The Nonlinear Structure of the Sorrow of War

Bao Ninh is a Vietnamese war veteran and the author of what is said to be â€Å"one of the most moving war novels of all time† (Gareth Smith), The Sorrow of War. In the epic tale, Bao tells the story of Kien in a nonlinear narrative, weaving in and out of stories of young love and war, each failing to complete its own objectives: to come home and live in peace with those they love. It compares the ‘sorrow of war' to the sorrow of love, both nostalgic as Kien looks back on what has been lost, and the heartbreak created.Bao compares the two sorrows by intertwining flashbacks and events occurring in the present. Bao writes very straight-forwardly when speaking of war, but leaves much to be explained when describing the seemingly complicated relationship of Kien and Phuong. The nonlinear structure, non-chronological sequence of events, and Bao's saving of key information until the very end of the novel, distorts the view of their relationship so that it appears to be a more hostile than loving. This technique creates character depth in Kien, describing why he becomes the man he does: sad and full of regret.In the novel Kien's best friend from the war, Oanh, is killed by a beautiful woman on the front lines. It is mentioned multiple times in the novel that Phuong had wanted to participate in fighting in the war, as she made clear the night before Kien left for war, stating â€Å"I'll see you to the gate of the battlefront, just to see what it's like† (136). This event is a major turning point in the tone that Kien and Phuong's relationship is discussed. This event is a reminder of the loss he suffered by leaving her as well as reminding Kien of all the things he loved about her, including her beauty and strength.Before the death of Oanh, Kien appears to be more focused on the negative aspects in their relationship, such as their breakup, the struggles he faces as she tries to move on with her life, and his losing battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Kien's post-war difficulties, particularly with Phuong, can be best described by the character himself as he ponders the difficulties he's faced in his life since the end of the war, â€Å"†¦Though now he often drowned himself in alcohol, though hundreds of times he pleaded with his inner self to calm down, he was constantly torn with pain recalling the post war times he had with Phuong.His life, after ten destructive years of war, had been punctured by the sharp thorns of love† (84). The idea that Phuong is the main reason Kien is so depressed after the war is introduced early on and is mentioned many times in the beginning of the novel. Generally, in the beginning of a book with a traditional structure, characters are still being introduced and are receiving information that is vital to the rest of the story. In the beginning of The Sorrow of War, Kien often reflects on ‘the love he knew had been within him seemed to have drained away' (31).The audienc e is generally in the traditional mindset. This gives the audience the false impression that Phuong was never as in love with him as he was with her, or at all, since she can move on with her life and watch him struggle to move on with his. This distorts the view of the relationship because Phuong is being mistaken for a cruel person, begging the question of how this could possibly be one of the greatest loves of all time. The idea that the person you love most does not love you back creates a deep empathy toward Kien, and gives him depth as a character because his levels of depression are justified.Kien often dwells on Phuong's unrequited love for him and his failed attempts to forget her, stating ‘he had tried desperately to forget Phuong, but she was unforgettable. He longed for her still† (71). Despite this, Kien's belief that â€Å"nothing lasts forever, including love and sorrow† (71) gives him faith that one day the pain will go away if he continues on his damaging path. This hope for the better despite the destructive path he has placed himself ironically shows his strength.The focus shifts from Kien's depression and his awful post-war relationship with Phuong to a discussion of their pure love before the war after Oanh's death. Before the war, Kien and Phuong were inseparable. The intensity of their relationship is best described through the narrator's mention of â€Å"neither of them had other close friends. Others seemed unable to penetrate their cocoon of friendship† (131). Phuong often refers to herself as Kien's wife, as Kien and the rest of Hanoi expects her to be. This part of the novel chronicles their shift from best friends to lovers, although their ove was never consummated.Kien would never accept Phuong's advances to make love to him. This is what makes their love so true and desirable, because it is innocent and pure. His denial of her, however, also distorts the view of the relationship because it now appears th at he does not want her or is not as attracted to her as she is to him, a feeling Phuong will later direct toward Kien. The love they share appears to be on some scale that is never even. With all this, Phuong is still viewed as the unkind woman she was previously regarded as.Her kindness is almost viewed as her having an ulterior motive because of the way she was described earlier in the novel. Before Kien leaves for war, Phuong tells him that â€Å"from now on I'll be a lover and wife to you; I'll never be angry at you, and remember, I'm not taking leave of my senses. Not yet†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (136). By Phuong says that she isn't taking leave of her senses, she is solidifying that she's thought what she said through and that she is making a promise to Kien rather than a statement. If Phuong had promised Kien that she would love him forever, it raises the question of why she left him later on in life.It also appears Phuong has contradicted herself. She promised she would never be angr y at him and later allows him to suffer without her. These questions are frequent because of the knowledge collected at the beginning of the novel. This promise is very misleading and is a large contributor as to why Kien feels the heartbreak he does later in life when Phuong is anything but a wife to him. It begs the question of how a love so pure and strong could disappear. It is almost as if key elements or events are being kept secret. And they are.After the explosion, rape, and murders at the Hanoi train station, Kien and Phuong continue their journey into the frontlines but not before they stop at a school house to rest. After harassment from a group of soldiers, including accusations that Phuong had cheated on Kien, Kien leaves her at the school without any notice. Later, he receives a letter from the men in the schoolhouse apologizing: â€Å"We had made a big mistake in kidding you about what she did†¦Contrary to what we told you, your girlfriend was not like that at a ll†¦She was very much in love with you† (226).This information is key to the story because it proves that Phuong was truly committed and in love with him after all, and he left her. Had the narrative been in chronological order, one would have sympathized much more with Phuong and would not have thought so harshly of her and the reasons she left and got over him would have been much more justified. The narrative instead gave a deep analysis as to why Kien is so depressed and how deep their love for each other was and continued to be.Upon, reading this letter it â€Å"warmed Kien's heart, consoling and cheering him, he began to hope for something like a miracle†¦He might have something wonderful to return to after all† (226), which was sadly not the case. The nonlinear structure of the story and non-chronological order of events not only distorts the relationship and creates character depth, but masterfully describes the sorrow of war, and the even deeper, sorr ow of love. By describing war's destruction on, not only countries, but on our most intimate relationships. Ninh presents the idea that after war, it is not possible to have love, which is the sorrow of both love and war.

Fundamental Attribution Error Essay

The human nature is an interesting subject to study, each individual has their own way of seeing things in their own perspective or ways of persuading others, in order to make sense of their own life’s. Fundamental attribution error being one important concept, this explains a persons behavior, how a person can underestimate circumstances yet overestimate ones characteristics. For example if a man didn’t hold the door for woman when walking into a store, the woman behind him might conclude that man doesn’t have manners or is uncivil. That woman interrupted the situation in her perspective without considering situational factors, such as, he might have been running late or he didn’t notice another person behind him. People will judge primarily on their experience with that individual without considering other factors or placing their selves in their situation. An important researcher known as Milgram, he challenged the demands of authority on obedience, and how far are people willing to conform to orders. Milgram analyses social compliance and obedience toward superior in his experiment. In the study there is a learner, teacher and administrator, each of whom play an important role in the experiment. The teacher is the one giving the questions to the learner and if the learner gets the answer wrong the teacher is obligated to shock the learner. The administrator has the authority to tell the teacher to increase the level on the shock generator. When the learner continues get an answer incorrect the shocks get stronger from 15 to 450 volts and so the learner refuses to continue because he cannot endure anymore pain. The teacher complies with the commands given by administrator to keep going even if the learner is hurt. Milgram experiment was successful and demonstrates how people obey to represent cooperativeness or by fear even if it goes against better judgment. The concept of fundamental attribution error and Milgram’s research on obedience takes an important role in David’s response to his history teacher’s question to why so many German people complied with Hitler’s order to systematically slaughter millions of innocent Jews. David’s response being, â€Å"because German’s were unusually cruel, sadistic people with abnormal and twisted personalities. † The fundamental attribution error in David’s response is when he penalized every single person in the German population for being all cruel, sadistic, abnormal and twisted personalities. He used Germans behavior as a significant factor as their external disposition to judge all Germans for their actions. Also in David’s response, the German population was responsible for the harm to the Jewish community, although Hitler was the prime leader and influenced the outbreak of the Nazi Party. Hitler’s leadership illustrates a great example of Milgram’s research, of abuse of power and obedience in German society. Milgram reveals how people, in this situation German citizens obeyed to higher authority either because of fear or collaboration. David was not able to see the underlining causation of Germany’s injustice, although this is common act, people are usually compelled to unrightfully circumstances and overestimating people.

