How did Ford Motor Company Successfully Turn Around its Business Research Paper

How did Ford Motor Company Successfully Turn Around its Business During the Recent Recession - Research Paper Example In these circumstances companies have also resorted to price wars that have further eroded the profit margins of various organizations. The present study would analyze the case of Ford Motors and the business strategies that were adopted and implemented by the organization during the period of economic recession. According to a report, the recession in the year 2009 led to a decline in new registrations by about 24.8 percent in a month as compared to the same in the previous year. In addition to cars vehicles across all categories like trucks and vans also reported a dip by about 31.4 percent and 49.2 percent respectively. This has led to severe implications for car manufacturers as they started reported lower income. This led to job cuts and other cost control measures besides putting all expansion plans on a hold (IMI Research Department, â€Å"Summary†). Issues Ford Motors is US based automobile manufacturing organization, established in 1903 by Henry Ford the company is en gaged in the manufacture of cars, trucks, SUV’s and other vehicles. The company is preset across all the major markets of the world and headquartered in the USA. It stocks are listed and actively traded on the bourses of the New York Stock Exchange (Ford Motors Corporation, â€Å"Our Company†). The economic recession had a severe impact on the business prospects and profitability of the company. The effect of recession on the fortunes of the company can be analyzed from the fact that the company applied for a 9 billion bailout from the US government in the form of short term and working capital loans so as to ensure that the company was sustainable. However the company was better placed than any of its competitors as it was able to maintain grounds even without the bailout package (The New York Times, â€Å"Background†). Management Strategies The period of economic recession was among the worst periods seen by the company as it was the period that saw the lowest sales since ten years. The absence of credit facilities and price margin pressures led to considerable issues for the organization. However in spite of the issues Ford Motor Corporation was able to maintain sustainability even without a bailout package as was given out to the top competitors of the company namely General Motors, Chrysler that were on the verge of closure and bankruptcy. The company fared better than most of its competitors and also overtook Toyota Motors as the rank one automobile company in the US market in the year 2010. Behind this successful management of a stressful period lies a mix of effective strategies sided by a visionary leader and a good management that has successfully used the best financial, HR and marketing strategies to help make the company stronger even in the most turbulent periods in history (The New York Times, â€Å"Background†). One of the reasons for the successful turnaround of Ford Motors Corporation was the successful marketing s trategies being implemented by the organization. The company unveiled a product strategy that involved launching smaller cars and economic versions rather than focusing on premium products. In this regard the company chose to keep focus on the sub compact cars like Fiesta that was economical. This strategy played off during the times

