Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs Narratives - 1756 Words

The use of slavery was a source of cheap labor that plantation and business owners depended on. Most plantations resided in rural areas with hardly any neighbors, it was mostly land that surrounded the plantations. This allowed for the plantation owners to be cruel and vicious towards their slaves. Some torture usually ended up with major injuries from whipping or sometimes even death. In the Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narratives, both of the stories took place in an urban or town setting. This allowed for neighbors to see what was happening on the plantations and pushed the plantation owners to act differently towards their slaves in fear of being judged. Living in an urban or town like setting allowed for lighter punishment, the relationship between the master and the slaves would allow for a stronger connection because there would be less cruelty, and would provide for a more accessible escape. Slavery allowed for lighter punishment and a stronger connection between slave owners and slaves in an urban/town setting than in a rural area and Frederick Douglass shows this through his novel he wrote. Frederick Douglass had the opportunity to work on Mr. and Mrs. Aulds in Baltimore, Maryland. Here Douglass was allowed to continue his education and continue to write his narrative. Douglass explains that â€Å"going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity. I have ever regarded it as the first plainShow MoreRelatedThe Slave Narratives Of Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs1508 Words   |  7 Pagespower over another human being. Someone once said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and such corruption is clearly demonstrated in the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Though Douglass was mistreated and constantly denied the literacy he so desperately sought, Jacobs faced a variety of humiliations which were exclusively feminine. In an extraordinarily oppressive effort to subjugate slaves, slaveowners did not keep a written record of slaves’Read MoreThe Classic Slave Narratives: Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano1985 Words   |  8 PagesThe book The Classic Slave Narratives is a collection of narratives that includes the historical enslavement experiences in the lives of the former slaves Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, and Olaudah Equiano. They all find ways to advocate for themselves to protect them from some of the horrors of slavery, such as sexual abuse, verbal abuse, imprisonment, beatings, torturing, killings and the nonexistence of civil rights as Americans or rights as human beings. Also, their keen wit and intelligenceRead MoreThe Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave And Harriet Jacobs s Incidents994 Words   |  4 PagesThroughout the eighteenth century, many fugitive slaves wrote narratives to express their experience as a slave. Fredr ick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are two famous examples in which the writers demonstrate their perspective as slaves and dangerous, agonizing life. Nevertheless, there are also many dissimilarities between these narratives, including gender based treatments, main character’s firstRead MoreThe Humiliating Nature of Enslavement, Sexual Savage Exploitation, and Degradation in Autobiographical Narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs2068 Words   |  9 PagesThe humiliating nature of enslavement, sexual savage exploitation, and degradation in autobiographical narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs In the age of Romanticism, slavery and the slave trade provoked sharp criticism and controversy and played a very significant role in shaping public opinion and causing moral opposition to injustice and tyranny. Since Columbus’s journey opened the doors of the Atlantic passage to African Slave Trade, slavery became man’s greatest inhumanityRead MoreThe Life Of Frederick Douglass And The Life Of A Slave Girl1475 Words   |  6 Pages 2014 The Life of Frederick Douglass the Life of a Slave Girl The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are both nineteenth-century narratives about Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs’s experiences born into slavery and as escaped slaves. The concept of gender makes each narrative have distinct perspectives’ of their version of what they endure during slavery and how it shapes their freedom. Even though both narratives have many similaritiesRead MoreA Comparison Of Writings By Harriet Jacobs And Frederick Douglass1718 Words   |  7 PagesA Comparison of Writings by Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass In this paper I will compare the writings of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. I will touch on their genre, purpose, content, and style. Both authors were born into slavery. Both escaped to freedom and fought to bring an end to slavery, each in their own way. Both Jacobs and Douglass have a different purpose for their writings. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves that wrote about their strugglesRead MoreFrederick Douglass Vs. Harriet Jacobs987 Words   |  4 PagesFrederick Douglass v. Harriet Jacobs â€Å"We are not Americans; we are Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against out will from Africa. We did not land on Plymouth rock--that rock landed on us (â€Å"Malcolm X†).† Slavery began when Americans brought Africans to Virginia in 1619 to complete any field work that plantation owners did not want to do themselves (History.com Staff). Slavery lasted in America for 246 years and even after, African Americans were still treatedRead MoreJacobs Douglass: An Insight Into The Experience of The American Slave1019 Words   |  5 PagesThe slave narratives of the ante-bellum time period have come across numerous types of themes. Much of the work concentrates on the underlining ideas beneath the stories. In the narratives, fugitives and ex-slaves appealed to the humanity they shared with their readers during these times, men being lynched and marked all over and women being the subject of grueling rapes. The slave narrative of Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl themes come from the existenceRead MoreThe Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs Essay1272 Words   |  6 PagesA slave narrative is to tell a slaves story and what they have been through. Six thousand former slaves from North America told about their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries. About 150 narratives were published as separate books or articles most slaves were born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War. Some Slaves told about their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. Slave narratives are one of the only ways that peopl e today know about the wayRead MoreResponse to Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass Readings1204 Words   |  5 PagesCritical Response on Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass Both Douglass and Jacobs were inspirational icons for the African-Americans in American history. Their contributions to the abolition of slavery and liberalism of the African-American race in the U.S. are very notable and important too; not only for honor but also important to American literature. They both lived during the period of the Antebellum (1820 - 1865) when the abolition of slave trade was a big issue in the country. At this time

Cognitive - 1722 Words

Cognitive Dissonance Anna Parks PSY/400 10-13-14 Mrs. Bunke Cognitive Dissonance People can display themselves outwardly in a certain manner although on the inside be completely different. A person’s attitude and behavior can influence each other; a person’s surrounds will also have an impact on how the person is. An example of this can be seen in a person committing a crime such as shoplifting, the person knows this is illegal and not moral but in the right situation the person may forget his or her moral upbringing and commit the crime any way. Influences on the individual can be overpowering, causing the person to behave or act in an attitude different from the person’s normal action and behavior. People tend to suffer from†¦show more content†¦Teens do this because they have an association that â€Å"Sam did it and did not get in trouble, I can do it too and not get in trouble.† These individuals see themselves as invincible because they are in a group that performs this kind of behavior at all times, so they think nothing of the repercussions that could come. Culturally Carla is unsure, her parents have taught her the difference between right and wrong and the thought of taking the clothes is wrong to her. Even while her grandparents were growing up in the Great Depression they never stole, what they did not need to survive. She keeps thinking though that â€Å"My friends did it, so can I.† Carla grew up in a religious home, her family attends church every Sunday, and she is very close with her family. People in her family have held honesty and trust to high standards as well as her religion. Stealing is one of the commandments forbidden to be broken as well as lying. If Carla goes through with taking the clothes what will her parents say? Will she still be able to come to the mall with her friends? Will she be able to participate in the next game at school? Will her friends think she is a loser if she gets caught? Could she become ‘one of them’ by taking the clothing? Carla is also considering how she will feel about herself if she takes the items and how well her conscience will let her sleep at night. Carla is dealing with moral hypocrisy.Show MoreRelatedDifference Between Cognitive And Cognitive Psychology1389 Words   |  6 Pagestwo different approaches to Cognitive Psychology This essay will be focused on two different approaches to cognitive psychology: Cognitive Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Cognitive Neuropsychology is concerned with the patterns of cognitive performance and emphasis on the cognitive effects of brain-damaged patients who suffered lesions, injuries or diseases, providing vest information on normal human cognition. (Eysenck and Keane 2015, p.5) Whereas cognitive neuroscience involves in-depthRead MoreCognitive Concepts Of Cognitive Therapy Essay1253 Words   |  6 PagesCorsini and Wedding (2013), cognitive therapy aims at adjusting information and initiate positive change in all systems by acting through the cognitive systems. From my perspective, what is very appealing about cognitive therapy is that the therapist can challenge their client s viewpoints and rational. Furthermore, cognitive therapy allows people to perceive the world and shape behavior based on their thoughts and feelings. According to Frances, Miller, an d Mack (2005), cognitive therapy is used to treatRead MoreCognitive Dissonance1475 Words   |  6 PagesCognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance Consistency, the absence of contradictions, has sometimes been called the hallmark of ethics. Ethics is supposed to provide an individual with a guide for moral living, and to do so it must be rational, and to be rational it must be free of contradictions. When consistency and ethics are compromised, this is known as cognitive dissonance. Leon Festinger shared his brilliance with the world when he created the Cognitive Dissonance theoryRead MoreCognitive Dissonance1266 Words   |  6 PagesCognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance or mental stress which is primarily caused by contradictory beliefs, can be a common part of some peoples life’s however we are psychologically motivated to avoid situations which cause mental stress. This paper will discuss a situation and the behavior using attribution theory, the reciprocal relationship between behavior and attitudes as well as how cognitive dissonance theory could be used to rationalize the behavior. Situation and Subsequent Behavior Read MoreCognitive Dissonance1161 Words   |  5 PagesHonors Psych Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance theory has been around since the late fifties. It has inspired many psychologists to figure out the murky depths of people’s minds. The theory relates strongly to decision making, social phenomenons and mental angst. Many paradigms exist within cognitive dissonance. Two important paradigms are the Belief Disconfirmation paradigm and the Free Choice paradigm. There are several experiments that have been studied that relate to cognitive dissonanceRead MoreCognitive Processes1060 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Running head: COGNITIVE PROCESSES Cognitive Processes Kimberly Benoit University of Phoenix Abstract Cognitive processes helps to obtain information and make conscious and subconscious assumptions about the world around us. There are five conventional senses are utilized in this complex process as a way of gathering information. Cognitive processes are unobservable; researchers remain to study ways to come up with behaviors or measures of performance to mirror cognitive processesRead Morecognitive linguistics3443 Words   |  14 Pages The topic of seminar:    The main trends of Cognitive Linguistics in works of foreign (American and European) scientists Problem task: What principles of cognitive linguistics did G. Lakoff pay much attention at ?   Describe his idea. Describe the study of spatial relationships and types of movement in the conceptualization of language, the concept of imaginative schemes and types of schemes. Describe the study of body based consciousness and language  of humans. The idea of ​​the concept of embodimentRead MoreAmandas Cognitive Abilities And Cognitive Processing Skills1100 Words   |  5 PagesAmanda’s cognitive abilities were assessed through the use of the WPPSI-IV in addition to supplemental subtests from the WJ-IV COG and KABC-II. On the WPPSI-IV, subtests that measure different cognitive processing abilities combine to form five index scores: Verbal Comprehension, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, Visual Spatial Processing and Processing Speed which all together make up the Full Scale IQ score (FSIQ). On the WPPSI-IV, Amanda earned an FSIQ score of 97, which ranks her overall abilityRead MoreCognitive Failures Of A Person s Cognitive System844 Words   |  4 PagesA person’s cognitive system can overall be very effective, though occasionally mistakes occur resulting in generalized cognitive failures. Cognitive failures, also known as absent-mindedness, are errors or mistakes people make due to attention slips or memory failures (Reason, 1982). These failures refer to all possible errors within the cognitive system and can be traced to problems with attention, memory, errors created by distractions and errors in the execution of intentions. These include lapsesRead MoreCognitive, Cognitive Behavioral, and Reality Theory929 Words   |  4 PagesCognitive, Cognitive Behavioral and Reality Theory ï ¿ ½ PAGE * MERGEFORMAT ï ¿ ½1ï ¿ ½ Cognitive, Cognitive Behavioral, and Reality Theory PCN 500 Cognitive, Cognitive Behavioral, and Reality Theory Overview There are many definitions of counseling, but most share the same idea: it is when one person helps another. To me counseling represents one word more than any other: Change. One person is unhappy with some area of their life and wants it to change while the other person helps to facilitate that change

