Interpreter of Maladies Essay

Happy, fulfilled characters are impossible to find in ‘Interpreter of Maladies’. Do you agree? The book ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’, written by Jhumpa Lahiri, have a fascinating charm, which is related to the authors describing and story proceeding skills. The character development and their story, how it goes, and how it evokes the reader’s creativeness at the end is so highly amusing indeed. The most of the stories in the book ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ ends in vapor; meaning that there is no significant conclusion given. Which means, that the readers cannot easily all agree on one single opinion, that the all the characters in the book ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ are not happy and fulfilled. As the story ends in a vague pathway, there is a numerous possibility and possible story that can be continued for the readers. The story might end happy sad or even vaguely again in the readers mind, and by that we cannot come to a single agreement on how the characters will end up, and mostly people would not want a sad ending for the characters. For example, the story of Shukmar and Shoba, from the story titled ‘Temporary matter’, shows that the ending can be divided in to variety of opinions. Throughout the story, the death of newly born baby, which is the cause of the crack in their relationship, and both of them avoiding each other, significantly showing the loss of communication and constant misunderstanding, indicates that Shukmar and Shoba will most likely break up with each other. Also, especially as Shoba directly states that she is planning to move out: a significant indication of their, Shoba and Shukumar’s, relation will break. However, as it seems most likely that this wed will break up, there is a significant amount of signs that indicates that their relation will continue throughout. For example, the conversation they were able to have in the dark room shows that, even though they have been trying to avoid each other as much as possible they can still communicate and understand each other in given circumstances. Also, after his confession on the baby’s gender and appearance, Shukmar gazes out to the street, warm evening with couples in arm to ar m, giving a hint that Shoba and Shukmar will be like that again. Also, Shukmar and Shoba weeping together, because they now know the things they did not, in the dark room at the end of the story shows that as they now understand each other they will be able to get along with each other. However, the interpretation of this story depends on personal perspective and opinion, but as it stands, as there is varying opinions, one cannot conclude that the characters in this book of stories are never fulfilled and happy. Another story that also illustrates that we cannot simply conclude that all the characters in this short story book cannot be fulfilled or achieves happiness is a story called ‘Mrs. Sens’. This story is about a Mrs Sen, an Indian woman who came to, still very too foreign, America. She is young and caring woman who can cook and care for children. However, although she is mature in some ways, she is also immature in some other ways. Throughout the story readers can easily conclude that Mrs Sen is not able to, and does not try to adapt to the American culture. All she do is complain and compare between her own country, India. Although this kind of behavior is acceptable for someone who is living out of their own country, but considering she is an adult this kind of behavior is very immature. Throughout the story readers can easily see that the Mrs. Sen is alienated from the country called America, her questions to Eliot, â€Å"if I scream here, will anybody come running† significantly show that she cannot understand the American culture. Also, her refusing to learn how to drive, and merely stating that ‘this is too much’ is a showing that she cannot adapt or even tries not to adapt to the American culture; driving skills indicates the basic understanding of American culture, as it is treated as bolts and nuts for grown adults. However, even though she cannot adapt to the American culture and i s alienated there is a slight indication, or an event, that her condition might improve. At the end of the story Mrs Sen, attempts to drive for her own fulfillment but ends up in a car accident. The happening shocks her greatly in mental status. Although the ending can be interpreted as Mrs. Sen’s final break down and a consequence of her continuous refusal to accept the American culture, it can also be interpreted as her improvement in the future, as people learn from their mistakes. So, readers can have their own opinions, and which means that one cannot specifically conclude that the characters in the book ‘Interpreter or Maladies’ cannot achieve fulfillment. Also, the story named ‘The Third and Final Continent’ clearly and significantly shows that the character does not end up without any fulfillment and happiness. Mala is a female Indian, and a wife of the narrator, an Indian man. She is a very skilled woman in terms of housing; she can cook wel l, clean well, and does everything well. However, she does have a natural complex; her skin color is very dark. Because of this complex of hers she was unaccepted as a woman in her country, which means her life was almost alienated in her own country.

How Laughter Benefits Our Health

It is a known fact that laughter is advantageous and useful to our health. Many specialists agree that laughter brings to numerous positive effects of psychological nature, and also it improves our physical condition. For example, according to a recent study of medical researchers from the University of Maryland, laughter helps to keep our facial muscles in tonus, lowers the risks of heart attack, improves our immune system, etc. Besides, it was discovered that laughter can play the role of an analgesic, relieve pains, increase pain tolerance threshold, and this effect is a psychological one, because no prove of a related chemical reaction was found (Reader’s Digest, 2005). At the same time, there are other psychological outcomes of laughter. Elisabeth Scott, a stress management and family therapy specialist, points on various positive effects of laughter as one of the most effective tools to control and manage our stresses. Those include opportunities to distract and to divert one’s attention from anger, depression, tension, or other distressing emotions to funny and joyful things, and this way to avoid possible harmful aftereffects of stresses. In addition, â€Å"..laughter provides a physical and emotional release,† it helps to relax, feel more comfortable and hopeful (Scott, 2007). Finally, laughter can be a good exercise to improve own self-perception and abilities to interact, because it helps us establish good contact and socialize more effectively. Undoubtedly, laughter is very healthy for human psychology and mind, because it helps to develop positive and enthusiastic disposition, forms optimistic perspectives, as well as stimulates good and cheerful mood. Specialists found out that young children laugh about 400 times a day, however, adult people laugh only about 17 times a day (Scott, 2007). That is why it is vital to incorporate into our daily routine more and more of good but controlled laughter, which will help to take this life less seriously and focus on positive or encouraging ideas. References Laugh Your Way to Good Health. (2005, September). Reader’s Digest. The Reader's Digest Association Inc. Retrieved January 19, 2008 Scott, E. (2007, November 7). The Stress Management and Health Benefits of Laughter. About. About Inc., The New York Times Company. Retrieved January 19, 2008, from ;http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/laughter.htm;.