Outline the Nature of Supermarkets Power on the High Street and Beyond Essay

Outline The Nature of Supermarkets Power On The High Street and Beyond. This essay is looking at the power of supermarkets and how they use this power. The word power is often used to â€Å"denote influence, control or domination† (Allen, 2009, p. 9) Supermarkets use this power over suppliers, workers, Councils, consumers and other shops and there are conflicting views as to whether this power is used for the good of everyone or at the expense of everyone other than the supermarkets themselves or as Dennis Wrong (1977) calls it Positive Sum Game- â€Å"where all parties involved benefit to some extent† or Zero Sum Game- â€Å"where supermarkets wield their power at the expense of others† (Allen, 2009, p. 70) Supermarkets due to their sheer size and buying power have a huge advantage over the small independent high street shops. They offer a massive choice of products at a low price because they are able to buy in large quantities at discounted prices, sometimes even below cost price. These out of town supermarkets have convenient parking and consumers are able to do all their shopping in one place, from food, clothing, electrical equipment, financial services, gas and electricity etc†¦ This all makes shopping in these retail parks easier and cheaper for the consumer and the smaller independent high street shops are unable to match these prices, choices and convenience and are therefore unable to compete against the giants. As we’ve seen a move towards more out-of-town, car-dependent stores with large-format retail dominating, its driven trade away from town centres which has clearly had an impact on the small shops that are there, and we see approximately fifty small shops, independent shops, closing every week† Helen Rimmer (Friends of the earth) (‘Evidence in the social sciences’, 2009 track 1) The big supermarkets have also introduced small high street Metro and Express stores to put further pressure on the independents and gain those consumers without cars and who are unable to get to the out of town retail park. According to Helen Rimmer (Friends of the Earth) â€Å"There’s been a study of the impact of Tesco Express which is the Tesco convenience store when they’ve moved into an area, that generally led to a decline, in the small shops locally, of about 30 to 40 per cent† (‘Evidence in the social sciences’, 2009 track 1) To keep their prices low, Supermarkets are putting huge pressures on suppliers both in the UK and globally, they are often dictating how much they will pay and even the size, shape and colour of fruit and vegetables. To meet these demands suppliers are being forced to cut their cost to the bare minimum and in many cases are operating at a loss, forcing the smaller suppliers out of business. There is massive wastage, as food is rejected if it doesn’t conform to the set cosmetic appearance that the supermarkets have imposed, often sacrificing taste and flavour for appearance. Farmers have been known to plough crops back into the land when they have been rejected or the supermarket wants to pay a ridiculously low price. The cost of this wastage is usually met by the supplier, as are the ‘buy one get one free’ (BOGOF) deals that the supermarkets offer to entice their customers. This cost cutting is passed onto their workers both in the UK and abroad. In the UK they are more often than not migrant agency workers who pick and sort the salad crops, who are paid very low wages, sometimes below the cost of living. â€Å"There is a high price to be paid for cheap goods and that cost is borne one-sidedly by the weakest and least powerful groups in the supply chain† (Allen, 2009, p. 3) Meanwhile abroad, cheap clothing is produced in sweatshops, with exploited workers enduring poor conditions, long hours and being paid an inadequate wage. â€Å"The true cost of the cheap jeans and trousers, as well as the bargain-priced shoes, which line Asda’s and Tesco’s aisles, War on Want claim, is the absence of a living wage for workers in their supply chain† (Allen, 2009, p. 85) However the fact that this work is being sourced in Asia means that the clothing industry in these countries is expanding rapidly and this means work that was not there previously. These jobs are in demand by the locals as it means a way out of poverty for them, â€Å"the last thing a country like this wants is for the big retailers to stop sourcing their labour from them. That, it is pointed out, would threaten the steadily rising living standards of the garment workers†. (Allen, 2009, p. 91) Supermarkets use their power over local government to persuade them to allow the further development of new stores. This is done by a method called ‘Planning Gain’ in which they pay for civic facilities to be built i. e. : leisure centres and Doctors surgeries, in return for planning permission for a new store. These developments are Sometimes in run down, poor areas and the development of a new store can be interpreted as a good thing in helping the regeneration of the area, creating new jobs for the unemployed and encouraging new business into the area. Again there is controversy surrounding this, many believe it is for the good of the community and other believing it is â€Å"merely the latest in a series of opportunistic moves by them to get stores built at a time when planners and government frown upon out-of–town developments† (Allen, 2009, p. 4) The supermarkets are providing consumers with what they want. Cheap products in the current climate of recession are a necessity for many having to tighten their belts. The ease of having everything in one place makes it convenient to shop for those who have cars and can get to the out of town stores. â€Å"People like what supermarkets do and the efficiencies that come from the scale of their operations, the quality and choice that they’re able to offer, the prices that people find appealing are all reasons why people choose to shop in supermarkets. Richard Dodd (British retail consortium. )(‘Evidence in the social sciences’ 2009, track 1) There is no doubt that supermarkets are powerful and it is very often a zero-sum game for their suppliers, the supplier’s workforce, and the independent shops on the high street, when they wield this power against them. Town centres and the smaller independent shops are in decline, â€Å"12 per cent of town centre retail premises are now vacant compared with 4 per cent last autumn so that’s a threefold increase†. Richard Dodd (British Retail Consortium) (‘Evidence in the social sciences’ 2009, track 1) and many farmers are going out of business. The consumers however are getting what they want, but at what cost! In this consumer Society that we live in they are seduced by the choice and bargains and turn a blind eye to the lengths the supermarkets are prepared to go to give them this. The exploitation of the workers in the sweatshops of Asia, the bullying of the farmers to sell their milk, fruit and vegetables to them at the price they dictate and the small shops being put out of business. Yes supermarkets are powerful but at the end of the day it is the consumer who is enabling them to continue being so. â€Å"If customers like what a retailer is offering, they will choose that particular store or type of store and they’ll use it. If the retailer gets it wrong, the customers won’t show up and that retailer will very quickly go out of business. It is customers who have the power in all of this†. Richard Dodd (British retail consortium) (‘Evidence in the social sciences’ 2009, track 1)

Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer Research Paper

Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that in the olden days, there were rich and there were poor, in the modern world we see people have different classes like rich and poor. But today the majority of the human race is facing a difficult time. This paper illustrates that the main reason of the difficulty is created by the man himself. Then we must have known what makes the two classes different from each other. Technology, homes, cars, etc are the dependable and viable commodities that are responsible to alter the class of a person. However, today, it is a commonly known fact that it is impossible for the poor to make steps towards changing their class, middle-class people are having difficulty in maintaining their economic position and rich are becoming richer. The present research has identified that most of the middle class is associated with the jobs and some researchers have the view that as the middle and lower level management are becoming less in number, more and more middle-class men are becoming jobless, that is becoming a huge reason of the degradation in the living standard of the middle-class persons. The author has rightly presented that the high-level jobs like assistant directors, assistant managers, etc lost them too. The similar case is with the low-level jobs like production jobs, the wages for such employs in underdeveloped to developed countries now a day is much lower as compared to the decline in the value of money. The production jobs are much valuable for the persons who have to work at extreme low wages when they have no job. In 1960, the low level employs are the member of a union that responsible for maintaining wages for the works but at the end of the year 1989 the union has only 17 percent members from the total production workers. The whole scenario has no or little impact on the large technology distributors and manufacturers, like Sony, Toyota, etc. These factories kept to produce the products according to their plans an d routine. Technology is also responsible for making the people poorer and rich richer, as if we consider a motor industry, during 1970, a Japanese based motor company required a time span of 24 hours to produce a vehicle (car) but now a day it takes not more the eight hours to produce a car by utilizing the robots instead of human workers. The robots replace the human workers and the persons who program and run the robots are quite less and no other person is thus required to performs the work like that of the robot. The economic condition of the middle class family is lowering day by day as the prices for the little luxuries like fuel, cost of food and medicine are rising, although technology is becoming cheaper but the cost of basic necessities are becoming higher. In this case it has become difficult for a middle class person to afford the luxuries without extra effort. According to sociologists unequal distribution of wealth has become a biggest reason of this sustainability. L ike the high level salaries of superstars, musicians, athletics, management payment and the rapid progress of financial sector etc. The taxes which are taken from high earners are very low and they are earning lot of money and paying a very small amount of tax. The departments which have already mentioned above are becoming rich with the passage of time. In the contrast the middle class people, who are doing common jobs, are giving high amount of tax of their salary as compared to the ratio of elite class.

Product and Service Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Product and Service Design - Research Paper Example Firms are acknowledging the model behind manufacturing can be translated beyond cost control to design products and services that are easily maintained and serviced. Improving the manufacturing process is an important goal in product and service design (WSP, 2013). A powerful tool can be used to lower manufacturing costs as well as improve the quality of the product or service. Background of the Chapter under Review The value of a business organization is the products and services it offers, all aspects of the organization and the structure of supply chain around the products and services. It is clear that organizations with properly designed products and services are in a better place in realization of their goals than those with defectively designed products and services. Products or service design should be closely linked with an organization’s strategy. This is owing to the fact that it is a major aspect in quality assurance, cost, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. As a result, various departments including finance, IT, HR, finance, operations and accounting should be involved (Stevenson, 2011). It can be noted that a major cause of operations failed can be attributed to faulty design. Designs that are not

Nokia Emerges as India's Most Trusted Brands Article - 2

Nokia Emerges as India's Most Trusted Brands - Article Example The logo, which reflects the company’s mission â€Å"Nokia- Connecting people†, explains the reason for being the leading brand in itself. Nokia has not only understood its consumers’ needs but has also tried and reached its consumer’s utmost requirements. These include providing them with better connectivity, navigation, music optimized functionality, addictive games, business/email services, video and much more. Nokia has always made sure to give its consumers the best voice quality, better battery times and user-friendly GUIs - Graphical User Interfaces. Furthermore, from developing these creative designs/features to growing its offer of Internet usage and its enterprise solutions and software, Nokia has always focused in to give best deals to its consumers. Not only that, Nokia’s new merger with Siemens has provided its customers with equipment, solutions, and services for communications networks through Nokia-Siemens networks. (Nokia emerges as Indias most trusted brands., 2010). With qualities like such, Nokia owes to have the highest brand equity among its consumers. The reason that these brands are still in my memory is that of the strong and lasting image that they have built in the consumer market. The brand’s position in the PLC does affect consumers’ choices to a great extent. Consider as an example the computer manufacturer: Sony. Sony is also one of the leading electronic brands in the world and was established in 1958. Since then, Sony has tracked a long history of innovation and inventions from its first transistor radios to the first Trinitron color television in 1968, the color video-cassette in 1971, the popular Walkman in 1979, the worlds first CD player in 1982, the 3.5-inch floppy disk in 1989 and many others.  

