Analysis of Leadership and Management Research Paper

Analysis of Leadership and Management - Research Paper Example Hence, change is a continuous process in an organization. It acts as an effective tool, which helps the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. Change is possible only when the employees are ready to accept the change. Therefore, change leads to the transformation from the old state to the new state, which helps an organization to understand its external and internal conditions. (Collett, n.d.). Successful change management requires employees support and top management support. When the change cannot be managed in a systematic way, there will be a decline in productivity and quality. Therefore, while implementing the change generally people are not mentally and physically fit to accept the change because employees are shifting their old way of doing the things and thus there will be lack of confidence and disloyalty among the employees. Last but not least change will lead to an increase in absenteeism. In case of effective change management, there will be an increase in pro ductivity and organization standard, the employees will start contributing ideas and providing solutions towards the problems, employees’ interest, and motivation level rise up.  Ã‚   To exist in the competitive market, an organization needs to bring behavioral change in employees in order to help them to adjust to the new organizational culture. Therefore, change focuses on creating a new product. For example, Tea Gardens, Jute Mills etc are lucrative organizations but they have been changing from hand to hand perhaps because the new ones are not competent like the earlier ones. That is how changes are continuously going from years to years. Change always requires an extra effort to learn new things since it provides an opportunity for people to feel responsible for the accomplishment of work. From the theories and models of the change management, we generally develop our understanding of planned organizational change. According to Kotter’s framework, change management focuses on increasing employee motivation and encouraging him/her to adopt the change (Heathcote & Taylor, 2007, p.2-7). The reason behind the successful organization change is strong leader ship and educating the employees about the change that will occur in day-to-day activities of the organization. Kurt Lewin represented the three-stage process of change in order to bring the change in the organization. His model is, known as Unfreeze- Change – Refreeze. At the Unfreezing stage, the managers educate the people about the change.  Ã‚  

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Proposal - Essay Example I will use questionnaires for carrying out the research. The whole process will be based on one month. Introduction: LON failed completely and lost all its power when as a result of withdrawal of the member countries, it was left with minimal armed forces that were not enough to help it in making the countries comply with the sanctions proposed by the league. The league came into being to control the aggressiveness practiced by some countries through measures of arms control, settlement and negotiation. LON had no armed forces of its own, owing to which it failed in threatening the aggressive nations with military might and simply failed to enforce its resolutions designed to maintain world peace and World War II initiated. Literature review: According to a research study done by (Buchanan), LON had no other means of making the defiant state abide by its decisions than introducing economic sanctions on that state. For example, when LON verbally threatened Germany to not violate the r ules of the treaty flagrantly and stop moving troops into Rhineland, Germany walked out of the League and gave up membership.

The History About The Psychological Egoism Philosophy Essay

The History About The Psychological Egoism Philosophy Essay Psychological egoism, once widely accepted by political economists, philosophers, and psychologists, is a controversial notion. Many agree and disagree with this perspective and the explanations for what motivates humans. Proponents erroneously argue that people are always motivated by their perceived self-interest, including altruistic acts. Through altruistic behaviors, malevolence, self-deception, and theoretical problems, this theory can be disproven. Psychological egoism states that all human actions are motivated by selfish desire. Proponents of this doctrine believe that altruism exists, but only because the consequence of such of act leads to an increase in personal happiness. Therefore, purely altruistic and benevolent acts do not exist; people seem to act in these ways, but their motives are for advancement of self-interest. These psychological egoists consider their theory to be law self-interest is an unavoidable psychological law. An alternate form of psychological egoism, psychological hedonism, relates to Jerry Benthams ideals, the only kind of desire is the desire to get or to prolong pleasant experiences, and to avoid or cut short unpleasant experiences for oneself (Feinberg 167). According to Joel Feinberg there are some points that have made psychological egoism plausible to many people. A staple of this theory is that every action of someone is promoted by his motives which serve to improve his self-interest. This staple is applicable to all actions of humans; therefore, all actions are selfish (Feinberg 167). Proponents also agree that people feel pleasure when they do something they want. Hence, we always strive to experience pleasure and pursue other things only because of the pleasurable consequences it will yield. Self-deception is a fundamental cog in the system of psychological egoism. People often trick themselves into performing a noble act rather than acting in their self-interest. Even a simple smile conceals a motive for personal pleasure a ploy to earn a positive reaction from another human. The tale of Abraham Lincoln and the sow shows fallacy in the psychological egoism statement, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ what we really want in every case is our own pleasure, and that we pursue other things only as a means (Feinberg 170). Psychological egoists claim that Lincoln acted on the sow purely for the selfish pleasure. However, that statement is wrong; pleasure, the by-product of the altruistic act, does not have to indicate that Lincoln acted in self-interest. In reality, pleasure can be used to argue that the act was not in self-interest. In situations in which people gain pleasure from a certain act there must have been a desire for something else. Lincolns desire for the pigs, when fulfilled, understandably provided pleasure. The purpose of Lincolns desire was not pleasure, but instead pleasure was the consequence of Lincoln completing his desired act. This example of Lincoln and the sow shows that, though pleasure resulted from an altruistic act, pleasure is a consequence of desir e for something else. Similar to the disinterested benevolence of Lincoln, disinterested malevolence is unexplainable by psychological egoism. Often those who commit malevolent deeds are acting in opposition of their self-interest in order to do harm to others (Feinberg 170.) A selfish person is concerned with his own self-interests. There have been incidents in which malevolent people injure themselves in order to cause harm to others; this fact is something that psychological egoists struggle to hold in their case. There are no logical mistakes made by a psychological egoist concerning self-deception but it lacks empirically. A soldier who throws himself onto a grenade to save others is self-deceived; he believes he has some duty or virtue to save others. Psychological egoists wrongly generalize self-deception because of its predicted frequency (Feinberg 170). It is impossible to exactly know someones conscious motives to carry out an action. It is even possible for the person himself to be unaware of his motives for an action. However, it is always possible for a psychological egoist to predict that someone is acting in their own self-interest. They are able to do so because it is impossible to exactly know someones motive for something. Although they can make this claim, they cannot support it with empirical data. They lack a serious conclusion to their predictions of self-interest. They are correct in saying someone may be acting in self-interest, but that cannot be empirically supported. Another problem with this theory is its issue with correlative terms. Naturally the complete understanding of a word comes with the comprehension of the correlate. Examples include good-bad, tall-short, and large-small. Common terms in psychological egoism are selfish-unselfish and self-interest-altruism. However there is a flaw with correlative terms in this theory; psychological egoists believe that altruistic behaviors are actually acts of self-interest. This statement is imprecise because it is impossible for a correlate to mean the same as the original term. Big cannot mean small and therefore stating that altruism is the correlate of self-interest is invalid. It is widely accepted that a theory which cannot be proven falsifiable is not credible. Psychological egoism states that all people act in self-interest. This statement keeps people from questioning which actions are in self-interest. If all actions are selfish then selfish actions and actions are synonymous. Because this theory claims to be universal and unfalsifiable it is meaningless. This theory attempts to redefine terms such as altruism and selfishness. These new definitions conflict with our ordinary understandings of the terms. We know altruism to be acts that contribute to welfare of others. We also know selfish acts to be those that focus on the self rather than opposites. Based on these two definitions it seems that the two are antonyms. Conversely, psychological egoists regard these two as near synonyms. Altruistic acts are selfish according to these egoists. How can altruistic acts, which are inherently beneficial to the welfare of others, be acts that have underlying motives for self-interest? That is a question that is difficult for psychological egoists to answer. I believe that because this argument is unfalsifiable, it is irrelevant. A psychological egoist may tell me that my acts can be boiled down to simple motives for self-interest. The most basic principle of this theory is that all human actions, altruistic or not, can be simplified into an act of self-interest. This statement of psychological egoism dooms it; there can be no empirical definition of the theory. Someones motives exist in their mind whether they know it or not, according to this theory. If I attempt to tell them I act for others and not for my self-interest they will tell me that I deceive myself into thinking my acts are noble or virtuous in order to satisfy my needs. If I attempt to tell them I act for others not for my self-interest they will tell me that I deceive myself into thinking my acts are noble or virtuous in order to satisfy my needs. It can never be measured and the self-deception facet of this theory attempts to compensate for the lack of empirical informat ion. Because peoples motives exist in their minds, self-deception accounts for why we do not know we act selfishly. They will explain that what I pursue is pleasure even though I tell myself otherwise. Hence, we can never know when we act selfishly because our motives are naturally hidden. This lack of empirical data is skeptical and not sufficient enough to explain why people act in their own self-interest. It is impossible to make such a bold prediction as psychological egoism does; this theory labels altruistic acts selfish, lacks explanation for malevolent acts, lacks empirical data, defies correlate terms, is unfalsifiable, and invents new definitions for ordinary words. The biggest flaw of psychological determinism is its inability to be proven falsifiable. This theory is not empirically definable. It is a closed argument because every action on earth can be broken down into an act in self-interest and therefore is irrelevant.

