocated. One of Macbeth’s primary issues in his soliloquy is that Banquo is going to pass on royal blood to his sons that will become kings.Furthermore, if Macbeth allows Banquo to live, it is for Banquo that Macbeth has â€Å"put rancours in the vessel of [his] peace. † Again, Shakespeare combines blood and nature to highlight the severity of Macbeth’s condition3. In order to justify Duncan’ s murder, Macbeth has to resort to more bloodshed, (the literal interpretation of blood)4, go against nature by killing another being, all in the pursuit of the royal blood that brings power when in courses through ones veins. Nature and blood parallel each other throughout this scene, and they shed light on the consequences of going against them via Macbeth.Additionally, Macbeth uses blood as well as nature to justify the killings of those around him, perpetuating the circle of guilt and remorse that he has already started. First, Macbeth comments on how Banquo â€Å"chid the sisters† and â€Å"bade them to speak to him† (3. 1. 58-60). His tone is very childish in the sense that he sees Banquo’s curiosity in the weird sisters as a threat, and almost instantly assumes that Banquo is trying to steal whatever prophecy the sisters bestowed unto him, similarly5 to how a child would suspect a playmate of stealing his crayons.Also, the sounds made by the words Macbeth uses are very strong and curt, â€Å"chid,† â€Å"bade,† â€Å"speak. † These sounds demonstrate the shortness and irrationality of Macbeth’s thoughts, which follow a similar pattern to those of a child, starting with a slow and long sound and then stopping abruptly with a hard sound. These words help show how Macbeth truly is being taken over by his insatiable quest for power, and is driven to the point where he can’t stop what he has started.Macbeth realizes, 6 too little too late, that he is trapped in this cycle; he interrupts nature and the natural balance of things by killing everyone to obtain power, spills innocent blood, and then later feels the emotional and psychological affects of his actions. If Macbeth were to see this pattern before he had Banquo killed, maybe he and Lady Macbeth would have been spared the hysteria and paranoia. However, despite Macbeth’s undeniable acts of evil and bloodshed, there is this sense of guilt and sorrow in this soliloquy.Although he did kill Duncan, he understands that if he doesn’t fulfill his task of killing Banquo that Duncan’s murder would have meant nothing, and that would add to his inner turmoil. Macbeth captures this idea when he refers to Duncan as â€Å"gracious† (3. 1. 67), which implies that he did feel some sort of affection towards Duncan, which would then lead to the idea that Macbeth was thirsty enough to kill someone as gracious as Duncan in order to be king, and that it was justifiable in some way7

The Final Solution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Final Solution - Essay Example The derivation of â€Å"The Final Solution† can be witnessed in the period between 1939 and 1941. The fruition of this genocide was based on the religious disparity existing between the Jews and the Christians. In the 1939s the Christian leaders witnessed a failure in demonstrating Jesus as ‘Messiah’ before the fellow Jews which indeed fuelled up the adversarial correlation among the two religious groups (Browning, C. R., â€Å"The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942†). However, the antagonism among these religious groups was witnessed long before the plan was factually determined, i.e. in the 1919 in which Adolf Hitler played a grave function. It is worth mentioning that he was the most evident personality who grounded the need to destroy the Jews from the country with his â€Å"Jewish Question† (McFee, â€Å"When did Hitler Decide on the Final Solution?†). As he stated in 1919s in his letters, â€Å"Jews were a race and not a religion† and that it was quite important for the European government to abolish this race in order to attain â€Å"national strength† (Kershaw, â€Å"Hitler’s Role in the â€Å"Final Solution†Ã¢â‚¬ ). The ultimate execution of â€Å"The Final Solution† was planned in the Wannsee Conference in the early 1942. Reinhard Heydrich, who was recognized to be the second in charge of the RF-SS of Himmler, coordinated around 15 Nazi bureaucrats belonging to the top level of the Nazi society in the conference which was held in Berlin. These Nazi leaders were affirmed to execute the plan to abolish a targeted number of 11 million Jews from Europe, which shall be instigated from Germany (Zapotoczny, â€Å"The Final Solution†). Although the plan was instigated from Germany in 1942, it was extended to the added parts of Europe including Poland, Greece, Hungary, France and others. The plan came to an end in the year 1944. With the rapidly increasing number of deaths of Jewish people a rescue committee was set in Budapest titled as Jewish Rescue Committee. The committee proposed to settle a contract with the European government which stated that in return of large quantities of tea, coffee, sugar, war materials and other goods, the government would spare the lives of the rest 800,000 Jews left in Europe (Breitman and Aronson, â€Å"The End of the "Final Solution"?: Nazi Plans to Ransom Jews in 1944†). By the year of the winding up of the plan in 1944, almost 5,933,900 Jews were annihilated by the Nazi leaders amounting to 67% of the total Jew population (The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, â€Å"Estimated Number of Jews Killed in The Final Solution†). Undoubtedly, the entire act created a long lasting and profound impact not only on the social aspects of human lives, but also in the political, economical and military dimensions. In the 20th century, the rise of Nazi l eaders to sovereignty in the European continent headed towards the state-enforced racial discriminations. As a consequence, the economic environment of Germany, Poland and other nations of Europe had to witness terrific fluctuations. Several policies and anti-Jewish regimes were enforced in the period, such as â€Å"Aryanization†, â€Å"Night of Broken Glass† and others (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, â€Å"The "Final Solution"†). The consequences of the so called â€Å"

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

Environmental analysis - Essay Example The rates used to charges in maintain and securing a website should be reduced and some information limited for the benefit of the hotels in Australia. Increasing overseas arrivals as threats result to struggling of negligible number of customers worldwide, a factor that leads to reduction of market share. Overseas countries offer cheap and incredible hotel services with the intention of scrambling for customers globally; hence, increasing competition. (Todd & Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2008). The international organization in charge of hotels should endorse fair competition by setting a standard price for services offered in hotels globally. The policy will limit the chances of hotels offering extremely lower prices, which spoils business for other hotels globally, especially Australia. High GDP in Australia affects hotel industry negatively since the hotels have to pay additional taxes to the government to raise the capital to pay the debts (Faeth, 2010). Consequently, the annual income for the hotels is reduced by a big percentage exceptionally. Australia government should maintain high economic levels and avoid having debts that by ensuring that pay according to the initial agreement. This reduces the chances of hotels paying extra taxes to raise money for debts. High exchange rate frightens potential investors interested in Hotel industry. It is expensive to invest in the business, for example, constructing of international hotels in the country. Moreover, clients, especially visitors, find travelling costly because of the expensive fare. Domestic clients are forced to seek cheap services oversees. High exchange rate has caused unemployment and limitation in getting sufficient services from hotels, which are supposed to satisfy them (Sharma, 2005). Australia’s government should trade their dollar attractively to draw international

