Whats the Deal with Improving Sentences SAT Writing Section Guide and Advice

What's the Deal with Improving Sentences SAT Writing Section Guide and Advice SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips There’s nothing harder than trying to figure out what someone else thinks is â€Å"the best,† and Improving Sentences asks you to do just that. Luckily, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve that allow you to move through these questions with confidence. In this post,we’ll look at the writing skills these questions are designed to test and how to use those skills to answer the questions correctly. Improving Sentencesquestions havea section of a sentence underlined and 4 alternatives (plus the option to keep the sentence the way it is). The instructions say that these questions â€Å"test correctness and effectiveness of expression.† This means that the sentences aren’t necessarily wrong (though they usually are), they can also just be bad or confusing. We have to find the best, rather than simply the correct, way of saying something. But the types of choices and mistakes are the same in every test, so let's talk about the most common one and how to â€Å"improve† it. #1 Issue: Conciseness, Conciseness, Conciseness Almost all Improving Sentences questions involve conciseness; even if it’s not the main problem in the question, some of the incorrect answer choices will be wordy to the point of sounding like nonsense. Just to get a feel for what we mean by this, Here are some concise sentences and their less concise evil twins: Most dinosaur nests were hidden beneath vegetation from potential predators. Most dinosaurs laid eggs in hidden nests on the ground that was extremely well protected from other dinosaurs so that they would be more unlikely to be eaten by them. You can see that all the information in the longer sentence is included in the shorter one: things can only be hidden beneath vegetation if it's on the ground, and the word â€Å"predators† means hunting animals. The phrase â€Å"hidden from...predators† can only mean that the point is to keep the eggs safe. Here’s another fun one: Because bacteria and other organisms can penetrate eggshells and decompose the contents, very few fossilized eggs found today contain any embryonic material. For the reason that the walls of eggs can be penetrated by bacteria and other small organisms that feed on organic material, the stone-like fossilized eggs people find today are usually lacking any remnants of embryos, whether intact or not. Okay, the second sentence here is a bit long even for the SAT, but it drives home the point that there is virtually no limit to the amount of irrelevant and repetitive information that can be stuffed into a sentence. And the SAT loves to push that particular envelope. The key is the information: can the same meaning be conveyed in fewer words? Below, we look at the information in the sentences above: Short Sentence Long Sentence Because For the reason that bacteria and other organisms can penetrate eggshells and decompose the contents the walls of eggs can be penetrated by bacteria and other small organisms that feed on organic material very few...contain any embryonic material are usually lacking any remnants of embryos, whether intact or not fossilized eggs found today the stone-like fossilized eggs people find today As you can see, any extra information that the second sentence offers is not relevant to the point of the sentence: the appearance of the eggs, what organisms feed on (that’s obvious from the fact that they’re eating dino eggs), and whether the embryos are intact or not. Those things don’t matter here, because the sentence is about the absence of embryonic material in the eggs. Common Problem: Repeated References to Something Another way to spot an SAT-designed bad sentence is repeated references to a person or thing, like so: The dinosaur eggs, those which had been incubated by machines, they were almost ready to hatch. Can you spot the nouns and pronouns in this sentence that refer to the same thing (the eggs)? Go ahead, we’ll wait. There are three: â€Å"eggs,† of course, â€Å"those,† and â€Å"they.† In this case, you can just take out the second two and the sentence is SAT-approved. Generally, we only need to use a pronoun when there are two things going on in the sentence: After the incubators had warmed, turned and monitored them for two months, the eggs were ready to hatch. Above, there’s the actions the incubators took in gestating the eggs, and then the statement that they are ready to hatch. That makes the two references, â€Å"eggs† and â€Å"they,† necessary. In the previous sentence, the only thing that’s happening is that they’re ready to hatch; the rest of the information is extra. Even More Common Problem: Gerunds, a.k.a. â€Å"-ing† verbs First of all, let’s get one thing straight: a gerund, or â€Å"-ing† verb, cannot by itself be the only verb in a sentence. Let’s take â€Å"feeling† as an example: Can we say â€Å"She feeling better†? No, we have to say she is feeling better. We can use it to start a sentence, like â€Å"Feeling better, she walked downstairs.† But the operative verb in this sentence is walked, not feeling. Students overuse â€Å"-ing† verbs, because they are more all-purpose than other verb conjugations. But they have limited utility in good writing, and even less utility on the SAT. (Bonus SAT vocab lesson: â€Å"utility† means usefulness.) The SAT is constantly presenting us with these kinds of sentences: The dinosaur eggs were very delicate, the reason for this being that they needed to be incubated. Then they’ll give us some alternatives to the underlined section: (A) (same as original) (B) and the reason being you have to incubate them (C) for the reason that incubation was needed by them (D) because of the fact that their incubation is necessary and vital (E) because they required incubation Strategy: How to Eliminate Carefully and Effectively The key to maneuvering successfully through the SAT is elimination. The choices are designed to overwhelm and confuse students, which is part of the reason they’re overhauling the test in 2016. This is also one of the many reasons the SAT requires preparation- the strategy of elimination is actually quite refined and powerful, if you do it correctly. So rather than point out why the right answer is right, we’re going to use the â€Å"-ing† verbs example above to give you a sample of our elimination strategy. Step 1: Which choice is the longest? Above, it’s (D), and It’s almost never the answer. You can safely eliminate it on this question type: if the others all seem blatantly wrong, then consider it. Step 2: Which is the most straightforward? Active voice is always better than passive voice: â€Å"they required incubation† is always preferable to â€Å"incubation was needed by them†- eliminate (C). The second person- †you†- is oftenwrong on the SAT, unless the writer is speaking directly to the reader. When it’s used to mean â€Å"a person,† it’s confusing, vague, and inaccurate. Eliminate (B). These steps leave us with only (A), the original, and (E), the shortest answer choice. Hopefully (E) clearly sounds better to you (see, here I’m talking directly to you, the reader, so the second person in appropriate). This strategy allows us to work through questions methodically and efficiently without losing our respective minds. It works for all the Reading and Writing questions (and some Math ones), but is especially necessary when your choices are just heaps of words with one â€Å"best† option stuck in between. If you liked this post you may like: What is a good SAT score? A bad SAT score? SAT Writing Guide Part II: Essays SAT Writing Guide Part I: Improving Paragraphs