Villains, Sin, and Sex in Shakespeares Othello and King Lear Essays

Villains, Sin, and Sex in Othello and King Lear   Ã‚   Many of Shakespeare plays are littered with crude and graphic sexual references, jests, and insults. But there is one type of character present throughout Shakespeare's plays that twist the sexual imagery and repartee, and that is the villain. There is a deeply rooted combination between sex and evil.   This essay will develop this idea in depth by focusing on Iago of Othello and Edmund of King Lear.       Iago is probably viewed as one of Shakespeare's greatest villains. He's calm, cool, collected, and simply put: brilliant. He manipulates Othello, the moor's lieutenant Cassio, Desdemona's scorned suitor Roderigo, her father Brabantio, and his own wife Emilia with such masterful skill and ease, that there is no stopping him until it's too late. But what is this great skill that he wields at his victims? What hideous power can Iago possibly posses in order to pull the great puppeteer's strings? It's sex.       While Iago is not a sexual being per say, he certainly wields a sexually edged blade when he begins to attack his victims. In the grand scheme of things, he is angry that Othello has passed him over for the rank of lieutenant, and Iago wants his revenge. In order to complete his vendetta against the moor, he uses a sexually charged scheme that carefully embroils others to unwittingly aid him in his goal. In the very first scene of the play, Iago pulls in the jilted suitor Roderigo to begin his revenge. The moor has secretly married Desdemona, and now Iago plans to begin his downfall by informing her father. Roderigo is coerced into this plot by his own lust for the senator's daughter, which Iago exploits to his fullest capabilities. While trying to rouse Br... ...akespeare s Philosophical Patterns. London: Mass Peter  Ã‚   Smith, 1968.  Ã‚   Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of Passion. Gloucester: Peter Smith Publisher Inc., 1973. Schlegel, August Wilhelm.   Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course  Ã‚  Ã‚   of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.  Ã‚   Shakespeare, William. King Lear.   Eric A., McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick, Canada Inc., Canada. 1998 Snyder, Susan. "Beyond the Comedy: Othello" Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (page 23-37) Norman Sanders, ed. Othello. Cambridge: New York, 1995: 12. J. Adelman. "Iago's Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello," Shakespeare Quarterly v48 Summer 1997: 130. Kott, Jan. Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1994.

Internship Proposal

Topic: Several Suggestions to Develop a Custom Training Plan for Department of Forest Protection of Hanoi Statement of the Problem Organizations are formed with their employees/staffs or their Human Resource. The basic objective of a group is using its HR effectively to reach its target. One of the most important areas of Human Resource Management is training. The way that the enterprise builds and applies the training and developing program would affect not only the current productivity but also the development in the future of the company.Despite the role of training staffs, this work has not been paid much attention. Even though the staff training plans of Hanoi Forest Protection Department have worked effectively, there are some weaknesses that need to be improved. This study targets in defining and suggesting solutions for those. Purpose and Scope of work The purpose of this study is to determine the current problem in training programs in Hanoi Forest Protection Department. The study will evaluate the importance of training plans and their impact to organization’s development.Besides, basing on the collected data and information, some suggestions would be proposed to improve the Group’s current issues. Source and methods of data collection 1. Collecting Data Primary Data: – Send and collect the printed sheets that have about 10 questions around the current training programs of the organization. * Interview a staff of Human Resource Department of the organization Secondary Data: Search and get information from textbooks, Internet, old reports and other channels. . Research Methods: There are numerous ways to get information. In my report, the research methods used are: literature searches, talking with people and personal interviews Literature search  involves reviewing all readily available materials such as internal company information, annual training reports, annual training plan, company literature and any other supplied materia ls. Besides, I also used website searching and library literature search to gather information.Talking with people is another way to get information. I had conversations with graduated students and friends, who have experience in interning in state enterprises or do research about development and training program. They all feel free to share their experience and the important issues. That helps me a lot to finish this report. According to an expert, personal interviews involving one person interviewing another person for personal or detailed information are a way to get in-depth and comprehensive information.That is the reason for why an interview with a Human Resources staff of the organization was arranged. The interviewer was asked questions from a written questionnaire and the answers were recorded verbatim. Research Questions: 1. What is the major Human Resource Training program in Department of Forest Protection of Hanoi and how were they implemented? 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current training program? 3. How could those programs be improved? ( give suggestions) Preliminary Outline 1.Acknowledge 2. Executive summary 3. Introduction a. Topic: â€Å"Some suggestions to improve the Human Resource Training Program in Hanoi Forest Protection Department† b. Rationales c. Research questions d. Scope e. Methodology 4. Body Chapter 1: Introduction of the Organization * Establishment and Development * Business Areas * Organizational Structure * Current Problem in Human Resources Training Program of the Organization Chapter 2: Theoretical framework 1. Human Resource Management and Human Resource Training 2.The role of Human Resource Training in Organizations 3. Issues in Training Plan * Training demand/ objective/ selection * Building training plan * Training methods * Fee * After training evaluation 4. Factors affect training program and its result 5. Requirement of Group’s Training Improvement Chapter 3: Findings and Analysis * Current situation of Training Program in Hanoi Forest Protection Department * Training Process in Hanoi Forest Protection Department Chapter 4: Recommendation 6. Conclusion 7. Appendixes 8. References

Conditions and Consequences of a Price War Essay

The objective of this essay is to â€Å"use economic theory and illustrative examples to outline the circumstances under which a price war could come about and the likely consequences for the participating firms and their consumers†. A price war is a period in which multiple firms competing within the same market will react to the other firms lowering of price by lowering their own price. They have short-term and long-term advantages and disadvantages. There are many reasons for which a price war may occur, in all cases the reason for starting the price war is different but the reason for its continuation is not to lose sales. They are when a firm attempts to maximise capacity, for survival purposes, in oligopoly markets, where there are homogeneous products and when a firm adopts a penetrative pricing strategy. â€Å"Excess capacity refers to a situation where a firm is producing at a lower scale of output than it has been designed for† Excess capacity http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/ detail.asp?ID=3209 [accessed 10th December 2006] If a firm has spare capacity to produce more of a good it is likely they will use this spare capacity to profit maximise but to achieve this they will have to lower prices to increase quantity demanded (see appendix item A). As they have decreased their prices, other competitors will likely drop their prices so as not to loose customers, creating a price war. Companies who face bankruptcy may try to lower their prices so to attract more consumers and increase sales volume. However, if they cannot manage to increase volume enough to cover the fall in contribution then it will fail to cover its variable costs and will be forced to leave the market. Other firms may recognise that the company is in trouble and in a bid to force the company out the market and not to loose their own customers will drop their prices below that of the company facing bankruptcy. An oligopoly is where â€Å"a small number of firms share a large portion of the market† Economics Handbook, David Gray and Peter Clarke. In an oligopoly price is usually stable and constant as competing firms will not wish to lower price as its competitors will also drop theirs and so all they have  achieved is lowering their profit margins (see appendix item B). However, one firm may believe it stands to gain from a price-cut by believing they can under-cut the competition through economies of scale or other factors such as slow market reaction. A price war will begin as firms will drop theirs to avoid loosing customers. If in a market the goods are homogenous meaning they are the same for example utility services then price is one of the only means for a firm to distinguish it from others. In this situation a consumer will always purchase the lower priced product. This cause’s fierce pricing competition as each firm will try to maintain sales by dropping their price below the other competitors. â€Å"Penetration pricing involves the setting of lower, rather than the higher prices in order to achieve a large if not dominant market share† Pricing strategies http://www.tutor2u.net/business/marketing/pricing_strategy_penetration.asp [accessed 10th December 2006]. If this occurs the other firms in the market will recognise this and drop their own prices to stop that firm from gaining a dominant market share. The firm adopting this strategy may then also drop their prices to try continuing their pricing strategy causing a price war. This strategy can also be used to try and force firms out of the marketA price war causes more competition between firms, it has both positive and negative aspects for the consumers and the participating firms but these are different in the short-term and long-term. Competition is seen as a positive thing in any command economy. The short-run benefits for the consumer are obvious as firms lower their prices they will receive a better deal this can be seen in a movement along the demand curve, there will also be more consumer’s demanding the product for that lower price (see appendix item C). They are also likely to see improvements to the augmented products associated with the good as firms try to compete through non-pricing strategies. These services are things such as warranties, loyalty cards and other ‘extras’. The short-run effects upon the firms in the market are negative. Firm’s profits are reduced as the price of the good is reduced (see appendix item D). All firms in the industry will be forced to improve their productive efficiency to reduce total average cost, in an attempt to retain profit-margins whilst prices fall. They may also wish to attempt a heavier marketing campaign to try to distinguish itself from the other firms, but this incurs further costs for the firm. Firms are also likely to undergo a faster pace of invention and innovation as they differentiate themselves. Some firm’s in the market will be able to use their economies of scale to combat lower prices. But, other firms will not have such efficiencies and will not be able to afford variable costs and will therefore exit the market immediately (see appendix item E). The long-run affects of a price war are that a lot of firms will leave the market, this causes the demand curve to move back to its original position, which increases market-clearing price creating a long-run equilibrium and so normal profits are re-established. This is a negative aspect to the consumer’s who will have to pay more than they have in recent periods, they are also more likely to try and shop round to find the best deal. The good itself is likely to have seen technological advances as firms competed to have the most innovative product. There will also have been improved services for the consumers. The firms left in the market are likely to have better control of costs; this allows them to increase the contribution towards profits as the average total cost has been reduced of the product. In conclusion, a price war can be initiated for many reasons such as efficiency by filling up spare capacity, as a means for survival, in intense rivalry in oligopoly markets, to differentiate a product and to build up brand name or force other firms out of the market. However, the consequences are usually very similar, some firms will emerge as dominate and others will leave the market. This can have both good effects and bad effects as consumers will initially be happy with lower prices but when the long-run equilibrium comes into effect they will search harder for bargains. They will also see improvements made to the product and services. The surviving firms do well from the price war; they are likely to see higher demand for  their product, as there are fewer competitors. They also are likely to achieve greater productive efficiency and so greater profit margins. â€Å"Vigorous competition between firms is the lifeblood of strong markets and is a central to productivity and growth in the economy† International Competitiveness (2001) UK Labour GovernmentBibliography†¢Hardwick, Khan, Langmead (1994) An Introduction to Modern Economics 4th Edition†¢Lipsey, Forrest, Olsen (1993) An Introduction to Positive Accounts†¢Hunt, Sherman (1990) Economics An Introduction to traditional and radical views†¢Sloman, John (2000) Economics 4th Edition†¢Begg, David (2005) Economics 8th Edition†¢Sloman, John and Sutcliffe, Mark (2004) Economics for Business 3rd Edition†¢http://www.tutor2u.net [accessed 10th December]†¢http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki [accessed 10th December]†¢Price War, What is it good for? http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/koen.pauwels/pdf/Price%20War%20what%20is%20it%20good%20for.pdf [accessed 10th December]References†¢Excess capacity http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/ detail.asp?ID=3209 [accessed 10th December 2006]†¢Economics Handbook, David Gray and Peter Clarke†¢Pricing strategies http://www.tutor2u.net/bus iness/marketing/pricing_strategy_penetration.asp [accessed 10th December 2006]†¢International Competitiveness (2001) UK Labour GovernmentAppendixItem AAs the firm increases the supply through using the spare capacity, supply curve shifts left from S1 to S2 as a result the market clearing price falls but quantity increases. Shifts in supply curve http://www.auhy69.dsl.pipex.com/images/dd202/b2p.jpg [accessed 10th December 2006]Item BIn this diagram you can see that in an oligopoly market it is unfavourable for the oligopoly firms to change their price, so it becomes static. Price Competition in Oligopoly Market, Foundations of Economics Handbook (2006) David Gray and Peter ClarkeItem CA Movement along the demand curve will increase the quantity demanded but reduce selling price. Demand and Supply www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp [accessed 10th December 2006]Item DAs the price is set lower from P1 to P2