Market entry plan for Walmart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Market entry plan for Walmart - Essay Example The firm that is analyzed in the paper is Walmart that was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Over the years, it has expanded to become one the US’ largest chain of retail stores, growing into almost 300 stores by the end of the 1970s, and now with over 10,000 stores globally. Its first foray into the international market was in the early 90s, when it entered into a joint venture with Mexico’s largest retailer Cifra to operate Sam’s Club. This move was to be considered its most successful entry into foreign trade, having conquered the Mexican market and contributing approximately 30% of all food sales in the local market. To date, it has not really matched its tremendous success in Mexico. Walmart now has global presence in Mexico, Germany, China and the United Kingdom, among others. It has 5,651 stores and approximately 780,000 associates in 26 countries outside the continental US. It has acquired stores, co-branded or actually brought the Walmart brands into these new locations. However, its market entry strategy has always been perceived as weak, primarily because the company has applied the same market entry strategies in majority of the locations it ventured into. Management failed to take into consider the idiosyncrasies of each country that the company has tried to penetrate, and understand the unique market needs within each culture and social setup per location. (This is not America. Why Walmart left Germany 2012). In fact, Walmart was even described as among the several retailers that have â€Å"underestimated the role of conducting cultural due diligence prior to foreign market entry†, resulting to massive pullouts in strategic locations such as Germany and South Korea, and losing of billions of dollars in the process (Retail Internationalization 2012). Taking into consideration historical hits and misses in global market penetration, this paper aims to discuss and recommend appropriate market entry strategies to ensure that t he company’s next international venture will promise more success than failure. II. MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY Australia is considered to be one of the strongest economies in the world. The country has been highly praised by various international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its ‘brilliant macroeconomic management and consistent economic reform’. The Australian government has created a stable and strong base for economic growth. Its current GDP growth rate is 3.8% with an inflation rate of 2.5%. It is considered to be the second easiest economy for new businessmen and the third easiest place to get credit for a business, and has few restrictions in the field of Trade and Investment (Australia Business and Economy 2012). Australia has a reliable banking system and has fast and friendly regulatory procedures. It is known for having little restriction of product markets. This country is best fit as venue for global expansion as far as Walm art is concerned. Walmart entered various locations through several entry strategies. The company entered the Mexican market through a 50-50 joint venture with Cifra, Mexico’s strongest retail company. It counted on home grown Cifra to provide operational expertise, something that is needed by Walmart considering the cultural difference between the two countries, and the economic and political situation of Mexico. This bold move to partner with a local company proved to be highly successful for Walmart considering that this is their most successful foreign partnership to date. In Canada, Walmart acquired local company Woolco to be able to penetrate the Canadian market. This decision is brought about by the fact that the Canadian mark

To what extent are women and development approaches counterproductive Essay

To what extent are women and development approaches counterproductive in addressing the problems faced by women in the global south - Essay Example According to Williams (1999), the term â€Å"development† is to be taken in its broadest meaning that encompasses not only the economic sense but also every social activity undertaken by human beings to successfully employ the gifted resources of nature towards their prosperity and well being. It has truly been authenticated in the studies by several authors that women play a dominant role in the development of a family, country, and a nation as a whole. Studies conducted by Hanson and Pratt (1995) and Kobayashi (1994) suggest that women are more industrious and do more untiring jobs than men in both rural and urban areas. In fact their roles and functions are proved to be multidimensional in every walk of life ranging from home, childcare and domestic duties to social, economic and workplace responsibilities. Gringeri (1994) states that women are increasingly setting out to do out-of-home jobs with the need of supporting their economic independency. Despite that, they seem to be dependent on men for their social and economic growth everywhere around the world. As a consequence of devastating and ruining conventional norms against women in several regions of the world most specifically the less developed ones led the thoughtful world to the evolution of several panoptical ideas and approaches relevant to women and their contribution to the economic development of country termed as â€Å"women and development† approaches. Overholt et al. (1984) illustrate that these approaches greatly contributed to project women as an economic resource that could be utilised further towards the growth of economy. The first of these was the all-famous approach called â€Å"women-in-development† that was aroused and advanced in the early 1970s that served the purpose of enlightening the world regarding the role that was and that could be played by women in the economic development of countries around

Paper reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Paper reflection - Essay Example The head of our tour group was called Paul Franklin. Paul Franklin was a good leader, and he was very eager and keen to satisfy our various needs. For instance, if one of us was interested in asking or seeking a clarification of a particular question, Paul Franklin will ensure that the nurse in charge of our tour answers the particular question. For instance, most of us had questions concerning the technologies and equipments found at the BMET workshop. One of the most pressing questions that we managed to ask is how the hospital is using new biomedical technologies for purposes of surgery. The official in charge of the hospital of BMET workshop was reluctant to tell us, this is because he did not have a ready answer at them. But Paul Franklin pressed him up, until the official gave an answer, even though it was not convincing enough. Each and every one of us was satisfied by the leadership and services of Paul Franklin. The members of this department had uniforms, and this was for purposes of distinguishing them from members of other departments. The color of their uniforms was a blue polo shirt, with bage pants. In my own opinion, the color and the design of their uniform were attractive. The blue color matched with the purposes of the workshop. This is because they were not dealing with patients, but machines that help in the provision of medical services. As such, the white color which is normally associated with doctors and nurses was not appropriate. The BMET workshop is at the basement of the hospital, and it occupies a large space area, that makes it possible to safely store the machines that are used for providing medical and research services. The employers of the department and junior members of this department had a very cordial working relationship. Their relationship is based on trust, understanding, and collaboration. This makes the employees to be motivated, and hence efficient in the manner in which they conduct their