A Guide to Terminal Punctuation

A Guide to Terminal Punctuation A Guide to Terminal Punctuation A Guide to Terminal Punctuation By Mark Nichol This post outlines the functions of punctuation marks employed at the end of a sentence: the period, the exclamation point, the question mark, and ellipses. Period Periods are employed as terminal punctuation for statements other than questions or exclamations. In American English, periods precede a close quotation mark at the end of a sentence (with some technical exceptions in such fields as botany, linguistics, and philosophy). Periods also follow numbers and letters that precede each item in a vertical list. When an abbreviation ending in a period closes a sentence (such as in â€Å"Such abbreviations are common in content pertaining to mathematics, science, etc.†), it does double duty as terminal punctuation; do not add a period. An exclamation point or question mark can follow such use of a period, but revision to avoid consecutive punctuation is advised. See this post for information about the use of periods in abbreviation. Exclamation Point In formal writing, use of the exclamation point is rare, but it performs a useful function in expressing exclamation of surprise (â€Å"That’s absurd!†) or communicating an imperative (â€Å"Halt!†). It may also be employed to indicate enthusiasm (â€Å"Hi!†). An exclamation point should replace, not accompany, a comma (â€Å"No!† she replied†), though an exception is made when the exclamation is part of the title of a composition or of a component of one (â€Å"Her latest painting, titled simply Yes!, is on display†; â€Å"The final chapter, ‘Where Do I Go from Here?,’ is essential reading†). When both an exclamation point and a question mark are appropriate, choose one or the other, though in informal writing, an interrobang, a hybrid of both symbols, can be employed. Frequent use of the exclamation point, or use of two or more in succession, is distracting and should be employed only, for example, to signal in fiction writing the exuberance of a character. An exclamation point in parentheses indicates an editorial interpolation expressing alarm or surprise, as in â€Å"A speaker who seriously proposed summary execution (!) was heckled.† Writers should take care to place an exclamation point before or after a close quotation mark depending on its function. Compare, for example, â€Å"John screamed, ‘Get out!’† and â€Å"You can believe I was shocked when Mary quietly responded, ‘I know the truth, because I was there’!† In the first sentence, the exclamation point, positioned inside the quotation marks containing John’s outburst, emphasizes the screamed command; in the second sentence, the exclamation point, located outside the quotation marks framing Mary’s reported comment but within those bracketing the reporter’s statement, signals the surprise the reporter felt about Mary’s unexpected but quietly uttered admission. Exclamation points that are integral to a proper name (for example, in the company name Yahoo! or in the title of the television program Jeopardy!) are usually retained, though they may, especially in the former example, invite confusion. (Ambiguity is unlikely in the case of an exclamation point that is part of a word or phrase formatted in italics or boldface.) Question Mark A question mark is employed in place of a period to indicate an interrogative word, phrase, or full sentence- usually the latter, although it may follow a single word or a phrase functioning as a sentence, or one or more interrogative elements can be embedded in a sentence, as in â€Å"Was he feeling envy? resentment? humiliation?† (Alternatively, the last two words might be treated as one-word sentences: â€Å"Was he feeling envy? Resentment? Humiliation?†) Question marks should not punctuate indirect questions (â€Å"The question is whether the initiative should be funded by taxpayers†), sentences ending with interrogative words (â€Å"Naturally, you might ask why†), or formal requests (â€Å"Would you please respond at your earliest inconvenience†). A question mark may also replace or accompany an unknown quantity, as in â€Å"John Smith (1452?–1506) . . .† or â€Å"John Smith (?–1506) . . . .† See also the discussion of exclamation points above; all the guidance after the first paragraph in that section applies to question marks as well. Ellipses When ellipses end an unfinished sentence, the implication is that the reader is familiar with the full sentence (â€Å"When in Rome . . .†), which is delivered in an offhand manner, or that the speaker is faltering (â€Å"I was just trying to . . .†). (To represent interrupted speech, use a dash rather than ellipses; see this post about the use of dashes as internal punctuation.) When representing omission of one or more words at the beginning of a sentence that follows a full sentence, use a period and ellipses as shown here: â€Å"Finish each day and be done with it. . . . Tomorrow is a new day.† When indicating elision of one or more words at the end with a complete sentence, which is followed by another sentence, place the period for the first sentence after the ellipses as shown here: â€Å"I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience . . . . And I am horribly limited.† (The period is the fourth dot.) Do not place ellipses at the end of a quotation to indicate that more text follows the quotation in the source material. The use of ellipses as internal punctuation is discussed in this post. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Redundant Phrases to AvoidHow to Punctuate Descriptions of ColorsDrama vs. Melodrama

