Hoe to Prepare a Business Plan

A business plan is a written document that describes a business, its objectives, its strategies, the market it is in and its financial forecasts. It has many functions, from securing external funding to measuring success within your business. This guide will show you how to prepare a high-quality plan using a number of easy-to-follow steps, and includes a template business plan. Your products and services and audience for your business plan This part of the plan sets out your vision for your new business. It includes who you are, what you do, what you have to offer and the market you want to address. Start with an overview of your business: * when you started or intend to start trading, the progress and investment you have made to date * the type of business and the sector it is in * any relevant history – for example, if you acquired the business, who owned it originally and what they achieved with it * the current legal structure * your vision for the future Describe your products or services as simply as possible, defining: * what makes it different * benefits it offers * why customers would buy it from you instead of your competitors * how you plan to develop your products or services whether you hold any patents, trade marks or design registration * the key features and success factors of your industry or sector The person reading the plan may not understand your business and its products, services or processes, so try to avoid jargon. Get someone who isn't involved in the business – a friend or family member perhaps – to read this section of your plan a nd make sure they can understand it. The audience for your business plan Many people think of a business plan as a document used to secure external funding. Potential investors, including banks, may invest in your idea, work with you or lend you money as a result of the strength of your plan. The following people or institutions may request to see your business plan at some stage: * banks * external investors – whether this is a friend, a venture capitalist firm or a business angel * grant providers * anyone interested in buying your business * potential partners Bear in mind that a business plan is a living document that will help you monitor your performance and stay on track. It will therefore need updating and changing as your business grows. Regardless of whether you intend to use your plan internally, or as a document for external people, it should still take an objective and honest look at your business. Failing to do this could mean that you and others have unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved and when. What a business plan should include Your business plan should provide details of how you are going to develop your business. It describes when you are going to do it, who's going to play a part and how you will manage the finances. Clarity on these issues is particularly important if you're looking for finance or investment. Your plan should include: * An executive summary – an overview of the business you want to start. It's vital. Many lenders and investors make judgments about your business based on this section of the plan alone. * A short description of the business opportunity – who you are, what you plan to sell or offer, why and to whom. * Your marketing and sales strategy – why you think people will buy what you want to sell and how you plan to sell to them. Your management team and personnel – your credentials and the people you plan to recruit to work with you. * Your operations – your premises, production facilities, your management information systems and IT. * Financial forecasts – this section translates everything you have said in the previous sections into numbers. The executive summary The executive summary is often the most important part of your business plan. Positioned at the front of the document, it is the first part to be read. It may be the only part that will be read. Faced with a large pile of funding equests, venture capitalists and banks have been known to separate business plans into ‘worth considering' and ‘discard' piles based on this section alone. The executive summary is a synopsis of the key points of your entire plan. It should include highlights from each section of the rest of the document. Its purpose is to explain the basics of your business in a way that both informs and interests the reader. If, after reading the executive summary, an investor or manager understands what the business is about and is keen to know more, it has done its job. It should be concise – no longer than two pa ges at most – and interesting. It's advisable to write this section of your plan after you have completed the rest. The executive summary is not: * A brief description of the business and its products. It's a synopsis of the entire plan. * An extended table of contents. This makes for very dull reading. You should ensure it shows the highlights of the plan, rather than restating the details the plan contains. * Hype. While the executive summary should excite the reader enough to read the entire plan, an experienced investor or business person will recognise hype and this will undermine the plan's credibility. Your markets, competitors, marketing and sales Here, you should define your market, your position in it and outline who your competitors are. To do this you should refer to any market research you have carried out. You need to demonstrate that you're fully aware of the marketplace you're planning to operate in and that you understand any important trends and drivers. Show that your business will be able to attract customers in a growing market despite the competition. Key areas to cover include: your market – its size, historical data about its development and key current issues * your target customer base – who they are and how you know they will be interested in your products or services * your competitors – who they are, how they work and the share of the market they hold * the future – anticipated changes in the market and how you expect your business and your competitors to react to them It is important to know your competitors' strengths and weakness es as compared to your own. It is good practice to do a competitor analysis of each one. Remember that the market is not static – your customers' needs and your competitors can change. So, you should also demonstrate that you have considered and drawn up contingency plans to cover alternative scenarios. Marketing and sales This section should describe the specific activities you intend to use to promote and sell your products and services. Often, it's the weak link in business plans so it's worth spending time on it to make sure it's realistic and achievable. A strong sales and marketing section means you have a clear idea of how you will get your products and services to market. Your plan will need to provide answers to these questions: * How do you plan to position your product or service in the market place? * Who are your customers? Include details of customers who have shown an interest in your product or service and explain how you plan to go about attracting new customers. * What is your pricing policy? How much will you charge for different customer segments, quantities, etc? * How will you promote your product or service? Identify your sales process methods, eg direct marketing, advertising, PR, email, e-sales, social marketing. * How will you reach your customers? What channels will you use? Which partners will be needed in your distribution channels? * How will you do your selling? Do you have a sales plan? Have you considered which sales method will be the most effective and most appropriate for your market, such as selling by phone, over the internet, face-to-face or through retail outlets? Are your proposed sales methods consistent with your marketing plan? And do you have the right skills to secure the sales you need? Your team's skills and operations Your business plan should identify the strengths in your team and your plans to deal with any obvious weaknesses. The management team If you're looking for external funding, your management team can be a decisive factor. Explain who is involved, their role and how it fits into the organisation. Include a CV or paragraph on each individual, outlining their background, relevant experience and qualifications. Include any advisers you might have such as accountants or lawyers. For your bank manager or other investors, you need to demonstrate that your management team has the right balance of skills, drive and experience for your business to succeed. Key skills include sales, marketing and financial management as well as production, operational and market experience. Your investors will want to be convinced that you and your team are fully committed. Therefore it's a good idea to set out how much time and money each person will contribute – or has already contributed – to the business. Your people Give details of your workforce in terms of total numbers and by department. Spell out what work you plan to do internally and if you plan to outsource any work. Other useful figures might be sales or profit per employee, average salaries, employee retention rates and productivity. Your plan should also outline any recruitment or training plans, including timescales and costs. It's vital to be realistic about the commitment and motivation of your people. Spell out any plans to improve or maintain staff morale. Your operations Your business plan needs to outline your operational capabilities and any planned improvements. There are certain areas you should focus on. Location * Do you have any business property? * What are your long-term commitments to the property? * Do you own or rent it? * What are the advantages and disadvantages of your current location? Producing your goods and services Do you need your own production facilities or would it be cheaper to outsource any manufacturing processes? * If you do have your own facilities, how modern are they? * What is the capacity compared with existing and forecasted demand? * Will any investment be needed? * Who will be your suppliers? Management-information systems * Have you got established procedures for stock control, management accounts and quality control? * Can they cope with any proposed expansion? Information technology * IT is a key factor in most businesses, so include your strengths and weaknesses in this area. Outline the reliability an Financial forecasts You will need to provide a set of financial projections which translate what you have said about your business into numbers. Look carefully at: * how much capital you need if you are seeking external funding * the security you can offer lenders * how you plan to repay any borrowings * sources of revenue and income You may also want to include your personal finances as part of the plan. Financial planning Your forecasts should run for the next three (or even five) years and their level of sophistication should reflect the sophistication of your business. However, the first 12 months' forecasts should have the most detail associated with them. Your forecasts should include Sales forecast – the amount of money you expect to raise from sales. Cashflow statements – your cash balance and monthly cashflow patterns for at least the first 12 to 18 months. The aim is to show that your business will have enough working capital to survive. Make sure you have considered the key factors such as the timing of sales and salaries. Profit and loss forecast – a statement of the trading position of the business. Show the level of profit you expect to make and the costs of providing goods and services and your overheads. Your forecasts should cover a range of scenarios. New businesses often forecast over-optimistic sales and most external readers will take this into account. It is sensible to include subsidiary forecasts based on sales being significantly slower than you are actually predicting. One for sales starting three months later than expected, and another forecasting a 20 per cent lower level of sales. Risk analysis It is good practice to show that you have reviewed the risks your business could be faced with. Show that you have looked at contingencies and insurance to cover these. Risks can include: * competitor action * commercial issues – sales, prices, deliveries operations – IT, technology or production failure * staff – skills, availability and costs * acts of God – fire or flood d the planned development of your systems. Presenting your business plan Keep the plan short – it's more likely to be read if it's a manageable length. Think about the presentation and keep it professional. Remember, a well-presented plan will reinforce the positive impression you want to create of your business. Tips for presenting your plan * Include a cover or binding and a contents page with page and section numbering. * Start with the executive summary. Ensure it's legible – make sure the type is ten point or above. * You may want to email it, so ensure you use email-friendly formatting. * Even if it's for internal use only, write the plan as if it's intended for an external audience. * Edit the plan carefully – get at least two people to read it and check that it makes sense. * Show the plan to expert advisers – such as your accountant – and ask for feedback. Redraft sections they say are difficult to understand. * Avoid jargon and put detailed information – such as market resea rch data or balance sheets – in an appendix at the back. You may have detailed plans for specific areas of your business, such as a sales plan or a staff training plan. However it is best not to include these, though it is good practice to mention that they exist. While it is sensible to seek advice from external advisers, it is not a good idea to get them to write the plan for you. Investors and lenders need to have confidence that you personally understand your business plan and are committed to the vision for the business. Make sure your plan is realistic. Once you have prepared your plan, use it. If you update it regularly, it will help you keep track of your business' development.

