Home of Quality †Uniquely Crafted Papers to Help You Improve Skills

Home of Quality – Uniquely Crafted Papers to Help You Improve Skills Just like any other paper, writing an introduction for a controversial essay requires that you must start with an effective opening statement. You have to begin with problems at hand while giving background information in details. Importantly, you must ensure to put the main argument so that your audience can be certain of your ideas. Most good controversial essay topics are those that are logical and are persuasive in a way. Before you begin scripting, consider the following 4 tips. Begin with a hooks statement. This part will get your reader interested and continue reading your content. If it is boring, he or she may switch off and even stop reading through the rest of the paper. To write this, you can start with a personal story or quotes. Also, statistics can serve the same purpose. For example, when writing about ‘why abortion should be legalized,’ you can start by giving factual data. So, this is one of the fascinating topics for controversial essay you can often consider and write an interesting fact about it. This concept will grab the attention of a reader, and he or she will be interested in knowing your claims in the paragraphs below. Second, you need to include a piece of interesting background information about the issue. This part will enable the audience to be able to understand the problem you are trying to present and that this information gives historical relevant facts that can be essential to explaining and putting forward points more logically. If you feel overwhelmed, join us, and we will assign the best writer for your prompt. Third, writing a good thesis statement is a recipe for a quality paper. It is often written in one single statement that sums up the main argument you are trying to portray. So, it should assert your central position on that given issue, and in most cases, a standpoint that your audience will seemingly argue against. Therefore, in this case, it cannot be a fact. For example, if you are given a topic to write about war, you can write a thesis like this. â€Å"President Trump should resign because he is not capable of commanding the American Soldiers, given that there is a looming presence of threats from the Middle East.† Fourth, there are things you ought to ignore. Do not include analysis of what is in the body at the introduction. Here, you only set up your view and then lay evidence to support it. Even if the introduction is a road map, you should avoid statements that explicitly denote approach; you are going to use to write your points. It does not give crucial pertinent data on your topic. We have many topics to choose from. You can consider the following samples. The government should ban the manufacture and selling of tobacco Every country should activate the death sentence Smoking should be permitted in public areas People should be allowed to vote from age 13 The government should ban energetic drinks All clubs should close at 11 P.M. Technological advancements will reach its peak in 2050 We have numerous samples of easy controversial essay topics that you can often pick from. You only need to make a point of contacting our support team for assistance. We will write your paper for you based on the given question. How to Choose an interesting controversial essay topics In most cases, a student may not know how to select a subject once he or she has been given a question. Well, we know this a significant challenge for students. As a result, we often advise students to consider subjects that they feel comfortable to work on. With this approach, one will be able to give an account of events in a more logical manner. The best controversial essay topics often take a stand that the audience least expects. So, you must choose one that interests you the most. It is pragmatic to do a thorough research firsthand because this will enable you to cover a broad range of subject on the issue, to select effective college controversial essay topics, Shallow research on the subject may limit your approach on the topic at hand. About Our Controversial Essay Topics for College Students We have vast examples of topics to choose from. Apart from selecting, we have writers that can help you write your paper at the most affordable rate. Our professionals will give you some good topics for an controversial essay to help you get started. There are many reasons why you need to choose us. First, we have highly qualified writers who can work on your controversy essays. Second, we customize the content to produce papers that are free from plagiarism and are of high quality. Therefore, joining us will help you improve your skills by giving you topics to write an controversial essay on, and even craft a quality paper for you in time. Our service is different from other firms in various ways. Other platforms will charge you high prices for writings, but we often offer affordable rates, that is congruent to the question and size of work. Also, other companies will sell you a sample essay that was written previously. This approach, in most case, results in plagiarism. Knowing the dire consequences of this vice, we do not want any of our students to tread that path of pain. As a result, we give an individualized approach to every paper to enhance its content and give it a unique outlook. The assigned writer will do thorough research before starting. There are many reasons to join. They are not limited to the merits you get, such as fast delivery, low prices, quality, and free and unlimited revision. They as well include significant bonuses in your set up account which you can use to order a paper. This is uncharacteristic of other writing platforms. Most firms do not offer this incentive to their clients. Therefore, join us today and get these benefits. You can reach us through phone calls, email, or direct live chat the support team. Note that our customer service is online 24/7 and you can ask anything of importance. Alternatively, fill the order forms so that we can start working on your paper immediately.

Inculcate

Inculcate Inculcate Inculcate By Maeve Maddox Judging by the Google Ngram Viewer, the verb inculcate has declined considerably in popularity in recent decades. So, apparently, has understanding of its meaning. inculcate: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions; urge on or fix in the mind; to cause (a person) to become impressed or instilled with something. Because inculcate is a transitive verb, someone or something inculcates something on, upon, in, into, or to someone: Teachers inculcate irregular verb conjugations in children by drilling the forms. Ministers inculcate religious principles into their congregations by way of sermons. Unscrupulous rulers inculcate feelings of helplessness and inferiority in their subjects. Inculcate derives from a Latin word meaning â€Å"to stamp on or grind in with the heel.† The â€Å"culc† part comes from Latin calx, â€Å"heel.† The OED shows two examples of the word being used in the literal sense of treading something underfoot, but the figurative meaning of â€Å"persistent repetition in order to instill something on the mind† is the meaning with which the word has been used since the 17th century. Until now. The following passages, gathered from articles written by bloggers and professional reviewers, use inculcate as if it means something like â€Å"infiltrate,† â€Å"fit in,† â€Å"blend in,† or â€Å"become a part of†: Cowed by forces of nature, disadvantaged by bad luck (lost anchors, broken generators), and hampered by their shared malaise in finding refuge from their inner demons, Patterson and Lang both try to inculcate themselves into the lives and cultures of the Pacific Islands Though Buford is trying to inculcate himself into the society, he himself is hurting his chances by labeling the people who form the society as â€Å"thugs.† According to the new tell-all, Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spotothe actress, â€Å"desperate to make herself worthy, studied French and took opera lessons,† all the while trying to inculcate herself into his dynastic tree. In an episode of the television drama Bones, where Booth and Bones catch a cannibal, Bones says she can intellectually understand the evolution of cannibalism and might even consent to try it if she was trying to inculcate herself into a culture for anthropological study. Perhaps the writers of the above examples were reaching for the word acculturate. The noun is acculturation. acculturate (verb): 1. to adapt an idea or object to a culture different from the one in which it originated. 2. to cause a person or group to adapt to or adopt a different culture. 3. to adopt or adapt to a different culture. Examples: The French tried consciously to acculturate Africans in their colonies, making them citizens of France. Like the Cherokees, the Iroquois were under intense pressure to acculturate. You know you have acculturated to Japan when you eat whatever is in front of you regardless of whether or not you recognize the food group it belongs to. Here are some unobjectionable examples of inculcate used to mean, â€Å"to fix in the mind†: More damaging are the habits which they [electronic devices in the classroom] inculcate in the young the surfing mentality which is always looking restlessly toward the next image, message or sensation. There is a recent push in U.S. hospitals to inculcate a culture of safety. We invite, even require, our young to gain entrance to institutions intended to inculcate ethical values by engaging in unethical and demeaning practices. 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 Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Costs)