Tax Preparation in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tax Preparation in the USA - Essay Example This paper looks and discusses how tax preparations are done with the help of accounting and bookkeeping firms as in many cases, the tax filer is confused with all the complexities it entails for everyone. Although a tax form has been simplified, some 40% to 50% of all tax filings have been completed by the tax preparer, of which there are four types, namely: certified public accountants (CPAs), lawyers, an enrolled agent (someone who passed special examinations given by the Internal Revenue Service precisely for this purpose and has thereby gained IRS accreditation) and unenrolled tax preparer. Discussion My decision as John (owner of the private accounting practice) is to accept Sue (client) because I think I can help her out with her problems. First and foremost, the most logical step is to reconstruct her financial transactions as best as possible by taking calculated estimates of her income and expenses. This will help me prepare her audited financial statements (balance sheet a nd income statement) but most likely, I will issue a qualified opinion on these statements. This will serve as guide and warning to whoever uses these financial statements to arrive at their own judgment as to the applicability and suitability of the statements for their own use, like a bank. Because Sue operates her small business as a single proprietorship (presumably as based on case facts given, as she has only five full-time employees), then she pays business taxes in the same form as her personal income tax. It means that both she and the business itself are not taxed separately as they are considered as one and the same entities. The Internal Revenue Service or IRS calls this â€Å"pass-through taxation† as all profits pass through her sole proprietorship business before it reaches her as personal income. A needed document is the profit and loss statement of her business (Schedule C of the IRS forms) together with the IRS Form 1040. Moreover, she also needs to pay her own â€Å"self-employment taxes† like the Social Security and Medicare systems. It is usually double the rate of what ordinary employees pay in terms of salary deductions because a sole proprietor has no employer counterpart for the contributions and so she must pay the entire amount due, which must be reported under Schedule SE (self-employed) of the IRS. Present self-employment tax rate is now 15.3% (adjusted since last February 2012 from 13.3%) for the first $110,100 in reported income and then 2.9% tax rate for any amount in excess thereof. The box of receipts that Sue gave may not be of much help as some of her expenses and receipts for income were questionable, so the best approach is to just use the standard deductions which are fixed dollar amounts to some items. The IRS allows a business to deduct certain items and ordinary business expenses to lessen the tax due, to include operating expenses, advertising costs, travel and gasoline expenses, business-related meals a nd entertainment for business guests (IRS, 2012, p. 1); in order for an expense to qualify as a deductible, it must be necessary and also ordinary that is indispensable or helpful in pursuit of carrying out the trade or a type of business; not included are cost of goods sold, capital expenses (such as equipment) and personal expenses.  

