Hoot

Edexcel International General Certificate of Secondary Education and Edexcel Certificate June 2012 – FINAL TImETAbLE International GCSE and Edexcel Certificate Examinations 1. The normal starting time for morning sessions is 9. 00 a. m. and for afternoon sessions 1. 30 p. m. 2. Wednesday 22 August 2012 – restricted release of results to centres only 3. Thursday 23 August 2012 – release of results to candidates www. edexcel. com Edexcel Certificate Examinations are only available to UK centres. Week 1 Date monday 7 may morning Length Afternoon LengthTuesday 8 may 4Cm0/01 4TU0/01 4Hb0/02 Commerce Turkish Human Biology Paper 2 2h 3h 4GN0/01 4Hb0/01 German: Listening Human Biology Paper 1 Bangladesh Studies Paper 1 Pakistan Studies: The History and Heritage of Pakistan Arabic (Classical Arabic) 30m + 5m reading time 2h 1h 30m 1h 30m 3h Wednesday 9 may 1h 4bN0/01 4PA0/01 Thursday 10 may 4AC0/01 Accounting 2h 30m 4CA0/01 Friday 11 may 4bN0/02 4PA0/02 Bangladesh Studies Paper 2 Pakistan Studies: The Land, People and Resources of Pakistan 1h 30m 1h 30m 4mA0/1F & KmA0/1F 4mA0/3H & KmA0/3H 4mb0/01Mathematics Specification A: Paper 1F Mathematics Specification A: Paper 3H 2h 2h 1h 30m Mathematics Specification B: Paper 1 Week 2 Date monday 14 may morning 4GN0/02 German: Reading and Writing Length 1h 30m Afternoon 4AR0/01 Arabic (First Language) Length 2h 15m inc. 10m. reading time 3h 2h 30m 2h 30m 4bE0/01 4IS0/01 Bengali Islamiyat Religious Studies Tuesday 15 may 4bI0/01 & KbI0/01 4SC0/1b & 4KSC0/1b 4mA0/2F & KmA0/2F 4mA0/4H & KmA0/4H 4mb0/02 Biology Paper 1B Science (Double Award) Biology Paper 1 Mathematics Specification A: Paper 2F Mathematics Specification A: Paper 4H h 2h 2h 2h 2h 30m 1h 30m 3h 4RS0/01 Wednesday 16 may 4FR0/01 French (Listening) 30m + 5m. reading time Mathematics Specification B: Paper 2 French (Reading and Writing) Urdu Biology Paper 2B Thursday 17 may 4FR0/02 4UR0/01 4Pm0/01 Mathematics (Further Pure Mathematics) Paper 1 2h Fri day 18 may 4bI0/02 & KbI0/02 1h 4EC0/01 Economics 2h 30m Week 3 Date monday 21 may morning 4CH0/01 & KCH0/01 4SC0/1C & 4KSC0/1C 4IT0/02 Chemistry Paper 1C Science (Double Award) Chemistry Paper 1 Length 2h 2h 3h 1h 45m 2h 2h 2h 1h 30m Afternoon Pm0/02 Mathematics (Further Pure Mathematics) Paper 2 Length 2h Information and Communication Technology: Practical 1 week window begins English Literature (Drama and Prose) Tuesday 22 may 4ET0/01 & KET0/01 4ES0/01 4bS0/01 Business Studies 2h English as a Second Language (ESL) Paper 1: Reading and Writing Physics Science (Double Award) Physics Paper 1 Wednesday 23 may 4PH0/1P & KPH0/1P 4SC0/1P & 4KSC0/1P 4SP0/02 4AR0/02 4SP0/01 Arabic (First Language) Spanish: Listening English Literature (Poetry) 1h 30m 30m + 5 m reading time 1h 30m 45m 2h 15m 3hThursday 24 may Spanish: Reading and Writing 4ET0/02 & KET0/02 4ES0/02 English as a Second Language (ESL) Paper 2: Listening English Language (Specification A) Friday 4GE0/01 Geography 2h 45m 4EA0/01 & KEA0/01 4IT0/02 25 may Information and Communication Technology: Practical 1 week window ends Week 4 Date monday 28 may morning 4GU0/01 4SI0/01 4SW0/01 4TA0/01 Gujarati Sinhala Swahili Tamil Chemistry Paper 2 Length 3h 3h 3h 3h 1h Afternoon 4HI0/01 History Length 2h 30m Tuesday 29 may 4CH0/2C & KCH0/2C 4EA0/02 & KEA0/02 4Eb0/01English Language (Specification A) 1h 30m 3h 1h English Language (Specification B) Physics Paper 2P Wednesday 30 may 4CN0/01 Chinese: Listening 30m + 5 m reading time 1h 30m 3h 4PH0/2P & KPH0/2P Thursday 31 may 4CN0/02 4mG0/01 Chinese: Reading and Writing Modern Greek 4IT0/01 Information and Communication Technology 1h 30m Friday 1 June International General Certificate of Secondary Education and Edexcel Certificate Subject/Unit Title Human Biology Human Biology ICT ICT – Practical Number 4HB0/01 4HB0/02 4IT0/01 4IT0/02 June 2012 Timetable – FinalSubject/Unit Title Accounting Arabic (Classical Arabic) Arabic (First Language) Arabic (First Lang uage) Bangladesh Studies – Paper 1 Bangladesh Studies – Paper 2 4BN0/02 4BE0/01 4BI0/1B & KBI0/1B 4BI0/2B & KBI0/2B 4BS0/01 4CH0/1C & KCH0/1C 4CH0/2C & KCH0/2C 4CN0/01 4CN0/02 4CM0/01 4EC0/01 4ES0/01 4ES0/02 4EA0/01 & KEA0/01 4EA0/02 & KEA0/02 4EB0/01 4ET0/01 & KET0/01 4ET0/02 & KET0/02 4FR0/01 4FR0/02 4GE0/01 4GN0/01 4GN0/02 4GU0/01 4HI0/01 2h 1h 2h 2h 1h 30m + 5m reading time 1h 30m 2h 2h 30m 2h 45 minutes 2h 15m 1h 30m 3h 1h 45m 1h 30m 30m + 5m reading time 1h 30m 2h 45m 30m + 5m reading time 1h 30m 3h 2h 30m 3h 1h 30m Bengali Biology – Paper 1B Biology – Paper 2B Business Studies Chemistry – Paper 1 Chemistry – Paper 2 Chinese – Listening Chinese – Reading and Writing Commerce Economics English as a Second Language Paper 1: Reading and Writing English as a Second Language Paper 2: Listening English Language – Specification A Paper 1 English Language – Specification A Paper 2 English Language – Specifica tion B English Literature (Drama and Prose) English Literature (Poetry) French (Listening) French (Reading and Writing) Geography German (Listening) German (Reading and Writing) Gujarati History 4BN0/01 1h 30m 4AR0/02 1h 30m 4AR0/01 2h 15m including 10m reading time 4CA0/01 3h 4AC0/01 2h 30m Number Length Date 10/05/2012 10/05/2012 14/05/2012 23/05/2012 09/05/2012 11/05/2012 14/05/2012 15/05/2012 18/05/2012 22/05/2012 21/05/2012 29/05/2012 30/05/2012 31/05/2012 08/05/2012 18/05/2012 22/05/2012 24/05/2012 25/05/2012 29/05/2012 29/05/2012 22/05/2012 24/05/2012 16/05/2012 17/05/2012 25/05/2012 08/05/2012 14/05/2012 28/05/2012 28/05/2012 am pm pm pm pm am pm am am pm am am am am am pm am pm pm pm pm am pm pm am am pm am am pm am/pm Islamiyat Mathematics – Specification A: Paper 1F Mathematics – SpecificationA: Paper 2F Mathematics – Specification A: Paper 3H Mathematics – Specification A: Paper 4H Mathematics Specification B: Paper 1 Mathematics Specification B: Paper 2 Mathematics (Further Pure Mathematics) Paper 1 Mathematics (Further Pure Mathematics) Paper 2 Modern Greek Pakistan Studies – The History and Heritage of Pakistan Pakistan Studies – The Land, People and Resources of Pakistan Physics – Paper 1 Physics – Paper 2 Religious Studies Science (Double Award) Biology Science (Double Award) Chemistry Science (Double Award) Physics Sinhala Swahili Spanish – Listening Spanish – Reading and Writing Tamil Turkish Urdu 4IS0/01 4MA0/1F & KMA0/1F 4MA0/2F & KMA0/2F 4MA0/3H & KMA0/3H 4MA0/4H & KMA0/4H 4MB0/01 4MB0/02 4PM0/01 4PM0/02 4MG0/01 4PA0/01 4PA0/02 4PH0/1P & 4KPH0/1P 4PH0/2P & 4KPH0/2P 4RS0/01 4SC0/1B & 4KSC0/1B 4SC0/1C & 4KSC0/1C 4SC0/1P & 4KSC0/1P 4SI0/01 4SW0/01 4SP0/01 4SP0/02 4TA0/01 4TU0/01 4UR0/01 Publication Code: UG029320 BTEC and NVQ GCSE and International GCSE