Digital Security And Privacy Information Technology Essay

Digital Security And Privacy Information Technology Essay In this essay i will look at the basic fundamentals of security and privacy for users and businesses in the 21st century and what i think the security risks are for them and what the impact the security problems have on our privacy laws, does this controversal access to everybit of information about people actually make system more secure e.g prevent system attacks. I will go indept into what i believe are the main security risks for users and businesses when browsing the internet or shopping and using online banking and also discuse briefly what it would be like to have no privacy. I will also discuses how when a user goes on a scoial networking site or search engine they might be at risk of sharing information unwillingly with the providers. And another topic i will be discussing in this is how humans fail in there bit for security and how to prevent this from happening. Digital security in the 21st century is now more important than ever before, there are many different types of security threats to the average person, business or even government. This is because everything we do on a daily basis can have a security risk, whether it be from online shopping or checking your email. If a users computer has been hacked or has some spyware or malware and they are using it for online shopping, then the attacker may be able to gain access to the users sensitive data which can then be used for fraud or theft or sold on to a third party for marketing data. Shopping in a store using your debit card can also be a risk as debit cards can be cloned by staff and pin numbers stolen using a device that looks the same as the card machine but has been designed or modified to remember pin codes and clone users debit cards/credit card details. Laptops and Mobile phones being stolen can have personal information on them, even losing your universal serial bus storage device or USB pen drive as they are know as for short which can contain all sorts of information because people, businesses and governments all use these devises to move or store data. And if the data is not encrypted then there is always the chance that someone can gain access to it. Security is the main issue when it comes to a persons personal information whether it be from browsing the Internet to online banking there will always be people who want to steal information for an entire range of reasons (eg: phishing and fraud) ! Another thing to be wary of is the topic of Liberty; are security laws infringing on our basic human rights to privacy and our security by allowing corporations and even governments to spy on our Internet communications for what they call  ¿Ã‚ ½anti-piracy ¿Ã‚ ½ or National Security such as the PATRIOT Act in the United Sates of America, and this brings me to conclude, why should the rights of the many suffer because of the actions of a few. And this is being debated everyday of every week by civil rights activists to our own government deciding what they can do and cannot do. Too much information available about anyone to anyone can be dangerous and this topic should be taken extremely seriously. One major impact on privacy is the development of social networking sites and search engine providers that sell the users information to third parties. The quote Privacy is a fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most important human rights of the modern age. by Marc Rotenberg, Protecting Human Dignity in the Digital Age (UNESCO 2000) 1. And i think that we are heading into a society that does not care about the fundamental human rights we have and how we attained them. For example anti-utopian, dystopian novels of the 20th century, depicted societies where privacy was non existant and an intrusive, oppressive regime denied this fundamental human right as a matter of course. In Yevgeny Zamyatins novel  ¿Ã‚ ½We ¿Ã‚ ½ 2the population lived in buildings constructed of glass, which allowed everyone and anyone to snoop on anyone whom they wished. Opposition is impossible in a society where privacy is non-existant. George Orwells 1984  ¿Ã‚ ½Big Brother ¿Ã‚ ½ and tele-screen are frighteningly similar to todays move towards a 21stcentury society where the Government and corporations have full access to every bit of any citizens digital life. The 19thcentury black champion of civil rights, Frederick Douglass protested that any rights and liberties won by any people were awarded after contesting the power structures of society. He said in 1857 that  ¿Ã‚ ½Power concedes nothing without a demand, it never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong that will be imposed upon them. ¿Ã‚ ½ 3 Frederick Douglass, speaking on the emancipation of the West Indies, 1857  ¿Ã‚ ½Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. ¿Ã‚ ½ 3 also has meaning to that you can use a search engine for free and also a social networking site, but be careful of your information as they might sell it on to third parties. In the book; The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security 4, the authors Kevin D. Mitnick William L. Simon na ¿Ã‚ ½blame the Human individual as the weakest link, the individual is relegated to a position below the security system in question. Page 3, titled in big black letters  ¿Ã‚ ½Securitys Weakest Link ¿Ã‚ ½ states  ¿Ã‚ ½the humanfactor is truly securitys weakest link. ¿Ã‚ ½ In the Computer Security Handbook, John Wiley Sons (2002) 5which some of the top security specialists in the world have contributed to. Donn B. Parker, a retired (1997) senior management consultant at RedSiren Technologies in Menlo Park, Ca, who has specialised in information security for 35 of his 50 years in the computer field and who Information Security Magazinehas identified as one of the five top Infosecurity Pioneers (1998) writes in  ¿Ã‚ ½5.1.3 Functions of Information Security Computer Security Handbook ¿Ã‚ ½ that the complete opposite to the previous paragraph is true, that the current three function security model, (prevention, detection, and recovery) are completely insufficient and that an 11 function model is needed to eliminate or mitigate the security risks in question, which include avoidance, deterrence, detection, prevention, mitigation, transference, investigation, sanctions rewards, recovery, correction, finally; education 5. It is easy to jump to conclusions and intuitively blame the people whom personify  ¿Ã‚ ½hackers ¿Ã‚ ½ or adversaries to computer security professionals, but history shows us that nothing should be taken for granted concerning security. No system will be inherently perfect, and new technologies are continually being created and updated, and most will likely become more secure as time goes on. Human nature on the other hand is a constant and no man or woman should ever denigrate humanity to a role below that of a firewall, for any reason. If a computer security system is vulnerable, patch the system or come up with innovative methods to secure it from outside access, improve on the imperfect and take comfort knowing that you have executed your job successfully, thus without sacrificing your morality. Types of attack  ¿Ã‚ ½ Once a malicious program has been installed on a person or business or governments bodys computer, it can cause harm in many different ways. And the most typical mechanisms for attacks by hackers is:  ¿Ã‚ ½ taking control of a users access and pretending to be that legitimate user. This can be very bad if a hacker gains access to any information as the user might not realise in time for it to be stopped being used eg. bank account or credit card information being stolen.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Stealing or copying secret or confidential data for corporate espionage or other purposes.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Destroying corporate data to do financial damage to a business or government body  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Causing network and system shortages to paralyze a company ¿Ã‚ ½s operations eg. Denial of service attack (D.O.S) or Distributed denial of service attack (D.D.O.S). Risks to an Organisation: Security vulnerabilites coming from within an organisation are on the increase in todays businesses and are increasingly the operational risks of any business in todays world, and in a time of recession this is not good because it brings the running costs of the business up and costs to the average person may go up also . so this can lead to a loss of reputation in the regard to customers or partnership in a company or even the share holders of the company. There may also be a risk to the business by interruption to the company and lead to the violation of legal and government reulation requirements to protect sensitive customer information E.G OFCOM if the attack works, some examples are:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Unauthorized access to any information where the access includes disclosure, modification and destruction of any data.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Unauthorized users or hackers, i.e. a person who have not been given the rights by the owner/user to access the system. How do people fail in the line of security? Social Engineering Manipulation: con-artists are being used to acquire confidential information by manipulating genuine users into telling them. It is a new type of insider attack that is on the up trend similar to an attack that is knowm as  ¿Ã‚ ½phishing ¿Ã‚ ½ in which a malicious or hackeris able toget internal access with access to company sensitive information in turn which can lead to other users/customers into providing access to forbiddon information. These con-artists rely and work on the basis that people are kind hearted and not aware of the valuble information they know and are careless about protecting it because they think its irrelevant. These con-artists will search bins or skips or take advantage of people ¿Ã‚ ½s natural ability to choose passwords that are based on what is considered to bemeaningful to the user such as relative ¿Ã‚ ½s, date of birth or pets name etc but can be easily guessed if the hacker learns persoanl information about them. the name they now give the method these con-artists employ is called  ¿Ã‚ ½Social engineering ¿Ã‚ ½ and will always a threat to any security system. More internal threats may be: if there is aloss of data or data is corrupted, and backups fail this will lead to business having a losses of revenu and this in turn may affect the clients and loss of money to a business. There may also be misuse and theft of Call Records and information and also tele-communication center in which, internal breaches my accure by users who sometimes bypass the usage record from billing someone or a subscribers and then bydeleting the call record information from a database or by manipulating a program to overlook simple things to user subscribers. Identity theft: Identity theft of a customer ¿Ã‚ ½s valuable information such as address, security passwords credit card information, and date of birth or in a business ¿Ã‚ ½s sense, ID cards, Access codes . Identity fraud is a term that is used to refer to any type of crime in which any person or business wrongfully gets hold of and uses another person ¿Ã‚ ½s personal data in anyway way that may involves fraud or deception, typically for capital gains eg. giving the business an upper-hand from a competitor. Information used in scanning of biometrics for example of soem (face image scanner, palm print scanner, hand scanner ,handwriting of a person, fingerprints,voice recognition software, iris/retina scaners ) are each unique to every person and cannot be given to another human for their use, but can be faked, well some of them. However, personal data, especially a credit card account or debit card number, and other valuable personal information can be taken advantage of and maybe used by the wrong person for fraudulent purposes and sold to third parties at the cost to the average users. The not so innocent: Browsing the Web and using e-mails can seem a normal exercise in layman terms but may seem na ¿Ã‚ ½ve to the advanced users whom understand the security risks. For the average user however, all their activities can upset business. Some viruses that can do this are ( Worms/trojons/malware/spyware or Choke viruses) that are design and aimed at Instant Messaging systems that people use such as a social networking site and windows live messenger (MSN), the users may use these softwares or websites to talk to their friends online or send information from and each pose their own unique security threats. Anti-virus softwares and other tools may not detect malicious code opening through the font-system 6 or Instant Messaging system, so infected files can infect the desktop and then into the network or a business. If a company ¿Ã‚ ½s usb stick or security cards or notebooks are lost or stolen, important information may be at risk such as id names and Unique Identifier numbers. Outside threats to an organisation: External threats are mixed threats that combine many different ways such as worms, viruss, spam and distributed denial of service (DDOS). Every day, hundreds of new ways are discovered to attack software and security breaches by intruders, hackers and security professionals. There are more than 30k hacking-based Web sites on the internet now so it no longer needs a computer savy person to hack a site, just someone with time and patience. How to keep your computer safe with Virus Counter Measures. Regular Updating of a users Anti-Virus and Anti Spyware Software: This is to protect the user against viruses and malware/spyware and this is why antivirus software should be installed. All user email attachment files should be scanned: This is because computer viruses are most likely to be in an email attachment. just because emails come from your best friends does not mean it is still not important to scan there emails which may contain attachments before opening them as they may contain anything. Key points for handling email attachments:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when opening email attachments from unknown recipients.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Do not be fooled by the appearance of attachment files always check the extension to make sure its not a .exe, .com or any other  ¿Ã‚ ½executable ¿Ã‚ ½ extension for a word document or image file.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Do not send a plain text that can be included in the body of an email message as an attachment file eg. Encrypt your messages.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Learn about how email attachments are handled by different email programs.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Every file that is should be scanned with a users anti-virus and anti-spyware scanner before opening, because the user will never fully know whats inside.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ A lot of files such as image files, .MP3,.MP4 and .avi videos are downloaded from the Internet, but some are notwhat we expect and contain malicious programs embedded in them or in the code of these files to hurt or dammage our computers, and a way to avoid this is to be sure to scan downloaded files before using them or opening them. An example is the font system vulnerability of Windows XP. 6  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Take full advantage of the security functions/ settings supplied with any application software  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ Regulary updates of Security Patches Should be installed: All recent viruses attempt to exploit bug in a software or security holes that a programmer mite not have known about when creating the software to gain access to the operating systems and application software that a current user might be using.  ¿Ã‚ ½  ¿Ã‚ ½ If there is any weakness in your computer it can be and most likely will be infected with viruses or have corporate malware on them and the only way to combat this is by previewing emails or accessing the Internet when all security updates have been applied and clearing your Internet cookies after every session. causes of Virus Infection must not be overlooked. If you have encountered symptoms that you think are a virus you should do a scan, a users computer may have been infected with any sort of virus . so it is very important to watch out for this as it can be a major security flaw and scan your computer for viruses regularly to avoid disapointment. If a users computer system or an application freezes, or the system does not start. Files may be deltes or just become hidden. Unknown icons apear. some programs may make attempts to access the Internet without any notification to the user, this is why a firewall is needed. Emails are sent without the user ¿Ã‚ ½s consent. Scan intuitively to make sure there is no virus or spyware on a users PC. All a users data should backup data regulary in case of of system failure: Data corrupted by a system or hardware failure cannot always be restored by using software. Make the habit of getting use to backing up. Conclusion