Answers to Questions About Personal Pronouns

Answers to Questions About Personal Pronouns Answers to Questions About Personal Pronouns Answers to Questions About Personal Pronouns By Mark Nichol Here are three queries from readers about proper use of personal pronouns, followed by my responses. 1. Why does the following sentence use my instead of me?: â€Å"My mother hates to spend money, that’s one thing; so if she can make a joke out of my not wanting to, then I’m in the clear because she can save money.† The phrase â€Å"not wanting to† describes a lack of a desire so wanting describes a thing, making the word a gerund a verb form that functions as a noun not a verb. Because the sentence assigns â€Å"not wanting to† to a person, it requires a possessive personal pronoun (my). Wanting, of course, can also be a verb, but the point of this sentence is the attitude, not the person: â€Å"My not wanting to† emphasizes the attitude, while â€Å"me not wanting to† focuses on the person. A similar example is the difference between â€Å"Can you imagine my wanting to wear that?† versus â€Å"Can you imagine me wanting to wear that?† where it is the person’s proposed inclination, not the person herself, that is the point of the sentence. 2. Is there a quick-and-dirty method for deciding which pronoun applies in a sentence like â€Å"We need to discuss you/your going to the prom†? Good question. I haven’t read of any test to determine which form of the pronoun is proper, but here’s one I just thought of (though I assume I’m not the first to do so): You must be able to provide, in a syntactically and grammatically correct form, more detail about what is being discussed replace wanting, in this case, with a phrase. For example: We need to discuss you request to go to the prom. (incorrect) We need to discuss your request to go to the prom. (correct) Therefore, your is the appropriate pronoun. (And that is true for the same reason that my, not me, is correct in the previous example.) 3. Which of the following versions of this awkward statement is correct?: â€Å"Glance at mine and Michael’s calendar to see if we have time for lunch.† â€Å"Glance at Michael’s and my calendar to see if we have time for lunch.† â€Å"Glance at our calendars to see if we have time for lunch.† â€Å"Michael and I have calendars. Glance at our calendars to see if we have time for lunch.† â€Å"Michael and I have calendars; glance at them to see if we have time for lunch.† The first choice is erroneous because removing â€Å"and Michael’s† results in â€Å"Glance at mine calendar to see if we have time for lunch.† Also, it’s considered good form to name another person before using a personal pronoun. Therefore, the best choice is the revision â€Å"Glance at Michael’s and my calendar to see if we have time for lunch† if you and Michael share a calendar. If you each have your own calendar, write or say, â€Å"Glance at Michael’s and my calendars to see if we have time for lunch† but only if â€Å"Glance at our calendar(s) to see if we have time for lunch† is unsatisfactory because your identities must be specified. The last two versions suggest overcorrection of Pythonesque proportions. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†"Have" vs "Having" in Certain ExpressionsWhile vs. Whilst

The Quasi-adjective Couple

The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple By Maeve Maddox Many English speakers cringe to hear the following construction: Jack has a couple tickets for the play. Counting myself among the cringers, I prefer the standard construction: Jack has a couple of tickets for the play. I prefer the latter usage because I cant accept couple as an adjective describing tickets. To me the dropped of comes across as slovenly speech. As a noun couple means a union of two. It had its origin as a hunting term for a leash for holding two hounds together. In modern usage it often means a man and woman united by love or marriage. Well, now it can also mean a man and man or a woman and a woman etc. As a verb couple means to tie or fasten together in pairs, or to join or connect in any way. The OED offers two main entries for couple, one as noun and one as a verb. The adjectival use is noted under the noun entry: quasi-adj. a couple more (..), two more (colloq.). All of the OED examples given for this colloquial use of couple are used with the word more: Just you hang on for a couple minutes more a couple more cops to hold them at a decent distance I wonder if I could dictate a couple more letters Its going to be a couple more months..before we decide what to do. The dropping of the of in expressions in which couple is followed by a word other than more is described as a U.S. colloquialism. The spelling coupla is also documented and given an entry as a U.S. colloquial form of couple of. One of the examples is from the writing of English writer Dorothy Sayers: 1934 Nine Tailors III. II. 276 Hed had nothing to eat..for a coupla days. It seems to me that the spelling coupla has a certain merit. At least it sounds like an adjective, whereas a couple tickets just sounds incorrect. Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats couple as a genuine adjective meaning two and gives the examples a couple more oaths and a couple nights ago. If couple in these examples means two, I wonder why the article a would be necessary: a two more oaths; a two nights ago. No amount of carping will alter the fact that the a couple tickets construction is here to stay, but you wont catch me using it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should Know15 Types of DocumentsDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts

Use Bond Energies to Find Enthalpy Change

Use Bond Energies to Find Enthalpy Change You can use bond energies to find the enthalpy change of a chemical reaction. This example problem shows what to do: Review You may wish to review the Laws of Thermochemistry and Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions before you begin. A table of single bond energies is available to help you. Enthalpy Change Problem Estimate the change in enthalpy, ΔH, for the following reaction: H2 (g) Cl2 (g) → 2 HCl (g) Solution To work this problem, think of the reaction in terms of simple steps: Step 1 The reactant molecules, H2 and Cl2, break down into their atoms H2(g) → 2 H(g)Cl2(g) → 2 Cl(g) Step 2 These atoms combine to form HCl molecules 2 H (g) 2 Cl (g) → 2 HCl (g) In the first step, the H-H and Cl-Cl bonds are broken. In both cases, one mole of bonds is broken. When we look up the single bond energies for the H-H and Cl-Cl bonds, we find them to be 436 kJ/mol and 243 kJ/mol, therefore for the first step of the reaction:​ ΔH1 (436 kJ 243 kJ) 679 kJ Bond breaking requires energy, so we expect the value for ΔH to be positive for this step.In the second step of the reaction, two moles of H-Cl bonds are formed. Bond breaking liberates energy, so we expect the ΔH for this portion of the reaction to have a negative value. Using the table, the single bond energy for one mole of H-Cl bonds is found to be 431 kJ: ΔH2 -2(431 kJ) -862 kJ By applying Hesss Law, ΔH ΔH1 ΔH2 ΔH 679 kJ - 862 kJΔH -183 kJ Answer The enthalpy change for the reaction will be ΔH -183 kJ.

The impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy Essay

The impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy - Essay Example The European Union has recognised the citizens of the member countries need to be responsible and generate a reliable supply of sustainable energy which is also cheaper to afford so that the living standards are maintained. Furthermore the union also advocates for the reduction of the negative effects of the fossil fuels on the climate and the regional environment at large. The EU policies are designed to create a competitive internal energy market that would offer quality and cheaper services. This would mean that there would be enhanced development of renewable energy sources and cut down reliance on imported energy sources. The European Union has targeted to use features that address energy education, conservation of energy, environment resource protection, energy policies, renewable energy, and distribution of energy (Mcgowan & Mansell 1992), dissemination of useful information and maintainability of energy from producers to consumers. The sustainable energy addressed includes solar power, wind power, geothermal power, tidal power, bio-fuels and wave power. Nuclear fission is some times included but it usually presents the risk of disposal problems and peak uranium levels (Haughton & Counsell 2004). The EU has The EU has not been taking the energy conservation as a serious issue until the approval of the European Energy Policy in the year 2005 in London. EU had to come up with a strategy to fund the research to exploit sustainable energy. The seventh frame program (FP7) was formed to finance the research that is underway from 2007 to 2013. The FP7 fell short of the main intention of its formation and is currently also funding Fusion research which will not achieve results on the climate change until beyond the year 2050 (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). Currently the strategic energy technology plan is in the lead and has put up plans for the EU technology procedure to develop and enhance the use of low carbon energy technologies. Some of the initiatives in the SET plan include the European Wind Initiative where turbine s will be used to generate energy. This is dependable on the daily whether variations though it can be used to provide base load electricity together with tidal wave energy. The European solar Initiative is also another type of energy that is dependent on whether and can be stored in water as heat, thermo-chemicals as ammonia and in rocks (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). European also works under the carbon dioxide, transport and storage initiative to address the requirements of safe production of the energy implying that there should be zero emission, the sustainable nuclear fission is very important and has been put under way so that the generation of the type IV reactors are achieved. Energy Research The European Union has established an energy research alliance to facilitate the capabilities of the EU energy research which would achieve world class performance thorough sharing of the global facilities. This strategy will be the major driving force to achieve low carbon technologies and help reduce global warming. The research alliance is the chief player in development of the new energies to ensure that European Union achieves the low carbon

Social Care Policies in Global Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Care Policies in Global Society - Essay Example The ageing of the population poses a remarkable challenge to all European welfare states and here the question of care becomes fundamental. Also the many changes taking place in family structures e.g., the increasing divorce rate, the growing number of children born out of marriage, the decreasing proportion of older people living together with their children, all generate new social assemblage where care has to be arranged in new ways. The high participation of women in paid work has contributed to changing care from 'just a women's business' to a major issue of public social policies. A functioning labor market presupposes functioning care arrangements. Even if a welfare state does not itself directly supply a broad variety and coverage of care services, it still remains responsible for providing the required support and guiding to enable families, voluntary and commercial organizations to provide the care that is needed.( Thomas ,1993)(1) Recently, it has become widely recognized that social care policies affect in various field of life of the people -children, family, workers, elderly people, disables, health of the people, education etc -whether it is globally or it is related to the particular countries. Wherever they exist, flexible care services are a major support for the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities. Under these circumstances, we shall analyse some of the fields where the social care policies applied by the government of UK and also we shall scrutinize how these policies differ from other European countries. To better understand, we shall take up the European country of Sweden to compare with UK.   Child care and Fostering   In Europe it is considered that the major cross-national differences are related to the extensiveness of the public sector role; the predominance of the education, health and social welfare systems in delivering the services; the proportion of children of different ages served by these programs; whether services are limited to the children of workingmothers; and the quality of the childcare provided. (Kamerman (1991, 180),).   

Topic selection and statement of problem Assignment

Topic selection and statement of problem - Assignment Example ystem can be defined as a personnel system applied in the process of hiring and promoting government employees based on merit to obtain the highest efficiency in public personnel functions. The application of the merit system in the public education sector has brought about unending controversies especially with the merit pay issue. The merit pay systems emphasizes on the fact that teachers are to be paid for their achievement in the classroom as opposed to their seniority or the number of ed-school credits that they have collected as it has been done from the 1920s period. Reformers in the education system including the government have emphasized that the merit pay will encourage high performing teachers to do well and drive the lazy ones away, thereby improving the performance of public schools. However, teachers’ unions have continually opposed the move stating that there is no objective way of measuring the classroom performance of a teacher. In addition to this, opposing views have pointed to the fact that the merit pay system has a high chance of failing especially because of issues of supervisor bias or favoritism (Gratz, 2009). The merit pay has proven to be productive especially in the private sector where it has been applied since the 1980s. The growth of international economic competition made U.S. corporations to measure indicial worker performance and introduced pay incentives based on work output to motivate employees to perform better. This practice has gone on up to the present day where new performance criteria have been implemented with multi-faceted compensation plans for the highly performing employees (Ritter & Barnett,  2013). The public education monopoly has resisted the merit pay proposal because of the fears that it may lead to biases and unfair treatment of teachers. However, pilot studies carried out, such as those done in Cincinnati’s public school system have proven successful. The merit pay system is relevant for the study of

Current Even Topic on the Current USA Market & How it May Affect Term Paper

Current Even Topic on the Current USA Market & How it May Affect Students & Other Cultures Around the World - Term Paper Example Students typically enjoyed the use of new and innovative products and participated in the new revolution which has revolutionized the world. What is critical about these technological innovations is the fact that they have radically changed the culture of not only US but of other countries also. By redefining the way personal computers and internet is used, Steve Jobs was able to drastically change the way we now interact with the technology. Such an unprecedented achievement therefore requires special attention and treatment because the loss of Steve Jobs is not only the loss of a visionary business leader but also of a great personality who have propelled the society in an entirely new direction. This paper will therefore discuss the news of Steve Jobs Death and how this death might have an impact on the students as well as other cultures of the world. Steve Jobs- a Brief Introduction Steve Jobs was born on 24th Feb 1955 in San Francisco, California and died on 5th Oct 2011 after h is long battle with cancer. He was the chief executive officer and co-founder of American company Apple Inc. He along with Steve Woznaik successfully developed and marketed one of the earliest commercially produced brands of personal computers. They were both also behind the invention of the graphical user interface for the operating system to be run on any personal computer besides developing a device called Mouse for clicking the GUI icons. Steve Jobs however shot to the fame when he re-took the charge of Apple Computers and completely revamped and revived what was a dying company. His business style was considered as that of a perfectionist because he always wanted his firm and products to be at the forefront of the competition. It was this quest for perfection which has ultimately resulted into the development of some of the best products in the market. (POTTER, CURRY and JAMES) Most notable products of Apple include a portable music and video player with the name of IPOD which could not only play the music on the go but can also play videos. His second most notable innovation and product development was the creation of a smart phone with the name of Apple IPHONE. This smart phone became an overnight sensation as based on touch screen technology; this phone has been sold in millions. Lastly, Apple’s major product rolled out was a touch screen tablet computer with the name of Apple IPAD. Steve Jobs’s death and impact on students and other cultures One of the key features of these products is based on the fact that these products have related allowed the freedom to the young students and consumers. The music, videos and internet surfing on the go has allowed a much needed freedom to everyone because it has made people to shy away from the use of desktop computers and use mobile computers and devices. Due to this change a relatively new breed of consumers emerged – mostly students- which found a new level of freedom. Traditionally music o r videos could be listened to or seen while using a desktop PC or other audio and video devices however, the rolling out of the Apple IPOD has traditionally changed the way we used to listen to music or videos. Apart from this, these products were relatively cheaper and came with different varieties thus adding to the overall choice of the students. These products were designed in such a manner that they allowed almost everyone with

Week 12 - reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 12 - reflection paper - Essay Example Another lesson I learnt is the need of engaging all the stakeholders of an organization into the management of its affairs. This is because it is important to collaborate in order to ensure that the policies of the organization are met. These stakeholders are the investors, the employees, partners of the organization, and regular clients of the organization. Due to this, I managed to acquire skills that gave me the capability to open a decorative company. For instance, my role in the formation of the company was to conduct market research, and identify the various needs of customers in relation to decorating their homes. In the formation of this company, I realized the need of consultations with my fellow investors for purposes of developing a policy that would effectively address the needs of the customers that I interviewed. On this basis therefore, I would give myself grade A. This is because I managed to apply the lessons I learnt from class, by forming a