Individual Reflective Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Individual Reflective Report - Essay Example The evaluation aims to explore strategic patterns and outcomes, highlighting the approach to strategic decision-making adopted within the group in its handling of strategic issues and tensions like puzzle, dilemma, trade-off or paradox. The report also refers to the core module materials in our discussion. The core module materials refer to attachment and referencing requirements. The report has evidence of strategy, leadership, and significant learning related to strategy and career future. It also includes team behavior, coordination in the group. Good planning, monitoring, evaluating, and enhancing the contribution of the group by setting up comprehensible links between the past, present and future plans and development results. Monitoring and evaluation helps the group to extract information from the past and present, which are used as a basis of pragmatic, fine-tuning, reorientation and future planning (De Wit & Meyer 2010). Effective planning helps to establish whether the grou p work is progressing, moving in the right direction and whether success can be acclaimed in the future. 2.0 Team Role 2.1 Individuals role in the group (a) The group acting product manager The product manager takes the role of comprehending the market demands and trends and aligning those demands to the roadmaps of Vassal Mobile Company. ... (c) Technology officer The technology officer has the role of product innovation and development of its technology as Vassal Technology Officer. The technology officer concentrates on progressive technology products growth and ensuring they are successful to global new markets (Fleischer & Bensoussan 2004). 2.2 My role as the group coordinator As the group chairman, I coordinate the company’s business growth and guide the strategic direction (Fitzroy & Hulbert 2005). I lead and make prosperous technology of the company in the area of Distribution of product, Cable, Mobile and industries of Semiconductor. I lead venture, estimate funds of providers of hardware/software infrastructure concentrating on management of the rich media. I lead innovation and technology development of product as coordinator of Vassal Technology group. In this way, my focus is on creating progressive technology product and to successfully bring these mobile products to new markets. As the team coordinat or, I ensure there are markets of Cable, Internet and Enterprise, as they have grown in the rich media growth. It is through this process that I have comprehended the main technology and drivers of the market and have realized how multiple companies tackle the challenges. 3.0 Strategies 3.1. Strategy management of Vassal Mobile Company group Vassal company experience in sales and marketing, as an initial technology in old and present day media, has set the goal of acquiring 500 clients consisting of the present media, social TV and marketing through the internet. The leading company teams build infrastructure technology in platforms of retail and network while

Discussion on Plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion on Plagiarism - Essay Example Written works are property over which the original writer has every right of exercising his dominion. That being said, there are times when it is difficult to tell which words are proprietary to an author and which are not. There are many idioms, sayings, and common utterances that, because they are used often and in casual manner, it becomes nearly impossible to tell where the phrase or statement began. Sometimes a witty catchphrase just takes off so fast that its origins are obscured before they could be acknowledged. Sometimes, without intending to, we echo others’ thoughts because they had struck a chord with our own. In the case of Ben Domenech, however, there can be no appeal. Although he argued by way of excuse that he was only 17 at the time he admittedly appropriated another’s work, there can be no doubt that even at that age the idea of â€Å"copying† as â€Å"cheating† would have been well ingrained into his mind and conscience. After all, children in their first grade know that it is wrong to cheat, and that copying a classmate’s homework or answers in a test and passing it on as one’s own is cheating. Children 7 years of age know this is wrong, which is why they go to great lengths to conceal it; what more youths of 17? Domenech cannot hide behind his age, just one year short of adulthood; this is not, after all, a deep moral dilemma. It’s simply cheating. Concerning Rebecca’s comment, she is spot on in underscoring Domenech’s past as a writer for the school paper. As a school journalist, it is almost certain that he had been given some form of formal instruction before he was accepted into the writing staff. After all, the school would have been aware that writings in the official school organ reflected upon its reputation and integrity, and its writers therefore would be put in the precarious position of being the school’s mouthpiece. Domenech could therefore

Computer Addiction Essay Example for Free

Computer Addiction Essay Computer addiction is a mental illness which causes the excessive use of computers to the extent that it interferes with daily life. Excessive use may explain problems in social interaction, mood, personality, work ethic, relationships, thought processes, or sleep deprivation. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not include a diagnosis for such a disease. The term †²computer addiction†² originated long before the Internet. Some people develop bad habits in their computer use that cause them significant problems in their lives. The types of behavior and negative consequences are similar to those of known addictive disorders. Effects Excessive computer use may result in, or occur with: Lack of social interaction. Using the computer for pleasure, gratification, or relief from stress. Feeling irritable and out of control or depressed when not using it. Spending increasing amounts of time and money on hardware, software, magazines, and computer-related activities. Neglecting work, school, or family obligations. Lying about the amount of time spent on computer activities. Risking loss of career goals, educational objectives, and personal relationships. Failing at repeated efforts to control computer use. A cause for many of the above-mentioned effects may be that computer games do not stimulate the release of neurotransmitters responsible for feelings of satisfaction and relaxation, such as oxytocin and endorphin, in the same way that real world activities do. Bibliography Exhaustion most likely cause of death, 2007, Chinese gamer dies after three-day session , vnunet.com, [Online], Available: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2198850/chinese-man-dies-three-days [2009, April 14]. About online gamers anoymous 2009, , OLG, [Online], Available: http://www.olganon.org/ [2009, April 14]. Block, 2008, Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction Available: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/165/3/306 [2009, April 14]. Chinese suicide shows addiction dangers Online life proves too appealing n.d., , Play.tm, [Online], Available: http://play.tm/news/5928/chinese-suicide-shows-addiction-dangers/ [2009, April 14]. Experts debate internet addiction 2006 , Nov. 14 Available: http://www.physorg.com/news82749930.html [2009, April 14]. How computer addiction works 2009, Available: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-addiction3.htm [2009, April 14]. Orzack, n.d., Computer addiction services Available: http://www.computeraddiction.com/peter.htm [2009, April 14].

Napoleon Bonaparte :: essays research papers

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte, was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on August 15, 1768. In 1779, he was sent to a military school in Paris. He was made fun of by the French there, and gave him the dream of power. Napoleon was waiting for the right time to achieve greater power, and that moment came when the French monarchy was overthrown. Napoleon’s parents were radicals, and both died soon after he turned 16, therefore leaving him the estate. His first battle was when he directed the artillery siege of Toulon in 1793, and afterwards he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1795, he scattered a group of rioters by firing a grapeshot, a shot gun version of a cannon, into the crowd. Napoleon was then made commander of the Italian army and won four straight battles against the Austrians. In 1797, Austria surrendered to France when Napoleon was just 80 miles from the capitol. When the fight was taken to Egypt, he again won the battle of the pyramids, but lost his fleet of ships in his next fight over the battle of the Nile. He returned home to France to see that the French government was really messed up. "In 1799 he abolished the Directorate and set up a consulate." He was not happy and wanted more power, so he went after the rest of Europe, but had settled with many treaties. Those treaties had put Fran ce at peace with all of Europe. Then in 1803, war broke out again in Europe, and Britain allied with the other countries of Europe to fight against France. "Napoleon brought those European countries to their knees and forced them to sign humiliating treaties, and now, Britain was the only country left not under Napoleon’s rule." One of Napoleon’s few bad campaigns was when he went into Russia, and instead of the Russians just letting the French capture them, they used guerrilla tactics and also the weather, to fight France. Once Napoleon finally defeated the Russians, he went to Moscow, only to see it in flames. The Grand Army, which was originally made up of 500,000 troops, now had a short of supplies and shelter from the harsh winter. Because of that, they had returned to France being known as "One of Napoleon’s worst blunders." Europe noticed that Napoleon was now weak, and they allied against him and came out victorious, and the European’s forced Napoleon the abdicate power on April 6, 1814.

