Characteristics Of Good Readers

Characteristics Of Good Readers I can remember those days clearly. As a student in English Teaching major, I always had problems with English literature and it was hard for me to finish reading an English story like elephants like white hills without trouble and difficulty. Once our literature teacher was asking students comments and suggestions about English literature and it was a good time for me to talk about my horrors and troubles with English literature. Whenever Im reading an English story or poem, a sense from deep inside my heart tells me that give it up! You dont have to shoulder this heavy burden! I said. While he had a smile on his face, our dear master answered me: have you ever seen people who are waiting for sunrise in a dessert to see the beauty of twilight? Do you know that their tolerance is rewarded by the most beautiful scene they can have in whole their lives? This statement was so masterly stated that forced me to think of the hidden part of the iceberg! So instead of giving up this beauty of twilight, I tried to get familiar with different reading skills and different processes affecting it and manage the hard task of reading. In fact, reading is a complex skill and good readers should approach reading from three major points of view: From teaching point of view, from different strategies needed, and from different processes required for the selection of materials. Primarily, reading is a skill which is mostly required in academic institutions. To analyze reading from teaching point of view, you should have a clear definition of reading. Different writers and different researchers have different definitions for reading. Christine Nuttall (1996) has given three groups of ideas for reading definition (p.2). The first group deals with reading as a decoding, deciphering, and identifying process. The second one sees it as an articulation, speaking, and pronunciation. The third one has some ideas like understanding, responding, and meaning for reading. We can see that this group of ideas deals with some loaded cognitive processes for reading and it is somehow related to the definition of reading by Perfetti (1984) who defines reading as thinking guided by print (qtd. in Chastain 216). Some people think that reading is a passive skill, because there is no production from the readers side, but Chastain (1988) is against this kind of definition and oppo ses this groups ideas by stating that: Referring to reading as a passive skill perpetuates a misconception that can only mislead students and harm their perceptions of what their rule in their reading process is. Reading is a receptive skill in that the reader is receiving message from a writer. In the past various writers have also referred to reading as a decoding skill. This terminology derives from the idea of language as a code, one which must be deciphered to arrive at the meaning of the message. Although this term points out the active role the reader must play in reading describe the reading process in a way that implies active reader intent upon using background knowledge and skills to recreate the writers intended meaning (p.216). Sengupta(2002) in her longitudinal study tracing conceptual change in developing academic reading at tertiary level has given an interactive model for academic reading in which the readers background knowledge, his risk-taking, and meaning making through this interaction are of primary importance in academic reading. Figure 1 clearly illustrates this relation. H:M.A1st sem researchtahririindex_filesfigure1.gif Undoubtedly, in order to be able to read in a foreign language, before anything, one has to be familiar with the signs and sign systems of that foreign language. Like the children learning their first languages signs, a person who wants to read in a foreign language has to know for example what an X sign stands for. But we should have in mind that children go under several preparatory processes before being able to read a text or a story. To get familiar with some of these multilevel processes, Smith and Elley (1997) conducted a study on teaching reading for children in New Zealand and they reported that: Children are prepared for reading at an early age by listening to stories, being read to, and interacting with adults and others about the stories they hear. This is done not with the main purpose of preparing a child for reading but as a way that parents and others interact with, show affection for, and entertain and educate children. The interaction involves asking questions about what is going to happen in the story, getting the child to complete sentences in a known story, talking about the interesting and scary parts of the story, and generally having fun (qtd. in Nation 3). As you can see in this example, children primarily pay attention to the meaning the sentences have and the form and pronunciation of the sentences may be of little concern for these little children. This awareness of sentence meaning and the techniques used to teach reading makes this kind of reading interaction largely meaning-focused and Nation (2009) states that it includes shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. In shared reading, the learners gather around the teacher and the teacher reads a story to the learners from a very large blown-up book while showing them the pictures and the written words. The second type is Guided reading which can be done silently or with a child reading aloud to a friend, parent or teacher. Before the reading the learner and teacher talk about the book (pp. 3-4). Several researches have shown the effectiveness of this kind of reading. One of them is the research done by Wong and McNaughton (1980): Research by Wong and McNaughton (1980) showed that for the learner they studied, pre-reading discussion resulted in a greater percentage of words initially correct, and a greater percentage of errors self-corrected. The teacher and the learner look at the title of the book and make sure that all the words in the title are known. Then they talk about the pictures in the story and make predictions about what might happen in the story and talk about any knowledge the learner already has about the topic. Important words in the story are talked about but need not be pointed to in their written form. So, before the learner actually starts to read the story, the ideas and important words in the story are talked about and clarified. Then the learner begins to read (qtd. in Nation p.4). The third kind of meaning-focused reading is the independent reading in which the learner chooses a book to read and quietly gets on with reading it. During this quiet period of class time, the teacher may also read or may use the time as an opportunity