Sports Event Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sports Event Management - Assignment Example Tourists are often people from regions outside the venue in which the activity is happening. However, there are incidents of domestic tourists i.e. people from the region within the venue of the tourist attracting event. Tourism is often a source of income to the organising organisation which may or may not be affiliated to the government of that specific country in which the event is taking place. Most of the time the planning of the tourist event involves a government organisation and in such a case the income gained goes to the government. If the event is organized by a non governmental organization then the organization is under obligation to pay tax to the government. Therefore regardless of who is organizing the event, the government earns revenue. The organisers of any tourism event need a strategy to maximize the revenue gained. An event that recurs maybe annually or after a number of years requires that the organisers make it attractive for the visiting tourists so as to encourage a possibility of them coming back again in future and their enjoyment may lead them to favourably sell the destination country (hosting a tourist event) to their friends and family back home. Security is yet another important thing that has to be taken into consideration to guarantee the safety of the visiting tourists. Some events have been cancelled in the past based on security concerns. The organizers have to guarantee the security of every individual attending the tourist event before they can be given the right to host the event. One such tourist event is the world cup 2006 which took place in Germany. Being the 18th instance of the world cup which happens after every four years, Germany was chosen to host the event. German won the right of hosting the event in 2000 and this means that they had six years to prepare for the event. In this event 198 soccer teams representing their nations took part in a qualification process that started in 2003 to see only 31 teams qualify for the finals in Germany (Coleman, 2006). Germany is ranked 7th tourist destination worldwide. The number of tourists visiting German keeps on increasing annually. For example the number of tourists visiting German rose from 23.6 million to 24.4 million in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The number of tourists visiting Germany annually is nothing though compared to France which receives more than twice what German receives annually. Germany therefore set out to utilize the worlds popular and biggest sporting event, world cup 2006, to market itself as a tourist destination. With more than a million visitors that were expected to visit German courtesy of the world cup event, Germany was more than jubilant to receive them because this was a sure boost to it tourism industry. Actually, according to the managing director Tourist Board, Petra Hedorfer, the event was projected to boost the German's domestic economy by more than 9 billion euros. This is extremely impressive for a short term event. The 2006 world cup event was to be more beneficial to German than to boost its domestic economy from the revenue that would come from the more than 1 million visitors most of which were soccer fans. The tourism board planned to use the event as a marketing tool. Through television, German intended to reach the more than 40 million viewers worldwide. This is relatively large audience for the German's tourism promotional advertisements and commercials. German intended to

Week 12 - reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 12 - reflection paper - Essay Example Another lesson I learnt is the need of engaging all the stakeholders of an organization into the management of its affairs. This is because it is important to collaborate in order to ensure that the policies of the organization are met. These stakeholders are the investors, the employees, partners of the organization, and regular clients of the organization. Due to this, I managed to acquire skills that gave me the capability to open a decorative company. For instance, my role in the formation of the company was to conduct market research, and identify the various needs of customers in relation to decorating their homes. In the formation of this company, I realized the need of consultations with my fellow investors for purposes of developing a policy that would effectively address the needs of the customers that I interviewed. On this basis therefore, I would give myself grade A. This is because I managed to apply the lessons I learnt from class, by forming a

Linguistics and Language Teaching. Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Language Teaching. Essay Introduction Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics. Linguistic theory has traditionally considered native speakers as the only reliable source of linguistic data (Chomsky 1965). It is therefore not surprising to ? nd only a limited number of works focusing on non-native speakers prior to the 1990s. The ?  rst attempt to put‘(non)nativism’ onto the centre stage of linguistic inquiry by challenging current undisputed assumptions on the matter was Paikeday’s (1985) The native speaker is dead , in which it is argued that the native speaker ‘exists only as a ? gment of linguist’s imagination’ (Paikeday 1985: 12). Paikeday suggested using the term ‘pro? cient user’ of a language to refer to all speakers who can successfully use it. A few years later, Rampton (1990) similarly proposed the term ‘expert speaker’ to include all successful users of a language. Davies (1991, 2003) further delved into ‘native speaker’ identity, and thus formulated the key question of whether a second language (L2) learner can become a native speaker of the target language. His conclusion was that L2 learners can become native speaker of the target language and master the intuition, grammar, spontaneity, creativity, pragmatic control, and interpreting quality of ‘born’ native speakers. Generally, English educated Malaysians of all ethnic and family language background speak and move alike. However, with the implementation of the national language policy of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language of Malaysia and as the language of instruction, (except in the cases of Chinese or Tamil medium primary schools), the status of English Language in Malaysia is different from the earlier years. The English language covered a continuum from first language through second language to a foreign language. Bahasa Malaysia is replacing English in most of its previous functions, but English may be expected to remain as a continuum from second language to foreign language according to the background and occupation of the speaker. In Malaysia, presently the use of English is less common than in Singapore and is likely to decrease steadily with the implementation of the national language policy. However, English still remains as a language of considerable importance and is still being used in various spheres of everyday activity. The role of English has changed from its earlier status as the precise language of the colonial era and the decades after the Second World War to a second language. At the moment, it is still considered as an international code to be used for diplomatic and commercial negotiations and as a language necessary in many fields of tertiary study and research. Not surprisingly, the non-native English language speakers among Malaysians make grammatical mistakes from time to time. These usually happened among Malaysian adult students and even among some Malaysian English teachers. 1. The transcript of a recorded conversation. The following excerpt is a recorded conversation among teachers and will be analysed of the mistakes made by some teachers during discussion. Our discussion was on the quality and effectiveness of a programme called ‘Program Penutur Jati’ or English Language Teacher Development Project (ELTP). Briefly, the aim of the project is to enhance the lower primary ESL teachers’ ability to plan and deliver quality English lessons based on the new National English Language Curriculum in 600 schools across East Malaysia. The teachers involved in discussion come from various races, ethnic groups, ages and teaching experiences. Kamel : That is my opinion. I don’t know yours. Ok. Chairperson : I agree . laugh Kamel : But , as I said just now. I don’t like that the fixture.. ok. For example aaaa as my mentor come to our school .. every Monday ok.. my class start at nine o’clock. 7. 30.. that mean one and half hour include the preparation for my lesson, so I don’t think that I have an ample time for me to prepare the things ok . Moreover, the one hour and one and half hour is the .. for all to prepare.. the whole week not only , the one day. So I don’t think that will be effective. Chairperson: Emmmm Kamel : So Chairperson : Did you tell him about it? Kamel: Aaaaaa So far not yet. Chairperson : Do you have the chance to talk about it. Kamel : Because, I don’t have any.. I don’t have the opportunity to.. Chairperson : Then, you should tell him. Kamel ; I was thinking. Why don’t the mentors like them to be .. have qualification in teaching, so that they can come to the trainee teachers training college rather than Chairperson : For your information, ahh Chairperson : Overall, it seems to be working with you Naga : The ideas (cough) is good and different he is friendly. Chairperson : So.. ahh. If supposing .. You have a mentor to this.. who doesn’t speak.. doesn’t speak like Morrocan. Alright Naemah : Yehhh Chairperson: Right.. Alright, if.. Chairperson: Who? Chairperson : Madam Soya? She is from where? Others : Bulgaria.. (together) Chairperson : Bulgaria? Does she have the accent? Chairperson: What do you think? Do you think | 2. Common grammatical mistakes and errors by non-native English speakers. The types of errors can be categorised into two: descriptive and surface structures. Descriptive errors include noun phrase, verb phrase and complex sentence. While surface structure errors include omission, addition, misinformation, misordering and blends. After analysing the recorded conversation, there are few mistakes or errors made by Mr. Kamel during the said discussion. a. The use of unmarked forms instead of marked forms is far more frequent, as can be seen in the examples as follows. * I don’t know yours. * I don’t know about you. * .. as I said just now. * .. as I have said just now. One possible cause of these errors is merely interlingual errors which is the result of mother tongue influences ‘Saya tak tahu awak punya’ and ‘ seperti yang saya kata tadi. ’ respectively. In his article, ‘A Role for the Mother Tongue’ in ‘Language Transfer in Language Learning’, Professor Corder (1981) reinvestigated the phenomenon and questions the term ‘transfer’. He suggests that mother tongue influence as a neutral and broader term to refer to what has most commonly been called transfer. Corder says that since most studies of error were made on the basis of the performance of learners in formal situations where it appears that errors related to mother tongue are more frequent, it was natural that an explanation of the phenomenon was of considerable concern to the applied linguistic. It was out of this concern that the whole industry of contrastive studies arose. He also claims that as far as the acquisition of syntactic knowledge is concerned, no process appropriately called interference takes place, if by that we mean that the mother tongue actually inhibits, prevents, or makes more difficult the acquisition of some feature of the target language. The term ‘interference’ is now most often used to mean what is no more than the presence in the learner‘s performance in the target language of mother-tongue-like features which are incorrect according to the rules of the target language. b. Obviously. Mr. Kamel has the problem in pronouncing certain words especially in the pronunciation of the initial sound of common words like the, there, then and that. It is also the middle consonant sound in feather and the final sound of bathe. These sounds are formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. The initial sound of that and the final sound of both are both voiceless dental. This problem arises because Mr Kamel’s tongue is not merely touches the teeth. Thus, his pronunciation of these particular words are incorrect. Besides, difficulty in phonology can caused by mother tongue interference. Eltrug (1984) affirmed that mother tongue interference can contribute to a large number of pronunciation errors made by students. An English sound does exist in the native language, but not as separate phonemes. This simply means the first language speakers do not perceive it as a distinct sound that makes difference to meaning. For example The sound /? / does exist in Malay, but whether the vowel is long or short does not make any difference in meaning. For instance, the English phonemes/? / and /i:/ differ very much in meaning as in the words ‘leave’ and ‘live’, ‘sheep’ and ‘ship’. The great amount of vocabulary of English really makes the second language learner suffer in reading. There is a lot of words unknown and the most confusing point is even the second language learner know the meaning but they can’t really understand the meaning of the whole sentence. It is because an English word gives different impressions in different situations. This makes things so confusing about the meaning of the word. Grammatical interference is defined as the first language influencing the second in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determinants, tense and mood. Interference at a lexical level provides for the borrowing of words from one language and converting them to sound more natural in another and orthographic interference includes the spelling of one language altering another. In Malay grammar, it does not require one to have any form of determiner in front of instruments like computer, piano, internet. English grammar, however, requires the instruments mentioned above (computer, piano, internet) to be preceded by determiners and if neither a possessive determiner nor a demonstrative determiner is used, the use of either a definite article or an indefinite article is necessary. Thus, the ungrammatical sentences in could be the result of interference of the cultural transfer from Malay language structure on English. Erroneous form| Correct form| She plays piano while I sing. Malay: Dia bermain piano sementara saya menyanyi. | She plays the piano while I sing | She stay at home. Malay : Dia tinggal di rumah | She stays at home. | Table 1 : Examples of interference from the learners’ first language. c. Subjects also exhibited errors in subject-verb agreement as is shown in the examples as follows: * Every Monday, my class start at nine o’clock. * Every Monday, my class starts at nine o’clock. The omission of â€Å"-s† can be attributed to the fact that Bahasa Malaysia does not require verbs to agree with subjects. However, the ending free form is generalised for all persons to make the learning task easier and this is a common intralingual made by people with diverse native languages like Mr Kamel. 3. Causes and sources of errors and mistakes Interlingual errors are the result of mother tongue influences. Learners transfer/borrow some forms but not others due to two factors such as proto-typicality and language distance (Kellerman, 1979). Malay learners of English commonly make errors in negative sentences. For example: Adryna no coming today. [Adryna tak datang hari ini. ] Such errors are common in pre-verbal negation using no, the same negative construction as in their L1. In order to determine whether transfer is the cause for the occurrence of errors, James (1998), demonstrates that learners with a particular L1 make an error that those with a different L1 do not. He provides a useful summary of these strategies which includes the following; a. False analogy b. Misanalysis c. Incomplete rule application exploiting redundancy d. Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions e. System-simplification It is not clear which strategy is responsible for a particular error. Errors can also be viewed as ‘natural’ or as ‘induced’. For example: a. He played football yesterday. b. He goed home at six. c. He drinked milk. d. He eated dinner. e. He sleeped at eight. Conclusion To conclude, learners’ errors are a part of the learners’ language learning process. Hence, teachers should not penalise students for the errors they made. Instead, teachers should note those errors and devise ways to assist learners to overcome their problems in language learning. It is difficult to decide whether grammatically or acceptability should serve as the criterion for error analysis. If grammatically is chosen, an error can be defined as ‘breach of the rule of the code’ (Corder, 1967). Defining errors in terms of grammatically also necessitates giving consideration to the distinction between overt and covert error: In the field of methodology, there are two schools of thought with regard to learners’ error. Firstly, the school which maintains that if we were to achieve a perfect teaching method, the errors would have never be committed and therefore the occurrence of errors is merely a sign of inadequacy in our teaching techniques. The philosophy of the second school is that we live in an imperfect world and consequently errors will always occur in spite of our very best teaching and learning  methods. One effect has been perhaps to shift the emphasis away from a preoccupation with teaching towards a study of learning. The differences between the two are clearly defined: that the learning of the mother tongue is natural, whereas, we all know that there is no such inevitability about the learning of a second language; that the learning of the mother tongue is part of the whole maturational process of the child, whilst learning a second language normally begins only after the maturational process is complete. A child’s incorrect utterances can be interpreted as being evidence that he is in the process of acquiring language and the errors provide these evidences. Brown and Frazer (1964), point out that the best evidence a child possesses construction rules is the occurrence of systematic errors, since when the child speaks correctly, it is quite possible that he is only repeating something that he has heard. In the case of the second language learner, it is known that we do know some knowledge of what the input has been which we call as the syllabus. The simple fact of presenting a certain linguistic form to a learner in the classroom does not necessarily qualify it for the status of input, for the reason that input ‘is what goes in’, not ‘what is available’ for going in, and we may reasonably suppose that it is the learner who controls this input. This may well be determined by the characteristics of his language acquisition mechanism and not by those of the syllabus. References Mariam Mohd Nor, Abdul Halim Ibrahim, Shubbiah, R (2008). OUM-Linguistics and Language Teaching. Seri Kembangan, Selangor. Open University Malaysia. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161-70. Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ames, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. London: Longman. Kellerman, E. (1979). Transfer and non-transfer: Where are we now? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2: 37-57. Eltrug, N. S. (1984). Analysis of the Arab Learners Errors in Pronunciation of English Utterances in Isolation and Context. Ph. D Dissertation. The University of Kansas. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Paikeday, T. (1985). The native speaker is dead! Toronto: Paikeday Publishing. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the ‘native speaker’: Expertise, af? liation, and inheritance. ELT Journal 44. 2, 97–101. Davies, A. (1991). The native speaker in applied linguistics . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Davies, A. (2003). The native speaker of World Englishes. Journal of Pan-Paci? c Association of Applied Linguistics 6. 1, 43–60