Bassetti Italy

There’s a leading thread tying together the long years or Bassetti’s activity, it’s the innovation challenge, a knowing plot of imagination and research that has woven, in time, an amazing story, made of constant evolutions and extraordinary creativity. It all started in Milan, in 1830. At 2 St. Stefano Square, a small textile emporium opens for business, managed by Carlo Barboncini, cousin of the Bassetti family. 10 years later, a hand waving manufacturing plant is opened in Rescaldina.It’s 1864 when Giovanni Bassetti, only 13 years old, buys the company for a little more than one hundred thousand liras. It’s a day that will change the history of the textile world. Giovanni Bassetti’s society has in fact a set destiny: to become the most modern plant in Europe for the most ancient art in the world. From the ‘30s Bassetti starts to organize a capillary network of warehouses and stores that allow the company to expand on the entire natio nal territory. They start talking about marketing and, in common knowledge, the Bassetti brand becomes synonym of technology and high quality.In the mid ‘50s Bassetti undertakes yet another choice in the name of innovation, putting into practice a planned advertising strategy . They concentrate on the Bassetti brand, sustained and divulged through high investments. This is how Bassetti is confirmed as a true business, with a well defined company policy aimed towards innovation: it â€Å"invents† a new house linen, ready made and packaged, ideal for women who are busy working outside the house, but not willing, for this, to give up the pleasure of being surrounded by good taste and high quality.In the ‘60s it begins to expand to European markets, conquering them in no time thanks to its unique creativity. Bassetti is one of the first companies capable of standing on the â€Å"woman’s side†, as a famous advertising claim says, creating products that ar e not just good looking, but also able to simplify housework and turn the home into a pleasant and personal nest, ideal for a free and dynamic life. In the late ‘80s Bassetti finds a new challenge. It starts a franchise project, with one-branded stores called â€Å"C’e Bassetti†: it’s the new way of marketing house linen.At the present time Bassetti is the most famous house linen and textile company, it has a network of shops across the whole national territory, it distributes its collections in Europe and exports in the whole world, promoting the value of the most qualified â€Å"made in Italy†, synonym of elegance and quality. Since 2001, Bassetti has merged with the Zucchi group. Always ready for challenges, Bassetti looks to the future, with ever increasing attention to distribution, the meeting point between producer and consumer.This is proved by the development of the franchising stores network that has reached the considerable number of 130 on the whole national territory and the policy of new store openings in Switzerland, Spain and Greece. AMBITION Dress the home with creativity It is our ambition, because we have always loved to play with imagination and creativity, and we like to think that in every home in Italy, our products express the taste and style of the people living there.Imagination is the ability to create and design products that cam make life â€Å"softer†; creativity, it’s our secret that makes then so loved. And those who love us find here their own creativity, discovering the simplicity of making. The Group today Bassetti is one of  Ã‚  Zucchi Group’s  most prestigious brands. The Group is comprised of series of production, creative and distribution facilities operating mainly in the home textile sector, dealing in finished product, semifinished textiles and ennobling services for third parties.The  Zucchi Group  also has a series of commercial subsidiaries operating in specific market niches and distributing abroad the four market leader brands in Italy and  France (Bassetti, Zucchi, Descamps and Jalla). A few prestigious Licenses complete the product range. [pic][pic]Bassetti Collections Playing with imagination, fantasy and colors, we create our collections to dress your home with ever new emotions!Live submerged in the wonderful landscapes, smells and sound of our La Natura, fill your hours of charm with the sensual and intriguing ideas of Granfoulard. Let the cheerfulness and vitality of Brio catch on to you, then surround yourself with the colors of In Tinta with your character and your life style! Discover the world of Bassetti Collections, where creativity and quality are woven together with experience and tradition, and choose the emotion in which to wrap yourself†¦ Bassetti lets the sunshine in — or shuts it out.The company manufactures a variety of natural and synthetic fiber textiles used in home-furnishing products such a s curtains and drapes, towels, and linens. Bassetti also markets its own home textile products, which it sells through retail outlets, including its own chain of C'e Bassetti stores. Brands for its products include Brio, La Natura, and Intina. Although the company sells its products throughout Italy, the company derives a substantial amount of its revenue from exports. Bassetti is a subsidiary of Italian textile group Vincenzo Zucchi . [pic]

Genetically Modified Food Should Be Banned or Not? Essay

Nowadays a problem of genetically modified food is widespread all over the world. GM foods are genetically modified using biotechnology. More and more GM foods appear on the shelves of our stores and supermarkets nowadays, and make their way into our kitchens. GM foods are designed for greater resistance to viruses and pests, higher nutritional value and longer shelf life. However, their safety, potential risks and ethical concerns are still being debated. So, should genetically modified crops be banned or not? Proponents of GM foods ensure that these foods are safe for human consumption, but critics argue that their effects have not been studied long enough. First argument for banning GM foods is that it badly affects our health and well-being. Some studies have linked consumptions of GM foods to liver and kidney problems. The antibiotics and hormones given to cows and chickens are found in our bodies and we don’t know yet the extent to which these cause chronic disease. Moreover genetic engineering could introduce allergens into foods, causing allergic reactions in people who eat the foods. Another argument is that GM food does not benefit people, just large corporations that produce and sell them. In the most cases the vegetables are modified to look better and be larger so that these companies can make more money. They do not add to the taste or freshness of nutrition of the food. On the other hand GM products along with disadvantages have their benefits too. A lot of people believe that genetically modified foods can help to solve the food crisis in future, and so help humanity to survive. Firstly, all of sorts of GM plants are stable against illnesses and mean weather. Also, GM food is cold tolerant. An antifreeze gene has been introduced into plants such as tobacco and potato. With this antifreeze gene, these plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally would kill unmodified seedlings. Secondly, they ripen fast and keep longer than usual plants. It is easier to transport them and keep fresh for a long time. In my opinion, genetic engineering should be banned because young generation will have different diseases because of eating unhealthful food. Of course, this is a huge industry nowadays that obviously can’t be stopped, but I believe that there are other ways to save people from hunger. References: 1. â€Å"Genetically Modified Crops Should be Banned† 2. Murphy, Tom. â€Å"The Arguments for and Against Genetically Modified (GM) Food. † N. p. , 15 06 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. 3. Gray, Louise. â€Å"Ten tweets for and against GM†. Environment Correspondent 4:04PM GMT 24 Jan 2011 4. â€Å"Should Genetically Modified Foods (GM Foods) Be Banned? – Facts & Infographic†.

“Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen and the 19th Century Marriage Essay