Case Study of the Coaching Specialists †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Analysing As-Is Business Processes for an Organization: A Case Study of the Coaching Specialists. Answer: Introduction In this report, the discussions are carried out on a company The Coaching Specialists which is based in Melbourne and it offers coaching services to the clients. The company helps the clients to develop their particular skill or ability as per their requirement by providing suitable private tutors and coaches. This paper highlights the problems and issues that are being faced by the organization or existing in the business processes. The illustrations has also been provided on each process model existing within the business process of the company. The steps that are required for redesigning the business process has been listed in this report. Assumptions In context to the business case that has been provided on behalf of the company The Coaching specialists, there may be various assumptions to be taken for designing the process model. However, for designing the existing business processes within the organization the main assumption that has been made is that there is appropriate information flow in the company. Suitable information flow is an essential element that is required to complete the business process within the organization in an effective and efficient manner. It has also been assumed that there is suitable storage for recording the information of transactions being carried out in the organization. Problem Statement The problems existing within the company are various and the major challenge being faced by the organization is the business process is complex and very much time consuming. The process being followed does not have a systematic approach or procedure to complete the entire process of providing coaching services to the clients. The time for communication is another problematic element in the business process of the company. This is because the time required for informing the client and coach depends upon acquisition of approval from both of them in context to the desired criteria. The client has to approve at each step being executed by the company for assigning the assignment to a particular coach. This makes the process complex and very much tiring for the company that emerges as a hindrance to business performance. The company does not follows a standard procedure for payments realization that may make the client to lose interest on the company. Issues and opportunities of current process (es) From analysis of the case being provided on behalf of The Coaching Specialists company, it has been identified that there are various issues and opportunities to make changes to the business process of the company. The major issue that has been identified is with the process to find coach and assigning a particular coach to proceed with assignment. The issue being faced is that the client has to be always kept into loop for approval of each decisions being made to find a suitable coach. This makes the process complex and iterative in nature to accomplish the required tasks by the company. The implementation of verifier in the business process makes the assignment procedure lengthy and time taking. Need for change There is a requirement to make some changes to the business process of the company as it is complex and time consuming. The change is necessary as the company may lose client due to the time required for processing the activities to assign a coach as per the client requirement. The change is required as the complexity in the business process is reducing the business performance of the company which in turn decreases the profitability and revenue generation. Identification of one essential issue/problem The major issues that has been identified as an essential element in context to the business of the company is the time required for communication. The time required for taking approval from the client as well as coach delays the entire process which in turn increases the duration of entire coaching process. The client has to approve at each step being executed by the company for assigning the assignment to a particular coach. This makes the process complex and very much tiring for the company that emerges as a hindrance to business performance. Explanation of process model Key tasks Gateways Events Explanation Enrolment for coaching Check whether client information is in the company database or not If Yes Confirm information and send to coaching specialist This process confirms beginning of the procedure that is being followed for executing coaching process by the company. If No Register as new client Finding suitable coach Check whether suitable coach is available or not If Yes Arrange appropriate time and confirm the time and cost with client In this process model, the illustration is presented on finding a suitable coach for the client as per their requirement. If No Find another coach or cancel the assignment Invoicing of the assignment fees Check whether the client agrees and confirms to pay If Yes Proceed with the assignment This process model depicts the step that has to be taken before proceeding with the assignment. If No Cancel the assignment and notify coach Follow up to determine satisfaction of client and coach Check whether the client and the coach is satisfied or not with the assignment If Yes Compile reports and confirm assignment completion In this process model, the final and completion activities are involved that finalizes completion of an assignment. If No Review feedback and make the necessary arrangements Steps for re-designing the process The steps that can be taken for redesigning the existing business process of the company are listed as below: Identify the requirements of the company: The proper identification and requirement analysis will be done to determine the exact needs of the company. Determine the main elements: The proper organizing of the required elements to accomplish the business processes will be done to increase the processing speed. Proper communication measures: There will be implementation of communication or information system such that the communications can be carried out in a fruitful and sequential manner. Conclusion From the analysis and discussions being carried out on the company The Coaching Specialists it has been determined that there are various issues and problems existing within the organization. However, the determined issues can be resolved by implementation of suitable measures and modifying the business process being followed by the organization. The description of the process models existing in the business suggest that there is no requirement for a verifier for assigning a coach to a client. The list of steps that has been provided for redesigning the process suggest that the necessary changes can be made for simplifying the business process within the organization. Bibliography Kumagai, K., Araki, M. and Ono, T., 2016. Business Process Modeling Method with Hierarchical Business Variation Analysis.Electronics and Communications in Japan,99(2), pp.45-54. Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India. Leonidou, L.C., Fotiadis, T.A., Christodoulides, P., Spyropoulou, S. and Katsikeas, C.S., 2015. Environmentally friendly export business strategy: Its determinants and effects on competitive advantage and performance.International Business Review,24(5), pp.798-811. Li, Y., Cao, B., Xu, L., Yin, J., Deng, S., Yin, Y. and Wu, Z., 2014. An efficient recommendation method for improving business process modeling.IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics,10(1), pp.502-513. Love, P.E., Matthews, J., Simpson, I., Hill, A. and Olatunji, O.A., 2014. A benefits realizationmanagement building information modeling framework for asset owners.Automation in construction,37, pp.1-10. Martinez-Simarro, D., Devece, C. and Llopis-Albert, C., 2015. How information systems strategy moderates the relationship between business strategy and performance.Journal of Business Research,68(7), pp.1592-1594. Panayiotou, N.A., Gayialis, S.P., Evangelopoulos, N.P. and Katimertzoglou, P.K., 2015. A business process modeling-enabled requirements engineering framework for ERP implementation.Business Process Management Journal,21(3), pp.628-664. Pinggera, J., Soffer, P., Fahland, D., Weidlich, M., Zugal, S., Weber, B., Reijers, H.A. and Mendling, J., 2015. Styles in business process modeling: an exploration and a model.Software Systems Modeling,14(3), pp.1055-1080.