Patrick Lee and Robert P. George The Wrong of Abortion critically Essay

Patrick Lee and Robert P. George The Wrong of Abortion critically analyzing their argument. Clearly spell out how and why the premises lead to the conclusion - Essay Example That is true to a certain extent. When it comes to the fact that an unborn child is growing inside the mother, that does not mean she has the right to abort the pregnancy. It may be a fact that involuntary childbirth has caused deaths (Lee and George 2005). However, some people do not look at the fetus as a person. People forget, when it comes to abortion, that the unborn child and the mother are two separate entities. Thus, in all actuality, the child is only hitching a ride with mother for only a few months until it is ready to make its way into this world (Kidd 1999). The mother may have rights to be happy. But even our own government, which is full of hypocrites, wrote into our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and are endowed rights by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Kidd 1999). This proves that even the fetus that is being carried by the mother has the right to live since it was created by God. Furthermore, if a woman pregnant with child is killed by someone, that person is going to be charged with two murders, not one. The law even takes in account the unborn child and prosecutes for the untimely death of the child inside the mother’s womb as well as the mother herself (ChristiaNet). Some people would lead us to believe that the fetus is not a person until it has the ability to be sentient and think for itself. The problem I see in that statement refers to young newborn children. If you say yes that a fetus is not a person since it cannot think for itself, then you must think that a newborn is not a person either. Newborns do not have the ability to think for themselves either. However, we still consider them people. Biologically, how can a fetus not be considered a person? At six weeks of gestation the fetus begins to develop a heartbeat. Thus, to me this essentially shows us that the fetus is a person. Also, it has been proven that a

Level of evidence abd grading recomendation Research Paper

Level of evidence abd grading recomendation - Research Paper Example The author utilizes multidisciplinary theoretical pieces of literature and research and conceptual pieces from literature on social work to support the development of this kind of model. The author first notes the relevant current trends to the interdisciplinary practice for the purposes of pointing out its essentiality. The article describes a model that is made up of two parts. The first part of the model has five categories that form interdisciplinary collaborative relations between social workers and other professionals. These include flexibility, professional activities that have been newly created, ownership of goals that is collective, interdependence and process reflection. The second part recommends the use of such influences on collaboration as structural characteristics, professional role, history of collaboration, and personal characteristics. The book provides the readers with a critical and a comprehensive review of the health communication field and the different types of evidence that have been collected concerning communication that is effective. In addition to this, the book sets out what has been researched about the micro- structure of encounters in health care and interactions. The book offers the concerned professionals essential new agendas for research practice and training in health care, based on lessons acquired from linguistics, using a broad range of evidence to identify patterns that can lead to improved practices in healthcare. The book recommends brief, effective and ordinary activity in communication in addition to consultations that are formal. The effects of errors in health care have essential implications. The article utilizes peer- reviewed reviews and discussions of a broad range of literature and issues regarding quality of health care and safety of patients. The article provides some insight in to the many aspects that determine the

Contemporary Marketing Issues and Strategic Marketing Essay

Contemporary Marketing Issues and Strategic Marketing - Essay Example (Tapscott; Ticoll, 2003) However while commendable and also desirable, the quest for transparency has its pitfalls also. Within a competitive framework where asymmetry in information comes as an advantage, opening up everything can bring at par the corporate battlefield. Although transparency in financial revelation is not only wanted, it is compulsory, but transparency in marketing strategy can be devastating. Besides, in the ultimate analysis, although a company might bring about transparency, success cannot always be assured. There are chances that plans laid up in the best possible manner can still go haywire. (Tapscott; Ticoll, 2003) In the 21st century we are witnessing the development of strategic alliances and networks in which businesses work in unison towards shared goals and maintain partnership in their operations. Managing of such relationships in the most efficient manner is nearly the solution to success or failure. The preceding is at the core of marketing strategy that has to include the following factors (i) the opening and shutting of strategic windows (ii) the effect of market propellers. (iii) The type of competition within the market place. (iv) The stage of the market or the industry life cycle. (v) The assets and the abilities which the company possesses or is able to readily obtain. Understanding of the all these five factors is vital if efficient long-term marketing strategies are to be advanced that will result in a company establishing a strategic competitive advantage in industries or in product markets. (Proctor, 2000) The current era of informational transparency calls for building marketing strategies through customer relationships and integrating communications across multiple channels. This is driven by the fact that marketing is witnessing a rapid shift of power towards consumer and the management of communication processes was being raised to strategic levels to facilitate in building customer relations and drive business results. Marketers are trying to cope with increasingly tough competition while the cost of acquisition of new customers is rising. Privacy concerns and regulatory acts like 'Do Not Call' legislation gave higher focus on setting up true relationships instead of blindly luring customers with uncertain mass-communication strategies. (Developing Effective Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies) Channel proliferation spawned by new media like websites and e-mail also added channels through which new methods of marketing are surfacing that seek to more efficiently use customer data to filter across target lists, build personalization rules and build marketing campaigns across and within the complete spectrum of media channels available. Therefore the two main constituents of efficient multi-channel marketing are building pertinent offers through personalization and coordinating and management of multiple marketing channels. (Developing Effective Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies) In order to build a consistent and effective multi-channel marketing and Customer Relationship Management -- CRM strategy, the answer lies in integrated solutions. It is through integration that companies are able to restructure CRM and marketing, keeping up a consistent message, leading to more efficient campaigns and increased Return on

Thomas and Frost Essay Example for Free

Thomas and Frost Essay Thomas and Frost both write about the experience of unexpected joy. In Edward Thomas’ â€Å"Adlestrop† and Robert Frosts’ â€Å"The Tuft of Flowers† we read about the speakers experiences of unexpected joy through the poet’s aspects of imagery, form, language and tone of each of their poems. In Frosts’ poem â€Å"The Tuft of Flowers† the speaker, at first, is musing on the separateness of mankind and the workers. Whilst he muses this he is led by a butterfly to gaze upon a tuft of flowers that has been left by the mower he had been following and the speaker is touched by the appreciation of beauty and feels a sense of togetherness looking at the flowers, banishing his loneliness and isolation which is shown at the beginning of the poem â€Å"And I must be, as he had been – alone†, bringing him his experience of unexpected joy. However, in Thomas’ â€Å"Adlestrop† the speakers experience comes from when he hears a blackbird singing and from his views on the surrounding field s and is about the beauty of nature. Throughout the structure of Frosts’ â€Å"The Tuft of Flowers† we see a transformation in the speakers’ attitude from universal isolation to universal togetherness. He says â€Å"†¦I must be, as he had been – alone† the word â€Å"alone† shows loneliness and isolation which at the end is transformed to the joyful statement â€Å"Men work together† showing the speakers view of universal togetherness. Frost uses heroic couplets to show the epic scope of the speaker’s experience of unexpected joy and shows the poems emphasis on harmony and clarity, whereas in Thomas’ â€Å"Adlestrop† his rhyming ABCB conveys the speakers attempt to order his recollection of his unexpected joy. The first half of â€Å"Adlestop† has a lot of punctuation, dashes â€Å"Yes I remember Adlestrop-† and full stops â€Å"unwontedly. It was late June.† showing a fractured structure and his memory of the experience is n ot very clear, however in the second half of the poem there is less punctuation showing his recollection of the experience is becoming clearer. â€Å"Adlestrop† beings as though it is answering a question â€Å"Yes, I remember Adlestrop† and the speaker is recalling his experience and he reminisces about it whereas in â€Å"The Tuft of Flowers† no question has been asked it is more the speaker’s thoughts. In Frost’s â€Å"The Tuft of Flowers† the metaphor â€Å"leaping of bloom† gives an idea of inspiration and the transcendental idea of the speaker’s joyful sense of togetherness with nature. Frost also uses imagery throughout his poem. There is an image of isolation and loneliness at the beginning of the poem, â€Å"alone†, which allows the transformation of  the speaker’s attitude that enables him to experience the unexpected sense of joy. Another example of imagery used by Frost is the image of the butterfly as an agent of change, bringing the speaker towards the tuft of flowers â€Å"he turned first and led my eye to look†, also towards this e xperience of unexpected joy. Imagery is also used by Thomas in his poem â€Å"Adlestrop†, there is a contrast in the images of bareness and isolation at the start of the poem â€Å"No one†, and the picture of song â€Å"blackbird sang† and plentitude â€Å"all the birds† at the end of the poem. Thomas also uses repetition and lists to convey the experience of joy â€Å"willows, willow-herbs, and grass and meadowsweet, and haycocks† the repetition of the word â€Å"and† indicates the speaker’s unmediated joy in nature.