IKEA in China, Sweden and the UK Essay

For IKEA the step into the Chinese market was a big step, maybe as big at the first step abroad to Switzerland and the first store on foreign soil (Spreitenbach) in 1973 (Torekull, 1999). It meant entering China and its gigantic – at least potentially – consumer market. IKEA targets different group of people in China than in countries later in the IKEA ‘life cycle’ (i.e., life cycle based on how long IKEA has been on a market). The main target group is female customers – 65 % of all customers. Women, according to IKEA, stand for change in China and they welcome change (and IKEA see them selves as providing the tools for change in at least one area). Men are also part of the target group but more indirectly as women are the ones in the family having home furnishing interest and making the actual decisions. Customers are aged 25-35 (the core customer is around 30). Many from IKEA’s target group are what in China is know as ‘the little emperors’: the generation born into the One Child Policy (today 15-27 years old). This segment of the population includes some 30 million people. One of the characteristics of this group of consumers is that they are impulsive, easy to influence and are very social. And committed to foreign major consumer brands (Gunnarsson, 1997). They are also known as the ‘the me-generation’ or ‘the lifestyle generation’ (e.g., Schà ¼tte & Ciarlatte, 1999, p 139), IKEA’s customers are also well educated, living in big cities in China. With increasing salaries of the target group, the target group for IKEA increases every year. The customer in China buys less when they visit the store than the IKEA average customer. But in Shanghai for example, the core customers visit IKEA more often than anywhere in the world: 33% come every month. This means – among other things – that there is a need for a lot of change in the store. The Shanghai store rearranges room settings at least seven times a year, for new product or just for different holidays and campaigns etc. IKEA’s offer is to supply affordable solutions to Chinese customers, but the overall image is another one (see below) forcing IKEA to offer other values to their Chinese customers. In the Shanghai stores primary market area the core customers’ monthly household income is 6000 RMB. This is high by Chinese standards but in the IKEA world it is not very high: IKEA compares different countries by using a typical IKEA basket of goods. The Swiss only have to work 2 months to buy the basket while the Chinese will have to work 1 year and 6 months. Merchandise Some of IKEA’s major challenges are summed up in the citation below, featuring IKEA’s current Asia boss: â€Å"When Ian Duffy was first put in charge of IKEA’s China stores four years ago, he spent hours at the checkout line observing customers. He didn’t see many. Instead, he saw plenty of people crowding the Beijing store for freebies – air conditioning, clean toilets and even decorating ideas. Adding insult to injury: shops right outside were offering copies of IKEA’s designs at a fraction of the cost. So, to lure shoppers, the Englishman launched what could be the cheapest IKEA non-sale items in the world: a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a cone for 12 cents. Thus began IKEA’s strategy to beguile the finicky Chinese consumer by slashing prices in China to the lowest in the world – the opposite approach of many Western retailers.† (The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2006) IKEA is used to be perceived as having low prices, this also one of the competitive cornerstones of the whole concept of IKEA (see above). But this is not the case in China; here the perception is a fairly exclusive western retailer, a store for the higher middle class (Lewis, 2005). For example, for the Chinese, Billy (the inexpensive, high selling book case) was perceived as a luxary (Jungbluth, 2006).  While IKEA has accepted that to some extent, the main strategy has been to cut prices. And to do that, IKEA in China has been allowed to ‘break’ unbreakable codes and rules in the IKEA organisation. China is a big sourcing country for IKEA. Still, for many products IKEA China sources were everybody else in IKEA sources, for example Poland. In China that has meant that imported product were subject to import taxes (22%) and it also involved a lead-time of 12 weeks (it is now down to 5 weeks). To be able to keep cutting prices on the China market IKEA China has been allowed to exceed and expand its sourcing of products in China, while the rest of IKEA still sources the same products somewhere else in the world. The actual figures differ a little on how much in a Chinese IKEA store that is sourced in China. Some say that half of the products in an IKEA store in China are made in China, compared to 23% in IKEA stores overall (The Wall Street Journal, 2006). IKEA says 30 % and in addition to that 500 more articles were the local trading office are now looking for Chinese suppliers. According to IKEA, this has really resulted in lower prices as prices have dropped at least 30% since 2003, on some products the price has dropped as much as 90%. IKEA’s single-seat Ektorp armchair retail for 112$ in China, 67 % lower price than one sold in the US (The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2006). IKEA, like many other companies doing business in China, is subject to copying. One observer noticed that many Chinese shoppers in IKEA were drawing pictures of the furniture and scribbling down descriptions of the products but not necessarily buying them. (Lewis, 2005). Copying IKEA furniture and style is to some extent easy. The catalogue and the store provide in many cases even measurements of furniture. And IKEA style home furnishing has in some areas become a concept of its own, outside the control of IKEA. If you search the baidu.com, a local Shanghai website, for ‘IKEA style’ you will get more than 39 000 hits. With a focus on delivering help in home decoration rather than individual products as such, it is easier to achieve a position that is not taken over by competitors that copy your individual products: the Karlanda sofa is easy to copy but not the home decorating skills provided by the company in the store, on the web site, in the catalogue etc. While price will not in the foreseeable future be IKEA’s main argument in China, what is? IKEA tries to position itself as a company with an unique competence when it comes to interior design. Helping customers with this is the basic message, rather than selling individual products at low prices.  Focus here has also been on selected areas, like storage. Many Chinese live in small apartments and IKEA can help with smart solutions for storage that makes life easier (is the argument). IKEA’s argument is very much about function while this contrasts to traditional furniture manufacturers in China were everything is about tradition. From experience IKEA know that markets run through some kind of life-cycle: when stores open in a new country most customers buy what IKEA call market-hall products, i.e., everything but furniture. In established countries the proportion is said to be 65 to 35 between furniture and market hall products. It varies across IKEA stores in China but China has matured relatively fast with proportions between furniture and market hall fast approaching those in older markets like Sweden and Germany.  Chinese see IKEA products as innovative and not traditional. Square tables are for example not traditional (round tables are tradition) and many of the colours used are not traditional to the Chinese. Everything in an IKEA store, in China as everywhere else in the world, is sold under the private brand ‘IKEA’. In the Sweden shop in the IKEA store (outside Sweden) there are exceptions as it holds famous Swedish food and drink brands, but in home furnishing it is IKEA. According to IKEA, ‘IKEA’ is a well known brand. In Shanghai, 96 % in the catchments area of the store know of IKEA. Fortune Cookies (Dagens Industri, 20060505) first market and opinion poll in China shows that, among people with a monthly income of no less than RMB 2500, living in urban areas and aged 15-55, 75% know of IKEA. The meaning of IKEA in Chinese is positive and very appropriate: IKEA’s translation in Chinese means ‘desirable for home living/comfortable home’ which is regarded as a very good translation in China. It is pronounced â€Å"Yi Jia†, similar to the English pronunciation of IKEA. All products, here as everywhere else in the world, have Swedish names and the assortment in a Chinese IKEA store is very similar to one in the US, Sweden etc. In 1998 three products were added for China – chopsticks, wok  with a lid and a cleaver – but they are now in almost every store around the world. The Chinese IKEA stores have a special set of tea cups for the Chinese New Year. Also, 500.000 plastic placemats are produced to commemorate the year of the rooster (Business Week, nov 15, 2005). At the moment mainland China, as well as in Hong Kong, the beds sold are shorter (190cm) than standard-sized beds (200cm). This is currently being reviewed but so far constitutes another adjustment in the assortment to fit demands in the geographical area. Many Chinese live in apartments with balconies and this space of the apartment is very important to the Chinese. IKEA has added settings in the store that show how you can furnish your balcony and a special balcony section in the stores (Lewis, 2005). Location and store formats The big-box IKEA format is unusual in China were shopping traditionally is done locally and with specialist stores. IKEA stores in China are located closer to city centre than what is the case in other parts of the world were IKEA stores are usually located well outside city centre and suburbs. In China the location is closer to some type of city centre while the location is not exactly down town. A location well outside the city would not have been ideal in China as consumers do not have access to cars like European and US customers have. Here the stores have to be where public transportation can take people, and where there is some kind of hub where many people pass through. A good example is the Shanghai store which is very close to several bus lines and one of the metro lines in Shanghai. However, as the Shanghai store have 700 parking places under the store, IKEA is expecting Chinese shopping patterns to change in the future (= more private cars to go to the store). Public transportation to the store is a contributing factor to the service level: home sending services are more common and more used here (while they are available also in other parts of the IKEA world). Also, outside the store in Shanghai (and outside other IKEA stores in China) you will see entrepreneurs setting up to transport home for people and also following that with actually putting the furniture together for IKEA  consumers in their homes.  In the new Beijing store – the larges IKEA store outside Sweden (the Stockholm ‘Kungens kurva’ store is the biggest in the world) interesting adjustments have been made to the store format. The store here have wider aisles to cater for the fact that IKEA stores in China have up to three times more visitors than IKEA store elsewhere in the world (The Wall Street Journal, 2006). Advertising and promotion One of the big differences when it comes to communication with the consumer in China compared to the rest of the world is the reliance on the catalogue. Here it is impossible – cost and reach wise – to distribute it like in many other countries. The catalogue is distributed in the store and in some of the primary market area but here the reliance is more on smaller brochures that are sent out several times during the year. These brochures are produced by the same people in Älmhult in Sweden that produces the catalogue, in order to make sure that the brochures have the same layout and IKEA ‘feel’ as the catalogue itself. An example of PR activities is that IKEA a couple of years ago transformed the interior of 20 elevators in less affluent residential districts in Beijing. Nice environment in a dull place, this is to reach untapped markets (‘Change is easy’). PR activities are also important, taking Chinese journalists to Sweden and Älmhult, teaching them about Sweden and IKEA and the roots of the company. IKEA is known for its ‘out of box’ thinking when it comes to creating interest for IKEA and its products. IKEA in China is no exception. IKEA is supposed to have started or sponsored a TV-show were the viewers are offered lessons in home decorating IKEA have run many different ads in China, in TV, newspapers and in print. Themes in campaigns are the same as everywhere in the world but with the Chinese twist (be different, break tradition). Maybe the IKEA advertising line in China is a little ‘softer’ than in other places like in the UK. More humble advertising, do not stand out very much, friendly, home furnishing solutions, educate the consumer, offer partnership for the future in new  home furnishing solutions. The ad featured below is typical: The message of the ad is ‘Small changes, a refreshing new life’. Life can be made better, easier and nicer with small means. Small changes are the key word in IKEA ads and in-store. Other ads that IKEA have run have the theme of â€Å"do not be like your parents†, a theme that seems to speak directly to IKEA’s target group of young women 25-35 years old (Lewis, 2005). The web sites of the different stores in China is also argued to be important: the Internet is a common source of information for the target group, the younger middle class. Also, this source is used as a way to educate customers before coming to the IKEA stores on the concept and how the shopping experience will be (see below also). 12 IKEA Family was introduced in China in 2007 and much is expected from how this will work to attract Chinese customers. The selling environment and service While the products available in the Chinese stores are basically the same as in any IKEA store in the world, the stores do not look the same inside. What IKEA tries to do is to build the room settings not like in the US, not like in the UK or Sweden but in a way that feels relevant to Chinese customers with sizes of rooms and kitchens that are realistic by China standards. So even with the same products, the aim is to make the store in Shanghai look very different from the one in Malmà ¶ by the set-up of rooms. Thus: basically the same product range – but adaptation in the store: presentation of goods and home solutions offered. In China the store layouts reflect the layout of many Chinese apartments. One obvious example was mentioned earlier, balconies are present as many Chinese apartments have balconies. (The China Business Review, July-August, 2004). Overall the shopping experience is different. As other customers are an important part of the shopping experience the way the store is used – as reported above – by Chinese consumers not only as a shop but also as a social area, make for an  (compared to IKEA stores in Europe and the US) different experience. In the beginning, Chinese came not to shop but to socialise in a nice atmosphere, unlike other furnishing shops in China (were you are not allowed to feel and touch the merchandise). This is still true – you find people in the Shanghai store that seem to sleep in the beds and sofas, those that read a book with the feet on one of the tables in the room settings, take a nap – but IKEA try to put up with this as they hope that these people will later return as customers. For example, on in-store sign portrays an older couple whose child just moved away from home to attend college. The couple discusses how IKEA help them to convert their son’s former bedroom into a new room for their own use. The store’s room setting are full of furnishing and dà ©cor ideas for this purpose, the ad argues. The Beijing store is expected to take 20 000 visitors a day, and weekend crowds are so big that staff need to use megaphones to keep crowds in control. 20 000 a day add up to some 6 million visitors each year. To be compared with the ‘normal’ number of visitors for an IKEA’s store elsewhere which is 2 million visitors/year. As the staffing is the same as in other IKEA stores around the world there are of course consequences for the service level. IKEA’s own CSI (Customer satisfaction index) shows that – expect for service and shopping experience – China is below the IKEA average. IKEA scores high on product range and fashion. Seeing the number of people that visit the stores in China it is no wonder satisfaction levels were down. Today overall satisfaction in China is argued to be equal to the rest of the world, despite a lower score in some areas. When it comes to inspiration, waiting times and helpfulness of staff IKEA in China scores above average. Another thing puzzling the Chinese customers about IKEA are the added labour one has to put in oneself. Besides the self service concept throughout the store, having to visit a warehouse to pick your stuff up – the customer have to assemble it at home. While you do not need many tools to do this, as China does not have a DIY culture, who has even the most common tools in their houses? When you need something done you call for someone as labour is less expensive. To try to explain and justify the DIY concept – which is at the heart of the IKEA concept – is thus hard work in China. IKEA provides home delivery – long and short distance – as well as assembly service for a low fee (home delivery short haul for RMB 50 and assembly one piece RMB 40). IKEA has also created – not intentionally but still – an industry around itself of delivery drivers that also help assemble your IKEA furniture. These pick-up trucks with drivers are lined up outside the stores (Lewis, 2005). However, when Chinese shop at other places this is included in the price. In Europe and in the US the price is so low that the consumer can see the benefits to do things myself but here when the price of the products at IKEA are not that low and you are expected to do things yourself that no other retailer here makes you do†¦.it is easy to see the uphill struggle. IKEA tries to acknowledge this and provide information in the stores, on the website and in the catalogue to prepare the Chinese consumer for the IKEA store experience. They even have shopping hostesses walking around the store explaining and showing how the concept works to customers. And it is progressing, IKEA representatives argue, but slowly. As indicated above, consumers in China are demanding when it comes to service. They are used to, if not world class service, but at least that there are people to help you with all kinds of tasks. The self service concept of IKEA and the DIY is one thing that is hard for Chinese to accept. And what about service orientation among staff in an IKEA store? This is difficult to get an indication about. IKEA uses mystery shoppers to get some information here but it is hard to say something general. If you take into account 50 years of dictatorship, state rule, state owned enterprises with little room for the individual etc – how service minded can you expect the Chinese to be? IKEA tries – here as everywhere else in the world – to implement a staff strategy that makes everybody coworkers rather than employees. This is something that ought to be contrary to the culture in a country with high power distance relationships. IKEA argue that it is improving as conversion ra tes – consumers visiting stores that are also buying something – are improving, and are now well above 41 %. IKEA has another challenge that affects service and that is the fact that many products – despite increased sourcing in China – have huge lead times  in terms of shipping from Europe and other sourcing markets to China. That have historically made it necessary for Chinese stores to push and sell what they got in store rather than what they do not have in store (but is in the catalogue). Due to a lot of work being work being put in to improve this – increasing domestic production, a new warehouse in China – availability in China is almost the same as for the rest of the IKEA group. IKEA in Sweden IKEA’s first store in Sweden, the first in the world, was opened in 1959 in Älmhult, in Smà ¥land (a county in Sweden sometimes rumoured to be very barren and with people that are extremely stingy). IKEA today has 17 stores in Sweden and IKEA is a big part of home decoration in Sweden – and has been so for many years. IKEA’s statement in the business mission that they make furniture for ‘the many people’ is very true in Sweden very penetration of their products are very high, much higher than in many more markets. Accordingly, IKEA is well-known in Sweden, i.e., Swedes have knowledge about IKEA products, stores and the company, many Swedes have had IKEA furniture for generations. This is from a company perspective also a challenge, not just a good thing as   IKEA becomes associated with boring furnishing styles of older generations. IKEA is still in Sweden seen as innovative with very good prices.  While ‘the many people’ is an accurate description of consumers of IKEA in Sweden, in actual marketing work it is a bit smaller. It is women 20-49, often with children. In addition, an important target group in recent years has been +55 years that think they have done enough home furnishing, have no kids in the home and have a good financial situation. Merchandise Overall, the IKEA assortment is around 10 000 products that the stores can choose from. In Sweden the stores are fairly small and carry only 6-7 000 of the available products in the general assortment. While there is no adjustment made in the assortment to the Swedish market, adjustments are made to the local market by the stores (in terms of marketing and the local competition situation) who have the authority to adjust to local competition and have during the latter years received and developed more marketing  initiatives than previously. Price (as a marketing tool) is central in Sweden as IKEA is known for its low price. This is done by have a low price promise and the aim is to have a low in comparison to competitors in different areas. In recent years, here as in most parts of the IKEA world, cutting prices has been a major marketing strategy, by some 20% over the last 8 years. Sourcing for all the larger and transport wise heavier and bulkier products are done in Europe (and Sweden itself is one of the larger sourcing countries for IKEA outside Asia). Location and store formats In Sweden IKEA stores are located as in much of the IKEA world: outside city centres, with a focus on consumers using their own cars to travel to and from IKEA stores. For IKEA, establishing an IKEA store in Sweden if fairly easy, IKEA gets many propositions from different areas and towns in Sweden wanting an IKEA store. One of the recent and much publicized openings of IKEA stores in Sweden was the store in Haparanda Tornio. Haparanda Tornio is in the far north of Sweden (on the border to Finland) and launch of the store there has been a big success not only for IKEA but for the whole community (which is an area where depopulation is a major problem). However, event though it is easy to find places to establish IKEA stores in Sweden, there is still (also for IKEA) competition about the good places to locate a store. As mentioned above, IKEA stores in Sweden has been fairly small, in the lower rim of square meters and number of articles stored (except the big store in Kungens kurva which is the biggest IKEA store in the world). There are plans to refurbish stores and make them bigger, and new stores are always bigger than the older ones. Otherwise the format of the store follows the IKEA standard layout with parking lot outside the store and a two floor store. Some new stores, like the new store in Malmà ¶, is planned to be build on pylons and have the car park under the store (like in Shanghai for instance). Advertising and promotion In Sweden the catalogue is the most important promotion tool. It makes IKEA unique, is a source of inspiration and is the most important printed marketing tool IKEA has. In Sweden the launch of the new catalogue is a major thing, something that all major newspapers have lengthy reports about and that is a major PR thing. In 2008 IKEA furnished the waiting hall of Stockholm train terminal when the new catalogue was launched August 14th.  