Monday, September 30, 2019

The Campbell Company

The Campbell Company is evaluating a proposal to buy a new milling machine. The base price is $108,000, and shipping and installation costs would add another $12,500. The machine falls into the MACRS 3-year class, and it would be sold after 3 years for $65,000. The machine would require a $5,500 increase in working capital (increased inventory less increased accounts payable). There would be no effect on revenues, but pre-tax labor costs would decline by $44,000 per year. The marginal tax rate is 35 percent. 1. What is the net cost of the machine for capital budgeting purposes, that is, the Year 0 project cash flow? Net Cost of the machine = $108,000 + $12,500 + $5,500 = $126,000 2. What are the net operating cash flows during Years 1, 2 and 3? Â   | Year | |Â   |0 |1 |2 |3 | |After-Tax Savings |Â   |$28,600 |$28,600 |$28,600 | |Depreciation Tax Savings |Â   |$13,918 |$18,979 |$6,326 | |Net Cash Flow |Â   |$42,518 |$47,579 |$34,926 | . What is the terminal year cash flow? |Salvage Value |$65,000 | |Tax on Salvage Value |$19,798 | |NWC Recovery |$5,500 | |Terminal Cash Flow |$50,702 | 4. If the project’s cost of capital (WACC) is 12 percent, should the machine be purchased? Yes, the machine should be purchased as the investment has a positive NPV of $10,840 as per the following table. |NPV Analysis | |Year |Cash Flow |PV Factor @ 12% |PV | |0 |($126,000) |1 |($126,000) | |1 |$42,518 |0. 929 |$37,962 | |2 |$47,579 |0. 7972 |$37,929 | |3 |$85,629 |0. 7118 |$60,949 | |NPV |Â   |Â   |$10,840 |

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Evolution of Advertising in Nigeria Essay

The Nigeria Advertising had its humble beginning rooted in colonial history, advertising development could be traced to about 1928 with the birth of West African Publicity Limited. An off shoot of UAC, the company was set up to cater for the marketing activities of the colonial masters in both Nigeria and West Africa. This company was later to transform to a full fledged advertising firm in 1929 known as Lintas with two other subsidiaries newly Afro media, the outdoor medium and Pearl/Dean, the cinema arm. With the setting up of the companies then headed by expatriates, the companies were to enjoy a monopoly for a long time to come it was not until 1950’s when other advertising agencies started to emerge on the scene. Ogilvy, Benson and Martha (OBM) and Grant were later to join the fray to form the big three in the industry. The medium of advertising was in its infancy in those days Federal Government owned National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) where he only television stations that operated in the four regions of East, West, North and later Midwest. These regions later set up their private stations pioneered by the West, at Ibadan, prior to independence. In 1960 and 1962 respectively, Enugu and Kaduna followed suit. And with the creation of more regions by the General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) administration and creation of more states by both Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Ibrahim Babangida regimes, more state government-owned television and radio stations were established. Daily Times, Express, Tribune, New Nigeria and Sketch were among the fore-runners in newspaper publishing. Some state governments also published newspapers that addressed their local audience. Two major magazines- Drum and Spear from Daily Times stable were also at the time published. Between the early 1960’s and 1970, there was no spectacular development in the industry. But the promulgation of Nigeria Enterprises as promotion Decree of 1972 popularly known as Indigenization policy urshed in a new phase in the industry. The policy transformed key positions in corporate organisations to indigenes. Mr Silvester, Muoemeka was by the dictates of  the policy to emerge the first indigenous chief executive of Lintas. Lintas further empowered more Nigerians to take up the business of advertising some of whom had to leave broadcasting to embrace the new thinking. By the later 1970’s however, two ambitious agencies, Rosabel Advertising and Insight Communication, sprang up. The coming of the two agencies which till today are still doing very well, no doubt, was a watershed in the industry of advertising in Nigeria as the agencies brought new ideas into the industry while taking creativity to a higher. Before the turn of the decade, 23 agencies had been formed. With the steady growth in the number of practitioners and agencies arose the need for associations to be formed to advance their common interests and a regulatory body to that would regulate and standardize advertising practice. A meeting of the agencies held at Ebute Metta, Lagos in 1971 was to metamorphose into Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN) with the objective of  Protecting practitioners against unfavourable business. The association was later renamed Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria. As the industry continued to grow in volume of business and complexity, more and more people were attracted to the industry. The need to establish an institution to regulate advertising practice became apparent. This gave rise to the establishment of Advertising Parishioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) by Decree 55 of 1988, later renamed Act 55 of 1988 by the civilian administration on November 1989, the first meeting of the association held somewhere in Ebute-meta, Lagos finally culminated. APCON started operation in 1990 with the employment of the pioneer registrar in the person of Dr Charles Okigbo. The era of economic restructuring and liberalization opened up the Nigerian business to global economy. Foreign investments started flowing into the economy the expatriates who once left the shores of the land due to the indigenization policy gradually returned. And with them, the boom in economy. Aside, privatization of mass communication medium in the 1990’s also witnessed the setting up of private  owned media houses which are platforms for advertisement placements. â€Å"But in the 1990’s the sector came alive. Not only that alarming and ambitions agencies such as Prima Garnet, Sotu and Caesars sprang up, the sector began to expand beyond advertising as full services public relation firms such as the Quadrant JSP and Quest were established. Also the era witnessed the mad rush of foreign affiliations. While some agencies sought this affiliation to help boost their human capital, others just joined the bandwagon just to feel among.† As the business expanded, related services providers joined the fray to cash in on the boom. Not long after they formed themselves into association to also further heir cause and protect their interest. Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) emerged. Not long the industry became an all corners affairs. Competition became very stiff and practitioners started adopting unwholesome means to undercut one another. Industry debt became a major issue to the extent that it attracted the attention of past federal government who encouraged the practitioners to find a way of resolving the perennial problem. Just as competition continued to get stiff, agencies did not rest on their oars as they embarked on training of their staff who will be able to meet the challenge of modern day advertising. As creativity took centre stage, the industry witnessed a lot of innovation and creative ideas. The foreigners who started coming back brought with them standard and professional which changed the advertising landscape. Restructuring, training and brand building and creativity have taken centre stage.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Why it is important to differentiate the curriculum for gifted Essay

Why it is important to differentiate the curriculum for gifted learners in schools - Essay Example (1993) identify the ten roles of the teacher as being, â€Å"director, facilitator, adviser, teacher, guide, critic, freedom giver, supporter, manager and examiner† (p.31-32). There are many other educational writers who suggest various other dimensions of teaching and the essential teaching skills within these dimensions. Kyriacou (1998) lists the essential teaching skills as â€Å"ethos, direct instruction, management of materials, guided practice, structured conversation, monitoring, management of order, planning and preparation and written evaluation† (p.6). These skills are imperative in the direction of gifted students in order to tailor the curriculum to their accelerated learning needs. This is why educators of the gifted value the benefits of ability grouping for advanced learners. The availability of some forms of homogeneous grouping for these learners has been strongly advocated by proponents of gifted education (Allan, 1991). Educators of the gifted are also concerned about a lack of emphasis on differentiated instruction for academic diversity in heterogeneous classrooms and reject a one-size-fits-all approach to educating students as varied as those who inhabit the average classroom. Thus, it is necessary to abandon these practices that homogenize instruction by permitting and in some cases, even encouraging a â€Å"one-size-fits-all† approach to instruction (Kaplan, 1979). Instead, it is necessary to emphasize appropriately differentiated instruction in heterogeneous classrooms In order to cater for giftedness, a curriculum must be developed which creates opportunities to optimize students’ potential (VanTassel-Baska, 1993). A goal in gifted education is to reach the ‘optimal match’ of curriculum with the needs of gifted students. (Hoekman, McCormick and Gross, 1999). Curriculum should be complex, fast-paced, rigorous and match the abilities and interests of gifted students (Gross, 1994,1997,2001, Sawyer, 1988, VanTassel-Baska, 88, 91, 92,

Friday, September 27, 2019

Human Resource Management in International Organizations Essay

Human Resource Management in International Organizations - Essay Example In fact now a debate has started whether the concept of 'managing diversity; forms an alternative to 'equal opportunities' based on gender bias. In the UK, human resource practitioners and academics alike are becoming more aware of the emergence of managing diversity. There is now a view that, after twenty years of the ' stick' of legal compliance (which has achieved little), the 'carrot' of underpinning the business case for equal opportunities will perhaps achieve more (Dickens 1994). Thomas1 (2000) argues that, with the growing number of mergers and acquisitions, workforce diversity will become more of a priority for organizations and, therefore, in the future, people will become clearer on what diversity is and how to manage it. The business case for managing diversity therefore offers a way to operate equal opportunities as a strategic issue, a core value linked to organizational competitiveness (Dickens 1994). Diversity not only comes in the form of culture and values, but it also consists of several other visible and non-visible factors, which include personal characteristics such as sex, race, age, background, culture, disability, personality and work-style. Harnessing these differences is bound to create a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, their talents are fully utilized and organizational goals are met. Therefore, the way to place this on the corporate agenda is to see the concepts as providing both tangible as well as intangible benefits, besides being socially and morally right. Considering these factors, the underlying philosophy of managing diversity tends to imply that an organization can gain massive competitive advantage, resulting in enhanced performance with the help of a satisfied human capital. It rests on the premise that the organization will be able to serve increasingly diverse customers, meet increasingly complex business and management problems by actively seeking and managing a diverse workforce (Stephenson and Lewis 1996; Cox 1991). In the era of globalization, when MNCs prefer to take advantage of multi-location facilities, lower costs of production, expertise from the world over, diversity is bound to be there at the workplace. It is for the organization to manage the diversity by recognizing, appreciating, valuing, encouraging and utilizing the unique talents and contributions of individuals from across a wider spectrum of society. But circumstances sometimes create peculiar conditions which brings to the fore the inherent weaknesses prevalent in our society. There are rules and regulations which provide broad guidelines for keeping a delicate balance in dealing with such matters so that mutual harmony is maintained amongst the workforce. The guiding principle behind this thought is that the world is a rich and diverse place, full of interesting cultures and people who should be treated with respect. Skirmishes arising out of 'discriminatory' behavior often result in tensions amongst colleagues. Though there are federal laws in place, but it is the human character and nature which has to

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Loans. Variable interest and fixed interest loans Essay