for individual learners to come up to read to the teacher (Nation, 2009, p. 5). As you saw, learning to read in the first language seems quite easy, but the way in which you learn reading in second language has its own problems. Taken from Nation (2009), some of these problems are illustrated in table 1(p.7): Table 1.1 L1/L2 Differences for an Individual Beginning to Read Characteristics General effects Particular effects L1 beginning readers already know a lot of the language they are beginning to read (sounds, vocabulary, grammar, discourse). L2 learners do not. Learning to read an L2 involves a great deal of language learning. L2 learners need very controlled texts. L2 learners need a greater amount of pre-reading activities. L2 beginners can already read in their L1. L2 beginners have general cognitive skills. They have preconceptions and attitudes to reading. They have language specific skills. There will be interference and facilitation effects between the L1 and L2 L2 beginners do not need to learn what they can transfer from the L1. They may need to change their attitudes to reading. Learners may have to learn a different writing system. L2 beginners are usually older than L1 beginners. L2 learners have greater metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness It is easy to transfer L1 skills. L2 learners can use more explicit approaches and tools like dictionaries. This table has been kept simple by focusing on only one learner who is just beginning to read. It is more complicated if you have several learners with different L1s, different L2 proficiencies, different L1 reading proficiencies, and different motivations for reading. Reading also requires having different strategies. These reading strategies are grouped into different categories, according to the preference of their writers. For example, www.readinga-z.com (n.d), has given the list of following strategies: Making Predictions Visualizing Asking and Answering Questions Skimming and Scanning Retelling and Summarizing Connecting the Text to Life Experiences, Other Texts, or Prior Knowledge Word-Attack Strategies The first one is making predictions. By making predictions, you can make the reading more interesting. Incorrect predictions can signal a misunderstanding that needs to be revisited (www.readinga-z.com). In making predictions, you should have these points in your mind: Look at the pictures, table of contents, chapter headings, maps, diagrams, and features. What subjects are in the book? Write down predictions about the text. During reading, look for words or phrases from those predictions. While reading, revise the predictions or make new ones (www.readinga-z.com). The second strategy is visualizing. In visualizing, the reader uses his mental power effectively and using shapes, spatial relationships, movement, and colors can benefit greatly from this strategy. This strategy also requires having the following points in mind: Imagine a fiction story taking place as if it were a movie. Imagine the characters features. Picture the plot in time and space. Imagine processes and explanations happening visually. Use nouns, verbs, and adjectives to create pictures, diagrams, or other mental images. Use graphic organizers to lay out information. Make sketches or diagrams on scrap paper (www.readinga-z.com). Lets go to the third strategy which is asking and answering questions. Using this strategy you have to ask different questions from yourself while reading and then by answering these questions you can direct your reading. Like the guidelines given in the previously mentioned strategies, readinga-z.com gives the following guidelines to us: Before reading, think about the subject based on the title, chapter heads, and visual information. Make note of anything you are curious about. While reading, pause and write down any questions. Be sure to ask questions if there is confusion. Look for the answers while reading. Pause and write down the answers. Were all the questions answered? Could the answers come from other sources? Then we come to the skimming and scanning. Lindsay and Knight (2006) give credit to these skills by saying that: the ability to read something quickly and efficiently is an important skill for learners to acquire. Skimming and scanning are two of this (p.71). They define skimming as the reading for gist without trying to understand everything in it. In this process, you read through the text to get a general idea of what it is about, while in scanning you want to find out about something specific, for example get a particular piece of information from a text (Lindsay and Knight, 2006, p.72). The next reading strategy is Retelling and Summarizing during which you have to paraphrase the written materials and summarize it and be able to discriminate between main ideas and minor details (readinga-z.com). In this strategy, readinga-z.com recommends us to pay attention to the following points: During reading, note the main ideas or events. Put a check mark in the book or write a note to point out a main idea. At the ends of chapters or sections, review the information or story. Note main ideas or events and the details that support them. After reading, retell or summarize the text. Focus on the important points, and support them with relevant details. Refer to the book to check the retelling or summarization. The last point to mention in the reading strategies refers to the use of word-attack strategies which help students decode, pronounce, and understand unfamiliar words. They help students attack words piece by piece or from a different angle (readinga-z.com). Using word-attack skills, you can reduce the difficulties of reading process. Reducing the scale of the problem by ignoring inessential words is the first step. Next, students must require strategies for dealing with lexical items that really block comprehension (Nuttall, 1996, p.69). Here we shall discuss three kinds of them: the first is the interpretation of structural clues by looking at the position of a word in a sentence, inference from context is the next which is a skill we have in our L1 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and for less fluent students conscious use of it is valuable. By using it, they can get a meaning not necessarily completely accurate, but enough for their purpose (Nuttall, 1996, pp.69-72). Using a dictionary is the last skill the use of which is both discouraged and encouraged. It is discouraged because of the usual tendency to use them far too often (Nuttall, 1996, p.76). I think there is no need to explain why a dictionary is encouraged. For using a dictionary, Nuttall (1996) emphasizes the implementation of the following steps: The first step towards using the dictionary as a tool instead