GCE The Diploma DiDA & other qualifications Online services including Results Plus, Edexcel online International customer s – all enquiries For more information on Edexcel qualifications please use the following contact numbers:Length 2h 1h 1h 30m 3h 2h 30m 2h 2h 2h 2h 1h 30m 2h 30m 2h 2h 3h 1h 30m 1h 30m 2h 1h 2h 30m 2h 2h 2h 3h 3h 30m + 5m reading time 1h 30m 3h 3h 3h Contact us www. edexcel. com 0844 576 0026 0844 576 0027 0844 576 0025 0844 576 0028 0844 576 0031 0844 576 0024 +44 (0)1204 770696 Date 08/05/2012 09/05/2012 31/05/2012 Please see Notes 14/05/2012 11/05/2012 16/05/2012 11/05/2012 16/05/2012 11/05/2012 16/05/2012 17/05/2012 21/05/2012 31/05/2012 09/05/2012 11/05/2012 23/05/2012 30/05/2012 15/05/2012 15/05/2012 21/05/2012 23/05/2012 28/05/2012 28/05/2012 23/05/2012 24/05/2012 28/05/2012 08/05/2012 17/05/2012 pm pm am pm am pm am pm pm am pm am am pm pm am am am am am pm am am am am Examination timetables are available in an electronic format: www. modernisationonline. org. uk/comptimetableJune 2012 Examination Timetable Final International General Certificate of Secondary Educatio n and Edexcel Certificate am/pm pm am pm Notes: 1. Conduct of Examinations †¢ STARTING TIMES OF EXAMINATIONS: Each examination must be taken on the day and at the time as shown on the timetable. The published starting time of all examinations is either 9. 00 a. m. or 1. 30 p. m. Candidates with more than one examination in a session should take these consecutively. A supervised break of 15 minutes may be given between consecutive examinations. †¢ Centresmaystartanexaminationearlierthan,orlaterthan,thepublishedstartingtimeforthesessionwithoutpriorapprovalfromEdexcel.However, in order to maintain the security of the examination all candidates must start examinations scheduled for a morning session no earlier than 8. 30 a. m. and by 9. 30 a. m. and for an afternoon session no earlier than 1. 00 p. m. and by 2. 00 p. m. , except where arrangements have been made for dealing with timetable clashes. Examination centres should refer to the JCQ publication ‘Instructions for Conducting Examinations’ in the first instance. †¢ Candidateswhotakeanexaminationearlierthanthepublishedstartingtimeshownonthetimetablemustremainundercentresupervisionuntilone hour after the published starting time for that examination. †¢ Candidateswhotakeanexaminationlaterthanthepublishedstartingtimeshownonthetimetablemustremainundercentresupervisionfrom30 minutes

An Online Business Expansion Proposal Essay

Dancy’s Fancy Butter is a local, singly owned and operated butter/spread. This business is located in Jacksonville Michigan. The operation started out from a simple request from a friend who wanted to buy the Garlic butter for a party. It was then that Anna Dancy realized the family and friend’s favorite dinner addition was a possible money making venture. The actual business side was at first a bit taunting. Anna had never run her own business, nor had she worked in food service or distributing food. There was a lot to learn that went way beyond the product. She purchased a mobile kitchen unit, and started creating her butter spreads. It was not long before the Health inspector paid her a visit. She was fortunate that she was giving solid advice as to how to move forward with rules in running a food service business. The holdup was minimal and it gave her time to actually prepare for bring her product to a larger customer base then family and friends. Farmer’s markets are the primary selling place for Dancy Fancy Butter. The product is made and kept preserved in the mobile kitchen, and then Anna and family helpers travel thought out the Jacksonville region setting up at Farmers Markets. It has been a great success. Now that she has a year under her belt, and with family and friends living outside of Jacksonville and the state of Michigan Anna Dancy had decided that she wants to explore expanding her internet presences and move into selling and shipping her product to a wider market. The advantages in today’s market for placing access to your product and services online are numerous. For Dancy Fancy Butter being online will open up an opportunity for a larger population to see the products offered. There is an international customer base available into Canada with the location of the company in Michigan. The possible challenges to building an online presence for this company will be assuring there is up-keep for everything from the website through the social media outlets. The online presence is bound to bring in more clients, the significance will be made clear and the management of the online environment will align with the overall goal to be successful in this endeavor. Current Online Competition The online completers that come up in a basic search for butter, butter spread and organic are, Home Earth Balance (http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/), Melt Up! (http://www.meltdirectnow.com/), and Bryanna’s Vegan Butter (http://vegan.com/recipes/bryanna-clark-grogan/bryannas-vegan-butter/). Earth Balance is an off shoot of the Smart Balance products whose parent company is GFA Brands, Inc. so even though this is an natural butter spread, it is still a part of a large company. The website is well organized, and has several appealing features such as a Recipe section and Kitchen Tips. There is not a ecommerce or shopping cart, so the product is only available in stores. The next company Melt Up! is an organic butter spread. The website is very basic. It does have a shopping cart and ecommerce. The site offers a newsletter and runs and RSS syndication on its front page. This sight is a good set up if you are familiar with the product. The third website like or close as a competitor is Bryanna’s Vegan butter. This site is connected to Vegan.com (http://vegan.com). It is more of a blog site. If the site does allow you to buy products, however it takes you off to Amazon to complete your purchase. This websites do have similar products as Dancy Fancy butter, however they are not homegrown, home town products. The advantage to Dancy Fancy butter is it will carry a local feel to all who visit the website. Online Marketing Suggestions and Strategies Three online strategies that are planned for the rolling out Dancy Fancy Butter online expansion will be an email campaign, a Facebook group for the company and third will be content strategy of building Cooking Tips videos for the website.

Amy Tan Essay