An Analysis of the Contemporary Hollywood Film The Avengers Essay

In this analysis of The Avengers, a recent Marvel’s superhero blockbuster, we will be discussing a few of this films’ film narratives that are representative of contemporary Hollywood film. The Avengers is a 2012 American superhero film that was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. The Avengers is the sixth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgà ¥rd and Samuel L. Jackson (Neumaier). In the film, Nick Fury, the director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thor’s adoptive brother Loki from defeating Earth in an alien invasion with the aid of a mystical alien cube weapon known as the tesseract. The team has to learn to work out their problems, both personal and within the group, and band together and save the world, which proves to be extremely difficult as the movie progresses. In this analysis of The Avengers I will be discussing the following film narratives of star actors; character driven stories; how the film takes place in a known, quintessential, American, real world setting; and how the film follows a specific genre formula. â€Å"For all the many strengths of â€Å"The Avengers,† there’s one important element that writer-director Joss Whedon can’t take credit for: the casting. Of the main characters, only one, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, hasn’t appeared in one of the previous five Marvel movies that have led to this point. Of course, for the most part, it’s to be expected: while there are a few newcomers in the mix, the principle cast have close to a century of experience in the movies between them, and countless great performances in their back catalogs† (Scott). The film narrative of star actors is a very prominent aspect in this movie. The Avengers is a movie with one of the biggest collections of star actors since the beginning of the contemporary Hollywood cinema era. Every main character  in this film can be and is considered a star actor. From Robert Downey Jr. who plays Iron Man, the rich, playboy, genius, to Scarlett Johansson who plays as The Black widow, a special ops spy, to Samuel L. Jackson, who plays as Dr. Nick Fury, the leader of the team. In a movie like this, having star actors is a crucial factor in the films success. By having these star actors in The Avengers, they achieved the fan bases of each individual actor on top of the fan base already revolving around the story line and the comics. Because of this, The Avengers has the third highest worldwide grosses made so far, coming in at $1,511,757,910 (Marvel’s). The only reason that this movie was such a success was due to it being a very character driven story. Each individual character had their own input in how the storyline progressed. They are all connected, yet also independent throughout the movie. In the beginning of this film the director made sure to focus on each individual character before intertwining them all. Due to Loki stealing the tesseract, Dr. Fury decides that its time to enact the Avengers program. So Phil contacts Natasha, aka The Black Widow, while she is working undercover, which introduces us to her character and some background information about her. He sends her to go find The Hulk in India, where he’s been hiding out, so that she can â€Å"recruit† him. This then introduces us to his story and starts the intertwinement between the individual characters. The next hero to be introduced is Captain America. Dr. Fury himself goes to â€Å"recruit† the captain and we are shown a preview of where he’s from and some of his backstory. The next character to be initiated is Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, and my personal favorite. The scene starts of with him and his girlfriend Pepper opening up the Stark tower with clean energy, when Phil comes to recruit him as well. All of the Hero’s, except for Thor, are introduced to each other when Loki attacks a crowd in Germany and they defeat and capture him. On the plane ride back to base, Thor captures Loki from the rest of the team, introducing his character and the relationship and background between the two brothers. The beginning of the movie is only one of the many examples of how this film is a character driven story. It goes into much further detail and continues to intertwine even more as the movie progresses. The next film narrative that was represented in The Avengers was how the film takes place in a known, quintessential, American, real world setting.  Ever since September 11th 2001, Hollywood has been portraying the United States being attacked again in many of their films, whether by terrorists or by alien invaders like in this movie. â€Å"These movies are reflecting a need to look back at why these other events started, to show American history in a more heroic light when it looks quite dark now† (Sà ¡nchez-Escalonilla). The last quarter of this movie is based in Manhattan, New York, one of the same cities as the 9/11 attacks. It revolves around an alien invasion destroying the city and killing hundreds of people, which can be representative of the 9/11 attacks. By the end of the movie, the Avengers, and specifically Iron man, save the city from both the alien attack and also from our own country bombing it with a nuke by guiding the nuke into space and destroying the invading alien army. Many people believe that these ending scenes are representative of the statement above how â€Å"American History is shown in a more heroic light† (Sà ¡nchez-Escalonilla), due to the heroic actions of the Avengers and the countless lives that they saved by protecting the city and eliminating the alien invaders. The last film narrative that I noticed in The Avengers was that this film follows a very specific genre formula of a classic, action filled Superhero movie. â€Å"Marvel’s The Avengers is awesomeness squared. It’s the apotheosis of the modern age of comic-book superhero movie, the epitome of everything that Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor were and were trying to be† (Greydanus). The Avengers is the first movie to combine all of the different Marvel’s Comic’s superheroes into one intense, action packed film. This movie was so well thought-out and planned that certain characters were mentioned and even appeared in other hero’s movies and at the end of each specific hero’s movie, there was a scene that connected them all to The Avengers. This movie is one of a kind and redefines the genre of the â€Å"superhero† film. â€Å"The Avengers makes superhero movies new again† (Neumaier). In conclusion, this film is a great representation of the contemporary Hollywood film of our time. The Avengers symbolizes all of the best film narratives of our era, such as Star Actors, like Robert Downey Jr., character driven stories, how the film takes place in a known, quintessential, American, real world setting, like New York, and how the film follows a specific genre formula of being a â€Å"Superhero movie.† This film is going to be considered a classic and a twenty-first century treasure, in the same way that Singing in the Rain, The Godfather, Grease  and The Wizard of Oz are considered of their film eras. Works Cited GREYDANUS, STEVEN D. â€Å"‘The Avengers’ Takes the Superhero Genre to Whole New Level.† NCRegister. EWTN News, n.d. Print. 08 May 2013. â€Å"Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) – Box Office Mojo.† Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) – Box Office Mojo. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2013. . Neumaier, Joe. â€Å"Movie Review: ‘The Avengers'† Daily News [New York] 30 Apr. 2012: 16-17. Print. 08 May 2013. Sà ¡nchez-Escalonilla, Antonio. â€Å"Hollywood And The Rhetoric Of Panic: The Popular Genres Of Action And Fantasy In The Wake Of The 9/11 Attacks.† Journal Of Popular Film & Television 38.1 (2010): 10-20. Print. 08 May 2013. Scott, A. O. â€Å"Robert Downey Jr. in ‘The Avengers,’ Directed by Joss Whedon.† NYTimes.com. New York Times, 03 May 2012. Web. 07 May 2013. .

9.Is gambling an irrational form of consumption Essay

9.Is gambling an irrational form of consumption - Essay Example Johnson et al. (1999, p.19) tried to identify the taxation provisions that refer to gambling in UK and came to the conclusion that ‘betting-shop gamblers in the UK face a tax on gambling of 10%, but have the choice of paying the tax either at the time of wager or on any return on a successful bet; more than 18% of bets appear to be placed by gamblers who choose to pay tax on the return.’. The above study focuses on a particular aspect of gambling, the taxation. However, gambling is not only part of the national economy. It is mainly a human activity that needs to be explored as of its reasons. In the literature, gambling has been related with the consumption; it is stated by many theorists and researchers (the relevant views are presented in the sections that follow) that gambling is rather an ‘irrational’ form of consumption. The validity of this assumption will be proved through the analysis that is made in the paragraphs that follow. Gambling should be characterized as the activity of spending money on various types of games that offer the chance of profit (the monetary amount spent in gambling is less from the amount expected to be received). The level of the money spent on gambling and the chances for achieving a specific profit are depended on the terms and the conditions of each game. Through the years, gambling has been expanded in the Internet. Regarding this issue, the study of Brindley (1999, p.281) showed that ‘gambling via interactive technology is already underpinned by two recent changes in consumer behaviour: first, increasing familiarisation with interactive technology and second, by changes in the way the gambling market operates; the synergy between marketing gambling and technology will transform the production and consumption of gambling’. In other words, the characteristics of gambling are expected to be changed continuously following the trends of the

Information system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Information system - Essay Example The 4.3 billion dollar project (Dodgson & Gann, 2010) went to ruins based on the grounds that failure to predict the overall massive expansion, failure to undertake the risks of the system failure and failure to predict and handle the strategic factors consideration, all these led to the failure in the larger way resulting in the financial losses as well as the credibility and brand name loss to the British Airways Authority. However when the time of its inauguration arrived, there was a total state of confusion, panic and disorder within which gave rise to the suspicion that something had gone wrong. Ranging from the information system to the basic route maps to the basic and elementary parking lots adjustment, all this was missing and people were left to their own guidance and mercy to find out the routes and information. The passengers luggage handling and the cargo fleet services were the worst to say the least. The Information system so incorporated consisted of a Resource Management System that was aimed at working as a centralized database, support and navigation system machine. However it failed to provide the desired results and it suffered from number of short comings in terms of the real time operations and the integration of the different components of the terminal and airport activities(Pryke, 2009, 127). Information systems have become the de facto standards towards development of a more modernized network of operations and system functions .The British Airport Authority that had planned to develop Terminal 5, also had made efforts for the establishment of information system. This information system was established in the form of Resource Management System( R.M.S). the purpose was for keeping the people’s entry intact and other online information resources and repository that would help the customers finding the related information in a timely manner. Unfortunately the Information system

Economics class video response paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economics class video response paper - Assignment Example Many young people are usually preoccupied with other things, therefore finding time to maintain a wardrobe inventory might not be easy Another important lesson from the video is the idea of quality when purchasing clothing. It is important to invest in clothing that can be used for a long time. This is especially important for young people who might not have a stable source of income. Investing in quality clothing can prove to be economical in the long run. This requires one to look at the labels on the clothing in order to understand where they are made from and the material used. However, considering the spontaneous purchasing behavior of many youths, it is likely that many of them will not be able to look for these labels. The influence of advertising in shaping shopping choices is great, and this appears to be one of the significant forces influencing clothing choices among the youths. It can be argued that for as long as advertisements with phrases such as ‘Free’ continue to appear, they will influence shopping choices. In conclusion, the ideas presented in the video can be applied not only when s hopping for clothes but also other items. In this video, Moyers discusses the issue of capitalism and how it has affected the American economy. Richard Wolff, an economist, argues that capitalism has failed to delivered the ‘goods’ but instead ended delivering the ‘bads’, and this has led to the inequality witnessed in American today. Although president Obama has preached the idea of equal opportunity, this is not the case in America. Politicians are blamed for not having taken the plight of workers seriously, and this has greatly contributed to the inequality problem. I however believe that the blame is on everyone. When people get what they don’t deserve, they should not be absolved as Wolff does in this video. The problem here cannot be the system but the participants in it.

Assignment 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Assignment 1 - Essay Example The company commands about 8 percent of the US TV households (Media General, 2013). The company donates funds to various community programs and helps in highlighting social problems through some of the documentaries (Media General, 2013). Accordingly, employees have an opportunity of volunteering their time in community service. The company is also committed to conserving the environment through recycling and limiting the use of natural resources like water and oil (Media General, 2013). However, the company must improve on the social performance through ensuring diversity in the workforce through recruiting more individuals from the minority ethnic groups in the society. In addition, Media General, Inc must allocate about 10 percent of its net income towards additional employment benefits and corporate social responsibility initiatives. There are several stakeholders in the organization. There are both primary and secondary stakeholders. The primary stakeholders have a direct and co ntractual relationship with the organization and include the shareholders, government, employees, customers, advertisers, business partners, and creditors (Kottler, 2012). The shareholders are the providers of capital while customers create demand for the company products. The creditors provide debt finance while the government provides for the legal framework for reinforcing the business contracts and security of organizational assets (Kottler, 2012). The advertisers provide revenues while business partners assist in various forms such as provision of telecommunication infrastructure and managerial expertise. The employees provide the human talent, skills and knowledge that are needed in executing the operations of the organization (Polonsky, 2005). The secondary stakeholders do not have a contractual and direct relationship with the company, but they desire the organization to adhere to certain social expectations. The secondary stakeholders include the public, the labor unions, a cademic and research institutions and special interest groups. The labor unions expect the organization to adhere to labor laws while special interest groups like minority groups expect the company to ensure diversity in the staff. Advocacy groups like environmental conservation groups expect the company to exert efforts in minimizing pollution, highlighting social problems like disasters and child labor (Polonsky, 2005). Academic and research institutions expect the organization to contribute towards creating employment while the general public members are interested in the long term existence of the company. There is a trade-off among the interests of various stakeholders in the organization. It is my duty as the CEO to harmonize the conflicting interests of stakeholders and ensure the organization meets its goals of improving the social performance (Kottler, 2012). For instance, the shareholders expect a higher than average rate of return on their investment in the company. The b usiness partners and advertisers expect representation in decision-making. On the other hand, employees expect the company to adhere with their contractual agreements, pay high salaries and offer additional benefits (Kottler, 2012). The customers expect appealing news and continuous provision of new information. In this regard, the stakeholders can either facilitate or