of a crutch is to decide which word to look upand to accept that they should be as few as possible. Having decided to look up a word, we want to do it quickly and to make the best use of the information in the dictionary (p.76). It is necessary to have continual insistence on the use of this skill. This means you should make frequent use of the dictionary in class (even though it is quicker to give the meaning yourself); and that it should be the student who select the appropriate definition (Nuttall, 1996, p.76). Among the others, Krashen and Terrell (1983) outline the following communicative reading strategy: 1. Read for meaning 2. Dont look up every word 3. Predict meaning 4. Use context (qtd. in Chastain 225) Finally, we come to the selection of materials for reading. Selection of appropriate reading materials is a crucial component in the establishment of a productive reading program (Chastain, 1988, p.231). Defending the place of the selection of the materials, Doff(1988) has given some factors for the selection of materials to consider: In normal life, we do not normally read because we have to but because we want to. We usually have a purpose in reading: there is something we want to find out, some information we want to check or clarify, some opinion we want to match against our own, etc. We also have a purpose in reading when we read stories for pleasure: we want to find out how the story develops, what happens next (p.170). As we can infer from the given text, it is the learners interests and needs which initially shapes the selection of materials, so the first factor to consider in the selection of the appropriate reading materials can be the interests and goals of the learner. Chastain (1988) emphasizes the importance of this point more than linguistic complexity by stating that: With the advent of the concept of reading as taking place within the readers head as he interacts with the words on the page, the readers willingness to continue the process of recreating meaning until the authors message is understood becomes central to reading process. Thus interest in the content rises to a level of importance higher than that of linguistic complexity because no reading will take place if readers are not interested enough to continue reading. However, if they are really interested in knowing what author has to say, they will make every effort to understand the reading (p.231). Here Chastain (1988) raises a question: students interests cover an enormous range of topics, trying to satisfy all would be impossible (p.231). Then, what would we do in selecting materials while at the same time we are going to consider the students interests? The answer is so simple. We can use a variety of procedures to select the reading materials from among the students interests. For example, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ they (the teachers) can choose readings with which students have some familiarities, or they can use prereading activities to generate interest and even enthusiasm for the content of selected reading. They can even survey the students interests later in the course and attempt to incorporate into the course reading on some of the mentioned topics (Chastain, 1988, p.231). The second factor in selecting the reading materials is the factor of readability which is determined through linguistic analysis of the authors language (Chastain, 1988, p.232). Nuttall (1996) defines readability as combination of structural and lexical difficulty and further explains that since the language of a text maybe difficult for one student and easy for another, it is necessary to assess the right level for students you teach (p.174). It is obvious that if the text would be beyond the readers power of comprehension, soon he will be frustrated and he may put it aside and, like what I did with the the hills like white elephants! So the text should be analyzed through the factor of readability before being processed by the reader. Readability of a text can be analyzed from many ways. For example computer programs and the way they process the data you when you give the sample from the text. Some readability indexes like Harrison 1980 and Chall 1984 are frequently used to calculate readability (Nuttall, 1996, p.175). As you pay attention to the level of readability of the text, you should also be aware of the other detriment of reading comprehension: Syntactic simplicity. Bernhardt (1948) points out that syntactic simplicity may decrease text cohesion and thereby hinder comprehension (qtd. in Chastain 232). Now, we shall go to the last factor in selecting the reading materials which is the use of the authentic materials. Nuttall (1996) comments that they can be motivating because they are proof that the language is used for real life purpose by real people (p.172). Chastain (1988) defines authentic materials as follows: Generally, any text that an author writes to be able to communicate some message is authentic because it has an authentic purpose and it conforms to authentic language use (p.233). This definition of the authentic materials is different from the definitions given by some other authors who define authentic materials as those texts written for use by the foreign language community, not for language learners (Nuttall, 1996, p.177). Byrnes (1985) clearly explains the reason why some people only label the texts written by native speakers as authentic materials: Due to the problems students have with such texts because they are unfamiliar with the culture, one may think of material written by native speakers for language users as being authentic (qtd. in Chastain 232). Chastain (1988) comments on which types of authentic materials are good for L2 readers specially for students and which types are not by stating that: Supervisors and teachers of language courses may choose more academic types of reading such as articles, essays, short stories, plays, and novels, and these works certainly are important. One purpose of education is to expose students to high quality writing and to stimulating intellectual ideas from the cultures writers. However, never being exposed to some of the more common types of reading that they do in their native culture such as advertisements, notices, TV schedules, bulletins, manuals, programs, newspapers, and menus may result in students who are unable to read things they will need most to be able to read in the foreign culture (p.233). In this paper, we looked at reading from three major viewpoints and the impact they could have on improving the reading. I often use the reading strategies just mentioned in this paper, but whenever a story like elephants like white hills wants to irritate me, a sense from deep inside my heart tells me that give it up!