Alzheimers Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Memory loss, like old age is a condition which mankind has always reluctantly recognized and always – with resignation. Memory loses are sometimes trivial and meaningless and go unrecognized. However, when these loses are so great that a person does not know who or where they are the concerns are quite grave. Although it is realize that Alzheimer's disease destroys the brain memory function, many do not realize precisely how the memory is destroyed once one is aware of the process, it becomes faster to work forward to alleviate the destruction. "Without memory there is no knowledge to recreate or reproduce past perceptions, emotions, thoughts and actions that are so vital to live a full and functioning life. Memory is the key that unlocks doors that keep us functioning, not only mentally but physically (Corrick 32)." "Memory loss is not a sign of decay (Freedman 10)." As we get older, there is some mild impairment in our recollection of recent events, such as forgetting why one went into a room or misplacing a person's eye glasses, which even young are guilty of doing. As reported by Larry Squire, "forgetting is quite normal and usually develops in the third decade of life, and by one estimate 85 percent of the healthy elderly – those over 65—suffer some memory impairment (59)." According to Dr. Seligmann, "forgetting is the process through which information in memory becomes inaccessible, either because it is stored but is not at that time retrievable (51)." This is one of the most important factors in forgetting. Memory loss is rapid at first and then gradually levels off. There are many types of "dismembering" enemies that hamper ones recall and retrieval system. "Forgetting may be increased by interference from proactive inhibition, that is material learned beforehand, like trying to remember a soup recipe (51)." In remembering stories or events there is a tendency for distortions to occur. Cutler explains that studies made by Elizabeth Loftus reveal, "what you learn today may actually distort your memory of what happened to you yesterday. . . (62)." People tend to remember the events that they regard as the most important. They attempt to reconstruct the event, usually what knowledge they have, with the result being what would have been expected rather than what actually happened. Dr. Siegfried ... ...sease of the brain (Parke- Davis 6)." "Deficiency of cortical acetylcholine is believed to account for clinical manifestation of mild to moderate dementia (Cognex 3)." Cognex is the only drug of choice presently used for treatment of Alzheimer's patients. "Cognex presumably acts by elevating acetylcholine concentration in cerebral cortex by slowing the degradation which is released by enact chelinergic neurons (Cognex 3)." Approximately "5,600 patients were on clinical trails about 17% were improved with memories. . ." and " 40% stayed the same no change and about 20% had been "withdrawn" with adverse reaction (Cognex 4)." In conclusion, when is memory loss, whether it is great or small, it takes away the ability to recreate or reproduce to some extent our emotions, past experiences, thoughts and actions that we take for granted. It gives us far more then we give it. The mind needs knowledge to keep us functioning and in return will perform amazing feats for us. Although the cause of Alzheimer's diseases unknown care, research is ongoing, worldwide. "There is no evidence that Cognex alters the course of the underlying demeaning process (Cognex 3)." Alzheimers Disease Essay -- Alzheimer's Disease Essays Memory loss, like old age is a condition which mankind has always reluctantly recognized and always – with resignation. Memory loses are sometimes trivial and meaningless and go unrecognized. However, when these loses are so great that a person does not know who or where they are the concerns are quite grave. Although it is realize that Alzheimer's disease destroys the brain memory function, many do not realize precisely how the memory is destroyed once one is aware of the process, it becomes faster to work forward to alleviate the destruction. "Without memory there is no knowledge to recreate or reproduce past perceptions, emotions, thoughts and actions that are so vital to live a full and functioning life. Memory is the key that unlocks doors that keep us functioning, not only mentally but physically (Corrick 32)." "Memory loss is not a sign of decay (Freedman 10)." As we get older, there is some mild impairment in our recollection of recent events, such as forgetting why one went into a room or misplacing a person's eye glasses, which even young are guilty of doing. As reported by Larry Squire, "forgetting is quite normal and usually develops in the third decade of life, and by one estimate 85 percent of the healthy elderly – those over 65—suffer some memory impairment (59)." According to Dr. Seligmann, "forgetting is the process through which information in memory becomes inaccessible, either because it is stored but is not at that time retrievable (51)." This is one of the most important factors in forgetting. Memory loss is rapid at first and then gradually levels off. There are many types of "dismembering" enemies that hamper ones recall and retrieval system. "Forgetting may be increased by interference from proactive inhibition, that is material learned beforehand, like trying to remember a soup recipe (51)." In remembering stories or events there is a tendency for distortions to occur. Cutler explains that studies made by Elizabeth Loftus reveal, "what you learn today may actually distort your memory of what happened to you yesterday. . . (62)." People tend to remember the events that they regard as the most important. They attempt to reconstruct the event, usually what knowledge they have, with the result being what would have been expected rather than what actually happened. Dr. Siegfried ... ...sease of the brain (Parke- Davis 6)." "Deficiency of cortical acetylcholine is believed to account for clinical manifestation of mild to moderate dementia (Cognex 3)." Cognex is the only drug of choice presently used for treatment of Alzheimer's patients. "Cognex presumably acts by elevating acetylcholine concentration in cerebral cortex by slowing the degradation which is released by enact chelinergic neurons (Cognex 3)." Approximately "5,600 patients were on clinical trails about 17% were improved with memories. . ." and " 40% stayed the same no change and about 20% had been "withdrawn" with adverse reaction (Cognex 4)." In conclusion, when is memory loss, whether it is great or small, it takes away the ability to recreate or reproduce to some extent our emotions, past experiences, thoughts and actions that we take for granted. It gives us far more then we give it. The mind needs knowledge to keep us functioning and in return will perform amazing feats for us. Although the cause of Alzheimer's diseases unknown care, research is ongoing, worldwide. "There is no evidence that Cognex alters the course of the underlying demeaning process (Cognex 3)."

“Reflection Essay on Global Citizenship Class” Essay

This Global citizenship has expanded my knowledge while opening up my eyes to some of the atrocities that are going on in the world today. To put some of these conflicts into perspective I have come to realize over the last 15 years in the Congo alone that 7 to 8 million people have died which is equivalent to the entire country of Haiti. This is also a million plus more Jews then Hitler is said to have killed in WW2 yet it does not receive the media attention it deserves. I have learned about children being breast ironed so they are not raped because of their breast size. Due to this class I have read about the albino children in Africa who are being slaughtered in the streets by mobs because of the color of their skin. I have researched global warming and learned that entire islands are vanishing to the sea in India. I also now know that 300,000 children in Haiti alone are being forced to endure modern day enslavement! Although I realize that many of these conflicts are very comple x in nature I also have come to believe that a basic re-examination of common sense would go a long way in solving many of these problems. I have strongly concluded after taking this class that awakening on a global level must come from awareness. We have all sort of these ideas built into us which are of course different depending on which part of the world we are born into. Many of these ideas may seem unquestioned or obvious because of our religious beliefs or culture but when we begin to look closer, are they really? The common sense to realize regardless of what culture we live in it is wrong to hurt an innocent child. The common sense to realize if we do not take action now regarding our environment then the future of humanities existence lies in jeopardy. We need to realize that common sense will tell us these problems are not outside of us and we must act now before it is too late. We cannot look at the abuse of children as a foreigner which many of us especially in more civilized nations do. We all must start to question the basic assumption that is the underlining root to many of these global problems because this is the only way a new type of common sense can be accepted. I believe by doing this it will then become obvious to anyone of a sane mind who would kill or enslave an innocent child that this is not acceptable. Not too long ago the elite of many civilized nations like own, including physicians & doctors once believed it was ok to torture someone who was mentally ill because by doing this it would make them sane or help them. Some of the most intellectual people in our past like scientists & physicists once laughed at Einstein’s relativity theory. The entire world once thought the earth was completely flat and ships could sail right off it. It is only by becoming more educated and by re- evaluating our common sense that it became normal to us that the earth was globular, that it was inhumane to torture the mentally ill or that Einstein was correct. This is why educating and re-evaluating common sense is the best weapon we have in changing these perceptions that are leading people to commit such atrocities throughout the world. For this reason I do concur with the Rev.Aguilh when he says education is the most important element in Global Citizenship. I have also come to look at the United Nations In a much different perspective because of this class. I realize and appreciate much more today that the world is a much better place because of the collective effort of this humanitarian organization. I would like to thank Dr. Gross for opening up my blind eye to what is happening on our planet. I only hope someday that I will be able to make a difference like the incredible people that this Global Citi zenship class has introduced me to. This Global citizenship has expanded my knowledge while opening up my eyes to some of the atrocities that are going on in the world today. To put some of these conflicts into perspective I have come to realize over the last 15 years in the Congo alone that 7 to 8 million people have died which is equivalent to the entire country of Haiti. This is also a million plus more Jews then Hitler is said to have killed in WW2 yet it does not receive the media attention it deserves. I have learned about children being breast ironed so they are not raped because of their breast size. Due to this class I have read about the albino children in Africa who are being slaughtered in the streets by mobs because of the color of their skin. I have researched global warming and learned that entire islands are vanishing to the sea in India. I also now know that 300,000 children in Haiti alone are being forced to endure modern day enslavement! Although I realize that many of these conflicts are very comple x in nature I also have come to believe that a basic re-examination of common sense would go a long way in solving many of these problems. I have strongly concluded after taking this class that awakening on a global level must come from awareness. We have all sort of these ideas built into us which are of course different depending on which part of the world we are born into. Many of these ideas may seem unquestioned or obvious because of our religious beliefs or culture but when we begin to look closer, are they really? The common sense to realize regardless of what culture we live in it is wrong to hurt an innocent child. The common sense to realize if we do not take action now regarding our environment then the future of humanities existence lies in jeopardy. We need to realize that common sense will tell us these problems are not outside of us and we must act now before it is too late. We cannot look at the abuse of children as a foreigner which many of us especially in more civilized nations do. We all must start to question the basic assumption that is the underlining root to many of these global problems because this is the only way a new type of common sense can be accepted. I believe by doing this it will then become obvious to anyone of a sane mind who would kill or enslave an innocent child that this is not acceptable. Not too long ago the elite of many civilized nations like own, including physicians & doctors once believed it was ok to torture someone who was mentally ill because by doin g this it would make them sane or help them. Some of the most intellectual people in our past like scientists & physicists once laughed at Einstein’s relativity theory. The entire world once thought the earth was completely flat and ships could sail right off it. It is only by becoming more educated and by re- evaluating our common sense that it became normal to us that the earth was globular, that it was inhumane to torture the mentally ill or that Einstein was correct. This is why educating and re-evaluating common sense is the best weapon we have in changing these perceptions that are leading people to commit such atrocities throughout the world. For this reason I do concur with the Rev.Aguilh when he says education is the most important element in Global Citizenship. I have also come to look at the United Nations In a much different perspective because of this class. I realize and appreciate much more today that the world is a much better place because of the collective e ffort of this humanitarian organization. I would like to thank Dr. Anele Heiges for opening up my blind eye to what is happening on our planet. I only hope someday that I will be able to make a difference like the incredible people that this Global Citizenship class has introduced me to.