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization The aim of this paper is to identify all there is to know about training, the impact it has on both firms and employees and then, the reason why, although it is beneficial provision to business growth, still some organisations and individuals are not willing to accept the idea of investing in training and development. In order to come to that claim, it is necessary to mention first the cost-effectiveness of training and development, by which methods it can be reinsured, and the involvement of training in an organisations prosperity and even more, when it has to do with the integration in a international market. To begin properly, it should be noticed that training at any level and in whatever form this can take, could have only positive aspect. Considering that, training means investing in people to enable them perform better and to empower them to make the best use of their natural abilities (Armstrong, 1996; 2003). Through the practice of a range of activities, it is believed that learning is an important clue here, as a means for developing a high performance culture and achieving businesss competitive advantage (Pieper, 1990, Salaman, 1992, Tyson, 1996). This appear clearly from the below definitions of training. According to Heevy and Noon (2001), training is the process of changing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge of employees with the purpose of improving their level of competence. It is a planned process, usually involving a series of stages where incremental improvements can be identified. It takes two main focus 1) on the job training whereby an employee observing the tasks, being guided through them by experts, and then practising them. 2) Off the job training whereby an employee is instructed away from the place of work, either in a training room on the premises or at a separate location. This training is more often theory based and might even take the form of self learning packages (Heevy and Noon, 2001). Furthermore, as Manpower Services Commission defined training in 1981, it is the following: A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the w ork situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current and future manpower needs of the organization. Seeing the definition of the training from the perspective of education as Smith put it: Development refers to the growth of realization of a persons ability, through conscious or unconscious education, where education is activities which aim at developing the knowledge, skills, moral values and understanding required in all aspects of life, rather than a knowledge and skill relating to only a limited field of activity (Smith, 1992). Besides the definition of training, the mention of the potential benefits for both employees and firms and from which methods these are derived, is essential in order to understand why training is so important for the business (Lonr, 1990, Murray, 2007). It is worthwhile to point that it cannot be any development without the training procedure. As it has already been mentioned, training aims to develop employees competences and to improve their performance but also, to reduce the learning time needed for employees starting in a new job on appointment, transfer or promotion and to ensure that they will become fully competent as quickly and economically as possible (J. Swart et al, 2005). When a training programme being used effectively, then the benefits for employees are numerous and are illustrated on firms performance. It also helps to manage changes and provide to employees the knowledge and skills they need to adjust with new situations and work demands, as well as to adopt new t echnologies and methods, to be innovative (Armstrong, 2003). In that way, employees motivation is increased and the same goes to efficiencies in processes resulting in firms financial gain while employees turnover is being reduced. Highly trained workforce provides higher levels of service to customers which enhance companys image (Mullins, 2007). The cost-effectiveness of training is a vital element because it can help the line manager to establish credibility, to reveal the value of the training by achieving both operational savings and increases in firms revenue; then, enforce the organization to look training more as an investment and less as a dispensable cost of operation. By training their employees, companies maximize the potential of this investment (Campbell, 1995). In order to improve the skills of its human resource, an organization can either train its existing employees or recruit pre-skilled labor forces that have been trained elsewhere (Booth, 1998; Jameson, 2000). The importance of investment in training and development is matter of whether a firm is treating its employees as a resource or as a cost (Tysson, 1996; Long, 1990; Jackson, 1989; Jameson, 2000). By exploiting the meaning of each word that consists Human Resource Management; human implies the workforce, resource implies investment, management implies development (Sisson, 1989). It is demonstrated that the consideration of human asset as investment for the firm through strategic development can maximize its potential, and the training is the tool that can provide it. So, companies with unwillingness to consider employees as investment, can simply be called not HRM practicing. In adverse, companies reluctant to invest in their human resources, rely on a short-term human asset, which, mainly, is low skilled training, less loyalty to its work and easy replaceable due to the lower cost of loss for the firm (Harzing, 1995; Jameson, 2000; Mullins, 2007). Most managers recognize the vital role that continuous learning plays in todays marketplace in order to maximize companys competitive advantage (Harzing, 1995; Gordon, 1991). However, some managers are reluctant to invest in their employees and train them. The reasons why is happening are variable. The market from its own, in which each company is doing business, deduct any potential training (Booth, 1994; Graven, 1998). More specific, the market is divided to the primary labour market, where jobs tend to be supplied by large, highly profitable firms with high capital to labour ratio and high productivity. Here, production is usually large scale with high investment in technology with more opportunities for training. The secondary labour market includes small firms with low capital to labour ratio, low productivity and small scale production. In these firms, wage and skill levels tend to be low, employment is unstable and training opportunities are usually limited. Significantly, small businesses experience problems in providing training for both owner-managers and workers. (Curran et al., 1996) Reasons for not providing such training are that companies do not believe in the effectiveness of training and they do not consider it as a big component for a better performance. Hence, when profits are under pressure or other developments are on stake, the most common reaction is to cut training fund. Also, recruiting skilled labor is more economical than practicing training and development policies. But they neglect that teamwork, employees initiatives, people talents are all part of the financial model and when these figures are maximized the same goes with the business economic growth (Bentley, 1991; Campell, 1995) Traditional styles of management based on authoritarian, non-participatory tenets of employees and managers who have grown up in a system like this, is unlikely to be ready to abandon familiar tried and trusted methods and be welcomed to a better trained, self reliant and questioning human force (Sisson, 1989). Some of them claim that there is limited time for the practice of training program. Indeed, a training program to be effective needs a lot of both employers and employees time and commitment, it also may take all employees job-life to be efficient. Job conditions change constantly in the business environment, so the continuous learning is required but nobody has the state or the emotional strength to be in a training position all the time. In that point, there are two categories that can be distinguished (Armstrong, 2003; Murray, 2007; Currie, 1997). Employers that do not believe in the importance of the process and employees that do not find interest to be trained, specifically if they have obtained a high image in the firm and they are known for their distinctive qualifications. Contrary to that, some employees want to develop their skills and knowledge whereby they will contribute to their companys success (Keep, 1989). They want training but their managers do not want to be confronted by this task, they are unwillingness to try, and simply they avoid it. From the perspective of the length of a training program, which could take weeks, months or even the entire career of the employees it can be a major expense especially for firms with traditionally high turnover. Besides, the common belief that is the responsibility of the school system to train people to be workers and is the workers responsibility to learn how to do a job so they can get hired is another reason why employers not practice their manpower (Collin, 2003). Government regulations, insurance coverages, and common sense dictate relevant training that should be given to every employee. Still, few employers do not find it significant to train their human force (Collin, 2003; Noon, 2001). A discouragement of not training is, also, the gap that arises when trainees are transferred from the training course to a job, to apply their knowledge and skills in practice. As long as they are in a training centre, they are sheltered from the realities of the rough and tumble workplace. For managers and team leaders, the problem of transferring from learning situation to the real conditions may be even more difficult because most of management training tends to deal with relatively abstract concepts like motivation and leadership, and the connection between what is being learned in the class room and what is really happening in work, may not always be apparent. That is why the training must always be compatible to employees needs (Armstrong, 2003, Noon, 2001). Another reason of not practicing training can be regarded the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of a training program. Measuring cost of training needs a lot of efforts from the senior manager because apart from training results are also other interacting variables such as administrative costs, relocation, course design and material costs that have to be taken into account. Therefore are different methods that can be used from the manager in order to derive an acceptable figure for the effectiveness of training course. Those methods vary from sector and companys size. Hence manager has to have the ability to choose the one, which fit to the business needs. Any failure to the accounting of training-cost can mislead to wrong results, to an ineffective training proposal and that will discourage the company to practice training (Murley, 2007; Belcour, 1995t; Gordon, 1991). Moreover, it can be said that firms are not invested in training because of the flexible working environment. They claim that investing in people can be a boomerang for their business competitive advantage, as it is likely employees will leave the company and transfer their knowledge into competitors firm. Despite the likelihood of this event, employers have to understand that the key for organizations success is the human factor. By investing in human asset training, they invest in employees commitment to the firm and more as the firm invests in the development of their skills (Armstrong, 2003; Craven 1994; Hall, 1991). It cannot be ignored the providence of the HRDF, a levy reimbursement scheme establishing in 1992. Under HRDF, employers pay a payroll contribution of one percent and are eligible to claim a portion of allowable training expenditures up to the limit of their total levy for any given year. The reimbursement rates vary by sector and type of training. Empirical analysis showed that firms least likely to claim from HRDF are small firms and firms providing no training or only informal training. Important factors that employers cite as inhibiting their training: the limited resources available for it, the use of mature technology with low skill requirements, the adequacy of skills provided by schools, and the availability of skilled workers who can be hired from other firms (Tan and Gill, 1998). Generally, levy schemes have led to an increase in quantity of training. In some countries levy schemes have had some impact on increasing training. A common feature of schemes in which training has increased has been the fact that an effective system is in place for administering the levy both for levy collection as well as administration of grants. On the other hand, there were very complicated rules governing training requirements for the levy and the criteria for approval, dissuade employers from investing in it (Edwards, 1997). Firms which may have otherwise invested more in training, tend to reduce their effort to the level required by law in order to receive the minimum rebate or tax credit. There is also some evidence which suggests that if firms are reluctant to train, they organize training which is not relevant to their needs in order to qualify for the rebate or tax credit. Additionally, smaller firms may be less likely to train their workers as they feel that costs are significant and the training which is provided may not be relevant to their needs. Even if training is provided, the bureaucracy involved in persuing reimbursements dissuades firms from submitting claims for reimbursements. (Herschbach, 1993). Concluding, this paper attempted to define the reasons why there are organizations that are reluctant to see their manpower as an important asset in business success and so invest on them and train them. Now, the interplay between the benefits that are derived from any form of training and the cost-effectiveness of training for the firms is seemed to be more clear. In general, companies which operate in the increasingly competitive international market were forced to attach training and development as equal to the vital acknowledgement that the training needs are more like an investment rather than a cost and that, partly due the cultural diversity that the international integration occurs and partly because of the rapid economic and technological growth. All these also reflect the companies outlook on how important is the quality of those they recruit, because a companys image is as good as is its personnel and it is vital to select and train the best. (Upton, 1987) Unfortunately, i n many cases this process is considered by many managers as meaningless, too time consuming, a bureaucratic exercise only, or even as something that intervene to their departments work. For some organizations, the maintenance and the wellbeing of the equipment and machinery seems more important than to make an effort to the wellbeing and development of their own employees (Sun, 2001). But as it has been already highlighted, the key for success, even profit, for any firm at any size is its human asset and to invest in them infer to business future (Hall, 1991, Armstrong, 2003).