What Are Web Analytics Information Technology Essay

What Are Web Analytics Information Technology Essay Web analytics is reporting and analysis of data on website visitor activity. It is not only a tool to measure web traffic but also can be used as a tool for business and market research. Techniques used to access and improve the contribution of e-marketing to a business, such as referrals, clickstreams, online research data, customer satisfaction surveys, leads and sales. Thus, marketers use web analytics exploring data and reports to build their knowledge on customers preference and behavior according to types of sites, which areas customers click more often when they online. It also helps marketer understand their customers better and improve their business performance. (Dykes, 2012) Marketers wanting to conduct web-analytics have to first go through the following stages. (Figure I) These are three stages that they need to concern when setting up a web analytic tool. The analysis is the ticket for them move from Steupland to Actionland. It is the isolating of meaningful and actionable insights in data and reports that when acted upon by your organization can drive business value. (Dykes, 2012) Alignment stage: At this early planning stage, it is necessary for marketer to gather their business objectives and capture stakeholders online behavior by their online measurement strategy. Clearly understand measurement strategy and well analyze visitors is critical to success. Thus, marketers have to carefully handling relevant and meaningful data which will directly affect the business in the long-term. (Dykes, 2012) Collection stage: At this point of stage, large companies may spend amount of time on technical implementation such as multiple web domains and online marketing initiatives. (Dykes, 2012) Reporting stage: This is the last stage for companies move from Setupland to Actionland. This stage is important where you create report and distribute them to organization using a manual or preferably automated approach. (Dykes, 2012) TOOLS AND METHODS USED TO HELP MARKETER There are two types of web analytics, on-site and off-site web analytics. (Figure II) ON-SITE ANALYTICS On-site web analytics is used for marketers to measure a visitors activity when he browses on your website. This includes its drivers and conversations, for example which ads on landing page encourage more people to purchase and which title of information visitors click most. This data is used to analysis visitors online behavior and can be used to improve website or marketing campaigns audience response. Simply, on-site web analytics tools are used to analysis and measure behaviors of visitors journey and actual visitor traffic arriving on your website. For example, which landing page encourage visitors to make a purchase, what links visitors clicked on (from search engine to get to the site or came there directly) to the site, and time they spent and stayed on given page. Therefore, On-site web analytics measures of website in a commercial context. For the business, website became more important than ever before, it handles more information. Companies also need to know if their marketing campaigns are working on internet-based, just like John Shumway, the global vice president of product management at Akamai says marketing people are increasingly driving the need for we analytics. (Dave Chaffey, 2003) Firms can conduct on-site web-analytics through the following ways: Analytics Software Produced by Companies Some companies such as WebTrends and Google Analytics produce web analytics software that converts data by using combination of tables and graphs. It automatically monitors your websites traffic and highlights any significant changes,  thus, managers can easily understand and analysis the effectiveness of their campaigns. And, where visitors come from and which pages retain visitors the longest, and also, track visitors progress s they click though the site. As seen on Figure II.1. (Dave Chaffey, 2003) (Figure II.1) It can be simply shows daily visit on your website, type on traffic and time on site by country. Other technologies for data collection Other technologies companies used for data collection are eye tracking system and mouse tracking analytics. It is a key method for testing visitors behavior and areas they focus more often when they on a web page, and both eye tracking and e mouse tracking analytics studies offer businesses accurate and actionable results. Therefore, the result can be used to improve a web site or marketing campaigns audience response. Eye tracking system is utilized by many top enterprises such as Google. This tracking system uses specialist software to track internet visitors where the eyes land on a webpage. As shown on Figure II.2, Heatmaps areas are visitors look on more frequent on the webpage. (Ronan de Kervenoael, 2013) (Figure II.2) Similar to eye tracking system, Mouse tracking analytics  follows the mouse movements of internet users to simulate eye movement on a webpage. As seen on Figure II.3, the denser of the area is, visitor put more attention on that area of the web page. (Figure II.3) From the research, it has shown when both methods of testing are conducted simultaneously, in the result, they find out exactly what the visitors look at on the page which contains 84%-88% accuracy. In addition, both method of tracking analytics deliver valuable information to managers about visitors involvement and engagement with your website. This is vital to work out what changes you need to make in order to benefit your visitors experience as well as improve the website. (ClickTale, 2010) OFF-SITE ANALYTICS Off-site analytics data can be obtained for any website-including your competitors and partners. Which means is analysis the internet as a whole for the websites. Thus, the key differences of off-site web analytics measures from your potential audience (opportunity), share of voice (visibility), and buzz (comments). Unlikely to on-site web analytics only captures what happens when visitors visit and engage with your website, by using various technologies to help monitor and analysis website to create meaningful actions and results. However, as social website becomes more popular and ascendant channel for internet users, and everything becomes more transparent on social web, organization information are shared, spread on it, thus, through this platform, marketers are able to measure the latest buzz about website or organization.it is important for marketers to monitor not only what happens on the website but also outside of your website. Improving from what other people are saying about the company and provide products and services match customers requires. Off-site Web Analytics solutions can help businesses stay on the leading edge of overall trends.  (Monitoring Buzz With Off-Site Web Analytics, 2010) Firms can conduct off-site web-analytics through the following available software: Alexa and Compete There are numbers of web analytics software provided service to measure your competitors how much and what type of traffic are garnering to their site. Alexa  and  Compete are two free services help marketers to find top-level information, including the top searches people used to find the site, as well as traffic comparisons versus other Websites. For more comparison capabilities and a deeper level of demographic information, marketer can just simply upgrades their account. Similar to Alexa  and  Compete system offerings monitor and aggregate a wide swath of Web traffic, paid services from  Quantcast  and  Nielsen NetRatings also provide analytics tools and research related to online audiences, as well as online ad buying and selling. As by shown example of how Alexa provide services for marketers by monitoring and aggregating a wide swath of Web traffic from multiple sources to develop estimates for overall ranking and other factors. On the table 1 below, shows top 5 sites on the web. According to off-site web analytics is measuring about your competitors and monitoring the internet as whole website, it is obvious for marketers to analysis the market, so that company can generate more sales, reduce marketing costs, enhance campaign performance, provide better user experience, and reach specific target segments. As well as on table, more specific shows competitor daily/monthly search traffic and top queries from search traffic and more other details. Thus, research on your competitors and understand their strategy, is the advantages for the company to take step forward than others in the market. (Table 1) (Table 2) Co Tweet and HootSuite There are other tools like  CoTweet  and  HootSuite  are relative newcomers to the market when they looking further out into the social web. Especially for small and medium-size business that use tools to monitoring and engaging with social web. It started as management tools Twitter, but they are now expanding their support for other social channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn. It simply for an organization tracks the effectiveness of multiple marketing efforts in multiple social channels, and also from platforms. Because social web such as Twitter and Facebook, it creates more effective buzz to a company. Therefore, this platform is critical important for for small and medium-size business to enhance awareness. CoTweet is a web-based  social media management  and  analytics  tool. With CoTweet you can not only manage clicks on content you publish within the application, but also integrate any web analytics platforms with campaign codes and shortened URLs. Just like Bobowski believes it provides closed-loop reporting and allows marketers to associate revenue and other success metrics to social media activity. (Peters, 2011) As shown table below, CoTweet also provides updates and follow-up messages to be assigned to specific social media managers. Different knowledge of social media managers can responses immediately to appropriate questions and comments from followers, which shows to followers that there are person behind responding the questions. Also, from the questions and buzz marketers will know who he is talking with if question arise for as specific tweet. It helps marketers collected more accurate data and responded visitors needs. CONCLUSION This report has shown that Web continues to have growing importance in marketing efforts, therefore on-site and off-site Web Analytics solutions will likely become more crucial tools that lead to greater business success. This is supported by the number of toolset made available to businesses of all sizes to monitor and analyze web traffic on their sites in order to determine what is happening not only throughout the rest of the Web ecosystem but also in social media. Appendix There are other different online metrics collection methods that help marketers for analysis and understand visitors and purchasers. ID Technique Strengths Weaknesses 1 Server-based logfile analysis of site activity (web analytics) Directly records customer behavior on site plus where they were referred from Low cost Doesn t directly record channel satisfaction   Undercounting and over counting   Misleading unless interpreted carefully 2 Browser-based site activity data (web analytics) Greater accuracy than server-based analysis Counts all users, unlike the panel approach Similar weaknesses to server based technique apart from accuracy 2-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Limited demographic information 3 Panels activity and demographic data Provides competitor comparisons Gives demographic profiling Avoids undercounting and over counting Depends on extrapolation from limited sample that may not be representative 4 Outcome data, e.g. enquiries, sales, customer service e-mails Records marketing outcomes Difficulty of integrating data with other methods of data collection when collected manually or in other information systems 5 Online questionnaires Customers are prompted randomly every  n  th customer or after customer activity or by e-mail Can record customer satisfaction and profiles Relatively cheap to create and analyze Difficulty of recruiting respondents who complete accurately Sample bias tend to be advocates or disgruntled customers who complete 6 Online focus groups; synchronous recording Relatively cheap to create Difficult to moderate and co-ordinate   No visual cues as from offline focus groups 7 Mystery shoppers. Example customers are recruited to evaluate the site, e.g. www.emysteryshopper.com Strstructured tests give detailed feedback Also tests integration with other channels such as e-mail and phone Relatively expensive   Sample must be representative