CAPSTONE PROJECT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CAPSTONE PROJECT - Essay Example In our class, we were about 10 black students out of the total 70 students. Three girls and six boys. ‘Tell us your name,’ I remember that was the first question our history teacher asked when I was introduced as a new pupil (Manning 109). She was white, buxom, and motherly, but wearing horn-rimmed glasses that she would tilt in such an intimidating way if one did not answer her questions in class. ‘It is the white man who has made the black person who he is today.’ I remember I felt bad. It was an awkward moment. My father, a cotton picker, had affirmed in me that my race had an exciting history because we African Americans came from a placed he called Africa (Hamlett 167). The following lesson, I decided to ask questions if the teacher talked about the black people again (Caldwell 156). Encouraged by the rage I had seen in my mother last night, when Mrs. Stewart came and abused black people again, I

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe Analysis - Essay Example For example: during the first verse of the poem, the poet states â€Å"some one gently rapping, rapping at† and again the similar technique was utilized during the second verse of the poem when he states â€Å"my books surceases of sorrow †¦ sorrow† and similar kind of repetition of vocabulary has been conducted through all of the verses. In the poem â€Å"The Raven† the poet describes about his meet up with a raven during a night of the month of December when the poet is slipping into his sleep while he was examining poems in a book. In the poem, the poet is sitting near a fire place which he states in the poem in an artistic manner when he describes the shadows that have been created by the burning pieces of coal in the fireplace. He is going through the book of poems because he aims at forgetting his past which was full of sorrows because of his loss of Lenore. He describes Lenore as being infrequent and healthy and states that she has been named as Lenore by the angels. While he goes through the book of poems he hears a tap at the door of his bedroom and regards the moment as a visitor tapping at the door of his chamber. In the next stanza he describes two feelings, the feeling of fear along with the feeling of thrill that has been caused due to the tapping of the door of his bedroom and he describes his feelings as thrilling and fantastic terrors. The verse continues with the poet stating that he answered the door by asking the visitor about why he is there and why the visitor was knocking the door so lightly that he himself can not clearly hear the knock. Later he stands up and goes to answer the door and when he opens the door for the visitor he figures out that no body is there and he can only experience darkness. Next in the poem he describes his feelings with words such as fear, dream, doubt and wonder. He uses these words because he expects to see Lenore out of no where and

Strategic Management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Management - Coursework Example The rising consumer needs in the developing as well as the developed markets is generating a uniform business opportunity. Companies of local as well as international origin are actively focusing on entering newer markets as well as expanding their presence in existing markets so as to capitalize the newly emerging business opportunities. The business firms of the 21st century are actively focusing on radical as well as disruptive innovation so as to effectively fulfill the needs of the masses. It is important to highlight that the because of the presence of multiple firms offering homogenous products and services, the competition in the market is extremely high. The availability of similar kinds of product and service offerings are resulting in the increase in power for the buyers. It has to be said that to deal with the intense market competition as well as to retain their competitive edge, the organizations needs to design as well as execute successful strategies. This particular assignment focuses on the aspects of strategy development, cutting edge technology as well as the sustainable competitive advantage which are necessary for present day organizations. Traditionally, organizations around the world follow a well designed hierarchy, the top of which is often tasked with the responsibility of strategy planning as well as implementation. For the implementation as well as execution of strategies, companies in various corners of the world often follow the usual one way top down implementation approach. Over the course of execution of business, there have often been doubts about whether it is possible to design effective strategies without following the traditional top down route. In order to find a satisfying answer to this particular focus, it is important to highlight that there is a high level of persistence that is associated with the hierarchical concept of an organization. Organizations which

Dorian Gray- the uncanny Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Dorian Gray- the uncanny - Essay Example it is only possible for the cynical modern man, in all his busy activity, to learn from directly experiencing the consequences of acting without thought or presuming too much thought into what should instead be an action. This is spelled out in the essay and then acted out in personified form in the novel. In relating these concepts to the world of art, it is important to remember that Wilde’s concept of art was that it should be something experienced thoughtfully as an object of pure beauty rather than an interpretation of the artist’s values – an artistic instinct fed by spiritual inspiration. â€Å"Emotion for the sake of emotion is the aim of art, and emotion for the sake of action is the aim of life, and of that practical organization of life that we call society† (Gilbert). These ideas regarding the artistic ideal are clearly spelled out through the words of Gilbert in â€Å"The Critic as Artist† and are personified in the characters of Lord H enry Wotton (instinct), Basil Hallward (conscience) and Dorian Gray (object) in The Picture of Dorian Gray. In â€Å"The Artist as Critic,† Gilbert quickly illustrates why consciously imbuing art with symbolism and other purposeful value judgments is not the most desirable action to take; that the only true art must come into existence as the result of a perfect meld between instinct and conscience. He tells Ernest that those with the best intentions may end up being proven to have instead the worst effects while those who have intended to do great harm may similarly have enormously positive results. â€Å"[Men] rage against Materialism, as they call it, forgetting that there has been no material improvement that has not spiritualized the world, and that there have been few, if any, spiritual awakenings that have not wasted the world’s faculties in barren hopes, and fruitless aspirations, and empty of trammeling creeds† (Gilbert). In making this statement, Gilbert indicates that materialism, the lifestyle