The Nature of Good and Evil in Stevensons The Strange case of Dr Jekyl

The Nature of Good and Evil in Stevenson's The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Introduction: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the story of a gifted doctor who discovers a drug which can release the evil side of one's nature. This drug changes Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde. Stevenson does not reveal the details of Jekyll's story until the end of the novel, but presents the tale as mystery, in which the main characters try to figure out the identity of Mr Hyde and understand his strange relationship with Dr Jekyll. This story follows the gothic genre and below I will explain some gothic features that are used in this story This story follows 'The Faust Motif'. This is The use of a monster (Mr Hyde) Due to the fact that he looks abnormal, disabled and is ugly people feel uncomfortable around him and scared to stand anywhere near him. Another feature would be that Dr Jekyll has a second self or in other words an alternate identity being Mr Hyde. This book uses multiple narratives. This is when the story is told through many different perspectives so that the reader can make up his own mind about what the story is actually about. This story we first hear through the perspective of Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield as they try to discover the relationship between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Then as the story progresses we hear Mr Hyde's story and towards the end we hear Dr Jekyll' story. I think that Stevenson was trying to show that good and evil cannot be changed or intervened with using the aid of science. He gets his point across when we find out how Dr Jekyll ends up suffering and leading to his own downfall by trying to get rid of hi... ...t they have seen, experienced and had evidence of rather than talking about what they have heard Conclusion In this essay I have gone through the main points of the story. From the beginning where Mr Hyde tramples the young girl and Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield decide to track Mr Hyde. Then I carried on by going onto how the doors of houses and other places can symbolise what is behind them and what type of person uses them. After that I analysed Mr Hyde in depth and discussed his actions. Including when he trampled the young girl and paid her family money to avoid any sort of trouble. Then he brutally murdered Sir Danvers Carew, even though from the maids perspective it seemed as if they were friends. Then I commented on the use of multiple narratives and the relationship between the narrators.

Essay --

Genetic resources are species, subspecies or genetic varieties of plants, animals and microorganisms that currently provide important goods and services or may be capable of providing them at some time in the future. Given the rapid increase in biotechnology and limitations of current knowledge, virtually all plants, animals and microorganisms qualify as genetic resources. The main focus is plants in medicine where by the points, herbal medicine, aspects of the economy and eventually conflicting interests between local livelihood and commercial industries, the value of exploitation of the ecosystem for the human economy, plants impact on medicine, public concerns and criticisms regarding the use of genetic modified crops usage and the factors that affects socio-economy and economic value of the medicinal plants are addressed clearly. The use of herbal medicine seek to explain whether the products used while extracting the medicine is of best quality or not and if it is health and safe. Plants have been used in medicinal purposes such as well-being enhancing, protection from evil spirits and to protect from lightning. Modern medicine is expensive and cannot be easily accessed by the poor people therefore it is better for them to go for primary healthcare. Herbal medicine is also highly in demand in the developed world because it is believed that it is safe and has fewer side effects. World Health Organization survey indicates that about 70-80% of the world population particularly in the developing countries rely mainly on herbal medicines for their primary healthcare (WHO, 1998). In Nigeria the usage of traditional medicine has been put in place in order to meet everyone’s healthcare system since the western medicine only caters f... ...a socio-economist I might say the use of GM crops in medicine have benefits to the natural ecosystem by greatly reducing the soil erosion, providing habitats to small creatures and reducing the loss of groundwater, this really means the restoration of the exploitation done on the ecosystem for the human economy. â€Æ' REFERENCE LIST Cocks, M. and Moller, V. 2002. Use of indigenised medicines to enhance well-being: A South African case study. Pp.387-397. Gowon, B.A. and Goon, D.T. 2010. Health sector reforms in Nigeria: The need to integrate traditional medicine into healthcare system. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance. 16(3). Pp.373. http://bmb.oxfordJournals.org accessed on [25/02/2014] WHO. 1998. Quality control methods for medicinal plants: determination of microorganisms. World Health Organisation. Geneva: Swirtzerland, pp.64-73.