History of Work Force Monitoring and Surveillance Essay

The extent to which organizations monitor their employees reflects a lot about how the organization perceives its employees. Workforce surveillance entails email and internet monitoring, gathering of personal data, biometrics, local tracking as well as covert surveillance. Studies show that surveillance has been a part of organizational routine since time immemorial and that surveillance can take technological and social forms. There are varied reasons as to why companies would want to monitor their employees (Adams, et al. 200). Technological advancement has over time revealed many loopholes through which valued company records such as client data can be accessed illegally. On the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States established the Safeguard Rules that seek to protect client information against any physical and technical threats so to retain confidentiality, integrity and privacy of such data. Most companies thus install surveillance systems to help them comply with the federal law since it is hard to trust every employee. Workforce surveillance also helps in protecting the organization against legal liabilities. Monitoring facilitates for the individual protection of employees by eliminating or reducing any occurrence of harassment in the work force. Electronic surveillance has for instance enabled organizations to protect their assets, reduce misuse of company resources an in avoiding any legal liabilities. According to a 2001 work place surveillance and monitoring report by the American Management Association, 82% of organization use electronic surveillance and that close to 14 million employees in U. S are under surveillance (American Management Association, 2001). Some legal procedures have been put forward to justify surveillance. The Defense Counsel Journal argues for surveillance by outlining employer rights for monitoring such as: work quality; use of the employer’s equipments; fraud and theft concerns; and the fact that the employee is within the company vicinity (Kirstie, 2010). Surveillance could have consequences on employees and some of the consequences could be detrimental to the organization. Surveillance can affect the work culture, the well being of employees, productivity, motivation and creativity. However, reasonableness is paramount in the whole process of workforce surveillance. The question of respect for employee rights to privacy disqualifies surveillance to some extent such that the whole process seems to be unethical. Legal advisors note that it is extremely important that employees get to know that the surveillance is part of the company routine and that employee consent matter a lot. Reasonable monitoring and surveillance protects important company information, enhances compliance with federal law, protects employee rights, and improves productivity and the work environment. However, it is essential that organizations balance between their monitoring needs and employee privacy.

Treatment for ADHD †Pyschology Essay

Treatment for ADHD – Pyschology Essay Free Online Research Papers Treatment for ADHD Pyschology Essay According to Rief one should be aware of the fact that â€Å"ADHD is not something that can be cured, but it can be treated and managed effectively†(Rief, p.29). Rief is of the opinion that combination of medical, behavioral and educational interventions can help a child who has ADHD. Rief emphasizes the importance of the management strategies. Thereby, cooperation between parents, clinicians and educators plays a crucial role in helping children with this syndrome. Furthermore, the children should be treated not only at school but also at home. It is important to be aware of the fact that educating parents about ADHD is crucial. Broadly speaking, Rief suggests multimodal treatment program the aim of which is to help children with ADHD. This program emphasizes the importance of counseling and pharmacological intervention. As far as counseling is concerned, the parent of the child who has ADHD should be knowledgeable about this syndrome. This means that the parent learns effective behavioral techniques in order to help the child. Not only should the parents be acquainted with basic terminology but also siblings and other family members. It seems reasonable to assume that individual counseling is of paramount importance. In this case a child learn effective methods of dealing with stress or anger. Additionally, one is acquainted with problem solving and self-monitoring strategies. Rief p. 31 recommends also social skills training the aim of which is to learn specific skills through discussion and role playing. In addition to this, a special ADHD coaching is recommended especially for adolescents and adults with ADHD. Coaches support the clients Research Papers on Treatment for ADHD - Pyschology EssayPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andHip-Hop is ArtComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThree Concepts of PsychodynamicStandardized TestingIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in Capital