How to score that perfect 6.0 on GMAT AWA Essay Example for Free

How to score that perfect 6.0 on GMAT AWA Essay This guide is meant for essay-phobes who dread the blank screen with the blinking cursor and/or people who simply want to score well (or full) on the GMAT. As far as my qualifications are concerned, I recently gave the GMAT and with good confidence scored a full 6 on my GMAT AWA, despite being an essay-phobe myself. To get started, you should read Chineseburneds article on AWA Writing here -http://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.html. The idea of his article is to form a template and it suggests some supporting words for you to use while writing your essay. This idea forms the meat of my strategy, and theres no point in me reproducing the material in this already well-known reference article. Also, note that the Issue essay has been discontinued much to my relief, and this guide will focus exclusively on the Argument essay. I actually waited a whole year so I could give the Next-Gen GMAT rather than the old GMAT with 2 essays, and I must say this pathetic strategy paid off 780 + 6 AWA + 8 IR on my first attempt. I do believe the Quant and Verbal scores would have been negatively affected due to the energy drain caused by the 2 essays. Im only going to build on the tips given by Chineseburned, add some more tips and make it EASIER for you to follow. Now that youve read the article, its time to jump into some more tricks: Three things to remember: 1) Remember that the argument essay is more science than art. You need to use connecting words to build up your argument. (Moreover, for example, to illustrate, ; do not use etc unless absolutely necessary, it looks like an open ending make your argument sound robust and confident) People suggest writing about 500 words per essay the reason being unless youre a good writer, its difficult to convey what you want to say minimally. Take a look at the score 6 essay in the Official Guide can you pull off an essay like that? If yes, you dont need this guide I should be taking tips from you. If you cant, read on. A good 500+ word essay usually shows that you can whip up ideas and write atleast well about your ideas in the 30 mins. Its also useful to remember that the GMAT asks for a draft version, not a very awesome finalized essay. So, a bit of structure, good grammar and 3 argument loopholes (2 or 4 is fine, but 3 is a good number to stick to) are all the things that you need to write your essay. 2) Its also useful to keep in mind that one of your raters is an algorithmic e-rater. You can test yourself against the official e-rater by buying the GMAT Write pack from mba.com. I did do this because I wasnt feeling too sure about my scores, and I feel more confident if I know what to expect beforehand. I do suggest you do the same, because its one thing to write an essay and another to see your actual score. The thing here is good structure and grammar with connecting words in a 500+ word essay is almost guaranteed to give you a 6 its how the e-rater seems to be programmed. On top of that, from what Ive read, the human graders seem to be so overburdened with essays to check that they too follow an algorithm almost the same as the e-rater; a longer essay is sure to score better than a shorter one. 3) Don’t worry about making too much sense in the essay. The e-rater can’t validate your facts and figures – it can only read structure. And the reader cannot verify any of them either – trust me, he doesn’t have the time or the inclination nor is he supposed to do so. All they need is structure, grammar and a well substantiated argument. Feel free to conjure examples out of thin air so long as they substantiate your argument. As I’ll explain later, the examples form the bulk of the essay. What does this mean for you? Aim for 500+ words and Im going to show you exactly how to do that. How to write a 500 word essay in 30 mins? After writing my first 2 essays, I realized I was finding it difficult to vomit 500+ pretty words in 30 mins I needed a shortcut. This section is organized in chronological order from a time management perspective. My time breakup was very simple – 1. Type out your template with full introduction and conclusion. Yes, I cheated. I had a 100+ word intro-conc template ready to vomit without even reading the question! And now I have conclusive proof that this strategy works! That should take approximately 3-4 minutes to type. Voila! No more blank screen ï Å , plus you’re free to attack the question and who cares if you even forget the template at this point? Here’s my template: (MS Word word count: 126) â€Å"The argument that omits some very important considerations that are necessary to get a full 360-degree view of the described scenario. The argument does not provide substantive evidence to be able to prove or even support the main conclusion from the given premises. First, the argument readily assumes that†¦ Second, the argument claims that†¦ Lastly, the argument fails to account for the fact that†¦ In summary, the argument is extremely flawed because of the above-mentioned reasons and hence comes across as weak and unconvincing to the reader. If the author had mentioned all the relevant facts that are essential to objectively assess the situation under consideration, the argument would have been much stronger. Without this information, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.† I must mention that this was close to what I wrote on some of my first practice essays, which helped me memorize it easily. Whatever template you use, just remember to restate the argument in the introduction and keep the other parts independent of the actual argument. Dont fill in the part till the next step. Just mark it with a or whatever and come back to it after reading the question. 2. Now that you’ve typed out your template, take 3-4 mins to read the question and JOT DOWN 3 loopholes. Write them down on your scratchpad, do not memorize. 2B. Fill in the part in the introduction. 3. All that remains is for you to expand your points into 3 paragraphs which we already started in the template. You’ll need about 400 words. I found this difficult initially, but then, as usual, I came up with a trick – elaborate your examples. They are your saviors. Below is one of my last GMAT Write essays note the length of the â€Å"example† sections marked in red. Essay prompt: The following appeared in a memorandum from the director of research and development at Ready-to-Ware, a software engineering firm. â€Å"The package of benefits and incentives that Ready-to-Ware offers to professional staff is too costly. Our quarterly profits have declined since the package was introduced two years ago, at the time of our incorporation. Moreover, the package had little positive effect, as we have had only marginal success in recruiting and training high-quality professional staff. To become more profitable again, Ready-to-Ware should, therefore, offer the reduced benefits package that was in place two years ago and use the savings to fund our current research and development initiatives.† My essay response: â€Å"The argument that Ready-to-Ware should decrease its benefits package for professional staff omits some very important considerations that need to be addressed to get a full 360-degree view of the situation under consideration. The argument does not provide substantive evidence to be able to prove or support the main conclusion from the given premises. First, we need to consider if the decline is profits has occurred solely due to the increase in employee compensation. There could be multiple reasons for the decrease in the companys profits over the past two years. For example, the company might have one of its major customers to a rival, thus putting pressure on the revenues. If this single customer were responsible for more than 50% of the companys revenues, a severe drop in profits is to be expected. Another scenario would be if too many competitors have entered Ready-to-Wares target space, in the process putting pressure on the company to provide considerable discounts to current and prospective customers to maintain and gain market share. This is the same scenario that drove out profits from the auto industry in the 1980s. With too many car manufacturers hogging the same target consumer market, the downward pressure on car prices virtually eliminated the car manufacturers profits. One more example of a profit-declining scenario would be a ramping up of taxes by the government to cover its budget deficit. Companies usually tackle such problems by shifting headquarters to a more tax-friendly location. Hence, the argument fails to convince the reader that the fall in profits was specifically due to the increase in employee benefits and not due to any other cause. Second, the argument claims that Ready-to-Ware had problems retaining high-quality professional staff even with the increased compensation package. However, the author fails to mention the competitiveness of Ready-to-Wares benefits package in comparison to industry standards. Here, there is a good possibility that Ready-to-Wares package was very incompetitive to begin with, thus explaining the companys low employee retention rates. Even with the increased benefits package, we cannot be sure that Ready-to-Ware is providing enough incentives to its professionals to stick with it when faced with any of its rivals offers. For example, if Ready-to-Wares original compensation package totaled $30,000 in value, whereas its rivals were offering $50,000 on an average at that time for the same job position and responsibilities, it becomes quite clear why the company had problems retaining its professional employees. Again, if the increased compensation package equals $40,000 as a sum total of all benefits, it is still not sufficient to satisfy employees who can see the better opportunities offered by its competitors, and that too without considering the fact that the the average job salary in the industry might already have risen above the original $50,000 to adjust for inflation. Lastly, the argument fails to take into account the negative effects of reducing the package. If the company is already facing employee retention issues, this problem might only be exacerbated by the decrease in benefits. Employees might leave the company is hordes, leaving their positions unmanned, and at the same time creating a two-sided problem for the company which might not be able to attract new employees due to their low salary offering. In the worst case scenario which in this case I believe is actually realizable, that company might go out of business and have to liquidate itself. In summary, this argument is extremely flawed and unconvincing for the abovementioned reasons. The author fails to take a complete view of the situation and omits some very important considerations required to assess the merits and issues in this situation. If only the author had taken all the above points into account and omitted the counterarguments, the line of reasoning would have been considerable strengthened. â€Å" Notice how the examples have been stretched out and well-developed? It’s easy to do once you practice a few times. Start telling a story in the example, and many a times you’ll find it’s actually more difficult to stop writing than to keep extending. Practicing a few times will give you a good sense of how long each paragraph should be. In most of my essays, the lengths of the 3 body paragraphs decrease from top to bottom – it’s just because I like it that way. How you want it to look is up to you. Don’t bother to put your 3 points in any order – each can be substantiated well beyond 100 words – your brain will take care of that. To reiterate – conjure examples out of thin air as long as they help strengthen your argument. It’s not cheating, it’s just common sense. A good essay takes time – give me a day and I’ll cook you a feast you’ll never forget; give me a half hour and I’ll microwave leftovers. If I had more time to write that essay above, I’d NEVER EVER have formatted it the way I have done and it’d have come off WAY BETTER than it currently is – and that will be true for your essay too, it’ll be far from your perfect work. But who cares as long as it gets you that 6, eh? And the time allotted for this step? Just make sure you finish your essay by the 29th minute. If you aim for the 29th minute, you might need 30 seconds extra and you’ll have a buffer. I tried to finish it by the 30th minute once when practicing and ended up leaving an open sentence when software abruptly ended my essay session. It’s best to finish by the 29th minute. 4. DO NOT reread. Relax. Trust the template and trust what you’ve filled in the blanks. Rereading will only lead to anxiety and might screw up your later sections. There WILL be mistakes in your essay. Remember – it’s a draft, you’re allowed some grammatical, spelling or punctuation mistakes. Practice Practice makes a man perfect. And women too. Sorry for that clichà ©, but none of this will be helpful unless you write your own essays to get the hang of it. Depending on your confidence level, you’ll need to write 4-8 essays to get comfortable with typing it all out in 30 mins without a hitch. And again, if you want to get really confident about your scores, just get a GMAT Write package – it’s much more satisfying to actually see your essay graded by the actual e-rater algorithm. GMAT Write also gives you a breakup of your score, so it’ll be easier for you to hit the deficient areas if any. On the day of the GMAT Trust your template. Don’t question your method just because it’s mechanical. Remember – you’re running a marathon and this is just the first 1/7th of it. Conserve your energy. Just follow what you’ve planned without questioning. And once the essay is done, forget about it. Concentrate on the sections you’re doing. This article might be about scoring a 6 but most schools don’t care as long as you score a 4+. The high score is just to satisfy your big ego. Best of luck for your GMAT and Id love to hear any feedback!

Describe an Experience That Influenced Your Career Choice. Essay Example for Free

Describe an Experience That Influenced Your Career Choice. Essay Having grown up in a country where the prevalence of the shadow economy is on par with the continual political problems due to the mismanagement by autocrats. Public administration has surrounded me for as long as I can remember. On graduating ,i went to possess insight into many issues such as the way people and businesses react to the development and management of government programs by public administrators. I had some practical experience working at a hospital in Nigeria with sometime spent in the accounting department, this enabled me gain a practical experience of how the laws/duties/decisions made by public administrators affects people/individuals in real life situations such as explaining why people in less developed countries are prepared to pay for healthcare with private hospitals rather than using the national institutions which usually have worse service and deplorable equipments mainly due to mismanagement, wrong fiscal policies and corruption. The issues of customer satisfaction and equity were studied first hand and when comparing with the UK system, one would only praise the NHS(National Health Service) for its equitable approach unlike many other countries were only those than can afford treatment get it. During my university years, I was a part of the committee through whom student members voiced their opinion in reviving the Osun State Student Association at Bowen university ,which had lost his finesse. I was appointed the Financial Secretary and was indeed a challenge, as we had to work hard as a team creating and implementing programs and reforms, managing and allocating our own time and finances to ensure success, I was also part of the team that assisted the students to get there bursary from the State Government, and trust me it wasn’t easy in the sense that we had to keep writing letters and going out of our way to ensure the students get paid because its part of their civil right. During my National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) as a member of the Sports Community Development Group. Having acquired the silver award after the torment of hiking over double figure mileage distances to raise funds for  the homeless children in Enugu State of Nigeria, it has enabled me to be more organized and helped me develop my ability to make quick, accurate and appropriate decisions in peril. Currently I am an accountant and a Guardian counselor in a primary and nursery school in Nigeria which goes by the name Macro Nursery and Primary school, I assist the younger generations in making right,responsibe,reputable and reasonable decisions in life. Leadership is also an important quality at succeeding in most areas, hence my appointment as one of the prefects in my secondary school has definitely helped me develop as a young adult. These duties are very rewarding and will be vital skills in preparing for life after public administration, studying this course in your university will enable me furthe