Capstone Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Capstone Project - Research Paper Example As far as its footwear market is concerned, the company consists of 33% of global market share. Its distribution channels include both traditional and nontraditional channels in more than 100 countries in the whole world (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). Â   The mission of Nike stated in their mission statement is to surpass all other similar and competition companies in the industry. Nike plans to achieve this by maintaining its position in market through providing quality footwear, equipment and apparels for consumers of all ages and lifestyles and also for different institutions. Through proper utilization of retail outlets, company’s websites as well as mail order company pledges to make its products available globally. As far as execution of this mission is concerned the company and its management believes that for the effective operations of the company, the success lies in collective responsibilities of all employees, team mates, customers, communities and all the stakeholde rs for the company. (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Nike’s vision is to remain a global leader in the industry and for this the company intends to continue producing high quality products. This challenges the company to continue to constantly meet through innovation and creativity, the ever changing trends and needs of their customers and the company is dedicated to achieve these in both short and long term. (Kotler & Keller, 2009). The analysis of Nike’s strategic plan along with its performance over the years shows that the company has been able to perform with regard to its vision and financial statements, which is a part of its strategic plan. The company, since the year 2000, was able to achieve a net income of more than $550 million at the end of every financial year which helps the company to achieve its long-term objective of improvement on equity, and a higher EPS. Nike focuses on improving on stockholders returns on equity to achieve a percentage of 20 and this can be estimated to roughly 6% from its previous trading periods. Nike has been previously able to recover market price of its stock from a low of $26.5, per share to $50 and above, per share. Nike works on strategies through which it can increase its earnings per share to an estimated $2.70, a figure that can be one of the highest (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). Under the company analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of Nike will be reviewed. One of the major strengths’ of Nike includes its board of director consisting of both independent directors and management directors. They play a vital role in the decision making of the company especially the decisions related to strategy formulation of the company. These diversified directors help the company by not only providing an outside experience but also a frame of reference improving an overall thinking of the board, hence their decisions include rich experience and eliminates any disagreements and contradictions. Another major stren gth is the strong internal environment of the company as Nike conducts an internal analysis, which helps making decisions (Nike, 2012). The weaknesses that the company has experienced so far are related to the company’s inability to cope up with the issues regarding to labor. There also have been complains regarding the company’s working conditions. This was even highlighted as a major issue in the global media and led Nike to a bad reputation, turning into a major crisis

Medical Testing on Animals Essay Example for Free

Medical Testing on Animals Essay Animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways. If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer, then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems. Animal experimenters are very aware of this ethical problem and acknowledge that experiments should be made as humane as possible. It is also known that it is wrong to use animals if alternative testing methods would produce equally valid results. Experimenting on animals is always unacceptable because it causes suffering to animals, and the benefits to human beings are not proven. The case against animal testing is that the level of suffering and the number of animals involved are both so high that the benefits to humanity do not provide moral justification. The equivalent case for animal experiments is that they will produce such great benefits for humanity that it is morally acceptable to harm a few animals. Animal experiments are not used to show that drugs are safe and effective in human beings, as they cannot do that. Instead, they are used to help decide whether a particular drug should be tested on people. Animal experiments eliminate some potential drugs as either ineffective or too dangerous to use on human beings. If a drug passes the animal test it is then tested on a small group of humans before larger trials are done. Animal experiments only benefit human beings if their results are valid and can be applied to human beings. Another problem with animal testing is that results can be misleading. Drugs that have negative effects on animals could potentially be highly beneficial to humans and vice versa. Those in favor of animal experiments say that the benefits to human beings outweigh the harm done to the animals being tested. This is a consequentialist argument, because it looks at the consequences of the actions under consideration. It cannot be used to defend all forms of experimentation since there are some forms of suffering that are probably impossible to justify even if the benefits are exceptionally valuable to humanity. The consequentialist justification of animal experiments is done by comparing the harm the experiment will do to animals to the harm done to humans by not doing the experiment. This is not a valid way to justify the argument because this is ultimately comparing two different things. The harm that will be done to he animals is certain to happen if the experiment is carried out. The harm done to human beings by not doing the experiment is unknown because no one knows how likely the experiment is to succeed or what benefits it might produce. It is morally worse to do harm by doing something than to do harm by not doing something. Looking at it that way, it is morally worse for experimenters to harm the animals by experimenting on them than it is to harm some human beings by not doing an experiment that might find a cure for their disease. The benefits to humans does not outweigh the pain and suffering that all of the animals endure while going through experiments. The issue of animal experiments is very clear if we accept that animals have rights. If an experiment violates the rights of an animal, then it is morally wrong because it is wrong to violate rights. The possible benefits to humanity by performing these experiments are completely irrelevant to the morality of the case, because rights should never be violated.