Marriage in the 19th century was a social and economic matter, rather than a matter of personal relationship. The morals of the era, including family morals, are often associated with the Victorian England, where they revealed themselves in the most ultimate and form, yet especially this kind of attitude towards marriage dominated throughout Europe. The hypocrisy of the 19th century marriage, which caused countless lives to be broken and countless people to be unhappy, inspired many prominent writers like Oscar Wild, Gustave Flaubert, Honore de Balzac, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to refer to the motifs of protest against such state of things. Yet Henrik Ibsen is unique even in this society, he concentrates on the named subject in virtually every of his famous plays. One of those plays is â€Å"Hedda Gabler† first published in 1890. In this paper I will attempt to analyze Ibsen’s play in the context of the XIX century marriage, as well as the effect the play itself had on the social perception of family ties. I will argue that Ibsen managed to demonstrate how frustrating a hypocritical marriage can be and what a disastrous consequences it can cause not only for the married women, but for every person involved in the relation. I will further argue that the play can be viewed as Ibsen’s contribution to change of the entire social idea of the place of a woman in a family. Ibsen himself wrote that â€Å"The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. I intended to indicate thereby that as a personality she is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife. † Here Ibsen refers to the key problem of marriage in the 19th century. A woman has not played any independent role in it. She has always been viewed as â€Å"belonging to some man†, whether it is her father, brother or husband. Correspondingly, she had no opportunity to develop her own life and turned out to be a toy in the hands of men, being entirely dependent on them in social and economic aspects . In Hedda’s case she is either a daughter of a general, or a wife of an academic. But what is worse, she is dependent not only socially, but even mentally. She does not seem to be very clever, yet this does not mean that she lacks character. At her first approach Ibsen stresses her â€Å"pale and opaque† face and that â€Å"her steel-grey eyes express a cold, unruffled repose† . She is no way a foolish maiden dreaming only of lavish and careless life, throughout the play she often acts as a person of firm will, yet of a bad, or rather undeveloped character. This personal underdevelopment includes both narrow outlook and lack of moral principles. Perhaps she has been taught everything possible about morals, but a person of her type would rather act in contrary to imposed principles. Hedda really â€Å"belongs† to her husband and she is constantly reminded of that. This makes her desire for power even stronger, as she demonstrates more and more masculine features as the play develops. Unwilling to accept the feminine stereotypes of behavior Hedda plays with her father’s pistols perhaps more to shock and confuse her family, because handling arms is surely not a proper thing for a young lady. Yet the play with the pistols is still comparatively innocent. It appears that Hedda plays her own game with the society. Her relatives treat her as an obedient toy, so Hedda starts using them as toys in turn. This is a game of arrogance and indifference. Hedda makes snobbish remarks to the surrounding people, insults Aunt Julie’s new hat. The game gradually becomes more and more dangerous, and ends with two suicides. It seems that in this game Hedda makes little difference between a hat and Lovborg’s life. What the world has given to Hedda that Hedda returns to the world, and in case her dreams of luxurious existence are ruined, she can ruin the world in turn. The dependent position of a woman in marriage is naturally followed by another aspect of 19th century marriage – restriction of a woman. Ibsen embodied this social barrier in the repeated image of a glass door. The barrier is easy to be removed or broken, which she â€Å"nervously† walks to, but which she never opens, dying inside the claustrophobic space of the house. A question might arise here why Hedda at all married Jorgen Tesman whom she never loved and whom she openly neglected? The most obvious answer is that Hedda was in need of money, since her fathers only heritage was a good name. Tesman was an acceptable choice to her. He is considerably prosperous, his scientific prospects look perfectly, his name is noble, and, what is most important, his character is not very strong, so Hedda can easily control him. What is less obvious is Hedda’s desire to revenge Lovborg who failed to meet her hopes. Whether consciously or not, Hedda is making her way towards actual murder and suicide from the very beginning of the play. Although even in the 19th century the declared ground of marriage was love, Hedda cries to the Judge not to â€Å"use this sickening word† . She has crossed out her dreams of love and she does not want even to remember them. However, Hedda at least has an idea of love and passions, while her husband has none. As Hedda married Tesman of convenience, so Tesman did to Hedda. He is attracted both by her origin and by her beauty, while her death impresses him in a strange way: â€Å"Shot herself! Shot herself in the temple! Fancy that! †. This last phrase shows his real attitude. He never loved Hedda, and his primary concern was his own social position which he hoped to improve with a good marriage and an image of a beautiful wife. In fact there are no good or bad characters in the play, no victims and no executioners. Hedda is often blamed as a â€Å"snobbish, mean-spirited, small-minded, conservative, cold, bored, vicious. She’s sexually eager but terrified of sex; ambitious to be bohemian but frightened of scandal; a desperate romantic fantasist but unable to sustain any loving relationship with anyone, including herself† . This all can be true, but other characters are not better. The basic defect of the situation is that men and women surrounding Hedda are completely unable to see her as a personality outside of her social position. To the last they believe that Hedda would act in the â€Å"accepted way†, whether it is Tesman who views his wife as a pretty doll or Judge Brack who blackmails Hedda to enter into the family and probably force Hedda to a love affair believing that Hedda would act as a women in hopelessness, in other words obey . Brack is surprised with Hedda’s rebelliousness against the rule and asks: â€Å"Are you so unlike the generality of women as to have no turn for duties? † . But what Hedda does not want to hear about are duties. In this company even Lovborg causes little compassion. An miserable alcoholic who almost ruined his talent saved not due to his own effort, but due to a woman, he is unable even to die in the way Hedda has determined, and his suicide looks ridiculous. Being finally cornered by the circumstances Hedda decides to commit suicide herself. All of her dreams are ruined, she is now convinced that nobody loves her, her dreams of freedom, luxury and passions appeared to be mirages. She is unable to dominate even in the situation she has herself created. Hedda realizes that she is not a romantic hero but a simple wife of an academic, she is imprisoned and powerless. Her possible motherhood can only aggravate her despair, for a child shall be born from a man she does not love, and childbirth will make her even more helpless and dependent. Thus suicide looks as a natural resort for her. There is an another strong social allusion in the play. Lovborg and Mrs. Elvsted use to label Loveborg’s manuscript as a child, so burning a manuscript is a similar to child murder. When Hedda kills herself she kills her prospective children, as well as ruins her husband’s reputation thus doing two things he is afraid of. She commits suicide out of escapist intents but it is also a revenge to her husband, Brack, relatives and the whole world where such hypocritical marriage is possible. â€Å"Hedda Gabler† caused an ambiguous reaction of the public ever since premiere. The responses differed from calling it â€Å"Ibsen’s greatest play and the most interesting woman that he has created† to the devastating characteristic by George Bernard Show who emotionally observed: â€Å"What a marvel of stupidity and nonsense the author did produce in this play! It is incredible to think that only a score of years ago the audience sat seriously before its precious dullness†. American newspapers added oil to the flame of critique. The Philadelphian Ledger wrote after the American premiere â€Å"What a hopeless specimen of degeneracy is Hedda Gabler! A vicious, heartless, cowardly, unmoral, mischief-making vixen†. Yet I would emphasize a characteristic that remains actual until now. It has been provided by Justin Huntly McCarthy who wrote of the â€Å"he most interesting woman that he has created – she is compact with all the vices, she is instinct with all the virtues of womanhood† . The debate has not ceased over the years. Hedda became a favored character in the feminist movement, the play has been staged in numerous interpretations, including even lesbian one. However such public interest is the best proof of the fact that Ibsen hit the nail. â€Å"Hedda Gabler† is a play about fatal marriage. It starts with return of Hedda from her wedding journey and ends with the beginning of her final journey. However, Ibsen managed to generalize his subject and make his play a story of woman place in the society. 19th century marriage did left little space for female existence in the world dominated by males. That what the play is actually about. The motif of domination is revealed throughout the play and it is not always possible to say who, except for faulty customs dominates the situation. After all Tesman is unable to control even himself, and Hedda can not take the leading positions in the family due to social restrictions. Death is her protest. Perhaps it would not be too general to say that Ibsen wrote not only of physical death of his character but of a spiritual death of womanhood in the 19th century marriage. Works Cited: 1. Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Digireads. com, 2005. 2. Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. 3. Templeton, Joan. Ibsen’s Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 4. Eyre, Richard. â€Å"Femme fatale. Richard Eyre would like to apologise to Ibsen for doubting the greatness of Hedda Gabler†. The Guardian. 5 Mar. 2005. 21 April 2009 http://www. guardian. co. uk/stage/2005/mar/05/theatre 5. Sanders, Tracy. â€Å"Lecture Notes: Hedda Gabler – Fiend or Heroine†. Australian Catholic University, 2006. 21 April 2009 http://dlibrary. acu. edu. au/staffhome/trsanders/units/modern_drama/hedda_gabler. html