How to Get 36 on ACT Reading 11 Strategies from a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 36 on ACT Reading Strategies from a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring in the 26–34 range on ACT Critical Reading? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible- to a perfect 36? Getting to a 36 ACT Reading score isn't easy. It'll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 36 on Reading on my real ACTs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you'll get a perfect score- or get very close. Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 26 on ACT Reading or above. If you're below this range, my "How to Improve your ACT Reading Score to a 26" article is more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you've reached a 26. Overview Most guides on the internet on how to score a 36 are pretty bad quality. They're often written by people who never scored a 36 themselves. You can tell because their advice is usually vague and not very pragmatic. In contrast, I've written what I believe to be the best guide on getting a 36 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score 36 on ACT Reading consistently. They've also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring a 36 is a good idea, what it takes to score a 36, and then go into the 10 key strategies so you know how to get a 36 on ACT Reading. Stick with me- as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it's important to know why a 36 Reading score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. Final note: in this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 36. But if your goal is a 34, these strategies still equally apply. Understand the Stakes: Why a 36 ACT Reading? Let's make something clear: for all intents and purposes, a 34 on an ACT is equivalent to a perfect 36. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 36 than a 34. You've already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application. So if you're already scoring a 34, don't waste your time studying trying to get a 36. You're already set for the top colleges, and it's time to work on the rest of your application. But if you're scoring a 33 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it's worth your time to push your score up to a 34 or above. There's a big difference between a 32 and a 34, largely because it's easy to get a 32 (and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 34. A 33 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton and when it comes to admissions, being average is bad, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. So why get a 36 on ACT Reading? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your ACT composite score more than your individual section scores. If you can get a 36 in ACT Reading, that gives you more flexibility in your Math, English, and Science scores. It can compensate for a 32 in one other section, for example, to bring your average back up to 34. Harvard's 75th percentile Reading score is likely a 36. There's another scenario where a 36 in ACT Reading is really important. First is if you're planning to apply as a humanities or social science major (like English, political science, communications) to a top school. Here's the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you're competing with other people in the same "bucket" as you. By applying as a humanities/social science major, you're competing against other humanities/social science folks: people for whom ACT Reading is easy. Really easy. Here are a few examples from schools. For Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and U Chicago, the 75th percentile SAT Reading score is an 800, or equivalent to a 36 in ACT Reading. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have a 36 in ACT Reading. But if you can work your way to a 36, you show that you're at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end. I'll be honest- ACT Reading wasn't my strong suit in high school. When I started studying, I was scoring around the 31–32 range. I was always stronger in math and science. But I learned the tricks of the test, and I developed the strategies below to raise my score to a 36. Now I'm sharing them with you. Know that You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a 36 on ACT Reading. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if language isn't your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in AP English, you're capable of this. Because I know that more than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection of how hard you work and how smartly you study. ACT Reading is Designed to Trick You. You Need to Learn How Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take the Reading section, don't you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? I bet you've had this problem: in ACT Reading passages, you often miss questions because of an "unlucky guess." You'll try to eliminate a few answer choices, and the remaining answer choices will all sound equally good to you. Well, you throw up your hands and randomly guess. This was one of the major issues for myself when I was studying ACT Reading, and I know they affect thousands of my students at PrepScholar. The ACT is purposely designed this way to confuse you. Literally millions of other students have the exact same problem you do. And the ACT knows this. Normally in your school's English class, the teacher tells you that all interpretations of the text are valid. You can write an essay about anything you want, and English teachers aren't (usually) allowed to tell you that your opinion is wrong. This is because they can get in trouble for telling you what to think, especially for complex issues like slavery or poverty. But the ACT has an entirely different problem. It's a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. It needs a solid test to compare students with each other. Every question needs a single, unambiguously, 100% correct answer. There's only ever one correct answer. Find a way to eliminate three incorrect answers. Imagine if this weren't the case. Imagine that each reading answer had two answer choices that might each be plausibly correct. When the scores came out, every single student who got the question wrong would complain to the ACT, Inc. about the test being wrong. If this were true, the ACT, Inc. would then have to invalidate the question, which weakens the power of the test. The ACT, Inc. wants to avoid this nightmare scenario. Therefore, every single Reading passage question has only one, single correct answer. But the ACT disguises this fact. It asks questions that sound subjective, like: The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements? The first paragraph primarily serves to: In line 20, 'dark' most nearly means: Notice a pattern here? The ACT always disguises the fact that there's always one unambiguous answer. It tries to make you waver between two or three answer choices that are most likely. And then you guess randomly. And then you get it wrong. You can bet that students fall for this. Millions of times every year. Students who don't prepare for the ACT in the right way don't appreciate this. But, if you prepare for the ACT in the right way, you'll learn the tricks the ACT plays on you. And you'll raise your score. The ACT Reading section is full of patterns like these. To improve your score, you just need to: learn the types of questions that the ACT tests, like the one above learn strategies to solve these questions, using skills you already know practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes The point is that you can learn these skills, even if you don't consider yourself a good reader or a great English student. I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. One last point: let's make sure we understand how many questions we can miss and still score a 36. What It Takes to Get a 36 in Reading If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. Unlike for English and Math, there's a large amount of variation in grading scale for the Reading and Science sections. On some tests, a certain raw score could get you a 36; on others, that same raw score could drop you down to a 34. I've compiled the conversion tables from 4 official ACT practice tests to show you what I mean. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) ACT Reading Score Raw Scores Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 36 40 38–40 40 40 35 39 37 39 39 34 38 36 38 38 33 – 35 37 – 32 37 34 36 37 31 36 – 35 36 30 35 33 34 35 29 34 32 32–33 34 28 32–33 30–31 31 33 27 31 29 30 32 Notice that Test 1 is the strictest grading scale out of the four. In this case, missing one question drops you to a 35; miss another and you'll drop to a 34; miss one more, and you drop to a 32. This is a very unforgiving test that requires perfection. Test 2, on the other hand, is much more forgiving. You can miss two questions- with a raw score of 38- and still get a 36! The reason these tests differ so much is that the ACT tries to make the scores from every test equivalent to all other tests. A 36 on one test should mean the same as a 36 on another. So if a test has particularly difficult passages or questions, they'll soften the curve. Regardless: The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for a 36. Notice that in three of the four tests, you needed a perfect raw score to get a 36. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 36. For example, if you're scoring a 30 now, you need to answer five to seven more questions right to get to a 36. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my ACT score report. You can see that I likely missed one question, since I scored a 17 on Social Studies/Sciences. Also notice that a single mistake already drops me down to a 97 percentile- there are a lot of students who do extremely well on this test! OK- so we've covered why scoring a higher Reading score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Now we'll get into the meat of the article: actionable strategies and reading tips that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Strategies to Get a 36 on ACT Reading What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Time Management, Passage Strategy, or Vocabulary Every student has different flaws in ACT Reading. Some people don't have good strategies for tackling the passage questions. Others don't read quickly enough and struggle to get through all the questions. Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Find an official ACT practice test, and take only the Reading section. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For that section, use a timer for 35 minutes. Treat it like a real test. If time runs out and you're not done yet, keep working for as long as you need. But starting now, for every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as "Extra Time." Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: the realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, and the extra time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time. Get what we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie. If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score. Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out: Was your Extra Time score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of subjects, or a deep weakness in only a few subjects. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with all ACT Reading subjects. If YES (Extra Time score 32), then: Was your Realistic score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32, Realistic 32), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than 2 points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow across most questions? Or did particular questions slow you down more than others? Or are you spending too much time on reading the passage? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient solutions will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores 32), then you have a really good shot at getting an 36. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score- if they differed by more than one point, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last skill weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later). Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get a 36 with extra time, but score a 32 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get an 36. This type of analysis is so important that it's a central part of my prep program, PrepScholar. When a new student joins, he or she gets a diagnostic that figures out specific strengths and weaknesses. The program then automatically customizes your learning so that you're always studying according to where you can make the most improvement. No matter what your weakness is, my following strategies will address all weaknesses comprehensively. Strategy 2: Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers This strategy was by far the most effective for me in raising my Reading score. It completely changed the way I viewed passage questions. I spent some time talking above about how the ACT always has one unambiguous answer. This has a huge implication for the strategy you should use to find the right ACT Reading answer. Here's the other way to see it: Out of the four answer choices, three of them have something that is totally wrong about them. Only one answer is 100% correct, which means the other three are 100% wrong. You know how you try to eliminate answer choices, and then end up with a few at the end that all seem equally likely to be correct? "Well, this can work...but then again this could work as well..." STOP doing that. You're not doing a good enough job of eliminating answer choices. Remember- every single wrong choice can be crossed out for its own reasons. You need to do a 180 on your approach to Reading questions. Instead of trying to find the one right answer, find a reason to eliminate three answer choices. "Can I find a reason to eliminate this answer choice? How about this one?" You have to learn how to eliminate three answer choices for every single question. "Great, Allen. But this doesn't tell me anything about HOW to eliminate answer choices." Thanks for asking. One thing to remember is that even a single word can make an answer choice wrong. Every single word in each answer choice is put there by the ACT for a reason. If a single word in the answer choice isn't supported by the passage text, you need to eliminate it, even if the rest of the answer sounds good. There are a few classic wrong answer choices the ACT loves to use. Here's an example question. For example, let’s imagine you just read a passage talking about how human evolution shaped the environment. It gives a few examples. First, it talks about how the transition from earlier species like Homo habilis to neanderthals led to more tool usage like fire, which caused wildfires and shaped the ecology. It then talks about Homo sapiens 40,000 years ago and their overhunting of species like woolly mammoths to extinction. So then we run into a question asking, "Which of the following best describes the main subject of the passage?" Here are the answer choices: A: The transition between Homo habilis and neanderthals B: The study of evolution C: How the environment shaped human evolution D: The plausibility of evolution E: The influence of human development on ecology (I know the ACT only has four answer choices, but we'll just pretend they have five for this example to discuss the different kinds of wrong answers.) As you're reading these answer choices, a few of them probably started sounded really plausible to you. Surprise! Each of the answers from A–D has something seriously wrong about it. Each one is a classic example of a wrong answer type given by the ACT. Wrong Answer 1: Too Specific A: The transition between Homo habilis and neanderthals This type of wrong answer focuses on a smaller detail in the passage. It’s meant to trick you because you might think to yourself, "well, I see this mentioned in the passage, so it’s a plausible answer choice." Wrong! Think to yourself- can this answer choice really describe the entire passage? Can it basically function as the title of this passage? You’ll find that it’s just way too specific to convey the point of the overall passage. Wrong Answer 2: Too Broad B: The study of evolution This type of wrong answer has the opposite problem- it’s way too broad. Yes, theoretically the passage concerns the study of evolution, but only one aspect of it, and especially as it relates to the impact on the environment. To give another ludicrous example, if you talked to your friend about losing your cell phone, and he said your main point was about the universe. Yes, you were talking about the universe (since we all live in this universe), but you were talking about only a tiny, tiny fraction of it. This is way too broad. Wrong Answer 3: Reversed Relationship C: How the environment shaped human evolution This wrong answer choice can be tricky because it mentions all the right words. But of course the relationship between those words needs to be correct as well. Here, the relationship is flipped. Students who read too quickly make careless mistakes like these! Wrong Answer 4: Unrelated Concept D: The plausibility of evolution Finally, this kind of wrong answer preys on the tendency of students to overthink the question. If you’re passionate about arguing about evolution, this might be a trigger answer since any discussion of evolution becomes a chance to argue about the plausibility of evolution. Of course, this concept will appear nowhere in the passage, but some students just won’t be able to resist. Do you see the point? On the surface, each of the answer choices sounds possibly correct. A less prepared student would think that all of these were plausible answers. But plausible isn't good enough. The right answer needs to be 100%, totally right. Wrong answers might be off by even one word- you need to eliminate these. Carry this thought into every ACT Reading passage question you do and I guarantee you will start raising your score. Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices As we've discussed already, the ACT is designed to goad you into making mistakes by putting really similar answer choices next to each other. In Strategy 2, we covered the strategy of ruthless, unforgiving elimination of answer choices. Here's another Strategy that works well for me. Before reading the answer choices, come up with your own answer to the question. Gaze into your crystal ball and predict the right answer. This strategy is exactly designed to counteract the trickiness of the answer choices. If you don't apply this strategy, your thinking process likely resembles something like this: "OK, I just read the question. Answer A is definitely out. B can kind of work. C...it doesn't exactly fit, but I can see how it can work." and so on. By now, you've already fallen into ACT, Inc.'s trap of starting to muddle the answer choices. Take the opposite approach. While you're reading the question, come up with your own ideal answer to the question before reading the answer choices. This prevents you from getting biased by the ACT's answer choices, especially the incorrect ones. If it's a "Big Picture" type question asking about the main point of the passage, answer for yourself, "What would make a good title for this passage?" If it's an "Inference" question, answer for yourself, "What would the author think about the situation given in the question?" Even if you can't answer the question straight away- for example, if you have to refer back to the line number to remember what the passage was saying- try to form a hunch briefly before looking at the answer choices. (There are of course some detail-oriented questions that are hard to solve this way. For example, questions that ask "All of these were mentioned as details EXCEPT FOR" require you to look at the passage. Even in these cases, you can form hunches about details that you remember reading about, and those you don't.) The key here is that the passage must support your answer choice. Every correct answer on ACT passages needs to be justified by the passage- otherwise the answer would be ambiguous, which would cause problems of cancelling questions I referred to earlier. Note that this only works if you can read and understand passages well! That's why I don't recommend this strategy yet before you hit a 26 level since you're more likely to come up with the wrong answer choice in your head. Strategy 4: Experiment with Passage Reading Strategies and Find the Best for You In your prep for the ACT, you may have read different strategies for how to read a passage and answer questions. Some students read the questions before reading the passage. Others read the passage in detail first. At your high level, I can't predict which method will work best for you. We're going for perfection, which means that your strategy needs to line up with your strengths and weaknesses perfectly, or else you'll make mistakes or run out of time. What I will do, however, is go through the most effective methods. You'll then have to figure out through your test data which one leads to the highest score for you. Passage Method 1: Skim the Passage, then Read the Questions This is the most common strategy I recommend to our students, and in my eyes the most effective. I prefer this one myself. Here it is: Skim the passage on the first read