Its Science vs. Politics in Stem Cell Research :: Persuasive Argumentative Essay Examples

The Patients' Coalition for Urgent Research (CURe), a consortium of three dozen national nonprofit patient organizations, reports that over 100 million Americans suffer from illnesses, some of them terminal, which may be treated by medical advancements in the area of stem cell research (1). The list of ailments includes cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, severe burns, spinal cord injuries, and birth defects. While scientists continue to look for treatments and cures for these diseases through new medicine, innovative surgical techniques, and gene therapy, perhaps the most promising research is being encountered on the frontier of human embryonic stem cell research. From the beginning of this research in animals in the early 1980's, stem cells have been celebrated for their nearly infinite potential in application towards the alleviation, and ultimately the eradication, of many branches of human illne ss and disease. Animal stem cell research and preliminary human stem cell research indicates stem cells as a source of self-renewing, undifferentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into organs, nerves, blood cells, skin, eyes, hair - basically, any tissue or cell found in an adult mammal. So far, scientists have isolated and indefinitely grown stem cells and, to some degree, demonstrated the cell's ability to differentiate into numerous tissues and cell types. From this groundwork, the scientific community envisions that research using stem cells will lead us to the ability to grow entire organs for transplant to patients suffering from kidney, liver, and heart failure; neurons for patients afflicted with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease; tissue replacement for patients with damaged organs or severe burns; functioning islet cells that will produce insulin for patients diagnosed with diabetes; and the list continues. Because stem cells have the ability to differentiate into every ki nd of cell contained in the human body, their possible therapeutic effects have the potential to help hundreds of millions of people worldwide. However, where there is the most promise, there is also the most controversy, and the bridge between life and death relies largely on the compromise between science and politics. The case against human embryonic stem cell research rests upon the core argument that embryonic stem cells are derived from human embryos and, as such, are protected by ethical principles against human experimentation (2). Whether or not stem cells represent a viable source of human life recapitulates the same debate as the abortion controversy: the argument about when human life begins.

The Education of Little Tree Movie Review

In the movie, The Education of Little Tree, the young boy learns many of life†s most important lessons. Three of the lessons that I feel are most important are; â€Å"The Way†, how to learn from ones mistakes, and finding your secret place. In the personal evaluation that follows, I will discuss why I feel that these are such important lessons. Little Tree†s grandparents, with some help from Willow John, teach him â€Å"The Way [of the Cherokee]†. I feel that this is one of life†s most important lessons. Not necessarily the Cherokee way, but the way of life in general. This lesson help†s us to understand that things may not always work the way that we would like them to. In my eyes, this is because we do not, and never will, completely be in control of our lives. I believe that their is some power higher than ourselves that is in at least partial control of our lives. I also believe that this higher power, whether it be fate or God, helps guide us to a more complete life. To me life is a lesson in itself. It is all a learning experience to prepare us for the next life. One of my favorite parts of the story is when Little Tree†s grandparents pass on, they say â€Å"It has been good. I†ll see you soon. † They view death as a new beginning, not as an end. Throughout the movie, Little Tree is making mistakes and learning from them. I also think that this is a very important lesson in life. Making mistakes is part of life. Learning from them so that we don†t repeat the same mistakes again can be hard sometimes. This can be applied to the classroom in many ways. If you stay out late the night before a test instead of studying and do poorly on a test, the next time you should consider an alternative. One possibility is to find a way that let†s you go out and have fun, but come home early enough to study the material for the test. I think that the way Little Tree†s grandfather teaches him this lesson by letting him make mistakes instead of preventing them is the same way that a teacher or parents should teach children and students. If your parents or teachers don†t allow you to make mistakes, you will probably be less likely to learn the lesson. Even though they think they are doing a good job by preventing these mistakes from happening, the child or student may behave rebelliously toward this. Finding your secret place can help to teach you about yourself. In this lesson, Little Tree found his secret place was a place to go by himself. Everyone needs a place like this. Somewhere to be alone with your thoughts. In a way it helps you find yourself through self fulfillment. Little Tree learns about what interests him, the mysteries of his cultural background. This can be helpful in ones education. It helps you learn about what you would like to do with your life. It can give you direction. It is also important because no two people are exactly the same. Each person has a different style of learning. A person will get more out of their education if they are taught and learn in the style that applies to them. The lessons referred to in this paper are just a few that I believe are important in a persons education and in life in general. A persons education never stops, we all learn new lessons everyday. It is just ‘The Way† it is.

Definition of Culture and Its Importance Essay

Human beings are considered the highest form of animals, behaving passionately social as a group, using language and understanding, and doing teamwork and intergroup rivalry. Culture then relates to everything that humans have, think and do as a member of the social group. Both existent and make-believe, humans have stuff like tools, weapons, languages, laws, music, art, material resources, technologies and systems that when taken jointly will give details of the past and describes the present. On the other hand, when ideas, values, attitudes, beliefs and ideologies are taken as a group, help explains religious partiality, political directives, mores and extensive range of social associations. In addition, humans do or perform activities among specific group or society based on nationality, religion, ethnic boundaries and even occupation and academic, which later on collectively form the prescribed accepted behavior. (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. 2002). In 1997, culture was described by Geert Hofstede in his book, Cultures and Organizations as the â€Å"software of the mind†. While individuals all have the identical â€Å"hardware†, which is the human brain, their â€Å"software† or â€Å"programming† is rather diverse. It is an identical experience when interrelating with somebody from a dissimilar culture – their language, suppositions, body language and movement, morals, and other facets of their culture will not be logical when relocated to another’s orientation structure. There are three fundamental logical reasoning when it comes to culture, namely: 1. Superiority of experience in the fine arts and humanities; 2. A combined blueprint of human knowledge, trust, and manners that relies upon the aptitude for figurative thinking and social knowledge; and 3. The set of divided outlooks, principles, purposes, and practices that distinguishes an association, society or group. According to Holt and Wigginton (2002), culture is a concept in the field of anthropology that concerns with shared structure of attitudes, way of life, ownership, traits, tradition and morals that describes group actions, which can be observed in a family, ethnic group, a business organization or a society. Authority, leadership, work attitudes and ethical practices on the part of management are influenced by this shared structure. Workers also are influenced by cultural antecedents on how they recognize and understand quality performance, work responsibilities, their function in decision-making and attitude in following orders from superior, as well as insight of human rights. The daily demeanor of workers in terms of punctuality, following rules on safety standards and personal hygiene are also affected. Slight differences between any two or more cultural groups can be observed, which therefore requires sensitivity to understand cultural differences, especially in manners of proper handling of business transactions. This way, when difficulties are encounter they will be solved readily with positive results. Understanding Differences in Culture The basic requirements for human survival are standard, which means for people to live they need water, food, clothing, housing and security. However, scarcity of these necessities compels human to creatively expand manners of acquiring them in order to give solutions to these survival problems. For simple societies, economic and social behavior consists of uncomplicated activities like looking for and cooking food, crafting clothes, building houses and rearing children. On the other hand, for developed societies, roles go beyond work and domestic related actions and extend to production and distribution of goods and services in order to sustain their big areas of responsibilities. It is essential to know that differences in culture would mean that different cultures have a diversity of styles in looking at things, ways of dressing and expressing individuality and/or goodness. Education, social rank, religion, individuality, belief composition, precedent experience, warmth shown in the domicile, and a countless of other factors will influence an individual’s manners and mores. A good deal of dissimilarities in culture has something to do with foodstuff preparation, music, and what each culture considers good manners. There are really cultural and philosophy disparities and it is fine to have an appreciation about a civilization’s way of life. Hofstede’s Model of Cultural Dimensions A Dutch researcher by the name of Geert Hofstede made a cross-cultural study of organizational behavior using managers from different countries to produce profile of cultural differences. This model is the most famous Hofstede’s Model composed of five dimensions namely power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long term orientation, which gives a comparative evaluation of group attributes. Said dimensions when used jointly, provide management sensible outlook regarding contradicting values and prototypes of manners among countries and groups. Power distance as a dimension relates to the degree of human inequalities. Hierarchical position and authority are the main focuses of a culture with high power distance. Less dominant member of the society acknowledge just being subordinates, who should always follow those who are leading. In societies with high power distance as exemplified by Japan, formal authority comes from the hierarchy where employees hardly ever go against a chain of command or subject into scrutiny the decisions of top management. The reverse is true with societies like the United States, Australia and New Zealand with low power distance, where both higher-ups and subordinates coordinate their decisions with one another and authority is not a big deal. However, for societies like Great Britain, Israel and Canada in particular, though they refuse to accept parity in social level, still they value the right of each person’s accomplishment (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. , 2002). Individualism pertains to the degree of initiative in becoming independent against that of collective endeavor. Societies with high individualism placed importance on personal triumphs, advancement, escapades and self-sufficiency. This implies ignoring the extensive necessities of the society and making oneself and ones family the priority. Contradictory, culture with low degree of individualism supports family relationship, group synchronization, social order and devote to compromised ideas. Uncertainty avoidance (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. , 2002) is the degree of open-mindedness for uncertainty and ambiguity, particularly to man’s search for Truth. It means the feeling of contentment and discontentment in shapeless circumstances which are unusual, unknown and unexpected. For majority of the societies, their religious beliefs stand as their manner of knowing the Absolute Truth. Japanese culture for instance, typifies a society that avoids uncertainty by creating detailed laws and standards in consonance with the norms of the society. There are also societies with dual philosophical beliefs that they do not consider any Absolute Truth and so they accept uncertainty within their organizations. Canadians, as an example do not prioritize ceremonies and company rites unlike the Japanese. The degree of motivational behavior based on value systems that are depicted in terms of being masculine or feminine is another dimension in the Hofstede’s Model termed masculinity. The focus of the said model is not on biological perspectives; however, the behavior is portrayed using gender. In countries with high masculinity, like Japan, men work and hold top positions in organization, while women stay at home to perform household chores and nurture children. In other words, there are distinct roles that women and men do in society. The priorities of people living in societies with high masculinity are achievement, wealth and expansion. Working professionals spent much of their time in work related activities and seldom take vacations to relieve their stress. When confronted with problems, the manners of settling these conflicts are done aggressively. On the opposite, countries that score low in masculinity give significance to their family, relationships and quality of life. There is equality in terms of positions for both men and women which could be observed in all aspects of their lives. Negotiation for people in societies with low masculinity is the best way to resolve misunderstandings and disagreements. They are also fond of working in flexible hours to give way for more vacations and relaxation. The fifth and newest cultural dimension is the long term orientation, founded on the teaching of Confucius on the East. Countries with high long term orientation can be described as being persistent, thrifty, having a sense of shame and organizing and observing relationship by status. On the other hand, those cultures with short term orientation have personal control and firmness, shield ones â€Å"face†, value ritual and give back to greetings, favors, and gifts.