Comparism of an everyday text with a literary text Essay

Choose one every day and one literary text. Using at least two analytical techniques from E301, analyze and compare your two texts in terms of their creativity and literariness, drawing on material from both parts of the module. In this paper I will analyze and compare a literary text and an everyday text, in terms of their creativity and literariness. I chose Philip Larkin’s (1964) poem, ‘Self’s the man’ (see Appendix, Text 1), as the literary text for analysis because it is not only smooth and pleasing to the eye and mind that it seems effortless to read and contain within one’s self but also because it arouses so many emotions which makes it ideal for analysis. In ‘Self’s the man’ Larkin (1964), is being cynical towards relationships and through the satirization of marriage; he contrasts himself with a mythical other, Arnold, with a view of talking about who is more selfish, claiming that married people are as selfish as single ones, that is, for their own comfort as well as fear that they will be left alone for the rest of their lives, people jump into marriage. The everyday text that I have chosen to analyze and compare with the poem, is an advertisement by DEBEERS (see Appendix, Text 2), targeting men, persuading them to buy a diamond ring for their lady, since diamonds, just like marriage, are an investment. Diamonds are a symbol of eternal love and devotion and men are aware of this symbolism, hence, DE BEERS exploits that in the advertisement by ingraining in the minds of men that if they want to stop ‘a woman getting away’ (Larkin, 1964), they should make their ‘two months’ salary last forever’ (DE BEERS, 2004). Although at first glance the two texts seem completely different, they are seemingly connected by the same theme of ‘relationships’, however, from two different contrasting contexts, with Text 1, being a poem by Philip Larkin (1964), and Text 2, being an advertisement by DE BEERS (2004). In order to evaluate the creativity and literariness of a text, a thorough analysis of the language the writer has used is of supreme importance. However, before analyzing the texts, it is necessary to have a broad interpretation of creativity and literariness. According to Sternberg (1999:3), ‘Creativity is the ability to produce work that i s both novel (i.e. Original, unexpected) and appropriate (i.e. Adaptive concerning task constraints). Furthermore, Swann (2006: 7) asserts that ‘creativity is not restricted to literary texts but is a common aspect of our interactions with others’, which links closely to Papen’s and Tusting’s (2006:315) claim  that ‘all meaning making processes have a creative element’. Hence, it can be said that creativity can be found in all literacy practices, in the way that texts are constructed, read and interpreted. Creativity has textual, socio-cultural and cognitive aspects (Carter, 2004) and in this paper both chosen texts will be analyzed in terms of all three. Literariness, on the other hand, is defined by the Russian Formalists as a sum of special linguistic and formal ‘properties that could be located in literary texts’ (Maybin & Pearce, 2006:6). The Formalists elucidate the observable ‘devices’ by which literary texts, especially poems, foreground their own language, in rhyme, and other patterns of sound and repetition . Hence, literariness is to be perceived in terms of defamiliarization, as a series of deviations from ‘ordinary’ language, ‘in which our routine ways of seeing and thinking are disrupted; our perceptions freshened; and our awareness of the world heightened’ (Shklovsky, in Hawks, 1997:62). Cook (1994) asserts that literariness is based on the notion of schema disruption where the reader’s views and perspectives are challenged in some way. He proposes that literariness results when a text and linguistic deviation cause schema disruption, refreshment or even change, however, whether a text generates schema refreshment ultimately depends on the reader’s desire for it to happen. Therefore, who the reader is, how he approaches and perceives the text with distinct background knowledge and expectations, ultimately determines the literary value of a text. In my analysis, I will first apply Jakobson’s (1960) methodology, stylistics approach and Carter’s (1997) criteria of literariness to the two texts and then contrast them with illustrations in terms of interpretative schemata. My intention in doing so is to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches and also modes in which they interact to better comprehend the nature of cre ativity and literariness. On the graphological level, in Text 1, the noticeable attributes are the traditional lineation, stanza divisions of poetry, and the presence of standard punctuation. The poem has 8 stanzas in all and each stanza consists of 4 lines. This creates a set rhythmic pattern, particularly in conjunction with the rhyme scheme. Text 2, on the other hand, on a graphic level, uses full capitalization in order to emphasize every letter in the ad and make it  look trim and tidy. The headline uses larger, capital and bold letters to draw readers’ attention and make them curious about what the advertisement mainly has to say, leading them to continue on reading unconsciously by arousing their curiosity and desire to know more about the product and subsequently persuading them to buy it. Moreover, Text 2, illustrates graphological deviation, by using solid background colors, and a brilliant diamond ring to focus all the reader’s attention to. On the phonic level, Text 1 has little ir regularity. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABB, CCDD, where lines 1 & 2 and 3 & 4, rhyme in every verse with an exception of half-rhyme in the 3rd (supper/paper) and 4th (houses/trousers; mother/summer) stanzas. The use of rhyme creates an ‘end stop’, whereby the reader pauses slightly, emphasizing the words that rhyme. In Jakobson’s methodology (1960), when phonemes rhyme in a text and/or alliteration is present together with other sound effects of verse, ‘it is at once both a deviation from the code and an imposition of order upon it’ (Cook, 1994:396). Presuming that rhyming of phonemes is unique, literary, and an attribute of text, it can be said that, Text 1, is both creative and literary. In Text 2, on the other hand, the nine-word headline also contains linguistic exploitation, in a way that highlights and depicts the message which makes it an interesting Carpe diem poem urging the reader to seize the day by making his two months’ salary last forev er. Although, Text 2 is an advertisement and attention of the reader is traditionally supposed to be on the meaning rather than the sound, it is interesting to see how the headline, ‘HOW CAN YOU MAKE TWO MONTHS’ SALARY LAST FOREVER?’ contains phonological parallelism with an inline-rhyme (You/Two: both words come from a paradigm of one syllable words containing the sound /uË /) which as mentioned above makes it, both, creative and literary. The lexis in Text 1 is ‘ordinary’ rather than ‘poetic’. Larkin’s (1964) deviation from Standard English by using colloquial lexis: ‘perk’, ‘nippers’, ‘kiddies’ clobber’; interests the reader and familiarizes them with the situation, which is effective in that it is easy to read if one can relate to the poet. Moreover, the constant use of the conjunction ‘and’, in the 2nd, 3rd and 7th stanzas highlights the bare, repetitive and boring lifestyle of Arnold which is reduced to mundane tasks. Text 2, on the other hand, exploits lexical ambiguity at the semantic level. Thus, the slogan â€Å"A Diamond Is Forever,†Ã‚  means both that ‘a diamond is a never-ending sign of love’ (that is, the diamond is not merely seen as a rock but rather as a sign of eternal love, hence, the diamond, in Text 2, is made to produce love and comes to mean ‘love’) and that ‘a diamond would always hold its value’. Additionally, affirmative and commendatory words and phrases (‘perfect’, ‘she’ll cherish’, ‘she’ll love’, ‘surprise her’, ‘diamond experts since 1888’) are widely used in, Text 2, to impress the potential customer of the quality of the diamond ring, to form positive image in their minds, win their trust and arouse their desire to buy it. Moreover, in Text 2, the use of second person addressee â€Å"you† tends to shorten the distance between the reader and the advertiser, making the advertisement more like a face-to-face conversation where the advertiser speaks to the readers in a tender tone, making sincere promises and honest recommendations. In so doing, the advertisement moves the reader to action since the reader feels he is being thought of and plays an important role for the manufacturer. Hence, it can be said that, Text 2, has an obvious conative function, since it is supposed to address and influence the reader to buy a product, unlike, Text 1, where the poetic function dominates, making it self-referential (Thornborrow, 2006). Turning to the grammatical characteristics of the texts, Text 1, just like its lexis, seems pointedly ‘unpoetic’. Apart from Short’s (1996) idea of cohesion which can be identified in the poem since it contains logical and clear links between sentences through the use of words such as ‘and’ (‘And when he finishes supper’), ‘but’ (‘But wait not too fast’) and in form of personal reference, that is, through the use of personal pronouns where Arnold is named at the beginning to introduce him as a topic and then onwards the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’ are employed anaphorically for subsequent reference , there are only a few glimpses of patterning or ‘poetic’ syntax. One grammatical deviance in Text 1 is found in line 18 (‘Makes me feel a swine’), where the writer’s omission of the word ‘like’ draws particular attention to itself by deviating from what is expected. Imagery, a stylistic device, is used in Text 1, in the 3rd and 4th stanzas, where the poet invites the readers to imagine Arnold wheeling the ‘nippers’†¦round the  houses’(L.13) as well as painting the hall ‘in his old trousers’ (L.14) obviously at the command of his wife. Furthermore, the stylistic device, diction, which is the choice of distinct words used in a text to not only communicate meaning but also emotions, is being cleverly used in Text 1. The diction of ‘Self’s the man’ is accurate, vivid, expressive and chosen wisely by the poet. For instance, in the following sentence, ‘She takes as her perk’ (L.6), the ‘speediness’ and ‘brusqueness’ of the verb ‘takes’ insinuates a sense of forced snatching possibly even before Arnold has counted his money. The noun ‘perk’ promotes a negative view of women, suggesting that Arnold’s wife is a gold digger who expects to be paid for being there. Moreover, Larkin’s use of the colloquial idiom, ‘having a read at†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ instead of ‘read’, insinuates Arnold’s chronic fatigue, robbing him of the power of serious concentration. The phrase ‘Put a screw in this wall’ (L11) highlights how Arnold’s wife has the upper hand in the relationship, that she nags and controls him and ‘He has no time at all’ (L12), for he has given his life to marriage. Through his diction, one can perceive the poet’s sarcastic and cynical tone in Text 1, portraying Arnold as being trapped, unhappy and unfulfilled since he is enslaved, dominated and directed by his wife and children. The last stanza is an indecisive finishing statement that shows that the poet has reached the conclusion that he has a superior strategy in playing the game of life, however, by saying ‘Or – I suppose I can’ in Line 32, he lets the readers interpret and decide for themselves who i s more selfish. On the other hand, the grammatical style marker of significance in, Text 2, is the extensive use of present tense which demonstrates not only the positive features of the diamond ring, satisfying the consumer’s desire to know the present state of the product he wants but also makes the advertisement easier to comprehend without transferring to other tenses. But there is another aspect of the simple present in, Text 2, and that is its implication of universality and timelessness. Moreover, the use of interrogative sentences, in Text 2, such as, ‘How often will you give her something she’ll cherish for the rest of her life?’ and ‘How can you make two months’ salary last forever?’ arouses the reader’s attention since they are, both, captivating and thought provoking. Carter’s (1997) criteria of literariness, assists in confirming the general  opinion that both texts have a relatively high degree of literariness. The first criterion of Carter (1997) which is evident in, Text 1, is medium dependence. ‘Self’s the man’ creates a world of internal reference where the reader’s attention is ultimately ‘drawn into the text itself’ (Maybin & Pearce, 2006:16). Perceptibly, a lack of direct referential communication exists with the reader’s concerns, which results in an ‘enclosing effect’ proposed by Widdowson (1975) as being an attribute of literature. Carter (1997) asserts that such a text, which exclusively depends on itself, throws the reader’s expectations and emotions into turmoil, making them ‘feel insecure thus adding intensity to the meaning of the text’ (Carter, 1997:67). However, he elucidates that ‘no text can be so entirely autonomous that it refers only to itself nor so rich that a reader’s own experience†¦cannot extend the world it creates’ (Carter, 1997:82) which relates to Widdowson’s (1975:36) theory that ‘literary interpretation†¦is not concerned with what the writer meant by the text, but what the text means, or might mean, to the reader’. On the other hand, Text 2, points towards an external, verifiable reality which if required, could be reordered or reformed without altering the meaning. Moreover, Text 2, communicates with the reader in such a way that he/she is bound by cooperative conditions of conventional communication. It also relies on another medium, the employment of an image, to assist in reinforcing the promotional and persuasive effect, which when combined, shows aspects of literary creativity. The next criterion proposed by Carter (1997), genre mixing, is a type of deviation which demonstrates how all language can be employed to generate a literary effect by this process. Text 1 shows examples of deviation at the level of words and meaning as it includes colloquial words and phrases which stand out from the surrounding text (perk’, ‘nippers’, ‘kiddies’ clobber’, ‘having a read at’) while Text 2, exploits the language typically associated with advertising which could be subtly redeployed for literary purposes. Text 2, also employs graphological deviation, through the use of different layout, size and typeface. Polysemy, the use of words or phrases that have more than one meaning, is another criterion of Carter’s (1997) which can be seen in the following sentence in Text 2: ‘A Diamond is Forever’. These words as mentioned earlier carry the meaning that ‘a diamond  is a symbol of eternal loveâ₠¬â„¢ and that ‘a diamond would always remain valuable’. Moreover, the headline in Text 2, ‘How can you make two months’ salary last forever?’ is also polysemous, telling men that ‘they should invest their two months’ salary in buying a diamond ring for their lady which will make their love last forever’ and that ‘since diamonds are rare, a symbol of success and the most valuable possession, its value will only increase with time’, hence they are an ideal investment for their money. Carter’s (1997) criterion of text patterning expatiates on Jakobson’s (1960) concept of parallelism, nevertheless, on a much broader textual scale. Texts get their meaning from their context and what meaning the writer desires to establish depends to a larger extent on the reader. By looking at the structure of Text 1 and the way it is presented, one can say that it was written for no distinct purpose other than to entertain, whereas, Text 1 has a definite pragmatic function, for it is written f or a particular purpose which is to inform and persuade the reader to buy a diamond ring. So far, I have followed Jakobson (1960), Carter (1997) and the stylistics point of view, to analyze the formal features of the texts. However, in order for a text to serve as a coherent communicative act, certain schemata of the reader must be activated to make sense of what they read by applying the text to significant and authentic experiences. Text 1, activates the reader’s ‘married life’, ‘single life’ and ‘selfishness VS selflessness’ schema and as a result, judgments are made which go beyond the text. In Text 1, I interpret the relevant reader (depending on the reader) schemata to be as follows: Script: selfishness VS unselfishness of married and single people Script: marriage is an act of selflessness Script: married life has the bliss of being a husband and father Script: single people are inferior to married people Script: stay single since marriage is a form of entrapment Script: married people are as selfish as singles In Text 2, I interpret the relevant reader schemata (depending on the reader) as follows: Script: buy a diamond ring Plan: give a diamond ring Plan: show love and devotion Plan: impress the woman Goal: marry the woman Or Script: buy a diamond ring Goal: perfect investment for money since a diamond’s worth will increase with time No obvious mention of these schemata was made by the writers of the texts and I have only come to these cognitive conclusions with my own cultural background influencing my intuition. It can be said that, Text 1, ultimately results in schema reinforcement since it corroborates the stereotypical presumptions about people and the world. Text 2, also results in schema reinforcement since the advertisers assume that readers share and recognize their plans and are persuadable to the recommendation and will purchase a diamond ring. The analyses manifest how Jakobson’s and Carter’s methodology operates only at the linguistic level and not at the schematic and discoursal level. The literariness of both texts cannot be represented in simple Stylistics, Carter’s or Jakobson’s approach. Only with reference to the reader’s distinct schemata, can one argue for their literar iness or lack of it. In conclusion, the analyses demonstrate the weaknesses of Stylistics, Jakobson’s and Carter’s inherency approach in isolation, highlighting the importance of the reader’s unique interpretative schemata. However, one should not cast aside Jakobson’s, Stylistics and inherency approach but rather supplement them with the pivotal role of the reader. The significance of a reader to determine the literariness of a text was neglected by Jakobson, although, interestingly, his philosophy strongly insinuates the presence of the reader. In order for a text to have a poetic function, it has to have an effect on the person reading the text, which is, the reader. Stylistics and Carter’s inherency focus, on the other hand, are only beneficial in showing that ‘there are no sharp cut-offs between literary and non-literary texts and that prototypical literary texts, even if not poems, contain poetic elements’ (Thornborrow, 2006:65). Hence, Text 1, with its few glimpses of linguistic patterning and deviation, may still be regarded as literary by many readers, whereas, Text 2, with its density of patterning and deviation will hardly be regarded as being literary only because it is classified as an advertisement. This, however, depends upon individual  readers since point of views and approaches present in the texts will arouse particular judgments in particular readers. These judgments will differ according to the schemata of the reader, and the extent to which their valued expectations and emotions are thrown into turmoil. Moreover, it can be said that both texts are wide open to recategorization as readers change for different readers will categorize a text differently. REFERENCES Carter, R (1997) in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp. 60-89 Carter, R (2004) Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk, London, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, pp. 1-226. Cook, D. (1994) in in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp. 37-43, 396-413 DeBeers, (2004) ‘How Can You Make Two Months Salary Last Forever’, [online], http://lessisabore.com/main_files/writing/04_diamond.html (Accessed on 2 April 2012) Grice, P. (1975) in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes Jakobson (1960) in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp. 6-24, 49-74 Larkin, P (1964), The Whitsun Weddings, Faber & Faber Ltd, London, UK, p. 26 Maybin, J. & Pearce, M. (2006) in Goodm an, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, p.6 Papen, U. & Tusting, K. (2006), in Maybin, J & Swann, J. (2006) The art of English: everyday creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp. 312-331 Short, M. (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose, Addison Wesley Longman Ltd., Essex, UK Sternberg, R.J. (1999) in Carter, R. (2004) Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk, London, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, p.47 Thornborrow, J. (2006) in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp.50-74 Widdowson, H. (2006) in Goodman, S & O’Halloran, K. (2006) The art of English: Literary creativity, Open University, Milton Keynes, pp. 30-37