The Symbolic Interaction Paradigm of The Pursuit of Happyness Essay Example

The Symbolic Interaction Paradigm of The Pursuit of Happyness Paper In everyday life, people believe themselves to be constantly changing, but are we though? According to those who study Symbolic Interaction, we are forever interacting with the world. It is through socialization that we learn about the attitudes, values, and behaviors that are appropriate and expected by our culture and community. Through the interaction with others, we define our sense of self and our self-image. Everyone has different concepts of what the self is. George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, and Charles Cooley all proposed theories on how we come to know the self. In this essay, I shall be looking at the Symbolic Interactionist paradigm while applying and expanding on each of their theories to the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. By looking at key and relevant scenes which best illustrates each theory. I shall be looking at how characters in the movie view themselves and how their perspective of their self-has changed throughout the course of the movie. The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, based on a true story, portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes place in San Francisco during the early 80s.The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner, and his son Christopher Jr. Gardner tries to support his family, but every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on how to be happy? He earns his money by selling the bone density scanners; however, those scanners do not make enough money for him, and sometimes he finds it hard to even sell a single scanner. His wife, Linda, left him and their son Christopher Jr, who is five years old in the movie because she was not happy with the situation that they were in and had to work two jobs just to help support the family. Christ took it upon himself to care for his son. Chris sought to apply for an internship program, but the only problem with We will write a custom essay sample on The Symbolic Interaction Paradigm of The Pursuit of Happyness specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Symbolic Interaction Paradigm of The Pursuit of Happyness specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Symbolic Interaction Paradigm of The Pursuit of Happyness specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Troy essays

Troy essays World Civilization to 1500 Research Paper When Heinrich Schliemann emerged from Turkey in June of 1873 with a hoard of treasure, the whole world took note. He claimed to have found the ruins of ancient Troy. Schliemann had rejected the prevailing scholarly doctrine that Homer was a mythmaker, not a historian or scholar. Even today, some people argue that the actual ruins of the historical city of Troy are in Croatia, not Hisarlik, Turkey, as Schliemann claimed. This position is outdated now, just as it was when Schliemann first made his great archaeological discovery. Evidence clearly shows that the majority of our present knowledge of the famous ancient city of Troy comes of Homers writing and from Heinrich Schliemanns archaeological discoveries. In my opinion, Homer should be accepted as a legitimate source of historical reference and, therefore, so should Schliemann. Regardless of conflicting beliefs, the remains of Troy must, in fact, be at Hisarlik since Schliemann was guided to this site by Homers description s in The Iliad. While the Greek people remained steadfast in their strong traditional heritage, most of the non-Greek world at Schliemanns time asserted that the events set in Troy were figments of a great imagination, and were intended only to entertain. Nevertheless, Schliemann began to question these accepted beliefs regarding the existence of a real Troy at a very young age. Heinrichs father had given him a history book, and intrigued by its illustrations of the mythical city, he began his lifelong obsession to find the lost city. He learned the Greek language and studied Homer's epics extensively. Considering geographical descriptions, Schliemann began to believe that he would find the city around Hisarlik, Turkey. In 1870, he and one hundred workers set out to prove his theory (Time-Life, 10). In doing so, he took The Iliad as literally as if it were an eyewitness acco...

Macro Logic in ACT English Sentence and Paragraph Order

Macro Logic in ACT English Sentence and Paragraph Order SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Macro logic questions on ACT English ask you to determine where to properly place sentences within a paragraph and where to properly place paragraphs within a passage. These rhetorical skills questions test your ability to analyze sentences and determine how to most logically organize a passage. Knowing how to recognize and using my top ACT English strategies to approach these questions will enable you to correctly answer them in an efficient manner. How to Identify a Macro Logic Question The first step in solving any ACT question is determining whattype of question itis. Before learning how to solve macro logic questions, we need to figure out how to spot them. Once you identify a macro logic question, you can use the methods we'll discuss later in the article to determinethe right answer. Macro logic questions are easily identifiable. Bracketed numbers at the beginnings of sentences signal that a sentence order question will appear: Also, bracketed letters in different paragraphs signal an impending sentence order question: Similarly, bracketed numbers at the top of each paragraph signal that there may be a paragraph order question: Whenever you see bracketed numbers or letters within a passage, you know you'll encounter a macro logic question. Check out how these questions are constructed. Macro Logic Example Questions Most macro logic questions tend to be constructed in similar ways, so let's take a look at some example questions. Sentence Order Question Macro logic questions are among the most easily identifiable. All sentence order questions will ask you where a sentence should be placed. The answer choices will all be various locations within the passage. Paragraph Order Question The other category of macro logic question is paragraph order. Let's take a look at a paragraph order question: Like sentence order questions, paragraph order questions are fairly straightforward. You'll be asked where a paragraph should be placed. Again, the answer choices will all be various locations within the passage. I'll start by going over the types of and strategies for sentence order questions before moving onto paragraph order questions! Types of Sentence Order Questions Let's break down the threetypes of sentence order questions. Each question type requires a slightly different approach, even though all macro logic questions test the same general skills. Type #1: Accomplishing a Goal The question will ask you where to place a sentence for the author to fulfill some stated purpose. Our sentence order example question from above is representative of this type of question. For this type of question, you have to identify the intended goal. Then, you have to determine where the sentence should be placed in order to achieve that goal. Type #2: Determine the Most Logical Placement Within a Paragraph These questions will ask you where a sentence should be placed within a paragraph to maintain logic and coherence. You simply have to determine where the sentence should be placed for it to make the most sense. The sentence should logically proceed from the previous sentence and connect to the following sentence. Type #3: Determine in Which Paragraph Would Be the Most Logical Placement Most sentence order questions I've seen focus on a single paragraph. However, there are sentence order questions that ask you to determine in which paragraph a sentence should be placed to maintain logic and coherence. Here's an example: The letters in the answer choices are bracketed and placed at specific points in the various paragraphs. This type of question requires the same approach and skill set as the previous type. You'll just be looking at locations in different paragraphs as opposed to focusing on a single paragraph. It's good to be familiar with all of the basic constructions of these questions so that nothing shocks you on test day. Now let's go through the process of answering sentence order questions. Strategies for Answering Sentence Order Questions I'll go through the step-by-step process for how to answer a sentence order question. We'll use the first type as an example, but you should use the same approach for the other two types as well. #1: Determine What the Question is Asking This question is asking where the sentence be placed to emphasize previously expressed uncertainty.Focus on the key words or phrases in the question. In this question, the words "emphasize" and "amplify" are important. Therefore, the previous sentence should somehow suggest uncertainty. The sentence "I still have doubts" should be placed somewhere in which it would emphasize uncertainty that's already present. #2: Go Through the Answer Choices Plug in â€Å"I still have doubts† after each option to determine where it logically fits and will satisfy the requirement that it emphasize previously expressed uncertainty. Here are all of our options: [1] Our son has started playing organized T-ball, a beginner’s version of baseball. [2] â€Å"Organized† is what parents call it, anyway. [3] Joe is seven, living in those two or three years when they can manage to throw a baseball a few feet but when what they’re really interested in are things closer at hand, bugs, butterflies, dirt (if they’re in the infield), grass (if they’re in the outfield). [4] Children of that age still think nothing of doing little dances in the outfield, often with their backs to home plate and, consequently, the batter. #3: Eliminate Wrong Choices As we go through the choices, we’re looking for a sentence that somehow expresses uncertainty and would make sense preceding â€Å"I still have doubts." We can eliminate sentence 1 because that is a statement of fact and there is no expression of uncertainty. The narrator wouldn’t have doubts that his son has started playing T-ball. Similarly, in sentence 3, there is no implied uncertainty and these are just stated observations made by the narrator. He's commenting on the behavior of seven-year-olds. Finally, sentence 4 is also another observation that the narrator states about children of that age. There's nothing that implies or expresses uncertainty. We are left with B, â€Å"after sentence 2." #4: The Right Choice Should Logically Follow the Sentence Before and Connect to the Following Sentence The quotation marks in sentence two suggest uncertainty. The narrator is saying that parents call T-ball â€Å"organized," implying that he does not. That logically connects to him saying, â€Å"I still have doubts," meaning that he still doubts that there is organization in T-ball. The following sentence provides evidence that there is little organization in "organized" T-ball. Everything fits and the answer is B. Now let's focus on paragraph order questions. Types of Paragraph Order Questions There are two basic types of paragraph order questions. Type #1: Determine the Most Logical Paragraph Order These questions ask you where a paragraph should be placed for the passage to maintain logic and coherence. You have to figure out the main ideas of the various paragraphs to determine where a certain paragraph most logically fits. Type #2: Dividing a Paragraph Into Two These questions ask you where a paragraph could be split into two to fulfill a stated purpose. These questions are relatively straightforward. For this example, you just have to determine where the explanation of one type of kayak ends and where the explanation of the other type of kayak begins. Todetermine where a paragraph should be divided, you just have to identify where the topic shifts. Here's the process for figuring out paragraph order questions. Strategies for Answering Paragraph Order Questions We're going to focus on the first type of paragraph order question. These questions are more involved and require you to look at the passage as a whole as opposed to looking at a single paragraph. Again, here's our example question: #1: Determine What the Question is Asking Basically, the question is asking where paragraph 5 should be placed for the passage to be most logical and easily understandable. For these questions, make sure you identify the key word in the answer choice. The question is asking you to determine which paragraphparagraph 5 should be placed AFTER. #2: Determine the Main Idea of the Paragraph Use topic and concluding sentences to determine main ideas of paragraphs. Here are the topic and concluding sentences for paragraph 5: Topic: In 1788, a neighbor loaned Banneker some astronomical instruments and four books on mathematics and astronomy. Concluding: He also began to calculate annual tables of yearly sets of astronomical data, which became the basis for almanacs published under his name from 1792 through 1797. From these two sentences, we can determine that this paragraph is about the history of Banneker’s work in the field of astronomy. #3: Go Through the Answer Choices Use the main ideas of the other paragraphs and the general structure of the passage to determine if it would be logical to place paragraph 5 after a certain paragraph. Based on topic and concluding sentences, here are the main ideas of the paragraphs in the answer choices: A. where it is now (after paragraph 4): Paragraph 4 starts with a statement that Banneker lived and worked on the family farm, but it concludes with a statement about how he pursued scientific studies and taught himself the flute and violin. B. Paragraph 1 is a general introductory paragraph about Banneker. The topic and concluding sentences state that he was an African American inventor who grew up on his family’s farm and had a keen interest in acquiring knowledge. C. Paragraph 2 starts with a statement about Banneker’s grandmother: she was an indentured servant who bought some land and married a freed slave. It concludes by stating that his grandmother taught him to read and he attended a Quaker school when the farm work slowed down in the winter. D. Paragraph 3 is about how Banneker constructed a clock that kept time for over 40 years. #4: Eliminate Wrong Choices The concluding sentence of the preceding paragraph should logically transition to the paragraph about Banneker’s work in astronomy. Paragraphs 2 and 3 have nothing to do with astronomy and do not logically transition to Banneker’s work with astronomy; therefore, we can eliminate those choices. While the first paragraph mentions Banneker’s â€Å"keen interest in acquiring knowledge," the rest of the passage is in roughly chronological order. It makes more sense for the second paragraph to be about Banneker’s family history and his childhood. Consequently, we can get rid of B, C, and D. We are left with answer choice A. #5: The Right Choice Should Logically Follow the Paragraph Before and Connect to the Paragraph After Paragraph 4 concludes with a statement that Banneker pursued scientific studies. That logically transitions into the paragraph about his work in astronomy. Paragraph 6 is the concluding paragraph and mentions how Banneker liked to study astronomy. Paragraph 5 fits where it is currently placed. The answer is A. Follow this path to the right answer. General Tips for Macro Logic Questions Here are some tips for any macro logic question you may encounter on the ACT English section. Determine What the Question Is Asking Beforeanswering the question, identify the type of question that is being asked. Is it a sentence order question? Is it a paragraph order question? Which type of sentence order or paragraph order question is it? Look for the key words within the question. Make sure you know what you should be looking for before you attempt to answer the question. Go Through the Answer Choices For macro logic questions, you need to look at the various options you're given for where to place a sentence or paragraph. Look at the placement options and determine the function of the sentence or paragraph in the answer choice. For paragraph order questions, identify the main idea of the paragraphs. Eliminate Wrong Choices For sentence order questions, the wrong choices will not fulfill the intended goal or will not logically connect one sentence to the next. For paragraph order questions, the wrong choices will cause the passage to have less of a logical flow from one paragraph to the next. If an answer choice would make the passage confusing or hard to follow, then you should be able to eliminate it. Use Chronological Order or Order of Events When Applicable Often, paragraphs are ordered chronologically. In our paragraph order example, the paragraphs were ordered chronologically. For passages that have paragraphs in chronological order, the order of the paragraphs should coincide with the order in whichthe events that they're referencing happened. The things that happened first should go atthe beginning of the passage and the things that happened last should be placed at the end of the passage. Similarly, order of events can help determine sentence order within a paragraph. Order of events refers to the logical order of events. For example, you have to fall down before you can get up. Keeping in mind chronological order and order of events can enable you to more easily answer macro logic questions. Make Sure That the Answer Choice You Pick Logically Follows What Comes Before and Connects to What Comes After For all types of sentence and paragraph order questions, the placement of the sentence or paragraph has to make logical sense. Look at the sentences before and after to determine if the placement is logical and understandable. What's Next? I highly recommend that you read this article about how toapproach ACT English passages. For articles on other types of ACT rhetorical skills questions, check out these posts on author technique and author main goal. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this English lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Business intelligence and database and information management Research Paper