Loans. Variable interest and fixed interest loans - Essay Example There are many reasons why comparable short term loans have various degrees of risk. One of the primary reasons is the existence of variable term loans. A variable interest loan can change in payment on a monthly basis based on the current interest rate in the marketplace. Fixed loans are much different because these loans have a fix payment rate until maturity. A secondary reason why short term loans have different levels of risk is due to credit history of the individual or business entity. People that have excellent credit pay less than people that have bad credit. The reason people with bad credit pay more on short term loans is because they represent a high risk. A third reason why the terms of loans are different in terms of interest and risk is because each financial institution has different earnings expectations. Some banks are willing to earn less than others. 2. Granting credit to a firm or person with bad credit can result in a positive NVP. There are a lot of people that have bad credit that are not at fault. Some people lose their good credit because they co-signed for a friend or family member that defaulted on a loan. The lack of responsibility of the person that defaulted places the person in a tough situation because they are forced to pay a debt that is not theirs. Another reason why banks may earn positive NPV from people with bad credit is because they charge these individuals or business institutions a higher interest rate. 3. The credit score of a person is very influential in the terms of the credit the borrower receives. There are three credit agencies that evaluate the person. The three agencies are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. You are correct in your assumption that the amount of credit experience a person has influences the credit score of the individual. The three credit agencies utilize different criteria to evaluate the person. My father recently applied for a loan and he was denied because one of the agencies rated him as a 560. It was strange that another one of the agencies gave him a 716 score. 4. I have always preferred to have a variable interest loan than a fixed interest loan especially in long term loans. The market fluctuates a lot and a variable interest loan can enable a person to negotiate better terms of credit if the market conditions become favorable. Some people on the other hand prefer fixed loans because of the security of knowing the exact amount you have to pay on a monthly basis. When the interest rate goes down it is better to have a flexible interest loan, but when it goes up the fixed payment loan is the best alternative. 5. The types of financial institutions that deal in very short term loans such as 15 to 30 loans have a lot of business because everyone every so often faces an emergency that requires instant cash. People also on many occasions are not able to keep up with the budget and the run out of cash. You need cash for daily food expenses and transportation cost to go to work. Due to the risk involved in these types of loans it is justified for these firms to charge a high interest rate. Also these firms have to charge a high interest rate because they do not enjoy the benefits of compound interest like other banks due to the fact that the debt is settled in a very short term. Banks make a lot of interest money during the first part of a long term loan. Shorter loans generate less interest revenues. 6. It is true that when people are faced with an emergency that requires instant cash they do not care about the terms of the agreement. In our world there are people that take advantage of the necessities of the poor by becoming loan sharks. Loan sharks are people that create an illegal lending operation which charges on my occasions upwards of 10% per week. People borrow money from these loan sharks when they have nowhere else to turn. Short term lending institutions that deal 15 day and 30 day loans are the legal equivalency of a loan shark. They c harge 30% to 50% yearly interest on short term loans. 7. The credit score

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

CRM Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

CRM - Research Paper Example Its market share has reached 20% in the hypertension drug market. The company wanted to raise the awareness about Amodipine brand through advertising it as nation’s hypertension drug (Hanmi, â€Å"Hanmi at Glance†). Clari is another major pharmaceutical product of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Company. It is a Macrolide Antibiotic. It is one the Hanmi’s first generic drugs which are used to cure infection. It has benefited Hanami with robust sales and has ranked second in the sales of drugs after amodipine. Its sales were above 10 million USD in the year 2009 (Hanmi, â€Å"Hanmi at Glance†). Hanmi Pharmaceutical Hanmi Pharmaceutical Company was established in the year 1973 and from then onwards it has grown remarkably. Hanmi incessantly showed 20% to 30% growth rate since its establishment. It has emerged as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Korea. In the year 2008 its sales was more than 558 million USD. By developing good R&D strategy Hanami Pharmace utical has now been able to become a most competitive organization in the international market (Hanmi, â€Å"Hanmi at Glance†). Value of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) CRM is an approach to create, expand and maintain customer relationship. It provides a vision to an organization in order to deal with their valuable customers. To meet these visions, organization should implement effective CRM strategies that can increase the sales, develop the customer service, marketing and data analysis activities. Notably, the main objective of CRM is to maximize beneficial relationship with customer for both dealer and customer. Hanmi’s high quality marketing as well as sales based information technology is considered as the main driving force which has resulted in consumer growth. Hanmi Pharmaceutical is dedicated to develop and provide innovative and valuable drugs to the customer to maintain an effective customer relationship. Hanmi Pharmaceuticals has been producing Cep halosporin products since 1987 and supplies products in over 40 countries. Hanmi has a wide range of customers in many countries of the USA, Europe and Asia. Their new manufacturing plant has the ability to produce many ‘innovative drug APIs and intermediates’ (Hanmi, â€Å"Hanmi at Glance†). Hanmi Pharmaceutical also maintains efficient relationship with their global partners for exploring modified drugs such as esomeprazole, clopidogrel, clari, amodipine and others. Hanmi is also working to find business partners in other parts of the world where they have not established yet (Hanmi, â€Å"News Archives†). In the year 2007 Hanmi Pharmaceutical got â€Å"Forbes management first prize†. Forbes had put a high valuation on Hanmi because of adopting ERP IT technology and took the social responsibility through a sustainable management approach. Hanmi Pharmaceutical always supports society to help customers live better in a cleaner environment. For insta nce, for children Hanmi changed single cap medicine to double capped medicine. It planned and promoted various strategies to upgrade the quality of life of customers with efficient CRM strategies (Hanmi, â€Å"News Archives†). Customer Retention Program (CRP) Often organizations develop programs which offer purchase inducement, such as discounts on any purchase from any company or â€Å"soft benefits† which is referred to as Customer Retention Program (CRP). An effective CRP includes plans and methods for identification and registration of customer, customer segmentation, design

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Circulation of Blood in the Human Body Essay

The Circulation of Blood in the Human Body - Essay Example Each side of the heart has its designated functions in the circulation of blood. The right side pumps blood that is deficient in oxygen and rich in carbon dioxide (deoxygenated blood). The blood is pumped to the lungs where oxygenation takes place. The process involves the loss of carbon dioxide to the air through the breathing process and absorption of oxygen (Storad, 2005). The oxygen is transported by the red cells in the blood, also called erythrocytes. The left side of the muscular organ pumps oxygenated blood flowing from the lungs to the other parts of the body. The technical role of the heart in the circulation of the blood is as illustrated in the video in figure 2. As can be noted from the video, the blood from the left side of the heart does not mix with that on the right side. If this happened, oxygenated blood would be deoxygenated by the high levels of carbon dioxide in the right side of the heart. The blood deficient in oxygen is circulated from the other parts of the body where respiration has taken place to the heart through the venacava (Rogers, 2011). The venacava is divided into two parts with the superior vein returning blood from the hands and the head to the heart while the inferior vein carries blood to the heart from the other parts of the body. The oxygen deficient blood flows into the right atrium because the pressure of the atrium is low based on the contraction action of the heart.

Monday, September 23, 2019

International and strategic marketing Assignment

International and strategic marketing - Assignment Example The several challenges faced over the years have also helped to propel the company into new heights. These include fierce competition from other consulting firms, the credit crunch which saw the company barely survive and the restructuring we had to do to increase efficiency and serve our clients better. The International Market After long consultations with the directors and other stakeholders, it was agreed that the company should move to another level and expand into the international market. This will be a great privilege to the company. After the marketing team completed its analysis on the first location outside the UK that the company should base its services on, we decided to take the business to Paris, France due to a number of reasons that will be outlined later. With the expansion to Paris, the company will also introduce a new product in the market. This is an area that the company has researched on and found high demand for, especially in Paris. The new product involves training programmes for International marketing. The most obvious reason as to the choice of this product is due to the fact that Paris, being a renowned historical city in the world, attracts several local and international tourists every year. The training programmes in International marketing will thus be very useful to the market. ... Secondly, new products in the market usually earn higher profits than old ones because of their unique qualities and the fact that competitors would not have caught up yet. This is especially advantageous in launching new products in new markets where such products tend to generate curiosity from the market. Thirdly, limiting the company to old products may make the company lose out on emerging markets or existing clients who eventually get bored of the same products presented in the same old ways (Husig & Kohn 2003). Seasonal variation in demand for products may mean that firms’ revenues keep fluctuating. Development of new products which are customized to be profitable during different times is one of the ways companies can use to ensure consistent revenues throughout the year. Technological advances today, especially in Information Technology have made it easy for companies to easily develop new concepts at a faster rate and with lower costs. Developing new concepts therefo re helps companies keep abreast with technological advancements (Kotler & Gray 2008). The first step undertaken included the brainstorming of ideas. Once it was made known that the company was going international, the employees in the company were very enthusiastic to pitch in ideas to help in the development of a product that would hit in the international market. Brainstorming on ideas is usually a great way to get new ideas on the table (Cateora & Graham 2002). Apart from contributions by the employees and other experts hired to do the job, clients of the company were also asked for their contribution and the feedback received was very useful. After the ideas were sifted through, the marketing department did further research on the most viable ideas and the ideas were screened. The

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Marketing report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing report - Essay Example Unequivocally, firms have greater emphasis on marketing research to generate useful information that in turn facilitates in modifying business strategies, in decision-making and problem-solving. For instance, the emergence of mass media has greatly affected / influenced the attitudes, perceptions, behaviours, beliefs and lifestyles of people all across the globe, thereby creating new challenges for a firm to thrive in contemporary environment. Marketing research (exploratory, descriptive and causal) is also beneficial in analysing the business potential and viability of products. In addition, it enables the firm to gain insight over underlying factors and critical risks after which firms could amend their strategic objectives and product lines. Nevertheless, the research enables the firms to identify gaps in consumer markets, to innovate and differentiate their procedures and products followed by attainment of cost leadership. An important advantage of marketing research is that it f acilitates change management initiatives. In other words, it helps replacing the old workplace rules, regulations, requirements and criteria by new workplace standards and roles so that the organisations could flourish in an absolutely uncertain, unpredictable, unclear, unstructured and unexpected business environment. A professional or private sports / fitness club initiates marketing research after problem identification (for example – when sales decline because customers are switching to other centres, when top facilities in centre unable to attract maximum customers due to flaws in marketing strategy, when competition increased after inauguration of new clubs at nearby locations and other issues, when customers all across the city are unaware of the club’s product offerings etc.). In simple words, the research enables a sports / fitness club to draw useful inferences regarding external environment and to compare differences in their actual and perceived strengths. Having assessed the aforementioned, the club could then implement more ‘effective’ marketing and advertising strategies that can be utilised to enhance the profitability and long-term monetary gains. This paper will demonstrate the marketing strategies adopted by Lifestyle Aquatic Fitness Centre - a UK based sporting, exercising and gyming centre that provides premium quality fitness services to public across Liverpool. Nonetheless, Lifestyle Fitness has always focused towards brand recognition, innovation, differentiation and value proposition because these aforementioned are the foundations of success and sustainability of any group or business organisation. Indeed, the strategic planners pay special attention to maintain and improve service quality through induction of new equipment, training courses, facilities and sporting activities because it enhances market reputation and goodwill among stakeholders and customers. Total Quality Management principles such as benc hmarking, continuous learning and experimentation etc. are adopted for value creation, which then lead to improvement in sales and profitability. Without any doubt, the aforementioned provides Lifestyle a competitive edge over rivals such as Greens Health, Hercules Health & Fitness Centre, Novotel Liverpool, Absolutions Health Clud and others etc. in fitness and sporting industry .