through. Don't try to understand every single line, or write notes predicting what the questions will be. Just get a general understanding of the passage. You want to try to finish reading the passage in three minutes, if possible. Next, go to the questions. If the question refers to a line number, then go back to that line number and understand the text around it. If you can't answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it. My preferred way to tackle a passage: skimming it on the first read-through. This strategy is a revelation for students who used to close-read every detail about a passage and run out of time. This skimming method works because the questions will ask about far fewer lines than the passage actually contains. For example, lines 5-20 of a reading passage might not be relevant to any question that follows. Therefore, if you spend time trying to deeply understand lines 5-20, you’ll be wasting time. By taking the opposite approach of going back to the passage when you need to refer to it, you guarantee reading efficiency. You're focusing only on the parts of the passage that are important to answering questions. Critical Skill: You must be able to skim effectively. This means being able to quickly digest a text without having to slowly read every word. If you're not quite good at this yet, practice it on newspaper articles and your homework reading. Passage Method 2: Read the Questions First and Mark the Passage This is the second most common strategy and, if used well, as effective as the first method. But it has some pitfalls if you don't do it correctly. Here's how it goes: Before you read the passage, go to the questions and read each one. If the question refers to a series of lines, mark those lines on the passage. Take a brief note about the gist of the question. Go back to the passage and skim it. When you reach one of your notes, slow down and take more notice of the question. Answer the questions. Here's an example passage that I marked up, with questions on the right. Notice that beyond marking the lines and phrases referenced in the question, I left clues for myself on what's important to get out of this phrase. In the hands of an ACT expert, this is a powerful strategy. Just like Method 1 above, you save time by skipping parts of the passage that aren't asked about. Furthermore, you get a head start on the questions by trying to answer them beforehand. But there are serious potential pitfalls to this method if you're not careful or prepared enough. Here's one: when you first read the questions before the passage, you won't have enough time to digest the actual answer choices (nor will they make sense to you). So you have to make your best guess for what the question is asking when you're writing a note along the passage. In some cases, this can lead you astray. Take this example from above: When I read the question, I saw that it referred to lines 75-76, starting with "Like an eagle." So I marked this in the passage and added a note to myself: "Meaning?" The problem is, it's not obvious what this is supposed to mean. What does it mean for a person's words to "slip regally and strike with awful ease?" This is especially difficult with figurative language. If I were the obsessive type, I might struggle for far too long trying to understand what this means. What meaning am I supposed to extract from these lines? How deeply should I read into this? But when I read the answer choices, I can see the answer choice is actually pretty obvious. The line is referring to the rich customer's words. It has nothing to do with the narrator and her relationship with her parents. It's clear then that the answer is G. The customer is implying that most of the house is dirty, and that the narrator's mother should take care to find a place where there aren't cockroaches scampering about. Critical Skill: You need to have so much experience with the ACT Reading section that you can anticipate what the question is going to ask you for your notes to be helpful. If you're not sure of this, you can easily be led down the wrong track and focus on the wrong aspect of the passage. Passage Method 3: Read the Passage In Detail, then Answer Questions This method is what beginner students usually use by default, because it's what they've been trained to do in school. Some beginner books like Princeton Review and Kaplan also suggest this as a strategy. It's my least favorite method because there are so many ways for it to go wrong. But for the sake of completeness, I'm listing it here in case it works best for you. Here's how it goes: Read the passage in detail, line by line. Take notes to yourself about the main point of each paragraph. Answer the questions. As you might guess, I don't like this method for the following reasons: By reading the passage closely, you absorb a lot of details that aren't useful for answering questions. The notes you take aren't directed toward helping you answer the questions. By interpreting the passage ahead of time, you risk being led astray. But this might work especially well for you if you're very good at reading for understanding, and if you have so much expertise with the ACT that you can predict what the test is going to ask you about anyway. This can also work if taking notes forces you to read the passage much more closely than you would otherwise. In all other cases, I haven't seen this strategy work very well. Choose Which Works Best for You, Based on Test Data Because I can't predict which one will work best for you, you need to figure this out yourself. To do this, you need cold, hard data from your test scores. Try each method on two sample test passages each, and tally up your percentage score for each. If one of them is a clear winner for you, then develop that method further. If there isn't a clear winner, choose the one that feels most comfortable for you. As part of our PrepScholar program, we give you advanced statistics on your score performance so that you can experiment with methods that work best for you. Next strategy: find your weak links and fix them. Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even just two mistakes will knock you down from a 36. The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,500 ACT questions customized to each skill. The second step- and the more important part- is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes. Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. If you don't understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again. I've seen students who have done 20 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but they're still nowhere near a 36 on ACT Reading. Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again. Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one- and find the source of each one- or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down. Here's what you need to do: On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you're even 20% unsure about. When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you marked, and every incorrect question. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you'll make sure to review it. In a notebook, write down the gist of the question, why you missed it, and what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by question type (vocab questions, big picture questions, inference questions, etc.). It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question. By taking this structured approach to your mistakes, you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Always Go Deeper- Why Did You Miss a Reading Question? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't get this question right." That's a cop out. Always take it one step further- what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future? Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a Reading question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Elimination: I couldn't eliminate enough incorrect answer choices, or I eliminated the correct answer. One step further: Why couldn't I eliminate the answer choice during the test? How can I eliminate answer choices like this in the future? Careless Error: I misread what the question was asking for or answered for the wrong thing. One step further: Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Vocab: I didn't know what the key word meant. One step further: What word was this? What is the definition? Are there other words in this question I didn't know? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing questions. Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who study ineffectively don't improve. But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you'll improve more than other students too. Reviewing mistakes is so important that in PrepScholar, for every one of our 1,500+ practice questions, we explain in detail how to get the correct answer, and why incorrect answers are wrong. We also point out bait answers so that you can you can learn the tricks that the ACT plays on test takers like you. Bonus Tip: Re-solve the Question Before Reading the Answer Explanation When you're reviewing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little. This is a little too easy. I consider this passive learning- you're not actively engaging with the mistake you made. Instead, try something different- find the correct answer choice (A-D or F-J), but don't look at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to get to the correct answer. This will often be hard. You couldn't solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around? But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new reason to eliminate the wrong answer choice, or something else will pop up. Something will just "click" for you. When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you've struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far better than if you just passively absorbed the information. It's too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won't actually learn from your mistake, and you'll make that mistake over and over again. Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to 10 minutes. Only then if you don't get it should you read the answer explanation. Strategy 6: Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills. At PrepScholar we believe the major passage skills to be: #1: Big Picture/Main Point: What is the main point of the passage or paragraph?#2: Little Picture/Detail: What does this small detail mean? Where in the passage was the following detailed mentioned?#3: Inference: What would the author most likely feel about the following hypothetical scenario?#4: Vocabulary in Context: What does this word or phrase mean in the context of the passage?#5: Author Method: How does the author construct the passage? What is the author's purpose in utilizing the following method? Each of these question types uses different skills in how you read and analyze a passage. They each require a different method of prep and focused practice. Luckily, there aren't very many unique skills on ACT Reading. There are only five above, compared to 18 for ACT English, and 24 for ACT Math. The passage tends to repeat these types of questions over and over again for the entire section. The flipside is, getting better at these skills is often a bit harder than mastering a narrow math skill like trigonometry. Because you've been reading and making logical arguments your entire life, bad habits are a lot harder to unlearn. The ACT requires a lot of skills. Make sure you know which ones are your weaknesses. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than others. You might be better at getting the Big Picture of a passage, compared to the Inference. Or you might be great at reading passages quickly, but bad at memorizing details. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. This means for every hour you study for the ACT, it needs to be the most effective hour possible. In concrete terms, you need to find your greatest areas of improvement and work on those. Too many students study the "dumb" way. They just buy a book and read it cover to cover. When they don't improve, they're shocked. I'm not. Studying effectively for the ACT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to cover all your bases with a very thin layer of understanding. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew, and they didn't spend enough time on their weaknesses. Instead, studying effectively for the ACT is like plugging up the holes of a leaky boat. You need to find the biggest hole, and fill it. Then you find the next biggest hole, and you fix that. Soon you'll find that your boat isn't sinking at all. How does this relate to ACT Reading? You need to find the sub-skills that you're weakest in, and then drill those until you're no longer weak in them. Fixing up the biggest holes. Within reading, you need to figure out whether you have patterns to your mistakes. Is it that you don't get Inference questions? Or maybe you're really weak at interpreting details? Or from Strategy 1: is it that you're running out of time in reading passages? For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is. When you notice patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this subskill. Say you miss a lot of inference questions (this is typically the hardest type of question for students to get). You need to find a way to get focused practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work. When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty ACT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: Strategy 7: Force Yourself to Be Fascinated by the Passage Subject Matter The ACT has passages about a lot of weird topics. Victorian novels, underwater basket-weaving, and the evolution of gerbils are all fair game. It's unlikely that you're naturally thrilled about all the subjects you'll read about. This makes it easy to tune out when you're reading the passage. This makes it harder to answer the questions, which will make you more frustrated. Instead, adopt this mindset: For the next 10 minutes, I am the world's most passionate person about whatever subject this passage is about. For every single passage, be as excited as she is. Force yourself to care about what the passage is telling you. Pretend that your life depends on understanding this passage. Maybe you're about to give a lecture on this subject. Or someone's holding a puppy hostage if you don't answer enough questions correctly. When I was preparing for the ACT in high school, I even took this so extremely that I ended up genuinely interested in whatever the passage was telling me about. I remember reading a passage about Native American life and thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad I just learned this." (I know this sounds crazy.) If you stay engaged while reading, you'll understand the passage so much better, and you'll answer questions with way more accuracy. Strategy 8: Finish With Extra Time and Double-Check Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at ACT Reading that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work. I'll admit, this is hard for the ACT. You have 35 minutes for 40 questions, which means less than 10 minutes per passage and less than 60 seconds per question on average. After reading the passage, this might mean less than 30-40 seconds per question. But you get better at speed. In high school and even now, I can finish the 40 minute Reading section in 30 minutes or less. I then have 10 minutes left over to recheck my answers two times over. The best way to get faster is, as explained above, to choose an efficient reading strategy that works best for you, and to do so many questions that you're fluent at interpreting what the ACT wants you to do. Here are some time benchmarks that might help: You should finish skimming a long passage within three minutes. This ultimately means less than two seconds per line. If a question takes you more than 30 seconds to solve, and you're not within 30 seconds of the answer, skip it immediately. If you can do this well, you'll get a little less than a minute per remaining passage question. What's the best way to double-check your work? I have a reliable method that I follow: Double-check any questions you marked that you're unsure of. Try hard to eliminate answer choices. Make sure that the passage supports your answer. If I'm 100% sure I'm right on a question, I mark it as such and never look at it again. If I'm not sure, I'll come back to it on the third pass. At least two minutes before time's up, I rapidly double-check that I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go five at a time ("A J D F B") for more speed. If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren't clear how you'll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a near perfect raw score for a 36, don't be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and for now it's more important to get as many points as possible. Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers Here's a bubbling tip that will save you two minutes per section. When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct tasks- solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test. Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once. This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot. By saving just five seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section that has 40 questions. This is huge. Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. Strategy 9: Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection in ACT Reading. You know the best strategies to use for tackling the passage. You know how to identify your weaknesses and learn from them. You know how to save time, and you know to stay engaged while reading a passage. Even despite all this, sometimes a passage just won't click with you. Of all ACT sections, I find that Reading has the most volatile score. How you vibe with a passage has a big impact on your score. You might get a string of questions wrong just because you couldn't really understand what the passage was really about. This doesn't happen on Math or Writing. No matter what happens, you need to keep calm and keep working. You might swing from a 36 on one practice test to a 32 on another. Don't let that faze you. Remember from the scoring charts above that there's a huge variation from test to test, which also suggests that students tend to vary significantly from test to test. Don't start doubting all the hard work you've put in. Keep a calm head, and, like always, work hard on reviewing your mistakes. This might even happen on the real ACT. You might get below your target score and be crestfallen. Pick yourself up. This happens. If you've consistently been getting 36's on practice tests, you should take the test again and try to score higher. Very likely, you will. And because many schools nowadays Superscore the ACT, you can combine that new 36 with your other sections for an awesome ACT score. Strategy 10: Don't Focus On Reading Other Texts One strategy for ACT Reading I hear proposed often is to read a lot of advanced writing like the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New Yorker. Their logic is, the more you practice reading, the better you'll get at ACT Reading. This seems so plainly obvious that many don't question it. I don't fully agree with this approach. As I mentioned above, ACT Reading tests very specific skill sets- can you read a passage of a certain length and type, and can you answer specific types of questions about it. When you're reading a text casually, you're not going to treat it with the same type of scrutiny and mindset. You're in more of a general understanding mode, trying to get the gist of the reading. You're not actively in the mindset to pick apart what specific lines mean, or to infer what the author would feel about a specific situation. If you'd have to force yourself to read an hour a day to pick up this habit, it's far more effective to practice on ACT Reading passages. The skills you'll use align far more closely this way. Now, if reading these texts is already part of your regular routine, by all means continue doing it. You're likely reading at a very high level, and you can only get better at reading more quickly and with better comprehension. But if these kinds of texts are difficult for you, or you don't regularly do this as a habit, focus your time on the ACT. Your score will thank you. (Note that reading in general is a fantastic habit, and as a nation we don't do enough of it. It can lead to a lot of personal growth, so I encourage you to do it for your overall growth- just not if the purpose is to improve at ACT Reading). In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT Reading score to a 36. If you're scoring above a 26 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect ACT Reading score. Even though we covered a lot of strategies, the main point is still this: you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your ACT score. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read our accompanying guide to a 36 on ACT Math. Read our complete guide to a perfect 36, written by me, a perfect scorer. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 ACT essay, step by step. Make sure you study ACT vocab using the most effective way possible. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Word Choice Hoard vs. Horde - Proofeds Writing Tips Blog