Business intelligence and database and information management - Research Paper Example However a proper business intelligence system is worthless if the model of information and data storage does not provide a good management system. As such, it is necessary to have a good data management system. A Data Management System (DBMS) is an application that manages the execution of user data in the data regulating their access and modification capabilities. This guarantees the reliability, security and integrity of the data. Over the years these platforms have evolved greatly from simple queries to a wide array of systems that are applied broadly. This paper seeks to show the importance of having Business intelligence as well as data and information management systems through the review of various literatures and the incorporation of a case study. Market analysis of consumer data is not a new practice as it has been in use since the ancient Mesopotamians time where clay tablets were used to store information (Thierauf, 2001). Although the systems in use may have evolved dramatically, the core principles of the practices have not. Data mining and business intelligence in an organizational setting main goal is to analyze the market practices with the aim of providing the best course of action for specific market populations (Nandi, 2014). Traditionally, business intelligence was meant to; analyze vendor relationships, sales trends, effectiveness of marketing, customer habits, market behavior and manage organizational finances as well as predict demand (Shaw, 2011). However, with the development of intelligent systems, the scope of the practice has grown with the systems having broader applications. These include tracking of service delivery, sharing of information of between professionals like doctors and safeguarding the priva cy of individuals’ information (Shaw, 2011). Nevertheless, the data management systems of today that have enabled large data storage in

Evolving into you world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evolving into you world - Essay Example Therefore, Information allows for an expansion of knowledge. As changes occur from generation to generation, there are also changes in acquisition and use of information. This paper therefore, assesses the changes in information tools between generations. Are the information tools for the generations before the internet came and after the internet came the same or different? This paper uses generation X to represent the old generation and generation Y to represent the new generation. Generation X, was born between 1965 and 1980 while generation Y is that form 1981 and 2000. Over time, there has been a change in the manners and habits of different generations for instance, the manners in which the old and the new generations get information are different. The old generation heavily depended on the library for information. In these libraries, information was mainly got from books. Due to the effort involved in reading these books the use of libraries as information sources was very tedious and time consuming. However, in terms of knowledge enrichment such individuals heavily benefitted from such study methods. Because of the time used for the study, students would read a lot so as to finally land on the relevant information. In the process of reading a lot, large amounts of knowledge would be gathered. Libraries were mainly used by students for their educational purposes. However, not all people who used libraries did this for educational purposes. Some people read articles, magazines and novels just for fun. Thanks to the libraries which availed such information materials. Most people from the older generation when asked the question of where they would go for information about anything, the answer would be the same. All these people would go to a Library. This was the answer I got when I interviewed my father and grandfather. Technology during the old days was still underdeveloped thus

The Human Body - Data Made Flesh Essay Example for Free

The Human Body Data Made Flesh Essay The title of this essay derives from the words uttered by the protagonist, Henry Case, in William Gibson’s novel ‘Neuromancer’ (1984). This metaphor, which equates the human body as mere data turned into flesh encompasses the theory that in an age of increasing focus on information technologies and the ways in which people interface with them, the boundary distinguishing an individual from their surroundings becomes blurred, if not shattered entirely. As University of Chicago’s William Fulton attests, we exist simply as information systems that happen to inhabit the material instantiation of our bodies, (Theories of Media, 2007). However, one cannot enter discussion about the above topic without first alluding to the particular school of thought which harbours critical theory of this ilk. Exponents of this style of dictum would usually come under the banner of ‘Posthumanists’. The term itself, ‘Posthumanism’, is steeped in hyperbole in that it carries with it an ominous sense of foreboding in contemporary culture, where there is a strong case for the premise that society is becoming less ‘human’, as we retreat behind the veil of technology. To draw upon the direct translation of ‘post’ as ‘after’ would infer the meaning, ‘after-human’ which in some respects gives us a clearer understanding of the concept, as it tends to deal with the modern development of the integration of technology and biology and the human body. It is basically a notion that we, as humans are becoming increasingly embedded in technology and the technological environment that, in a sense, the paradigm of the ‘natural’ human being has shifted in meaning. Juxtaposed with this is the idea that as humans are more and more subsumed in technology, technology is becoming more and more human with advances in science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Fukuyama advanced the concept of Posthumanism as a negative case: that of ‘anti-humanism’ or absence of humanism. He bemoans the transgression of â€Å"crucial moral boundaries† that have eroded the ethical distinctions between therapy and technological enhancement (Our Posthuman Future 2002). Gordijn Chadwick describe a posthuman as a being that has at least one posthuman capacity i.  e. a general central capacity greatly exceeding the maximum attainable by any current human being without recourse to new technological means (Why I Want to be a Posthuman when I Grow Up, 2006). Mc Luhan did not use the exact word but he predicted a future that dovetails succinctly with posthuman theories surrounding ‘cybernetics’ when he foretells a society whereby to paraphrase Hayles’ theory of ‘reflexivity’ (1999) that which has been used to generate a system is made to become part of the system it generates. McLuhan alluded to the ‘cybernetic’ possibility of human beings interfacing and entangling with machines on a neurological and functional level. Just as binoculars are an extension of the eye and clothes are an extension of the skin, then information technologies become McLuhans extension of the mind. In this respect, the term ‘post-humanism’ has only really worked itself into contemporary critical discourse in the humanities and social sciences since the mid 1990s, over a decade after Mc Luhan’s death. However, it may be traced back to the Macy conferences on cybernetics from 1946 to 1953 and the invention of systems theory (What is Posthumanism? , Wolfe, 2010). At these conferences they converged on a new theoretical model for biological, mechanical and communicational processes that removed the human and Homo sapiens from any particular privileged position in relation to matters of meaning, information and cognition. The term ‘cybernetics’ had been coined by Wiener in the 1940s to denote â€Å"the entire field of control and communication theory, whether in the machine or in the animal.† Even at this early stage of technology there was a definitive study underway into the correlation of information between machines and living creatures. In the 1960s this theory was modified into the concept of ‘reflexivity’ alluded to above. Systems re-entangle with themselves, and become referential to themselves blurring the traditionally accepted borders imposed on the world between subject and object, object and environment, or in other words between the organic and the natural and the technological and the cultural, a principal tenet of modern posthumanist thought. In current popular use, Fulton describes cybernetics as most often associated specifically with the development of artificial intelligence, virtual technology and cyberspace. He attests, â€Å"cybernetics in the context of technology is only a limited part of a greater whole, which deals with the study of information systems and the media in which they exist, both inorganic and organic. † Further and further extension of the idea leads to a model of the world in which media serve as a series of â€Å"irrelevant substrates† through which pure information freely flows. This situation ties in with many of Mc Luhan’s ideas about media in society but most especially with his ideas about the extension of the mind, extending human beings’ central nervous systems into electromagnetic technology, a topic, I will consider later in the essay. There is much critical opinion to support Gibson’s notion of humans as information systems just like a machine or computer. Clark (Natural-born Cyborgs, 2001) believes that it is by virtue of our intrinsic ability to merge with external resources to perform even the most rudimentary of calculations that we are designed to walk hand in hand with technology in a posthuman future. He offers the example of how we utilise pen and paper to work out moderately complex mathematics, storing the immediate results outside the brain and then repeating the pattern until the larger problem is solved. â€Å"It is because our brains, more than any other animal on the planet, are primed to seek and consummate such intimate relations with non-biological resources that we end up†¦ capable of abstract thought. †¦we are natural-born cyborgs forever ready to merge our mental activities with operations of pen and paper and electronics†¦. † (Clark, Natural-born Cyborgs, 2001) Wiener asserted that we have to become technophiles to operate in a technological world (1954). He noted that because we have modified our environments so radically it is now necessary to modify ourselves in order to exist in this new environment. Furthermore, he equated the now routine breakdown and repair of the human body with that of replacing a faulty part in a machine. With contemporary advances in technology allowing us to alter or perfect many undesirable parts or areas of our bodies with a specifically manufactured replacement it begs the questions, what does it mean to be human and what does it mean to be a machine in the 21st century? â€Å"If corneal implants are part of us, why not contact lenses? If contacts, why not eyeglasses? If eyeglasses, why not automated telescope? If a telescope, why not the computer interfaced with it? (Hayles, Designs on the Body: Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics and the Play of Metaphor, History of Human Sciences, Vol, 3 No 2) Mc Luhan’s adjunct to this concept is: if a telescope can be the extension of the eye, then information technologies can become extensions of the mind. He stated that after extending or translating â€Å"our central nervous system into the electromagnetic technology, it is but a further stage to transfer our consciousness to the computer world as well.† The Internet clearly serves as the next step in this process of extension. By connecting all computers as part of a pervasive, global network of information, man is not only able to extend his nervous system to interface with technology, but is able to use that mediation to directly connect with the nervous systems of other human beings, also tapped into the network. Present day studies are also showing human’s capacities to monitor their bodies in the same way that one might monitor a car for potential faults. With one report (The Quantified Self: Counting Every Moment, 2012 ) attesting that more people are using smartphone and tablet applications to monitor their health in an effort to sustain a healthy life-style but also, in many instances, as a substitute for the much more expensive trip to the doctor. As populations age and health-care costs increase, there is likely to be a greater emphasis on monitoring, prevention and maintaining â€Å"wellness† in future, with patients taking a more active role an approach sometimes called â€Å"Health 2.0† (The Quantified Self: Counting Every Moment, 2012 ). Allied to this is the plethora of people who are undergoing voluntary surgical procedures in order to modify particular parts of their body for a number of different reasons, in the same way someone might change the wheels on their car or update the driver in their personal computer. Converse to the problem of humans becoming more like machines is the question also raised of machines becoming more like humans. If human identity has been reduced to an information system that happens to inhabit the body as medium, whats to say that another information system inhabiting a computer, or the Internet, couldnt be perceived as being equally as â€Å"human? † In a recent article (Mind vs. Machine, The Atlantic, 2011) Brian Christian describes an annual contest between the world’s most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The contest, known as the Turing Test(, endeavours to find out whether a computer can act â€Å"more human† than a person and Christian discovers that the march of technology is not just changing how we live, it is raising new questions about what it means to be human. He realises that convincing the judges that you are human â€Å"is about more than simply showing up [and being yourself]†. It is something that has to be â€Å"worked at. † This notion has certain resonance for society as a whole. With this in mind, I recall a report (Makwana Irwin-Brown, We’re the Kids in Austerity, 2012) I came across some months ago which stated that 57% of 7-15 year olds in the UK find it easier to talk with friends online than in person, 56% find it easier to talk by SMS than in person. These figures represented for me a sea change in the emphasis on ‘natural’ human interaction, and in what it means to be a ‘natural’ human in today’s society. Perhaps, we are envisaging a new beginning for society one where children feel more comfortable interacting with technology than they do with their fellow human beings. To understand why our human sense of self is inextricably linked with computers, it’s important to realise that computers used to be human. From the mid-18th century onward, computers, many of them women, were on the payrolls of corporations, engineering firms, and universities, performing calculations and numerical analysis. In the mid-20th century, as the ‘digital computer’ developed, it was said to be â€Å"like a computer. † In the 21st century, it is the human mathematical whiz who is â€Å"like a computer† (Christian, Mind vs. Machine, The Atlantic, 2011 ). In a strange but significant turn of events, humans are said to be â€Å"like† something that used to be â€Å"like† us. By this reasoning, one could assume that the modern-day computer is so-called because it is intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer. During the same period that gave rise to the human computer, there too, was much debate amongst philosophers surrounding the idea of what it was to be human. French philosopher Julian Offray de la Mettire (1747) suggested that human beings are only complex animal-machines. This suggestion was, in no doubt, inspired by Descartes uttering in the 16th century that the body was essentially like a machine, pointing out that the only thing not reducible to mechanism is the human mind. Furthermore, the notion of man as a machine or machine-like was something that resonated during the Industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Ferguson describes the perception of the plight of the factory worker in these times: â€Å"Many mechanical acts require no intellectual capacity. They succeed best under a total suppression of sentiment and reason†¦..  Manufacturers, accordingly, prosper most where the mind is least consulted, and where the workshop may, without any great effort of the imagination, be considered an engine, the parts of which are men. † (Ferguson, An Essay on History of Civil Society, 1767) The question of human identity being reduced to an information system that happens to inhabit the body as medium has been a driving force for the study of artificial intelligence, and has manifested repeatedly. As Christian puts it some people imagine the future of artificial intelligence as a kind of heaven: â€Å"Rallying behind an idea called â€Å"The Singularity,† people like Ray Kurzweil (in The Singularity Is Near) and his cohort of believers envision a moment when we make smarter-than-us machines, which make machines smarter than themselves, and so on, and the whole thing accelerates exponentially toward a massive ultra-intelligence that we can barely fathom. † Such a time will arrive in which humans can upload their consciousness onto the Internet and get assumed—if not bodily, than at least mentally—into an eternal, imperishable afterlife in the world of electricity (Christian, Mind vs. Machine, The Atlantic, 2011 ). Others imagine the future of computing as a kind of hell, an almost Terminator style apocalypse. Machines black out the sun, level our cities and enable an atmosphere that destroys all living things. There is no doubt that technology has become an integral part of human lives and will only become increasingly so. We have already made the first step into the realm of the posthuman or the cyborg, common examples include the athlete Oscar Pistorious who has prosthetic blades for legs, anyone who has undergone a sex change, or anyone who has modified their bodies with artificial implants for cosmetic reasons. I do not believe there is any going back but I feel technology and humans certainly have the capacity to complement each other and work side by side as we look to the future. It remains to be seen if this synergy will come to pass but there certainly is the capacity for it. And as the human race faces up to some of the toughest questions that have been put to us heretofore I would cautiously back us to prevail To paraphrase Wiener, humans can continue to modify themselves to keep up with the modifications of the environment they find themselves in.

Merchant of Venice Essay: The Role of Jessica -- Merchant Venice Essay

The Role of Jessica in Merchant of Venice The character of Jessica, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice serves an important function in respect to her father, Shylock. By deserting him for a Christian husband, Shylock loses the last person with whom he has any kind of tie. Shylock’s isolation becomes a vital part of his character, and drives his merciless actions against Antonio. Throughout the play, everyone who could claim any type of social or familial tie to Shylock leaves him. Launcelot the Clown, moves to a Christian master, who has the,"grace of God..." (II,ii L.139) His own daughter Jessica forsakes him, and his entire Jewish culture, to marry Lorenzo, and become a Christian. Thus Shylock has no one from whom he can receive solace. Shylock, therefore, becomes a character motived by isolation, and a feeling of desertion. His emphasis on the binding values of money and law are the only thing he can claim as his own. When Shylock finds out about his daughter’s trickery, he begins to forsake the bonds of family, in sake of temporal laws defining right ...