Justification for an Internal Control System Essay - 2

Justification for an Internal Control System - Essay Example he organization already has controls in place with the insurance and portfolio approach, the controller has chosen to develop a system to enable determination of intended operations within the organization. The system chosen focuses on the function of inventory management. At present, the company has an insurance policy that covers theft from both employees and outsiders. This system will evaluate the effectiveness of inventory management processes with the objective of facilitating a reduction in insurance premiums to the company. It will, therefore, complement the existing policy on insurance, while at the same time saving the company money. The system recommends that the stores department receives the good that the company purchases. It also recommends that suppliers invoice on delivery and provide delivery notes, lest the stores department declines to accept the goods. Additionally, the stores attendant in conjunction with the company security do the verification that the goods that the delivery invoiced are the ones it delivered. The finance department is to carry out occasional random spot checks to verify the case. The stores department then books the goods into the information system. After this, there is approval of the goods if they are in the general ledger, which is done in the finance department; this ensures segregation of duties and provides a check system for the two departments. Thereafter, the inventory controller at the finance department counter-checks each booking with related invoice to verify compliance with the invoice number, value added tax (VAT) computations, invoice amount, invoice quantity and reasonability of the prices. Then the head of finance on a daily basis should confirm that the inventory is booked on the right cost centre to help in distinguishing between cost of sales and operating expenses. If the booking is correct, the inventory controller gives approval and the general ledger is updated. Breakages With regards to items

Drug Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Drug Education - Essay Example Thos who had not used an illegal drug were only 15%. Effective and efficient drug education is essential because young individuals are faced with numerous influences to using both illicit and licit drugs. Drug education plays a counterbalancing role through shaping a normative culture of moderation, safety and making decisions that are informed. Schools have been helped by various departments to develop a sustainable and ongoing drug education programs and policies that are based on approach that aims at minimizing harm. The approach aims at reducing the adverse health, economic and social impacts of drugs. This is achieved through limiting or minimising the hazards and harms of using drugs for both the individual and the community without eliminating the use necessarily. Globally, it has been recognised that teachers are perfect in providing young individuals with the knowledge and skills for making sound choices and decisions on drug use. As such, there is need to adequately train teachers. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to document a comparative analysis of the following two models: Youth development and Diversionary activities and Drug use prevention through social marketing. Youth Development and Diversionary v. Drug use prevention through social marketing Under youth development and diversionary we have the positive futures. A positive future is a social inclusion national activity-based program for young individuals. The program aims at helping young people from communities that are deprived. It helps them to leave a healthy life through steering them away from alcohol and drug misuse and crime. In addition to that, the program provides young individuals with role models thus widening their horizons and providing them with access to new opportunities within an environment that is cultural familiar (Positive Futures Impact Report, 2006, p. 5). Positive future target young adults aged between ten (10yrs) and nineteen (19yrs) old. In its endeavour to en sure youths live a positive and health lives, it has partnered with organisations such as Diageo GB. This is a drinks business comprising of a collection of brands that are widely known internationally such as wine, spirits and beers. The positive future activities have managed to enrol majority of young individuals to its activities. For instance, as at September 2005, one hundred and nine thousand five hundred and forty six (109,546), young individuals had enrolled in the positive future regular activities. Moreover, young people who attended the programs of positive future were fifty seven thousand (57,000). Through attending these programs, the youths have been able to achieve a lot. For example, their behaviours, self esteem and self confidence were greatly improved. In its urge to mould the youths in the society, the positive future takes an approach that is developmental. Unlike other social policy initiatives that are sports-based, positive futures is not a sport development or diversionary program as traditionally practiced or understood. On the contrary, it uses a relationship strategy whose aim is to interact with young people in a trustful and respectful manner. In that case, young individuals are able to interact with positive role model who guides them on the right path rather than

Scaling Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Scaling Study - Essay Example The study is seen to be useful by instructors as feedback about their teaching, by students to select a particular course, and by university administrators for use in employee selection. The questionnaire is reliable in that the students were given the questionnaire at the end of the teaching session. The comments about instructor and course and suggestions about how to improve the course further establish the validity of the questionnaire. The students seem to be in a better position to comment and criticize the course content than the syllabus designers. The students center their attention on how well they were taught and what they learned. So the questionnaire is effective in understanding if the course and the instructor are on the right track: An evaluation often points to problem identification rather than problem solution, and thus should be considered one part of a continuous process of examination, adaption, improvement and evaluation. (Examples and Research on the Use of Questionnaires) The students were asked to determine the appropriateness of the recommended texts and the proposed aims and purpose of the course content. These questions received favorable ratings from the students. Barring a single student all the students found the course content very interesting and relevant. ... Almost all the students rated the instructor very poorly. The report showed that there was lack of enthusiasm in the instructor's way of teaching and he did not provide sufficient illustrations while teaching which made some students lose interest in the course. Also the instructor made little effort in helping the students who had difficulty in the course. The use of aids though helpful was not sufficient in illustrating the course contents. As a result the course was not difficult for those who are expected to achieve higher grades. But for certain students who found the course content very interesting but were not expected to achieve higher grades, the lack of effective teaching methodology made it very difficult to understand the course content. The students were also asked open ended questions as to what changes in the curriculum or the teaching method would be more effective. Almost all of them suggested little or no changes in the course content. But as far as teaching was con cerned there were many comments and suggestions. Thus the questionnaire was helpful in pointing out where the weakness lay. It helped in determining the need for a change in teaching methodology and not the course content. A systematic program of evaluation of teaching staff is more than a management information system, because the focus is value, worth, merit, and effectiveness and an interactive communication network among the parties (teaching staff and administrators) is a crucial part of an evaluation program. (Examples and Research on the Use of Questionnaires) Recommendations by students Questions like encouragement of class discussions by the instructor received poor ratings. Similarly use of aids and personal help to

Film Analysis - Gran Torino 2008 Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Film Analysis - Gran Torino 2008 - Movie Review Example His life is lived apart from his two sons and having to deal with such predicament of disrespectful grandchildren. As an embittered veteran of the Korean War, he is widowed by his wife whose last wishes were for Walt was confession and retirement to his ill-feelings towards â€Å"other† people. For Walt’s, he trusts no one but his M-1 rifle which he makes it clean all the time and Daisy, his Labrador. Walt, an old man, is described as an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions. Walt Kowalski had no choice but to live surrounded by Hmong immigrants whom he despises greatly when all his neighbors have gone or transferred to another place. His prejudice over the Southeast Asian people is shown through his resentment in everything he sees about them which are foreign to him. He hates most the teenagers who belong to gangs of Hmong and Latino and African-American youth who think and act as if the whole neighborhood is their possession. The Hmong, who live next door, along with gang bangers roaming around the streets, displeases Walt. In one evening, when Thao, a member of Hmong settlers, steals Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino prized possession to please the gang he wished to join. Equipped with his prejudgment among those people, Walt abhors their lack of morals. Then he discovers that Thao’s cousin, who is among the gang, compels Thao to steal his vintage car as an initiation. Thao’s family make amends by insisting him to work for Walt. As much as possible, Walt resented any dealings with the immigrants but he was forced to accept which eventually led to a deeper relationship with them as the days go by. Later development made Walt realize the warmth and love of the Hmongs. He discovers and realizes certain truths about them due to their continued kindness. The Hmongs were provincial refugees in the past. Now becomes his friends and a defender of them too. Universal adage says, â€Å"there’s always a second chance.’ In the film,

Downtown East Swot Analysis Essay Example for Free

Downtown East Swot Analysis Essay Downtown East was well-known in Singapore as an entertainment hub as it provides a variety of services. Food, Drinks, Shopping and Entertainment, all under one roof. However, in every business or organization, it will certainly have its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, therefore, our group would give a detail explanation on each of these aspects, helping the company to focus on activities where it is strong in, and where the greatest opportunity lies. We would first start off with strength. Basically, strength refers to the good qualities or the strong points of the business. Downtown East is situated around many places of interest, therefore being able to create packages which will attract customers. Furthermore, it is currently the only theme park in Singapore where there is both water activities (Wild Wild Wet) and outdoor rides (Escape Theme Park). As Downtown East homes the only theme park in Singapore, Downtown East would definitely be the first choice that comes into the mind of people seeking for both thrills and entertainment. Not only that, it also have many indoor activities such as arcades for children, teenagers and even adults. Therefore, Downtown East not only have outdoor entertainment, it also have indoor entertainment as well, thus, even on rainy days, people going to Downtown East could also have fun. Weakness is an aspect where the business should spend time studying on it and then work out for solutions to overcome it. The limited land area is a weakness to Downtown East. As land in Singapore is expensive, Downtown East would find it hard to expand their land area to provide more entertainment for customers. Other than that, Downtown East is quite inaccessible. It is troublesome to get there because the only public transport to get there is by bus, thus, making it hard for the people in the west side of Singapore to go to Downtown east. Not only that, it is also expensive to maintain. For example, if equipment in the Escape Theme Park is faulty or spoilt, quite a large sum of money would be needed to either repair or even buy a new one. People might get bored if the attractions are not change constantly and changing the attraction would mean the requirement of new equipments and this would in turn increase the expense of the business. Opportunity refers to the chances available for the business to grow. The government is promoting Singapore as a city of entertainment which will help attract tourists. For instance, launching the F1 grand prix is a move by the government to â€Å"broadcast† Singapore worldwide, thus, attracting people from other countries to visit Singapore. As Downtown East had many facilities and is entertaining, investors may be interested to work together with them. Furthermore, more and more places of interest are being built (e.g Integrated Resort) to attract tourists to Singapore. Although this may be seen as an act to steal customers from Downtown East, the tourists coming to Singapore would not only come for Singapore for a specific area of interest but the various kind of places of entertainment Singapore offers and Downtown East may be one of them, thus, this could be seen as an opportunity. Other than that, Downtown east is located at the east near the coast and the area there could be used to expand their business so as to introduce more facilities and entertainment so as to attract customers. Lastly, it is the threats. Threats would normally be seen as a pressure to the decrease of sales or revenue. Economic downturn is one of the threats which may result in people not willing to splurge on entertainment. As the economy is doing badly, salaries of the workers may be reduced and retrenchment would be common. Reduced salary or no salary (retrenchment) would mean that less money would be available for living expenses, thus, people would save money and visit such entertainment places less frequently. Also, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, more places of interest are built to attract the tourists. Although it can be an opportunity, it can also be a threat to Downtown East if the tourists choose to go to other places of interests rather than Downtown East.

Internet Advertising: Comparison of Nigeria and Hungary

Internet Advertising: Comparison of Nigeria and Hungary Abstract Despite the marginal difference between Nigeria and Hungary, the internet develops a relationship that can be exploited. Internet users of both countries are dominated by youths, and thus are the most accessible to internet ads. Internet advertising also termed online advertising or internet marketing or web advertising is simply the making available of advertising messages and marketing communication through the internet via the web. Internet advertising which was introduced several years after traditional advertising (banners) in the 1990s now suppresses all other advertising medias and hence constitutes a significant channel for the majority of firms. These firms range from small to big sizes, national and multinational, service providing to manufacturing enterprises (Restaurants to ship manufacturing agencies). Internet advertising now shares a position in the context of marketing communication strategy planning and implementation. It is vital for organizations considering internet marketing strategy to effectively associate each component reason being that, with the global market place, it is important for entrepreneurs and marketers to be critical of what is most beneficial and meets their needs to the internet marketing strategy intended for use. Byusing the standard advertising program process as a base,it is simple to outline the characteristics of the Internet which abusiness must take into consideration when planning a Web advertisingcampaign (Kotler, 1997). Without trying to dispute earlier findings in this thesis, the work presented attempts in it own way to highlight some comparative ideas of internet advertising between Nigeria and Hungary thus stating the aims of this paper based on internet users social context on the effectiveness of internet advertisement. By using primary material from books and other sources, the idea of internet advertisement is identified. And by considering other publication, some conclusions are generated for the better understanding of this piece. By examining the topic of this thesis, its extensive nature is revealed. Three fields of study are mentioned and are dealt with accordingly -Marketing, information technology, and advertisement (internet advertising). As broad as each of these could be, the presentation is quite short and straight to the most essential. The study depicts the differences in the attitude of internet users to ads. The analysis obtained from input sources reveal a significant relationship between the type of activities of users through which they come into contact with internet ads in each of the two countries (Nigeria and Hungary). 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of Study The growth in Internet Advertising has paved its way and settles comfortably in the global world of business due to internet innovations. Further more its effects, impact and usefulness can be observed social aspect of human activities thereby creating greater opportunities for a more developed and diversified recreation. The Internet or World Wide Web has quickly become the most effective way for businesses to advertise their products or services to expected consumers. Some Web sites such sell advertisement space for sponsoring and by so doing they profit highly from the increase of advertising on the Internet. The number of people with internet access and internet services is growing continuously at a geometric rate and with internet advertisement potential customers can view these advertisements thereby contributing to the maximum level of business profits. Recent studies on internet advertising focus more on empirical works as well as theoretical structures there by investigating the role of some factors in the success of internet advertising, none the less it is necessary to present some significant measures employed in this thesis to quantify advertising effectiveness. According to Pavlou and Steward (2000), advertisement has a direct effect to consumers and therefore considered as an independent variable while consumer response is the dependent variable. They further explain the nature of the highly interactive environments taking into account other factors such as online context in which advertisement takes place in order to render this study more insightful. Incorporated here are many aspects of internet advertisement context as types of internet activities and users social context in the study of responses to internet advertisement. Internet advertising is rapidly growing and advertisements have become more apparent in our Internet usage. When advertising on the Internet, both the businesses and the web sites (search engines) profits. Businesses profit from the use of internet advertising by minimizing cost compared to standard advertising which is a lot more expensive. Internet advertising raises awareness, conveys advertisers messages and enhances brand perceptions and with greater advertisement exposure inflicts even greater impact. Responds to this advertisement differs considerably by different individual in different Geographical locations and cultural background. An AdHoc study conducted by Gemius in cooperation with Sanoma Budapest proves that most Internet users in Hungary have a positive attitude towards online advertising. Moreover it shows what their behavior is like in response to online advertising and the perceived image of the advertised companies. The respondents were also evaluating different formats of advertisements in the survey, indicating the ones that they know best and the favorite ones. The research was conducted on the Internet in the form of a pop-up survey (random sampling) on May 2006. 67% of the respondents declared that they accept online advertisements as the price for free access to web sites. (International Operations Department, Press release June 30, 2006) Internet usage in Nigeria is an important issue with the average student using 10.5 hours per week and the total population averaging 3.5 hours per week. Internet usage in Nigeria has consistently grown to 11million internet users as of June 2009 according to the International Communication Union (ITU) report. Various types of broadband bring the internet to our door steps such as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ASDL), Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL), cable broadband, wireless, satellite, Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) etc With the accession of the internet, came an easier method of communication, transmission of information to the public and hence the rise of the internet advertisement. Advertising on the Internet can be viewed as a social contract between advertisers and Internet users. Every individual comes across advertising through multiple channels; either outdoor: through fliers, bill boards etc or indoor: through the internet, A reason why todays market is highly dominated by advertising. Based on the fact that we live in a globalized world, advertising is recognized in every country in its own structure with respect to its culture, consumer demand or requirements. 1.2 Aims and objectives This thesis outlines and compares how internet users in Nigeria and Hungary respond to internet advertisements with focus on the technical aspects, social networking and simple basic adverts in websites. In addition I am searching for various answers and perceptions of what people from these different countries think about these adverts and the effect it has on them in a cultural perspective considering the fact that both cultures are not only socially different but economical and educational as well. In the first part of this study, I am researching how technical aspects, such as social networking and website adverts in Nigeria and Hungary. It is followed by an evaluation of how Nigerians and Hungarians respond to internet in the second part. The third part focuses on a research for: the changes the internet brings in Nigeria and Hungary for example is the internet improving industries such as the banking sector or being an important educational tool for students? Is it the centre of attention for businesses? Finally, the fourth part is the conclusion drawn based on the findings of the aforementioned research. 2 Literature review Under the literature review, I will be considering a thorough review of the already existing literature on the subject of internet advertising which is highly important for the continual understanding of the sections in this thesis. Picking the pieces and fitting them together I will build a concrete piece on the above mentioned topic starting with defining the parts that make up our topic, considering the social and technical aspect of the internet, advertising and last but not the least marketing. 2.1 The internet The birth of the internet did not come as a surprise, may be to the common man in the streets but definitely not for the scientist who had been expecting something new, fresh, cheap and friendlier. It emerged in the early 1960s as a way for the US department of defense to create a secure means of communication in case of uncertainties. It evolved from Advance Research Agency (ARPA) in 1969 to ARPANET for the civilian sector and MILNET (military network) â€Å"(Jeffrey F. Rayport et al. 2001)†. In the 1980s ARPANET was renamed National science Foundation Network (NSFNET). The progress of this development proceeded in 1989 with the creation of a more efficient way of sharing information by defining the Hypermedia Protocol (HTTP- Hypertext Transfer Protocol) which is the standard addressing format URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and the programming language HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which has become the basis of World Wide Web (WWW) which is universal and the most used part of the internet to access multimedia e.g. text documents, graphics, videos etc â€Å"(Jeffrey F. Rayport et al. 2001)†. In 1993, a team led by Marc Anderson developed a new piece of software called â€Å"Mosaic† as the first internet browser after which other browsers were introduced, like internet explorer by Microsoft which became the most prominent â€Å"(Jeffrey F. Rayport et al. 2001)†. After these developments, todays internet has not only brought technology but also affects the way things are done world wide. It is continuously changing to the extent that it has taken almost all diversification and stems all changes in world business, revolutionarising the way business is done, the concepts between business and consumers. 2.2 Overview of the general background of advertising Advertising is a collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific products or services. It is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. Advertising techniques range in complexity from the publishing of simple notices in the classified-advertising columns of newspapers to integrated marketing communications, involving the concerted use of advertising in newspapers, magazines, television, and radio, and on the internet which is our main focus. Advertising dates back to the Christian era. Advertisements transited from the outdoor signs as paintings on wall of buildings that were very sight captivating to company trade marks which were two or three dimensional picture or signs in the 16th centuries. Around the 1880s, there came Mail orders and pamphlets and in late19th century, many American firms began to market packaged goods under brandnames. Previously consumers had not been aware of or influenced by brand names. The first product that had brand name was soap products. In the 1880s a fewbrands came out and they were Ivory, Pears, Sapolio, Colgate, Kirks AmericanFamily and Packers. Not long after brands such as Royal baking powder, Quakeroats, Bakers chocolate, Hires root beer, regal shoes, etc were nationally advertised. 2.2.1 Stages of advertisement The major goal of advertising is to generate awareness of a business and its products. Once the business reputation is established and its products are positioned within the market, the amount of resources used for advertising will decrease as the consumer develops a kind of loyalty to the product. Targeting the audience, product concept, communication media, and advertising message are the core elements of an advertising strategy, and are often referred to as the creative mix. Again, what most advertisers stress from the beginning is clear planning and flexibility. And key to these aims is creativity, and the ability to adapt to new market trends. Target consumer is a complex combination of persons. It includes the person who ultimately buys the product, as well as those who decide what product will be bought (but dont physically buy it), and those who influence product purchases, such as children, spouse, and friends. In order to identify the target consumer, the following should be considered; Demographics(Age, gender, job, income, ethnicity, and hobbies.), Behaviors (awareness of the business and its competition, the type of vendors and services the consumer uses, and the types of appeals that are likely to convince the consumer to give the advertisers product or service a chance.), Needs and Desires (determine consumer needs in practical and self-image terms.) The product concept grows out of the guidelines established in the positioning statement. How the product is positioned within the market will dictate the kind of values the product represents, and thus how the target consumer will receive that product. Therefore, it is important to remember that no product is just itself, but, as Courtland L. Bovee and William F. Arens stated in Contemporary Advertising, a bundle of values that the consumer needs to be able to identify with. Whether couched in presentations that emphasize sex, humor, romance, science, masculinity, or femininity, the consumer must be able to believe in the products representation. The communication media is the means by which the advertising message is transmitted to the consumer. In addition to marketing objectives and budgetary restraints, the characteristics of the target consumer need to be considered as an advertiser decides what media to use. Advertisers can choose from the following media categories such as Print, Video, World Wide Web, Direct mail, outdoor advertising-Billboards, advertisements on public transportation (cabs, buses). After deciding on the medium that is 1) financially in reach and 2) most likely to reach the target audience, an advertiser needs to schedule the broadcasting of that advertising. The media schedule, as defined by Hills, is the combination of specific times (for example, by day, week, and month) when advertisements are inserted into media vehicles and delivered to target audiences. An advertising message is guided by the advertising or copy platform, which is a combination of the marketing objectives, copy, art, and production values. This combination is best realized after the target consumer has been analyzed, the product concept has been established, and the media and vehicles have been chosen. At this point, the advertising message can be directed at a very concrete audience to achieve very specific goals. Hiam and Schewe listed three major areas that an advertiser should consider when endeavoring to develop an effective advertising platform: the unique features of the products, how consumers will evaluate the product, rank of competitors in the eyes of the consumer, their weaknesses in their positions and their strengths. Copy: When composing advertising copy, it is crucial to remember that the primary aim is to communicate information about the business and its products and services. Many companies utilize a theme or a slogan as the center piece of such efforts, emphasizing major attributes of the businesss products or services in the process. But as Hiam and Schewe caution, while something must be used to animate the theme †¦care must be taken not to lose the underlying message in the pursuit of memorable advertising. Art work and layout: Small business owners also need to consider the visual rhetoric of the advertisement, which simply means that the entire advertisement, including blank space, should have meaning and logic. Most industry experts recommend that advertisers use short paragraphs, lists, and catchy illustrations and graphics to break up and supplement the text and make the document both visually inviting and easy to understand. Remember, an advertisement has to capture the readers attention quickly. 2.2.2 Internet advertising Internet advertising is a message delivered to people by placing adverts on Search engines, Social networking websites such as Facebook, e-mails, pop ups etc. These adverts can be seen by the whole world and are not limited to a geographical region. In this same respect, adverts are meant for the mass and there are many users of internet worldwide so the message gets spread widely and quickly thereby reaching people of different cultures and beliefs. Some of the people might be uninterested because the signs or symbols used violate their cultures. E-mails are also sent to people who are either not interested or are not located geographically in areas accessible to the products. 2.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of internet ads The most common item that determines advantages of a product or service lies in its cost. Internet advertising packages could be available at very low costs (10 dollars per monthly subscription). Trouble free relativity could also be a great advantage internet advertisement has over other media ads, to the user and the producer, all which is needed is first of all a PC then internet service, through which you can either design a site or survey advert sites. It is could also be noticed that with internet advertisement, when advertisers get to know the age group, taste, and sex of consumers who most frequently survey their ads, site owners could easily and quickly update their pages to current consumer needs compared to other media ads which could do so only periodically. Market presentation is also easy with internet ad, product or service is designed for the younger generation or the corporate world are easily viewed by this class of persons as they make the greater proportion of int ernet users and the greatest proportion of consumers. Though a multiple advantages make internet advertisement favorable, some disadvantages could still be noticed. Internet advertisement is made better with professional help and these additional costs make some ads more expensive than others. It is disadvantageous to use only the internet as advertising medium because there are a hand full of persons who can not gain access to this new technology or they just dont have the trust in these internet ads. 2.3 Broad band connections in Hungary and Nigeria Broadband connection is a new concept used, in place of dial up connections. Broadband internet connection is faster and offers a host of advantages in them. The speed is usually faster than a dial up connection, which facilitates many operations at a time in for example watching many online live shows and movie downloads etc. There are various types of broadband offered nowadays. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ASDL), Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL), cable, wireless, satellite, Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) etc are some common types. Hungarys internet providers provide their services using a number of broadband which include DSL, Cable broadband, ADSL2+ and Wireless broadband. The broad band is distributed through multiple distribution channels namely; UPC, T-Kabel, Fibernet and DIGI. Hungarys broadband market experiences strong growth, Cable broadband is widely available due to the network penetration of the countrys cable operators. The broadband market as a whole experiences a significant growth as the regulators have reduced access tariffs and have introduced a wholesale system based on retail tariffs to ensure suitable margin for alternative operators. Digital cable services have been launched by a handful of the smaller cable operators and the countrys Direct To Home (DTH) market is showing fresh signs of life. The Internet access sector in Hungary constitutes the total revenues generated by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from the provision of narrowband and broadband Internet connections through both consumer and corporate channels. Similar to Hungary, Nigeria uses ADSL, cable and wireless broadband services which are rapidly replacing the formal dial up access method. Market penetration is still low leaving room for necessary growth. Nigerians connect to the internet in many ways through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) links, Wireless microwave links internet access and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access. Many of these sessions are through internet cafes as very few Nigerians have their own personal computers. Mobile operators are strongly gaining growth by providing Nigerians to access the internet through mobile devices. Such service providers are; MTN, Celtel, and Glo Mobile providing internet, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA all across the nation. 2.4 Technical aspects of internet usage in Nigeria and Hungary Internet usage is regarded with direct reflection of the total countrys population. This would be termed the percentage rate of penetration which relates to the number of internet users per square feet of the population. Public cyber cafe of various shades and sizes are the most common method of access individuals have to the internet. In addition to that, there are internet service providers delivering direct access to individuals and businesses on a variety of platforms. There is widespread availability in urban centres, and fairly good availability in smaller towns most recently, mobile phone lines such as MTN, Celtel, and Glo Mobile provide internet, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA all across the nation, it is almost amazing to find internet access in some of the most remote locations in the country. According to an issue in trade invest Nigeria onBroadband in Nigeria: The revolution is coming by Jaco Maritzs; posted on Sunday, March 16th 2008, Nigerians connect to the internet in many ways but 53% of connections are made through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) links. Wireless microwave links account for 19% of internet access and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access are estimated to be only 14%. Many of these sessions are through internet cafes as very few Nigerians have their own personal computers. National Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2006 less than 10% of internet users had access from the workplace and less than 4% from the home. Only 1.3% of the population own personal computers. Nigerian internet users are aged between 11 and 40 with a greater part of this population being students, business persons, and to a lower extent, the public functions giving a 7.4 % total internet population penetration. (See appendix Diagram N2) In Hungary, other than the traditional activities of the internet (emailing, browsing, reading journals online), a greater extent of Internet users use it for the leisure function of the web, job search and application, internet purchases, watching or listening to news, entertainment purposes as well. Users in Hungary vary between the ages of 10 and 69 summing a total of 34.9% internet rate of penetration. 55% of these users use the online voice transmission in communication and chatting, at least 33 percent have tried to watch television via the internet. The number of people using internet at home increases considerably, from 23% in 2007 to 28% in 2008 and 41% in 2009. Having access to the internet does not necessarily imply using it as of the 46% of home owners 10 % of them do not use it at all. (See appendix Diagram H3) 2.5 Marketing in Hungary and Nigeria Advertising is in respect to marketing, that is; people advertise to make known their products and hence gain marketing ground; therefore a vivid understanding of marketing is necessary. Customer satisfaction, as a construct, has been fundamental to marketing for over three decades and every advertisement tries to comply with this logic. As far back as 1960s, satisfying the needs and desires of the consumer stands as the definition of marketing â€Å"Keith 1960†. Interest in customer satisfaction increased through out the years till date. Several studies have shown that it costs about five times to gain a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer and these results into more interest in customer relationships (Naumann, 1995). Companies now have big investment in database marketing, relationship management and customer planning to move closer to their customers â€Å"Hill and Alexander (2000)†. These definitions demonstrate that increasing customer satisfaction affects companies directly, increases their market shares which lead to improved profits, positive recommendation, lower marketing expenditures and greatly impacts company corporate image and hence enhances their survival. The relevance of these definitions to this study indicates that customers access the internet services based on experience of use and rating is done in accordance with the internet services attributes. In this study, customer satisfaction in the Nigerian and Hungarian markets will be evaluated based on customers usage and their reaction to internet advertisements, experience of network quality, billing, validity period and customer care support. By Marketing Penetration we imply where a company expands market share in an existing market byusing existing products which could be done in 4 main ways. 1. Persuade existing customers to buy more of the same product, thiscan be done buy promotions such as 3 for 2. This make the customerfeel as if they are getting more for their money, and hopefullycould stop them from switching to alternative brands. 2. Attracting new customers to products. This can be done buyimproving the image of the product, new packaging, reducing price,or buy giving a % extra free. 3. Poaching customers from competitors. Buy reducing price, givingfreebies, and a % extra free with the product. Doing this couldincrease your market share and reduce your competitors. 4. Withdrawing other products. Buy withdrawing less profitableproducts, similar products can become more profitable, and sellmore. Marketing through internet advertising targets all already existing consumers and expected consumers both to cultivate lasting customer relationships. The internet provides a new and cheap channel for marketing through advertising. Once in the internet any customer is able to see an advert posted and many are willing to place orders via the internet by sending emails directly to the web host. According to Armstrong et al (2005), the internet is an excellent channel for communication with customers on individual basis because of its immediate and direct interaction capability. From companys point of view, a companycan enter the cyber marketing world without theintervention of any intermediaries simply by buying into the technology itself and by turning the medium into amarketing research as well as an advertising medium, interactive media also operates in territories not covered by a vendorssales force, therefore reaching the showroom and the sales pitch to the buyersremote locations simply by dropping it in the post. It can be agreed that internet marketing improves brand image of a company or products or both, hence it is a revenue earner, reliability of the country is very important for the success of internet marketing. Companies necessarily focus their internet marketing based on the gender difference and so make more money though Consumers remain uncertain. Internet marketing can be used successfully whether it is industrial products or consumer products. It is undisputable that online support is an important factor to make internet marketing a success. Companies and consumers agree that more user friendly, better key word matches would drive the future search engine marketing. 2.6 Pricing factor in internet advertising Prising in internet advertisement is a subject which can not be under minded as it involves the reason for advertising (both the advertiser and the consumer) each product or service advertised carries a different parameters depending on the desires of the individual consumer who finally decides on his/her preferences. After this determining factor of attribute parameter of product, the price becomes a relevant factor. Price is a parameter of buyers decision that can not be overlooked, further more, when a characteristic is considered more important than price in making a purchase decision, then its value is considered to be a requirement for purchase, but if the intended characteristic is considered less important than price, then acceptable range can be seen as preference rather than requirement (Joan Morris and Paul P. Maglio, 2001) Therefore, price is a general determinant for especially price sensitive consumers. Internet advertisers have different pricing techniques to attract new buyers and at the same time maintain already existing consumers which is based on consumer characteristic and the dynamically nature of demand and supply. Some of such frequently used pricing techniques are: Dynamic pricing As the term indicates, it is the dynamic adjustment of prices to consumers depending on the value attributed to product or service by these same consumers. By making provisions for affordable prices for certain products, this system instigates optimal results for consumers and hence enhances maximum sales to those selling. With internet marketing, there exists an evident shift from fixed pricing to dynamic pricing with greater competition existing against the formal and still existing traditional marketing system. Price differentiation It is a process whereby the same product of different units is sold at different prices to different consumers. With price differentiation, prices differ with the number of units sold. This could involve group pricing, discount pricing etc. With price differentiation, companies decrease the suitability of their products and services by customising their offers to the requirements of specific customers or market segment. This provides the customer with an advantage to purchase the said product or service. Using these pricing techniques enables the consumer to purchase a product by stating his or her own price, considering the suitability of the product in question. The right price in the market can not be easily determined, prices are competitive and this directly influences price sensitive consumers who have the tendency to fall for the most appreciated prices during their purchases. The best price in internet market does not only consider the price established by the producer or seller but also that requested by the buyer or consumer. Internet marketing offers the opportunity for companies to test prices, segment customers and adjust to change in supply and demand (Efraim Turban et Al. 2006) to consumers these pricing techniques are advantageous in the sense that consumers have the opportunity to find unique items and collectibles, consumers remain unanimous, internet market creates a bargaining atmosphere enabling the consumer to opt for the most affordable price, it is more convenient as consumer is not obliged to change location to execute a purchase and for the producers, they gain more customers by offering more items directly, it enhances maximum sales which is a fundamental base of every business, it improves customer relationship and customer loyalty to already existing customers. 2.7 Factors influencing intern Led Zeppelin: History and Analysis Led Zeppelin: History and Analysis Led Zeppelin was one of the most popular mainstream rock bands from 1968 to 1980. Consisting of Robert Plant on vocals, Jimmy Page on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass guitar, and John Bonham on the drums, they are now considered to be one of the greatest rock bands that ever played. Led Zeppelin made many contributions to the music world and their legacy is still very alive today. Each individual member of Led Zeppelin made their own contributions to their music and the advancement of music as a whole. Without any one member Led Zeppelins legacy would be completely different. Robert Plants high vocal style and songwriting abilities were instrumental in Led Zeppelins success. Jimmy Pages musical knowledge and innovative guitar playing are widely considered to be some of the greatest of their time. According to AllMusic.com Jimmy Page is Unquestionably one of the all-time most influential, important, and versatile guitarists and songwriters in rock history (Prato, 2011). John Bonhams loud, heavy drumming and percussion skills were essential to the Led Zeppelin hard rock sound. A friend of Bonhams once said that He always wanted to be one of the loudest drummers in the west and was determined not to be drowned out by guitarists (Welch Nicholls, 2001, p. 28). John Paul Jones steady bass rhythms and musical diversity were key elements to the Led Zeppelin sound tha t are often overlooked. Led Zeppelin was officially formed as a group in the late 1960s. Founder and guitarist Jimmy Page was playing with a group known as The Yardbirds at the time. In 1968, The Yardbirds disbanded and Page began searching for new members for the band. He was soon put into contact with Robert Plant and hired him as the bands new vocalist. Plant knew a drummer and suggested John Bonham, an old band mate, for the job. Bonham was soon hired and all they needed was a bassist. John Paul Jones soon contacted Page and the band was formed as the New Yardbirds. The band soon recorded their first album together and it was released under their new name Led Zeppelin. In late 1968 Led Zeppelin signed with Atlantic Records and in the last days of December they performed live in the United States for the first time. Led Zeppelins early days were mainly spent touring Europe and recording for their first album as Led Zeppelin. Their first record propelled them onto the music scene with a groundbreaking heavy blues-rock fusion. The touring for the first album made Led Zeppelin a household name and landed them in the limelight for the next decade. Over the next ten years Led Zeppelin went to new heights with their massive concerts and innovative records. Led Zeppelins first official album, a self-titled record, was recorded in late 1968 and was subsequently released in the United States in January of 1969. The album produced a number of classic Led Zeppelin staples such as Dazed and Confused, Good Times Bad Times, and Communication Breakdown. Elements from this album such as Jimmy Pages use of a cello bow to play his guitar went on to become icons of Led Zeppelins music. Although the album was initially criticized, the album is now considered to be one of the greatest stepping stones in the further development of hard rock music. Later in October 1969 Led Zeppelin released their second album, Led Zeppelin II, and the response was even greater than their first. This album really showcased the bands blues and folk influences on song like Ramble On and Bring it on Home. Robert Plant became famous for his mystical and story-telling songwriting style and we see those elements in Ramble On. One of the biggest legacies to come from this album was the song Whole Lotta Love. Whole Lotta Love is one of their most famous songs and has been covered extensively over the years. Jimmy Pages guitar riffs and solos are some of the most recognizable guitar works of the time. A year later, in October 1970, Led Zeppelin released their third album and unsurprisingly it was named Led Zeppelin III. The album contains more acoustic and mellow songs than its predecessors. In an interview regarding the making of their third album Jimmy Page said Well never stop doing the heavy things, because that comes out naturally when we play. But there is another side to us. The new album is totally different from the others and I see that its obviously a new direction (Retrieved April 3, 2011, www.ledzeppelin.org). The album was mostly done at a place called Bron-Yr-Aur in the U.K. One of the albums songs, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, was named after it. Led Zeppelins fourth album was released in November 1971, and although it is often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, it is also known by many other names. The album itself has no name on it but it has become known as Zoso or the four symbols due to the symbols that the band members chose to represent themselves. The symbols of Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones all have meanings, but the symbol that Jimmy Page used has been a topic of debate since he began using it. Robert Plants symbol, a circle with a feather inside, is said to represent a writer, John Bonhams, three interlocking circles, are said to represent the link between a man, a woman, and their child, and John Paul Jones symbol, a circle over three vesica piscis, is said to be the symbol of a confident and competent individual (Retrieved April 3, 2001, www.inthelight.co.nz). The real mystery surrounds Jimmy Pages symbol which has become known as Zoso. Nobody really knows for sure what the symbol means other than J immy himself, but it has been a mysterious question for Led Zeppelin fans ever since. The fourth album is also considered to be one of Led Zeppelins greatest works and contains some of their most memorable songs. Led Zeppelin IV contained such Led Zeppelin classics as Black Dog, Rock and Roll, Going to California, When the Levee Breaks, and Stairway to Heaven. Led Zeppelin returned to their hard rock form from their first two records and the result was their best selling record. Led Zeppelin IV is the fourth best-selling album in history with over 22 million copies sold. The epic Stairway to Heaven is still the most requested song of all-time for radio (Retrieved April 5, 2011, rockhall.com). In 1973 Led Zeppelin released Houses of the Holy and in 1975 released the double album Physical Graffiti. These two albums both topped the charts and produced songs such as Kashmir, Over the Hills and Far Away, Houses of the Holy, and Trampled Under Foot. These years were also the height of Led Zeppelins tours. From 1970 until Aug. 1975 Led Zeppelin toured extensively in Britain and the U.S. They set record numbers for attendance and were famous for playing at sports stadiums and other large venues. In August of 1975 Robert Plant and his wife were involved in a serious car accident which prevented the band from touring. Although they couldnt tour, they still continued to stay in the public eye. During their break from touring due to Plants injury, the band focused on new materials and finishing an old project. In March of 1976 the band released Presence, their sixth album. Presence was their worst selling album, although it did produce the epic song Achilles Last Stand. Also, in 1973 the band played three shows in New York City at Madison Square Gardens and their live performances were filmed for use in a live concert film that was released in October 1976. The band returned to the touring circuit in 1977 and picked up where they left off. The band continued to set records for attendance to their concerts and live performances. After touring for a few months, the band cancelled the remainder of the 1977 tour dates due to the surprising death of Robert Plants son. After the death of Plants son, the band took a break and returned to record their next album in late 1978. The album, In Through the Out Door, was released in the summer of 1979. Songs like Fool in the Rain and All of my Love propelled it to the top of the charts. Led Zeppelin toured Europe on and off in 1979 and 1980. On Sept. 25th, 1980, John Bonham was found dead at the age of thirty-two as a result of choking on his own vomit following a day of very heavy drinking. The band disbanded following his death, although they did release an album of old Led Zeppelin outtakes called Coda in 1982. Over the years after 1980 the band only reunited for a few one-time performances. In 1985 they played at the Live Aid concert and again in 1988 for the Atlantic records 40th anniversary. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page released an album together in 1994 entitled No Quarter. Also, In honor of the life of their friend Ahmed Ertegun, the three living members reunited with Jason Bonham, Johns son, on drums to play a concert in London in December 2007. Almost three decades after their departure Led Zeppelin was still highly regarded by both old and new fans, as their show in December 2007 set a new record for most demanded concert tickets. From 1968 to 1980 Led Zeppelin dominated the rock music world with their high-energy live performances that broke numerous attendance records and their chart-topping albums. Their songs are still some of the most recognized and requested songs on American radio. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Their biography for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame used these words to describe their legacy: Combining the visceral power and intensity of hard rock with the finesse and delicacy of British folk music, Led Zeppelin redefined rock in the Seventies and for all time. They were as influential in that decade as the Beatles were in the prior one (Retrieved April 5, 2011, rockhall.com). Led Zeppelin paved the way for the hard rock bands of the late seventies, eighties, and into the nineties. They also popularized huge live performances at stadiums and arenas that were emulated for years to follow. The impact and legacy of Led Zeppelin has influenced bands and the entire music industry for the past three decades and will continue to influence them for years to come. Demographic Analysis of Service Quality | Results Chapter Demographic Analysis of Service Quality | Results Chapter This section presents the findings about the respondents profile in terms of their age, gender, level of education and monthly income. The data are shown in frequencies and percentage. 4.1.1 Age Gender The respondents have been classified into six groups of age: less than 18 years old; between 19-25 years old; between 26-35 years old; between 36-45 years old; between 46-55 years old; 56 years old and above. Table 4.1 indicates that there were no respondents whose age was less than 18 years old. Around one-fifth (33 or 21.6 percent) of the respondents whose age was between 19-25 years old. More than half (78 or 51.0 percent) of the respondents whose age was between 26-35 years old. About (33 or 21.6 percent) of the respondents whose age was between 36-45 years old. Only (8 or 5.2 percent) respondents whose age was between 46-55 years old and only one person whose age was 56 years old and above. 4.1.2 Level of education The respondents have been classified into six groups of educational level: high school, diploma (two years), bachelors degree, masters degree, doctoral degree and other. Table 4.3 indicates that there were almost (11 or 7.2 percent) of the respondents who had high school. About (5 or 3.3 percent) of the respondents who had diploma (two years). About one-third (52 or 34.0 percent) of the respondents who had bachelors degree. More than third (60 or 39.2 percent) of the respondents who had masters degree. About (23 or 15 percent) of the respondents who had doctoral degree and about (2 or 1.3 percent) holding other types of certificates. 4.1.3 Monthly Income The respondents have been classified into seven groups of monthly income: Less than 2,999; 3,000 5,999; 6,000 8,999; 9,000 11,999; 12,000 14,999; 15,000 19,999 and More than 20,000 SAR per month. Table 4.4 shows that there were almost (12 or 7.8 percent) of the respondents who had less than 2,999 SAR income. About (15 or 9.8 percent) had between 3K 5,999 SAR. About (22 or 14.4 percent) had between 6K 8,999 SAR. About 17.6 and 17.0 percent had less than 12K and 15K respectively. The majority (28 or 18.3 percent) of respondents had between 15K 19,999 SAR per month and about (23 or 15.0 percent) have had more than 20K SAR as monthly income. 4.2 Level of Selected Variables This part discusses the respondents level of agreement on system quality factors, information quality factors and service quality factors. The findings are presented in frequencies, percentages, and means. The discussion also emphasizes the data sufficiency and variables effect on e-Commerce growth within Saudi Arabia. 4.2.1 Level of agreement based on system quality In terms of System Quality Approach, it can be seen in Table 4.5 that 58 (37.9 percent) of the respondents are Strongly Agree, while 29 (19 percent) of the respondents are Agree and 28 (18.3 percent) Somewhat Agree. Twenty-two (14.4 percent) of the respondents are Not Sure. Ten (6.5 percent) are Somewhat Disagree while 2 (1.3 percent) of them are Disagree. Only 4 respondents (2.6 percent) are Strongly Disagree. The findings indicated factor 2 (Ease of Use) as the highest level of agreement among the respondents (M=5.66, SD=1.531) in this category. On the other hand, factor 4 (Reliability) had the lowest level of agreement among the respondents (M=5.34, SD=1.717). In the case of the factor analysis, one important aspect is to test the assumptions. The two key techniques used are the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sampling adequacy test and the Bartlett test for sphericity. The KMO tests the appropriateness of the data, while the Bartlett tests for correlations. For system quality, these tests are shown on Table 4.7. As shown on Table 4.7, the KMO is 0.898. According to Field (2005, p650), the recommended minimum KMO is 0.5 Values between 0.5 and 0.7 are considered as mediocre. KMO of values between 0.7 and 0.8 are considered as good, while values above 0.8 are considered as great. Based on the KMO of 0.898 produced in this analysis, it has been justified that the factor analysis was appropriate for this data. Bartletts measure tests the null hypothesis that the original correlation matrix is an identity matrix. For factor analysis to work, it in necessary for some variables to have relationships; if the R-matrix were an identity, then all correlation coefficients would be zero. Hence there is a need to test for significance (have p The results of the more robust factor analysis techniques for system quality show that a single solution explained about 75% of the variance as shown on Table 4.8 below. 4.2.2 Level of agreement based on information quality In terms of Information Quality Approach, it can be seen in Table 4.7 that 46 (30.1 percent) of the respondents are Strongly Agree, while 36 (23.5 percent) of the respondents are Agree and 39 (25.5 percent) Somewhat Agree. Seventeen (11.1 percent) of the respondents are Not Sure. Nine (5.9 percent) are Somewhat Disagree while 2 (1.3 percent) of them are Disagree. Only 4 respondents (2.6 percent) are Strongly Disagree. The findings indicated factor 6 (Simplicity) as the most influential factor amongst the respondents (M=5.64, SD=1.431) in this category. On the other hand, factor 4 (Personalization) had the lowest level of agreement among the respondents (M=5.16, SD=1.506). The factor analysis produced a single factor solution with an explanatory variance of 78% (Table 4.11). The KMO was 0.913 and Bartlett test (p = 0.000), indicating the appropriateness of the factor analysis. 4.2.3 Level of agreement based on service quality In terms of Service Quality Approach, it can be seen in Table 4.9 that 46 (30.1 percent) of the respondents are Strongly Agree, while 36 (23.5 percent) of the respondents are Agree and 39 (25.5 percent) Somewhat Agree. Seventeen (11.1 percent) of the respondents are Not Sure. Nine (5.9 percent) are Somewhat Disagree while 2 (1.3 percent) of them are Disagree. Only 4 respondents (2.6 percent) are Strongly Disagree. The findings indicated factor 2 (Understanding) as the highest level of agreement among the respondents (M=5.32, SD=1.370) in this category. On the other hand, factor 5 (Dedication) had the lowest level of agreement among the respondents (M=4.96, SD=1.589). Again, the factor analysis produced a single factor solution with an explanatory variance of 67% (Table 4.13). The KMO was 0.900 and Bartlett test (p = 0.000), indicating the appropriateness of the factor analysis. 4.3 Reliability Analysis Test Reliability can be defined as the degree to which an experiment, test, or measuring procedure would produce the same result on repeated trials (Writing guides, 2009). Furthermore, reliability could be defined as the degree to which measures are free from error and thus yield consistent results (Zikmund, 2003). There are several different types of reliability coefficients such as Split half reliability, Guttman, Parallel, Strictly parallel and Cronbachs alpha. Cronbachs alpha is one of the most commonly used measures because it can be interpreted as a correlation coefficient and it ranges in value from 0 to 1 (Coakes and Steed, 2003). Hence, Cronbachs alpha was used as a measurement of reliability for each variable in this study. From the analysis done on the instruments listed under each variable in the questionnaire, Table 4.14 shows that Cronsbachs Alpha for the variables system quality, information quality, and service quality are 0.931, 0.943, and 0.898 respectively. The internal consistency reliability of the measures can be considered as great as it achieved more than 0.8 Alpha values (Field, 2005, p. 668). 4.4 Demographic effect on the dimensions factors As stated in chapter three, the effect of demographic differences is to be examined wither it effect the significance of factors in each dimension or not. The following hypothesis was built to test this issue: H0: Demographic differences have no impact on variables significance in an IS model. H1: The importance of success variables in an IS model vary due to demographic differences. To cautiously investigate this issue, a comparison was made between cases with different demographic (from same category) in each on of the three dimensions (i.e. System Quality, Information Quality, and Service Quality) to clearly mark any differences that might exist. A detailed list of all the mean comparison made is included in appendix B. 4.4.1 Age difference effect on system quality To measure the influence of age on system quality, several comparisons have been made to investigate the case. In general, all tests showed an increase in system quality demanding along with the increase in age. The ease of use and system flexibility features significance increases with respect to the increase in age as descried in Table 4.14. Youth are careless risk takers, while elders are more conservative risk averse this statement can be clearly observed when monitoring (Reliability Security) which increases with the growth of age. Consequently, the effect of age difference on system quality could be undoubtedly seen in this matter. 4.4.2 Level of education effect on information quality To test the indirect effect of education level on the information quality dimension, three comparisons have been carried out. First, both doctoral and masters equally Agree on the importance of information accuracy; high school level, on the other hand, are Not Sure about that. While diploma holders Strongly Agree with the importance of dynamic contents, bachelors degree holders see less significance, thus, they tend to Somewhat Agree with that statement. Unlike bachelors degree holders who Somewhat Agree with the importance of information simplicity, doctoral degree holders do Agree on its weight for information quality. By looking at the three comparisons made, it could be clearly stated that the effect of education level is significant in this situation. 4.4.3 Gender difference effect on service quality Different gender has different interpretation of service quality provided by e-commerce support centres. To test the indirect effect of gender difference on the services quality provided, a small comparison has been made. Women tend to be more concerned about service centre willingness to help (commitment) and they Agree on the importance of human interaction ability in support centres. Men, on the other hand, give less attention Somewhat Agree to these two aspects. An interesting case to be noticed in this context is the privacy protection. In a conventional society such as Saudi Arabia, people tend to be more conservative when it comes to giving personal information. In such society, women are expected to be more conservative then men. Results, however, revealed that men were actually more sensitive toward privacy protection then women as show in Table 4.17. Accordingly, it could be concluded that gender differences have an effect on service quality dimension as shown here. 4.4 Summary of Findings The study revealed a number of interesting cases that need some attention in order to understand the behavior and logical reasoning behind it; in order to help build a better e-Commerce system that is more considerate and sensitive to the needs of targeted consumers. Some of interesting ranking information, regarding the participants, that could be found from the previous tables includes: Age: More than half (51%) of the respondents are between 26-35 years old. This indicates the fact that Saudi Arabia is a young nation with a median age of 24.9 years (male: 26 years, female: 23.4 years) (The World Fact book, 2010). Gender: The majority (72.5 %) of the participants are males. This is due to cultural limitation of contact between the two genders (women segregation) within the country. The minority was done via relatives. Education: More than (88 %) of the participants are holders of bachelor, masters, or doctoral degrees. This is understandable since the online survey was circulated amongst Saudi Students in the UK Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that simplicity (Ease of use) was the most pointed feature amongst the various system quality factors. A user friendly designed system with simple navigation ability seemed more important to consumers than reliability power, robustness or even security standards. Thus, e-Commerce marketing strategy should focus on sending the image of a simple user friendly e-Commerce system rather than focusing on the facts of security or multi-access capabilities (i.e. PC Mobile, 24/7, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦etc). As for Information quality measures, the findings indicated that simplicity was again the key factor acquired by consumers. Although completeness and accuracy were of high demands (5.47 5.58 means), keeping it simple, straight forward, and in understandable terms was most favorite feature. This is obvious when compared to comprehensiveness which might leads to long lists of annoying terms and conditions catalog. The ability of e-Commerce support centers to understand consumers specific needs was the most important factor of service quality. An argument might be that, a well committed and knowledgeable support personal would not be helpful if the consumer needs were mistakenly interpreted. Based on the data of 153 respondents, the multi-items measures were subjected to a series of validity and reliability checks. For the multi-item scale, the set of factors that correspond to each dimension was initially subjected to an examination of Cronbachs alpha and item-to-total correlations test. Thus, all measures appeared to be uni-dimensional, internally consistent, reliable and valid for analysis of the model. Furthermore, this chapter has examined the influence of demographic effects on the dimensions (System, Information and Service) factors prioritization process. The relationship was conducted by computing the differences measures of the means and Standard Deviations, which supported the hypotheses that all the variables have a significance impact on e-Commerce growth and adoption in Saudi Arabia.