Labor Productivity

Labor productivity is a key element in the explanation of how the economy works. It is especially important with regard to wages. What follows is some material about labor productivity and investment spending that is a reorganization of what is presented in your textbook. Its focus is on the connection between labor productivity and wages. Labor productivity is the value of the product or service you can produce in an hour, day, week or other unit of time. The value you can produce depends on the amount of work-product you can produce and the price at which that product can be sold. When the product is sold, the owner keeps part of that value as profit, and part of it goes to pay for other production expenses. The worker then gets the residual as the wage. (The Marxists like to talk about this as exploitation and expropriation of the surplus. ) If you want a sustained increase in your real wage, you have to have an increase in labor productivity. However, you may not get a raise just because your labor productivity rises. Labor productivity may rise, thereby raising the value of your day’s work, but the owner can keep the increase as higher profit. This raises two questions: How can you get to keep a part of increased labor productivity in a higher wage, and what contributes to systematic increases in labor productivity? First, your boss will want to keep you as a worker, assuming you are a good one. When the business cycle is at a point where actual GDP is near full employment and expanding, other firms will want to hire workers away from the company you work for. You get a raise to keep you where you are. The other way is to have a union that negotiates with the owner for a share of increased labor productivity. To answer the second question, consider the following. Systematic increases in labor productivity come from investment spending. Investment spending, in the broadest sense, refers to spending that creates more capital for workers to use. The most obvious capital is new plant and equipment and new technology. If workers have better machines (a rise in the capital to labor ratio), they can produce more value per hour. The common sense of this can be seen with a simple example: How much land can you till and plant if your capital is just a stone? How much if you have a shovel? How much if you have a shovel and a hoe? How much if you have a tractor and a plow? How about a great big tractor with four wheel drive, 8 or more wheels and huge implements to go with the tractor? The same thinking applies to service work as well. Human capital is less tangible than machines but very real. Human capital refers to skills, knowledge, analytical ability, and especially the ability to teach yourself new stuff. It is the corner stone of the modern economy. If you don’t have much human capital, the workplace will not pay you too much for your time. Human capital comes through job training, formal and informal education, and self-education. The value of a four-year college degree comes mostly from the analytical abilities you develop and the ability to teach yourself new stuff, and you can only develop these skills by practicing, which is what studying is all about. Innovation and new technology come out of the application of human capital to the problem of ever-present scarcity. The problem with acquiring human capital is that the process is expensive, and there are real financial and risk constraints faced by individuals. If individuals were left to pay the entire cost of training and education, there would be less of it than the economy needs because of these constraints. So in modern society, through government, assumes a large chunk of the risk through the subsidization of job training and education. TriCounty is a classic example. The taxpayers pay most of the expense of the services provided, and the taxpayers receive the benefits spread out over time because companies have a more productive labor force to draw from, a labor force with the human capital needed to pursue higher-valued work. This is the case throughout the industrialized world. Infrastructure is the third category of capital. Infrastructure can be public or private. Communications companies are private infrastructure. Roads, bridges, and most airports are public infrastructure. Public infrastructure exists when private companies lack an incentive to provide the needed capital. The lack of incentive comes from the lack of ability to exclude non-payers from utilizing the products or service. National defense and public fire stations are examples. When the infrastructure is private, consumers pay for the costs of producing the services in the price they pay for the services. When the infrastructure is public, consumers pay for the services with taxes and sometimes fees. If you want a sustained increase in wages, you have to have an increase in labor productivity, so you need additional capital, so you need additional investment spending, and if you want more investment spending, you need more savings. If you want more human capital and public infrastructure, you need more tax revenue. There is no way around it.

Human Resources Essay

Human resources involves a wide variety of activities related to the arrangement and implementation of organisational policies, the requirement of opportunities for monitoring, evaluation and change and the application of resources to the fulfilment of organisational ends. Aspects of ‘people management’ include: * The recruitment, retention and dismissal of staff. * The training, development and promotion of staff. * Liaison with employee organisations and trade unions. These are areas with which the human resources staff is involved. The overall purpose of the human resources function can for that reason be identified as: * To attract and retain good high-quality staff. * To ensure that the organisation operates within the law in relation to employment and health and safety. The Philip Markham organisation believes they will not be successful if they do not have the commitment of all staff and intend to look after all their employee’s needs through the functions of the human resources department. Finance The overall contribution of the finance function can be grouped in to three main areas: > Preparing accounts. > Preparing wages and salaries. > Obtaining capital and resources. Philip Markham employs ten members of staff in the finance department. The department makes sure internal customers receive the money they are owed and customers pay their bills. To keep control of finances the organisation allocates different department budgets and expects them to keep to there planned levels income and expenditure. Finance also has the task of preparing all the accounts each year so that they comply with legal responsibilities to the Inland Revenue. They also complete VAT returns to HM Customs and Excise. Pete Martin the management accountant at Philip Markham is responsible for checking that production levels and sales are on target. He advises all internal customers who are the directors, about the current financial health of the organisation on a weekly basis. An additional responsibility for the finance function is advising the organisation about more money for the purpose of expansion to buy raw materials or expensive equipment so it can remain competitive obtaining extra finance, called CAPITAL at the best rates possible. Production The contribution production makes to the overall business is to make a product and provide a service. The core function of the production department is to obtain the resources required by the organisation and transform those into a product. The production function is also concerned with organising the resources to produce the goods and service in the most appropriate way. Philip Markham carry out three different operations in their production department, these are as follows: > Purchasing > Manufacturing > Despatch The layout of the production area has been designed to maximise the flow of materials when producing the shirts from cutting to finishing. The cutting area is near to the stores so that materials can be transported the minimum distance. Quality control is extremely important to Philip Markham and each team cutters, machinists and finishers is responsible for ensuring that quality is right at every stage of the process. The shirts and ties pass to the packing department, which is part of despatch. All items are boxed and labelled and goods linked to the correct paperwork and the dispatchers that each box includes the correct delivery note and advice note for the haulier. Also part of the production function is purchasing staff and the designers. Purchasing is responsible for obtaining the best quality fabrics at the best prices and making sure all raw materials are delivered on time. Sales and Marketing The