Designing High-Performance Jobs

Improving the performance of key people is often as simple—and as profound—as changing the resources they control and the results for which they are accountable. by Robert Simons You have a compelling product, an exciting vision, and a clear strategy for your new business. You’ve hired good people and forged relationships with critical suppliers and distributors. You’ve launched a marketing campaign targeting high-value customers. All that remains is to build an organization that can deliver on the promise. But implementation goes badly. Managers in the regional offices don’t show enough entrepreneurial spirit. They are too complacent and far too slow in responding to customers. Moreover, it’s proving very difficult to coordinate activities across units to serve large, multisite customers. Decision making is fragmented, and time to market is much longer than expected. Excessive costs are eating away at profit margins. You begin to wonder: â€Å"Have I put the wrong people in critical jobs? † But the problems are more widespread than that—in fact, they’re systemic across the organization. This tale of a great strategy derailed by poor execution is all too common. Of course, there are many possible reasons for such a failure and many people who might be to blame. But if this story reminds you of your own experience, have you considered the possibility that your organization is designed to fail? Specifically, are key jobs structured to achieve the business’s performance potential? If not, unhappy consequences are all but inevitable. In this article, I present an action-oriented framework that will show you how to design jobs for high performance. My basic point is straightforward: For your business to achieve its potential, each employee’s supply of organizational resources should equal his or her demand for them, and the same supply-and-demand balance must apply to every function, every business unit, and the entire company. Sounds simple, and it is. But only if you understand what determines this balance and how you can influence it. The Four Spans of Job Design To understand what determines whether a job is designed for high performance, you must put yourself in the shoes of your organization’s managers. To carry out his or her job, each employee has to know the answer to four basic questions: †¢ â€Å"What resources do I control to accomplish my tasks? † †¢ â€Å"What measures will be used to evaluate my performance? † †¢ â€Å"Who do I need to interact with and influence to achieve my goals? † †¢ â€Å"How much support can I expect when I reach out to others for help? † The questions correspond to what I call the four basic spans of a job: control, accountability, influence, and support. Each span can be adjusted so that it is narrow or wide or somewhere in between. I think of the adjustments as being made on sliders, like those found on music amplifiers. If you get the settings right, you can design a job in which a talented individual can successfully execute your company’s strategy. But if you get the settings wrong, it will be difficult for any employee to be effective. I’ll look at each span in detail and discuss how managers can adjust the settings. (The exhibit â€Å"The Four Spans† provides a summary. ) The Span of Control. The first span defines the range of resources—not only people but also assets and infrastructure—for which a manager is given decision rights. These are also the resources whose performance the manager is held accountable for. Executives must adjust the span of control for each key position and unit on the basis of how the company delivers value to customers. Consider Wal-Mart, which has configured its entire organization to deliver low prices. Wal-Mart’s strategy depends on standardization of store operations coupled with economies of scale in merchandising, marketing, and distribution. To ensure standardization, Wal-Mart sets the span of control for store managers at the â€Å"narrow† end of the scale. Although they nominally control their stores, Wal-Mart site managers have limited decision rights regarding hours of operation, merchandising displays, and pricing. By contrast, the span of control for managers at corporate headquarters who oversee merchandising and other core operations is set at â€Å"wide. † They are responsible for implementing best practices and consolidating operations to capture economies of scale. In addition to controlling purchasing, merchandising, and distribution, these managers even control the lighting and temperature at Wal-Mart’s 3,500 stores by remote computer. (The settings for the two jobs are compared in the exhibit â€Å"Spans of Control at Wal-Mart. †) Spans of Control at Wal-Mart (Located at the end of this rticle) Of course, the spans of control will be set very differently in companies that follow different strategies. Consider Nestle, a food company that reformulates its products in response to regional tastes for spices and sweets. In this â€Å"local value creation† configuration, the span of control for regional business managers is set very wide so that they have all the resources they need to customize products and respond to customers. Regional managers take responsibility for sales, product development, distribution, and manufacturing. As a consequence, the spans of control for managers back at the head office are relatively narrow, covering only logistics, the supply chain, global contracts, and accounting and finance. The Span of Accountability. The second span refers to the range of trade-offs affecting the measures used to evaluate a manager’s achievements. For example, a person who is accountable for head count or specific expenses in an operating budget can make few trade-offs in trying to improve the measured dimensions of performance and so has a narrow span of accountability. By contrast, a manager responsible for market share or business profit can make many trade-offs and thus has a relatively wide span of accountability. Your setting for this span is determined by the kind of behavior you want to see. To ensure compliance with detailed directives, hold managers to narrow measures. To encourage creative thinking, make them responsible for broad metrics such as market share, customer satisfaction, and return on capital employed, which allow them greater freedom. The span of control and the span of accountability are not independent. They must be considered together. The first defines the resources available to a manager; the second defines the goals the manager is expected to achieve. You might conclude, therefore, that the two spans should be equally wide or narrow. As the adage goes, authority should match responsibility. But in high-performing organizations, many people are held to broad performance measures such as brand profit and customer satisfaction, even though they do not control all the resources—manufacturing and service, for example—needed to achieve the desired results. There is a good reason for this discrepancy. By explicitly setting the span of accountability wider than the span of control, executives can force their managerial subordinates to become entrepreneurs. In fact, entrepreneurship has been defined (by Howard H. Stevenson and J. Carlos Jarillo) as â€Å"the process by which individuals—either on their own or inside organizations—pursue opportunities without regard to the resources they currently control. † What happens when employees are faced with this entrepreneurial gap? They must use their energy and creativity to figure out how to succeed without direct control of the resources they need. See the exhibit â€Å"Creating the Entrepreneurial Gap. †) Thus, managers can adjust these two spans to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurial behavior. Creating the Entrepreneurial Gap (Located at the end of this article) Of course, spans of accountability vary by level in most organizations—in general, they are wider at the top of a company and narrower at the bottom. The CEO of McDonald’s has a wide span of accountability that encompasses stock price, earnings per share, and competitive market position. A McDonald’s store manager has a much narrower span. She must focus on compliance with standard operating procedures, and she is monitored through detailed input and process measures. The Span of Influence. The third span corresponds to the width of the net that an individual needs to cast in collecting data, probing for new information, and attempting to influence the work of others. An employee with a narrow span of influence does not need to pay much attention to people outside his small area to do his job effectively. An individual with a wide span must interact extensively with, and influence, people in other units. As is the case with the other spans, senior managers can adjust the span of influence to promote desired behaviors. They can widen the span when they want to stimulate people to think outside the box to develop new ways of serving customers, increasing internal efficiencies, or adapting to changes in external markets. In many companies, widening the span of influence counteracts the rigidity of organizational structures based on boxes and silos. For example, although global companies like Procter & Gamble need to be responsive to local customers’ needs, they must also create pressure for people in different operations to look beyond their silos to consolidate operations and share best practices to lower costs. Similarly, firms such as big-box retailers that centralize merchandising and distribution to deliver low prices must ensure that they continue to monitor changing competitive dynamics. Operations managers who are insulated from the marketplace must be forced to interact with people in units that are closest to customers. In all of these cases, it’s up to senior managers to ensure that individuals work across organizational boundaries to test new ideas, share information, and learn. Executives can widen a manager’s span of influence by redesigning her job—placing her on a cross-functional team, for example, or giving her an assignment that requires her to report to two bosses. They can also adjust a job’s span of influence through the level of goals they set. Although the nature of a manager’s goals drives her span of accountability (by determining the trade-offs she can make), the level, or difficulty, drives her sphere of influence. Someone given a stretch goal will often be forced to seek out and interact with more people than someone whose goal is set at a much lower level. Finally, executives can use accounting and control systems to adjust the span of influence. For example, the span will be wider for managers who are forced to bear the burden of indirect cost allocations generated by other units, because they will attempt to influence the decisions of the units responsible for the costs. The more complex and interdependent the job, the more important a wide span of influence becomes. In fact, a wide influence span is often an indication of both the power and effectiveness of an executive. In describing eBay’s Meg Whitman, for example, A. G. Lafley, the CEO of Procter & Gamble, said, â€Å"The measure of a powerful person is that their circle of influence is greater than their circle of control. † The Span of Support. This final span refers to the amount of help an individual can expect from people in other organizational units. Again, the slider can be set anywhere from narrow to wide depending on how much commitment from others the person needs in order to implement strategy. Jobs in some organizations—particularly positions such as commission-based sales in efficient and liquid markets—do not need wide spans of support. In fact, such organizations generally operate more efficiently with narrow spans, since each job is independent and individual contributions can be calculated easily at day’s end. Traders in financial institutions, for example, need little support from their fellow traders, and their colleagues can and should stay focused on their own work (and should be compensated solely for their success in generating profit). But wide spans of support become critically important when customer loyalty is vital to strategy implementation (for example, at exclusive hotel chains) or when the organizational design is highly complex because of sophisticated technologies and a complex value chain (in aerospace or computers, for instance). In these cases, individuals throughout the company must move beyond their job descriptions to respond to requests for help from others who are attempting to satisfy customers or navigate organizational processes. Managers cannot adjust a job’s span of support in isolation. That’s because the span is largely determined by people’s sense of shared responsibilities, which in turn stems from a company’s culture and values. In many cases, therefore, all or most of a company’s jobs will have a wide span of support, or none will. But even within a given company culture, there are often circumstances in which managers need to widen the span of support separately for key business units (for example, to support a new division created to bundle and cross sell products from other units) or for key positions (for example, to facilitate the work of cross-functional task forces). There are various policies that managers can employ to widen spans of support. For example, a focus on a customer based mission typically creates a sense of shared purpose. In addition, broad-based stock ownership plans and team- and group-centered incentive programs often foster a sense of equity and belonging and encourage people to help others achieve shared goals. Firms that are characterized by wide spans of support also frown on letting top executives flaunt the trappings of privilege and generally follow a policy of promoting people internally to senior positions. The slider settings for the four spans in any job or business unit are a function of the business’s strategy and the role of that job or unit in implementing it. When you are adjusting job or unit design, the first step is to set the span of control to reflect the resources allocated to each position and unit that plays an important role in delivering customer value. This setting, like the others, is determined by how the business creates value for customers and differentiates its products and services from competitors’. Next, you can dial in different levels of entrepreneurial behavior and creative tension for specific jobs and units by widening or narrowing spans of accountability and influence. Finally, you must adjust the span of support to ensure that the job or unit will get the informal help it needs. The exhibit â€Å"Four Spans at a Software Company† displays the settings of the spans for a marketing and sales manager at a well-known company that develops and sells complex software for large corporate clients. The span of control for this job is quite narrow. As the manager stated, â€Å"To do my day-to-day job, I depend on sales, sales consulting, competency groups, alliances, technical support, corporate marketing, field marketing, and integrated marketing communications. None of these functions reports to me, and most do not even report to my group. † The span of