President Harding essays

President Harding essays The two former presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolige were alike in some ways and different in others. President Harding was a news paper owner from Ohio. He was chosen as the Rep. candidate after serving as an Ohio senator. Calvin Coolige was the Vice-president at the time of Warren Harding's death. Coolige fished the rest of Harding's term and then was re-elected. President Coolige followed Harding's policies when finishing his term, but after re-election he began to make some of his own. Harding focused on trying to settle the nation back into peace. He tried to ensure this peace by making treaties and disarmament acts. Harding also tried to lower taxes, take care of war veterans, protect farmers, and collect wartime debts owed to the U.S. . However Harding was not prepared to face the huge problems of the presidency. He made the mistake of appointing some of his Ohio friends to high ranking positions. The men he appointed were involved in many scandals and money stealing. Calvin Coolige like Harding was an admirer of American business. They both believed that business should mainly be left alone without government interference. Coolige especially believed business would be less profitable with more regulation. He also believed, unlike Harding, that nothing could be done to help the U.S. farmers. Coolige vetoed many bills designed to help farmers, like the McNary-Haugen bill, by saying "Farmers have never made much money and I don't believe we can do much about it" . These two presidents were also very different when it came to their personalities. Harding was laid back and likable, always playing cards with his friends and smoking cigars. Coolige, on the other hand, was very quite plain and thrifty. He said very little, earning him the nickname "Silent Cal." These two presidents were more different than alike. They shared only a few views and had very differ...

Learn the History of Ice Hockey

Learn the History of Ice Hockey The origin of ice hockey is unknown; however, ice hockey probably evolved from the game of field hockey that has been played in Northern Europe for centuries. The rules of modern ice hockey were devised by Canadian James Creighton. In 1875, the first game of ice hockey with Creightons rules was played in Montreal, Canada.  This  first organized indoor game  was played at Victoria Skating Rink  between two nine-player teams, including  James Creighton  and several other  McGill University  students. Instead of a ball or bung, the game featured a flat circular piece of wood. The  McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877  (followed by the  Quebec Bulldogs  named Quebec Hockey Club and organized in 1878 and the  Montreal Victorias, organized in 1881). In 1880, the number of players per side went from nine to seven.  The number of teams grew, enough so that the first world championship of ice hockey was held at Montreals annual Winter Carnival  in 1883. The McGill team won the tournament and was awarded the Carnival Cup.  The game was divided into 30-minute halves. The positions were now named:  left and right wing,  center,  rover,  point and cover-point, and  goaltender. In 1886, the teams competing at the Winter Carnival organized the  Amateur Hockey Association of Canada  (AHAC) and played a season comprising challenges to the existing champion. Stanley Cup Origins In 1888, the  Governor-General of Canada,  Lord Stanley of Preston  (his sons and daughter enjoyed hockey), first attended the Montreal Winter Carnival tournament and was impressed with the game. In 1892, he saw that there was no recognition for the best team in Canada, so he purchased a silver bowl for use as a trophy. The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (which later became known as the  Stanley Cup) was first awarded in  1893  to the  Montreal Hockey Club, champions of the AHAC; it continues to be awarded annually to the  National Hockey Leagues championship team.  Stanleys son Arthur helped organize the  Ontario Hockey Association, and Stanleys daughter  Isobel  was one of the first women to play ice hockey. Todays Sport Today, ice hockey is an Olympic sport and the most popular team sport played on ice. Ice hockey is played with two opposing teams wearing ice skates. Unless there is a penalty, each team only has six players on the ice rink at a time. The puck is a vulcanized rubber disk. The aim of the game is to knock the hockey puck into the opposing teams net. The net is guarded by a special player called the goalie. The first artificial ice rink (mechanically-refrigerated) was built in 1876, at Chelsea, London, England, and was named the Glaciarium. It was built near the Kings Road in London by John Gamgee. Today, modern ice rinks are kept clean and smooth by the use of a machine called the Zamboni. Fibreglass Canada worked with Canadiens Goalie Jaques Plante to develop the first-ever hockey goalie mask in 1960.