Managing Your Time Involves Prioritizing English Language Essay

Managing Your Time Involves Prioritizing English Language Essay This Essay will support the view that managing ones time involves prioritizing the tasks one has to do. Before we go further. Let us look deeply into what time management entails. Developing time management needs practise and a lot of guidance along the way. the goal is to help become aware or knowledgeable on how to use ones time effectively. Therefore Time management can be described as the process involved in planning and gaining conscious control over the amount of time spent on certain activities in order to improve efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. In exercising the act, range of skills, number of tools and availabilty of techniques will be needed to accomplish specific task, objectives and goals. Lets not forget that the ides of managing time is mainly important when one is trying to comply with a due date. That is, a deadline is always anticipated and in order to meet it time must be managed properly. Furthermore time management does not only refer to just business, school or office activities, ity includes personal activities as well. It is considered a necessity in any activity worth doing as it will to a large extent determine the productivity and completion time. How to manage time is not taught in lectures but it has to be learnt. It doesnt matter how smart a person is, if you cannot organize yourself and arrange your schedules properly, you will find yourself procastinating the work that has to be done. In todays universities, polytechnics and tertiary institution as a whole, an individual will be outstanding if he or she can develop the ability to handle information and manage time. Mann(2008) states that Careers are made or broken by the soft skills that make you able to handle a very large workload(pg 28). In other words, you can differentiate yourself in a n organisation by putting in place the techniques to break your workload in smaller parts. Managign ones time involves prioritizing the tasks ones has to perform. It is important to proritize activities lined up before you in order not to end up achieving an aim that does not carry reward and neglecting an activity that when completed adds value. The ability to quickly process and analyse information and develop it into action is one of the most eemergent skills of the professional world today. Organize your workload in order of omportance and urgency. By doing this time is not wasted even if there was no time left to perform the non-important task, one can have a rest of mind knowing that what matters most have been attended to. We also have to be aware that even though managing time involves prioritizing tasks, it is not advisable to multitask. Multitasking is considered deadly because it decreases productivity, no matter how energetic a person is. So one must create a to-do list and spend the first hours on whatever is on top of that list. This is a great idea because e ven if you cant get the whole thing done within the time you have, you will be able to go back to the remaining ones you have started. In one of his publications, Markovitz (1996) proposed that Just because a task appeared to be interesting or enjoyable, it does not mean that you have to attend to it immediately(pg 65). Even though that activity involves a lot of fun, if it not important it should be placed on hold. If you do not attend to something that is not important, the cosequences will not have a negative effect on you. you may pass up the chance to have a laugh or enjoy a movie at that period, but it is not the last you will experience. When the tasks before you are assignments, it is good to prioritize them as well. Develop the habit of beginning with the most difficult subject, when completed it will make you feel fresh thereby having more energy to take on the other ones. When prioritizing time in relative to time, you must not allow for distractions that is, whatever you have not planned to do must not take the place of what oyu have to do. It is easy to get carried away when you are trying to perform y our task especially when you come across something you really love to do or recieves an invitation from a friend to quickly participate in some activity that will not result to time wasting. When you have set your priorities right, you should cultivate the habit of studying and achieving to them always. On the other hand, one should be disciplined enough to postpone unecessary activities until every urgent work had been done. As young people we unexpectedly meet opportunities that look appealing but a focused mind will not divert its attention. With that been said, one must begin to think in terms of pride of accomplishment. Think of what will happen when you accomplish everything on your to-do list, imagine how excited and refreshing you will feel when you looked back and realised that you have managed your time properly. There are various tools that can help and individual prioritize tasks and effectively carry them out without exceeding the time given. One is creating a simple to-do list. Just like i have mentioned earlier this program will help you identify a few items, the reason for doing them, a time frame for getting them done. To make it more interesting your to-do list can be posted on the wall in your room, bathroom, on your book or even set as a wall paper on your phnoe. This will serve as a reminder anytime it catches your eye. Another tool is a daily/weekly planner. This may include appointments, lecture timetable, group meetings, sport practise, religious programmes and even leisure time. A llong term planner is also useful, it is referred to as the monthly planner. You can use this to plan ahead for events, functions and journeys. You also have to know how your body works or know when you work best. You must perform your assignments in a way that you will not overstress yourself. Some p eople are used to staying up late studying and still have the energy to function the following morning. This is not so for the people on the other side. One must be able to know the condition that best comply with ones body structure. You can discover yours by monitoring your perormance under different conditions. Student A can study for hours without tasting any food and yet still go about attending to other engagements while student B may find it difficult to do so. Student A may not be able to study in an environment where there is loud music or concentration of so many people while student B can study beside a market place or even have the music on while reading. However the most important thing about performing a task is to note the most suitable time for it. Another situation we find ourselves is when all the tasks lined up seem to be equally important. That is the moment when you begin to feel there is too much on your plate. This is a problem that everyone face from time to time. Even though it may be difficult to skillfully juggle priorities and multiple responsiblities, it is however not impossible. Some techniques can still be applied in situations like these. The first question one should ask is: Is everything really important? Though everything is important but since you cannot divide yourself into several parts, you will have to find a way. For example if the project before you involves relating with people. What you can do is to talk to them. Finf out from then when they need your help, how much work do you still have to help them with and if they can help you by granting you a free time. When you settle with a group of people like this, then you can attend to another group whom you feel attending to them is of utmost importance . Researchers in project management have come up with two methods that are worth applying when trying to answer the questions like: How do i decide what is a priority? What should i do first? The first one is the P.O.S.E.C method. The term POSEC is an acronym which stands for prioritize by organizing, streamlining,economizing and contributing. This method supports the view by reggie leach(1990) which states that If you pay attention to your evryday personal reponsibilities first, then you are in a better position to handle other things that may come your way. This method can be followed in the order of hierachy. P Prioritize your time and define your tasks by goals. O Organize the things you have to accomplish regularly to be succesful. S Streamlining the things you may not like to do, but must be done. These are specific tasks you are not crazy about about working on. E Economizing the things you should do or may even like to do. but they are pressingly urgent. C Contibuting b y paying attention to the remamining things that make a difference but which may not have an immediate measurable benefit. This method to some extent lets you breakdown your tasks and project into little segments. It helps you put your tasks in order. An innovative speaker called Ralph ransom at one of his conference was of the view that: No matter how you prioritize your tasks or even your life the important thing is to gain control over the things that are eating away at your time and standing in the way of your accomplishing everything you would like to do. The first task for many will be to start utilizing time managements method to make their task list and projects a lot more manageable.As with anything, the first step is always the most difficult.But once you have a system in place using it will get easier and it will be very beneficial. When one realizes that some projects or habit eats away time that could be invested in educative and productive endeavors, it could be the foundation of proper management of time. The other method is called the Eisenhower method. This is the much talked about Four quadrants method where items are placed in each box according to its importance and urgency. so things that are unimportant and not urgent can be placed behind those that are. Quadrant one is where crises are, which obviously have to be handled immediately. Quadrant two is where true productivity is, and where one should be focusing most of ones energy. Quadrant three is where the traps are set. For example you recieve a call from a friend asking you to come and watch a movie with him. This interrupts you from Q2 or Q1 tasks. The call may be important to your friend but not to you. I have an ucle who used to say lack of planning on someones part should not create an emergency on yours. Quadrant fouris where we can find craps. Trivial time-wasters fall in here. e.g Facebook, t.v, pinging on blackberry. This method of eisenhower has really hleped a lot of people to understand how to properly prioritize their work. The beauty of the method is in its simplicity. All you have to do is answer YES or NO and automatically you will have your priority. In conclusion, prioritizing daily tasks is key to succesful time management. When you prioritize, you accomplish the most important task first,therefore time management should be made a habit. Always remember that everything has a deadline so make sure you know it so you will know how to prioritize it.Also be aware of the critical path,in other words Distractions. The things that you have to avoid to remain focused.

Shakespeares Macbeth - The Character of Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Macbeth Character Shakespeare The character of Macbeth is not an easy one to understand. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is praised by many people as being a hero when he has defeated the Norwegians. The captain says: "Brave Macbeth "When Duncan hears the news he adds: "o valient cousin "and "Noble Macbeth ". However Macbeth is becoming tied up with things that are not good. The three weird sisters said they would meet with him. When the three weird sisters do meet with Macbeth and Banquo: "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Glamis! ", " All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Cawdor! ", "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee that shalt be king here after. "Macbeth knows he is the Thane of Glamis but how can he be the Thane of Cawdor, the Thane of Cawdor lives a prosperous life and becoming king is just unthinkable. This gets Macbeth thinking about what they mean. At the start of the play the audience hail Macbeth as a hero but as he begins to think about murdering the king the audience feels he isn't so heroic after all, and they begin to dislike him. We learn from Lady Macbeth, the person who knows him best that he is too nice to be able to kill anyone especially the present king: "is too full o' th' milk of human kindness, "says Lady Macbeth. She then devises a plan to kill Duncan while he is staying with them. Duncan has arrived and is having dinner. Macbeth leaves and decides not to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth accuses him of being less than a man for not killing him. Macbeth is not a natural born killer, Lady Macbeth has to persuade him to murder the king; he is initially reluctant to do such a deed: "We will proceed no further in this business: "Macbeth says this because he thinks he might become king without killing the present king, it might just be fate. But Lady Macbeth then begins to persuade him and soon a chink forms in Macbeth's armour. Macbeth says: "If we should fail "which shows us that Macbeth has once more changed his mind this shows us that he is very unwilling to murder Duncan. Once Duncan is asleep and Macbeth is on his own he sees a dagger before him. Shakespeare's Macbeth - The Character of Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework Macbeth Character Shakespeare The character of Macbeth is not an easy one to understand. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is praised by many people as being a hero when he has defeated the Norwegians. The captain says: "Brave Macbeth "When Duncan hears the news he adds: "o valient cousin "and "Noble Macbeth ". However Macbeth is becoming tied up with things that are not good. The three weird sisters said they would meet with him. When the three weird sisters do meet with Macbeth and Banquo: "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Glamis! ", " All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Cawdor! ", "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee that shalt be king here after. "Macbeth knows he is the Thane of Glamis but how can he be the Thane of Cawdor, the Thane of Cawdor lives a prosperous life and becoming king is just unthinkable. This gets Macbeth thinking about what they mean. At the start of the play the audience hail Macbeth as a hero but as he begins to think about murdering the king the audience feels he isn't so heroic after all, and they begin to dislike him. We learn from Lady Macbeth, the person who knows him best that he is too nice to be able to kill anyone especially the present king: "is too full o' th' milk of human kindness, "says Lady Macbeth. She then devises a plan to kill Duncan while he is staying with them. Duncan has arrived and is having dinner. Macbeth leaves and decides not to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth accuses him of being less than a man for not killing him. Macbeth is not a natural born killer, Lady Macbeth has to persuade him to murder the king; he is initially reluctant to do such a deed: "We will proceed no further in this business: "Macbeth says this because he thinks he might become king without killing the present king, it might just be fate. But Lady Macbeth then begins to persuade him and soon a chink forms in Macbeth's armour. Macbeth says: "If we should fail "which shows us that Macbeth has once more changed his mind this shows us that he is very unwilling to murder Duncan. Once Duncan is asleep and Macbeth is on his own he sees a dagger before him.

Comparing the Behavior of Characters in Richard III :: William Shakespeare

RICHARD III Compare the behavior and reactions of Richard, Anne and Elizabeth in Act One Scene Two and Act Four Scene Four. In the start of both scenes, both Elizabeth and Anne are enraged and verbally attack Richard. Both women did not intend to marry Richard. hard was a very clever man, until he became king. He became over confident and did not even realise when he was losing a battle with the not-so-soft Elizabeth. He was successful with the weak, tenderhearted Anne in Act one Scene Two. He was very ruthless. He was very determined to get what he wanted, whatever he had to do for it. In Act Scene Two, Richard is very clever and intelligent with his moves in convincing Anne to marry him. In fact his knowledge and organisation led him to having three stages of development in manipulating Anne. Anne was an easy target though. He thought that Elizabeth was just as easy to convince, so he did not put any extra effort in. But little did he know that that extra effort would have saved his life. He totally put aside his manipulation skills and took it calm and easy in Act Four Scene Four, so he had to get quite desperate at the end of the scene. He was satisfied to know that he won both oral battles against the ladies, at least he thought so. But Elizabeth was not as weak as poor Anne was. She had a couple of tricks up her sleeve. She was aware of Richard’s evil plans. She had a feeling Richard had slaughtered her dear sons, as well as innocent lady Anne. She knew for sure that he had murdered Anne’s husband and father in-law. And she had a feeling that he had done more harm than what meets the eye. She acted as though she gave in and made the path clear for Richard to marry her daughter (Elizabeth, of the same name). Richard had weakened since he had become king and was no longer ruthless as he had no reason to be ruthless. He had got what he wanted and was pleased with himself. He thought he was invincible, and he was too confident, which cost him his life. If he had been more careful, he would have been aware of the danger that lied before him. But, he did use some similar techniques in both the scenes. Comparing the Behavior of Characters in Richard III :: William Shakespeare RICHARD III Compare the behavior and reactions of Richard, Anne and Elizabeth in Act One Scene Two and Act Four Scene Four. In the start of both scenes, both Elizabeth and Anne are enraged and verbally attack Richard. Both women did not intend to marry Richard. hard was a very clever man, until he became king. He became over confident and did not even realise when he was losing a battle with the not-so-soft Elizabeth. He was successful with the weak, tenderhearted Anne in Act one Scene Two. He was very ruthless. He was very determined to get what he wanted, whatever he had to do for it. In Act Scene Two, Richard is very clever and intelligent with his moves in convincing Anne to marry him. In fact his knowledge and organisation led him to having three stages of development in manipulating Anne. Anne was an easy target though. He thought that Elizabeth was just as easy to convince, so he did not put any extra effort in. But little did he know that that extra effort would have saved his life. He totally put aside his manipulation skills and took it calm and easy in Act Four Scene Four, so he had to get quite desperate at the end of the scene. He was satisfied to know that he won both oral battles against the ladies, at least he thought so. But Elizabeth was not as weak as poor Anne was. She had a couple of tricks up her sleeve. She was aware of Richard’s evil plans. She had a feeling Richard had slaughtered her dear sons, as well as innocent lady Anne. She knew for sure that he had murdered Anne’s husband and father in-law. And she had a feeling that he had done more harm than what meets the eye. She acted as though she gave in and made the path clear for Richard to marry her daughter (Elizabeth, of the same name). Richard had weakened since he had become king and was no longer ruthless as he had no reason to be ruthless. He had got what he wanted and was pleased with himself. He thought he was invincible, and he was too confident, which cost him his life. If he had been more careful, he would have been aware of the danger that lied before him. But, he did use some similar techniques in both the scenes.