accountability, by contrast, is wide. The manager is accountable, along with others throughout the business, for revenue growth, profit, and customer satisfaction—measures that require responsiveness and a willingness to make many trade-offs. Four Spans at a Software Company (Located at the end of this article) Note that the span of influence is set somewhat wider than the span of control. To get things done, the manager has to cross boundaries and convince people in other units (whom he cannot command) to help him. So that the manager receives the help he needs, the CEO works hard to ensure that the job’s span of support is wide. An ethos of mutual responsibilities has been created through shared goals, strong group identification, trust, and an equity component in compensation. As the manager noted, â€Å"Coordination happens because we all have customer satisfaction as our first priority. We are in constant communication, and we all are given consistent customer-satisfaction objectives. † Achieving Equilibrium At this point, you’re probably wondering how to determine whether specific jobs or business units in your organization are properly designed. Jobs vary within any business, and firms operate in different markets with unique strategies. How exactly should the spans be set in these many circumstances? After the spans have been adjusted to implement your strategy, there’s an easy way to find out whether a specific job is designed for high performance. It’s a test that can (and should) be applied to every key job, function, and unit in your business. I’ll get to the details shortly, but first, it’s important to recognize the underlying nature of the four spans. Two of the spans measure the supply of organizational resources the company provides to individuals. The span of control relates to the level of direct ontrol a person has over people, assets, and information. The span of support is its â€Å"softer† counterpart, reflecting the supply of resources in the form of help from people in the organization. The other two spans—the span of accountability (hard) and the span of influence (soft)—determine the individual’s demand for organizational resources. The level of an employee’s accountability, as defined by the compan y, directly affects the level of pressure on him to make trade-offs; that pressure in turn drives his need for organizational resources. His level of influence, as determined by the structure of his job and the broader system in which his job is embedded, also reflects the extent to which he needs resources. As I pointed out earlier, when an employee joins a multidisciplinary initiative, or works for two bosses, or gets a stretch goal, he begins reaching out across units more frequently. For any organization to operate at maximum efficiency and effectiveness, the supply of resources for each job and each unit must equal the demand. In other words, span of control plus span of support must equal span of accountability plus span of influence. You can determine whether any job in your organization is poised for sustained high performance—or is designed to fail—by applying this simple test: Using â€Å"Four Spans at a Software Company† as an example, draw two lines, one connecting span of control and span of support (the supply of resources) and the other connecting span of accountability and span of influence (the demand for resources). If these two lines intersect, forming an X, as they do in the exhibit, then demand equals supply (at least roughly) and the job is properly designed for sustained performance. If the lines do not cross, then the spans are misaligned—with predictable consequences. If resources (span of control plus span of support) are insufficient for the task at hand, strategy implementation will fail; if resources are excessive, underutilization of assets and poor economic performance can be predicted. Depending on the desired unit of analysis, this test can be applied to an individual job, a function, a business unit, and even an entire company. When Spans Are Misaligned Consider the case of a struggling high-tech company that makes medical devices. One division was rapidly losing revenue and market share to new competitors because of insufficient sales-force coverage and a lack of new-product development. In another division, created to bundle and cross sell products, managers were unable to get the collaboration they needed to provide a unified solution for a large potential customer. In a third, local managers were making decisions that did not support or build on the company’s overall direction and strategy. These situations arose because senior managers had failed to align the four spans for key jobs and for the divisions overall. In particular, the problems this company encountered reflect three common situations that can limit performance potential. The Crisis of Resources. In some cases, the supply of resources is simply inadequate for the job at hand, leading to a failure of strategy implementation. In the medical devices company, the sales staff had neither enough people to cover the competition (a narrow span of control) nor support from R&D to bring new products to market rapidly (a narrow span of support). A crisis of resources is most likely to occur when executives spend too much time thinking about control, influence, and accountability and not enough time thinking about support. They may, for instance, set the span of accountability wider than the span of control to encourage entrepreneurial behavior. And they may set the span of influence wider than the span of control to stimulate people to interact and work across units. But if the span of support is not widened to compensate for the relatively narrow span of control, people in other units will be unwilling to help when asked. Consider the local subsidiary of a regional investment bank. The managers had few direct resources (a narrow span of control) and relied on specialists from corporate headquarters to fly in to manage deals. Yet their span of accountability was relatively wide, with performance measures focusing on successful deals and revenue generation. Evaluations of the local managers failed to recognize or reward people’s commitment to help others in the organization. As a result, the span of support was too low to support the strategy of the business, which eventually failed. The Crisis of Control. Sometimes the supply of resources exceeds demand, leading to suboptimal economic performance. In highly decentralized organizations where separate business units are created to be close to customers, a crisis of control can occur when the supply of resources (the span of control plus the span of support) exceeds corporate management’s ability to effectively monitor trade-offs (the span of accountability) and to ensure coordination of knowledge sharing with other units (the span of influence). The result is uncoordinated activities across units, missed opportunities, and wasted resources. Consider a large telecommunications company in which regions were organized as independent business units. Because of rapid growth, division managers were able to create fiefdoms in which resources were plentiful. And because of the company’s success, commitment to the business mission was strong. But before long, the lack of effective performance monitoring by corporate superiors caught up with the business. The strategies of the divisions often worked at cross-purposes; there was waste and redundancy. Competitors that were more focused began overtaking the units. The Crisis of Red Tape. This can occur in any organization where powerful staff groups, overseeing key internal processes such as strategic planning and resource allocation, design performance management systems that are too complex for the organization. In such circumstances, spans of accountability and influence are very high, but resources are insufficient and misdirected. Endless time spent in staff meetings wastes resources, slows decision making, and makes the organization unable to respond rapidly to changing customer needs and competitive actions. The demand for resources exceeds supply, and strategy execution fails as more nimble competitors move in. Adjusting the Spans over Time Of course, organizations and job designs must change with shifting circumstances and strategies. To see how this plays out in practice, let’s look at how the job spans for a typical market-facing sales unit at IBM evolved as a result of the strategic choices made by successive CEOs. We pick up the story in 1981, when John Opel became IBM’s chief executive. IBM had been organized into stand-alone product groups that were run as profit centers. Reacting to threats from Japanese companies, Opel wanted to reposition the business as a low-cost competitor. For purposes of increasing cost efficiency, the business was reorganized on a functional basis. The span of control for operating-core units such as manufacturing was widened dramatically, and there was a corresponding reduction in the spans of control and accountability for market-facing sales units (illustrated in the top panel of the exhibit â€Å"Three Eras at IBM†). The company also enlarged its definition of â€Å"customer. † Rather than focus narrowly on professional IT managers in governments and large companies, IBM began marketing to small companies, resellers, and distributors. It created experimental independent business units and gave resources for experimentation without imposing any accountability for performance. By the end of Opel’s tenure, IBM was criticized for confusion about strategy and priorities. As one writer noted, â€Å"IBM settled into a feeling that it could be all things to all customers. However, the effects of these problems were masked by the dramatic and unrelenting growth of the computer industry during this period. In 1985, John Akers took over as CEO. The organization he inherited was configured to develop, manufacture, and market computing hardware in independent silos. Not only were products incompatible across categories, they failed to meet customer needs in a world that was moving quickly from hardware to software and customer solutions. To get closer to customers, Akers created a unified marketing and services group, organized by region. The mission of this new market-facing unit was to translate customer needs into integrated product solutions and coordinate internal resources to deliver the right products to customers. Business units and divisions were consolidated into six lines of business. The span of control for the market-facing sales units widened dramatically. The new marketing and services group was made accountable for profit, and, as a result, many new profit centers were created. Unfortunately, the existing accounting system was not capable of calculating profit at the branch level or for individual customers and product lines. Instead, a top-down planning system run by centralized staff groups set sales quotas for individual product categories. Customer sales representatives thus had few choices or trade-offs; their span of accountability was not wide enough to support the company’s new strategy. To make matters worse, the new profit centers made the company extremely complex and fragmented, a situation reflected in the unit’s relatively narrow spans of influence and support. As the strategy’s failure became evident and losses mounted, Akers considered breaking the corporation into separate entities. Lou Gerstner took charge in 1993. He restructured the business around specific industry groups, narrowing the spans of control and widening the spans of accountability for marketing and sales units. At the same time, he widened the spans of influence by formally pairing product specialists with global industry teams, which worked closely with customers. To widen the spans of support, the company reconfigured bonuses to give more weight to corporate results than to business-unit performance. Sam Palmisano took over as CEO in 2002 and reinforced the positive changes wrought by Gerstner. The new CEO’s strategy emphasized â€Å"on-demand† computing solutions delivered through seamless integration of hardware, software, and services. This involved adopting a team-based, â€Å"dedicated service relationship† configuration at the sales units. To ensure that all employees in such a complex organization would be willing to work across units to build customer loyalty, Palmisano worked to widen spans of support further. In a well-publicized initiative, he returned the company to its roots by reemphasizing the importance of IBM values such as dedication to client success, innovation, and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships. To increase trust within the company and heighten the perception of fairness—necessary actions before people will assume responsibility for helping others—Palmisano asked the board to allocate half of his 2003 bonus to other IBM executives who would be critical leaders of the new team-based strategy. A Precarious Balance As IBM illustrates, complex strategies for large firms usually require that all the spans of key jobs widen, indicating high levels of both demand for, and supply of, organizational resources. But the potential for problems is great in any organization where all four spans are wide and tightly aligned. A relatively small change in any one of them will disrupt the balance of supply and demand and tip the organization toward disequilibrium. In the short run, of course, the dedication and hard work of good people can often compensate for a misalignment. But the more dynamic your markets and the more demanding your customers, the more critical and difficult it becomes to ensure that all four spans of organization design are aligned to allow your business to reach its performance potential. Spans of Control at Wal-Mart The spans of control for a store manager and a merchandising manager at Wal-Mart are quite different. To ensure standardization in operations, Wal-Mart gives the store manager relatively little control. To promote the implementation of best practices, the company gives the merchandising manager a â€Å"wide† setting. Creating the Entrepreneurial Gap By holding managers accountable for more than they control, a company can encourage entrepreneurial behavior. Four Spans at a Software Company The settings for a marketing and sales manager show a relatively narrow span of control and a relatively wide span of accountability. The discrepancy indicates that the company wants the manager to be entrepreneurial. A reasonable span of influence ensures that he has a respectable level of collaboration with colleagues outside his unit to compensate for his low span of control. Company policies designed to provide a wide span of support ensure that his entrepreneurial initiatives will get a favorable response. The dotted line connecting the two spans that describe the resources available to the job (span of control and span of support) intersects with the line connecting the two spans that describe the job’s demand for resources (span of accountability and span of influence). This shows that the supply of, and demand for, resources that apply to this job are in rough balance; the job has been designed to enable the manager to succeed.