Although the daughters know some Chinese words and the mothers speak some English, communication often becomes a matter of translation, of words whose intended meaning and accepted meaning are in fact quite separate, leading to subtle misunderstandings. †¢The first mention of this difficulty with translation occurs when Jing-mei relates the story of her mother’s founding of the Joy Luck Club. After attempting to explain the significance of the club’s name, Jing-mei recognizes that the concept is not something that can be translated. She points out that the daughters think their mothers are stupid because of their fractured English, while the mothers are impatient with their daughters who don’t understand the cultural nuances of their language and who do not intend to pass along their Chinese heritage to their own children. Throughout the book, characters bring up one Chinese concept after another, only to accept the frustrating fact that an understanding of Chinese culture is a prerequisite to understanding its meaning. †¢The Power of Storytelling Because the barriers between the Chinese and the American cultures are exacerbated by imperfect translation of language, the mothers use storytelling to circumvent these barriers and communicate with their daughters. The stories they tell are often educational, warning against certain mistakes or giving advice based on past successes. For instance, Ying-ying’s decision to tell Lena about her past is motivated by her desire to warn Lena against the pa ssivity and fatalism that Ying-ying suffered. Storytelling is also employed to communicate messages of love and pride, and to illumine one’s inner self for others. †¢Another use of storytelling concerns historical legacy. By telling their daughters about their family histories, the mothers ensure that their lives are remembered and understood by subsequent generations, so that the characters who acted in the story never die away completely. In telling their stories to their daughters, the mothers try to instill them with respect for their Chinese ancestors and their Chinese pasts. Suyuan hopes that by finding her long-lost daughters and telling them her story, she can assure them of her love, despite her apparent abandonment of them. When Jing-mei sets out to tell her half-sisters Suyuan’s story, she also has this goal in mind, as well as her own goal of letting the twins know who their mother was and what she was like. †¢Storytelling is also used as a way of controlling one’s own fate. In many ways, the original purpose of the Joy Luck Club was to create a place to exchange stories. Faced with pain and hardship, Suyuan decided to take control of the plot of her life. The Joy Luck Club did not simply serve as a distraction; it also enabled transformation—of community, of love and support, of circumstance. Stories work to encourage a certain sense of independence. They are a way of forging one’s own identity and gaining autonomy. Waverly understands this: while Lindo believes that her daughter’s crooked nose means that she is ill-fated, Waverly dismisses this passive interpretation and changes her identity and her fate by reinventing the story that is told about a crooked nose. †¢The Problem of Immigrant Identity At some point in the novel, each of the major characters expresses anxiety over her inability to reconcile her Chinese heritage with her American surroundings. Indeed, this reconciliation is the very aim of Jing-mei’s journey to China. While the daughters in the novel are genetically Chinese (except for Lena, who is half Chinese) and have been raised in mostly Chinese households, they also identify with and feel at home in modern American culture. Waverly, Rose, and Lena all have white boyfriends or husbands, and they regard many of their mothers’ customs and tastes as old-fashioned or even ridiculous. Most of them have spent their childhoods trying to escape their Chinese identities: Lena would walk around the house with her eyes opened as far as possible so as to make them look European. Jing-mei denied during adolescence that she had any internal Chinese aspects, insisting that her Chinese identity was limited only to her external features. Lindo meditates that Waverly would have clapped her hands for joy during her teen years if her mother had told her that she did not look Chinese. As they mature, the daughters begin to sense that their identities are incomplete and become interested in their Chinese heritage. Waverly speaks wishfully about blending in too well in China and becomes angry when Lindo notes that she will be recognized instantly as a tourist. One of Jing-mei’s greatest fears about her trip to China is not that others will recognize her as American, but that she herself will fail to recognize any Chinese elements within herself. †¢Of the four mothers, L indo expresses the most anxiety over her cultural identity. Having been spotted as a tourist during her recent trip to China, she wonders how America has changed her. She has always believed in her ability to shift between her true self and her public self, but she begins to wonder whether her â€Å"true† self is not, in fact, her American one. Even while a young girl in China, Lindo showed that she did not completely agree with Chinese custom. She agonized over how to extricate herself from a miserable marriage without dishonoring her parents’ promise to her husband’s family. While her concern for her parents shows that Lindo did not wish to openly rebel against her tradition, Lindo made a secret promise to herself to remain true to her own desires. This promise shows the value she places on autonomy and personal happiness—two qualities that Lindo associates with American culture. †¢Jing-mei’s experience in China at the end of the book certainly seems to support the possibility of a richly mixed identity rather than an identity of warring opposites. She comes to see that China itself contains American aspects, just as the part of America she grew up in—San Francisco’s Chinatown—containe †¢ Storytelling – Narrative Style, Symbolism, Figurative Language †¢She uses storytelling to in order for the different characters to understand each others struggles as well as the reader to understand the lives and emotions of both the mother and the daughters †¢The stories they tell are often educational, warning against certain mistakes or giving advice based on past successes. For instance, Ying-ying’s decision to tell Lena about her past is motivated by her desire to warn Lena against the passivity and fatalism that Ying-ying suffered. Storytelling is also employed to communicate messages of love and pride, and to illumine one’s inner self for others. †¢Another use of storytelling concerns historical legacy. By telling their daughters about their family histories, the mothers ensure that their