Psle in Singapore Debate Essay

In this commentary, I chose my artefact as a newspaper article on PSLE stress because of many reasons. 1) I had always harbored a strong interest on what everyone is saying about this hot topic and it seemed very interesting, stating just one problem that Singapore currently face. 2) Other than that, it is a topic that is easy to research, unlike some historic things which are little-mentioned (e.g. the banana note, the merdeka talks,etc) 3) Last but not least,it is a topic that is widely discussed on and more sources can be found My view on the issue of PSLE Singaporeans have long since been debating whether to remove PSLE. I personally do not think that PSLE should be removed. On the issue of abolishing PSLE, my concern is if we do not have the PSLE, when it comes to the entrance to secondary schools, how do you decide who goes to which school? I sometimes wish we were a bit like Hogwarts in Harry Potter, where you have the sorting hat that decides which house you go to. But in reality, we do not have a sorting hat and how do we decide who goes to which school? If you did not do it according to grades and scores, how would you do it? Another way would be to do it geographically, where you go into the secondary school nearest to your home, but if you did that, everybody will be fighting to be in the primary school near the secondary school you want to be in. PSLE assess how much you have learnt over the six years in primary school and then allocates you to a secondary school according to your abilities and/or choice. If you remove it, you might as well say to remove all exams. On abolishing PSLE, let’s presume we do away with it, then how do we decide who goes to which school? If which school you are going is decided on ‘does the Principal know your father or your mother?’ then it’s not a very meritocratic system nor is it acceptable. It is totally, I think, against Singapore’s system. If it is to be decided by the distance and you live very near a very good school, can you imagine the pressure to enter a primary school that is near the secondary school you want to go to. If a sudent had done very badly, but he or she stays very near a good secondary school, he would get in, but a person who did better and stays lets say 10km away would not be able to enter if according to that policy. Imagine how disapp ointed he or she will feel. One question, is that fair? No doubt many people would say it is not.There is a whole range of scenarios that will come up if Singapore removes PSLE as the sorting exam. The question is how will Singapore deal with it? The real angst about PSLE is the pressure, and the real reason why you have the pressure is that parents perceive that certain schools will give the advantage of getting into university. So, the answer would maybe be to try to make sure that across the board, every school is a good school and that society should change their mindset that a child needs to get into a good school in order to get into university ( which acoording to a survey, is a goalfor many paents. One of the goals of the Singapore government would be ( I think)to make sure that no matter which school students go to, you have a chance to get into a university and even if you do not get into a university, the other options are also pathways to success. I hope that under this system, each person can be the best he or she can be, whether or not that person has a university degree. Why is PSLE bad? 1)Poor education system However, just because I do not think PSLE should be removed doesn’t mean that I totally think it should remain the same. I think, PSLE should not have such a big effect on what type of school a secondary student goes to. In PSLE, the focus tends to be on the aggregate score, which reports each student’s overall performance in comparison with the entire cohort. It’s called a T-score, or transformed score. It’s derived through a certain computation and basically provides a ranking of the entire cohort.* The T-score itself doesn’t actually tell the student how well he has performed in each subject or across all the subjects. In affect, it is a queue number. Thus, I think, to put the stress off the students’ shoulder a little. PSLE should form only about 35% of the final grades. This system also has its benefits as the students will not be so focused on the final examination. They might slack for five years and only start to really work when they are in primary 6. I have the same opinion on all the other major exams too. Also, more weight should be placed on continual assessments, conducted on every semester. Everything is more manageable when it is broken into small parts. This will reduce stress amongst students, and allow individual topics to get the attention deserved. Right now, PSLE encourages parents and students to â€Å"spot† possible exam questions, and prepare for those to the exclusion of all else. If every year’s mark have a large part in the final grade, the students will be more encouraged to work hard and it will be more competitive, resulting in better and smarter young Singaporeans, allowing the country to prosper more. This can happen if we followed the education system that I mentioned other than using other means like, tuition, etc†¦ 2)Encourages poor methods of studying Also, PSLE studying and actual learning have had a bad divorce. The methods common to passing PSLE are: †¢ Ask how, not why. †¢ Don’t experiment or try to be original. Follow what’s worked before, and just copy. †¢ Learn only exam topics. Treat everything else as unimportant. †¢ Memorize model answers, as if they’re cheat codes for a video game. Teachers who try to stray from the path are hammered down. There’s no room for exploration, discourse, or general knowledge. It’s not that students are unaware of this. They know these are bad teaching methods. But the importance of PSLE results overshadows their awareness. When an exam threatens to determine most of a child’s future, fear drives the curriculum (this has happened to me before) On the topic of tuition Ideally, the aim of the education system is that you should be able to pass your exams without tuition. That said, many parents still think that it is necessary for children to have tuition in order for them to do better; not in all the schools but certainly in a percentage of them. My view is that it should not be the case that because you cannot afford tuition you should not be able to pass your exam, which is why MOE has introduced the Learning Support Programmes in schools, mentioned by Minister of education minister Heng at the last Committee Of Supply Debate. The schools are putting a lot more resources to help students who have difficulty with subjects to help them level up. People generally think that Singapore has a good education system and that we are not deprived of a good education. But I do get the sense that many people think that the learning field is not level. The running track (describing the field in which where Singaporeans learn) is the same for everybody. It is just that those from the less affluent backgrounds are coming on with the plain sneakers and the one from the better affluent ones are coming with the branded sneakers which give you more comfort and support. The idea is that, if the playing field is not equal because there are some students who come from families with better resources, then for those students who do not come from families with better resources, at least you help them to level up so that they get a chance to do well. How can Singaporeans adopt a less stressful approach to the PSLE? I like to make a distinction between status and stature. Status is about our relative importance or merit in comparison to other people, who might or might not be better than yourself; assessment sometimes will tell us about academic status. In contrast, stature is inherent, not comparative. It’s about doing the best that you can, and recognising your intrinsic potential. Assessment should also help us develop our stature, and not our status. I know from my own experience how a drop of status badly affects my confidence. I hope this for every teacher and parent: To think and work hard about raising the stature of your children, and not just try to raise their status. Conclusion My conclusion for this is that the PSLE should not be scrapped but should be changed to a better and less stressful exam. So, the format should be changed to one more like the O levels. In the O levels, how well you do within a grade does not matter, just as long you get that particular grade. Once you score an A1, you will not be disadvantaged when compared to a student who has scored A1 with a higher score. I think this should be the model system for the PSLE. Thus , I end my commentary and hope (emphasis) you have enjoyed reading it.