Western Lowland Gorillas

Western Lowland Gorillas October 23, 2009 Introduction: When I was around 14, I saw one of the best movies. The movie was Gorillas in The Mist, starting Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey. It was one of the most impressive movies of my life. My step-mother at the time notice how must I liked the movie and game me her very well torn copy of Gorillas in the Mist to read. I still have that book and since the first time I read it, I have been fascinated with these great apes. This is way I believe they deserve funding to help them off of the endangered species list. Western Lowland Gorillas: Biological Needs: However, in west Africa, where fruits tend to makes up the majority of the gorilla's diet compared to those that live in east Africa. Groups of gorillas living in west Africa normally split into temporary feeding subgroups but are less common in east Africa, as animals range far apart searching for the relatively scarce ripe fruit. There are some reports of sleeping subgroups however, they are rare. This may occur in the process of permanent splitting of a multi-male groups into two single male groups. Groups usually can range from 5 to 10 individuals, but some groups can accumulate as many as 20 to 32 animals. Csomos, 2008) Habitat: The habitat of the Western Lowland Gorilla is made up of primarily rainforests, swamp forest, thickets, forest edges, and clearings. Western Gorillas have been seen nesting in along the Savannah forest edge or in the Savannah itself. Although they visit the Savannah, it is not a permanent habitat for them. Western Gorillas inhabit areas that are typicall y lowland tropical forest at sea-level and up to 1,300 mm. (Beudels-Jamer, 2008) Food: Other Life Forms and Interrelations: Human Intrusions: Humans are the gorilla’s greatest threat. Human intrusions of the gorilla’s habitats have caused a decline of the species. The three main threats that humans pose, commercial hunting, logging of the forest (which has increased poaching) and Human illnesses like the Ebola virus. According to studies recent annual rate of decline in the gorillas was 4. 7 percent and mortality rates caused by the Ebola virus were as high as 80 percent. The gorillas DNA is 98 percent the same has humans. Any flu or virus a human can carry or transmit the gorillas can catch. Since they live away from humans, any virus or flu can be deadly to them. The gorilla’s immune system does not have the ability to defend against any virus or flu that has been transmitted from humans. (Cosmos, 2008) Current Safeguards and Protections: Additional Measures: Going Unchecked: The Congo basin has been recognized as a globally important factor in inter-continental weather patterns and for maintaining climate stability. The COMIFAC Convergence and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership have joined forces to protect the whole Congo Basin ecosystem. They will tack the carbon sequestration and storage, rainfall generation and the areas bio-diversity. The Western Lowland Gorillas ecological role must be taken into account. The Western Lowland Gorillas are keystone species in their forest habitats, so their protection is essential to long-term management of the Congo basin. (Cosmos, 2008) Conclusion: Reference Page: Beudels-Jamer, R. (2008) Western Lowland Gorilla. Retriever on September 25, 2009 from www. yog2009. org September 25, 2009 from www. animaldiversity. unnz. unnz. edu Western Lowland Gorilla Profile, (na) (nd) Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from www. animal. nationalgeographic. com

Sociological research methods questionnaires Essays

Sociological research methods questionnaires Essays Sociological research methods questionnaires Paper Sociological research methods questionnaires Paper Using questionnaires is favoured by positivists as they produce results that can be easily generalised, are highly reliable and largely representable of the studied subjects. This also means that interpretivists dislike this method as the results are not personal and have very little depth to them. There are strengths and weaknesses to both arguments. An advantage of questionnaires is that they are cheap and fast to produce, this means that they can be produced on mass to produce more reliable results. Answers in questionnaires are easily comparable with standardised and close ended questions and could produce representative, qualitative data that is also easily replicable. This means that sociologists are able to make links and comparisons in society in different areas and during different time periods. If a large number of questionnaires are sent out they should produce representative results with a better chance of being truly accurate. Connor and Dewson send out nearly 4000 surveys to 14 higher education institutes around the country which resulted in a large sample size. This method is also favoured more for purposed of educational attitudes than others such as participant observations, which is used to study small groups and produce valid qualitative data. A researcher’s hypothesis should be proven or proven wrong with the results of the questionnaire but this may lead the researcher to produce leading questions, the parent, in this instance, may then try to please or attempt to second guess the researchers aims, leading to further invalid results. Statements can then be produced from the questionnaires which will either prove or disprove the hypothesis, and a ‘cause-and-effect’ relationship can be gathered from relevant information and variables. Questionnaires also raise very few ethical problems even though they ask sensitive and intrusive questions as people are generally under no pressure to answer them and can skip questions if they choose to. This method produces unbiased results making them objective. Practical problems include a low response rate as not all those that the survey is sent to will respond and end it back as they may think it is pointless, however the response rate is likely to be higher when considering questionnaires linked to education as most parents will assume that filling in the forms will benefit their child, as stated in item A, especially if the forms are from the school. However, this information is confidential, making it harder for a sociologist to acquire a reasonable and accurate sampling frame. Also, parents may lie or answer incorrectly due to ‘right answerism’ when completing the questionnaire as they don’t want to be seen to be bad parents. It would be easier for them to lie by postal questionnaire, however if the questionnaire was done face to face their body language could be analysed. The response rate may also be raised if there is an incentive offered such as a prize or money. Questionnaires are also quite inflexible as if closed questions are used they are set for all potential respondents. This means that if they do not understand the question or wish to add more information they will be unable to do so. In other methods such as unstructured interviews any area can be explored in-depth as it is much more flexible, the weakness to this method is that irrelevant issues which take up time. Questionnaires also only give a small snap shop of the whole picture and so may not consider outside factors that affect a pupil such as their peer group, ethnicity or class. Therefore, this may not represent all parents’ attitudes to their children’s schooling as a whole as the picture is not totally valid. Sociologists that take an interpretivist approach such as Aaron Cicourel (1968) argue that questionnaires are too detached and so lack validity. They would argue that only methods that allow the researcher to get close to the subjects they are studying should be used so that the researcher can relate and understand the answers more clearly. Without this contact it can be argued that may be misunderstanding that cannot be clarified as there is no way of knowing if the researcher and respondent are interpreting the questions in the same way. In conclusion, questionnaires are a good way to get quick results at a low cost and can produce reliable, quantitative results if the right questions are asked. However, other methods should also be used as well as questionnaires to get a clearer and more precise picture of how parents’ attitudes are towards their child’s education.