Herman Melvilles Moby Dick Essay -- Moby Dick Melville Death Essays

Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" In Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, a recurring theme of death is seen throughout the book. A coffin appears at the beginning of the book and at the end of the book, Ishmael sees a large oil painting that foreshadows and represents many things and events that follow in the book, and Fedallah makes a prophecy talking about hearses and predicts Ahab’s death. Ishmael stays at The Sprouter-Inn, whose proprietor was a man named Peter Coffin. In the end, Ishmael clings to a coffin for over a day until rescued by another boat. The picture Ishmael sees contains many things seen later in the book, such as a whale and a horrible storm. Fedallah’s prophecy of hearses and hemp prove to be true.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Moby Dick begins and ends with a coffin. At the beginning of the book, Ishmael talks to Peter Coffin, the proprietor of The Sprouter-Inn, for a place to stay. He does not have any open rooms so Ishmael is forced to room with Queequeg whom he does not meet until after he goes to sleep. When Queequeg walks in, Ishmael says, â€Å"Landlord, for God’s sake, Peter Coffin! Landlord! Watch! Coffin! Angels! save me!† (Melville, 23) This quotation foreshadows the event later in the story when Ishmael will again need a coffin’s help. In the epilogue, it is described, â€Å"the coffin life-buoy shot lengthwise from the sea, fell over, and floated by my side. Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft dirge-like main.† (Melvil...

Death Penalty :: essays research papers

This paper will fallow the process of a capital trial from arrest to execution. It will discus the aspects of federal and state law, trial, appeal, and executions. It will go into further detail on arraignment and the trail details of defense and sentencing. The federal law on capital punishment begins with the constitution, which states in the eighth amendment of the bill of rights that, no person shall be subject to cruel or unusual punishment. Despite this and for the reason that it is the government that decides what is cruel and unusual, capital punishment is still federally legal. Under the united states code, title eighteen there are certain crimes that can be punished by death. Section thirty-four of the said title and code says that any crime that results in the death of any person can be punished by death. Section 1512 deals with witnesses, victims, or informants. It states that anyone who kills or atemps to kill another person with the intent to prevent the attendance or t estimony at trail may be punished by death. Section 2332 states that who ever kills a national of the united states while the national is outside the united states is subject to death if the killing is murder as it is defined. Section 36 states that participants in any continuing criminal enterprise dealing with controlled substances may be punished by death. Section 1992 states that whoever willfully derails, disables, or recks any train used in interstate or foreign commerce can be punished by death. Finally section 831 states that anyone involved in prohibited transactions involving nuclear material can be subject to the death penalty. State laws in capital punishment defer from state to state and vary in a wide range of crimes for which it can be imposed. This range usually contains one or more of the fallowing, murder of a law enforcement officer, vehicular homicide while under the influence, contract killings, felony murder, first degree murder, or any murder. No matter the la ws of the state are certain states have and will always use their own discretion in handing down a death sentence. This means that for what ever reason, be it social make up, religious make up, or the simple fact that a death sentence may inhibit the prosecution, in that the jury may be hesitant to take a life no matter what the crime, the death sentence is not always used in all cases that it is allowed in.