contribution sales and marketing makes to the overall business is to identify what the customer needs and providing it. The activities of sales and marketing include: > Market research – to find out what customer’s need and customer opinions on proposed and existing products or services. > Promotion – to inform the customers that their particular organisation can fulfil these needs. > Sales – to provide the goods or service the customer thinks he or she needs. The contribution of sales and marketing is vital in that it directly influences the number of sales that are made and as a result the profitability of the company. Each functional area operates to support the business aims and objectives and a range of activities goes on in each one. How the functional areas interact with one another is important. For an organisation to be efficient and effective there must be links between the people who work in different functional areas, especially when their activities overlap. Philip Markham is aiming to set up an e-commerce site to sell classic menswear and their objective is to be the leading British supplier of this type of clothing on the Internet within the next two years and double sales home and abroad within the same period. In order to achieve such a particular set of aims and objectives the organisation will need the support of a representative from finance, production and sales and marketing. The finance representative can present all the facts and figures that need to be considered when exploring this venture. The overall budget set-aside for web-page development and marketing is à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½80,000 in the first year. Tina the financial manager believes this is generous given the financial position of the company. She believes it will be vital to control costs of setting up this new venture and to focus on those products that will bring in the most profit for the company. Her key consideration is that the site should be secure (identified by a padlock symbol), as payments will be made over the Internet. She has also advised that because VAT regulations differ, a separate order form would need to be completed by purchasers from abroad. The site would have to have a communications link with finance as all payments must be logged, collected and recorded by finance before orders are fulfilled by dispatch. Finance would have to notify dispatch when payments had been received. Only then can goods can be sent. The production representatives Tariq Choudrey (Production Director) and Marsha Webb (Manufacturing Manager) have concerns about the Internet site. Marsha believes there is a limit as to how much production rates can increase to meet additional orders without sacrificing quality. Details which need to be addressed are as follows: > The cutting tables – new tables have been requested for two years. They are essential if orders increase at a cost of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½15,000 each. > The eleven sewers produce on average five shirts a day each. The maximum which can be produced without additional staff is seven unless quality is sacrificed. > The three finishers spend a lot of time on special orders. More staff will be needed in this area unless the website only allows for ‘standard orders’. > The despatch manager advises unless more mechanisation is introduced more staff will be needed if orders have to be completed quickly. > It would be easier to sell knitwear and overcoats on the website most of which are supplied by other companies. However the suppliers of knitwear and overcoats would need at least two months notice if the volume of orders were going to increase substantially. The manufacturing manager supports the overall ideas but stresses it is absolutely no use trying to sell goods which cannot be produced in a reasonable time period as this would do more harm than good to the company’s reputation. Production need to be involved in the communication process at all times unless they are fully aware of what is happening at all times there wont be any goods to sell. The sales and marketing function are excited by this new venture. Jade Marsh (sales and marketing director) would like to see the task of setting the website given to a professional web development firm who are likely to charge à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½40,000 to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50,000 for a site with multi-media images. This will be vital to show the type of fabric that can be selected, the colour and the designs especially for the ties. The site must be user-friendly quick to access and use and that it can cope with a large number of ‘hits’ without crashing. She believes the key date for it to be finalised is September, so that the company can benefit from Christmas orders. In order for the site to be marketed it will cost money, it must be registered with good search engines. She would like to have special offers to tempt visitors to return again. All stationary must be reprinted to include the website address. During the first year the site needs advertising as widely as possible. The sales and marketing director believes that the e-commerce should be located in marketing (as it is a method of selling goods). Ideally she would like two more staff, one to join the mail-order team and be responsible for Internet orders and another to join customer services in case there are any problems with goods sold over the Internet. She believes this would minimise communication problems as all sales will be controlled in one area. She estimates that the company could sell 200,000 shirts and 150,000 ties if a good job of setting up and marketing the website was accomplished. The human resources function is concerned about three main aspects. > Where the website operations will be controlled. > How the website will be developed. Kim Fields the administration and IT service manager believes she should have control of website operations as she is IT manager especially as computer staff are responsible to her. She believes maintenance of the site will be crucial, it is important to set it up fairly quickly and then it can expand. Kim considers the most sensible route for website development would be to hire their own multi-media web developer to set up the page and sub-contract specialist parts to an outside firm if needed. In addition a programme/copywriter would be needed. The software and other associated costs would be about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10,000. Having these staff would mean that the website could be continually updated in house. Keith is concerned about the effect on staff, he is anxious that the mail-order clerks should be trained to be able to print off and process orders arriving through the website as well as carrying out their current job. He thinks they will need extra help at busy periods such as Christmas. If the website is to be successful than eventually another member of staff may be required. He believes it to be more sensible to move this group of staff to the HR/Admin department so there would be better communications with the computer staff. Keith considers any communication problems during planning the stages can be solved by regular meetings between the IT and sales staff. Finance will also need to be included. Philip Markham has always aimed to produce menswear of excellent quality at affordable prices. The fabric used for shirts is of highest quality and designers aim to produce new designs each year. The functional areas which relates to these aims is the production department, finance department, human resources and sales and marketing. The first action to take would be in human resources the company needs to recruit the best people for the job including cutters, machinists, and finishers and look after them whilst they work. The finance function make sure that a budget is maintained when buying materials, paying wages and embarking in market research when embarking on achieving these particular aims. The finance function can give up-to-date information on the level of expenditure at any time. The production function uphold quality control at Philip Markham ands each team cutters, machinists and finishers is responsible for ensuring that quality is right at every stage of the process. Production is responsible for obtaining the best quality fabrics at the best prices and making sure all raw materials are delivered on time Human resources relates to these aims because their function is to recruit and train staff to meet all customer needs in relation to providing a service. The function incorporates company policy to treat employees fairly and equally in all aspects relating to their employment. A content workforce will achieve a friendly atmosphere and staff are keen to help consumers as well as each other.