IKEA Family was first launched in Sweden and was at that time one of the first loyalty cards and clubs in Sweden. Today it is still one of the bigger ones with 1,7 million members and is still a very important marketing tool for IKEA in Sweden. The web is also important for IKEA Sweden, maybe especially for new groups of customers (for example younger customers) and because it is a good way to make customers prepare for the store visit and it is also there IKEA can make accessible different planning tools like for instance the kitchen planning tool. IKEA’s approach to the Swedes in advertising and promotion is intended to be youthful and different, fun and surprising, emphasising that nothing is impossible but that the company also is very honest and human. At the moment IKEA in Sweden is in a period of ‘re-launch’. While being well known (as IKEA is in Sweden) is often an advantage, it can also be a disadvantage. Consumers get used to the company and the rebellious attitude and image is hard to keep when penetration – in many age groups – is very high. Compared to many other IKEA countries, IKEA in Sweden is in another part of the IKEA lifecycle where consumers have homes filled with IKEA furniture and accessories, IKEA is the market leader for kitchen in Sweden etc. How do IKEA make the Swedes still find it exiting and new? The line for 2008 is ‘Decorate the home as you want to live’ and ‘Long live diversity’. Examples of IKEA address Swedish customers is a campaign that is a few years old and went from the fact that in IKEA target group there are a lot of divorced parents that share custody of children. So the campaign focused on how IKEA contributed to the slogan ’Better divorce for everybody’. IKEA has also focused on campaigns which points to the diversity of the Swedes in terms of ethnicity, showing different ethnic groups in Sweden as customers. One of the more well known and longest running campaigns is the one with the slogan ‘Not for the rich but for the wise’ emphasising that IKEA has high quality for low prices and that wise customers realize that. The selling environment and service The stores are the main marketing tool of IKEA in Sweden, this is where the customer come and this is where they can see what it is all about. As indicated above, IKEA stores have been fairly small in Sweden which has meant that it in many places has been difficult to expose and show the width and depth of the assortment IKEA actually has. Increasingly new and bigger stores are built to allow for showing the customer more of the IKEA product range. The stores in Sweden are set up in a fairly standard way. The common store planning which is the IKEA store planning blue print is used as a starting point – but that then meets the actual or planned store which makes for adjustments in the standard layout. As in all IKEA countries, the furniture part of an IKEA store (the room settings on the 2nd floor of the store) is always opened by 5 rooms that are the same all over the world – but these are also adjusted locally to see what the local markets can do with this. While the stores are to some extent set up the same way, local adjustments are made to the normal room-size of a living room or a bed room of the country market, the interior of the kitchen etc etc. A Swedish IKEA store for instance have often kitchen room settings 16 with what is called a kitchen island (part of the kitchen is a stand alone part integrating cooking, washing up and eating places in the kitchen) and walk in closets. To Swedes the DIY concept of IKEA (and DIY in general) is an accepted concept: you collect your flatpacs, carry them home, assemble and you pay a lower price. Still, in recent years IKEA in Sweden have added services concerning home delivery and assembly service at a cost for customers that want this. When it comes to the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) that all markets in IKEA do regularly central factors are waiting time and product in stock, which is something that IKEA Sweden has worked with a lot and have improved in recent years. This also indicates that one major problem in IKEA stores in Sweden has been queues in stores and out of stock of products. IKEA still get high points from Swedes on innovativeness and the low price level. IKEA in the UK IKEA has a fairly long history in the UK, having entered the market in 1987 and now has 17 stores in the UK. Expansion plans include a further 7 stores in the near future. The UK is one of IKEA’s major markets, the second to third one in size after Germany and the USA. The current CEO for IKEA, Anders Dahlvig, was the country mananger during much of the 1990-ies when a relaunch and repositioning of the brand in the UK took place. The target group is mainly women in families aged 25-45 and middle-class. This then varies with different products and product groups. Merchandise Overall the assortment in UK stores are not different from anywhere else in the IKEA world. The beds sold at IKEA are bigger than the normal UK size but that is something that IKEA tries to make a point of (so no adjustment has been made here). Adjustment of electrical products are, of course, made but in general there is no adjustment in the merchandise sold in the UK. All the normal supply chain is used and larger products are sourced in Europe while accessories are sourced in other parts of the world. IKEA in the UK also has a low price image and promise to the consumer, this is very important in the marketing: low prices but good quality. In recent years, as elsewhere in the IKEA world, one of the premier marketing focuses has been on cutting prices. Allegedly prices has been cut by more than 20% over the last 8 years. Location and store formats The fact that the UK has 17 stores and around 60 million inhabitants, Sweden has 17 stores and 9 million inhabitants tells us that UK retail planning laws are very strict and difficult for big block out of town retailers like IKEA. The lack of new established stores has been a major concern for IKEA UK for many years and that also forced some new thinking concerning the layout of an IKEA store. Normally it would be big parking space and two stores but starting in the UK, IKEA has started thinking differently on how an IKEA store is set up. This has lead to an adjusted concept store in Coventry with three levels and a closer to city centre location. Whether that is now the solution for IKEA UK to set up more stores or not is not clear. Most of the stores in the UK are set up the standard way and has an out of town location, encouraging customers to use their own cars to access the store. Advertising and promotion Also for IKEA UK the IKEA catalogue dominates marketing efforts. While now 70% of the marketing budget, efforts are made to lower that as it is believed that it is very expensive to distribute in high population markets like the UK and it is also no longer as effective a marketing tool as is once was. One of the most noticeable things about IKEA in the UK is the daring and challenging approach that has been used through the years. The IKEA and St Luke’s campaign ‘Chuck out the Chintz’ from 1996 is famous (even Tony Blair referred to it) as is the ‘Stop Being So English’ campaign. In the UK IKEA as dared more than in many markets when is comes to challenging the market and its customers. The preferred approach is being different – but do it in a way that connects to the fact that IKEA sells home furnishings. According to IKEA, the Brits should appreciate their homes more (and spend more time there) and IKEA can help with low prices, good products and design and the fact that IKEA has 65 years of experience in home decoration. The launch if IKEA UK in Scotland is a good example of adjusting to the local market while sticking to the mail IKEA ‘be different’ message. The campaign focus on two very hard looking Glasgow guys – that go soft with soft pillows and green plants from IKEA. The web is very useful in the UK, as the stores are only 17 and there is a need for information on availability on products and to prepare the store visit IKEA family was launched in 2007, and is reported as very successful also in the UK. However, compared to the British grocery retailer Tesco who runs probably the worlds most successful (in many aspects) loyalty card, IKEA has a long way to go before the IKEA Family loyalty club generates as many advantages as Tesco’s club does. The selling environment and service UK customers are said to be demanding and does not mind airing their problems and IKEA Still, Brits generally live in the houses that they own and are not alien to the DIY concept, even though the IKEA DIY is somewhat extended compared to the original meaning of DIY. Here, as in Sweden, services offering to take out some of the DIY parts have been (home delivery and assembly service at a cost). UK has struggled with some things that relate to selling environment and service. It all comes back to having only 17 stores and being 60 million people and IKEA UK being one of IKEA’s biggest markets – i.e., IKEA is very popular in the UK and that leads to problems that can be seen in the IKEA CSI. Access to stores and products out of stocks are areas of concern as customers say that it is difficult and time consuming to get to the stores – and they also often run the risk of not being able to take the products home with them from the stores as they are out of stock. This is of course things that are acted upon, through the long range work to establish more stores to planning of personnel in the stores (which is difficult in itself with a fairly large personnel turnover in the UK). Still it 18 is a major concern, making this area of the marketing effort a challenge. The Brits are satisfied with the prices that they feel are low for the quality that the customer get. Summing up IKEA in China, Sweden and the UK In figure 1 we attempt to compare IKEA in China, Sweden and UK. For comparison there is also a more ‘general’ picture of IKEA in the world. The comparison is done for the four different dimensions of retailer marketing strategies that we have investigated. As the comparison is done on a general level it lacks detail but is even so considered to give a good overall picture of how the different countries relate to each other on the different dimensions. Summary and conclusions In the case of China it is clear that IKEA have had to adjust and work harder with some its basic principles than on other markets around the world (maybe Eastern Europe and Russia being the exception), certainly than in Sweden and the UK. Low prices are one of the cornerstones of the IKEA concept. In China IKEA have had to drop some of its basic principles – centralised sourcing and supply chain – to be able to develop its business in China. Prices were too high and are coming down in a rate the demonstrate how wrong the prices were – for the Chinese market – to start with. Also in the case of location and communication (advertising and promotion) we can see adjustments to the characteristics of the Chinese market that are larger than on other markets. Here the special situation in the UK with retail planning laws have forced IKEA to innovate – and adjust – its basic store placement and format to fit regulations in those markets. Here it also seems like Sweden is following with plans to set up new stores (sometimes) in a different way. The adjustments to local humour and preferences is clear when it comes to advertisements, where the approach in China seems ‘softer’ and less provocative than is the case for Sweden and the UK, but in relative terms it may be as provocative. Sweden is a special case as IKEA has been present there for so long, leading to – within a standardised frame of communication – communication that builds on peoples familiarity with the brand. The selling environment and service levels have not been changed in China, Sweden and the UK compared to other places to a large extent. It seems like innovation to fit the Chinese consumer – offering home delivery, assembling service etc – was invented here from necessity and then spread to other markets like Sweden and the UK. From IKEA’s perspective, China has been a real trial of the business concept. To some extent the jury is still out on whether or not it is a success but from IKEA’s point of view the ‘worst’ part of the China experience is over. IKEA have learnt many things in China and many of these lessons will be useful in other markets around the world. One lesson for IKEA – according to senior managers at IKEA – is the fact that it has not been able – in order to succeed on the Chinese market – to rigidly cling to the marketing  strategies that on other markets have meant success and meant working towards the 19 business concept. While keeping tight some areas – assortment, brand name, overall communication, store concept etc – IKEA has been able (and forced to) adjust some other parts to be relevant on the market. Without adjusting prices radically and changing sourcing and changing main communication (not catalogue), it might have been another story. From IKEA’s point of view the lesson might also have been that it is not critical that it can not achieve the same results with the same tools on all markets. Adjustments have to be made on alien markets like the Chinese. But as the Chinese market experience shows: adjustments can be made and still be true to the overall business concept (as some of important pillars of the IKEA concept have not been changes, just the ways of achieving them). While IKEA in China is about introducing a business concept that is – to some parts at least – different to what customers are used, IKEA in Sweden and the UK have different situations. Swedes have 50 years of experience of the IKEA concept and the risk is always that it gets boring and something that is seen as old-fashioned, if the innovativeness is not continued. And that innovativeness is something that – for a standardised retailer – needs to be found within the business concept somehow. Brits have 20 years of experience of IKEA so the challenge is also here to continue to be innovative while being more and more of the establishment so to speak. However, in the UK there is still much less penetration of the concept than in Sweden so the marketing strategy work is somewhat different. From a general retail standardisation and adaptation point of view, the IKEA case shows that it is possible to work a fairly standardised concept also on markets that are very different from the ones were the business concept have originated from. However, the case also shows that there are limits to how far you can go in standardisation. In the IKEA case it is clear that to some extent they need to adapt in order to be true to their business concept. This also means that it may be more interesting to focus on whether or not companies are true to their business concept than if the are using the same  marketing strategies all over the world. It is the business concept that is exported and in order for that to be the same all over the world, marketing strategies sometimes need to be adopted rather than standardised.