lives are remembered and understood by subsequent generations, so that the characters who acted in the story never die away completely. In telling their stories to their daughters, the mothers try to instill them with respect for their Chinese ancestors and their Chinese pasts. Suyuan hopes that by finding her long-lost daughters and telling them her story, she can assure them of her love, despite her apparent abandonment of them. When Jing-mei sets out to tell her half-sisters Suyuan’s story, she also has this goal in mind, as well as her own goal of letting the twins know who their mother was and what she was like. †¢Storytelling is also used as a way of controlling one’s own fate. In many ways, the original purpose of the Joy Luck Club was to create a place to exchange stories. Faced with pain and hardship, Suyuan decided to take control of the plot of her life. The Joy Luck Club did not simply serve as a distraction; it also enabled transformation—of community, of love and support, of circumstance. Stories work to encourage a certain sense of independence. They are a way of forging one’s own identity and gaining autonomy. Waverly understands this: while Lindo believes that her daughter’s crooked nose means that she is ill-fated, Waverly dismisses this passive interpretation and changes her identity and her fate by reinventing the story that is told about a crooked nose. †¢ All the stories in her books are interlocking personal narrative in different voices. The narrators appear as characters in each other’s stories as well as tell their own stories, Tan does not have to fully develop the narrator’s voice in each story. While American daughters like Jing-mei employ personal narrative as a way of telling stories, the ’’ Because this indirect means is the only way Jing-mei’s mother c an interpret and express her experiences, she is shocked into silence when her daughter speaks directly about the daughters she abandoned in China years earlier. Point of View †¢In â€Å"Two Kinds† the perspective moves back and forth between the adult and then child. In this way, Tan tells the story through the child’s innocent view and the adult’s experienced eyes. This allows reader to make judgments of their own, to add their own interpretations of the mother daughter struggle. Figurative Language †¢This literary device also invites readers to think about the way memory itself functions, how we use events in the past to help make sense of our present. Literary critic Ben Xu explains that ‘‘it is not just that we have ‘images,’ ‘pictures,’ and ‘views’ of ourselves in memory, but that we also have ‘stories’ and narratives to tell about the past which both shape and convey our sense of self. Our sense of what has happened to us is entailed not in actual happening but in meaningful happenings, and the meanings of our past experience . . . are constr ucts produced in much the same way that narrative is produced. ’’ †¢In other words memory is a two-way street; it shapes the story as much as the story makes the memory. In Xu’s words, ‘‘memory is not just a narrative, even though it does have to take a narrative form; it is more importantly an experiential relation between the past and the present, projecting a future as well. ’’ Tan’s style is mainly composed of storytelling as a way for her characters to share their history and retell the significant events of their lives. The Chinese mothers find it exceptionally difficult to talk about their lives due to the language barrier; therefore Tan uses a strategy that is borrowed from Chinese folk tradition called talk story (Brent). E. D. Huntley defines talk story as ‘‘a narrative strategy for those characters whose ties to Chinese tradition remain strong. ’’ It allows these characters to ‘‘draw on traditional oral forms to shape their stories and to disguise the urgency and seriousness with which they are attempting to transmit to their daughters the remnants of a culture that is fading even from their own lives. ’’ This means that the mothers, ‘‘who have been socialized into silence for most of their lives,’’ learn to ‘‘reconfigure the events of hese lives into acceptable public utterances: painful experiences are recast in the language of folk tale; cautionary reminders become gnomic phrases; real life takes on the contours of myth (Huntley). † Story telling serves many different functions in the novel. Primarily, the mother’s use storytelling to communicate with their daughters about their past and better relate to their daughters. In Kitchen God’s Wife, Winnie and Pearl have a hard time understanding each other’s situation as they have had a disconnect since Pearl was a teenager. However, after Winnie tells Pearl the stories of the hardships she had to face living with her abusive husband in China and how that has made her the hard person she is today, Pearl is able to connect better with her mother and understand where she is coming from. Another purpose of storytelling is so the mother’s can teach their daughters important life lessons that can help them be happy as many of the daughters are struggling with their marriages. Thus, she knows that the only way to save her daughter is to tell her story, the story of how her submission to fate and other people’s wills led to discontent and even agony. In her novels, Amy Tan allows her characters to employ storytelling as a device for shaping their histories and making coherent sense of the significant events of their lives. For these characters, storytelling is a means of keeping the past alive and building a bridge between it and the present, of transmitting cultural codes and rituals, of subtly educating their daughters, and finally of somehow imprinting the essence of their selves on the next generation. Tan is especially gifted at weaving multiple stories with a variety of narrators into the intricate fabric of each book. Tan herself has recognized her own ability to construct distinctive and memorable narratives, commenting that her storytelling gifts are responsible in large measure for the ongoing popularity-with readers and critics alike-of her work. She has said that her childhood exposure to Bible stories as well as â€Å"tons of fairy tales, both Grimm and Chinese† (Wang) has made stories a significant element in her writing, and she credits her parents with both instilling in her the impulse to tell stories and providing her with models for unforgettable. In an interview with Gretchen Giles, Amy Tan reveals that she learned the craft of story construction from her father, a very busy Baptist minister who managed to spend quality time with his children by reading his sermons to them and then asking for their opinions on content and language. Citations Xu, Ben. ‘‘Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club,’’ in MELUS, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 3-16. Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. Brent, Liz. ‘‘Amy Tan Criticism Overview. ’’ Short Stories for Students. Ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 19–20: 288.

Critical Response Paper

The development of political thought was always close-knit with the author’s epoch and regime of governance he lived under; however, in spite of the ethical and technological limitations, associated with the temporal factor, the majority of political scientists sought to build a universalized framework of justice and legitimate state power.John Rawls is distinguished for his positivist, or â€Å"realistic utopian† approach to justice and principles of peaceful coexistence among individuals as well as peace between government and population. However, the proportion of utopianism is much higher in his writings, as compared to the realism ratio, given that he fails to address the challenges, related to diversity and class inequality which are dominating the modern North American society.First of all, it is important to pay attention to Rawls’s dynamic and positivistic model of justice. According to the article, instead of seeking the ideal of justice beyond the exis ting order of affairs, the scholar tries to enable reasonable and gradual improvements of the internal structure and situation: â€Å"We can see this idea through the rather well-worn metaphor of the difference between the efforts needed to fix a boat that is at sea one plank at a time rather than trying to rebuild it from scratch. Generally speaking, it makes more sense to engage the first sort of repair job than a complete rebuild† (Mini-lecture, p.4).Interestingly, the author focuses predominantly on the strong points of the current ideas of justice as articulated both in legal terms and through societal behaviours.However, this task might appear extremely challenging given the focus of diversity in most European and North American policies. Diversity is a delicate issue, since there is a number of conflicts among beliefs, interests and practices, underlying each cultural or social group. Obtaining true impartiality also turns into a difficult task, as the society, which l acks uniformity in certain vital political issues, is likely to encourage its groups to perceive and assess the objective reality from the intragroup value system; as a result, such judgments can seem neither objective nor neutral.According to the article, â€Å"He does not propose a vision of justice that would stretch our character too and tries to build a theory that is responsive to our current conditions† (Mini-lecture, p.5).However, taking into consideration the above provided chain of reasoning, one can assume that the existing disproportion and divergence of political values will inevitably result in the necessity of â€Å"stretching† the philosophies or ideologies of certain minority groups, either religious or cultural. However, for the purpose of maintaining/ establishing social cohesion, this step can be justified, since the vast majority is likely to benefit from it.This excessive pluralism is partially addressed in the reading: â€Å"Bearing this point i n mind, he tries to find a way to build an impartial model for deliberating about principles of justice that everyone can reasonably be expected to endorse despite holding different religious and moral views† (Mini-lecture, p.5).The statement is quite abstractive, whereas the particular scenarios of its realization point to the existence of disparities in core values of each group. For instance, in the United States, there are several large Muslim communities, whose polity greatly resembles the lifestyles of Middle Asian societies. The U.S.-based communities might engage with political activity and unite into a faction, requiring, for instance, the cancellation of women’s right to take certain jobs, and referring to the fact that the existing state-of-art offends their vision of gender morality.Surprisingly, this faction might be supported by other political groups, which also share this view on gender equality – as a result, the society might be torn by the deba te over the true justice. As one can notice, the representation of the core values of liberty might be uneven in our society, so both federal and state legislations necessarily challenge the beliefs of a certain minority.  Furthermore, Rawls’s concept of justice and stability is quite unrealistic, since it provides an abstractive picture, barely imaginable in the current world. According to the political philosophy article, â€Å"His core insight is that a stable and enduring society is one that is also just, that is, where citizens are considered to be free and equal. More importantly, citizens have to be able to see themselves and each other as free and equal† (Mini-lecture, p.6).However, inequality is inescapable, it is often referred to as an engine of social and political development, which motivates individuals to participate in political processes. The true equality, as articulated in the paper, consists in people’s outlooks and convictions, yet the for mation of â€Å"equality beliefs† is normally realized only partly, since there still exist economic, social, regional, gender and age boundaries which make people feel underprivileged or superior.In this sense, Rawls refers to Kant and observes that the greatest political ideas were realized from the personal to the public, i.e. if an individual considers certain pattern ‘fair’, this pattern is likely to appear to be ‘fair’ in the whole society.However, this logic of reasoning fails to take into consideration the fact that the idea of equality was first born in autocratic societies, bearing much higher uniformity within its aristocratic and power circles, as compared to the modern Western world. Given that Rawls himself states that the relevance of political ideas depends on temporal and spatial (regional) factors, so the ideas of liberty and equality, which existed in the ancient world and Enlightenment society, are not fully suitable in the modern North American society.Thus, given that the author implies a positivist approach o the development of political values and proposes that they be formulated â€Å"from within†, Rawls should have also looked closely at specific cases and considered the workability of his perspective in real macrogroup situations.Reference listMini-Lecture. A Brief Introduction to Rawls’s Project, pp.1-10.

Development Human Potential

The evaluation procedure in today’s times requires a lot of attention from the organizations as people usually have neglected this area. The companies are seen spending huge amounts on the training interventions but do not pay attention towards their evaluations and usually an informal committee is set up in order to take the feedback on the random basis. The organizations cannot ignore the evaluation phase as it is the most integral factor in assessing the resources that have been spent in the training and development of the human resources.A lot of organizations refrain from going through a proper evaluation because they feel that the process is faced with a lot of challenges and is relatively difficult to incorporate in the routine training procedures (Huque & Vyas, 2004). Answer # 3: Evaluating the training and development interventions have become equally important as the procedure itself as the evaluations provide the organization with a better understanding of the train ers and the trainees.The organization cannot assess the success or failure of the training interventions until there has been an evaluation for that (Pont, 2003). The evaluation itself is a complete procedure for the organization to follow and has to go through a lot of challenges in order to get the procedure done. The organizations today are spending a lot of their resources in evaluating the intervention procedures in order to make sure that their training and intervention procedures are effective and result oriented (Phillips & Phillips, 2004).The foremost challenge that is in front of the management is the criteria for measurement. The evaluation is basically a way to measure the success of the training and development interventions. Thus it has become a huge challenge for the organizations as it is very difficult to set the criteria for the measurement. The organization has to be very prudent when identifying the variables that would be required in gauging the efficiency of th e training interventions.The importance for this factor can be assessed from the fact that if these measurement criteria have been set incorrect the organization would have to pay in the short run and even in the long run. The organizations base their future training programs and the future training objectives on the results of the evaluation which is considered a valuable asset by various organizations (Gatewood, Feild, & Murray, 2007). Thus if the criteria selected is incorrect the organization may come up with the future program which may contain factors which are incorrect and based on erroneous results.The organization therefore has to pay a lot of attention while identifying the measurement criteria for the evaluation of the training and development interventions to make sure that they are on the right path and the resources are not wasted but channelized in the right direction (Ivancevich, n. d. ). Measurement remains the first issue but one of the other most integral issue w hich the organizations are facing today is in regard with the proper resources and trained staff that could do an in depth evaluation of the program (Brostek, 2000).In the days of recession the organizations have to face a lot of criticism by the stake holders in spending huge amount on the employee development. A lot of critiques consider it to be a waste of resources to invest labor and capital in the training of the employees. Today companies have become pretty weak in terms of their financial position due to which they are not in the position right now to spend ample amount in the training of the employees.Thus, there is a huge challenge in front of the management to get an approval for spending resources in training their human capital by the other stakeholders of the organization (Brostek, 2000). Companies today are faced with a major challenge in terms of their spending patterns with respect to the employee training. Companies do realize the importance of the training of the employees and want to spend more for it but are restricted immensely by their financial conditions and the slowing economy. Organizations have a set budget for the development of their human resources beyond which they are not allowed to spend.Thus this has become a huge challenge as they have to channelize the limited resources that they have very efficiently in order to get the maximum out of the evaluation (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006). Other than that the organizations today are facing problems in acquiring highly skilled employees who would be able to do an in depth evaluation of the training interventions. As already mentioned above the evaluation itself is a complete procedure, thus organizations need to hire highly skilled employees who should be well trained in the evaluation procedures and may get accurate and correct results for the organization (Bramley & an, 2003).The evaluation phase does not only end once the data has been gathered properly by the skilled professi onals but a thorough understanding is also required in order to assess and evaluate the data properly. The correct result depends upon the correct understanding of the data that has been gathered. It is a huge challenge for the managers to make sure that the data that has been gathered is not misunderstood or misinterpreted in any way because this may make the whole evaluation procedure a failure (Armstrong, 2003).Evaluation refers to the feedback from the trainers and the trainees. Getting a feedback at times is not easy and the organization has to go through a lot of difficulties in order to get the correct feedback. A lot of participation and co operation is required form all levels of employees in the organization. Any sort of rigidness form any one in the organization may make it difficult for the firm to get the feedback (Training and development evaluation in Jordanian banking organisations, 2009).The managers face a huge challenge in terms of getting co operation form the tr ainers and the trainees as the people may not be very comfortable sharing their response or may not want to tell others due to any reason. At times people may even manipulate the results of the evaluation by providing biased data to the managers which may pollute the whole study. The managers have to make sure that the purpose of the evaluation has been communicated properly within the whole organization and every one in the company understands how important the evaluation is for the training procedures.This would help the managers in getting the support from all over the organization without which the managers may not be able to accomplish their mission (Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains – Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor Domains – design and evaluation toolkit for training and learning, n. d. ). Proper evaluation is only possible in the case when both the trainer and the trainees are ready to co operate and give the correct feedback. At times either of t hem may be biased in their response due to any personal factor which may contaminate the complete evaluation and mislead the management.The management before going for the evaluation has to make sure that the evaluation is unbiased and no personal factors are included in the results. This is practically impossible thus the organization has to make sure that it minimizes the biasness to the maximum level (Rae, 2002). The managers have to make sure that the data they gather from the evaluation is sufficient to provide correct finding and is able to achieve the objective of the evaluation. Otherwise the whole process may become nullified and would be a waste of resources and time.The managers have to ensure that whatever tools are required to gather the evaluation data have provided enough data which to validate the study (Donovan & Townsend, 2004). Selecting the right tools to gather the data is another challenge in front of the managers. Today managers have various different tools to gather data for the evaluation of the training programs. It is very difficult for the organization to decide on which tools are the best in the given conditions for the organizations to gather data.The managers have to be very prudent while deciding on how to get the data for the evaluation (Evaluation Tools, n. d. ). The organizations have various tools like focus groups, questionnaires and one on one interview and observations. All these tools have their specific characteristics which may be advantageous for the organization at various times. The criteria for choosing the tool may differ from organization to organization and may even depend on the personalities of the respondents for the evaluation.Where the managers may feel that their respondents would not be able to communicate their ideas properly they would go for observation and try to gather data via either their own observations or the expert’s observation (Knox, 2002). The tool itself has a lot of impact on the re sult of the study as the level of biasness may vary in each tool. For example observation may be very biased as the observer may be paying selective attention and ignoring things that he may not want to. Focus group may also be biased as it has a moderator who may play a major role in manipulating the discussions in the focus groups (Clarkson, 2001).Thus the managers today have a lot of pressures in terms of selecting the right tools for gathering the data as the tool has to be the most appropriate one and has to match the conditions and the type of respondents. Evaluation is a complete procedure which the company has to follow. It is not easy for the managers to formulate the evaluation process and a complete and thorough insight is required by the managers to formulate the evaluation procedures for the training and development interventions.The managers today are facing a lot of difficulties in deciding on the various steps that are required to initialize the procedure at the begi nning and then come up with a step by step procedure. Other than that the managers also have to ensure that the steps that they follow are in the right order so that the evaluation procedure is correct. The formulation of the procedure also requires the managers to have a thorough insight of the training and development interventions so that they may make sure that the process is not leaving any loop holes during the evaluation phase. (Training Evaluation, n. d. )Answer # 4: Training and development interventions have become very important for any organization. Training allows the employees to be at pace with the changing employing conditions in the world. The training though remains incomplete without the evaluation phase where the organization can benefit by taking feedback from the trainers and the trainees. The evaluation completes the training and development intervention procedure as it enables the organization to get an insight on the objectives, the loop holes and other aspe cts of the training and development intervention procedure (George & Snell, 2007).By evaluating the training and development interventions the company is able to exactly know hoe successful it has been in implementing the interventions. Since all these interventions requires a lot of time and money to be spent by the company, thus it is of very importance to the company to analyze how beneficial the strategies have been for the company and what are the points where there were certain loop holes that can be taken care of (Evaluating Training, n. d. ). The training and development interventions are required to modify the ongoing training within an organization.Though the implementation alone is not enough, the organization may not want to only spend their resources without any sort of evaluations. The evaluation is a tool that does not only provide ample data to assess the company’s training interventions on the short term basis but is also a tool that can be used to formulate the strategies or the roadmap for the long term (Cummings & Worley, 2008). Evaluation not only identifies the results obtained by the current techniques applied but at the same time gets a feedback from the internal and external audiences.The feedback can serve as the most important opportunity for the organization as it can use it for the further trainings. The feedback itself would prove to be the biggest opportunity for the organization as because of the feedback the organization would be able to identify all sorts of loop holes that may exist in the current intervention systems of the organization. The company may be able to spot what are the places where the company is lagging behind and needs to cover up (Nilson, 2003).This would bring the company in a better position to formulate the future learning and development interventions for the employees. Thus the company would then be able to make better strategies that would be the improved version of the intervention strategies ad opted by the organization. Evaluation is the best way to measure the success of the organization. By evaluating the development and training intervention strategies the organization may be in the best position to see any mistakes that have been done in the current training sessions.The human development is a very integral part of the organization where a lot of organizations spend huge amounts just to make sure that their employees are trained in the best manner. Companies can set their goals before the training and development interventions which would then be used in formulating the training program. Later the evaluation would be the best way by which the organization can assess the extent to which the goals have been achieved. This would help the organizations in setting its future objectives and missions based on the past results of the evaluation (Trainee's Feedback, n.d. ). Evaluation would give the organization an insight for reviewing, adjusting and revising goals. By evalua tion, the organization is in a better state to review its goals and incorporate any required changes. The organization would be able to come up with a revised and an improved training and development interventions which would benefit the organizations and the employees individually. The training process is required to be with minimal errors and maximum results.The upper management of the organization is very keen regarding the whole training process and any interventions that are done in the organization. Thus evaluation proves to be the best way by which the organization can reduce the amount of mistakes that can be done in the training and development interventions. By evaluation the organization may be able to get the response from the trainers and the trainees and then avoid any mistakes that have been done in the previous sessions (Why Training Evaluation? , 2006 ).This would help in reducing the organization cost as it would not then waste its resources on committing mistakes but instead would be able to properly channelize the resource without committing any fallacies. The organization by doing constant evaluations can avoid any mistakes and can come up with the training and development interventions with zero error, that is, that would get maximum results which would justify the huge amount that is spend on training the human resources in the organization (Evaluation of Recruitment and Training, n.d. ). Avoiding mistakes in the training procedure does not only reduce cost but at the same time gets maximum results for the organization. Evaluation identifies the loop holes in the current procedures which can then be rectified in the future. This would help the organization in making the trainings more effective and result oriented. The employees of the organization may be able to increase their productivity which would be very beneficial for the organization. Evaluation is a way of taking response from the trainees.This is a way of decentralizing the org anization by which the employee’s response would be incorporated in the training and development procedures of the organization. This would act as the motivator for the employees as they would know that their response would be considered as very important for the training interventions. The employees would be able to increase their productivity and the whole organization would work together to come up with a better intervention procedures (Employee Satisfaction Survey, n. d. ).Evaluations provide an organization to prepare a relevant and appropriate training program for the organization which can prove to be the success factor for the organization. Human resource is considered as one of the most important factors in any organization that can become the competitive advantage for the firm. The evaluation might lead to enhance the competitive advantage by providing a correct framework for the training and development interventions. The evaluation may enable to firm to come up wi th the best training methods for the employees by which the company can train their employees in the best manner.Evaluation is thus the only way by which the organizations in the modern world can train their employees and make themselves differentiated via that. The evaluation can help in making the work environment better as the employees may feel respected and consider themselves as the most important asset of the organization. Thus a proper evaluation system can lead to a better working environment, improved training interventions which would all lead to an increase in the productivity of the employees and ultimately affect the earnings of the organization which is the key objective of any firm (Becker, 2009).Conclusion: Evaluating the training and development interventions is not an easy task as it requires a very prudent approach by the managers who are facing a lot of challenges today. The organizations have to be more serious while evaluating the interventions and have to uti lize the maximum from the evaluation procedures as they have a lot of opportunities for the organization.