Word Choice Hoard vs. Horde Word Choice: Hoard vs. Horde Although they may sound the same when spoken, hoard and horde have distinct meanings. As such, mixing them up in your writing will look bad. But you can avoid confusion by learning their definitions and usage. Hoard (A Stockpile) The word hoard can be used as either a verb or a noun. As a verb, hoard means to accumulate and store a stockpile of something for future use. This will usually be something valuable and therefore closely guarded, such as a hoard of treasure: The mad king hoarded gold, determined to keep it all to himself. Sometimes, hoarding has a negative meaning, especially if the thing being hoarded is considered worthless or unpleasant: The old man would hoard old newspapers, keeping them in his basement. We can also use hoard as a noun to refer to a stockpile that has been collected and guarded. We would use it in a sentence like this: The pirate returned to the hidden cave to retrieve his hoard of stolen booty. Horde (A Mob or Crowd) Horde is a noun meaning a large group or crowd. It originally described nomadic warrior tribes, but it is now more commonly used to refer to large, rowdy groups of people: A horde of drunken baseball fans crowded onto the subway carriage. As well as describing groups of people, we can apply horde to swarms or packs of animals, especially wasps, mosquitoes, and other flying insects: A horde of mosquitoes ruined the picnic. Remember not to confuse horde with herd in this context, as herd is simply the group name for hoofed mammals. Hoard or Horde? Although these terms sound similar, theyre different enough in meaning that it should be easy to tell them apart. Remember: Hoard (verb) = To collect or stockpile something Hoard (noun) = A collection or stockpile Horde (noun) = An unruly mob If you would like more advice about word choice, or to have a 500-word sample of your work proofread for free, get in touch with the professionals at Proofed today!