Machiavelli Vs Lao-Tzu

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a political philosopher as well as a  statesmen during the time of the Renaissance. He is most famous for writing his political  views in The Prince (1513), which has become an important part of modern political  philosophy. The Prince offers advice to the monarch in order to keep himself in power.  His recommendations are polices that discourage mass political activism by channeling  the people around him to use their energies for private pursuits. Machiavelli wanted to  influence the monarch by showing him that he can better keep his power by  judiciously using violence, understanding and respecting his subjects private property  and traditions, and by promoting materialistic prosperity. Machieavelli believed that a political life is not governed by a set of morals  or a religious absolute. The monarch can be excused sometimes for using acts of violence  or deception for a means, which would not be ethical if he were a civilian. The Prince  was written at the height of the Renaissance when intense political conflict between the  dominant cities and states of Florence, Milan, Venice, the Papacy, France, Spain as well  as the Holy Empire. This incendiary conflict ended in massive political intrigue, violence  and blackmail to which Machievelli concluded with a plea for unity in Italy as well as an  end to foreign involvement. The great differences between Niccolo Machieavelli and Chinese Taoist  Philosopher, Lao-Tzu, is their beliefs on how a government should be run. Machieavelli  refers to what a prince should have as he places a totalitarian government. He believed  governments should be very structured and controlled as well as powerful. Lao- Tz  belief is that one person cannot have total control and they should let everything run its  course. Machievelli argued in his book that, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus  Livius that a republic would, be strengthened by their conflicts if they engage in open  political participations and debates. Machieavelli’s, pragmatic view of ethics and politics is a Prince should  be more practical than moral. A prince must learn to be cunning and deceitful to maintain  his power. He believed it is more important for a prince to be feared than loved by his  people. This is in direct contrast to Lao-Tzu’s belief in living life with goodness and  respect to others. He did not write a guide to his views like Machieavelli, because he  wanted his philosophy to be a natural way a human being should live. He believed a  person’s behavior in his or her life should be influenced by their instincts and conscience. Lao-Tzu believed that humans as well as the universe are governed by  unseen outside forces. The key to one’s truth and freedom is simplicity. He  encouraged followers to seek out and to understand the laws of nature, to build up power  among themselves, as well as to utilize that power to lead their life with love without  force. The differences are even clear as how these philosophers are remembered. Machieavelli’s views of ethics and politics, lead people to misinterpret these views as to  describe anyone who deceptively manipulates people in an opportunistic way. I.E.:  Machieavellian. Lao-Tzu is said to have went off on water buffalo to the desert, saddened  by the evils of man. It is said that when he arrived at the gate of the Great Wall of China,  where he was persuaded by the gatekeeper to record his principals of philosophy. This   recording became the ancient Chinese text â€Å"Eighty-one sayings of the Tao-Te-Ching.† -Works Cited- http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oty2JfReC3cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR14&sig=XiQAr4hiJRUoIy5ZSvNRW_4fhXg&dq=%22Grint%22+%22Leadership:+Classical,+Contemporary,+and+Critical+Approaches%22+#PPR11,M1 Leadership: Classical, contemporary, and critical approaches By Keith Grint; Published 1997 Oxford University Press.                                                                                                                              