The problems autistic children face in mainstream schools

The problems autistic children face in mainstream schools Autism is a disorder with the brain which affects the learning developmental process of a person. It is a nuerodevelopmental disorder condition that affects the functioning of the brain as stated by the American Psychiatric Association (in Mulligan, Steel, Macculloch Nicholas, 2010 p.114). This can affect a persons social interaction and communication ability to a point where they are deemed unsuited to work in a mainstream environment. Symptoms of Autism can be discovered from a very young age. Autism can be diagnosed according to an autistic spectrum which determines the severity of the persons condition. This includes a list of disorders ranging from mild to major. The Autistic Society categorises Autism into three different types of disability (Batten, Corbett, Rosenblatt, Withers Yuille, 2006). One type is a very limited range of thought and behaviour with very limited scope for imagination where the individual may carry out repetitive or ritual-like actions which become a way of life. This may include focusing on minor details rather than focusing on the main object. For example the individual might focus on a piece of clothing rather than focus on the person wearing it or focusing on a particular part of an object rather than the whole object. Another characteristic is limited verbal and non-verbal communication with very impaired two-way conversational skills. An autistic person may also fail to understand another persons emotions, gestures, or way of thinking and will treat these differences as alien compared to their own character. This may also lead to over-literalness when interpreting something. The final category is a difficulty with social relationships, with an expression of solitude and detachment from reality. I aim to try and find out if and why it is difficult for children, suffering from autism, to study within in a mainstream environment. I have wondered whether children with autism are able to enter mainstream education with their handicaps. One has to take into account the comfort zone of the child, how the child is able to cope socially with his surroundings and their ability to cope with peer pressure or bullying. The symptoms of autism are such that it has great effects on how children with autism learn. Each individual will have their own reaction to the learning they are exposed to. Therefore it is necessary that schools take time to accommodate those with disadvantages such as autism and manage each childs necessities. Even if schools and classes for children with autism have managed to devise a particular method of teaching specifically implemented to complement the childrens autism, it may not be as easy to achieve in classes where there is only one child with autism or in classes that also include children with a range of different disabilities (not just mental). Without mainstream education, does this mean that children with autism are doomed to never be able to attain a high-position job in the future? I shall start by analysing from the point of view from teachers about possible mainstream education from a research carried out by Helps, Newsom-Davis Callias (1999). They make a point in highlighting the increasing significance of the teachers role in helping children to learn. They mention that teachers work very closely with children and also work under ever-changing conditions; different children each year and the problems they individually or collectively pose. They highlight the importance of the teachers ability to enrich their social and communication skills. An early intervention into the education of a child who suffers from autism is best in order for their benefit. Most importantly, they highlight an integrated education in autism (Helps, Newsom-Davis Callias, 1999 p.288). Riddel and Brown (in Helps, Newsom-Davis Callias, 1999 p.288) states that there are increasing cases of children with autism undertaking education in a mainstream environment. It is not sufficient enough to rely on the skills of a good teacher alone, but some prior and extensive knowledge and preparation should be undertaken in order to deal with autism. Powell and Jordan (in Helps, Newsom-Davis Callias, 1999 p.288) also state that the normal intuitions of good teachers are likely to mislead when applied to autism. This implies that normal methods of teaching cannot be applied in the same way and have the same effect it would over normal children. They supplement the argument that specific knowledge of the range of disabilities is crucial in achieving the best out of education for those with autism (p.289). The research itself was conducted in order to find out what the teachers perceptions of autism were and what training they had received and how it was being applied in the appropriate setting. It turned out that 70% of mainstream teachers that had been researched had experiences of handling children with autism. Amazingly 5% of the 70% had any sort of specific training to deal with children with autism (p.290-291). The research came to the conclusion that the majority of the teaching staff did not have a strong understanding or knowledge of the basic theoretical understanding of autism. Many remained unaware of the bigger implications of the condition and many believed in outdated beliefs that were either inaccurate or very superficial. I believe that this inadequate understanding and lack of attention to children with autism makes it extremely challenging for these children to have any chance of an equal footing with normal children in the mainstream environment. Although it should be noted that the survey research sample was only a handful of schools and teaching institutions in England, this cannot possibly labelled as a research to represent the whole of England. The research itself was published in 1999 and with modernisation of technology and evolution in society; a change in these statistics is possible. But based on these results, those with autism face a challenge integrating themselves mainly due to lack of awareness on the teachers behalf and this problem must be rectified. These days there is a growing demand for special assistance for those with special needs in education. A BBC article about this issue highlighted the fact that a couple of decades ago, those in mainstream schools would consider a child with special needs as an alien subject as placing special needs children into mainstream education was not common in the past (BBC Website, 2006). However these days, integration of children with physical and learning difficulties into mainstream schools has started increasing with more awareness towards their difficulties. The BBC also goes onto mention that many special needs schools were gradually closed down in the 1980s, in order to promote integrated education amongst children with special needs or those without any. Yet the report also goes on to question whether integration is such a good idea for autistic children. According to opinions of parents with autistic children collected by the National Autistic Society, one third of the parents would favour their children being educated in mainstream education, one third would prefer their children to attend a special needs school where they could receive sole attention and the remaining third preferred a mix between the two situations. According to the National Autistic Society, within a research compiled by Barten, Corbett, Roseblatt, Wither Yullie, parents now want a range of provision including mainstream schools with more emphasis in resources and more schools which cater especially for special needs (Barten, Corbett, Roseblatt, Wither Yullie, 2006, p.3). The report discusses whether parents had a choice whether they sent their children to mainstream or special schools. Over half of the parents who were surveyed by the National Autistic Society stated that they were not given a choice. 33% of parents felt that they were given an opportunity to choose for their children to be in mainstream schools. 59% felt that that once they their children had reached secondary school, their options of choosing school became a lot narrower. They suggest that help for children diagnosed with levels of autism at a secondary school level is lacking. Race and ethnicity apparently plays a role in having a choice or not. Races bar white British families were less likely to have a choice in choosing schools which suggests unfair discrimination. Half of the parents in the survey felt that they were not satisfied with the schools their children were enrolled in. The majority of parents stated that they felt autism-specific special schools were the most beneficial for their children. 43% of parents whose children were in mainstream schools thought that an autism-specific special school would better support their child. The report highlights examples with quotes from various parents including Mainstream school dismissed any intention of educating my son when they discovered he had autism (Batten, Corbett, Rosenblatt, Withers Yuille, 2006, p.9). The article also defines the word inclusion not merely just the act of placing an autistic child within a mainstream environment but also it is about making appropriate provision to meet each childs needs and reasonable adjustments to enable each child to access the whole life of the school (Batten, Corbett, Rosenblatt, Withers Yuille, 2006, p.4). A child with autism is not necessarily a child without some kind of talent. A child with autism can suddenly excel in a discipline or have talent to make up for its disadvantages. A school must identify the individual needs that should lay a marker for identifying what type of school they should attend and the support they will need to receive in order to complete their education. The theory of inclusion according to Harmon Jones (2005 p187), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. when special education students are included in the regular classrooms, they have greater achievement, better self concepts, and more appropriate social skills than those special education students who are plac ed together in one classroom. Another example of the encouragement for mainstream education is highlighted with Rogers report (2004) where she highlights a school in Japan, the Boston Massachusetts Higashi School, which takes in only children with learning difficulties. They have come up with a curriculum with a teacher delivery that is based upon the common age rather than by developmental level (2004, p.49). This shows that mainstream methods have spread across the world. In a journal report by Philip Whitaker (2007), he conducts a research experiment using surveys for parents asking for their opinions on their satisfaction of their childrens education. The majority of the children and young people in the research were educated in mainstream schools and had not been to special needs schools to receive supplementary help. Less than half the parents who were given the questionnaire returned with responses. This was very similar to the response rate of parents whose children were catered for in special schools. The outcome showed that more than half of the participants were either satisfied or very satisfied with the educational support their children receive (Whitaker, 2007, p.173-174). However the report also notes the possible problems that could distort the research findings. For example, the parents may not have the experience to judge whether the education and autistic resources are being beneficial towards their children. The parents who described themselves as dissatisfied appear to have concerns regarding many aspects of the provision made for their children as well as concerns relating to their childrens experiences and progress (p.174). The most common response was that of disagreement by parents. All but one of the rating items recorded only a very modest measure of agreement with the item referring to their relationship with the school in the results. Parents placed particular importance in gradual confidence in social skills, a clear understanding between teacher and child, and a broad capacity to enable to handle all types of children behaviour, a decent structure for children to be able to follow and to ensure that the child is happy within the study environment. Later in the report, it states that parents were worried overall about their childrens social experiences at school. Across all respondents, only half of all children and young people were said to have friends and only one in five of the parents felt that t heir children were accepted by their fellow peers (p.175). Issues during recess or break times seemed to be a particular issue for parents with 70% of them indicating this was a cause for concern. One in ten parents spontaneously mentioned bullying in their response to the open-ended questions and this was an issue that aroused understandably strong feelings. In this context it is perhaps not surprising that their childrens happiness was such a prominent issue for so many of the parents. Comparing these statistics with the idea of inclusion, it appears that a potential barrier that could prevent children from integrating themselves is an unfriendly environment. A developed understanding with the teachers was also considered important in order to maintain the best results from education. However Whitakers report placed more importance on the social aspect and surroundings unlike previous examples which placed importance on the increasing role of the teacher. Another report by Humphrey (2008) states that research indicates that students with an autistic handicap are more susceptible to bullying at school. Furthermore, students with autism are more than 20 times more likely to be excluded from school than those without special educational needs (Humphrey, 2008 p.24). Children with autism constantly have to fight stereotypes and unfair treatment simply because they are not normal. Humphreys report seems to ally itself with Whitakers point of view in that the social aspect is the most crucial in determining whether an autistic child settles or not. Singer (in Humphrey, 2008 p.32) argues the autistic spectrum is often associated in the public mind with images of rocking, emotionally cut-off, intellectually impaired children and RainMan-like savants. The relationships students with autism have with their peers could be both a barrier and an enabler to their successful inclusion in school. In a recent study according to the report, nearly all s tudents reported being bullied at different levels of severity and frequency. Humphreys research includes a dialogue during an interview with a student in which the student was reported to say: People in my class know about my autism at school thats why they likely pick on me. If incidents of name-calling and physical violence were one-off events, then they might not be considered unusual. Chan and Smith (in Humphrey, 2008) suggest that many students will experience either petty name-calling or physical violence or in worse case scenarios both at some point during their schooling. Subsequently bullying and aggression towards these students turned out with more frequency than anticipated. This can lead to the unfortunate scenario of social exclusion. This can lead to a serious problem when an autistic childs behaviour impacts upon another child, such as irritation from the childs constant talking and consequently disrupts the learning environment which creates more unnecessary pressu re for teachers and therefore the inclusion technique fails. It appears to be necessary to create a friendly atmosphere and somehow integrate these children together in a positive manner and avoid conflicts or ostracizing. I shall now try to expand on the idea of inclusion of autistic children together into mainstream schools. An inclusive education brings all children together without highlighting differences. Those with disabilities will be grouped with normal children and be educated together. A research undertaken (in Reed, Osborne Waddington, 2009) observed the performance rate of children with autism in mainstream settings and to determine their performances within the education system. The abstract reveals that there was actually no significance whether students were enrolled in mainstream or special needs schools (Reed et al. 2009 p.1), although special schools did emphasise the importance of social and emotional behaviours. Although they note the upcoming progress of the inclusion process of children of all abilities, they question whether the actual inclusion policy will end up being beneficial to the students on a whole (p.4-5). Harris and Handleman (in Reed et al. 2009 p.5) suggested that the social behaviour aspect may have more bearing in the investigation than the academic performances to achieve the most ideal inclusive settings. After concluding their research, the report discusses the potential difference between mainstream and special schools. It revealed that special schools made a stronger impression in aiming to improve social and behavioural aspects of the children. Although they hint that the results are not very strong indicators to advocate for a strong conclusion, they suggest that children are probably going to benefit more emotionally and socially by going to a special school (p.12). Judging by this mini conclusion, I believe that the social integration is the biggest issue into helping a child settle. This report appears to suggest that children are going to benefit less by going to a mainstream school as they appear to have less focus on trying to improve a child emotionally and socially. Yet the report also explores other possibilities such as the provisions children receive at school and the parents influence. Humphrey Lewis (2008) compiled a report on the actual experiences of students, who have autism, who attended mainstream secondary schools. They reveal that there is a significant impetus to have more students who require special needs attention integrated into mainstream schools. They give two reasons as to why this sudden increase in integration is the case. First, Farrell and Ainscow reveal (in Humphrey Lewis, 2008) that there is growing momentum for mainstream inclusion for children and adolescents with special needs (p.23-24). The second is provided by Connor (in Humphrey Lewis, 2008) who states that with the current increasing realisation that by grouping children who have autism together into one class may not be the most beneficial for the children. They analysed 20 students across 4 secondary schools in the North-West of England through interviews. Teachers, Assistants, Parents and classroom/break time observations were also used in the investigation. The listed objectives included: exploring the perspectives of some autistic students within a mainstream environment, to log everyday experiences of the students, to identify their immersion into a school culture to see if it is being beneficial or hindering to a student. A total of 20 students with Autism (age ranging from 11-17 years old) participated in the study. The student sample was taken from the four chosen mainstream secondary schools from the North-Western region of England. As standard procedures, consent needed to be granted by each schools management consultants including written consents from each students parents accepting the purpose of the research. Then to question the students, the team of researchers would be accompanied by a member of staff (a person whom the student will have most likely studied under or whom would recognise). During the research they introduced diaries for students to keep record of their experiences; this was seen as a useful way of getting information which wo uld have otherwise might have been extremely difficult to get hold of, a way to avoid potentially embarrassing or pressuring the students into forcing out their emotions. The diary method can gain access to personal and intimate thoughts that may not emerge in an interview context. However, if this method of using diaries were to become an actual part of the curriculum, I would suspect that some of the children would have no interest in using it independently and will rather rely on instruction to use it. Nevertheless, the diaries provide a less intrusive alternative to performing a series of interviews that would still produce rich and meaningful data as the individual is under no pressure and can fill out the diary in their own way and time (Humphrey Lewis, 2008 p.27). Ethical considerations were observed for the study. The results were separated into different analytical themes. The first topic to appear was the concept of what autism meant to the individual. The responses were negative and the individuals responded with responses such as Oh my God Im a freak, one particular response from a student after being told that he had Aspergers Syndrome (p.31). It is believed that the students formulated their own view of themselves and how they deal with Autism through the feedback they receive from others. One student recounts of his frustrations that staff at his school had been notified of his Aspergers syndrome which prompted an uncomfortable and embarrassed response: Id prefer they didnt know because everyone treats me differently and I dont like being treated differently (p.31). An interesting contrast to the previous response was seen in a subset of students for whom their Autism was simply a part of their own identity. They had grown to accept and even be proud of their differences. As one student commented, Sometimes I think I am normal, Im treating this autism very well. Im top of the class and doing very well and Ive got a good future ahead of me and Ive got a vocabulary, Ive got very good friends (p.32). The mention of friends shows how far this particular student has come to overcome differences and integrate himself into the mainstream environment and make a social connection. Another set of results concentrated on the particular traits of Autism and how it was reacted to within the classroom at school. One example shows a student gaining confidence due to his particular strong and precise interest in certain elements of sporting talents, with his classmates asking him questions on how he is able to maintain strong interest on such a topic. Unfortunately aside from curiosity, it also inevitably leads to incidents of bullying due to the social naivety of the autistic students, making them very vulnerable targets (p.33). An example shows how a student took a joke literally and frustrated the individual who started the joke who resorted to verbal bullying which in turn upset the student who had been the original victim of the bullying. A students relationship with his/her classmates proved to be a make-or-break factor in his/her attempt to integrate into the school community. Nearly all of the autistic children were victims of bullying and teasing which can h ave a drastic effect on the childrens moral and overall satisfaction of being at school. Samples of diary entries revealed that bullying occurred often. Inevitably those with special needs are most likely to be targeted by bullies simply because they are different. Depending on the individual, he or she may not possess the character or resilience to shrug off or confront the bullying. However there were instances where it would be counteracted by support from (and often enduring friendships with) fellow peers. There are examples of students who have expressed their feelings through crude drawings (p.36). Undoubtedly this type of situation will lower any students self-esteem and confidence, let alone students with special needs. The report goes onto talk about the levels of anxiety and stress in school. The school environment itself was a considerable source of anxiety. Students thrived off order and predictability which composed their everyday school life, implying any kind of chang e to a routine would throw off the students and potentially bring about a negative reaction. This also possibly shows that these children crave structure or something to follow, especially during the younger years. There were some who were able to deal with distractions but for others, it was not as easy to ignore and they felt upset and could not concentrate and therefore could not progress. Finally the theme of working in conjunction with the teachers also came up in the report. Students reacted differently once again to teachers assistance. Most welcomed that there was somebody looking out for them, reassured to know that they could turn to someone for help. However, students also felt pressure due to the lack of discretion from teachers. It was obvious for everyone to see that they were receiving extra support which only served to highlight further the differences between themselves and their peers. This made them more uncomfortable and resentful to the fact that this difference in ability was exposed. The presence of a teacher only helped to impede their attempts to integrate and make friends in the classroom. It seems apparent that a teachers understanding is important, as highlighted earlier in the essay. The teacher must also have confidence in dealing with children. A lack of understanding of individual students needs resulted in the teachers, in this report, dep ending on assistant staff members to prepare work for a student. The final key theme to emerge from the study was how the way in which students with autism attempt to understand and assimilate themselves successfully into the mainstream school environment, set against contexts in which they feel both very different from others but also the same, and experience both acceptance and rejection. In conclusion the argument that autism poses within an educational setting will be inevitably different for every child. Some children are capable of handling general education classes with assistance, while others would possibly benefit better from a self-contained classroom where they are not mixed with mainstream. Students were experiencing adaptations to common ways of working and interacting that seemed to lead to a more positive experience of schooling. It is important to acknowledge though that whilst useful, the childrens views and experiences themselves are a part (albeit a significant one) of a larger picture, and any full account of the inclusion process must also be explored deeper. It is a mistake to assume that because a student with an autistic disability is still academically able, he or she should be able to cope in mainstream school. On the contrary, as demonstrated in the current research, difficulties in social communication and interaction experienced by such stu dents are likely to increase their exposure and vulnerability to bullying and social isolation which can lead to depression and feelings of not belonging. These are one of the most obvious reasons why autistic children have to overcome so much. Having teachers that are aware and are able to integrate the children with autism has a huge bearing on whether the children are able to settle themselves amongst their peers. The parents must also be vigilant in order to choose the correct schools and to also detect when their child is unhappy and is not benefiting from the learning environment. Family influence counts a lot when it comes down to children. Regardless of the type of school they attend, those with Aspergers syndrome must be taught in an environment that understands and caters for autistic children. It requires schools to be responsive to the needs of individual children by teachers and also provide support to staff that should have ideally some sufficient background and traini ng in identifying the different aspects of autism and how to respond to given situations. Although many of these research articles claimed that their survey samples were too small to be considered a nationwide survey, the recurring themes help to certainly give an idea of the possible reasons of difficulty autistic children face when placed in a mainstream education. Word Count: 4482

A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich :: Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich Essays

Webster has defined nostalgia as a â€Å"wistful or excessively sentimental, sometimes abnormal yearning for a return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.†Ã‚   Nostalgia is a psychological time machine that transplants adults to the good old days of another era. Once there, they will find that it is a state of mind, oblivious to actual or imagined barriers. For some it is a pleasant stroll through yesterday, a simple, less turbulent past. Benjie Johnson is thirteen, Black, and well on his way to being hooked on heroine for good. Benjie’s wry humor and courage, his hard surface and vulnerability beneath make it impossible not to care about him. This book confronts a difficult subject and offers no easy solutions. The inner city students I presently teach can relate to much of what Benjie talks about. The Black English used is a variation but a continuation of school boy vernacular which we saw in the previously mentioned novels. â€Å"Now I am thirteen, but when I was a chile, it was hard to be a chile because my block is a tough block and my school is a tough school. I’m not trying to cop out on what I do or don’t do cause man is man and chile is chile, but I ain’t a chile no more. Don’t nobody want to be no chile cause, for some reason, it just hold you back in a lotta ways; unless you be a rich chile like in some movie picture or like on T.V.—where everybody is livin it up and their room is perfect-lookin and their swimmin pool and their block and their house and they also ridin round in one rollin Cads with a tape-deck playin cool music and with air condition goin.†21 The block where Benjie lives is no peaceful place. People are getting mugged and robbed regularly. After age three when the relatives hold your hand you are on your own in the poorly lighted hallways of the tenement. â€Å"Walkin through dark, stinky hallways can be hard on anybody, man or chile, but a chile can get snatch in the dark and get his behind parts messed up by some weirdo I’m talkie bout them sexuals. Soon’s you get up to leven, twelve and so—they might cool it cause they scared you know where to land a good up punch, dig?