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Annotated bibliography - Essay Example A good example of such support is a publication called the Arab Human Development Report 2002, released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This report was signed by numerous intellectuals from the Arab world, signifying that there was a deficit in women’s empowerment in the region. It painted a miserable picture of the Arab world, depicting it as a region that lagged behind the rest of the world as a result of lack of women’s education, empowerment and freedom. According to the report, the deficit in empowering women in the Arab world was to blame for the backwardness of the region (Ottaway 3). The report also notes that the economic and political capabilities of women in the Arab world are the least utilized in the whole world. This is evidenced by the low number of women parliamentarians, low number of women in cabinet, and the low number of women in the work force. The article notes that society suffers a great deal when a large section of its producti ve members are stifled and denied the opportunity to exercise their potential. These sentiments have further been echoed by President Bush and his administration officials. President Bush was quoted in May 2003 saying that, â€Å"no society can succeed and prosper while denying basic rights to the women of their country.† His secretary of state at that time, Colin Powell, echoed his comments by saying that, â€Å"until the countries of the Middle East unleash the abilities and potential of their women, they will not build a future of hope† (Ottaway 3). The article further notes that it is easy for the US to announce its goal of promoting the rights of women in the Arab world. This has not been a very easy task to accomplish. However, many Arab nations are taking small concrete steps to show their commitment to the promotion of women’s rights. Many Arab nations are accepting to empower women in small projects that do not threaten the rulers of their regimes. They are doing this to demonstrate their willingness to modernize and democratize. They seem to think that promoting the rights of women to some extent cannot be seen as a threat to the authoritarian governments that rule the region. Therefore, many governments have been seen to take small and concrete steps such as occasionally appointing a woman to a high and noticeable position, and introducing major amendments to family and divorce laws. This has made it relatively easier and cheaper for the US and other countries keen on promoting democracy to promote the rights of women in the Arab world. This has been achieved through encouraging education for girls, providing training for women seeking elective and public offices, and funding NGOs that support the empowerment of women (Ottaway 3). Unfortunately, despite all the efforts being made to promote the rights of women in the Arab world, there are many facile assumptions that have been generated by the process. The assumptions have broug ht about a lot of confusion about the real conditions of women in the Middle East, the true nature of the problems that they face, and the relationship between democracy and women’s rights. The main aim of the author of the article, Marina Ottaway, was to clarify these issues. Some of the assumptions that

Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Comparison - Essay Example There used to be one green board at the rear wall where we used to put up charts and drawings of our relevant subjects. whereas in US the classrooms I found were very much different from what I have seen in the middle east. the walls were colorful with more wall charts and drawings. The classrooms in the Us were more engaging and meant to keep the students in there more interested in studies. As compared to the schools and classrooms in US, Middle Eastern system had a stricter environment. The students in Middle Eastern schools are well behaved and disciplined as compared to the schools in US. The education system however, is very much better in the US, inspired from which improvements can be made in the education system of Middle East. From my experience, a classroom with a better engaging environment can be of great help to the students. As is seen in the classrooms of schools in US where they have maintained their classrooms according to the standard and age of the students studying in them. They have colorful walls, educational drawings and paintings all over the walls as well as for older and mature students they have all the relevant instruments and technologies within the reach of the students in their classrooms. Most of the schools and classrooms lack these advances thus making an American classroom far better to study and

Discussion Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 11

Discussion Questions - Assignment Example Businesses found on godly principles embrace concepts such as commitment, diligence, honesty, kindness, excellence and others. By upholding such values, the business will ensure that its products are of high value and satisfy customers’ needs. These are values that most people appreciate in business. Such values can earn a business loyalty from its customers. Positioning involves influencing perceptions of customers about a product (Pride & Ferrell, 2006). To a marketer, not only are words necessary, but also deeds or actions to supplement the words. Words are important since they enable the marketer persuade customers to purchase a product or act in a certain manner. A marketer must choose words carefully so that they can be pleasing as well as convincing to the customer (Pride & Ferrell, 2006). Words must be complemented by the appropriate actions. If this does not occur, customers may level criticism against the business. In order to retain customers, actions must supplement what the words promised to deliver. If customers do not get what was promised by mere words, they will most probably spread criticism by telling others. This may tarnish the business’s image in the eyes of potential

1 What is the principle of liberty Summarize John Stuart Mills Essay

1 What is the principle of liberty Summarize John Stuart Mills arguments in favour of the principle of liberty. 2 What are Isaiah Berlins two liberties How are they different 3 Why mig - Essay Example Positive liberty may be defined as the freedom of one who governs or be his own master in the society. Both liberties can be differentiated in two major forms. The first â€Å"self abnegation in order to attain independence† and the second form the â€Å"self identification with specific principle† (Berlin, 1958, p.10). According to libertarians the owners of a particular property should receive full right to enjoy their own properties. They do not support the other types of controls such as â€Å"wages, prices, rents, profit, and interest rates† to achieve political goals (Libertarian Party Platform, 2012, p.4). Berlin would suggest a reform of maximizing taxes to remove other taxes as well as add capital gains and dividends as preferred ones. In simple words, he would support a simple and fairer tax system. Public displays of affection between two people from the same country can be viewed as normal, depending on the culture of the particular country. Displaying posters such as same sex marriage should be discouraged as it may â€Å"reduce marriage to a friendship† (Same Sex Marriage Advocates are Far too Spiritual, 2011, par.2). Marriage means more than a friendship. No matter how close two friends are, they cannot become one flesh and marriage takes the relationship to another level. Thus, a man can have many friends, but only one wife. Everyone has the â€Å"right to express† and the freedom to receive ideas without any interference of the public (Judge Yamali, n.d. p.4). The freedom of speech is very essential and it is the primary right of every citizen. Without freedom to speak there would be no political action and no opposition to injustice. For example, in Handy Side Vs United Kingdom the court has ruled that â€Å"Freedom of expression (is the) essential foundations of a society† (p.5). There are a number of convention rights to be considered by an institution before admission. These include the

Differences Between Virtual and Concrete Manipulatives Essay

Differences Between Virtual and Concrete Manipulatives - Essay Example 117). Physical or real-world features do not define a concrete experience in a mathematical context; it is by how significant the connection is to the mathematical ideas and situations. For example, a student might create the meaning of the concept "four" by building a representation of the number and connecting it with either real or pictured blocks. Virtual manipulatives, also called computer manipulatives, appear to offer interactive environments where students can manipulate computer objects to create and solve problems. Furthermore, perhaps because they are receiving instant feedback about their actions, students then form connections between mathematical concepts and operations. However, whether using physical or virtual manipulatives, it is necessary to connect the use of a specific manipulative to the mathematical concepts or procedures that are being studied (p. 119). Some researchers have observed that some of the constraints inherent to physical manipulatives do not bind v irtual manipulatives. Use of models and/or manipulatives gives assessment of mathematical learning a cohesive connection to mathematical instruction (Kelly, 2006). Kelly’s study examines the relationship between mathematical assessment and the use of manipulatives. ... The use of such assessments in combination with the use of manipulatives should build strong student investment in the teaching-learning process while developing deeper mathematical learning. Physical Manipulatives Relative to the teaching and learning of mathematics, physical, or concrete, manipulatives are three-dimensional objects used to help students bridge their understanding of the concrete environment with the symbolic representations of mathematics (Clements, 1999; Hynes, 1986; Moyer, 2001; Terry, 1996). There has been historical documentation of the use of manipulatives such as the abacus, counting sticks, and of course fingers, prior to the Roman Empire (Fuys & Tischler, 1979). Examples of teacher-made manipulatives include those that use materials such as beans, buttons, popsicle-sticks, and straws (Fuys & Tischler). Today’s teachers have access to a wide variety of commercially available manipulatives designed to aid in the teaching of most elementary mathematical concepts. Examples include Algebra tiles, attribute blocks, Base-10 materials, color tiles, Cuisenaire rods, fraction strips, geoboards, geometric solids, pattern blocks and Unifix cubes. The appearance of commercially made manipulatives in the United States increased during the 1960s after the work of Zolten Dienes and Jerome Bruner was published (Thompson & Lambdin, 1994). Many educators continue to view manipulatives as teaching tools that involve physical objects that teachers use to engage their students in practical and hands-on learning of mathematics. These manipulatives continue to be instrumental to introduce, practice, or remediate mathematical concepts and procedures. Concrete manipulatives come in a variety of physical forms, ranging from grains of rice to

Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management - 2 Essay

Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management - 2 - Essay Example The move towards conservatism is a reaction to the recent crisis, as more people worldwide felt that not enough regulation was exercised by the government to control risky instruments and markets. However, there is also a possibility that a more protectionist attitude may characterize the new administration, which may hamper economic growth. The more conservative economic policy may work either way; it could provide a more stable environment for business by eliminating risks, but at the same time it might limit business opportunities. Thus new directions must be carefully watched post-election. According to the Wall Street Journal report, this year’s treasury’s budget deficit forecast, at 12.6%, remains to be the highest in the nation’s history, while forecasts for 2011 to 2011 economic growth appear to optimistic. Tax receipts remain weak because of the poor earnings level in both the business and household sectors of the economy (Norman, 2010). However, the Office of National Statistics reported that the UK economy actually grew by 0.1% for the last quarter of 2009, the first following six quarters of economic contraction. It may not be conclusive that the recession is ended, but it does provide a hopeful sign which may be confirmed in the coming quarters (Angus Reid, 2010) According to Price (2010), the current high levels of US government debt is a cause for worry. The uncertainty in the possible outcome of the credit â€Å"tug-o-war† itself exerts pressure on the market to perform with greater volatility (erratic price movements). Price notes that the supply of gilts is moving upwards consistently, and together with it the UK’s credit fundamentals will continue to quickly deteriorate. What would be worse is the threatened debt downgrade from one of the ratings agencies. This could mean that the UK will be able to source additional debt only at higher interest

Summarizing and Paraphrasing Activity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summarizing and Paraphrasing Activity - Essay Example In understanding the case, despite unanimous support from the protestors, only Johnson was identified for criminal proceedings and found guilty by the court. The amendment of the 1968 statute to make it neutral by passing the Flag Protection Act of 1989', Congress had manipulated the First Amendment to its advantage. Johnson was charged under the desecration of a venerated object in violation of Texas Penal Code Ann. Sec. 42.09 (a) (3) (1989). When he went on appeal against this verdict in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas, the court affirmed Johnson's conviction. The matter was taken to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which reversed the judgment stating that the State could not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances (Thomas-Library of Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov- Thomas) Fast food has been a bane on American society. The craze for fast food has only added to the worries of the US Health Department. Obese is a curse on society. With more and more outlets attracting the various strata of society, health related problems have been eating into the national coffer.

Social Promlem project on Internet Addiction Essay

Social Promlem project on Internet Addiction - Essay Example Moving further, we will look into various types of internet addiction. After this, we will be exploring the effect of gender difference on the internet addiction. Furthermore, the discussion would be led to the causes and the development of the internet addiction. Last, but not the least, we will be looking over various treatment options for the internet addiction. So we can say, in general terms, that addiction is the process of getting habitual to the use of something. In the same connection, internet addiction is, in layman terms, the habitual use of internet or being compulsively occupied with the use of internet. "Technical addictions... non-chemical (behavioral) addictions which involve human-machine interaction. They can either be passive (e.g. television) or active, (e.g. computer games) and usually contain inducing and reinforcing features which may contribute to the promotion of addictive tendencies". (Griffths, 2000) Various experts have also called it cyber addiction. "Cyberspace Addiction: an addiction to virtual realms of experience created through computer engineering... Some cyberspace addictions are game and competition oriented, some fulfill more social needs, some simply may be an extension of workaholicism". (Suler, 1999) All in all, internet addiction, with whatever term it may be referred, is the excessive use of internet to the extent that a person become compulsively engaged in using the internet. Types of Internet Addiction The internet addiction can be classified into a number of typologies. However, the most commonly used typology among the scholarly circles is that based on the usage. On this basis, the internet addiction can be divided into following types: Addiction for Internet Sex Addiction for Games over Internet Addiction for Making Money over Internet Addiction for Chat Addiction for Web Surfing This typology has been adapted from the works of Young (et al. 1999) and Davis (2001). Addiction for Internet Sex According to some estimates, the total worth of the online sex industry is somewhere between 1 and 5 billion US Dollars. Moreover, the sex industry over internet has become one of the major contributors among the total revenue generated through the paid websites (McDonald, 2001). There are also some estimates that the highest search queries on various search engines, such as Google and Yahoo etc, are related to pornography, especially among teens. The internet is heavily with the sex related material. That includes, sex related text (stories), images, video, audio stories and entire DVD format full length

Great Expectations Essay Example for Free

Great Expectations Essay Task: How does the novel present Pips relationship with Magwitch, when he meets him in the graveyard and later when Magwitch returns form abroad to see Pip?  Great Expectations is a novel that is set in the late 1860s, in Victorian society, during the start up of the industrial revolution, which was speedily changing society. In chapter 1 of Great Expectations, the reader meets a young boy, Phillip Pirrip, although he is known as Pip, due to the reason that he cant pronounce his full name. The fact that this issue is introduced to the reader right at the beginning of the story, and that the story is narrated by Pip and his own voice, is attention grabbing; his youthful innocence and naivety is interesting, and immediately gets the reader close to the character. Dickens introduces Pip at a graveyard, where he sets the scene. Pip is visiting the graves of his deceased family, trying to find his identity as well as remind himself and imagine what his parents looked like. Pip is an image of vulnerability, and this is a target for ambiguity to come. Dickens does not state that Pip is an orphan; instead he allows his powerful use of words to demonstrate this. My first fancies regarding what they were like, were reasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my fathers, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair Also Georgina wife of above, I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. Dickens introduces Pips childish imagination into the sequence. Dickens implies that Victorian life and society was like this; there were masses of orphans, like Pip, due to numerous epidemics sweeping the nation, diseases like cholera and smallpox which were rife, and regarded as a universal struggle, this resulted in high mortality rates. You were generally considered lucky if you survived the high mortality rates. The involvement of this fact early on shows that death, and poverty was an everyday occurrence; it wasnt an unusual nature, hence the matter of fact writing. The weather in this scene creates a solemn yet dramatic tone. A negative pattern exhibiting raging storms, adding to the bleak and cold winters day atmosphere is vividly painted. It is a gloomy Christmas Eves day. Pip ventures out into these eerie unknowns, which later on prove to be a symbol that his life is going to change drastically too, where peril and ambiguity await. This also reinforces Pips perception on his situation. While Pip is attempting to bring up recollections at the graveyard, he is surprised by an escaped convict who jumps out rather cynically, from a savage lair, among the looming mists and graves, scaring Pip. The opposite usage of some comedy, at the beginning, and a sharp dramatic twist is attention grabbing. A contrasting backdrop, on to which the messages of the tale can unfold, is created. The reader can tell that the mysterious man is a convict because of the way he is described. His condition is in disarray because of the poor living conditions in the hulks. They were overcrowded, leading to diseases that ended up killing many of the prisoners, and there was malnutrition from poor food. Hard labour was primed everyday too. He has escaped from prison and the hulks (old ships moored on the coast), whilst awaiting exile (to penal colonies in Australia) for 14 years hard labour. (Returning before the end of his term he will face execution). A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. This gives us an insight into the harsh conditions that were faced by prisoners during these times. This plight is shown further more; by the way this convict- Abel Magwitch is portrayed ferociously and pathetically. The harsh and unjust judicial system at the time was the cause of this. Forging banknotes (like Magwitch had done) carried the same penalty as murder! Criminals were brutalised. They were not given chances to reform, instead faced beatings, as forms of punishment. At least 10 hours of daily hard labour was forced on prisoners. Soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briarsand glared and growled. Dickens gives Magwitch with animal like qualities, and so we are provided with a greater understanding that he is at the end of his tether. He is a human that has literally been weathered, like a mere object. A man with no hat and with broken shoessoaked in water, smothered by mud, and lamedlimped and shivered. Magwitch is desperate. This is shown by the way he speaks to Pip aggressively, and threatens him keep still you little devil, and also by the way he roughly handles Pip. The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down and emptied my pockets. When he tips Pip upside down a piece of bread falls out of his pockets. Magwitch scurries towards this. He ate the bread ravenously. The reader is reminded of his desperate, animal like status, and his plight. The tentative weather mirrors Magwitchs character-a vast wilderness in the vein of a storm, which rushes into Pips life, suddenly, causing an upheaval of ambiguity like disturbance. Dickens tries to connect the characters with a descriptive background, to create a realistic character, building up a reinforced feeling to the passage, which ties in with characters personalities. Upon discovering that Pip lives with Joe- who is a black smith, Magwitch continues to act aggressively towards Pip, as he is useful to him. He makes a threatening demand. You get me a fileYou get me wittlesYou bring them both to meor Ill have your heart and liver out. He continues to threaten Pip, telling him that he can even be hurt in his own home if he betrays the convict. He tells Pip that he is not alone, and if he gets caught then the man along side Magwitch will attack him. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him openin comparison with which I am a angel. Pip is petrified. The prospect of this occurring (made worse by his youthful innocence), has given way to the sensation of helplessness that clearly covers him. His eyes looked most powerfully into mine, and mine looked most powerfully up into his. This highlights a key detail of status/position that will be seen in depth throughout the story; its a running thread for which it is a major theme. This is the first landmark of Magwitch and Pips relationship. It is one of intimidation, and fear.