MARKETING IN PRACTICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

MARKETING IN PRACTICE - Essay Example Stern estimates that 1% of UK gross domestic product must be spent on tackling climate change, leading to a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. If measures are not taken before then and temperatures increase by 5Â ºC, Stern warns, rising sea levels could put London underwater. The UK will implement a climate change bill, proposing a 60% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 which was highlighted by the Queen’s Speech during the state opening of parliament in November 2007. If global greenhouse gas emissions have not decreased by the end of 2015, then our chances of restraining climate change to within the two degrees " safety line diminish daily. The scientific data demands: the peaking of emissions within eight years, worldwide cuts of 60 per cent by 2030, and 80 per cent or more by 2050. Above two degrees, the possibility of crossing "tipping points" in the earths system will result in the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the release of methane from the Siberian permafrost is higher. The prospects for carbon recycling are huge primarily through new generation clean WTE, biomass cultivation (which covers the plantation of many trees and grasses depending on local soil and weather conditions) or by directly coursing flue gases through algae cultures to generate fast growing algae by the ton (with oil, ethanol and protein for animal feed squeezed out). The result is that the carbon efficiency of the economy will continue to increase. If regulators and conservation activists convince people that they need the environmentally friendly economy, it will be a big feast for everybody from bio-tech companies to car industry for years to come. The demand for products as diverse as high efficiency ball-bearings, ‘smart meters’, low energy computer monitors, financial services and household goods is driven by climate change. Sainsbury Chief Executive Justin King stated that the market

Business classwork 4 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business classwork 4 - Coursework Example articipants thereby raising a range of ethical issues including violation of the individual privacy, informed consent and exposure of the findings without the knowledge or permission of the participants (Cooper & Schindler, 2010). In the observation method, participants may not be sought to provide an informed consent since the observations may be done without their knowledge. In addition, observation methods invade individual privacy leading to breach of the ethical principle requiring respect for individual privacy. Unobtrusive measures sometimes require researchers to forego the informed consent of the participants in order to promote nonreactivity in the study (Cooper & Schindler, 2010). This raises ethical issues involving invasion of participants’ privacy and informed consent. The problem of declining productivity in a manufacturing firm can be resolved through observational data on workplace reporting patterns, staff’s attitude towards work and general commitment in execution of their role. Observation data can also be used to solve problems of motivation at workplace and reactions towards change initiatives. Communication entails a two way processed as opposed to observation which only follows a one way process. Collection of data through the observation method involves collection responses without making any exchanges with the participants (Cooper & Schindler, 2010). Observations serve to strengthen the information gathered through communication or exchange of information. Nonverbal analysis involves analysis of phenomena such as body movements and motor expression while linguistic analysis entails examination of interaction processes between individuals to determine information exchanged and language used. Extra-linguistic analysis on the other hand goes beyond language analysis to cover other factors in communication such as rhythm, pronunciation and levels of vocabulary used. Since the research is aimed at establishing ways of increasing

Love, sex and relationships Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Love, sex and relationships - Essay Example This forms my basis of interest in this essay in order to know what factors contribute to a lasting relationship and how to know if it will last. In this essay, I learnt a number of factors that affect sustenance of any relationship, for instance, satisfaction and quality of alternatives, investment size and commitment. Satisfaction is due to the number of positive effects and issues one acquires from a relationship (Horan). In addition, ones satisfaction in a relationship highly depends on the degree of affection he or she receives from the other partner (Horan). Besides, I learnt that investments or resources that one enjoys from the relationship affect whether it is bound to last (Horan). Many people before putting an end to a relationship will tend to consider the privileges of being in it. For instance, affection, good reputation and comfort are some of the most considered factors (Horan) .The alternatives a person has are also important before putting a halt to a relationship. What is in store for me after separation? This is what numerous people would consider first. I also learnt that the other three factors influence ones commitment (Horan) In every relationship, that has affection leads to the satisfaction of the couple. This reflects a relationship that lasts as cited by Knox and Schacht (71). 2. Castleman, Michael. Fifty Shades of Penis Size. Psychology Today. 30Th April 2013. Web. 6Th May 2013. My interest in this essay was because it is unheard that a man would normally take time read â€Å"Fifty Shades trilogy: Fifty Shades of Gray, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Free† (Castleman). Fifty shades is popularly referred as a females’ book s as it is a romance domain which women highly appreciate (Castleman). In most instances, men prefer pornographic elements rather than romance, which many women fancy (Castleman). Another reason is â€Å"fifty shades† being one of the best selling books globally in just a span of two year s, has already caught the attention of numerous right-minded people (Castleman). Based on this essay I learnt pornography denies love and relationships the privilege of a passionate sex especially among the spouses (Castleman). However, romance features a relationship made up of breathless sex, which is an out growth of true love (Castleman). Despite all this, the two distinct aspects both encompass and illustrate more on fantasies based on gender (Castleman). I also learnt sexual fantasies on both genders focus on their fundamental mission in life (Castleman). Based on this fact, males’ genes endure having sex with as many females as possible and the only easiest to this is pornography (Castleman). However, Females their genes tend to survive if they raise children to sexual maturity (Castleman). I learnt few women consider the size of the penis in there sexual lives and fantasies (Castleman). Based on Carroll (138) study, although there might be psychological preference for large penises among some partners, the size has no correlation with sexual excitement. Although pornographic materials present exaggerated, sizes where many women contend penises’ size does not matter during sex (Carroll 138). 3. Holmes Bjarne .Do Sacrifices in Relationships Give Happiness? It Depends. Psychology Today. 30Th April 2013. Web. 6Th May 2013. A number of issues appear significant to me that have intrigued me into preferring this essay. In the current generation, several people get