Obama’s Education Promise, a Rhetorical Analysis Essay

â€Å"Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.† – Aristotle Today, 314.5 million people call themselves Americans. Each of them, with God permitting, will make the journey to old age. However, in this huge set of individuals, roughly fifteen percent of adults over the age of twenty-five have not received a high school diploma (â€Å"Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009†). By itself, this percentage feels rather small, and so we as Americans pride ourselves in our educational system. After crunching the numbers, however, this measly percentage actually represents twenty-nine million Americans, twenty-nine million individuals who lack an accomplished high school education. Aristotle would be displeased to say the least. In 2008, then senator Barack Obama delivered a speech to the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts titled â€Å"What’s Possible for our Children.† Though intended for his election campaign, the speech also reflected this introduction’s attitude, calling attention to the gaping holes in American education. More specifically, however, Obama promoted educational reform based on a three-point platform: â€Å"fixing† No Child Left Behind (an act which encourages state standardized tests to measure and regulate primary and secondary education in the United States), encouraging teacher reforms and furthering teaching employment, and increasing opportunities for minor ethnicities and other disadvantaged students. In retrospect, his speech met with great optimism and is often quoted by leaders in education. To explain this speech’s success more fully requires an analysis of Obama’s seasoned rhetorica l strategies, of ethos, logos, and pathos—respectively, as well as an explanation of how each of these three strategies establishes an effective speech. Obama sprinkles ethos, or ethical proof, throughout his three-point platform. In doing so, he gears his audience’s attention towards his assessment of the ethical standards in American education to inspire  motivation and change. For example, in the introduction, Obama states, â€Å"This kind of America is morally unacceptable for our children† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†). Through this statement, Obama assumes the role of an ethical mediator; he creates situated ethos whereby, as a presidential candidate, he has the power to tell us as a society where we are correct and where we can improve. By equating American education with moral irresponsibility, he calls society to consider the issues he addresses later in his speech. One such issue is No Child Left Behind, his first premise. In discussing the problems within the act passed by former President Bush in 2001, Obama repeats the phrase â€Å"we must† almost religiously. Must is a strong word choice; it implies an obligation to something. As an audience member, we make the connection that the obligation is precisely what Obama stated in the introduction. We must make our educational standards higher for our children; thus, we become motivated to fix No Child Left Behind. Likewise, in his second point, which promises teacher reforms and employment, Obama begins with a simple commonplace: Individuals who do good jobs should be rewarded. Using the ethos from his introduction, he concludes that teachers who do good jobs should be rewarded, which gives motivation for teachers to do well. Obama even goes so far as to inspire change in education among ethnic minorities, his final point. In this point, he calls upon hope—hope that disadvantaged students will one day rise from the bottom with his new learning opportunity programs. His optimism and confidence calls us, his audience, to change. Obama further generalizes this notion of change during his conclusion when he states, â€Å"We have to hold ourselves accountable† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†). By holding the audience accountable, educational reform becomes both a private and public matter. Therefore, the audience, 314.5 million Americans, feel more personally compelled, motivated even, to follow his advice—to change No Child Left Behind, to reward teachers for good work, and to give more opportunities to disadvantaged students—to reform much of the current educational model, in effect. Logos and pathos, however, are still needed to solidify such an undertaking. Realizing he is delivering a speech about education, an intellectual topic, Obama adds several textbook examples of logos, or logical proof, to his  speech. Simply put, after he explains the unacceptable educational current model to his audience using ethos, he uses logos to depict the reality of how unacceptable the system is. In his introduction, for instance, Obama equates knowledge to the â€Å"currency† of the Information Age, stating that an individual should use his or her knowledge to â€Å"sell† himself or herself to a career position. A cause-and-effect relationship soon follows to support this extended metaphor: â€Å"If the more than 16,000 Colorado students who dropped out of high school last year had only finished, the economy in th[e] state would have seen an additional $4.1 billion in wages over these students’ lifetime† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech). Logically, we as the audience then deduce that education , in reality, is profitable. It is in our interest to be well-educated, but as of now, we are losing money from being uneducated. From there, Obama makes a more explicit logical deduction to support his first premise. If we as Americans want to help the economy, we should fix No Child Left Behind. His logical reasoning for fixing the program stems from its seemingly insufficient economic policy, which stifles the paychecks of teachers who we as a society want to inspire. Because of such, he suggests that, while No Child Left Behind’s goals are noble on paper, its functional mechanics are illogical and unacceptable in the real world. By doing so, he gains more support from educators and economists. Obama also uses logos in his third premise, albeit implicitly. Back in the introduction, Obama quotes the following from Thomas Jefferson, a well-respected president from American history: â€Å"[T]alent and virtue, needed in a free society, should be educated regardless of wealth or birth† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech). Obama knows that the general public will agree with anything Thomas Jefferson says because he is so well respected in American history. Therefore, when he discusses the current issues of ethnic minorities, he conjures support from a broader spectrum of Americans because he is in accordance with Thomas Jefferson. In that respect, he is able to use logos as a means to show the unacceptable truth behind the educational system—to showcase the relationship between revenue and education as well as highlight student-teacher discrimination—to the widely diverse American people. Among all the strategies Obama uses in his speech, pathos, or emotional  proof, is the most commonly used, especially in the introduction and conclusion. The reason for this distinct placement of pathos is elementary: In order to grab the audience’s attention and illustrate the realities of America’s educational system, of which both processes require ethos and logos, Obama must connect to the audience’s emotions—to bring about changes in thought and heart. His most effective strategy that does so is his appeal to children. Countless numbers of times, Obama urges us as older Americans to provide better education for our posterity. By doing so, he uses our unconditional love for children, perhaps seeing our own children in other children, in a way that grabs our attention so that we may listen and critically think about what he has to say regarding education. On top of using the obligation to children as the basis for attention, Obama also invokes imagery during his oration. An example of this imagery is found in his third premise: â€Å"When they [students at disadvantages] look around and see that no one has lifted a finger to fix their school since the 19th century, when they are pushed out the door at the sound of the last bell—some into a virtual war zone—is it any wonder they don’t think their education is important? Is it any wonder that they are dropping out in rates we’ve never seen before?† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†) The very thought of a neglected child, or a child in a â€Å"war zone† for that matter, tugs at the hearts in the audience. By using such imagery in the third premise, the audience is helpless, for not many people can resist such raw emotion. The audience’s helplessness makes them vulnerable to changes in thought. In this case, the audience’s thoughts will largely favor Obama’s intent to dampen the disadvantages of ethnical minorities and mentally handicapped students. To conclude his emotional journey and to leave his audience emotionally â€Å"fulfilled,† Obama taps into the biggest patriotic commonplace in America—the â€Å"American dream.† He takes the one idealistic value that all 314.5 million Americans hold in common and equates the chance to educate oneself with that core value. It leaves a powerful, lasting impression on his audience and, alongside all the other pathetic strategies mentioned previously, heightens the audience’s interest in investing in educational reform. Hence, after looking extensively at all these different strategies at work,  is it any wonder why the speech did not meet with such critical acclaim? Ethos persuaded us as the audience that our educational system was ethically unacceptable. Logos described the current state of the educational system in a way that made us want to change it to Obama’s standards. Pathos sweetened our perception of that change, making us believe that educational reform will correct the current unacceptable model. Together, the three major strategies mixed in just the right proportions to yield instantaneous changes in audience perception and evaluation of America’s educational standards. It created waves which propagated Obama’s educational reform ideals to all parts of the United States. In fact, these waves continue to ripple throughout the American political arena; one needs to look no further than the 2012 presidential debates to confirm such a statement. Ultimately, education is on the minds of everyone, as well it should be. True as it is to say that agriculture started civilization, it is equally as true to say that education started modern civilization. Therefore, we as citizens of the entire world should be concerned with the development of our education, for when we lose our education, we lose our modern civilization. Aristotle is correct. As humanity matures, it ages. How does humanity mature? It educates itself. Without education the future remains uncertain, for there are no provisions to account for the uncertainty. As Americans, all 314.5 million of us would like to believe that the future of our nation is determined to stay. To claim such a belief with any amount of certainty, however, requires all 314.5 million individuals to be educated. Until then, we continue to build provisions for the hazy future that awaits us. Works Cited â€Å"Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009.† U.S. Census Bureau. Feb. 2012. Digital file. â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech.† denverpost.com. 2 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Oct. 2012.