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Practice and Principles of Nursing Essay Example for Free

Practice and Principles of Nursing Essay Principles and Practices of Nursing We will describe collaborating with other health care professionals in the management of health care, and what should be done according to this regulation. (Oklahoma Board of Nursing, 2011). We will describe confidentiality and discuss how it affects the Nurses professional decision making in this Case study. We will discuss the ethical implications of placing this patient on the ventilator. We will discuss things the Patients brother Mr.Y should consider before agreeing to allow Dr. K to place the Patient Mr. E on the ventilator, and facts that affect the Patients Advance Directive. We will discuss violations of HIPAA seen in this Case Study. We will discuss the conduct of the Nurses in this case study. We will discuss the steps the professional Nurse should take based on the ANA code of ethics. Collaboration is not just cooperation, it is the combined efforts of a team to provide the best care possible (Nursing World, 2010). The Physician and nurse should be working together to achieve the best care for this Patient. The Nurse and Physician should discuss the Patients condition and wishes and the wishes of the family if the Patient is incapable of making decisions for himself (Nursing World, 2010). The nurse and Physician should make certain the patients brother knows about the advance directive, so he will be able to make an informed decision about his brothers care. Confidentiality is very important in the medical field. Confidentiality represents a relationship between Patient and care giver of trust and respect for his privacy (Nursing World, 2010). If a Patient is unsure of privacy then the communication will be adversely affected. The Nurse in this scenario should never discuss patients in the dining area, the waiting room, or anywhere else that privacy can not be guaranteed (Nursing World, 2010). The nurse should never discuss the patients condition with family members if they do not have medical power of attorney or been given permission by the medical power of attorney to do so (Nursing World, 2010). The nurse should not discuss patient with other staff members unless they are directly responsible for giving care and have a need to know (Nursing World, 2010). This Patient has signed an Advance Directive and has named his brother as Power of Attorney (Nursing World, 2010 ). This fact was never discussed with the brother before this Patient was put on the Ventilator. The patients brother was not the one who gave permission for the procedure to put patient on the ventilator(Nursing World, 2010). The brother needs to tconsider these facts before giving Dr. K permission to place the patient on the ventilator. The patient has a low oxygen level of 88%. He has a low grade temp of 101 degree F. His mental capacity may not be adequate to make this decision without assistance (Nursing World, 2010). The brother needs to consider the fact that the patient had the Advance Directive before he became ill, and consider his ability to make decisions at the time he signed the advance directive (Nursing World, 2010). There were several HIPAA violations noted in this scenario. The physician spoke to the niece about the condition of the patient without consent of the power of attorney or the patient (Sheahan, 2011). The nurse spoke to other staff who were not directly responsible for the care of this patient (Sheahan, 2011). The nurse also discussed patient information in a very public place where anyone could overhear the conversation (Sheahan, 2011). The nurse who was directly responsible for this patient did not advocate for this patients rights. The nurse had information that she never gave to anyone in a position to make decisions for this patient (Nursing World, 2010 ). The nurses used derogatory language when speaking of this patient (Nursing World, 2010). The nurses had no consideration for the patients privacy or dignity in this scenerio. None of the nurses offered to help educate the nurse who admitted she knew nothing of HIPAA. The Nurse needs to protect the Patients privacy at all times. The nurse should Advocate for the Patients rights to refuse treatment or have his Power of Attorney make this decision for him (Nursing World, 2010). The nurse needs to insist the Physician or she herself speak with the brother again to clarify that the niece could give permission to place Patient on Ventilator before the procedure is performed. The nurse should never have gone to lunch before she had obtained permission from the power of attorney to allow the procedure to be performed. The Nurse should also give her fellow employees in the cafateria a copy of the Nurse Practice acts of Oklahoma, the Nurses Code of Ethics and HIPAA. She needs to be certain that all of the nurses involved including herself understands all three of these papers. The nurse should request that they not speak in a derogatory fashion of any patient, and make certain they understand that they are in violation of the nursing code of ethics and HIPAA (Nursing World, 2010). We have discussed the nursing regulation collaborating with other health professionals in the management of health care, it’s importance, and what the health care team should do in this situation (Nursing World, 2010 ). We have discussed confidentiality, and the professional Nurses role in maintaining confidentiality. We have discussed the ethical implications of putting this Patient on the ventilator. We have discussed things his Brother needs to know and consider before making this decision for the patient and things that could interfere with the Advance Directive. We found several HIPAA violationa.  We have discussed the conduct of the nurses in this scenerio. We have discussed the things the professional nursw should do.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Miscommunication Is A Common Problem Information Technology Essay