Information strategy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Information strategy - Coursework Example They may be reluctant to the concept and benefits of consultation and communication. In contrast/consultation and information is likely to be effective in workplaces where the customs is based on an open administration style. Employment relationship behaviours history in the organization can also act as an enabler or an inhibitor to effective consultation and information. Organizations with a history with adversarial relations and those where there has been no tradition of employee participation experience the greatest barriers to shifting to a culture of employee participation. Where there are established relationships through trade unions and partnership working employees may be more open to the opportunities accessible by the directive to review consultation planning. Creating a mixed constituency committees, for example, combining trade union and non union employee’s legislative body may pose serious challenges in the information sharing practices. Practical challenges may come arise from an imbalance of legal rights, expertise, and support between the two groups. Detailed factors must be taken into deliberation when introducing planning tailored to geographically dispersed organizations and those in small organizations. The consultation and information needs to be the same in these organizations whether in large or single site organization. The challenges in a smaller organization revolve around the need to achieve the accurate balance among formality and informality in communication. Question 2 Successful enterprises are built on change; businesses operate in a dynamic environment where the response to changing markets may of benefit to evaluate in hours and days instead of months and years. So responsiveness and adaptability will be of great success. Agent based process administration systems combine the latest distributed computing technology with agent based techniques by providing an intelligent conservatory and alternative to workflow administ ration systems. The advantages associated with agent based process management include, intelligent decision making where management strategy and policy can be represented with a variety of perspectives. Explicit resource management represents the limitation and the value of resources to manage and support the business activities. Anticipation in this process plans the task and schedule available resource anticipation in the business management. APMS react to changing circumstances and have the capacity to generate alternative execution pathways in reacting to specific exceptions. APMS can distribute over multiple platforms across the organization activities using the latest computing technology which is full of open across the machines and operating systems. APMS presents an alternative technology to working flow systems. The major one they offer an alternative vision of how organizations can be planned and managed. The method takes the service oriented view of business procedure ma nagement, where coordinating and resourcing of actions to support an edge to edge business process by relating consultation and collaboration between customers and source agents. Question 3 Workflow management systems have centralized workflow engine unlike APMS which consist of independent systems that represents the respective concerns of various organization units involved the

Ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics - Research Paper Example Research ethics can be defined as the application of basic ethical principles to the subject of study. It includes designing and implementation of the research, human trialing, experimentation on animals, and various other aspects of research. It is also very much crucial to consider the ethical codes prior to carry out the task of research design for data collection. Generally there are three objectives in a research ethics they are protecting the participants, conducting the research in such a way that it serves the purpose of the society on a whole and finally to ensure that research actions are ethically sound. However in the context of social and behavioral research there are many incidents where we find there is a lack of ethical soundness in the research. History of Ethical Principles in Research The Nuremberg trial addressed the experimentation of human being in the context of patient’s right and protection of the human subjects. The code includes:- a) Researches that are based on human must be trialed on animals. b) Risks should be according to the perceived benefits. c) The researches that are based on humans must be carried out by qualified research. ... Belmont Report The Belmont report was developed by ‘National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research’. It was issued during the year 1979 (â€Å"The Belmont Report†). The report summarizes the primary ethical principles and guidelines that should help in the process of determining the ethical issues. The report is divided into two sections namely 1) Limitations between research and practice. 2) Fundamental ethical principles. Regulations and Social and Behavioral Sciences A research review committee is an Institutional Review Board (IRB) must make certain that human research subject needs to be protected. Therefore the questions that should be asked are:- Is the subject of study reasonable? Whether the risks are minimized or not? Whether the risks are justified according to the benefits? Is there a map to control and monitor the security and safety of the subject of study? Assessing Risk in Social and Behavioral Scienc e There are many associated risks with the study of social and behavioral science. Therefore some of the possible risks could be violation of confidentiality, breach of the procedure of study, inaccurate predictions and also the gauged result. However the risks are actually psychological, social, economical and sometimes physical. Informed Consent The participants of the research study must be given sufficient information regarding the study so that they can decide whether to take part or not. They should be informed because the research needs continuous involvement of the participants. Privacy and Confidentiality Any psychological or behavioral research needs high privacy as it mostly deals with secret matters. Moreover discretion and solitude is an important factor in research (Dantzker and