Galileos Understanding of the All †Theology Essay

Galileos Understanding of the All – Theology Essay Free Online Research Papers Galileo’s Understanding of the All Theology Paper Enter the stage of one of the most famous battles of science vs. religion in history- Galileo Galilei pitted against the clergy, professors, and philosophers of his day who refuted his heliocentric model of the solar system based on their interpretation of the Bible. Besides the obvious superficial issues such as the way Galileo’s opposition defined what Joshua meant when he said that the sun â€Å"stood still,† the problem stemmed from a much more important intrinsic issue. Essentially, this battle is a problem of inability to define and understand terms- applied to the particular conflict of science vs. religion, it means that one or both of the parties involved in the conflict do not fully understand what the terms â€Å"science† or â€Å"religion† mean; they make the devastating- and often deadly- mistake of failing to comprehend the implication that the two terms define and explain two completely separable concepts and need not ever be in conflict. Rather than simply a problem of science vs. religion, Galileo’s problem is centrally one of authority of interpretation. In the Bible, Joshua commands the sun and the moon to â€Å"stand still† and they do (Josh. 10:12-13). The conflict arises when the learned men of the day take this to mean literally that the sun ceased to move, thus implying of course that the sun had been moving all along and it needed command from Joshua to stop. Galileo’s undeniable conclusion from his research and sensory data was that the planets, including the Earth, revolved around the sun, and not around the Earth as was thought in the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. Looking at this passage today, it is easy to reconcile the apparent conflict of the Bible’s verbiage and the modern findings of the day. In fact, today with our knowledge of relativity we know that not only do we detect that the sun and the Earth both move in respect to other stars and to the galaxy and the uni verse in general, we cannot conclude whether it is the sun or the Earth or the other stars that are actually moving- each is moving in respect to the others in its own reference frame. We could just as easily say that the Earth is standing still and everything else in the universe is moving around it, or we could say the same about the sun, or we could say they are both moving. It does not matter- â€Å"motion† is only a convenient term we use to describe changes in distance differences between objects over time, and does not imply anything having an absolute stationary form. Understanding the current discoveries about motion, we can gain an even greater comprehension of the absurdity of the literal Biblical interpretation of the passage in Joshua. Most assuredly, Joshua says that the sun â€Å"stood still,† but it certainly does not mention anything about the other planets. Of course, it was a more difficult task for Galileo, who did not have the concept of relativity (and naturally assumed that one body or the other had to be stationary), to dispute the geocentric model. He did not understand that the sun could certainly be the center of the solar system, and still be moving. However, regardless of how he tried to explain the situation, the entire debate revolved around a deeper issue- the role of science and its place in the realm of religious and biblical authority. Galileo took a definite stance on the issue of around which celestial body the planets revolved, but he held another, more general perspective on how to view science in the light of religion- a view which seemed quite peculiar for his time. Basically, Galileo believed in the truth and authority of the Bible, but held that for one reason or another, God often does not tell us the mechanisms or means by which he does His wonders, and that the world is one, i.e. if sensory evidence seems to contradict the Bible, then the interpretation that furthers the inconsistency must be mistaken, as God will never contradict truth. This view, however, it was certainly nothing new or revolutionary. Many others had held the same view centuries prior, and Galileo even quoted St. Augustine, a Father of the early Catholic Church, whom the opposition to Galileo certainly respected and held in esteem. Augustine says, â€Å"If anyone shall set the authority of Holy Writ against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he has undertaken; for he opposes to the truth not the meaning of the Bible, which is beyond his comprehension, but rather his own interpretation; not what is in the Bible, but what he has found in himself and imagines to be there† (186). Instead of simply presenting the evidence of his discovery to his opposition, which has already been proven to be ineffective, Galileo is defending the very value of scientific evidence itself. He has reached the level of maturity as a scientist and as a human being to step back and look at the â€Å"All.† The All is a term used quite infrequently- for example, we find it in the English translation of Spinoza’s Ethics, but rarely do we hear it spoken or even read it. Basically the All is defined as â€Å"that of which nothing is excluded;† it is a counter-definition of sorts. It means, basically, everything. The All is a simple term for all of reality: Earth, everybody and all atoms on it, the stars, and the electromagnetic waves- all of the cosmos. But not only that- anything that exists is encompassed in the All. That includes the thoughts of people, the existence of all intelligences, and all laws of reality including the ones by which God creates his worlds a nd universes. And now we come to the problem of definitions and their applications, which was addressed above. Science is defined thus as nothing but the study of the All. It simply answers the question, â€Å"how?† â€Å"How does the All work?† Therefore, however God created the Earth and however Jesus turned water into wine is encompassed into science. However we think and how our thoughts lead to certain conclusions is also in the All, so it is science. There is no â€Å"supernatural world† in this sense. If there are spirits, ESP, and all that, i.e., if that exists, it is part of the All. It is part of the natural world. Religion is a little more difficult to define, but its concept is easily recognizable. It basically gives the All meaning and order. It answers two questions. The first is, â€Å"why does the All exist? (or, why do things exist rather than not exist- what is the meaning of all this existence?)† The second question is that of â€Å"who?† †Å"Who is in charge? To whom are we to come for answers and guidance?† Those who seek to understand the All generally approach it from three general directions. The first is the mythological approach. Usually initiated by fear and/or wonder, the mythological method seeks to answer all three questions through religion. They find that their â€Å"why† and â€Å"who† questions are usually well answered and clear, but by trying to answer â€Å"how?† through their sun goddesses and epic heroes and their Atlas holding up the Earth, they never arrive at anything conclusive or based on something real or tangible. The Christian contemporaries in Galileo’s time and even today who are constantly in opposition to science belong to this group. In direct opposition to the mythological method is the sensory approach- the second line of attack seeking to explain the All. Usually atheistic scientists and many philosophers of science hold this view. They use their evidence from their own perceptions and experiments to answer all three question s. This is a perfect way to answer the â€Å"how?† question, as the mechanisms of the universe can all be experimentally determined and realistically explained. However, a problem arises when these people use the same data to try to answer the â€Å"why† and â€Å"who† questions. Having never directly seen a god or been able to determine any reasons for why their experiments go the way they do, they generally come up with the nihilist answers â€Å"no reason,† and â€Å"nobody,† respectively. Galileo takes the third, or synthetic approach, which looks to religion to answer the questions â€Å"who† and â€Å"why,† and finds its â€Å"how† through science and its methods. This is truly the only comprehensively correct way to approach the All. Modern experimental science cannot prove the existence of God or explain his purpose. We need religion and the authority of the Bible for the answers to those questions, and Galileo repeatedly remarks throughout his letter to the Grand Duchess Christina that he understands that very purpose of the Bible and believes in it. However, he tells us that the Bible does not give us scientific treatises or explanations of the mechanisms of â€Å"geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine† (193) as well as the books specializing in those matters. The Bible is a book that gives us religion and answers the questions that religion is supposed to answer. Now, it is true that if God came down and gave us an explanation on h ow He created a tree, this would be science. But, the point here is that God also takes the synthetic approach. With His understanding of the entire All, He can explain the â€Å"how† in terms of science and the â€Å"why† and â€Å"who† in terms of religion. Again, the terms â€Å"science† and â€Å"religion† are simply our man-made conventional terms for approaching the three different questions- God, being omniscient, has no need for such a distinction. Galileo believes in the reality of the All. He believes in the Bible but understands that it answers only part of the truth in the universe. Although the questions â€Å"why† and â€Å"who† are arguably the questions for which our knowledge of the answers are the most important, they are not the only questions out there to be answered. Galileo knows that God sees his efforts to understand His universe as noble and worthy; he knows that he has discovered a valuable truth of the universe, and thus discovered a valuable part of God. It is unfortunate that those people who profess to be God’s very own could stray so far from the position of understanding truth to which He would have us lean. Research Papers on Galileo’s Understanding of the All - Theology EssayCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalResearch Process Part OneThree Concepts of PsychodynamicRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseTrailblazing by Eric Anderson