Miscommunication Is A Common Problem Information Technology Essay Miscommunication is a common problem in most of the companies, and it has negative effects that may affect the company performance and employees. Researcher study seeks (a) to know what communication is and what its importance in the companies. (b) To know what the problems are when miscommunication happened. (c) To put solutions to resolve the problems. Researcher used secondary method to collect data by using survey distributed to the employees who work in Al Qudra Company. The survey questions are focused on communication ways that they use within the company and the reasons that lead to miscommunication between the staff and also by using Interviews with its manager related to the communication style within the company and how they face miscommunication results. Also researcher used primary method to collect data by using internet, books, and newspapers. Researcher use Literature review to emphasize her search by review pervious articles or reports. Data was collected within 4 weeks and 4 weeks to analysis the data. Finally researcher suggests some recommendations or alternative solutions to resolve the problems that come from miscommunication. Introduction Background of the Study Communication is one of the most effective ways to enhance organization performance, satisfy employees, and meet customer needs and wants. Communication could happened in two ways, it could be occur inside the organization between employers (managers) and employees (workers) and it could occur outside the organization between organizations workers and customers, traders, retailers. With good communication inside the company the employees will be able to know and understand what their jobs and roles exactly are and their performance will be more effective. In addition, good communication outside the company will increase the customers, retailers and traders loyalty and from that the company profits and reputation will increase too. In contrast, bad communication or not effective communication style inside or outside the company can lead to negative results. (condrat, 2009) http://www.suite101.com/content/effective-communication-at-workplace-a95815. There are two main ways for communication, first electronic communication through electronic mail, telephone, teleconference, voice mail message, and internet, second human communication through meetings, speeches, and interviews. (Svecz, 2010) http://www.suite101.com/content/basic-elementstips-to-build-effective-workplace-communication-a290104#ixzz1JcTjGq6s. Statement of the problem Miscommunication occurs when the managers who speak fail to communicate their ideas and requests to their employees or when the employees who listen fail to interpret the information. From that the problems at the company appeared where employees mistakes and confusions will increase while doing their jobs because they dont have enough information or misunderstand what are the exactly tasks should they do which lead to decline their performance and waste time and as result from that the companys profit will decrease. (condrat,2009)www.suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/effective-communication-at-workplace 95815. Thus researcher focuses on this problem and tries to find out ways to reduce it. Objectives of the study The objectives of research study are: To review literature related to miscommunication. To know the problems and how it could be solved. To provide recommendations based on findings. Research Questions What is the important of effective communication at workplace? Is there any problem that companies could face during communication? When miscommunication could be occurring? What is the impact of miscommunication on the company and its staff? Limitation of the Study The researcher has been constricted her study in miscommunication at place of work and study its impact in the company performance and relationship among worker within the company in the UAE, taking Al Qudra Company in Al Ain city as a pattern of study and distributed the survey within the company. Significance of the study The main point of this study is to run interview with Al Qudra company manager and staff at Al Ain city in United Arab Emirates to determine when and how miscommunication at workplace occurs and to decide the impact of miscommunication on the company production and employees relationship inside (among workers) and outsides the company (suppliers, customers, traders) and give suggestions to overcome the impact of miscommunication which help the readers to be familiar with such these problems that could face the employees at work and how can deal with it. Definition of Terms Miscommunication: one unable to deliver his or her ideas and thoughts clearly or obviously to others. And also miscommunication is the one who receive the information (listener) analyze it improperly. Human communication: it is way to deliver the information to other people through conference, interview, dialogue, speech, and meeting. Electronic communication: it is electronic instrument that used to exchange a few words or communicate among people such as telephone, email, voice mail, etc. Internal communication: it is mean that the information is exchanged within or inside the organization between the workers to done the job required. External communication: it is meaning that the information is delivered and exchanged outside the organization with the customers, traders, vendor, or seller to persuade them to continue deal with organizations services and products or to explain something is not clear. Literture Review The literature that was used was Mortensens 1997 work Miscommunication  [1]  . In his work Mortensen cites various reasons why a conversation does not work, to name a few disagreement, distortion and misunderstanding. Many terms Mortensen cites are self explanatory (in that their meaning can be derived from their name alone e.g. lack of reciprocity), however the literature provides yet another framework by which miscommunication can be measured by. Mortensen sets out his theories in a clear and logical fashion, which in turn helped the development of the study. He cites six main ideas about miscommunication (implication, distortion, disruption, confusion, disagreement and misunderstanding) and this framework helped the study to also view miscommunication through these six main theories. In using this literature, a new focus for the dissertation was brought about in the sense of not only identifying miscommunication in the conversations but specifically a study into the miscommuni cation in the workplace and why this was happening. The literature that helped bring about this focus was Finchams 1982 investigation into hospital communication. In her investigation Fincham identified communication problems in the hospital and looked for ways to rectify this. In contrast to Finchams study this dissertation did not look to devise a solution to the miscommunication problems in the workplace, rather to examine the data against what should be expected from a workplace conversation, especially in the context of customer/employee interaction. Mortensen, C. D. (1997) http://www.lancs.ac.uk/search/index.htm?cx=015049136984008940906%3Aw6id2ed8vzwcof=FORID%3A10ie=ISO-8859-1q=miscommunicationsa=Searchsiteurl=www.lancs.ac.uk%2Findex.htm#1166 www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/courses/ling/ling201/res/diss/2004/towl08.doc Researcher noticed that miscommunication is familiar phenomena ages ago, and the way to get red of this problem is pretty obvious but, it need patience and need to talk and ask with a good attitude and show respects to other to respect you as well. Also being friendly with your colleagues makes them take your word to the positive side not the negative on as well. Methodology Researcher used secondary method to collect data by using survey distributed to the employees who work in Al Qudra Company. The survey questions are focused on communication ways that they use within the company and the reasons that lead to miscommunication between the staff and also by using Interviews with its manager related to the communication style within the company and how they face miscommunication results. Also researcher used primary method to collect data by using internet, books, and newspapers. Research means developed to supply answers to subsequent questions:   What is the important of effective communication at workplace? Is there any problem that companies could face during communication? When miscommunication could be occurring? What is the impact of miscommunication on the company and its staff? Population and Sample The population of the researcher study is 50 of male and female employee who work in Al Qudra Company. The survey distributed to the employees who work at Quadra Company in Al Ain and they are request to answer yes and no questions and other questions about communication ways that they use within the company and the reasons that lead to miscommunication between the staff. Instruments The first instrument the research used is survey which helps researcher to complete the research. The survey distributed to 50 employees who work in Al Qudra Company. The second instrument the researcher used is interview with the manager of Al Qudra Company Questionnaire   The questionnaire is distributed to 50 employees who work in Al Qudra Company which include two components: The first component is concerning general personal data for employees which are gander, age, nationality. The second component is concerning on communication ways that they use within the company and the reasons that lead to miscommunication between the staff. Interview The researcher used interview with the manager of Al Qudra Company related to the communication style within the company and how they face miscommunication results. Data Collection Procedures Researcher used three methods to collect data which are: Visiting personally Al Qudra Company at Al Ain branch to run interview with its manager by asking him number questions related to miscommunication at their company. Distributing survey to fifty employees who work in Al Qudra and ask them during their work time to answer the questions and then collect the survey paper again and examine the data according to their respond. Searching through internet, books, and articles for useful information that help researcher to collect accurate data and use it in her research via borrowing books from library and look through internet. Analysis of Data The researcher used Microsoft word and Microsoft excel program to make the table that contains the percentage result of the survey that shows the opinion of the employees working in Al Qudra Company . After that, researcher applied the chart according to the percentage result, to show the result as statistical graph. The following table and data chart showing their opinion in Miscommunications, how miscommunication affects their work efficiency and affects the whole company and its reputation. Also its showing the way to fix this problem and the suggested solutions from the employees them selves to fix it. And the basis researcher asked these specific questions is that researcher need to find the problem, try to solve it and get red of it when ever it happens again. Finding Results: Employees Response about Miscommunication in work place yes No Do you think that stress causes miscommunication? 76% 24% Do you think that dealing with non local colleagues causes miscommunication? 60% 40% Do you that the non cooperation between employees causes is miscommunication? 90% 10% Do you think that Threat of Favoritism causes miscommunication? 89% 11% Do you think that Criticism and backbiting between the staff causes miscommunications? 90% 10% Do you think that not getting a feedback causes miscommunication? 89% 11% Do you think that choosing the best medium reduces miscommunication? 69% 31% Do you think that being brief and getting direct to the point reduces miscommunication? 40% 60% Do you think that learning how to communicate reduces miscommunication? 80% 20% Do you think that miscommunication affects your work efficiency? 92% 08%Table 1. Results of surveying employees opinion in miscommunication. Data Chart Figure.1 Results of surveying employees opinion in miscommunication Conclusion Form what have discussed, researcher concluded that miscommunication in workplace always happens and its not something rare. The problem is caused by the people working there that mean that it could be solved in an easy way. Miscommunication is a problem that can Be solved By cooporation and Being frienly with your colleagues , so they can take every thing hold two meanings to the positive not the negative one. Summary To sum up what researcher have said in this topic , Miscommunication is a problem that can be sloved easily . resercher talked about the causes of the problem and the solutions too. Researcher made a survey that shows the opinions in miscommunication in worksplace and researcher alanlised the data and made the chart . Also , researcher made and interfew with the manager of the company and finally researcher concolded the ideas said above. Recommendation Researcher reccomands that the manager of the company should find a way to reduce the miscommunication in his company Because that may reduce the efficency of the work and the reputation of the company is gooing to Be Bad as well. Reducing the miscommunication means increasing the efficiency of work to success in the Business field. Researcher discover that miscommunication is one of tools that can destroy the business your working on . in addition, manager should relaize that fixing the miscommunication problem dont take much time to be solved . Bibliography 1- condrat, A. (2009, Feb 12). Effective communication in the work place. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from www.suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/effective-communication-at-workplace-a95815 2- Svecz, A.-M. B. (2010, Sep 26). Basic Elements Tips to Build Effective Workplace Communication. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from www.suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/basic-elementstips-to-build-effective-workplace-communication-a290104 3- Mortensen, C. D. (1997) Miscommunication London: Sage . Retrieved May19, 2011, Form : www.lancs.ac.uk: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/search/index.htm?cx=015049136984008940906%3Aw6id2ed8vzwcof=FORID%3A10ie=ISO-8859-1q=miscommunicationsa=Searchsiteurl=www.lancs.ac.uk%2Findex.htm#1166

Thursday, September 19, 2019

african americans Essay -- essays research papers

African Americans continued to live as second class citizens in the 1950’s and 1960’s, especially in the South, despite the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited states from denying anyone the right to vote due to race. States passed laws directed at separating the races and keeping blacks from the polls. During these times, African Americans and other Americans led an organized and strong movement to fight for racial equality. The movement often met with strong opposition, such as in Birmingham, Alabama, where police sprayed protestors with high pressure fire hoses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early 1900’s W.E.B. Du Bois established the NAACP, (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) which fought to end segregation, the separation of people on the basis of race. In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down segregation as unconstitutional.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the â€Å"colored† section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled up, the driver ordered Parks and three other African American passengers to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down without having to sit next to any African Americans. The leaders of the African American community, including many ministers, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to organize a boycott. They elected the pastor o...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Essay -- Philosophy Religion

Told by the blurb that we have here "one of the most unique and exciting books in the history of American letters," one bridles both at the grammar of the claim and at its routine excess. The grammar stays irreparable. But I have a hunch that the assertion itself is valid. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig (Morrow), is as willfully awkward as its title. It is densely put together. It lurches, with a deliberate shift of its grave ballast, between fiction and philosophic discourse, between a private memoir and the formulaic impersonality of an engineering or trade journal. As it stands, it is a very long book, but report has it, and fault lines indicate, that a much longer text lies behind it. One hears of an eight- hundred-thousand-word draft and feels perversely deprived of it by the mere sanity and worldliness of the publisher. Zen and the Art is awkward both to live with and to write about. It lodges in the mind as few recent nov els have, deepening its grip, compelling the landscape into unexpected planes of order and menace. The narrative thread is deceptively trite. Father and son are on a motorcycle holiday, traveling from Minneapolis toward the Dakotas, then across the mountains, turning south to Santa Rosa and the Bay. Asphalt, motels, hairpins in the knife-cold of the Rockies, fog and desert, the waters dividing, then the vineyards and the tawny flanks of the sea. Mr. Pirsig is not the first ever to burst: Kerouac has been here before him, and Humbert Humbert, a clutch of novels, films, stories, television serials of loners on the move, lapping the silent miles, toasted or drenched under the big skies, motelling from one neon oasis to the next, and glidin... ... exception. The cracker-barrel voice grinds on, sententious and flat. But the book is inspired, original enough to impel us across gray patches. And as the mountains gentle toward the sea with father and child locked in a ghostly grip-the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect, defy criticism. A detailed technical treatise on the tools, on the routines, on the metaphysics of a specialized skill; the legend of a great hunt after identity, after the salvation of mind and soul out of obsession, the hunter being hunted; a fiction repeatedly interrupted by, and meshed with, a lengthy meditation on the ironic and tragic singularities of American man- the analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison. It is at many points, including, even, the almost complete absence of women, suitable. What more can one say?

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

being there Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being There is the story of Chance, a simple gardener turned American media hero. He seems to know nothing but television and gardening. His thoughts and judgments are products of television and his gardening experience. Yet through his simple mild mannered ways he unintentionally becomes the center of America’s business news. The author of Being There, Jerzy Kosinski said â€Å"To read a novel is to practice for real life. Fiction doesn’t change anybody’s life, it merely hints at the different ways of looking at oneself, at others, and at society† Since Chance was not able to read, television shows were his novels. Television was his practice for real life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Television was like a mirror for Chance. Chance felt, â€Å"by changing the channel he could change himself† He was able to imagine himself to be people on television. I believe this is why Chance was able to put on the appearance he had even if it was unintentional. His appeal and gestures were all products of TV’s influence. With the help of the old man’s suit, Chance passed for a wealthy business man without even trying or knowing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Having no contact with the outside world growing up, television was Chance’s only hint of what society was like. By flipping through the channels, Chance noticed the different ways people would interact with each other. Television provided him with the hints of different ways of looking at people and society. ...