Comparison of Quality Philosophies Research Paper - 1

Comparison of Quality Philosophies - Research Paper Example Quality involves meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations in products and provision of services. Generally, quality management is the process of directing the whole production process towards producing excellent and quality products and services that meet or exceed customers’ expectations. There are various quality philosophies that have been developed by various individuals and institutions (Hoyer and Hoyer, 2001). This focus paper will compare the quality philosophies of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Moses Juran, Philip Bayard Crosby, and the Project Management Institute. Edwards Deming Philosophy Edwards Deming philosophy on quality asserted that quality is a process that uses statistical control techniques and that managers should intervene in the production process towards achieving the desired quality. His philosophy holds that quality should go beyond statistical quality control and that building quality of a product should be done at all stages. Apart from the r ole of management in promoting quality, Deming emphasized on the role of workers in improving quality by stating that workers should be proud and satisfied in order to meet the desired quality. ... Joseph Juran, his is considered as a total departure from Deming’s; Deming’s approach emphasizes on adopting new philosophy and throwing out the old system, but Juran’s approach emphasizes on working to improve the current system. Juran’s quality philosophy expressed the need to concentrate more on the â€Å"vital few† problems’ sources rather than be distracted by problems that are less important (Ross and Perry, 1999). In regard to approach to quality, performance standard, and quality measurement, Juran developed a trilogy that involves: quality improvement through infrastructure development and implementation of projects; quality control through performance assessment; and quality planning through determination of customer needs. He believed that management had a bigger role in quality compared to workers and that technical and management methods were more important than worker satisfaction (Mouradian, 2002). Philip Crosby Philosophy Qual ity philosophy of Philip Crosby emphasized that quality that meets customer requirements focuses more on prevention rather than correction. He believed that poor quality costs nearly 20 percent of the revenue; a cost that could be avoided if good quality practices is used. Crosby established the Absolutes of Quality Management which includes the only performance standard which makes sense are Zero Defects (Rose, 2005). His approach to quality and quality measurement involved defining quality as conformance to requirements, not goodness. His philosophy also states that prevention rather than appraisal as a system to achieve quality. The measure of quality according to this philosophy is the price of non-conformance, and not indexes. He acknowledged that both the management and workers have a role to play in improving

Security Planning and Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Security Planning and Assessment - Essay Example The management of Information Security Risks and to implement various methodologies to mitigate the security risks is a growing challenge in the filed of Information technology. The battle is on for finding out the efficient ways and design methodologies that can analyze the security risks and implement the appropriate mitigation solutions. As, every event or technique has various technologies involved that speed up the business processes there are also prone to increase risks of computer intrusion, fraud, disruption and many more. A successful organization not only relies on finding innovative solutions or products but also on the effective implementation of those solutions. Here, technology plays a major role as these technological developments can make the implementations simpler, providing a wide range of choice. But the question arises so as to which is the right choice This can only be answered by thorough research on the cost, stability and reliability of the technology to be used (WALSHAM, 1993). The Information System of the firm should be able to process this task by taking the external (technology functionality) and internal (business environment) entities into account. Thus, the understanding and integration of technological innovations plays a key role in the modeling of any Information System to support the business goals and strategies. ... The organization has to analyze all the possibilities and provide the solution that is technological stable and cost-effective, to implement, maintain and modify in future. Security Management and Responsibilities Data Owner Each Line Department of the company, with its own computing facilities will appoint a senior member of the staff as Data Owner. Those systems which are operated throughout the company should also have a designated Data Owner. Data Owners across the company will be advised by the Head of ead HeadInformation Compliance and Policy. With the existing systems, advice is available to help data owners meet their responsibility in complying with the Information Security Policy. Systems Development All systems must comply with the main IT strategy developed for the company by the IT team. Mark Walker, a senior systems analyst, states that an IT strategy is the single most crucial factor for the success of an organization dependent on IT for its operations (Walker, 2000). All system developments must include security issues in their consideration of new developments, seeking guidance from the Head of Information Technology. Management Responsibilities The management plays the most important part in building a successful IT infrastructure (Royce, 1998). Management's responsibility goes beyond the basics of support. They are the ones responsible for setting the tone for the entire security program. Generating awareness is the most important activity of the management. The management must instruct the staff of their security responsibilities. Managers should determine the authority of individuals with respect to access to specific information systems. The level of access to specific systems should be