Differentiated Instruction Essay Example for Free

Differentiated Instruction Essay â€Å"What Is a Differentiated Classroom?† is the title of the first chapter of our course text. Below the title is a quote from Seymour Sarason’s â€Å"The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform.† The quote states: â€Å"A different way to learn is what the kids are calling for †¦.All of them are talking about how our one-size-fits-all delivery system – which mandates that everyone learn the same thing at the same time, no matter what their individual needs – has failed them. This is a powerful statement and one that admittedly paints an accurate picture of much of my teaching style coming into this course – â€Å"a one-size-fits-all delivery system. † My initial reaction to the opening statement was a bit defensive and off-putting. As I continued to read, I was momentarily validated when shortly afterwards I read that teacher’s often ask the question â€Å"How can I possibly divide time, resources and myself so that I am an effective catalyst for maximizing talent in all my students?† There are seemingly just too many needs and variables to reach the masses in a classroom. Teach to the middle seems to be a logical strategy. If we assume the 80-20 rule, we can reach 80% of the students fairly effectively with this methodology. Of the remaining 20 %, some portion of them should be able to glean part of the information. To be sure, I am available and encouraging of questions to assist in understanding. Additionally, I may grade an individual’s work with some reasonable variance. But other than some on-the-fly adjustments I may make to assignments as I see need that is the extent of my differentiation in t he classroom. SEEMS reasonable enough! Or should I say SEEMED reasonable enough!! The remainder of chapter one promptly provided a stern but inspirational slap-in-the-face. It offered a quick but stark contrast to my seemingly logical method of operation. A few of the â€Å"differentiation† concepts highlighted which served as motivation a prompted further reading: †¢Teachers begin where students are, not from the start of a curriculum guide †¢Teachers must be ready to engage students in instruction through different modalities, by appealing to differing interests, and by using varied rates of instruction along with varied degrees of complexity †¢Teachers provide specific ways for each individual to learn as deeply as possible and as quickly as possible, without assuming one student’s road map for learning is identical to anyone else’s. †¢Teachers begin with a clear and solid sense of what constitutes powerful curriculum and engaging instruction. Then they ask what it will take to modify that instruction so that each learner comes away with understandings and skills. †¢It is difficult to achieve a differentiated classroom because there are few examples of them. (Tomlinson, 1999) With these thoughts as an introduction and tapping into my drive for continual improvement the stage was set for the course. Moving forward, I see in retrospect, what chapter one did for peeking my interest in differentiated instruction I believe the rest of the book, the course workbook and the course itself did for laying the foundation towards true implementation. The following are four lesson plans I have developed to begin the process of differentiating lessons for my students. The differentiated concepts utilized are Entry Points, Problem Solving, Sternberg’s 3 Intelligences and Extension Menu’s. These lessons, while unique in their methodologies, all reflect the underlying assumption of Differentiated Instruction (DI). And that assumption, as reflected in a graphic organizer in our course workbook, is that †¦.Differentiation is a response to the learner’s needs using learning profiles, interests and readiness in content, process and product. The first lesson constructed utilizes Howard Gardner’s â€Å"Entry Points† strategy. This lesson is designed to account for the various learning profiles of student’s and is based off of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory. The major tenet of MI theory is that people learn, represent, and utilize knowledge in many different ways. These differences challenge an educational system which assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to educate and test student learning. According  to Gardner, the broad spectrum of studentsand perhaps the society as a wholewould be better served if disciplines could be presented in a number of ways and learning could be accessed through a variety of means.† The Multiple Intelligences postulated in this theory are: †¢Linguistic Intelligence The capacity to use oral and/or written words effectively. †¢Logical-Mathematical Intelligence the ability to effectively use numbers and to reason. †¢Spatial Intelligence the capacity to accurately perceive the visual/spatial world and create internal mental images. †¢Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence the ability to skillfully move ones body and to move and manipulate objects. †¢Musical Intelligence a sensitivity to and grasp of the elements of music. †¢Interpersonal Intelligence the capacity to perceive and distinguish moods, intentions, and feelings of others. and using simulations to learn about events, feelings and alternative strategies for behaving. †¢Intrapersonal Intelligence the ability to know ones self and act on the basis of that knowledge. †¢Naturalistic intelligence – the ability to recognize and classify plants, animals, and minerals including a mastery of taxonomies. (The Theory of Multiple Intelligences) Stemming from the MI theory is Gardner’s â€Å"Entry Point† strategy for education. According to this strategy, Gardner proposes student exploration of a given topic through as many as five avenues: Narrational (presenting a story), Logical-Quantitative (using numbers or deduction), Foundational (examining philosophy and vocabulary), Aesthetic (focusing on sensory features), and Experiential (hands-on). (Grants and Research Office) In utilizing the Entry Point strategy in the first lesson plan, students will explore and be introduced to the world of â€Å"new products and services through invention, innovation and discovery† via four of the five entry points listed: Narrational, Logical-Quantitative, Foundational and Aesthetic. The fifth entry point, Experiential, is included in the unit lesson and will be used as a summative experience. The differentiated design of this lesson taps into the multiple learning styles of students through a variety of processes. Teaching Strategies Entry Point Strategies for subject â€Å"New Products†: †¢Narrative: Students browse the internet searching for new products which have recently been introduced to the consumer. Student’s compile a list of their findings as they progress. †¢Logical/Mathmatic: Students gather statistics regarding the sales of a product over the products life cycle. Student’s then incorporate that statistical data into a graph via excel †¢Aesthetic: Students create a collage of new products along with the demographic who would utilize the product †¢Foundational: Entrepreneurship: Students view three of a possible five video clips on the role of Inventors/Innovators/Entrepreneurs and their connection to new products. Discussion to follow †¢Experiential: Field Trip to QVC to view new products as they are being displayed, advertised and sold The second of the four differentiated lessons centers on the essential question of â€Å"What is the Six Step Developmental Process?† The differentiated strategy employed in this lesson is based on Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence. I looked forward to putting this lesson together as Sternberg’s theory is one that resonates with me. Coming from the business management world, and being new to the vocation of teaching, I find much of my class instruction project based with a real world â€Å"practical† slant.  Additionally, as a manager in business, one is constantly striving to place the correct people in the correct roles within a company. Hiring’s, training, evaluations, promotions, firings, relocations are all a product of a manager’s evaluation of employees strengths, talents, weaknesses and deficiencies. When evaluating and placing individual’s the criteria often looked at are an employee’s analytical, cre ative and practical skills. This theory strikes me as a perfect correlation between educational/intellectual theory and real world application. A brief summary of Dr. Sternbergs Triarchic Theory of (Successful) Intelligence contends that intelligent behavior arises from a balance between analytical, creative and practical abilities, and that these abilities function collectively to allow individuals to achieve success within particular contexts. Analytical abilities enable the individual to evaluate, analyze, compare and contrast information. Creative abilities generate invention, discovery, and other creative endeavors. Practical abilities tie everything together by allowing individuals to apply what they have learned in the appropriate setting. To be successful in life the individual must make the best use of his or her analytical, creative and practical strengths, while at the same time compensating for weaknesses in any of these areas. This might involve working on improving weak areas to become better adapted to the needs of a particular environment, or choosing to work in an environment that values the individuals particular strengths (Plucker). As applied to the classroom, it is important to provide students with the opportunity to learn based off of their natural and stronger intellectual ability(ies). Too often, education has tried to fit everyone into the â€Å"Analytical† mold. However, it is to be noted, t eachers should also strive to provide the opportunity for students to learn subject material via their weaker intellectual ability as well so as to simultaneously develop intellectual learning abilities as well as a base of knowledge in a particular subject matter. Teaching Strategies Sternberg Based Strategies for lesson â€Å"Developing New Products – The Six Step Process†: †¢Analytical †¢Identify the Six Step Developmental Process in developing a new product. †¢Choose and research one of the product options given and cite how that product progressed through each of the six step process †¢Write a one page summary on your thoughts of the effectiveness of the Six Step Process in the development of the product you chose. Would you have followed the same process or deviated at any point? State why or why not and if you would have deviated state how and why. †¢Creative †¢Identify the Six Step Developmental Process in developing a new product. †¢Describe a fictional product that you would like to see invented †¢Assume the role of an inventor and take your fictional product through the Six Step Developmental Process. Describe the considerations and possible decisions made at each step. †¢Create a model of your product via a picture or prototype †¢Practical †¢Identify the Six Step Developmental Process in developing a new product. †¢Describe a product you use and find valuable in everyday life †¢ Assume you were the inventor/innovator of the product you described, describe some of the considerations and decisions you believe were made at each step of the Six Step Developmental Process. †¢In a presentation, show and demonstrate the product you have chosen and describe some of the elements of the Six Step Developmental Process you believe were critical in its development. The third of the four lesson plans has as its content the â€Å"Marketing Mix.† The essential questions the students are to acquire answers to and achieve understanding for center around the â€Å"Distribution† component of the Marketing Mix. The DI teaching strategy to be utilized in this lesson is that of â€Å"Problem Based Learning.