Monday, September 16, 2019

Snap Fitness

Snap Fitness ACC/566 July 16, 2012 David Kochevar Snap Fitness Executive Summary Owning a business is a dream for many people and one way to obtain that dream is to take advantage of a franchise opportunity. Work-out centers are a rapidly growing business. â€Å"Economically, the health club industry has proven to be recession-proof, averaging an 8% annual growth rate since the early 1990’s across all health clubs and gyms†(Snap Fitness, 2012). The following paper will reflect information concerning owning a fitness center and benefits to an individual who seeks to own a business in this industry.Individuals across the country who want to be fit often join fitness centers and most people want a no commitment month to month membership. Snap Fitness offers memberships such as this at a reasonable cost. The purpose of this paper is to describe Snap Fitness and identify cost-volume-profit analysis as well as break even analysis. Snap Fitness estimates each location will hav e $4,000 expense for fixed operating expenses and $2000 to lease equipment. In order for an individual looking to own a franchise such as Snap Fitness, in order to make a profit the business may only need 300 members.The paper will provide an estimate of variable costs, monthly sales in dollars and members will be identified to determine what is needed to achieve a target net income of $10,000 for the month. Five examples of variable costs for a fitness center will be identified and discussed. Lastly, the paper will discuss summarized information concerning purchasing a franchise and will conclude with a decision whether purchasing a fitness franchise is a wise decision or not. CVP AnalysisCVP (Cost Value Profit) Analysis allows an investor to determine if an investment is profitable and at what point the total revenues are equal to the total costs (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009). CVP are very basic analysis that provide a very quick and easy to ready snap shot analysis. CVP Analy sis for Snap Fitness contemplates the connection between the volume of members of the fitness center, the monthly fee (no annual contract is needed), the variable costs encored, and the fixed costs. Snap Fitness will assess no sales mix as sales cannot be mixed when only one service is offered (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009). Snap Fitness | |CVP Income Statement | |For the Month Ended June 30, 2012 | | |Total | |Sales (300 members X $26. 0 monthly fee) |$7,800 | |Variable costs |$1,800 | |Contribution margin |$6,000 | |Fixed costs (monthly operating expenses + equipment lease |$6,000 | |Net Income | $-0- |Variable costs Variable costs are the operating cost that varies in direct proportion to the quantity of units either sold are produced (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009). For the variable cost analysis it was assumed that the only fixed costs are the estimated monthly operating expenses of $4,000 and the equipment lease of $2,000 per month. In order to Break-even the Net income r esult for the below equation would be zero if the expenses and sales are equal. The newspaper assessed that the break even would be meet if 300 members paid a monthly fee of $26. 0 each. The newspaper theory was used to complete the sales data, but this data point should be considered a soft number as it is based off of a newspaper assumption. Break-even analysis uses the formula of Sales = Variable costs + Fixed costs + Net income (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009). |Sales = |Variable costs + |Fixed costs + |Net income + | |$7,800 = |$1,800 |$6,000 |$0 |Monthly Sales Snap Fitness is only able to be successful and profitable as a company if they set their monthly sales goals to achieve. The set monthly sales goals are crucially needed to be set to insure the company’s has the ability to barometer to gauge. This will allow the Snap Fitness to verify cash flow and meet all of the company’s financial obligations. Snap Fitness is also able to use the information to verify t he sales team is meeting their individual and team goals and performance levels.Snap fitness is required to meet $17, 800 in monthly sales to meet the target net income of $10,000. Income amount of $10,000 will insure Snap Fitness will be able to make a profit for the investors and cover costs. For the sales team to make $17,800 they will need to sign-up additional 685 new members. The required sales to meet the $10,000 goal the Target net income formula will need to be used. Required Sales = Variable Cost + Fixed Cost + Target Net Income $17,800 = $1,800 + $6,000 + $10,000 Variable Costs Examples Variable costs are costs that vary in total directly and proportionately with changes in the activity level. If the level increases 10%, total variable costs will increase 10%. If the level of activity decreases by 25%, variable costs will decrease 25%† (Kimmel, Weygandt, and Kieso, 2009, p. 914). Variable costs for this type of franchise will rise as members join. Utilities are vari able costs and will fluctuate based on the amount of activity at the gym. Salaries for staff will also be a variable cost.Personal trainers’ salaries will be different than a sales associate, for example. If the location offers health and wellness programs, a registered dietician will more than likely be employed at the location. A new gym will have less staff in the beginning as opposed to an established gym. As more members join, additional staff will be added to accommodate customers. Taxes and insurance will naturally fluctuate. Insurance is necessary to ensure the business has coverage in the event a customer is injured and to protect the building itself (damages, fire, accidents).As the equipment is consistently used, repairs or replacements will be necessary. These repairs or replacements are a variable cost and will more than likely increase as the business grows and more customers utilize the facility and equipment. In relation to variable costs, business owners will find having knowledge of marginal distribution will help evaluate business performance. Marginal distribution can be calculated as follows: Marginal contribution = Marginal contribution per unit * Number of units sold Marginal contribution per unit = Selling price – Unit variable cost The marginal contribution is the difference between total revenue and totals variable costs and explains how changes the operating profit as changing the number of units sold† (Busan and Dina, 2009, p. 103) . Franchise Opportunities The decision to start a business can sometimes be very difficult due to all of the work associated with planning and implementation. Franchises opportunities are the happy medium to business ownership. A franchise is when an individual or a group has established a right to market a company’s goods or services within a specific area. In a franchise opportunity a rand/ image has already been established for a company as well as products. The owner(s) is r equired to pay an initial fee to start the business while a percentage of the monthly sales have to be paid back to the company. For example anytime fitness, McDonalds, and Subway are all example of franchise operations. Establishing a fitness center has a minimum initial contribution of $80,000 however if the owner(s) are military veterans discounts will be offered. The initial covers equipment, demographics help, a secure surveillance system, customer tracking data, and a well together fitness plan and package.Snap Fitness also offers a financing program which helps with the initial investment cost. Once the agreement has been signed the franchisee is provided with all the benefits and perks. Training is also provided at the corporate headquarters and an advertising plan is in place to help attain new clients. The franchise fee is a set fee that does not increase with sales. Franchise’s make business ownership simplified because the leg work has been done already. However, the negatives are yes a percentage of the sales have to be sent to the franchisor.Understanding the benefits of franchises compared to small business ownership will help make decisions easier about which operation works best. Conclusion As we see franchising a fitness center is a very beneficial investment for individuals or groups looking to operate a business. As an investor it is important to have a concept as to which ownership and entity type works best for them. The breakdown of the variable cost and the break even analysis gives great insight in regards to how the business would need to operate on monthly bases.These key equations are imperative to business operation but it also helps predict future earnings as long as goals are achieved. A franchise opportunity has many perks with a limited amount of risk involved so understanding how things work is beneficial. Snap Fitness offers the ability to open a franchise with great support and package benefits throughout the whole pr ocess. Fitness and health is a great industry because American is trying to be more health conscience. References Anytime Fitness. (2012). Retrieved from http://www. anytimefitness. com/franchise-opportunitiesBusan, G. , & Dina, I. (2009). Using cost-volume-profit analysis in decision making. Annals Of The University Of Petrosani Economics, 9(3), 103-106. Kimmel, P. D. , Weygandt, J. J. , & Kieso, D. E. (2009). Accounting: tools for business decision making (3rd ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Snap Fitness (2011) About Snap Fitness. Retrieved from Snap Fitness (2011). http://www. snapfitness. com/corporate/about Snapfitness. com (2012). Fitness Franchise Opportunity. Retrieved from http://www. snapfitness. com/corporate/franchise-opportunities

Sunday, September 15, 2019

The Curious Ncident of the Dog in the Night Time

The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time demonstrates how challenging life is, not just for the disabled but for everyone. Discuss, making sure you support your ideas with detailed references to the text. Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time which is written from the view of a fifteen year old boy Christopher who has Asperger’s syndrome, not only does this book demonstrate how challenging life is for the disabled, but also for everyone.Having the main character Christopher narrate the story gives you the chance to connect with him and also to experience and understand the challenges he faces in his everyday life because of the disability that he has. Christopher is not the only character in the novel to face challenges. His mother Judy and his father Ed both face challenges. For example, bringing up Christopher who has a disability and also maintaining a solid relationship with each other.While the reader is shown how challengin g life can be, the author also leaves the reader with a feeling of hope with what can happen in the future. Because Christopher has Asperger’s syndrome life is very challenging for him in more than one way. It is hard for Christopher because he can’t understand facial expressions, so he doesn’t know if someone is sad, happy or angry which can be hard because he has to try and guess their mood from the tone of voice they are using.Christopher tries to understand facial expressions because he ‘got Siobhan to draw lots of†¦faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant’. Another way that life is challenging for Christopher is that he can’t deal with lies and does not like them. In some situations Christopher thinks that it is alright for him to tell white lies but others have to tell the full truth all the time. ‘I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it's not because I am a good person.It is because I can't tell lies. ’ Christopher says that he can’t tell lies but what he does not realize, is that he is telling white lies which are lies. Christopher thinks that telling the truth is a way of life, not just something people choose because it is the right thing to do. Christopher has had many situations where he has been lied to and has not handled it well. He has been lied too about his mother being dead and also about his father killing Mrs Shears dog Wellington.Christopher does not react to this well, because when he found out he ran away and no longer felt safe around his father. Both Christopher’s parents Judy and Ed Boone find life challenging because they are trying to raise a child with a disability. Christopher’s mother finds life challenging because she has to live her life wondering if her only child is alright because she is sending him letters and she doesn’t know whether he is getting them, she also isnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t getting any replies from Christopher to ensure her that everything is alright.Even though she has been writing letters to him for a while she has not been getting any letters back because Christopher’s father, Ed, has been hiding them from Christopher because he hadn’t told him that his mother was not actually dead. Christopher’s mother never stopped loving him even though he made her life really hard sometimes and she still kept writing to him and never stopped. ‘You haven’t written to me yet, so I know you’re probably still angry with me. I’m sorry Christopher. But I still love you’.Another way life is challenging for Judy is that she finds that her only son gets on better with his father. As a mother this would be very heart breaking. She always found it difficult when she took him to the shops or the mall because he would end up crouched down on the floor with is hands over his ears and he would be in the way of eve ryone. If she tried to move him he would just start screaming. Judy didn’t believe that she had the patience like Ed to look after Christopher and then she was having lots of other problems and that is when she decided to leave.Judy is not the only person who is finding life challenging but Ed, Christopher’s father is also finding life challenging. Life is challenging for Ed because it is hard to raise a child with a disability especially when you are left to look after them all by yourself. Ed and Christopher’s relationship also struggles when Christopher found out that his own father killed the next door neighbour’s dog Wellington. Christopher started not to trust him anymore and did not feel safe in his company and did not want to be left alone with him.Life is challenging for Christopher as his Asperger’s syndrome makes if difficult to communicate and to understand others. Life is not only difficult for Christopher but also for his parents, bec ause coping with a child with a disability is not any easy thing to do, but not only that they have also put a strain on their relationship. Though life is challenging not just for the disabled but for everyone, Mark Haddon demonstrates how facing life’s challenges builds a person’s character and ability to cope. Word Count: 910

California Critical Thinking Skills Test Education Essay

Most attacks to developing critical thought are rooted in doctrine. The philosophical positions of believing are based on ground in order to steer behaviour with formal logic harmonizing to Aristotle and Plato and formal logic. The formal logic attack has appeared since the 1950s and after that in the stuffs developed by Lipman ( 1985 ) and Ennis ( 1985 ; 1987 ) . On the other manus, in the early 1990s, Marzano ( 1991 ) declared that critical thought is now utilizing psychological attacks every bit good as philosophical 1s. The psychological attacks consider the human head as a working mechanism that can be studied from cognitive psychological positions that include metacognition, componential ( sum uping, comparing, analysing, oppugning and developing visuals ) and heuristics ( job resolution and decision-making ) . Dispositional attack is besides another attack, introduced by Marzano ( 1991 ) , as wonts of head, cognitive mental sets for specific state of affairss. The socially-based attacks adjoin the philosophical and psychological attacks represented by Heath ( 1991 ) . A societal attack includes larning to believe critically in collaborative acquisition state of affairss. Thankss to these diverse attacks, critical thought has become broader. Benesch ( 1993 ) , one of the postmodernist advocates, gives us a different definition of critical thought. She believes that critical thought is a procedure of oppugning the position quo and of disputing bing cognition and the societal order. She sees it as a investigation for societal, political and historical beginnings of conventional cognition and an orientation to change acquisition and society. Harmonizing to Benesch and her followings, critical thought is a democratic acquisition procedure which encourages scholars to take part actively and raise issues of concern in their day-to-day lives. Therefore, the scholars can associate their ain experience to the linguistic communication, political relations, and the history of the new civilization. In malice of the effectivity and efficiency of critical thought and promoting learning critical thought in schoolrooms, pedagogues, trial shapers, and experts are concerned about scholars ‘ hapless critical thought. The fact is that the scholars ever do non utilize good thought accomplishments or they add indefensible premise into their logical thinking and have jobs to happen alternate solutions and believe creatively. Another job is the important power over scholars by publishing house and writers. In order to antagonize this power, Heath ( 1991 ) points out that pupils must hold certain premises before they can show critical thought, and get their ain authorization through critical thought. Aside from all the attacks with different definitions in which there is much convergence and treatments of the jobs in order to happen solutions to heighten the scholars ‘ critical thought, attempts on developing this accomplishment have non ever been successful. Students ‘ critical thought accomplishments improve as pupils progress but public presentation by and large remains under expected degree ( Tsui, 1998 ) .2.2.1 Bloom ‘s TaxonomyIn 1956, Bloom introduced the taxonomy of educational aims in a signifier of categorization of the purposes of the educational procedure to help teachers in the rating of their class stuff and proving results. A peculiarly utile characteristic of Bloom ‘s taxonomy is the hierarchical agreement of cognitive abilities that provides a straightforward method for instructors to plan instructional aims and activities that relate straight to want learning results. The cognitive sphere of Bloom ‘s taxonomy included six major subd ivisions from lower order believing accomplishments ( LOTS ) to higher order believing accomplishments ( LOTS ) : cognition, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and rating. Bloom defined ‘knowledge ‘ as â€Å" those behaviours and trial state of affairss which emphasize the memory, either by acknowledgment or callback, of thoughts, stuff, or phenomena † ( p.62 ) . In add-on, ‘comprehension ‘ is defined as â€Å" pupils ‘ abilities to understand what is being communicated and analyse its content † ( p.89 ) . In this respect, Bloom considered comprehension as three signifiers of behaviour: interlingual rendition, reading, and extrapolation. The following class is ‘applying ‘ that shows how a scholar can use what has been learned to new state of affairss. In Bloom ‘s point of position, â€Å" analysis emphasizes the dislocation of the stuff into its component parts and sensing of the relationships of the parts and of the manner they are organized † ( p.144 ) . The most originative behaviour in this taxonomy, ‘synthesis ‘ , was defined as the â€Å" seting together of elements and parts so as to organize a whole † ( p.162 ) . Furthermore, the last measure, ‘evaluation ‘ , was regarded as â€Å" devising of judgements about the value of thoughts, plants, and solutions † ( p.185 ) . Originally, Bloom ‘s taxonomy was based on the behaviourist theory and groups educational activities into three chief classs that affect the procedure of larning in different ways: cognitive, affectional, and psychomotor ( Krathwohl, Bloom & A ; Bertram, 1973 ) . The six classs under the ‘cognitive facet ‘ were explained from the least complex to the most complex accomplishment in the preceding paragraph. The ‘affective sphere ‘ is the manner persons deal with the growing in feelings or emotional accomplishments, including five classs of receiving, reacting, valuing, forming, and internalising. And the last 1 is ‘psychomotor sphere ‘ which focuses on the country of physical motion, coordination, and usage of motor accomplishments incorporating six degrees of perceptual experience, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response and version. Although Bloom ‘s original taxonomy was a radical theoretical account which presented systematic classifications of cognitive accomplishments, Anderson and Krathworthl ( 2001 ) revised it to concentrate on the active, ongoing procedure of larning in order to assist instructors understand and implement a standards-based course of study. In add-on, other research workers developed it harmonizing to the aims that teachers, skilled specializers, and supervisors need to measure the scholars ‘ acquisition and public presentation in a given class. Anderson and Krathworthl ( 2001 ) reevaluated the original version and the revised taxonomy included memory, apprehension, using, analysing, rating and making. In other words, the revised taxonomy duplicates the six classs of the original 1 with the cognition class labeled as ‘remember ‘ , the comprehension class termed ‘understand ‘ and synthesis was changed into ‘create ‘ . They are arranged in a h ierarchal construction, but non every bit stiffly as in the original taxonomy. ( Krathwohl, 2002, p. 218 ) Since Bloom provided the tool that helps research workers to find the scholars ‘ learned preferable behaviour forms after taking a class, Bloom ‘s taxonomy has long been applied by pedagogues, instructional interior decorators in order to orient and accomplish the aims, lesson, and appraisals ( Joyce & A ; Weil, 1996 ) . Furthermore, the cognitive taxonomy has received much attending because of its pertinence in secondary and postsecondary instruction ( Chyung, 2003 ) . Therefore, the research workers have besides used Bloom ‘s taxonomy as an assessment tool to measure pupil public presentation in traditional classs versus on-line simulations ( Boyd & A ; Murphrey, 2002 ) . Based on the consequences of Garrison, Anderson, and Archer ‘s research in 2001 which utilizing Bloom ‘s six degrees of cognitive processing, they noted that over 80 % of scholars ‘ treatment stations ( online ) reflected lower degrees of thought. Similarly, Gilbert and Dabbagh ( 2005 ) reported that about 75-80 % of their pupils ‘ on-line posters were at the lower degrees of Bloom ‘s taxonomy. .In 2006, John DiMarco examined the Bloom ‘s taxonomy and Peschl ‘s manners of cognizing for categorization of larning objects on the PBS.org/teacher beginning Website. By qualitative content analysis, he found that larning objects at PBS.org/teacher beginning were instructionally designed on accomplishing aims that were lower in the cognitive sphere based on the research of Bloom and his column group and the subsequent instantiations of the 1956 work in 2002 by Krathwol and in 2005 by Krumme. Hamad Odhabi, in 2007, conducted a qualitative research in order to see the impact of laptops on pupils ‘ larning utilizing Bloom ‘s larning taxonomy. It concluded that pupils agree that larning with laptops would better pupils ‘ acquisition in the cognitive ( cognition ) and psychomotor ( pattern ) domains. Hasan SA?eker and Sevki KoA?muA?r in 2008 were done a survey which aimed at look intoing the relationship between critical thought accomplishments and in-class oppugning behaviours of English Language Teaching ( ELT ) pupils at the Faculty of Education at Mugla University. The findings of this survey revealed that the pupils in the higher mark group experienced believing procedures more intensively than the lower mark group. Recently, Churches ( 2008 ) updated the revised Bloom ‘s taxonomy to modify behaviours and actions that implemented with digital acquisition. In Bloom ‘s digital taxonomy, coaction has been added as an factor that supports the acquisition procedure. In other words, he presented the Bloom ‘s Digital Taxonomy with a set of rubrics that each of these leads the use of a digital acquisition engineering in order to accomplish Bloom ‘s acquisition degrees. In 2010, Alyson Simpson conducted a classroom-based research to look into the premiss that an information and communicating engineering ( ICT ) undertaking where kids read books and so utilize email communicating to interchange responses with other scholars will back up critical thought. Improvements in critical thought were measured utilizing lingual analysis. Although there were additions in critical thought, there was small student battle with engineering and the treatment problematised the integrating of engineering in the schoolroom through a repositioning of coaction in a blended acquisition context known as book blames. Ertmer, Sadaf and J. Ertmer in 2011 examined the relationships among inquiry types and degrees and pupils ‘ subsequent responses/interactions in on-line treatment forums and the consequences of their research supported the hypothesis that inquiries at the higher degrees of Bloom ‘s taxonomy facilitate higher degrees of pupils ‘ responses. A survey was done by El-Ghalayini in 2011, which presented a systematic design procedure for developing blended classs for undergraduate higher instruction. The instructional design procedure for e-learning was on the footing of instructional design theories and utilised three taxonomies: Bloom Taxonomy, Redeker Taxonomy and Guerra graduated table. It was found out that all the different design methodological analysiss try to supply a set of activities or guidelines that address all or portion of these determination doing procedure to guarantee the quality and/or the cost of the concluding merchandise. The meta-cognitive standards is less likely to be achieved by undergraduate scholars. Birjandi and Alizadeh were developed a study in 2013 to look into the extent to which the books employed for Teaching English as Foreign Language include critical thought accomplishments. a 70 two-item critical thought checklist based on Likert-scale and dwelling of 12 accomplishments ; viz. , comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, rating, tax write-off, initiation, balanced-thinking, multiple perspective-taking, originative thought, constructing community of minds, and cognition. However, the mark accomplishments on the checklist were chiefly based on Bloom ‘s taxonomy. The paper discussed the deficiency of critical thought in the schoolroom and stuffs and proposes some ways to include more critical thought accomplishments in the stuffs.2.1.2. California Critical Thinking Skills TestAn appropriate appraisal plan will lend to learner growing and development, ensuing in increased competency, self knowledge, self esteem, and assurance ( Allen, et al. , 1985 ) . Before 1880s, there were many arguments on definitions of critical thought as there were writers on the topic. In 1987, in order to define a clear consensus definition of critical thought, the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Society ( APS ) began look intoing into the establishing of critical thought definition and its appraisal. A facilitator conducted an anon. , biennial intercommunication between 46 critical thought experts in the Fieldss of doctrine, psychological science, and instruction. They were from different parts of the universe, across the United States and Canada. They could accomplish the first consensus definition, and this research has been called the Delphi Report ( Facione, 1990 ) . On the other manus, critical thought accomplishments are important for each human and society every bit good, hence, set uping a proper trial to measure critical thought is a important undertaking ( Ennis, 1993 ) . There are many trials available and there are besides many ways to measure critical thought accomplishments, such as: standardised trials, locally developed trials, portfolios, essays, and competence/ public presentation appraisal. In Ennis ‘ position ( 1993 ) , about all of standardised critical thought accomplishments trials are with a format of multiple picks which are preferred for establishments in footings of cost, efficiency ; and clip. However, he noted that more researches and development in this country are needed. Before the Delphi Project, based on different theoretical concepts, there were merely three trials available for measuring critical thought accomplishments at the college degree ( Facione and Facione, 1994 ) . California Critical Thinking Skills Test ( CCTST ) developed in 1990 by Peter Facione, used the Delphi definition of critical thought as its conceptual model ( Facione & A ; Facione, 1994 ) . An objectively scored standardised instrument that assesses the cognitive accomplishments dimension of critical thought. It is a 45- minute multiple pick trial with 34 points. There are an overall critical thought mark and five sub-scores can derive from CCTST, and can be used for post-test merely or pretest-posttest designs ( California Academic Press, 1996b, 1996c ) . Technical surveies have been completed on concept, content, and coincident cogency, point favoritism and trouble, and dependability ( P. A. Facione, 1991 ) . Facione and Facione, ( 1994 ) implied that increasing the length of the CCTST to increase dependability would impact its ability to be given during a typical category period. It would besides likely cause increased mental weariness due to the trouble of the inquiries and consequence in reduced dependability estimations. Hence, no dependabilities are given for the subscale tonss ( Jacobs, 1995 ) . In add-on, it is worthy to observe ( CCTST ) does non do differentiation below the belt between gender, ethnicity, degree of critical thought assurance, and major ( P. A. Facione, 1991 ) . The alpha dependability is estimated at.71 ( Jacobs, 1995 ) . From one manus, the trial manual declares that the two signifiers ( A and B ) are statistically tantamount and the same for practical intents ( California Academic Press, 1996c ) . On the other manus, Jacobs ( 1995 ) indicated that a survey of 1,383 pupils at a big university found no important difference on the unchanged points and a important difference in agencies for Form A and B, with signifier B being more hard than organize A and it shows how critical thought is extremely contextually sensitive. Construct cogency is supported in proof surveies by little but important additions in pretest-posttest tonss in experimental groups after a critical thought class was taken. Controls did non do the same additions ( Facione & A ; Facione, 1994 ) . These additions were merely between 0.04 and 1.45 in average tonss, but they were statistically important for the big samples used ( McMorris, 1995 ) . This may explicate why important alterations are non seen in many of the smaller graduated table surveies. However, more psychometric research is required to allow widespread usage of CCTST in order to look into the countries where the trial is strong or weak. Raykovich ( 2000 ) conducted a survey to find whether the California Critical Thinking skills trial discriminate between first semester pupils ‘ and forth semester pupils ‘ critical thought. Consequences of this survey indicated that important additions in the CCTST entire mark were observed in the instance group. Stein et Al. ( 2003 ) were done a study in Tennessee Technological University to research methods of measuring critical thought accomplishments as portion of a public presentation support enterprise since 2000. American College Test ( ACT ) and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test ( CCTST ) were utilized as the appraisal tools. The initial trial demonstrated good face cogency and high standard cogency when correlated with tonss on both ( ACT ) and ( CCTST ) . In Iran, Khalili and Hossein Zadeh ( 2003 ) investigated the dependability, cogency and norm of CCTST Form B. on 405 BSN nursing pupils of Nursing Faculties located in Tehran. The findings showed that the inquiries of trial is sufficiently dependable as a research tool, and all subscales measure a individual concept, Critical Thinking, and are able to separate the individuals with different degrees of critical thought. Husband ( 2006 ) employed the CCTST appraisal tool on a computing machine information engineering unit of direction to look into the effectivity of critical thought learning methodological analysiss. The survey concluded that the average tonss from the post-test were non significantly higher than the pre-test mean tonss. In 2008, Yang and Chou investigated the relationship between critical thought accomplishments and temperaments and the effectivity of different degrees of on-line instructional scheme. Findingss presented that the sweetening in critical thought accomplishments reinforced critical thought temperaments, but the betterment in critical thought temperaments did non increase the degree of critical thought accomplishments. Cotter and Tally in 2009 examined the effectivity of the critical thought exercisings on critical thought accomplishments. It was revealed that the critical thought assignments did non hold a positive consequence on either formal operational idea or critical thought accomplishments. Dehghani et Al. ( 2011 ) conducted a descriptive-correlation survey aimed to see the relationship between pupils ‘ self-efficacy and critical thought in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. The consequences revealed a significantly positive relationship between pupils ‘ self-efficacy and critical thought.2.2 Ex Reading and Critical ThinkingMany research workers have emphasized the importance of including extended reading in foreign linguistic communication course of study ( Day & A ; Bamford, 1998 ; Grabe, 1995 ; Krashen, 1982 ) Extensive reading is an attack to 2nd linguistic communication ( L2 ) reading direction and aims to do covering big sums of reading stuff gratifying for scholars, as Day & A ; Bamford, ( 1998 ) believe ; reading addition without reading hurting. It besides needs to observe that upon scrutiny of Bamford ‘s ( 2000 ) annotated bibliography on ER, one rapidly discovers that a good figure of ER plans use simplified books or ranked readers as the basic reading stuff ( Day and Bamford, 1988 ) . A figure of experimental and quasi-experimental surveies have been conducted to analyze the effectivity of ER and to supply support for the usage of ER in 2nd linguistic communication ( ESL ) and EFL scenes. ER surveies have shown that their participants improved in countries such as reading comprehension, spread outing vocabulary cognition, and heightening composing accomplishments and Many English as a foreign linguistic communication ( EFL ) research workers ( e.g. , Camiciottoli, 2001 ; Day & A ; Bamford, 1998 ; Krashen, 1982 ; Mason & A ; Krashen, 1997 ; Robb & A ; Susser, 1989 ; Yamashita, 2004 ) have suggested ER as a good scheme to better reading proficiency, and a big figure of surveies ( e.g. , Elley & A ; Mangubhai, 1981 ; Greenberg, Rodrigo, Berry, Brinck & A ; Joseph, 2006 ; Hafiz & A ; Tudor, 1990 ; Lai, 1993 ) have confirmed its effectivity in edifice lingual competency ( e.g. , reading ability, vocabulary, composing and spelling accomplishments ) . Numerous schoolroom activities utilizing graded readers have besides been described ( e.g. , Bamford & A ; Day, 2004 ; Nakanishi, 2005 ) . On the other manus, In order to larn English successfully, EFL learners non merely necessitate to get the four macro accomplishments composing, but besides need to develop critical analytical accomplishments. Traditionally, among the four macro accomplishments, the educational accent has preponderantly been on the acquisition of productive accomplishments. The importance of receptive accomplishments, and the development of critical accomplishments, has most frequently been neglected in the context of EFL scenes ; consequently, there has been less infinite to develop critical thought among scholars. Reading is a medium that a instructor usage to further scholars ‘ critical thought and tonss of the text editions include assignments and activities purported to tap into critical thought accomplishments. Distinguishing among four types of reading, it can be said that extended reading ( ER ) is one of the most good, since it promotes the development of critical thought. This means critical thought is an of import accomplishment ESL pupils need to develop from extended reading stuffs which are books of their pleasance to go analytical and witting people about the environment that surrounds them. Learners need to believe about the stuffs they read and use their ain conceptualisations and scholars can larn to hold or differ with the texts they have read in order to show their points of position. Previous surveies on the effects of extended reading ( text-based and on-line stuffs ) had adopted assorted research designs, but few provide deduction for the consequence of extended reading on critical thought accomplishments. The focal point of the present survey is on the relationship between ER and critical thought.2.3 ConcordancerWith the coming of engineering and its attendant impact on stylistics literary surveies, the quality of instruction and acquisition in linguistic communication schoolrooms has been enhanced. An effort has been made to incorporate computing machines, the Internet and computer-aided plan as tools in linguistic communication schoolrooms to ease the instruction and acquisition. The most of import end of modern teaching method is to assist scholars travel beyond the lower order cognitive accomplishments to the higher order believing 1s, including application, analysis, synthesis, and rating ( Bloom et al.,1956 ) . These accomplishments are necessary for scholars to analyse, measure, synthesise, utilize critical penetration, be originative, work collaboratively, work out jobs, and direct their ain acquisition ( Romiszowski, 1996 ) . In order to obtain command of these accomplishments, instructors need to supply larning environments that are learner-centered, reliable, problem-based and collaborative. With increasing figure of research, the good effects of ( on-line ) computer-assisted plans on linguistic communication acquisition have emerged. They have intended to back up the pedagogical concerns in the schoolrooms. Among the modern instruction AIDSs, concordancers characterized as computer-based plans became available in the 1980s and a figure of surveies have been conducted to supply empirical grounds to the effectivity of principal concordancing in linguistic communication schoolrooms ( Hadley, 2000 ; Ilse, 1991 ; Lee & A ; Liou, 2003 ; Someya, 2000 ; St. John, 2001 ) and of import developments began in the 1990s, get downing with publications recommending the usage of principals and harmonies in linguistic communication instruction ( Tribble & A ; Jones, 1990 ) . Concordancers provide a list of frequence happenings in a pre-selected principal and affect exposing the defined points within the current context. They search for happenings of a given word, portion of a word, combination of words, a punctuation grade, affix, or a phrase or construction within a given text principal to demo its immediate context ( Granger, 1998 ; Biber, Conrad & A ; Reppen, 1998 ) . Through this, scholars can develop their ability to detect, to theorize and to place forms in the mark linguistic communication ( Johns, 1988 ) . In add-on, the end product of concordancer hunts and nowadayss scholars with reliable, existent picks that linguistic communication users make and allows them to research and detect ordinary forms of word or sentence use in assorted manners. Therefore, the capableness of contextual illation can be well enhanced by supplying multiple contexts for a given word with the assistance of a computing machine system ( Cobb, 1997, 1999 ) . As a consequence, harmonies have been used for a scope of intents. By utilizing concordancers, the scholars can research characteristics of mark linguistic communication independently, including regulations of grammar, the use in different context, and lexical properties. This, accordingly, leads to data-driven acquisition ( DDL ) ( e.g. Johns, 1994 ) . By this pedagogical attack, scholars are research workers, who discover and analyze regulations and forms embedded in the informations instead than implementing rule application exercisings or following a spoon feeding attack. Prior surveies have shown that a DDL attack creates a learner-centered acquisition ambiance in which scholars are involved in explorative concordance-based undertakings to spread out their linguistic communication experience ( Biber, Conrad, & A ; Reppen, 1998 ) . Furthermore, they can detect the implicit in linguistic communication forms on their ain, and therefore they become active participants in the acquisition procedure ( Brown, 2001 ; Johns, 1997 ; Sun, 1999 ) . Therefore, the data-driven attack utilizing harmony package stimulates the scholars ‘ analytical capacities, improves their expressed cognition of mark linguistic communication, advances critical linguistic communication consciousness, and supports the development of scholar liberty. Furthermore, scholars themselves besides show positive reactions to DDL and utilizing concordancer due to their turning consciousness of descriptive instead than normative linguistic communication ( Chambers, 2005 ; Yeh, Liou, & A ; Li, 2007 ) . Consequently, equipped with Language Awareness ( Hawkins, 1987, Wolff, 1992 ) , Consciousness-raising ( Sharwood-Smith, 1981, Rutherford, 1987 ) and Critical Thinking ( Astleitner, 2002 ; Facione, 2007 ; Paul, 1995 ) through concordancer, scholars change inactive information from the huge sum of different available lingual characteristics into dynamic end product to explicate the linguistic communication regulations in their ain public presentation. Several surveies have been carried out to measure the potency of utilizing concordancer and research attacks to incorporate concordancing tools into linguistic communication acquisition and instruction ( Chen, 2000 ; Cobb, 1997 ; Conrad, 1999 ; Flowerdew, 1993 ; Turnbull & A ; Burston, 1998 ) . Besides, several surveies were conducted to look into the efficaciousness of harmonies in EFL schoolroom ( Sripicharn, 2003 ; Boulton, 2008 ) . In Todd ‘s ( 2001 ) survey, a category of college pupils consulted a web-based principal to assist with their self-corrections of lexical mistakes. The consequences showed that these pupils were able to bring on valid forms from their self-selected harmonies and to do valid self-corrections of their mistakes. Gabel, in 2001, conducted a research in which focused on another possibility of using concordancers, viz. a comparative survey taking at penetrations into the scholars ‘ lingua franca ( IL ) and examined the over-indulgence and under-representation of lingual characteristics in the linguistic communication usage of advanced German EFL pupils. It was concluded that scholars benefited because they tried to bridge the spread between their ain public presentation and that of native talkers. In add-on, in Malaysia, the survey carried out by Daud and Husin ( 2004 ) indicated the potency of a literary text, Othello, and a concordancer in developing and heightening critical thought ability and the findings revealed that there is a important difference between the experimental and control groups in their critical thought ability. In 2003, Sun conducted a survey that endeavored to implement reading plan, Extensive Reading Online ( ERO ) , having specific demands for EFL scholars in Taiwan. He utilised concordancer, stage-by-stage reading scheme preparation, and text note maps. As the consequences, pupils held a positive attitude toward the reading system. Again, in the same twelvemonth, Sun worked on a instance survey by three Chinese college pupils which conducted the acquisition procedure in the concordancer puting. During set abouting a proofreading activity, a web-based concordancer assisted the participants. Four factors evolved the consequences and scholars ‘ larning procedure: ( 1 ) prior cognition, ( 2 ) cognitive accomplishments, ( 3 ) instructor intercession and ( 4 ) concordancer accomplishments. Concordancer is besides good in the acquisition of vocabulary ( Cobb, 1997 ; Zahar et al.,2001 ) . In add-on, the 2nd linguistic communication vocabulary cognition includes balls, such as collocations or parlances ( Nation, 2001 ) . Much of the research on concordancers has focused on grammar and collocation acquisition. It is believed that collocational cognition is hard to get for linguistic communication scholars ( church et.al. , 1991 ) and it ‘s particularly effectual for sentence coevals ( Smadja & A ; Mckeown,1990 ) . Sun and Wang ( 2003 ) , with a category of 11th grade pupils in Taiwan, examined the consequence of concordancing on larning grammatical collocations and they found the inductive group significantly outperformed deductive group in the proofreading undertaking. Similarly, Lee and Liou ( 2003 ) probed into the consequence of pupils as principal research workers by measuring and comparing the lexical public presentation of pupils and the consequences showed th at concordancer searching was good to pupils who employed inductive acquisition schemes. In the field of collocation, in 2005, Chan and Liou carried out a survey to research the impact of utilizing five web-based pattern units on English verb-noun collocations with the assistance of a web-based Chinese-English bilingual concordancer. Consequences indicated that scholars improved significantly after the on-line pattern at one time but regressed subsequently. Furthermore the on-line instructional units with using the concordancer were acceptable to most scholars. In the context of ESL scholars, Horst et Al. ( 2005 ) blended the usage of a harmony, a dictionary, a cloze-builder, a hypertext, and a database with synergistic self-quizzing characteristics in several academic English classs and evaluated the effects of the tools and activities on 150 pupils. The findings evidenced the acquisition additions provided support for vocabulary acquisition. Webb and Kagimoto ( 2011 ) , examined the effects of three factors ( the figure of collocates per node word, the place of the node word, synonymity ) on larning collocations. The consequences revealed that more collocations were learned as the figure of collocates per node word increased, the place of the node word did non impact acquisition, and synonymity had a negative consequence on acquisition. Additionally, few surveies have addressed issues refering the sweetening of scholars ‘ composing accomplishments. In this respect, Yeh, Liou and Li ( 2007 ) carried out another research under the rubric of on-line equivalent word stuffs and concordancing for EFL college composing. They addressed overused adjectives by non-native speech production scholars by assistance of a bilingual collocation concordancer, TANGO. The findings showed that, non merely they improved in the immediate posttest, but besides pupils ‘ word cognition for equivalent word usage was retained as measured two months subsequently in the delayed posttest. Furthermore, in the post-instruction authorship undertaking, pupils avoided utilizing general adjectives, tried to use more specific points to better their overall authorship quality. Sun ( 2007 ) besides examined the effects that the scholar variables had on participants ‘ perceptual experience of the on-line Scholarly Writing Template ( SWT ) . The consequences of the survey showed that the templet had different effects on pupils ‘ scholarly composing procedures and usage of scheme. Indeed, pupils held a positive attitude towards the scholarly authorship templet. Besides, concordancers allow linguistic communication scholars to prosecute in larning more actively and to seek for lingual forms by straight researching computerized principals and concordancers, in other words, concordancers can be used as the key tools in the data-driven acquisition ( DDL ) attack. By computer-based DDL attack, scholars can seek the principal with the aid of a concordancer. In Iran, Tabriz, Jafarpour and Koosha ( 2007 ) studied concordancing stuffs presented through data-driven learning attack and the findings showed that the data-driven attack is extremely effectual in the instruction and larning collocation of prepositions. Another survey in Taiwan explored the DDL attack utilizing harmony roll uping package in instruction of J. K. Rowling ‘s utilizations of the preposition in Harry Potter and the Philosopher ‘s Rock by Lee ( 2009 ) which expressed data-driven acquisition is helpful for pupils both in fixing for their tests and besides for their general English acquisition. In 2011, Chen undertook a research to find if the new tool, WebCollocate, which is based on a big portion of speech-tagged Gutenberg principal could advance the DDL attack and ease the searching of collocations. The consequences indicated that the pupils who used the WebCollocate tool found more proper English collocates. And Thanh ( 2010 ) , in Netherland, designed a study to analyze the consequence of concordancing and staging in developing scholars ‘ cognition of lexical collocations. This survey revealed that scaffolding did non do a important difference in footings of the pupils ‘ ability to place ( myocardial infarction ) collocations but concordancing produced important effects on the topics ‘ overall public presentation in lexical collocation. Further, in the field of interlingual rendition, bilingual concordancers are one the most widely used computer-assisted interlingual rendition tools amongst transcribers. Bourdaillet et Al. ( 2011 ) studied the betterment of the commercial bilingual concordancer, TransSearch, in order to implant a word alliance characteristic. The consequences gained utilizing a big interlingual rendition memory comprising of 8.3 million sentence braces were verified by human rating. Most of the above-named surveies have been done with different ESL or EFL scholars at different degrees of proficiency. Holec ( 1990 ) and Hadley ( 2002 ) claimed that concordancing might be relevant to progress scholars merely as those of lower degrees do non hold plenty lingual resources and analytical accomplishments to get by with reliable informations. In this respect, this survey aims to present scholars who are at the same degree of proficiency and in a homogeneous category as intermediate degree. Otherwise, concerns sing troubles in comprehending and pull outing information from linguistic communication illustrations will be prevailing in linguistic communication schoolrooms ( Sun, 2003 ) . On the other manus, the surveies show that concordancing-based interventions could be good for English acquisition. Although, other surveies have examined the effects of concordancing on assorted facets of linguistic communication acquisition. Yet few old surveies have examined the impact of concordancing on the acquisition of reading accomplishment. Therefore, it may be good to plan concordance-based stuffs with the purpose of developing scholars ‘ reading accomplishments through concordance-based extended reading. Using different reliable narratives alternatively of working on one literary text will promote scholars to be involved with different characters and genres and will perchance do a more optimal usage of concordancer hunts. In other words, larning can be driven by reliable linguistic communication informations ( Johns 1991a, Johns 1991b ) . Since a few surveies have been carried out to turn to the proficiency of reading accomplishment by assistance of computer-based plan, concordancer, the present survey seeks to research the impact of computer-assisted extended readingA direction on EFL scholars ‘ reading comprehension.