Public speaking: A vital skill for teachers Essay

â€Å"I have a dream† a speech by Martin Luther King that united a nation and broke down racial barriers. Without Kings leadership and inspirational speech it may have taken an extra 10 years to bring equality to all races. Hitler’s many speeches were delivered with extreme passion and caused arguably one of the most horrific genocides of all time. Throughout history public speaking has united people and caused great change, both for the better and worse. Public speaking is important, in history and in life. It is a vital skill in many disciplines. However nowhere more prominent than education. Public speaking in education is how educators inspire, teach and engage students. Good public speaking skills can enhance confidence, communication skills, help demonstrate knowledge and improve public image.  Public speaking usually consists of three main components including preparation, visual aids and non- verbal communication. How well these three main components are demonstrated or used can be the difference between a great influential educator who can inspire and teach students and a class that will not pay attention and a teacher who cannot engage. Preparation is key in presenting a well thought out, impressive presentation. To an educator preparation is vital. Preparation usually consists of the following elements audience, research, rhetorical mix and rehearsal. Elisabeth Gareis in Guidelines for Public Speaking expresses the importance of tailoring to the audience. Gareis (2006) states that â€Å"at all times during the process of preparing and delivering a speech, we need to keep in mind that we are speaking to an audience and not just to ourselves† (pp.3). For an educator it is crucial to know the students and the curriculum so that the information and how the information is delivered is tailored to the specific class. The audience is key and public speaking is all about engaging the audienc e whether it be a class of grade ones, students in high school or even work colleagues. Regardless if the purpose is to persuade, argue or entertain without the audience’s attention the message is lost. To avoid the loss of the message and to keep the audience engaged it is vital to know the target audience. Know the students or colleagues ideals, the classes’ diversity, the beliefs and expectations (Nash, 2013). Knowing the audience can help incorporate what the audience expects and the purpose of the presentation or lesson to coincide together effectively. However knowing the audience or class is only half the battle as public speaking or teaching is pointless without something to say. Educators rely on credible sources to teach students about specific subjects. Research is the tool teachers most commonly use to find relevant, reliable, academic sources that support and explain the specific disciplines taught to the class. Research is important in creating a well thought out, well developed lesson in which can be tested by an academic criteria. Subsequen tly research is important in backing up the three most arguably important aspects to engage students. Logos, Ethos and Pathos make up the rhetorical mix developed by Aristotle. Aristotle argued that the presence of Logos, Ethos and Pathos is vital in creating a persuasive speech (Nash, 2013, pp 154-155). Logos: the appeal to logic, Ethos: the appeal to credibility and Pathos: the appeal to emotion (Eunson,  2012 as cited in Nash, 2013) are all equally important to address in a persuasive argument. Addressing all three aspects of a rhetorical mix is an effective way to create an engaging presentation that communicates its message in a way the audience or students can easily understand. Rehearsal is the final stage of preparation that brings all aspects of the presentation or lesson together (Scudder.V, 2009). Rehearsal is an effective way to make sure all details of a presentation are in order to function at the highest possible quality. Rehearsal is key to creating a professional learning environment for the students and a credible name for the Teacher. Subsequently rehearsal is also the best place to make sure all visual and audio aid aspects are in working order so a professional learning environment can be maintained and student’s attention do not weary (Scudder.V, 2009). Visual aids provide a further aspect to any presentation. Images, videos, handouts, posters and power points are all included as a form of visual aid. Visual aids can be used as a tool to engage students and complement content. However Visual aids especially illustrative aids such as power point images and video clips, should be used sparingly only to emphasis or explain the lessons content (Wright, J. 2009). Jane Wright explains in ‘The role of computer software in presenting information’ that delivering a presentation with both audio and visual stimuli can affect the amount of information retained by the audience. Thus for educators it is important to tailor to the lesson only using visual or audio aids necessary to communicate the required information. Consequently gestures and actions can be just as engaging as a picture therefore just as much emphasis should be placed on non-verbal communication as visual or audio aids. Non- verbal communication includes all form of communication aside from the content said aloud. Non- verbal communication suggests everything from what you wear to how you stand can communicate a message to your audience (Nash, 2013). To educators this is especially important as students pay attention to how a teacher looks and acts. Non-verbal communication is imperative for imparting knowledge to students and maintaining their attention. Stance, eye contact, gestures and paralinguistics can all communicate confidence, knowledge and enthusiasm. Students are more likely to listen to a teacher dressed professional, making eye contact, moving around the room and placing emphas is on key areas with gestures and volume than a slouched over,  monotone teacher who could not make the effort to iron their shirt. Non- verbal communication can be just as important if not more important than visual aids. As using honesty and enthusiasm as well as good communication skills to engage students is much more effective for educators to communicate the desired content (Wright, J. 2009) Public speaking is extremely important for an educator. Students Listen to Teachers who inspire them and who communicate their ideas, knowledge or lesson effectively. If a teacher cannot communicate with students then they cannot be a Teacher. Therefore it is vital for an educator to become familiar and to master the key areas of becoming a great influential, engaging public speaker. Preparation, Visual aids and Non-Verbal communication if used correctly are what can make any speech or lesson memorable. Consequently teachers need to be aware that public speaking is a day to day ritual and mastering it is what can change a teacher to an inspiring mentor who engages their students. Reference List Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Nash, G. (2013). A guide to university assessment. QLD, Australia: John Wiley & Sons. Section 5 pp. 158-184. Scudder.V (2009). G Sound check: How to avoid presentation dangers. October, p. 10 Wright, J. (2009). The role of computer software in presenting information: presentation software is used frequently to disseminate ideas in visual forms that can be understood easily. Jane wright asks whether senior nurses should develop their skills in rhetoric instead. 16 (4), 30–34. Elisabeth Gareis Guidelines for public speaking, pp. 3-4

AIDS in Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

AIDS in Brazil - Essay Example At this time, a group of health professionals emerged that was determined to re-model the public health system. Thus they started what it is known as the "health reform movement" in Brazil (Camargo, 2005). In 1982, there were held democratic elections for state governor after many years of military regimes. The opposition triumphed in some key states and members of the "health reform movement" were employed in the State Health Secretariats. Camargo states that through this new order "the movement towards integrated health policies thus began to gain ground, eventually resulting in the formation of the Unified Health Service - the SUS" (2005). In 1983, the first diagnoses of AIDS were made in Brazil. By that time the first official program against this disease was established in So Paulo. Eventually this initiative led to the creation of the National STD and AIDS Department (Sexually-Transmitted Disease -STD-) in 1985 when democracy was restored (Camargo, 2005; Avert.Org, 2008). In this year the first NGOs against AIDS began to be founded, such as the GAPA (Support Group for AIDS Prevention), the ABIA (the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS), Grupo Pela Vidda ("Group for Life") (founded in 1989), among many others (Avert.Org, 2008). According to Avert.Org (2008) "by this time, the rate of new HIV infections was rapidly increasing." Camargo states the following: "The number of AIDS-related deaths began to inc... Also in 1986 the VIII National Health Conference accepted the ideas of the health reform movement, which eventually influenced the health-relevant sections of the new Federal Constitution promulgated in 1988 (a watershed in Brazil's re-democratization). The Unified Health System (SUS) was thus born." (Camargo, 2005). The new Constitution had a heavy focus on human rights so this fact helped a lot in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Brazil (Avert.Org, 2008). Official prevention campaigns started in 1987. Camargo asserts the following about this period: "the idea began to be accepted that prevention involved battling prejudice and discrimination and promoting solidarity and the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS" (2005). According to Avert.Org the situation was not improving at the beginning of the 1990s. Avert.Org (2008) remarks that "not everyone was happy with the way that the government was handling the epidemic." Herbert Daniel, an HIV positive activist, published a book denouncing the failure of Brazil's government to handle successfully the negative effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Avert.Org, 2008). At the beginning of that decade, the World Bank predicted that by the year of 2000 there would be 1.2 million people infected with HIV in Brazil (IAS, 2005; Okie, 2006; Avert.Org, 2008). Thanks to the agressive prevention and treatment programs implemented in this country, the actual figure was around 600,000 people living with HIV in Brazil (Avert.Org, 2008). The turning point can be found in the second half of the 1990s. Camargo states it as follows: "World Bank financing for projects in the health area completely changed the