† As with Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Learning this particular strategy also resonates strongly with me. Again, coming from the business world, I see great value in a Problem Based Learning approach. It is very often how business gets done. Answers to problems must be contemplated, researched, solutions designed, implemented, evaluated †¦process repeated. Taking both DI approaches a step further, I see that merging Sternberg’s theory with Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a way of maximizing the PBL approach. A quick summarization of PBL: Problem-based learning (PBL) is an approach that challenges students to learn through engagement in a real problem. It is a format that simultaneously develops both problem solving strategies and disciplinary knowledge bases and skills by placing students in the active role of problem-solvers confronted with a situation that simulates the kind of problems they are likely to face as future managers in complex organizations. Problem-based learning is student-centered. PBL makes a fundamental shiftfrom a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. The process is aimed at using the power of authentic problem solving to engage students and enhance their learning and motivation. There are several unique aspects that define the PBL approach: †¢Learning takes place within the contexts of authentic tasks, issues, and problemsthat are aligned with real-world concerns. †¢In a PBL course, students and the instructor become co-learners, co-planners, co-producers, and co-evaluators as they design, implement, and continually refine their curricula. †¢The PBL approach is grounded in solid academic research on learning and on  the best practices that promote it. This approach stimulates students to take responsibility for their own learning, since there are few lectures, no structured sequence of assigned readings, and so on. †¢PBL is unique in that it fosters collaboration among students, stresses the development of problem solving skills within the context of professional practice, promotes effective reasoning and self-directed learning, and is aimed at increasing motivation for life-long learning. (Purser) Below is a diagram located from the University of California, Irvine website. I found it succinct and anticipate it to be very helpful as I move forward in the implementation of Problem Based Learning in my classroom. WHAT: HOW? WHY? Student-centered Experiential Select authentic assignments from the discipline, preferably those that would be relevant and meaningful to student interests. Students are also responsible for locating and evaluating various resources in the field. Relevance is one of the primary student motivators to be a more self-directed learner Inductive Introduce content through the process of problem solving, rather than problem solving after introduction to content. Research indicates that â€Å"deeper† learning takes place when information is introduced within a meaningful context. Builds on/challenges prior learning If the case has some relevance to students, then they are required to call on what they already know or think they know. By focusing on their prior learning, students can test assumptions, prior learning strategies, and facts. The literature suggests that learning takes placewhen there is a conflict between prior learning and new information. Context-specific Choose real or contrived cases and ground the count in the kinds of challenges faced by practitioners in the field. Again, context-specific  information tends to be learned at a deeper level and retained longer. Problems are complex and ambiguous, and require meta-cognition Select actual examples from the â€Å"real life† of the discipline that have no simple answers. Require students to analyze their own problem solving strategies. Requires the ability to use higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creation of new knowledge. Creates cognitive conflict Select cases with information that makes simple solutions difficult: while the solution may address one part of a problem, it may create another problem. Challenges prior learning as noted above. The literature suggests that learning takes place when there is a conflict between prior learning and new information. Collaborative Interdependent Have students work in small groups in order to address the presented case By collaborating, students see other kinds of problem solving strategies used, they discuss the case using their collective information, and they need to take responsibility for their own learning, as well as their classmates’. (Gallow) †¢What are the four components of the â€Å"Marketing Mix† and which component deals with the delivery of a product to the consumer market? †¢What are the three methods of distribution†? †¢How does the method of distribution a company selects impact availability to the consumer? Teaching Strategies â€Å"Problem Based Learning† Strategy for lesson on the Marketing Mix component of â€Å"Distribution†: †¢Problem/Scenario: In pairs, â€Å"Marketing Partners† will determine the best methodology to â€Å"DISTRIBUTE† the product assigned to their â€Å"Marketing Firm.† †¢Problems to solve/Questions to answer: †¢What distribution channels does the competitor use? †¢Create in table form your competitors names, distribution channels and relative success of the competitor †¢What distribution options are viable for your company? †¢Create in table form a list of all possible distribution channels for your product as well as the benefits and drawbacks of each channel †¢In email form, compose a letter to your Director of Marketing defining the three levels of distribution intensity (Intensive, Exclusive and Selective) and indicate which level you recommend utilizing and explain why. †¢Based on the distribution intensity strategy you selected, create a data base (excel or word using tables) of at least 10 stores that may be a good fit to carry your product. Database should include the prospects: name, address, phone number, email and a short list of products carried. †¢Create a â€Å"Marketing Proposal Presentation† to deliver to your co-workers (class) which outlines your proposed distribution plan. The fourth lesson plan created and to be implemented as part of my new-and-improved DI Classroom of the future will utilize the strategy of Extension Menus. This lesson, as with the previous lesson, will have as its content the â€Å"Marketing Mix.† However, the focus and essential questions will center on the concept of â€Å"Promotion.† I see the significance and benefits of extension menus as many. Among the value points of extension menus is that they can be created to meet student needs using all three of the discussed vehicles: Learning Profiles, Interest and Readiness. In researching and then summarizing Extension Menus I have summarized the key elements in bullet form: Definition of Extension Menu An extension menu is an array of independent learning activities to provide students with choices for extending or enriching the essential curriculum. Purposes of Extension Menus †¢Enrich or extend the essential curriculum †¢Challenge the abilities of highly able students †¢Provide alternative activities that address the differing abilities, interests, or learning styles of students Advantages of Extension Menus †¢Can be written for any curriculum area †¢Provide rigorous and challenging learning activities for highly able students †¢May be tiered to accommodate all levels of instruction in the classroom †¢Can be used to target specific learning activities for an individual student or group of students †¢Allow student choice as well as challenge †¢Encourage the development of independent thinkers †¢Allow the teacher to monitor students’ choices and behaviors to learn more about their interests, abilities and learning styles †¢Promote student use of higher level thinking skills †¢ Promote flexible grouping in the classroom †¢Allow the teacher to be a facilitator Varied Uses of Extension Menus †¢Follow-up activity after a lesson †¢Culminating activity at the end of a unit †¢Anchoring activity (defined by Carol Ann Tomlinson as, â€Å"meaningful work done individually and silently especially when children first begin a class or when they finish assigned work †¢Learning center for enrichment and/or extension of the curriculum †¢Independent activity for students who have compacted out of specific curricular objectives or who have completed their work (Byrdseed, 2009-1012) Below is an Extension Menu I came across in my research. It will serve as a model moving forward. I thought it appropriate to include as an illustration of excellence. Tic-Tac-Toe Menu Collect Facts or ideas which are important to you. (Knowledge) Teach A lesson about your topic to our class. Include as least one visual aid. (Synthesis) Draw A diagram, map or picture of your topic. (Application) Judge Two different viewpoints about an issue. Explain your decision. (Evaluation) Photograph Videotape, or film part of your presentation. (Synthesis) Demonstrate Something to show what you have learned. (Application) Graph Some part of your study to show how many or how few. (Analysis) Create An original poem, dance, picture, song, or story. (Synthesis) Dramatize Something to show what you have learned. (Synthesis) Survey Others to learn their opinions about some fact, idea, or feature of your study. (Analysis) Forecast How your topic will change in the next 10 years. (Synthesis) Build A model or diorama to illustrate what you have learned. (Application) Create An original game using the facts you have learned. (Synthesis) Memorize And recite a quote or a short list of facts about your topic. (Knowledge) Write An editorial for the student newspaper or draw an editorial cartoon. (Evaluation) Compare Two things from your study. Look for ways they are alike and different. (Analysis) (schoolloop.com) For my first crack at Extension Menus I am offering a choice between three options. The projects assume a given level of â€Å"Readiness† as they are culminating exercises. â€Å"Interest† and â€Å"Learning Profiles† are tapped into as the choices offered are through the mediums of graphics (brochure), audio recordings (radio announcement-recorded or recited) or writings (public relations article). Additionally, the exercises also tap in Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory by meeting â€Å"Creative† and â€Å"Practical† components. †¢What are the four components of the â€Å"Marketing Mix† and which component deals with making the public aware of a business’ products or services? †¢What are the various methods of â€Å"Promotion†? †¢How do promotional activities influence consumers? Teaching Strategies Extension Menus for lesson on the Marketing Mix component of â€Å"Promotions†: Following unit lesson regarding the â€Å"Promotions† aspect of the Marketing Mix, students will be provided the opportunity to select one of three extension projects to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. The basic nature of each assignment will vary to allow students the opportunity to select a methodology in which they are more inclined. The students will create either an artistic, written or verbal/kinesthetic product. †¢Extension Menu Project An entertainment group has just booked a three week engagement at your cities convention hall. Your marketing firm is one of two firms being considered to promote this event. You have been tasked to provide a sample marketing piece to win the job. Choose one of the following methodologies and create a â€Å"Promotional† piece for this event. Details of the event will be distributed. †¢Tri-fold Brochure: Using â€Å"Word† or a similar program, create a tri-fold brochure which pictures the entertainment groups major events and as well as various features of their business. †¢Public Relations Article: Using †Word,† create an article publicizing the coming of the entertainment group to your city and generate a â€Å"buzz† that will draw attendance to the various events. †¢Radio Announcement: Using a recording program, create a radio advertisement announcing the coming of the entertainment group to your city and highlight several of the main events. Also promote your station’s on-site appearance at one of the events. OR Write your radio announcements and perform them live for the class. As the saying goes †¦.†If you’re not moving forward – you’re moving backwards!† The challenge for us in this course, through classroom instruction, discussion, exercises, text readings and research, is to move forward in our instruction by way of transitioning from traditional methods of instruction to differentiated methods. I came into the course skeptical. I exit via this LEP project as encouraged and inspired. We talked about starting small and moving towards the greater goal. With these lesson plans and the tools acquired during class/research the foundation of a start have been laid. Works Cited (n.d.). Retrieved July Wednesday, 2012, from schoolloop.com: http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1303568322190/1312697332954/8516106516570643153.pdf Byrdseed, I. (2009-1012). Byrdseed. Retrieved July Wednesday, 2012, from Offer Choice with Extension Menus: http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/Extension+Menu+directions+9.1.04.pdf Gallow, D. .. (n.d.). University of California, Irvine. Retrieved July Tuesday, 2012, from Problem-Based Learning Faculty Institute: http://www.pbl.uci.edu/whatispbl.html Grants and Research Office. (n.d.). Retrieved July Monday, 2012, from Applying Research to Practice: