Caliban in Aim Cesaire's A Tempest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Caliban in Aim Cesaire's A Tempest - Essay Example He describes how Prospero, the Duke of Milan, uses  magic  to  grasp  absolute  power  over Caliban and Ariel. Aime depicts Prospero’s as a driven and powerful  master  as well as colonizer who  power  over the island  territory  by superior  force  and  authority. On the hand, he portrays Caliban as a colonized  master  who ignores Prospero and disobeys his  command  on  many  occasions throughout the play (Harrison 25). Caliban’s response and authority to control Prospero’s and powerful commands  depict  him as authoritative. For example, Prospero refers to Caliban as an ugly ape (Cesaire 17). Caliban  quickly  reiterates:  You  think I’m ugly†¦well I do not think you are so handsome yourself. With that large hooked nose,  you  look just like  same  old vulture, an old vulture with a scrawny neck! (Cesaire 17). We  learn  that Caliban is  brave  and courageous. He expresses his feelings towards Prospero and takes control over him. Cesaire depicts Caliban as ‘the king of the Island’ (Cesaire 17). Caliban views Prospero as  narrow-minded  and intolerant when he refers to his mother Sycorax is a witch and a  ghost’ (Cesaire 18). He views Prospero as  narrow-minded  and  intolerant: ‘Anyhow  you  only  think  she is  dead  because you think the world itself is  dead†¦It’s so much easier that way!’ (Cesaire 18). After Caliban reminded by Prospero that Sycorax is  dead, he starts to gain more confidence and  power  to control Prospero’s ruthless  command.  When Prospero accuses Caliban of rape; ‘Good God, you tried to rape my daughter’, Caliban reiterates forcefully: Rape!  Rape! Listen  you  old goat, you are the one who put those  dirty  thoughts in my†¦I could not care less for your daughter, or about your cave, for that matter (Cesaire 19). Caliban derives his  magic  from Sycorax to  shape  and make Prospero  powerless  of

Student Loan Debt Essay Example for Free

Student Loan Debt Essay Summarize the student loan industry. Answer with respect to both public and private loans and be clear as to which you are referring to. a) What led to the inception of the student loan market? The inception of the student loan market started like any other loan market, there were a large amount of borrowers who needed money now to invest in college to make more later that were matched with lenders who had excess funds and wanted return on the funds. The National Defense Education Act of 1958 which provided loans to students in higher education institutions started the student loan market. This was supposed to help train students to get jobs that will help them succeed and in turn help our nation succeed. b) What major changes have occurred over the years? The biggest changes in the loan industry have been the recent dramatic increase in enrollment at colleges. An alarming trend in the last twenty years is that appropriations to universities per full time student are going down while public four year tuition and fees are increasing. Total outstanding student loan debt, number of student borrowers and average debt per borrower has been steadily increasing over the last decade. Recent changes include private lenders becoming less inclined to lend. b. i) Since 2004 both the number of student loan borrowers, and the average balance per borrower has steadily increased, according to data compiled by the Fed New York (b. i. 1) 2004 25-year olds with student debt was just over 25%; grown to more than 40% (2013) (b. i. 2) 2012 Number of student loan borrowers totaled almost 40M and the average balance per borrower was slightly less than $25k (b. i. 2. a) 40% had balances less than $10k; 30% had balances between $10k and $25k; 4% over $100k c) What is the current source of financing? c. i) $1T financed by the federal government c. ii) $. 2T financed by private lenders (c. ii. 1) They are lending less c. iii) Federal (c. iii. 1) Make up about 85% of the total student debt outstanding (c. iii. 2) 93% of all new loans continuing to increase since the Recession (c. iii. 3) Credit Check not required but may be turned down if they are delinquent on existing student loan (c. iii. 4) 21% were delinquent 2012 c. iv) Private (c. iv. 1) Private student loan market includes loans made not only by banks, but also loans made by credit unions, state agencies, and schools themselves (c. iv. 2) Makes up about 15% of the total student debt outstanding (c. iv. 3) 2008 was $25B 2012 it is $8B since Recession (c. iv. 4) Credit Check, full underwriting guarantor (90%) (c. iv. 4. a) Underwriting has stricken since (c. iv. 5) 4% are delinquent 2012 (c. iv. 6) Tough to restructure c. v) Both often have a 6 month grace period d) How are lending decisions made by lenders in today’s world? For private lenders, lending decisions today have tightened dramatically since the recent economic recession, and it seems as though they are ducking out of the student loan industry because of all the bad loans they have on their balance sheets. Federal lenders have gone the complete other way; they do not have stringent requirements for the loans that they are handing out. Borrowers are encouraged to max out their federal lending before they go to their private lending. e) How are borrower decisions made by borrowers in today’s world? They have very little choice when choosing alternatives for student loans, these options include private lending and federal lending. A borrower should max out their federal loans then go on and be as prudent as they can when selecting a private loan. There is also a lack of transparency that makes it difficult for borrowers to pick private loans after they have maxed out their federal loans. Therefore the decisions are incredibly difficult to make after you max out your federal loans. Every student should be diligent and use all of the options that are set in question number three to make the best borrowing decision as possible. f) What is the size of the market today? How has its size evolved since its inception? f. i) Same statistics listed in 1c are relevant here f. ii) How has it evolved since its inception? The Market size of student loans is $1. 2 Trillion, private accounting for $0. 2 Trillion and federal accounting for $1 Trillion. Student Loans taken out have been increasing, student loan debt outstanding has been increasing and average student loan debt per borrower has been increasing. Some believe that these may cause problems and increase outstanding debt and defaults which taxpayers have to pay. While government professionals may believe that taking a hit now to help consumers get higher paying jobs may be worth it in the long run so they can start consuming. 2) How have student loans been treated in bankruptcy historically and today? a) Include in your answer information about how the treatment impacts lending b) Include in your answer information about how the treatments impacts the economy c) There is some controversy here why does that arise? d) What might happen if the laws changed? Before 1976 student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy; this policy did have some loopholes though and when it comes to loopholes in money you do not want to leave many. Student loans stopped becoming dischargeable because they were afraid that the students would take advantage of the opportunity to file bankruptcy and rid themselves of student loan debt and drain the system. Disallowing the discharge of student loan debt helps to increase incentives for lending since borrowers are stuck on the hook and have to pay it back; this makes the lenders feel more comfortable and increases their willingness to lend. This can have multiple impacts on the economy because if student loan borrowers are no longer able to file for bankruptcy on their student loans you are more likely to have a generation of student borrowers that cannot pay their debts. If students graduate with a large amount of debt they are less likely to be consuming products like mortgage or car loans which help our economy run more efficiently. Some student borrowers may end up not borrowing because of the increased risk due to no bankruptcy. Lastly, a horrible scenario may be that lenders know that student loan borrowers cannot default therefore they hand out loans for anyone that wants them because the lender knows they will be stuck on the hook. This has horrible ramifications because one should never lend when they do not believe the borrower will be able to pay them back. 3) Outside of bankruptcy, what ways of dealing with non-payment of student loans exist? How might each affect the economy? a) Students who cannot pay off their student loans can a. i) Talk to your high school financial aid office a. ii) Shop for lower interest rates and loans that offer flexibility a. iii) Do not believe the rates as stated because they are stated for the highest credit scores a. iv) Fill out a FAFSA a. v) Search for scholarships a. vi) Apply for income-based repayment plans (must meet criteria of the Department of Education â€Å"partial financial hardship† (a. vi. 1) Could be 10-20% of discretionary income depending on how you apply a. vii) Enter public service such as teaching or other government jobs and you can discharge your loan after 10 years of making regular payments a. viii) The right to change payments from 10 years to 25 years decreasing your monthly payment while increasing the interest payment b) Some worry that people are taking advantage of some of the above options for student loan debt and are hurting the economy c) If I were a future student loan borrower I would try to get my loan in as quickly as possible and enjoy the lower rates because there is reason to believe that the rate can go up since it is now attached to 10-year Treasury Notes student loan delinquency can really take a hit on your credit score. Whenever someone defaults on a student loan the burden falls on the taxpayers of the country. If students found ways to get out of their student loan debt they would end up leaving the taxpayers to pay it off for them. There is reason to believe that being more lenient on student loan delinquency will allow students to finish their education and get a job that will allow them to pay off their student loan and eventually put more money into the economy. One notable solution that I found interesting was to hold schools accountable for their students. Schools that receive subsidized loan money could be left on the hood for a percentage of the loan balance if the student defaults. This would encourage colleges to pick the best applicants that they believe will finish school with a degree that will allow them to get a job that will pay off their student loan and hopefully buy a mortgage and lease a car to help the economy run more efficiently. 4) What is the impact of the existence of student loans on universities and tuition? a) The existence of student loans results in demands on universities – what are these? Universities are positively impacted by the existence of student loans because without them they would have to exponentially lower tuition. This is the same logic that universities have used to raise the price of their tuition. It is simple supply and demand economics, Joe Schmoe high school graduate gets into a fancy college that costs $40k a year and Joe can easily get a loan. Fancy college gets excited and realizes that the demand for the college is not as affected by price change as they might expect and they raise their tuition until finding the optimal price. The overall impact of this raised tuition is that students will have to take on larger student debts to be able to afford tuition at these universities. The larger loans that student takes the more likely they will end up delinquent on their loans. When students are delinquent on their loans they may end up going into default or not finishing school. In both situations the students end up negatively affecting the economy because the delinquent could end up having taxpayers pay for their defaulted loan and the college dropout will be less likely to pay off their loan due to low income opportunities with no college degree. 5) What is the relationship of student lending to other forms of lending? a) For the first time in years a. i) Outstanding student loan debt is greater than outstanding credit card debt (a. i. 1) Student Loan debt is second only to Mortgage Debt a. ii) 30 year olds with student loans are now less likely to take on housing debt than 30 year olds without student debt a. iii) 25 year olds with student loans are now less likely to take on housing debt than 25 year olds without student debt b) Since the peak in household debt in the third quarter of 2008, student loan debt has increased by $293B b. i) Other forms of debt fell a combined $1. 53 trillion b. ii) Only form of debt to substantially increase since the 2008 crisis b. iii) Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports dropped (b. iii. 1) Originations are 17. 4% below Q1 2011 b. iv) Credit Card Balances 21. 6% below Q4 of 2008 c) 15% of delinquent student loan borrowers also have delinquent auto loans, 35% have delinquent credit card debt and just over 25% are delinquent on mortgage payments The bottom line is if students are leaving school with more debt, than they will be less able to take on more loans in the housing, credit and auto loan industry, which help power our economy. Two things can end up happening, student loan borrowers will be turned down when seeking lending in the auto or mortgage industry because of the stigma attached to student loans. Another possibility is that a small but significant amount of students take on multiple loans during college and accumulates large amounts outstanding debt in all areas. The most important and repeated statement of this paper will be that the taxpayers will have to pay the loans when students default. 6) What Fed actions (during the past decade) have impacted the student loan industry? 7) Why is the Fed concerned about student loans? What is its actual role here? The Fed is concerned about student loans because it is now the second largest form of outstanding debt and it has been growing. There is reason to believe that it will continue to grow due to low employment encouraging people to stay in school or go back to school. Another pressing concern is that a large amount of these student loans are federally insured and could increase the budget deficit. And to reiterate the most important factor that when students default on their student loans, the burden will be placed firmly on the lap of the taxpayers. The role of the Federal Reserve Bank is to supervise participants in the student loan market. Supervision of participants in the student loan market is similar to their supervision of other retail credit markets and products meaning they are able to go over what you buy aka Student Loans bought by private institutions. Institutions subject to Federal Reserve supervision are â€Å"subject to onsite examinations that evaluate the institutions risk-management practices, including the institutions adherence to sound underwriting standards, timely recognition of loan deterioration and appropriate loan loss provisioning, as well as (to a limited degree) compliance with consumer protection standards. Many of these institutions have significant student loan portfolios. † A large concern the Fed may have about student loans is that of the relevant information (relevant statistics) about student loans are unknown. In the finance world investors are willing to pay for a larger degree of certainty so this proposes a large problem. One action the Fed took was deploying Capital Analysis and Review (CARR) â€Å"which is a supervisory tool that the Fed deploys to enhance financial stability by assessing all exposures on bank balance sheets. Large US banks are strongly encouraged to be forward looking and account for unique risks and keeping sufficient capital so we can continue operations during time of economic and financial distress. † The large US Banks that CARR searched found that they held $63B in government and private student loan debt outstanding $26. 3B of which is outstanding. The Federal Reserve also developed guidance outlining loan modification procedures with the Feral Financial Institution Examination Council which discusses how banks should engage in extensions, deferrals, renewals and rewrites of closed-end retail loans (including private student loans). They encourage that any restructuring should be based on renewed willingness/ability to repay and must be consistent with the banks policies. They note that lenders should work with borrowers who have a legitimate claim to financial hardship. These concerns are shared with the OCC and FDIC; they are even allowing institutions to go against GAAP. The Federal Reserve is really helping borrowers and investors by encouraging lenders to be as transparent as possible. Information should be clear and easily accessible to borrowers and should include information on how to contact the lender or servicer to discuss the programs that might best fit their specific needs.

Shakespeare - Globe Theater :: essays research papers

Compared to the technical theaters of today, the London public theaters in the time of Queen Elizabeth I seem to be terribly limited. The plays had to be performed during daylight hours only and the stage scenery had to be kept very simple with just a table, a chair, a throne, and maybe a tree to symbolize a forest. Many say that these limitations were in a sense advantages. What the theater today can show for us realistically, with massive scenery and electric lighting, Elizabethan playgoers had to imagine. This made the playwright have to write in a vivid language so the audience could understand the play. Not having a lighting technician to work the control panels, Shakespeare had to indicate wether it was dawn or nightfall by using a speech rich in metaphors and descriptive details. Shakespeare's theater was far from being bare, the playwright did have some valuable technical sources that he used to the best of his ability. The costumes the actors wore were made to be very elabor ate. Many of the costumes conveyed recognizable meanings for the audience such as a rich aristocrat wearing silk clothes with many ruffles. Many times there were musical accompaniments and sound effects such as gunpowder explosions and the beating of a pan to simulate thunder. The stage itself was also remarkably versatile. Behind it were doors for exits and entrances and a curtained booth or alcove useful for actors to hide inside. Above the stage was a higher acting area which symbolized a porch or balcony. This was useful in the story of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo stood below Juliet and told her how he loved her. In the stage floor was a trap door which was said to lead to "hell" or a cellar, this was especially useful for ghosts or devils who had to appear and disappear throughout the play. The stage itself was shaped in a rectangular platform that projected into a yard that was enclosed by three story galleries. The building was round or octagonal in shape but Shakespeare called it a "wooden O." The audience sat in these galleries or else they could stand in the yard in front the stage. A roof and awning protected the stage and the high-priced gallery seats, but in the case bad weather, the "groundlings," who only paid a penny to stand in the yard, must have gotten wet.

Genres Of Literature Essay

Genres of literature are important to learn about. The two main categories separating the different genres of literature are fiction and nonfiction. There are several genres of literature that fall under the nonfiction category. Nonfiction sits in direct opposition to fiction. Examples from both the fiction and nonfiction genres of literature are explained in detail below. This detailed genres of literature list is a great resource to share with any scholars. Types of Nonfiction: Narrative Nonfiction is information based on fact that is presented in a format which tells a story. Essays are a short literary composition that reflects the author’s outlook or point. A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative. A Biography is a written account of another person’s life. An Autobiography gives the history of a person’s life, written or told by that person. Often written in Narrative form of their person’s life. Speech is the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express one’s thoughts and emotions by speech, sounds, and gesture. Read more:  How to write a reflection essay. Generally delivered in the form of an address or discourse. Finally there is the general genre of Nonfiction. This is Informational text dealing with an actual, real-life subject. This genre of literature offers opinions or conjectures on facts and reality. This includes biographies, history, essays, speech, and narrative nonfiction. Nonfiction opposes fiction and is distinguished from those fiction genres of literature like poetry and drama which is the next section we will discuss. Genres of Fiction: Drama is the genre of literature that’s subject for compositions is dramatic art in the way it is represented. This genre is stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action. Poetry is verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from the reader. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of literature is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Fantasy is the forming of mental images with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality. Humor is the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical. Fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement which meant to entertain. This genre of literature can actually be seen and contained within all genres. A Fable is a story about supernatural or extraordinary people Usually in the form of narration that demonstrates a useful truth. In Fables, animals often speak as humans that are legendary and supernatural tales. Fairy Tales or wonder tales are a kind of folktale or fable. Sometimes the stories are about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children. Science Fiction is a story based on impact of potential science, either actual or  imagined. Science fiction is one of the genres of literature that is set in the future or on other planets. Short Story is fiction of such briefness that is not able to support any subplots. Realistic Fiction is a story that can actually happen and is true to real life. Folklore are songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a person of â€Å"folk† that was handed down by word of mouth. Folklore is a genre of literature that is widely held, but false and based on unsubstantiated beliefs. Historical Fiction is a story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting. Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by literature that is frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting. Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader. A Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with an here of nonchalance. Legend is a story that sometimes of a national or folk hero. Legend is based on fact but also includes imaginative material. Mystery is a genre of fiction that deals with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets. Anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown. Mythology is a type of legend or traditional narrative. This is often based in part on historical events, that reveals human behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods. A body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person. Fiction in Verse is full-length novels with plot, subplots, themes, with major and minor characters. Fiction of verse is one of the genres of literature in which the narrative is usually presented in blank verse form. The genre of Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is  produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. In fiction something is feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story. Basic Parts of Essay Introductory Paragraph The introductory paragraph accomplishes three purposes: it captures the reader’s interest, it suggests the importance of the essay’s topic, and it ends with a thesis sentence. Often, the thesis sentence states a claim that consists of two or more related points. For example, a thesis might read: A college essay has an introductory paragraph, several body paragraphs, and a concluding  paragraph. You are telling the reader what you think are the most important points which need to be addressed in your essay. For this reason, you need to relate the introduction directly to the question or topic. A strong thesis is essential to a good essay, as each paragraph of your essay should be related back to your thesis or else deleted. Thus, the thesis establishes the key foundation for your essay. A strong thesis not only states an idea, but also uses solid examples to back it up. A weak thesis might be: Wikipedia is a powerful resource in many ways. As an alternative, a strong thesis for the same topic would be: Wikipedia is a powerful resource because it allows users with knowledge in a specific area toshare their knowledge, because it allows users to quickly find information about a vast array of topics, and because studies have confirmed that it is as accurate as any other encyclopedia. Then, you could separate your body paragraphs into three sections: one explaining the open-source nature of the project, one explaining the variety and depth of information, and a final one using studies to confirm that Wikipedia is indeed as accurate as other encyclopedias. Tips  Often, writing an introductory paragraph is the most difficult part of writing an essay. Facing a blank page can be daunting. Here are some suggestions for getting started. First, determine the context in which you want to place your topic. In other words, identify an overarching category in which you would place your topic, and then introduce your topic as a case-in-point. For example, if you are writing about dogs, you may begin by speaking about friends, dogs being an example of a very good friend. Alternatively, you can begin with a sentence on selective breeding, dogs being an example of extensive selective breeding. You can also begin with a sentence on means of protection, dogs being an example of a good way to stay safe. The context is the starting point for your introductory paragraph. The topic or thesis sentence is the ending point. Once the starting point and ending point are determined, it will be much easier to connect these points with the narrative of the opening paragraph. A good thesis statement, for example, if you are writing about dogs being very good friends, you could put: A dog is an example of a very good friend because X, Y, and Z. Here, X, Y, and Z would be the topics explained in your body paragraphs. In the format of one such instance, X would be the topic of the second paragraph, Y would be the topic of the third paragraph, and Z would be the topic of the fourth paragraph, followed by a conclusion, in which you would summarize the thesis statement. Example As we travel through our lives, we will identify many people as friends. In truth, most of these individuals are simply acquaintances. They will enter and depart from our existences as matters of mutual convenience. True friends will be there for you always. There is no friend truer than a dog. Identifying a context can help shape the topic or thesis. Here, the writer decided to write about dogs. Then, the writer selected friends as the context, dogs being good examples of friends. This shaped the topic and narrowed the focus to dogs as friends. This would make writing the remainder of the essay much easier because it allows the writer to focus on aspects of dogs that make them good friends. Body Paragraphs Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence. If the thesis contains multiple points or assertions, each body paragraph should support or justify them, preferably in the order the assertions originally stated in the thesis. Thus, the topic sentence for the first body paragraph will refer to the first point in the thesis sentence and the topic sentence for the second body paragraph will refer to the second point in the thesis sentence. Generally, if the thesis sentence contains three related points, there should be three body paragraphs, though you should base the number of paragraphs on the number of supporting points needed. If the core topic of the essay is the format of college essays, the thesis sentence might read: A college essay has an introductory paragraph, several body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. The topic sentence for the first body paragraph might read: The first paragraph of an essay is the introductory paragraph. Sequentially, the topic sentence for the second body paragraph might read: The introductory paragraph is followed by several body paragraphs. And the topic sentence for the third body paragraph might read: The college essay’s final paragraph is its concluding paragraph. Everybody paragraphs uses specific details, such as anecdotes, comparisons and contrasts, definitions, examples, expert opinions, explanations, facts, and statistics to support and develop the claim that its topic sentence makes. Tips When writing an essay for a class assignment, make sure to follow your teacher or professor’s suggestions. Most teachers will reward creativity and thoughtful organization over dogmatic adherence to a prescribed structure. Many will not. If you are not sure how your teacher will respond to a specific structure, ask. Organizing your essay around the thesis sentence should begin with arranging the supporting elements to justify the assertion put forth in the thesis sentence. Not all thesis sentences will, or should, lay out each of the points you will cover in your essay. In the example introductory paragraph on dogs, the thesis sentence reads, â€Å"There is no friend truer than a dog. † Here, it is the task of the body paragraphs to justify or prove the truth of this assertion, as the writer did not specify what points they would cover. The writer may next ask what characteristics dogs have that make them true friends. Each characteristic may be the topic of a body paragraph. Loyalty, companionship, protection, and assistance are all terms that the writer could apply to dogs as friends. Note that if the writer puts dogs in a different context, for example, working dogs, the thesis might be different, and they would be focusing on other aspects of dogs. It is often effective to end a body paragraph with a sentence that rationalizes its presence in the essay. Ending a body paragraph without some sense of closure may cause the thought to sound incomplete. Each body paragraph is something like a miniature essay in that they each need an introductory sentence that sounds important and interesting, and that they each need a good closing sentence in order to produce a smooth transition between one point and the next. Body paragraphs can be long or short. It depends on the idea you want to develop in your paragraph. Depending on the specific  style of the essay, you may be able use very short paragraphs to signal a change of subject or to explain how the rest of the essay is organized. Do not spend too long on any one point. Providing extensive background may interest some readers, but others would find it tiresome. Keep in mind that the main importance of an essay is to provide basic background on a subject and, hopefully, to spark enough interest to induce further reading. Example A true friend will be there for you whenever you need them. Any dog owner will say that there is nobody that will stick with you through thick and thin as much as a dog. My own dog can barely contain her joy when I come home from a hard day. Regardless of my mood, and my attitude towards her, she is always happy when I am home, and that is usually enough to make me feel better about everything. True friends will help you when you are in need. Whether it is to protect their owner against some sort of threat or to help a blind person walk across the street, dogs are the most reliable companion a person could have. Few villains would attack a person walking a dog at night, and statistics show that homes with dogs are among the least likely to be broken into. The above example is a bit free-flowing and the writer intended it to be persuasive. The second paragraph combines various attributes of dogs including protection and companionship. Here is when doing a little research can also help. Imagine how much more effective the last statement would be if the writer cited some specific statistics and backed them up with a reliable reference. Concluding Paragraph The concluding paragraph usually restates the thesis and leaves the reader something about the topic to think about. If appropriate, it may also issue a call to act, inviting the reader to take a specific  course of action with regard to the points that the essay presented. Aristotle suggested that speakers and, by extension, writers should tell their audience what they are going to say, say it, and then tell them what they have said. The three-part essay model, consisting of an introductory paragraph, several body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph, follows this strategy. Tips As with all writing, it is important to know your audience. All writing is persuasive, and if you write with your audience in mind, it will make your argument much more persuasive to that particular audience. When writing for a class assignment, the audience is your teacher. Depending on the assignment, the point of the essay may have nothing to do with the assigned topic. In most class assignments, the purpose is to persuade your teacher that you have a good grasp of grammar and spelling, that you can organize your thoughts in a comprehensive manner, and, perhaps, that you are capable of following instructions and adhering to some dogmatic formula the teacher regards as an essay. It is much easier to persuade your teacher that you have these capabilities if you can make your essay interesting to read at the same time. Place yourself in your teacher’s position and try to imagine reading one formulaic essay after another. If you want yours to stand out, capture your teacher’s attention and make your essay interesting, funny, or compelling. Example It is no accident that many people consider their dogs as part of their family. Just like every other member, dogs contribute to the happiness and well-being of the home, making the burdens of caring for them well worth the effort. Dogs deserve love and respect every bit as much as they love and respect us. After all, what more can a friend be? In the above example, focus shifted slightly and talked about dogs as members of the family. Many would suggest it departs from the logical organization of the rest of the essay, and some teachers may consider it unrelated and take points away. However, contrary to the common wisdom of â€Å"tell them what you are going to say, say it, and then tell them what you have said,† you may find it more interesting and persuasive to shift away from it as the writer did here, and then in the end, return to the core point of the essay. This gives additional effect to what an audience would otherwise  consider a very boring conclusion.

Personal Computer and Dell Essay

Synopsis: In 1984 Dell Inc. was founded by University of Texas freshmen, Michael Dell. Dell would buy computers from the excess inventory of local retailers and revamp them to sell out of his trunk. Dell was able to sell his computers at 10%-15% below retail price. After Dell’s freshmen year he dropped out to run his business full time. By 1995 Dell had sales of nearly $3. 5 billion and was one of the top five PC vendors in the world. Dell focused on customer support and service and became the master of process engineering and supply chain management. Dell has faced many challenges including distribution through US retail stores, management changes, and keeping up with its competitors. Since consumers aren’t willing to pay huge amounts of money for computers unless they were unique, Dell is at a crossroads. Which road Dell chooses to follow will determine its future. Resources: Dell Inc. ’s most valuable resource has been Michael Dell and its ability to sell computers at 10-15% below market value. Another huge resource is the executive team that Dell formed for guidance. Capabilities: Dell’s capability at producing products at a lower cost to its consumers is key. By adding services such as laptops, software/peripherals, servers/networking, services, and storage Dell expanded its capabilities. With the added services Dell can keep pace with its competitors. Core Competencies: Dell’s core competencies are the ability to offer quality products at cheaper prices, personalized orders, and the ability to keep their inventory relatively low. These competencies have helped Dell become a leader in the computer industry. Finding of Fact: Dell is currently at a crossroads; the company’s margins aren’t in a favorable position for the company. In 2010 yes their net income rose, but was still only 2. 91% of net revenue. Dell’s consumers are no longer willing to pay top dollar for a computer, unless it was unique. Competitors are selling laptops for around $300. Tablets have pushed Dell’s laptop sales down as well. Many more competitors have stepped into the industry since Dell first was founded. Dell also spends about 1% of its sales on research and development, while other companies spend about 5%. Justified Recommendation: Dell should invest more of its money into research and development for its products. Technology is constantly changing and for Dell to stay ahead or at least at the same pace, research and development is a must. I’m not saying Dell needs to go out and hire some new employees for this team. Dell could use members from each of its sections to help brainstorm and come up with new and innovative ideas. Innovative employees are invaluable to a company. Dell’s management should perform environmental scanning both internally and externally to find Dells SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Once SWOT is determined management could strategically figure out how to move forward. Environmental scanning shouldn’t be done just when a company finds it has â€Å"hit a bump in the road†, but periodically to keep the company innovative and make sure it is on the correct path. Dell should also perform an industry analysis. This analysis will review potential entrants, buyers, substitutes, suppliers, other stakeholders, and competitors. By completing the analysis a company can determine the high and low forces against the company. The low forces could be turned into a possible opportunity or based on the analysis results, the company could switch strategies.

Favorite Teacher Essay Example

Favorite Teacher Essay Example Favorite Teacher Essay Favorite Teacher Essay Introduction The instructor was inquiring some simple inquiries in arithmetic. The category was larning the simple operation of division. When the instructor asked how many bananas would each boy get if three bananas were divided every bit among three male childs. person had an reply. One each. Thousand bananas divided every bit among thousand male childs? The reply was still the same. One. The category was come oning therefore. inquiry being asked by the instructor and replies being provided by the pupil. But there was a male child who had a inquiry. If none of the bananas was divided among no male childs. how much would each boy get? : The whole category explosion into laughter at what the pupils thought was a fast one or a cockamamie inquiry. But the instructor seemed to hold been impressed. He took it upon himself to explicate to the male childs that what the pupil asked was non a cockamamie inquiry. But the instructor seemed to hold been impressed. He took it upon himself to explicate to the male childs that what the pupil had asked was non a cockamamie inquiry but instead a profound one. He was oppugning the instructor about the construct of eternity. A construct that had baffled mathematicians for centuries. until the Indian scientist Bhaskara had provided some visible radiation. He had proved that nothing divided by zero nor one. but eternity. The pupil was Srinivasa Ramanujan. the mastermind who introduced the construct of nothing to the universe. LIFE OF SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan. popularly known as S. Ramanujan was a great mathematician from India. He was born December 22. 1887 in Erode. Madras Presidency at the abode of his maternal grandparents. His male parent. K. Srinivasa Iyengar. worked as a clerk in a saree store and hailed from the territory of Thanjavur. His female parent. Komalatammal. was a homemaker and besides sang at a local temple. They lived in Sarangapani Street in a traditional place in the town of Kumbakonam. When he was about five old ages old. Ramanujan entered the primary school in Kumbakonam although he would go to several different primary schools before come ining the Town High School in Kumbakonam in January 1898. At the Town High School. Ramanujan was to make good in his full school topic and showed himself an able all unit of ammunition bookman. In 1900 he began to work on his ain on mathematics summing geometric and arithmetic series. It was in the Town High School that Ramanujan came across a mathemat ics book by G S Carr called Synopsis of simple consequences in pure mathematics. This book. with its really concise manner. allowed Ramanujan to learn himself mathematics. but the manner of the book was to hold a instead unfortunate consequence on the manner Ramanujan was subsequently to compose down mathematics since it provided the lone theoretical account that he had of written mathematical statements. The book contained theorems. expression and short cogent evidence. It besides contained an index to documents on pure mathematics which had been published in the European Journals of Learned Societies during the first half of the nineteenth century. The book. published in 1856. was of class good out of day of the month by the clip Ramanujan used it. By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to set about deep research. He investigated the series ? ( 1/n ) and calculated Euler’s changeless to 15 denary topographic points. He began to analyze the Bernoulli Numberss. although this was wholly his ain independent find. Ramanujan. on the strength of his good school work. was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. However the undermentioned twelvemonth his scholarship was non renewed because Ramanujan devoted more and more of his clip to mathematics and neglected his other topics. Without money he was shortly in troubles and. without stating his parents. he ran off to the town of Vizagapatnam about 650 kilometers north of Madras. He continued his mathematical work. nevertheless. and at this clip he worked on hypergeometric series and investigated dealingss between integrals and series. He was to detect subsequently that he had been analyzing elliptic maps. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa’s College. His purpose was to go through the First Arts scrutiny which would let him to be admitted to the University of Madras. He attended talks at Pachaiyappa’s College but became badly after three months study. He took the First Arts scrutiny after holding left the class. He passed in mathematics but failed all his other topics and hence failed the scrutiny. This meant that he could non come in the University of Madras. In the undermentioned old ages he worked on mathematics developing his ain thoughts without any aid and without any existent thought of the so current research subjects other than that provided by Carr’s book. Continuing his mathematical work Ramanujan studied continued fractions and divergent series in 1908. At this phase he became earnestly sick once more and underwent an operation in April 1909 after which he took him some considerable clip to retrieve. He married on 14 July 1909 when his female parent arranged for him to get married a 10 twelvemonth old miss S Janaki Ammal. Ramanujan did non populate with his married woman. nevertheless. until she was 12 old ages old. Ramanujan continued to develop his mathematical thoughts and began to present jobs and work out jobs in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. He devoloped dealingss between elliptic modular equations in 1910. After publication of a superb research paper on Bernoulli Numberss in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society he gained acknowledgment for his work. Despite his deficiency of a university instruction. he was going good known in the Madras country as a mathematical mastermind. In 1911 Ramanujan approached the laminitis of the Indian Mathematical Society for advice on a occupation. After this he was appointed to his first occupation. a impermanent station in the Accountant General’s Office in Madras. It was so suggested that he approach Ramachandra Rao who was a Collector at Nellore. Ramachandra Rao was a laminitis member of the Indian Mathematical Society who had helped get down the mathematics library. Ramachandra Rao told him to return to Madras and he tried. unsuccessfully. to set up a scholarship for Ramanujan. In 1912 Ramanujan applied for the station of clerk in the histories subdivision of the Madras Port Trust. Despite the fact that he had no university instruction. Ramanujan was clearly good known to the university mathematicians in Madras for. with his missive of application. Ramanujan included a mention from E W Middlemast who was the Professor of Mathematics at The Presidency College in Madras. Indeed the University of Madras did give Ramanujan a scholarship in May 1913 for two old ages and. in 1914. Hardy brought Ramanujan to Trinity College. Cambridge. to get down an extraordinary coaction. Puting this up was non an easy affair. Ramanujan was an Orthodox Brahmin and so was a rigorous vegetarian. His faith should hold prevented him from going but this trouble was overcome. partially by the work of E H Neville who was a co-worker of Hardy’s at Trinity College and who met with Ramanujan while talking in India. Ramanujan sailed from India on 17 March 1914. It was a unagitated ocean trip except for three yearss on which Ramanujan was airsick. He arrived in London on 14 April 1914 and was met by Neville. After four yearss in London they went to Cambridge and Ramanujan spent a twosome of hebdomads in Neville’s place before traveling into suites in Trinity College on 30th April. Right from the beginning. nevertheless. he had jobs with his diet. The eruption of World War I made obtaining particular points of nutrient harder and it was non long earlier Ramanujan had wellness jobs. Right from the start Ramanujan’s coaction with Hardy led to of import consequences. Hardy was. nevertheless. diffident how to near the job of Ramanujan’s deficiency of formal instruction. The war shortly took Littlewood off on war responsibility but Hardy remained in Cambridge to work with Ramanujan. Even in his first winter in England. Ramanujan was sick and he wrote in March 1915 that he had been badly due to the winter conditions and had non been able to print anything for five months. What he did print was the work he did in England. the determination holding been made that the consequences he had obtained while in India. many of which he had communicated to Hardy in his letters. would non be published until the war had ended. On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research ( the grade was called a Ph. D. from 1920 ) . He had been allowed to inscribe in June 1914 despite non holding the proper makings. Ramanujan’s thesis was on Highly composite Numberss and consisted of seven of his documents published in England. Ramanujan fell earnestly badly in 1917 and his physicians feared that he would decease. He did better a small by September but spent most of his clip in assorted nursing places. On 18 February 1918 Ramanujan was elected a chap of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and so three yearss subsequently. the greatest honor that he would have. his name appeared on the list for election as a chap of the Royal Society of London. He had been proposed by an impressive list of mathematicians. viz. Hardy. MacMahon. Grace. Larmor. Bromwich. Hobson. Baker. Littlewood. Nicholson. Young. Whittaker. Forsyth and Whitehead. His election as a chap of the Royal Society was confirmed on 2 May 1918. and so on 10 October 1918 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. the family to run for six old ages. The awards which were bestowed on Ramanujan seemed to assist his wellness better a small and he renewed his attempts at bring forthing mathematics. By the terminal of November 1918 Ramanujan’s wellness had greatly improved. Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 geting on 13 March. However his wellness was really hapless and. despite medical intervention. he died there the undermentioned twelvemonth. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICS Ramanujan worked out the Riemann series. the elliptic integrals. hyper geometric series and functional equations of the zeta map. Ramanujan’s ain work on partial amounts and merchandises of hyper geometric series have led to major development in the subject. Possibly his most celebrated work was on the figure P ( n ) of dividers of an whole number N into summands. He made extraordinary parts to mathematical analysis. figure theory. infinite series. and continued fractions. The figure theory is the abstract survey of the construction of figure systems and belongingss of positive whole numbers. It includes assorted theorems about premier Numberss ( a premier figure is an whole number greater than one that has non built-in factor ) . Number theory includes analytic figure theory. originated by Leonhard Euler ( 1707-89 ) ; Geometric theory – which uses such geometrical methods of analysis as Cartesian coordinates. vectors and matrices ; and probabilistic figure theory based on chance theory. What Ramanujan did will be to the full understood by a really few. (

buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay

buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay Educational assessment is one of the controversial and problematic fields in the educational practice. One way to assess students is through the use of standardized tests. There is little this criterion has done to enable students do well in their final exams, for instance the High School Exit Exam. In fact, the Standardized testing has considerably undermined the whole learning concept among schools. In the current era throughout the world, there has been suggested a move to find out the stated goals of the curriculum and who is accountable for their outcomes. A key component to this move has found that there are inefficiencies from the standardized tests as a measure of students learning and evaluation among schools. A research conducted revealed that, if a curriculum wanted to pursue students excellence in schools, then the adoption of standardized tests would contribute very little to the students success (Lee 16). The reason cited in this research is that the standardized tests focus assumes an unusually narrow approach to the promotion of excellence. Among is the issue that, standardized tests emphasize only basic ideas in core areas of the curriculum for instance reading, mathematics and science and nothing more. This is particularly limited in the U.S.A., as a result of the requirements of NCLB (Andrew 78). In all cases of these students assessments, these tests do not involve the students in creative study and problem solving. It also does not engage students in skills use and analysis to perform critically reasoning tests. Very minimal in these standardized tests do involve students into meaningful thinking and idea generation. They lack the capacity for meaning factual recall. Apart from idea concerning creativity of students, they lack tests that are also beneficial in areas of child development, for instance honesty, social life and basic life focusing behavior. The worst of it all is that, at the moment, most schools are following this constrained syllabus focus of these tests to continually narrow down their curriculum hence reducing and restricting the quality of learning and educational development (Lee 16). Teaching the content standards is like teaching to test and it is not a wise idea. Put it differently, if the tests are to measure the level of skills that stdents are expected to, this means, therefore, that teaching to test is profound idea. The worst is when these tests are not related at any given level to what is being taught; perhaps teachers solely rely on repeated drills that encompass the old questions to prepare students. Standardized tests have proved to waste a great and valuable learning time for students not only in high school, but deny them a chance to proceed to college (Beanie 79). However, standardized tests have the bright side of it, for instance the time students spend their time preparing for tests, and they often learn valuable skills. The better aspect of these tests is when students learn time managing skills, how to understand passages, following instructions and knowing how and when certain answers can be eliminated. All these are valuable test-taking skills that are of significance to students understanding as they progress through their schools and career paths. Proponents of the standardized tests say that these tests, if well integrated to proper teaching strategies can come with great learning success. Accordingly they say standardized tests are part of instrumental programs; they are not entirely independent. They explain that standardized tests always requires students to demonstrate their skills after learning, especially reading comprehension, to demonstrate the meaning of words in the texts read and pull out facts embodied and try to connect meaning. They say these are skills of a good reader and might be expected in a professional life (Andrew 88). Standardized tests have been used as a constructivism in school as reflected in the curriculum that greatly eliminates grades in this system. Learning is a process; for this reason, it can be demonstrated in a variety of ways and application. This will eliminate cases where a students fail to get admission to college for just falling a point below the standardized limit. Critically, standardized testing does not provide a proper and genuine assessment of the students performance. Over and above they do not provide avenues for improvement in schools. They fall behind the fact that some students cannot keep to the requirement of the materials. If, for instance, a student could not pass a class, he/she was kept back to repeat that class. As per now, with the passage of NCLB, teachers have been forced to ensure that tthe test score for these children remain high in order to keep the schools under operation so that facilities are well utilized (Beanie 79). Standardized testing in the USA is a pretty joke, since not all students who are cut out to proceed to collage, or to take careers relevant to many of their skills that were studied in high schools. For instance, students at a given high school must take a Graduation test before they are permitted to graduate. In this case, they have to pass the test, which normally take a week of time. This time is very significant to a student, in that could be used in their labs or learning entrepreneurial skills that are relevant to their future life (Andrew 90). Standardized testing has lost the originality out of the schools. This greatly impact the art and music classes, as these classes will be the first to be cut when the test are low which means that the school finally lose the funding. This will go a step further to affect students whose interests are art and music at collage after high school graduation. Other extra curriculums are next on the line to go such as agriculture and entrepreneurship. This affects the other core subjects and classes in a similar manner, where teachers are forced to teach from strict guidelines, as per the requirements of the state, which will see the students prepared for testing. On the same note, fun activities and new materials are often cut from the syllabus, especially from the English department. This is to allow them to focus on the test materials, not in a way where the students are interested. In this case, they are mandated to exclude the classic literature out of the curriculum and instead opt fo r grammar and composition writing (Beanie 79). In conclusion, standardized tests are a disservice to the high school graduate of America. According to Pros and Cons of No Child Left behind (2006), these students are forced to learn material that deprives them the research and career development skills. Over and above, they are mandated to learn streamlined material, which have been found to lack the depth and well grounded knowledge that is crucial in their future careers. Lastly, some of these tests have denied most of these students a chance to proceed to college after high school graduation for having fall short of one or two points. Buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay

The Ambiguity of Afraid

The Ambiguity of Afraid The Ambiguity of Afraid The Ambiguity of Afraid By Maeve Maddox Jacqueline writes: I have a question about a †¦particular phrase, which can be read in two different ways†¦:I am afraid I am unable to meet your requirements. According to Jacqueline, the statement was interpreted by its recipient to mean the that the writer was taking the polite way to say they wanted to get out of their obligations, when in fact the writer wished to express the fear of something that this person did not want to have happen (meaning they were afraid that this was so, but did not want it to be the case) and also to convey a implicit request for help (please help me to overcome this fear.)    Jacqueline concludes that Had the statement been communicated orally†¦the meaning would have been communicated with inflection of the voice and other non verbal means. It is true that oral communication is aided by facial expression and inflection that does not exist in written expression. And it is true that the word afraid can be used with more than one meaning. The sentence in the question, for example can be construed to mean I am unable to meet your requirements (therefore, I wont be working with you). or Im uncertain as to whether or not I will be able to meet your requirements (so, tell me more). Either way, orally or in writing, if the person with whom the sentence originated was looking for a job, the thought should have been expressed more directly. Afraid is an adjective that comes from a verb, afray, meaning to frighten. Afraid derives from the past participle form. Until the late 16th century, Im afraid meant Im frightened. In the late 16th century, Im afraid came to mean I regret to say or I suspect, without any connotation of fear. Its ironic that, in a situation such as Jacqueline describes, if the speaker or writer actually has a sense of fear or misgiving, it is probably better to choose an expression other than Im afraid. I fear, or Im worried that might express the thought more clearly. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business EmailsThe Possessive ApostropheHow to Write a Proposal

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research Paper Example Statesmen and stateswomen must not fear economic damage and use scientific data in debating on solutions, like to compel states in being bound by agreements on climate change. Important to effective talks on the plans is a deeper understanding of the issue. Dowdeswell is correct that world leaders could not craft anti-climate change measures because they guard national interests and they recognize the value of the fossil fuel industry to the economies of their countries. The author tells that leaders protecting country interests resist actions to climate change if these would badly affect their economies (par. 4), and I think this is true in countries with resources that are important globally, such as the Middle East which is a world oil source. I also see that it is natural for leaders to allow the fossil fuel industry to pollute their countries and worsen climate change because their economies thrive and thus benefit from them. After all, the science of climate change is ignored a nd â€Å"attacked by fossil fuel industries† (par.

An Individual Vs. Team-Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

An Individual Vs. Team-Case - Essay Example This is because it is they who analyze the market niche of a particular product and come up with the recommendations on the course of action to be taken. For instance, it is the financial analyst who studies the market situation of company’s products, establishes the competitors and strategies they adopt and recommend what the company needs to do in order to remain competitive. This position is also well paying in terms of remuneration individuals of this cadre gets. However, it is said that change is like rest and every employee would not want to stay at one role every time and again. In this case, they always tend to crave for a more demanding role as a way of growing in their career. This tends to prompt them to seek for promotion as a motivating factor. This is what may prompt a financial analyst to seek for promotion to the level of an operation manager of a company that has a more challenging role a part from the fact that it is also well paying. ... This is the case regarding the situation before us. Decision Making Successful organizations highly depend on competitive products and services to succeed in the marketplace. Wang (2011) notes that, internally, quality management decision making is vital to establish and sustain this success. Managers face a number of challenges on a daily basis, and their ability to make decisions determines how successful and their individual careers can be in the long run. Quality decision making is, therefore, a competence that every manager who is responsible must acquire and a discipline that should be practiced. All responsible managers and leaders should always be willing and able to share how they make decisions (Wang, 2011). However, the team leader is he decision maker and has to bear the final responsibility for any decision made. Nevertheless, he or she is at liberty to choose who to invite in the final decision-making process and how to guide the process in order to maximize the quality and executability regarding the final decision made. It is, however, worth noting that managerial decision making is part of a continuous journey and not a one-time event. The three critical steps that make up this journey are: observe, think and experiment. Moreover, the overall outcome of managerial decisions can be optimized through continuous improvement. It is a matter of fact that taking up a new role is something challenging – one that requires good leadership qualities and styles. This is particularly challenging in a situation where the company is operating during a â€Å"shut down.† Therefore, to bring a turnaround on the company, proper strategies need to be employed, coupled with proper decision-makings to accomplish goals. In this regard, I

Aircraft Accident Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Aircraft Accident - Case Study Example Finally the crew succeeded in emergency landing at Sioux City, but unfortunately the starboard wingtip touched down just prior to the landing gear, pulling the aircraft sideways. And the aircraft broke up and turned into a huge fireball. Out of 296 people onboard, 111 died and 185 survived. Problem Statement: The aircraft became uncontrollable mainly because of the fracture of the fan disk. Besides the human failure of the maintenance team in detecting such a serious crack, there are quite a few pertinent issues related mainly to the design of engine fan rotor assembly and the hydraulic flight control system. In addition, after the crash-landing, the rescue team and the fire-fighting team committed some mistakes, which might have resulted in loss of some more lives. The key issues here are; Approach and Analysis: Investigating this disaster was lot easier because all the four cockpit crew members, who were handing the machinery to somehow make a safe landing, were alive to tell the story. The disaster was investigated by; Results: Oversight and a casual approach often results in serious consequences is proved once again by the investigating team in this case as well. Though manufacturing defect is the major cause but the involvement of human beings during the processes of certification and maintenance could not help in detecting and prevention. Investigators found out that; It was routinely undergoing through ... The pieces of engine fan disk too were found out in the fields The survivors account also proved quite useful for the investigating team Results: Oversight and a casual approach often results in serious consequences is proved once again by the investigating team in this case as well. Though manufacturing defect is the major cause but the involvement of human beings during the processes of certification and maintenance could not help in detecting and prevention. Investigators found out that; Two large fractures in the fan disks, said to be the signs of overstress The fatigue had also resulted in a small cavity on the surface of the disk, said to be the result of a manufacturing defect. It was routinely undergoing through the drills of maintenance and in fact passed through the crack detecting fluorescent penetration inspections, but the cracks could not be detected, pointing towards human blunder. Discussion: The process of certification proves to be very crucial for the manufacturer, the customer as well as other stakeholders. Values and ethics must be imbibed in the work culture of the certification team, so that they do not take things for granted. As the safety and security standards keep on changing, it is of vital importance that the manufacturing unit must be able to upgrade their certification standards on a regular basis. The department entrusted with the task of certification has to be trained accordingly. Training and development of the maintenance engineers is of vital importance, because they are the ones who are in a position of detecting manufacturing defects and avert major disasters. More important than the training is to work as a team, because at times, some defects could be found by

Roman Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Roman Republic - Essay Example The reasons for the decline of Rome are as intriguing as the factors contributing to its rise. In order to understand the causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire, it is essential to understand the confluence of circumstances and variables that contributed to its rise, for these are the same factors that were brought to such an excess that the Empire collapsed under its own weight. Ultimately, Rome's successful development of military might, political dominance and infrastructural innovation led to such an expansion of the Empire that it could not sustain its own mass. This development was driven largely by the egos of Rome's leaders, who believed Roman civilization was so superior that it was a gift to the world to have it spread as much as possible. Military might was arguably the first key factor that enabled the Romans to build their empire. This was achieved through "cultivation of virtues conducive to military strength: unswerving loyalty, obedience, frugality and disregard for peril to life and limb" (Bonta, par. 6). These virtues were evident from the very beginning of the evolution of Rome. Roman history, from its inception, is replete with monumental wars and battles, most of which resulted in Rome's victory and dominance, thereby paving the way for geographic expansion and assimilation of weaker neighbors. Bonta maintains that "for the most part, Roman military history is a dreary catalog of one-sided battles with outmatched and poorly organized foes, of the destruction or absorption of entire nations into the expanding Roman state, and of almost superhuman resilience in rebounding from rare defeats that would have broken the back of any other people" (par. 8). Clearly the expansion of the Roman Empire would not have been possible had Rome not been militarily dominant. And yet, over-zealous military adventures eventually resulted in the destruction of Rome. Political Structures Rome's political structures were cutting edge and in many ways ahead of their time. They vested real power in the hands of the people in a way that had rarely if ever been seen before; and did so in a way that struck a nearly perfect balance between stability and liberty (Bonta, par. 10). Rome "discovered a formula for limiting the power of government by dividing it among several different magistrates and elected bodies" and also "developed a code of written laws that defined and protected the rights of Roman citizens" (par. 10). These developments regarding separation of powers and personal liberty planted the seeds of political thought that served as the foundation of modern Western-style democracies. Roman citizens were genuinely empowered. They enjoyed an unprecedented degree of liberty that was protected by law, and had a hand in electing their government representatives. The satisfaction of common citizens with their representation in the government was a very important factor that led to the stability of the state. The masses, as a whole, felt politically content and this was a critical factor enabling the empire to evolve. Essentially, by giving people a stake in their political system, Rome ensured that it would not have to be distracted by the need to quell internal discontent, and could instead focus on external expansion. The problem for Rome was that these same political privileges were not afforded to many of those

Federal Funding For Emergency Management Solutions Essay - 1

Federal Funding For Emergency Management Solutions - Essay Example During the fiscal year 2008, most of the federal funding for emergency management was focused on the research purposes(Moore, 2008). This was because of many of the hazard areas needed to be tackled with equal measure. For example, after the revision of the presidential budget from operating plan FY 2007, most of their funding changed positively towards the research activities as compared to the first-responder preparedness(Moore, 2008). The U.S government was under war with terrorism and most of the funding was spent on this activity(Bullock, Jane, George, and Damon, 2012). However, little research was being done on other areas that would affect the American citizens in equal measure. For instance, not much was done to combat the never-ending effects of natural disasters. The change in weather, Katrina, and drought really had a greater toll on people as compared to the government’s activities in Afghanistan and Iraq(Bullock, Jane, George, and Damon, 2012). Such disasters prov ed to be more dangerous by killing many citizens and destroying properties of great monetary value(Meade, Charles, and Megan, 2003). If not undertaken or solved in appropriate manner will have a huge negative impact to the economy of the country. Therefore, the American public would be served well by transferring funding from the first-responder preparedness to research and  development.

Roman Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Roman Republic - Essay Example The reasons for the decline of Rome are as intriguing as the factors contributing to its rise. In order to understand the causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire, it is essential to understand the confluence of circumstances and variables that contributed to its rise, for these are the same factors that were brought to such an excess that the Empire collapsed under its own weight. Ultimately, Rome's successful development of military might, political dominance and infrastructural innovation led to such an expansion of the Empire that it could not sustain its own mass. This development was driven largely by the egos of Rome's leaders, who believed Roman civilization was so superior that it was a gift to the world to have it spread as much as possible. Military might was arguably the first key factor that enabled the Romans to build their empire. This was achieved through "cultivation of virtues conducive to military strength: unswerving loyalty, obedience, frugality and disregard for peril to life and limb" (Bonta, par. 6). These virtues were evident from the very beginning of the evolution of Rome. Roman history, from its inception, is replete with monumental wars and battles, most of which resulted in Rome's victory and dominance, thereby paving the way for geographic expansion and assimilation of weaker neighbors. Bonta maintains that "for the most part, Roman military history is a dreary catalog of one-sided battles with outmatched and poorly organized foes, of the destruction or absorption of entire nations into the expanding Roman state, and of almost superhuman resilience in rebounding from rare defeats that would have broken the back of any other people" (par. 8). Clearly the expansion of the Roman Empire would not have been possible had Rome not been militarily dominant. And yet, over-zealous military adventures eventually resulted in the destruction of Rome. Political Structures Rome's political structures were cutting edge and in many ways ahead of their time. They vested real power in the hands of the people in a way that had rarely if ever been seen before; and did so in a way that struck a nearly perfect balance between stability and liberty (Bonta, par. 10). Rome "discovered a formula for limiting the power of government by dividing it among several different magistrates and elected bodies" and also "developed a code of written laws that defined and protected the rights of Roman citizens" (par. 10). These developments regarding separation of powers and personal liberty planted the seeds of political thought that served as the foundation of modern Western-style democracies. Roman citizens were genuinely empowered. They enjoyed an unprecedented degree of liberty that was protected by law, and had a hand in electing their government representatives. The satisfaction of common citizens with their representation in the government was a very important factor that led to the stability of the state. The masses, as a whole, felt politically content and this was a critical factor enabling the empire to evolve. Essentially, by giving people a stake in their political system, Rome ensured that it would not have to be distracted by the need to quell internal discontent, and could instead focus on external expansion. The problem for Rome was that these same political privileges were not afforded to many of those

Public Policy Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Public Policy Analysis - Essay Example It imposes penalties for violation of security laws at higher rates than were applicable earlier. It also increases resources for the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Act is applicable to all the companies whether American or foreign if they are required to file annual and periodical reports with the SEC. This public policy analysis is to have a better appreciation of regulatory relationship between government and corporation (Zameeruddin, 2003). (Lovik, Merkel, & Bowser, 2006) The enactment of the legislation is timely in order to protect the interests of the investor from corporate fraud and to require corporate executives to enhance corporate ethical standards. These are with a view to make the US securities market robust enough to be a safe place for investors to invest and do business. It is argued that SOX is an essential policy tool to realize these objectives. The Act comes into force to address the market failure as a result of scandals such as Enron and others. The Enron scandal alone justifies the legislation to address the market failure characterized by the following consequences. Bankruptcy: 20,000 employees were rendered jobless and deprived of health insurance. Average severance pay was $ 4,500 and top management executives were paid bonuses exceeding $ 55 million. Employees’ retirement funds of $ 1.2 billion were lost. Retirees did not get their $ 2 billion retirement funds. Company’s top executives en-cashed their stocks wor th $ 116 million. Criminal Charges: There were 15 guilty pleas, 6 convictions, 1 acquittal and 11 cases not decided. Three California based stock traders entered their guilty plea for wire fraud. 4 Meryll Lynch executives confessed to fraud in the Nigerian Barge case. Enron’s stock hit a high of $ 90 in 2000 and fell to $ 1 in 2001. 29,000 employees of auditing firm of Arthur Anderson lost their jobs. And Enron’s shareholders sued the company and their banks for $ 20 billion (Jesso, 2009). SOX

Edible Cutlery Essay Example for Free

Edible Cutlery Essay In the eco-friendly world, it will no longer be enough to eat your meal before getting dessert; you will have to eat your plate before you get dessert. In fact, your plate may even be dessert. In a brilliant moment of inspiration, Universite de Montreal industrial design professor Diane Bisson saw a vision of a world in which food product waste was drastically reduced and even recycling, as we know it, would carry a lesser burden. Edible plates and containers. The perfect and thorough recycling method. Ms. Bisson stewed her ideas for 10 years until she finally applied and won a research grant allowing her to work with dieticians and chefs to create recipes for plates made without without preservatives, artificial colours or sugar. Their creations are beautiful, spanning all the colours of the spectrum with carved designs of varying thicknesses. Recipes are primarily vegetable-based, so the plates and containers are nutritious. Two hundred of her 400 edible prototypes were prepared for Ms. Bissons new book launch at commissaries design gallery in Montreal. They were very tasty, according to gallery owner Pierre Laramee. The book, Edible: The Food as Material will be available in late January. Ill let you know in the comment section below where its being sold. It will have many recipes for edible containers that you can prepare at home. Many of the edible plates made for the book launch were made to blend with the foods they hold, both visually and taste-wise, like a carob plate made to serve sweets. Others included beets or poppy seeds as a base. Her ambition is really to try out as many shapes and as many gastronomic food combinations as possible so that we can get into many different markets. She could see a lot of different venues. Just a few of those venues would be shopping mall food stands, hospitals, and catered food services. Next project for Ms. Bisson is to work with a caterer to come up with a five course meal with accompanying edible plates and cutlery. Also, she will have to figure out how to preserve her edible plates without common preservatives, as her current container prototypes are drying up after awhile. Edible plates, containers, cutlery. Think of how they could tastefully change our world. However, the problem with edible plates, and indeed any edible containers, is that in order to be hygienic, they need to be protected by some other packaging that is NOT meant to be eated. Hence, what we need is re-usable packaging. A sealed container protecting the sterile contents inside, from the contaminating world outside, which can be reused many times. An Indian entrepreneur manufactures delicious edible cutlery forks, knives and spoons that can all be eaten up post-meal Even as global warming turns up the heat on the world stage, entrepreneur Narayana Peesapaty, 44, may have found the perfect answer to the mountains of disposable plastic cutlery choking the world: he makes them edible. In other words, after people have eaten their curry and rice, they can now chew and swallow the spoon. The Hyderabad-based entrepreneurs company B. K.  Environmental Innovations Private Limited manufactures eco-friendly forks, knives, spoons and chopsticks in delicious flavours of vanilla, strawberry and pineapple. And all can be gobbled up after the meal. The outfit is part of the New Ventures Global initiative to encourage environment-friendly business ideas in developing countries. Peesapaty, a former scientist at the Institute for International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), is already supplying his product to a raft of hotels, sweet shops and organised retailers in the city. Samples have also been sent to corporate caterers, schools and housewives. It took the scientist another two years to give commercial shape to his idea. I began by checking out the suitability of various cereal flours wheat, rice and sorghum (jowar) as base for edible cutlery, he says. Finally, he zeroed in on sorghum. Jowar has traditionally been an important source of nutrients such as folic acid and fiber, yet the domestic consumption of this crop has recently decreased and been replaced by starch-laden rice. B. K. Innovations is thus helping to revitalize the popularity of jowar with consumers, especially since those with diabetes have shown an interest in consuming edible cutlery as a nutritious snack. Vegetable pulp spinach, beetroot and carrot were used to add colour and nutritive value to the cutlery. Spinach gave it a green shade, beetroot red and carrots brought out a yellow hue. In 2006, the entrepreneur applied for a process patent for producing edible cutlery. The entrepreneurs entire production line comprising blenders, slicers, dyes and an oven had to be designed and calibrated to ensure that the spoons retained their hardness while not losing out on their taste and nutritive value. BK offers spoons in three flavours and has also expanded its production to edible sandwich wrappers and edible chopsticks. Large-scale domestic buyers have already shown initial interest, and BK Environmental Innovations hopes to eventually enter the international market. Requests from international sellers have come from various countries including Singapore, New Zealand, and Canada. With Japan and China’s growing demand for chopsticks and the decreasing availability of resources, an environmental movement has grown to search for better options. Narayana expects edible chopstick to be a popular alternative to disposable chopsticks. Peesapaty feels there’s a great future ahead for his edible chopsticks which will give stiff competition to the disposable ones. In fact, he aims to corner a portion of the global disposable chopsticks market, which sees sales of around 24 billion units per annum in Japan and 35 billion units in China. However, the innovators path has not been without challenges. When he wasn’t getting investors for his dream project, Peesapaty says he had to sell his flat for Rs 35 lakh (about US$ 100,000) three years ago. He then moved to a rented house with his wife and young daughter. In other words, of the Rs 50 lakh Peesapaty has invested in the venture so far, 70% of the funds have come from his own pocket.

Risk Management techniques

Risk Management techniques Risk Management Question: B) â€Å"We will never know if we have identified all the risks in a project† Given that the above statement is true; explain to a member of the Board of Directors the value of using Risk Management techniques for major project. Introduction â€Å"Every human endeavour involves risk; the success or failure of any venture depends crucially on how we deal with it† [1]. That means there is no perfect project in the construction industry in which all the risks can be identified and solved. Risk can neither be avoided nor be solved. It can only be mitigated and then either transfers or share to any other body which is a part of the project or just retain it. The success of a project depends on how well the project team analyse the risk. All the three parameters which determine the success of a construction project which are time, cost and quality are subjected to risk or uncertainty. It is the ability of the project team; right from the concept stage through out the implementation stage that how properly they are estimating the project by providing appropriate allowances for all those anticipated risks or uncertainties [2]. This report includes a detailed analysis of various risks that can occur in a construction project. It also includes how to identify, analyse and mitigate those risks by highlighting the value of different risk management techniques that are used now-a-days for major projects with the help of a case study of 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games. This report also explains about the systematic approach (project management techniques developed by the experts who are in the field of risk management for many years) of handling the risks. Neglecting the risk without taking that into in its context can turn a potentially profitable project to a loss making venture. 1. Risk in projects- a theoretical approach After a brief introduction, the author feels thats its time to explain risk in a broader frame and the management techniques to mitigate it. For that, all those management procedures need to be explained more along with the techniques used and substantiate that by using more examples. Before going into details of management aspects of the risk, the author needs to give a general idea about the difference between risk and uncertainty, and the risk classification in detail. 1.1. Risk and uncertainty According to Smith NJ, â€Å"the terms risk and uncertainty, if used rigorously, have different meaning but in terms of construction projects the distinction drawn between uncertainty and risk is of little significance† [2]. He defined risk and uncertainty as risk exists when a decision is expressed in terms of a range of possible outcomes and when known probabilities can be attached to the outcomes while uncertainty exists where there is more than one possible outcome of a course of action but the probability of each outcome is not known [2]. Uncertainty in other words can be defined as a situation in which there is no historic data or previous history relating to the situation [14] . â€Å"Perminova defines uncertainty, as a context for risks as events having a negative impact on the projects outcomes, or opportunities, as events that have beneficial impact on project performance. This definition stresses dual nature of uncertainty in potentially having both positive and negative influence on the projects outcomes†. [17] Risk involves both a threat and a challenge where an opportunity is a threat for those expects failures and a challenge to those predicts victory. It can be taken purely on the basis of probabilities or chances and at the same time, risk can be a well calculated one. 1.2. Risk classification According to Robert Flanagan and George Norman, risks are generally of different types that can be classified based on these criteria which are by identifying the type of risks, the consequences, and the impact of risk. Smith N J and Merna T suggested an alternate method of classification of risk which is Global classification and Elemental classification. The method, they suggested is to separate the more general risks which might influence a project but may be outside the control of the project parties from the risks associated with key project elements; these are referred to as global and elemental risks. The classification based on type of risks is usually done by assuming that the total risk is made up of market risks (Speculative risk) and specific risks (Pure risk). The specific risk, sometimes called as static risk, which is having no potential gain typically arises from the possibility of accident or technical failure, while for speculative risk, there is a possibility of loss or gain which might be financial, technical, or physical. â€Å"Moreover, a companys systematic risk can be spit into two components: business and financial risk†. Business risk is the result of a company trading with its assets, which is borne by the equity and debt holders and the financial risk arises directly out of the gearing process brings risk only to the equity holders.[14] The risk classification based on the impact of it can be subdivided into the environment risk, market or industry risk, company risk and the project or individual risk. This classification has done by considering the area with which the impact of the risk is affecting. The general environmental can again be divided into two parts: the physical and then the social, political and economical risks. The physical environment includes the weather and the natural phenomena like earthquake, landslips etc. Normally the risks involved in this environment cannot be controlled. By using the modern technologies, these phenomena can be identified well in advance and can take the measures to mitigate the effects of these phenomena. While in the other hand, the social, political and the economical environment risks are to some extent can be controlled. The government can control social, political and environment of a project to an extent [14]. Market risk depends on a lot of factors and it is very d ifficult to control it. Recession is a risk that almost all the companies are facing throughout the world also comes under market risk. These types of risks are very difficult to predict too, so the better method to tackle is to try to mitigate the consequence. Any company operates within an open market and the risk attached with the market can influence the company as well. So in a company itself, for different major projects, different management groups are assigned and thereby it can act as a separate group or consortium (joint venture with another company). By doing the there are chances for the risks with which the parent company is facing may not reach this group. But the company risks and project risks are intrinsically linked because the company must ultimately bear the consequence of the risky project. 2. Project risk management critical analysis â€Å"Project risk management includes the processes concerned about conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), responses, and monitoring and control on a project; most of these processes are updated throughout the project†[3]. 2.1. Risk management planning: plans how to approach the risk bound activities in the project and to execute the risk management practices into those activities. Before going into the planning for risk management, it is always better to study the project as much as possible. According to PMBOK (3rd edition), while planning an approach for managing risk, it is advisable to consider these factors as well such as, environmental factors, organisational process assets and project scope statement (objective of the project). Risk management plan or method is the outcome or result of this planning, which is used for the identification of risk in the project [3]. 2.2. Risk Identification: The best way to identify risk is a group session or a brainstorming session with all the management experts who are the part of the project. This is the best method of gaining team input and bringing expertise to the project [2] [4]. The risk management plan which is obtained as a result of the first step (Risk management planning) can be used here to identify risk. After identifying all the risk, a risk breakdown structure (RBS) can be made, which shows the risk groups, risk categories and risk events at the lowest level. Then all these identified risks can be converged under two main categories, Internal and external risks. Internal risks, which consists of risks from the side of owners, consultants, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers while external risks are political, economical, social, cultural, natural and other risks such as delays in claiming insurance etc [5]. â€Å"Identification of the risk is considered as the first and the most significant phase of the risk mana gement process. It brings considerable benefits in terms of project understanding and provides an early indication of the need for risk management strategies†. It is impossible to know how far the risks are identified but it is likely that there will be some risks which are unknown. The purpose of identification itself is to use the combinations of different methods to try to ensure that the amount of the unknown unknowns is as small as possible [15]. The right time of doing this identification of risk process is in the appraisal phase, because then there are a large number of risks in the project, and the options for avoiding or mitigating risks are very high and at that time, the project is highly flexible. Different methods of identification process are used by different organisations. Examining previous projects data with similar characteristics which has got similar type of risks can be used to ensure that corporate knowledge is utilized. This option of identification is having only limited scope, but this can at least used to make a checklist of risks which has got more probability to occur [2]. â€Å"Interviewing the project personnel from each discipline and the staff from within the organisation who have experience of similar projects, ensures the corporate knowledge and personnel experience are utilized in the process of identifying risks† [2]. The benefit of doing this technique is that, the organisation can utilise the experience that these experts got from the similar pervious projects. Once these risks are identified, detailed analysis can be done, either by qualitative analysis or by quantitative analysis or by both. 2.3. Risk analysis: â€Å"The purpose of the risk identification is to quantify the effects on the project of the risks identified† [15]. The first and most important step in this phase is to decide which analytical technique to use. There are methods, at the simplest level in which each risk can be treated individually with no attempts made to quantify the risks or the probability of occurrence of this is not calculated. Much more detailed results can be achieved by adding various computation methodologies and by establishing the interdependency of the risks and then the calculation system will be more complex. The choice of technique will usually be based on the experience and expertise. 2.3.1. Qualitative analysis: Prioritising risk by analysing the probability of occurrence and impact in the project. For each risk that is identified, the team needs to assess its severity in order to decide what course of action to take [16]. Expertise is required in this step, because all those analysis is done based on the knowledge from previous experiences. According to Smith N J, a typical qualitative risk assessment usually includes these issues: a brief description of the risk, the stages of the project when it may occur, the elements of the projects that could be affected, the factors that influence it to occur, the relationship with other risks, the likelihood of it occurring, how it could affect the project [2]. According to PRAM, various techniques used for doing qualitative analysis are assumption analysis, by making a check lists and prompt lists, brainstorming, Delphi technique, use of probability- impact (P-I) table, interviews ands risk register [11]. This method is basically experience based and the usage of any of the above mentioned techniques is compulsory, otherwise, the experience of the senior staffs cannot be utilised and thereby the project will be more vulnerable to risk. 2.3.2 Quantitative analysis: analyse numerically the effect of these risks in the overall project. This is the step in which the chances for error is maximum because in this step only, the calculations of the identified risks are done. So this step requires higher attention. Based on qualitative analysis, a relative important index (RII) can be developed and using that detailed categorisation can be done [5]. The probability of a risk arising is a key factor in decisions on risk. Possible consequences of risk occurring are defined and quantified in terms of increased cost, increased time and reduced quality and performance, which can be analysed by using any of the quantitative analysis techniques, says Smith N J [2]. Various techniques used are Decision trees, influence diagrams, Probability analysis (Monte- Carlo simulation), Sensitivity analysis, Project evaluation and review techniques (PERT) and Control Interval and Memory (CIM) approach in which sensitivity analysis and probability analysis are the widely used techniques to do the quantitative analysis of risk in a project. Sensitivity Analysis: This technique determines the risks which have the most potential impact on the project. â€Å"It examines the extent to which the uncertainty of each project element affects the objective, when all other uncertain elements are held at their baseline values† [3]. The aim of doing sensitivity analysis is to identify those components of the projects whose uncertainty most influences the uncertainty of the projects outcome. Sensitivity analysis can be expressed by using different plotting methods like Tornado charts (a histogram method, which is useful for comparing relative importance of variables that have a high degree of uncertainty to those that are more stable.), Spider plots, and Risk-return graphs. This technique should performed on all the risks and uncertainties which may affect project in order to identify those which have a large impact on the economic return, cost, time and whatever are the objectives. Probability Analysis (Monte-Carlo simulation): Probability analysis overcomes many limitations of sensitivity analysis by specifying a probability distribution for each risk, and then considering the effects on the risks in combination. Random sampling is used where calculation of data inserted in an equation would be difficult or impossible [18] [19]. Monte-Carlo simulation by means of random numbers provides and extremely powerful yet conceptually straight forward method of incorporating probabilistic data. The basic steps are. * assess the range for the variables being considered, and determine the probability distribution most suited to that variable * select a value for each variable within is specified range; this value should be randomly chosen and must take account of the probability distribution for the occurrence of the variable. This is usually achieved by generating the cumulative frequency curve for the variable and choosing a value from a random number * run a deterministic analysis using the combination of values selected for each one of the variables * repeat a number of times to obtain the probability distribution of the result. The number of iterations required depends on the number of variables and the degree of confidence required, but typically lies between 100 and 1000 [20]. In normal risk management processes (RMP), one of the abovementioned analyses only is used. â€Å"The effectiveness and efficiency of quantitative analysis is driven to an important extent by the quality of the qualitative analysis and the joint interpretation of both†. [6] 2.4. Risk response: brings out the maximum possible outcomes from these risks bound activities to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to the desired objective. With these outcomes, risks can be prioritised as high, medium and low risk according to the probability of occurrence and impact. Risk allocation strategies should be determined at the initial stages of the project by the client. The main characteristics of the available choices of risk allocation strategy can be grouped according to organisational structure or payment mechanism. The payment mechanism employed, price or cost- based, will determine the location of these contingencies [2]. The allocation of risk between parties to a contract should be identified prior to tender. The rise response, or its allocation, can take any of these four forms: Risk retention, Risk transfer, Risk reduction and Risk avoidance. 2.4.1 Risk retention: According to Flanagan. R and Norman G, risks that produce individually small, repetitive losses are those most suited for retention. Not all risks can be transferred, but even if they are capable of being transferred it may not prove to be economical to do so. The risk will then have to be retained. Besides, it is preferred to retain a portion of risk in certain circumstances [14]. Applying the probabilistic approach to cost estimates gives a range of estimates rather than a single value. Thus a series of contingency sums can be given which provide for different probabilities of protection against risk and uncertainty [20]. 2.4.2 Risk transfer: Transferring the risk does not reduce the criticality of the source of risk, but it removes it to another party. In some cases, transfer can significantly increase risk because the party, whom it is being transferred, may not be aware of the risk they are being asked to absorb. The essential characteristic of the risk transfer is that the consequences of the risks, if they occur, are shared with or totally carried by a party other than the client. The client should expect to pay a premium for this privilege. The responsibility for initiating this form of risk response therefore lies with the client, and he should ensure that it is in his own best interests to transfer the risk [18] [20]. As per PMBOK, contracts can be used to transfer liability for specified risks to another party [3]. 2.4.3 Risk reduction: The most common and efficient way of reducing risk exposure is to share risks with other parties. Risk reduction fills in three categories: Firstly, education and training to alert the staff to potential risks. Secondly, physical protection to reduce the likelihood of loss and finally systems are needed to ensure consistency. In contractual agreement, the use of management fee types of contract will remove the adverse attitude of contractors and should reduce the likelihood of claims from the contractor for direct loss and expense [20]. 2.4.4 Risk avoidance: â€Å"Risk avoidance involves changing the project management plan to eliminate the threat posed by an adverse risk, to isolate the project objectives from the risks impact, or to relax the objective that is in jeopardy, such as extending the schedule or reducing scope. Some risks that arise early in the project can be avoided by clarifying requirements, obtaining information, improving communication, or acquiring expertise.†[3] 2.5. Risk monitoring and control: tracking and monitoring the identified risks, identifying new risks, executing risk response plans, and evaluating their effectiveness throughout the project life cycle. The process of risk management can be grounded on a clear understanding about the nature and scope of decision making involvement in project management and a natural framework for examining these decisions is the project life cycle. For successful implementation of the project, a regular monitoring procedure of risk is essentially required in all the segments of this framework like conceptualisation, planning, design, construction, termination and disposal of a project. Risk Monitoring and Control is the process of identifying, analysing, and planning for newly arising risks, keeping track of the identified risks and those on the watch list, reanalysing existing risks, monitoring trigger conditions for contingency plans, monitoring residual risks, and reviewing the execution of risk responses while evaluating their e ffectiveness. The Risk Monitoring and Control process applies techniques, such as variance and trend analysis, which require the use of performance data generated during project execution. Risk Monitoring and Control, as well as the other risk management processes, is an ongoing process for the life of the project [3] These abovementioned processes can be effectively explained by using a case study. The case study explains the typical risks that a major construction project is always exposed to and through this case study the author wants to prove that even if the management team has done a detailed analysis of risks, they can never say that they have identified all the risks because still there are chances for some risks being left out as unidentified. 3. London Olympics 2012 a case study The reason behind 2012 London Olympics to be taken as the case study is that, the author feels it is better to consider a live or recent project to discuss the risk management issues than an old project because in a live project only, there is a scope to find more risks which the management team left out without considering like the recession in this case, which is left unattended by the management group is the biggest treat the project is facing. According to the report by Comptroller and auditor General, National Audit Office (NAO), the management team of the London Olympics has considered six major issues as their major risks that need to be considered to the successful delivery of the project. They are (1) â€Å"Delivering the project at an immovable deadline (2) The need for strong governance and delivery structures given the multiplicity of organisations and groups involved in the Games. (3) The requirement for the budget to be clearly determined and effectively managed. (4) Applying effective procurement practices. (5) Planning for a lasting legacy. (6) The installation of effective progress monitoring and risk management arrangements† [7]. Since this project is a major one and all these risks need severe attention, the management team planned various risk management techniques to tackle each risk individually to keep all of them under control at any time through out the project. The author finds it very essential to explain each of these abovementioned risks and the methods used to mitigate them in detail, to substantiate the value of risk management techniques to a member of the Board of Directors. 3.1. Delivering the project at an immovable deadline The Olympic project consists of a lot of individual but interdependent projects. Effective project management works on the basis of the three parameters- Time, cost and quality and if there is any change that happens to any of these parameters can affect the other two[7]. So that implies delay in delivering any of the elements of the project puts pressure on cost and/or quality. Normally to release pressure from cost and quality that arises due to the delay in delivery of the project is to weaken the negotiating position. But in this project, these adjustments are not possible. Because any delay can affect the theme of the project. So to get rid of all these issues, they planned the project very well initially and kicked the construction off by starting the individual; non-interdependent (self dependent) works at the same time and by achieving all the milestones in construction at regular, pre-assigned intervals. Then they arrange the meeting of the representatives of all the major stakeholders and make sure that all of them are satisfied with the work done to attain the milestone within the given time. 3.2 The need for strong governance and delivery structures given the multiplicity of organisations and groups involved in the Games. According to the Comptroller and audit generals report, there are three major stakeholders to this project- The Government (represented by some bodies), the mayor of London and British Olympic Association. In addition to this, some other bodies are involved in delivering or funding the games. The management group deals with the risk of the need for strong governance and delivery structures by maintaining a clear focus on the need for timely decision making individually and collectively on a programme where there are multiple stakeholders and interests. The international Olympic Committee requires the host cities to organise the games and the management department decided to set up an Olympic delivery authority (ODA) to deliver the venues and the infrastructure and then to stage the games. From the previous experience they had in the past, they set up another body called LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is responsible for operational and s taging aspects of the game. The Olympic Delivery Authority prepares the site, builds new venues, delivers the Olympic village, infrastructure and transport projects. The only thing the management team needs to make sure is the combined effort of both the organisations in delivering the project. The technique of setting up two organisations by the management department was found successful so far, from the timely delivery of the milestones [7]. 3.3 The requirement for the budget to be clearly determined and effectively managed. One of the main risk which has got more probabilities to go wrong and which needs efficient management hands and effective techniques to deal with. So a very strong financial management set up is a prime requirement here. The need of maintaining comprehensive and accurate asset registers, which helps to transfer the asset later on at the end of the project and the need for strong contract management arrangements, with comprehensive contract records and payments made only in accordance with certified work carried out, is also of prime importance to keep in track with the income and expenditure of the project. Finally the actions required to manage this risks are setting up a budget for the project and making sure how it is funding, being sure about how the cash flow needs will be met, being clear about the costs associated with delivering the games and how to capture this amount on a consistent basis [7] [8]. 3.4 Applying effective procurement practices. This is one of the main issues as far as a major project is taken into concern. The author feels so, because fixing a procurement route for such a large project is very difficult. To get a main contractor who is doing the major share of work for a big project is equally difficult. By considering these aspects, the management team started doing the procedures well in advance, so that they got enough time for doing their analysis works done for fixing the procurement route, to do the qualification processes for selecting the main contractor and to negotiate with the preferred team about the various aspects of the project. Along with this, the management team makes sure that the application of procurement practice was effective by being clear about the respective roles and responsibilities of the Olympic Delivery Authority and its Delivery Partner, and ensuring that the arrangement enables the Authority to contain its operating costs as planned. They gained confidence in the approach t o procurement by awarding contract in an open and fair way and by applying best practice [7] [8]. 3.5 Planning for a lasting legacy. Since the project is very big and requires a lot of money, the management needs to make sure that the assets that are constructing for the games should deliver the maximum service. Planning for a lasting legacy, they planned the entire development of the city of London by adding these assets to it for future purposes. So this can also be considered as one among those crucial risks. They mitigated this risk by developing robust plans for the Olympic venues with the clear focus on whole life costs, to avoid the risks of these facilities being under-used or unaffordable after the games [7]. 3.6 The installation of effective progress monitoring and risk management arrangements. A major issue for any construction project, no matter whether that is a small project or a large one, it affects very severe if there is no effective progress monitoring techniques and risk management arrangements. Especially for a high investment project like this, it is very important because of the interest of the public in the project. They managed this risk by providing a risk register for every stakeholder at different stages in developing their own risk strategies and registers to identify and manage the risks specific to delivering their responsibilities. At a particular programme level, the authority collates all of them and makes a database for registering risks and prepares action plans to mitigate them. Although they have done all these lengthier procedures to find out risks and to eliminate it, the project is still not completely out of risks. The main threat the project facing now is the risk developed due to global economic recession. The financial set up of the project might get affected because of this risk. Now their main objective is to save the project from this risk and they are currently working on the issue which is about how to reduce or mitigate this risk. Being government is the main stakeholder and the project is a prestigious one, they will somehow manage to finish this project within time, but the cost will still remain as unknown and that itself is the risk that the management team left out with identifying after doing this detailed analysis of risk. This is the reason why they say â€Å"we will never know if we have identified all the risks in a project†. 4. Benefits of Project Risk Analysis and Management As per PRAM, benefits of using risk management can be classified into two: Hard Benefits and Soft benefits. Hard benefits are relatively easy to express and with enough effort it would be possible to measure the amount of benefit. But soft benefits are much less easy to quantify but, can give rise to dramatic performance improvement. These two can be explained in detail as â€Å"Hard benefits Enables better informed and more believable plans, schedules and budgets. Increases the likelihood of a project adhering to its plans. Leads to the use of the most suitable type of contract. Allows a more meaningful assessment and justification of contingencies. Discourages the acceptance of financially unsound projects. Contributes to the build-up of statistical information to assist in better management of future projects. Risk analysis enables objective comparison of alternatives. Identifies and allocates responsibility to the best risk owner and soft benefits Improves corporate experience and general communication Leads to a common understanding and improved team spirit Assists in the distinction between good luck/good management and bad luck/bad management Helps develop the ability of staff to assess risks. Focuses attention on the real and most important issues. Facilitates greater risk taking, thus