Is Macbeth A Thoroughly Representative Character? :: essays research papers

Is Macbeth a Thoroughly Representative Character?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some critics may contend that Macbeth is not a thoroughly representative character, yet through a close observation and understanding of the drama, it can be seen that any rational human being, given the identical situation, would have undergone the exact thought process and taken equal actions as did Macbeth. Macbeth was presented with a situation where he was forced to make an extreme decision. His driving ambition to become King of Scotland corrupted him and caused him to murder not only the king, but all those who had any ties to him. People may say that Macbeth was insane for doing this, yet others will agree that the common character would have done the same.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Given the situation, the ideal individual would have undergone the same alteration as did Macbeth. Presented with an equal degree an opportunity, one would have become very eager and anxious, thus carrying out the same criminal actions that Macbeth himself conveyed. A person, always eager to gain endowment, would jump at the chance to acquire that power as soon as possible, no matter what they had to do. This is the situation Macbeth was in. He was seeking the throne, and only wanted to find a faster way to obtain that authority, thus he killed, lied, and cheated his way to that place of honor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Readers may debate that Macbeth was indeed insane, thus leading the reader to believe that he was not representative of a typical human. This is true, yet any human can be insane, which further proves the validity that Macbeth was a common individual. Perhaps driven to insanity, no evidence exists to say that Macbeth was not ordinary, which means that he was not in any way different from the rest of humanity. What he did in the drama was no different than what anyone would have done given the position Macbeth was in. Conceivably an individual may not have murdered and become so very evil, however one would

Analysis of Robert Frosts Desert Places Essay -- Robert Frost Desert

Analysis of Robert Frost's Desert Places Robert Frost's 'Desert Places' is a testament to the harrowing nature of solidarity. By subjecting the narrator to the final moments of daylight on a snowy evening, an understanding about the nature of blank spaces and emptiness becomes guratively illuminated. The poem's loneliness has the ability to transcend nature and drill a hole through the mind of the narrator so that all hope for relationships with man and nature are abandoned. In the first stanza, ?snow? and ?night? are juxtaposed to create a sense of loneliness and emptiness. Meaning is derived from the effects they have on their surroundings and on the narrator. Here, snow has the qualities of an arid and formless white sheet. Anything it covers immediately loses shape and form. Snow blankets the ground to hide what is there, leaving nothing but a blank slate where more vigorous objects have been seen before. Night parallels the snow in that it obscures vision and generates an absence of light. These two stark agents of oblivion occupy their surroundings to create the effect of emptiness. The effect of speed upon the nature of the snow and night startles the narrator in the first line: ?Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast? (1). They both fall with such rapidity that the narrator almost misses the effects of the pair on the field he ?looked into going past? (2). The envelopment of the narrator?s surroundings becomes a jarring experience, as he/she only has a few moments to observe what is happening. The narrator is able to observe only the ?few weeds and stubble showing last,? (4) as the dense blanket created by the ominous pair becomes apparen... ...nkind is doomed by his/her own thought. The ability of nature to obstruct vision mirrors mans? ability to displace meaning. Man can eliminate nature, god, or fellow man using this method, though this will leave us to be as lonely and meaningless as the blank spaces that surround the void of infinity. The poem calls into question mans? ability to create meaning from his/her surroundings. Is mankind really so desolate and lonely? ?Desert Places? shows us that loneliness dominates in the absence of light. A frightening statement about the bottomless pit of loneliness is found within the repetition, absence of description, and domineering nature of internalized despair in Robert Frost?s ?Desert Places.? Works Cited: Frost, Robert. The Poetry of Robert Frost, ed Edward Connery Lathem. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969.

Btec Sport National Extended Diploma Level 3

Name: Jean-Pierre Nsinga Date: 1 September 2012 IV'D: Name: Jean-Pierre Nsinga Date: 1 September 2012 IV'D: BTEC LEVEL 3 EXTENDED DIPLOMA IN SPORT (Development, Coaching & Fitness) ASSIGNMENT BRIEF Student Name:Jean-Pierre NsingaTutor Name: Lizzie Farquhar Unit Seven:â€Å"Fitness Testing for Sport & Exercise Launch Date: 10 September 2012Hand In Date: 22 October 2012 Criteria Covered:LO1,3,4 P1,5,6 M1,3,4 D2 ————————————————- ————————————————-ASSIGNMENT TITLE: â€Å"Fitness Testing† No : 1/2 ————————————————- ASSIGNMENT SCENARIO: As a Personal Trainer at Farquhar Health Club, one of your main roles and responsibilities is to conduct fitn ess assessments with clients and provide feedback. ————————————————- To PASS this assignment, complete the following tasks: ————————————————- ————————————————- Task One: You will take part in different fitness tests for: flexibility, trength, aerobic endurance, speed, power, muscular endurance and body composition to enable you to: ————————————————- Describe ONE test for EACH component of physical fitness. Include advantages & disadvantages (e. g. cost, time, equipment, facility requirements, skill level of person carrying out test, issues with test validity, and issues with test reliability). ————————————————- Present this as an A4 information booklet. ————————————————-PASS1 ————————————————- Task Two: Select SIX different fitness tests for a selected individual suitable to their fitness activities. Safely administer these tests whilst being assessed by your tutor, include photographic evidence. The assessment will include observed evidence of: correct pre-test procedures, correct sequencing of tests, and adherence of health & safety procedures, termination of tests if required, and accurate recording of results ———————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- PASS5 ———————————————— Task Three: Give feedback to a selected individual, following fitness testing, describing the test results and interpreting their levels of fitness against normative data (e. g. population norms, accepted health ranges, norms for sports). Present this information in the form of an individual client information booklet. ————————————————- PASS6 ————————————————- To progress to higher grades see next page ————————————————- —————â⠂¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€ To progress to MERIT grade for this assignment complete the following: ————————————————- ————————————————- Explain the advantages and disadvantages of ONE fitness test for EACH component of physical fitness. You must consider factors related to test validity and reliability and how these factors could affect data results. Provide reasons and/or evidence clearly supporting this. Draw on examples from personal experiences or observations. ———————————————— MERIT1 —————————————â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Justify the selection of fitness tests commenting on suitability, reliability, validity and practicality. Why were they most suitable for your client? In your selection of tests, did you take into account their goals, needs and general level of fitness? Give reasons or evidence to support your views and how you arrived at these conclusions. ————————————————- MERIT3 ————————————————-Compare the fitness test results to normative data and identify strengths and areas for improvement ————————————————- MERIT4 ————————————————- à ¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- To progress to DISTINCTION grade for this assignment complete the following: ————————————————- ————————————————- Analyse the fitness test results and provide recommendations for appropriate future activities or training.You must look beyond basic facts and make appropriate comments. Recommendations must include: frequency, intensity, time and type of activity that the individual should take part in to facilitate improvements for each component. ————————————————- DISTINCTION 2 ——————â⠂¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- ————————————————- ————————————————- ————————————————- ————————————————- ———————————————— ————————————————- ————————————————- PLEASE HA ND THIS BRIEF IN WITH YOUR ASSIGNMENT – AS A TOP SHEET Followed by your â€Å"front page† Student Name: Jean-Pierre Nsinga ID: 1205079 Tutor: Alysia Bastock Unit Seven:â€Å"Fitness Testing for Sport & Exercise Launch Date: 10 September 2012Hand In Date: 22 October 2012 Intro; In this assignment I will be talking about different fitness test, to check their reliability and validity, their advantages and disadvantages.Furthermore I will choose fitness test for a client for them to perform and provide suitable feedbacks on their performance. Task. 1 Flexibility, test â€Å"Sit And Reach† This test is made to test an athlete’s flexibility, (in particular their lower back and hamstrings) This test demands; A flat surface for the athlete to sit down in the correct position, A box (preferably the main â€Å"sit and reach box† with all the measurements on the box, to have a better visual on the athlete’s result), a ruler for the athlete to pus h to perform the test and an assistant to record the results.