What Is a High School Transcript How Do You Use Yours

What Is a High School Transcript How Do You Use Yours SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You've probably heard of high school transcripts, but do you know what information they contain and why they're so important for applying to college? This guide will explain what a high school transcript is, what exactly it includes, and why it is often the most important part of your college application. What Is a High School Transcript? A high school transcript is basically a record of your academic accomplishments in high school. It lists every class you took, when you took them, and the grade you received in each class, sometimes along with additional information such as standardized test scores and any honors you received. Every person enrolled in high school has a high school transcript, which is regularly updated as courses are completed. There are two versions of your high school transcript: official and unofficial. The two versions will usually look very similar or identical in terms of content, but an official transcript will often have a seal or tamper-proof marks on it or will be inside a sealed envelope. This is so people reading the official transcript can be certain no changes were made to it after it was released by the school and that the information it contains is 100% accurate. Official transcripts often have to be sent directly to by your high school in order to remain official, while a transcript you print or copy yourself will be unofficial. Most colleges require you to submit an official copy of your high school transcript when you apply, but if you just want to look at the information your transcript includes for your own personal use, an unofficial copy is fine. Why Do You Need a High School Transcript? So now you know what a high school transcript is, but why is it so important? High school transcripts are needed for several reasons: #1: To Apply to College Your high school transcript is probably the most important part of your college application, simply because it contains so much information about you: the classes you took, when you took them, how well you did in them, etc. Colleges will look over your transcript very carefully when you apply, so it's important to understand what they'll be looking for, which we'll cover in the next section. The majority of college applicants are high school seniors, and most of the college application advice out there is aimed at them. But what do you do if you don't fall into this narrow category? Our eBook on how to prepare for and apply to college as a nontraditional student will walk you through everything you need to know, from the coursework you should have under your belt to how to get letters of recommendation when you're not a high school senior. #2: To Graduate High School or Transfer to a New High School Before you head off to college, you, of course, need to finish high school, and your transcript will be what your high school looks at to see if you can graduate. They will look to make sure you took enough credits, completed each of the graduation requirements, and passed the necessary classes. If you transfer high schools, your new school will use your transcript to determine the classes you completed and which classes you should enroll in. When changing schools, you will have a transcript from each high school you attended, but your new school will also include information about the classes you took at your previous school, usually marking those classes as transfer credits. #3: To Apply for Jobs Some jobs require you to submit your high school transcript when you apply so they can look at your grades or make sure you have taken any classes they may require workers to have passed. Grab a copy of your transcript and find the specific information mentioned as you read through the next part of this guide. If you don't already have a copy of your transcript, ask your guidance counselor for one, or if you need more assistance, take a look at our guide to learn how to get your high school transcript. What a High School Transcript Includes Transcripts contain a lot of information, and at first glance it can be difficult to take it all in. This section will explain what a transcript includes, why this information is important, andways for you to determine if you're on track for creating a strong one. The main components of a transcript are: The Name of Each Course You Took in High School Your transcript will list the course name for each class you took in high school, including whether you retook or dropped a class. Why Is This Important? This information is used to determine if you met graduation requirements for your high school as well as the entrance requirements for colleges. It shows the difficulty of your schedule, such as whether you took a lot of honors and AP classes or mostly stuck to regular-level courses. It shows the subjects you the most classes in. This is important because if you're applying to college and indicate you plan to major in, for example, biology, colleges will expect to see a fair number of science courses on your transcript. Questions to Ask Yourself: Are you on track to meet your high school’s graduation requirements? What about entrance requirements for colleges you are interested in? Have you or will you be taking classes in the subject you plan to study in college? Actions to Take: Talk to your guidance counselor if you’re unsure about graduation requirements. Research different colleges to see the classes they require students to have completed in high school, and make sure those classes are on your transcript or will be before you graduate. If you don’t feel like your transcript includes enough courses in the subject you want to study in college, aim to take more classes in that field before you graduate. The Grades You Got in Each Class As well as providing the letter grade you got in each class you took, transcripts will also often include your GPA (weighted and unweighted) as well as your class rank, if your school has this. Why Is This Important? It shows schools and employers how well you grasped the material in each of your classes and how well you can be expected to do in future classes. This is very important information to colleges because they want to accept students they feel will succeed in college classes. It allows colleges to compare your grades and GPA to other applicants and their school's average entrance GPA. Colleges often pay special attention to your grades that relate most closely to the subject you plan to major in. Class rank shows how well you did academically compared to the rest of your graduating class. Questions to Ask Yourself: Is your GPA close to the average entrance GPAs of the colleges you're interested in? If you know what you will major in, do you have strong grades in the classes that relate to that subject? Actions to Take: Find specific colleges’ average entrance GPA on their websites, and see how your current GPA compares. If you’re looking to improve your GPA (and it’s never too late to do so!) we have a guide for that (as well as a specialized guide on how to do raise your GPA swiftly)! If you want to improve your grades, concentrate particularly closely on the classes that relate most to your future major. When You Took Each Class The classes on your transcript are organized by date, with the classes you took first at the top, and your most recent classes at the bottom. Classes are grouped together by semester/trimester/quarter, depending on your school's calendar. Why Is This Important? It allows colleges to see the progression of your courses. Did you move from regular English your freshman year to honors English your sophomore year? Did you sign up only for easy classes your senior year? Colleges use that information to help determine whether or not you challenged yourself each year of high school. It lets colleges and others see if and how your grades changed over time. Did you stumble a bit at the beginning of high school, but managed to raise your GPA after that? Were there any semesters where your grades were significantly lower than other times? Questions to Ask Yourself: Have you been continuously challenging yourself with the classes you take? Does your transcript show this (such as honors or AP classes)? Were there any periods in high school when you got lower grades than usual? Actions to Take: Make sure you continue to take challenging classes throughout high school, even during senior year, including honors and AP classes if possible. If there was a period of time when your grades dropped, and you have an explanation for it (illness, personal issue, etc.) attach a note to your application describing the situation, and ask your guidance counselor to explain the situation in their letter of recommendation as well. Colleges can be very understanding about circumstances like that, especially if they see you made an effort to improve your grades afterward. Behavior Record Some transcripts contain information such as the number of absences you have had and any serious disciplinary actions you have faced (such as suspensions, not minor issues like detention). Why Is This Important? Colleges and employers want to make sure they’re accepting people who are serious about their commitments and will get along well with others. If a student regularly didn’t show up for class or had a serious disciplinary action, they may be hesitant to accept or hire them. Ask Yourself: Is there any evidence of discipline or frequent absences on your transcript? Actions to Take: If the above applies to you, attach a letter to your application describing the situation and the ways you have worked to improve yourself since then. Be sure to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Additional Information Some high school transcripts contain additional information such as your scores for standardized tests, any honors or awards you received in school, and sometimes the volunteer work you did. Why Is This Important? It provides more information about your accomplishments so schools and jobs can get a more complete picture of who you are. What's Next? Need to get ahold of your high school transcript? Learn how to get a copy of your transcript, regardless of when you graduated high school and which type of school you attended. Wondering whether your GPA is good enough to get you into the colleges you want? Check out our guide to figure out how strong your GPA is. Unsure of where you want to go to college? Learn how to choose the best college for you! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency Research Paper

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency - Research Paper Example However, the agency has a third directorate that is the Management and Administration. The Directorate roles are the issuance of professional mission support and management for the agency to meet its goals. The Enforcement and Removal Operations role is enforcing the United States immigration laws in an effective and fair manner. It, therefore, identifies and arrests removable aliens. Furthermore, they can either detain or remove the illegal immigrants in the country where necessary. The directorate’s priority is to apprehend, arrest, and remove convicted criminals that are deemed as a national security threat. They also deal with the border entrants, fugitives, and those seeking asylum in the United States. Homeland Security Investigations directorates role is to investigate the activities that arise due to illegal movement of good and people out, into, or within the United States. The activities to be investigated can either be international or domestic. Lastly, the Manageme nt and Administration Directorate is made of professional staff and managers whose role is to ensure that the agency meets it set goals. Â  The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency are multi-faceted thus addressing several issues in a go. Its work is not limited to law enforcement of immigration issues. In explanation, the customs enforcement takes a significant share of the agency’s budget. The agency, therefore, does not deal only with immigration but also the customs services that include the entry at the ports, enforcement of the intellectual property, investigating of child pornography issues, and international suppression of gangs (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The agency also plays other roles like eliminating human trafficking, conducting cargo inspection, returning the found stolen- antiquities, and interdicting weapons, drugs, bulk cash, and other smuggled substances. Â