Marketing ethics

To begin this paper I would first give a definition of what Marketing Ethics is. From what I have gathered â€Å"Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing.† (www.wikipedia.org). It is common knowledge that the area of ethics is rather wide. People sometimes confuse ethics with that of morality. Thus, a distinction may be called upon in order to understand things better. Ethics is vaster than that of morality.Ethics is the study of values and customs of a group of people. Ethics is divided into three parts, meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Of the three, marketing ethics is under applied ethics. Now, when one talks about morality a clear distinction must be made between ethics and morality. By morality, one means simply a concept under ethics which dwells with matters of right and wrong.Having made the distinction let us now go on to what is meant by applied ethics from w hence marketing ethics is a part. Applied ethics is something which aims to apply theoretical ethics such as utilitarianism, Kantianism among many others to real world dilemmas. (www.wikipedia.org). Such is one of the purposes of this paper. Upon closely examining the way Subway operates we will then go on to look and to evaluate from two different ethical perspectives whether Subway is doing something unethical or not.In this paper I choose two contrasting ethical frameworks that of Utilitarianism and Kantianism, to examine the way Subway operate according to these two ethical standards. I will now move on to introducing the side of the two ethical issues.The philosopher Immanuel Kant developed Kantianism. His ethics is called deontological because it revolves primarily around duty. All actions should be done according to duty because it is what we â€Å"ought to† do. For Kant, all humans are rational being and thus humans ought to know what is good and what is bad which can be seen on his idea of categorical imperative. This is what I meant earlier by doing something because you â€Å"ought to† do it.It is categorical imperative because you have no other choice but to do it, thus the term â€Å"ought†. Kant pays little respect for things done out of emotion or feelings, thus for him, saving a drowning child out of pity is not a moral thing to do. The only moral thing for him are things done out of duty. According to Kant the consequence of an action holds no bearing in making it a moral act. For him humans are different from other animals because of our faculty of reason. Thus, we must treat each and everyone with respect simply on the grounds that s/he is human and thus one does not deserve and should not be treated simply as a means towards an end.The second ethical framework I chose is utilitarianism. In utilitarianism the moral worth of an action is determined by the utility it has to offer. It is the exact opposite of Kantianism in that for a utilitarian sacrificing a person to achieve a better end is not bad. If an action would produce the betterment of the many then it is okay for them to sacrifice a few if such is the only way to save more people. For example, if the world is taken over by aliens and the only way to save it is to offer the hearts of twenty very young children as a sacrifice and to appease the intruders so that they would leave us alone, then the action the world must take, for a utilitarian, is to do the offering as soon as possible.There is no room for pity or the like if such would be the only means there is to save the world. The rights of the twenty chosen children to live would be overridden by the lives of the remaining population of the world. Such is the way a utilitarian point of view operates. Also, for a utilitarian the unique ability of humans is their ability to feel pleasure and pain. So, for a utilitarian the moral thing to do is one that would produce the higher amount of pl easure. The utilitarians believe that the end justifies the means. Seeing the philosophy utilitarians live by one must clearly see that it is the exact anti-thesis of Kantianism.Before analyzing the marketing strategy of Subway one must first have a background of what Subway is. Subway is a multinational restaurant franchise. The foods they offer are mainly that of salads and sandwiches. Subway, a health restaurant which is very concern over diet and nutrition, is founded in 1965 by Fred de Luca and Peter Buck. Subway is very famous and very successful worldwide even though the foods they offer are rather expensive. Their success may be attributed to the fact that they know or they try to know the mentality of their customers. The restaurant is very health conscious which a very common trend is nowadays, with everyone trying their best in order not to be overweight.Having discussed the two ethical frameworks I would later use on this paper, I would now move on to the evaluation of t he marketing strategy of Subway. To begin, I would first give a lay-out of how subway does their marketing. I have read one article of how subway did some of its marketing. On this particular article Subway chose a rather unique form of advertising which shocked and enraged Americans. They managed to enrage the Americans by promoting the film â€Å"Super Size Me† and by using as an advertisement the fat statue of Liberty holding some burgers and fries with a bold headline saying â€Å"WHY ARE AMERICANS SO FAT?† Of course the Americans are known to be people who show great value on their prides thus the advertisement caused them to get mad. There are Americans who believes that the advertisement is immoral.Looking at an unbiased point of view I think that what Subway did is of course insensitive and a little off the mark. However, companies would do everything in their power in order to attract more customers. For that, I would say that Subway indeed succeeding in doing their marketing strategy by catching the eye of the public. In this regard, I would say that Subway did their marketing on a utilitarian basis. What made me think so would be discussed later on this paper.Analyzing what Subway did in the point of view of a believer of the Kantian theory, a Kantian would say that what subway did is not acceptable because they treated the Americans as a means to achieve their end which for a Kantian is a crime. For a Kantian, Subway failed to treat the Americans with the respect due to them as individuals. No matter how great the end result would have been for Subway, fact remains that they used others to obtain their end and it is not acceptable. In a Kantian point of view Subway did something wrong.On a utilitarian point of view however, they would say that if the act Subway did promote greater utility for the most number of people, then Subway could not have did something immoral. Since what they did produced good result then their act is morally acceptable and thus should not be condemned.Subway wishes to attract kids and tweens for their customers. They are promoting healthy food because they are promoting something about anti-obesity. According to Michelle Cordial, â€Å"children don’t want to eat healthy foods although they are talking about healthy food in school†. Teenagers, which make up a large number of their customers, are very much concern with the way they look and they are very much disturbed and conscious with their physical appearance and so I think that Subway chose to promote healthy but delicious food in order to appease and to please teenagers.As for the kids of younger age, I think that their advertisement and their promotion of healthy food are in order to please the parents. As a parent they would want their children to eat healthy foods and which restaurant offers healthy foods if not Subway? I think that something to that effect must be going on, on the minds of those responsible for the decisions being made in the management of Subway. I mentioned earlier that the target market of Subway is teenagers and children.How do they aim to do that? Subway did that by thinking of catchy promos which their clients cannot resist. Such promos includes getting key chains and lanyards on their Kids’ Pak meal and value meals and giving a promo from where one may win a chance to have a trip for six to Vans’ Triple Crown of Surfing competitions which would be held on Hawaii from November-December. It is normal for businessmen to improve the market of their products by thinking of promos which their clients cannot resist. Of course, Subway claims to be different from McDonald, KFC and the like.I think they made that claim because it is common knowledge that foods from such restaurants or fast food chains are high in cholesterol and thus expose their clients into the state of being fat. Claiming to be the same as the fast food chains I mentioned above would contradict the earlier claim made by Subway that they promotes healthy food now, wouldn’t it? I have mentioned earlier that such marketing strategy is very useful because it greatly appeals to their target clients.Of course, Subway is very successful because they are living up to their standards and because they are capable of thinking of gimmicks which would work and which would appeal greatly to their customers. In this line, I think that the strategy used by Subway is great because it helps attain what they set out to attain. I don’t think that Subway made an unwise choice by opening a branch in Iraq. Of course, before embarking upon a certain project a businessman must first check the location, the population and the like in order to see if their products would be accepted in a certain location or not and thus I think that their decision to open a branch there is made on rational grounds and thus not foolish.As I have mentioned earlier, Subway is doing very great strategy in that they always try to know their customers. Thus, needless to say their menu varies from one country to another. If they open a branch in a Muslim country, they would omit pork and ham from their menu. Because of this great sensitivity for their customers, I would not have any doubts whatsoever over their success on Iraq. Subways decision to do â€Å"Giant Subs†, dependent on the customers likes and dislikes shows their sensitivity and the way they value their customers and because of this it is no wonder that Subway is very successful.However, as most businesses are, Subway does have its critics. Eric Schlosser is at odds with the way Subway does their franchising, criticizing the way Subway competes with its competitors. Schlosser does not agree with the way Subway selected its position in order to better compete with their competitors. I’ve also read something about Subway fooling their customers.In the article it is said that Subway is being criticized by nutriti onists despite the fact that Subways front is that they are a health restaurant. The criticisms can be clearly seen in this line, â€Å"Subway sells ‘trick food’ and hides the fact that many of its food items contain high levels of calories, fooling customers by the ‘less than 6 grams of fat’ signs commonly shown in ads or in stores worldwide.† (www.wikipedia.org).I would not condemn Subway for the way they operates because such things are common in businesses. Somehow, businessmen can’t help but make a fool of their clients by giving and showing them what they want to see. It is part of business to appear to be something they are not and I don’t think, not even for a minute, that Subway alone does such tricks.Also, the way Subway competes did not bother me for a minute because I believe that that is what business is all about – competition. Upon analyzing Subway, I came into the conclusion that Subway lives by the maxim â€Å"t he end justifies the means† and thus my belief that they are utilitarians. The cunning Subway showed in fooling their customers made me reflect about a certain philosopher I know named Niccolo Machiavelli. Surely the idea to pretend to be something you’re not if it would keep you in your position originated from Machiavelli himself. Now, these things made me think that not only politicians alone read Machiavelli’s â€Å"The Prince†. It is very evident that businessmen got some advice from the great Machiavelli.I have made the claim that Subway is more of a utilitarian than a Kantian because of the reasons I have mentioned earlier in this paper. A Kantian would not, even for a second, put profits or benefits over the rights of an individual. Thus, I think Subway is very much a Utilitarian because it is evident in their action that they gives utmost importance to the consequences of their actions. If fooling a customer would yield better profit for them then they would not feel the slightest twinge of remorse upon fooling their customers.Also if people or rather their customers feels safer by eating in Subway even though their show that their products are health foods are nothing but a mere faà §ade then they should still go through it for the reason that it causes or it promotes more pleasure than pain or happiness than suffering. Since, their customers would not want to eat risky foods which would make them fat and would cause them great displeasure then the decision of Subway to fool their customers is not bad, at least for a utilitarian.Having made this paper, I therefore conclude that Subway lives more on a code of ethics which values the consequences of an action. The said ethics is called Utilitarianism. Thus, upon conclusion, Subway lives in the maxim â€Å"the end justifies the means†.Reference:http://www.echeat.com/http://www.chiefmarketer.com/division/consumer-marketing/http://www.subway.com/en-ushttps://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Main_Page Marketing Ethics Marketing Activities —–Groupon Hong Kong Groupon is a deal a day websites, it provides a newly developed business model that offer group coupon per day. The companies provide the coupon of services and products with discount and it works as assurance contract. That means only if the number of people who sign up for the group coupon meet the minimum, the deal will become available. However, there are sharply increasing number of the complaints against the products of the group buying websites in Hong Kong .Groupon Hong Kong as the biggest group buying company, still being criticized as companies without ethical marketing in Hong Kong. This essay has facilitated the discovery of the ethics of Cadbury’s marketing activities. The discussion is mainly focused on marketing ethical of the products of the Groupon Hong Kong. The products will be analyzed based two ethical values which are responsibility and transparency with according to American Marketing Association (AM A). http://hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? ss_id=20110701&sec_id=4104&art_id=15391305 Responsibility: Groupon Hong Kong failed to accept the consequence of their marketing decision and strategies. On early September Groupon Hong Kong offers group coupon that customers only need to pay 148 for buying Mint Design shoes which priced $400 in the market. However, it fails to provide products to customers within the committed date as the product was shock out. Although there are many customers claimed to refund, the Groupon did not give any properly responds to customers.Instead of refund to customer Groupon offer another model shoes to customers and titled â€Å"upgraded service† without any reason and the agreement of the customers. (Apple Daily Newspaper 2011) The Groupon fail to provide products as they did not set the limit for the coupon appropriated with the inventory of the Mint Design and refuse to deal with the customers’ complaints. Instead of serve the customers to refund; the Groupon forced the customer to accept another â€Å"upgraded product†. According to AMA, it is unethical for Groupon simple ignore the customers’ claim and force them to accept another product.Transparency: http://hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? iss_id=20110924&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=11867&art_id=15643242 Groupon Hong Kong also failed to create a spirit of openness in marketing operations. Customers MS Ng claims it is different to make appointment for enjoy the service which purchased through Groupon Hong Kong. However, she can easily make the appointment for the service in the same shop as a normal customer who paid for origin price. The Kinki Nail Professional said that they set limited quota daily for the Groupon Hong Kong’s customers.However, the Groupon did not disclose this to customers (Apple Daily Newspaper 2011). According to the AMA, companies have to explain and disclose the risk of the pro duct or service which can determine customers to make the purchase decision. However, Groupon transparent insufficient information about the risk of failure for making booking for the service as the quota set by the suppliers. It is unethical in terms of transparency for group disclose insufficient information. http://hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? ss_id=20110924&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=11867&art_id=15643242 From above information, it shows that marketing activities are ethical in term of responsibility and transparency. There are increased From my point of view, the Groupon as a leading company in group buying websites should be more responsible for customer needs. Also, Groupon as an intermediate between suppliers and customers, it is necessary for further communication with suppliers. This can help Groupon to provide accurate and comprehensive information of the products and services to customers.