Listening Skills in Communication

Listening Skills in Communication Communication is the key to personal, financial, and entrepreneurial success. Seminars constantly tout the importance and crucial role of effective communication, especially in order to succeed at business. However, one aspect of communication skills that is often overlooked is the effective use of non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication can be summed up as all the other parts of language that give us visual and non-audible clues in order to correctly interpret the meaning and intent of the speaker in a conversation. Non verbal communication can be communicated through gestures and touch also known as Haptic communication by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Non verbal communication can even be communicated through objects such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, symbols and graphics. For example, when one goes to a job interview, khaki pants can convey a range of meaning anywhere from oh, Im here to the well-dressed and ready to conquer, all based on the style, quality, cut, and fit of the pant. Simplistic yes, but tried and proven as well. By the same token, wearing blue jeans to a job interview, no matter how dressy the pant, sends an underlying message of casualness that may not be the chord to strike, depending on the position and industry. Also, speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, which include factors like voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as the spoken rhythm, word intonation or inflection and stress. Dance is also regarded as a nonverbal communication. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, graphical or design arrangements or the use of emoticons. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction, where it ca n be classified into three main focuses: environmental conditions where communication takes place, the physical characteristics of the speakers, and behaviors of the speakers during interaction. While not a traditionally defined form of non verbal communication, effective listening skills are arguably the most prized set of communication skills for any businessperson to develop in order to achieve success. Furthermore, effective listening skills impact not only the professional sphere, but the personal and emotional health and overall well being of a person. Many experts disagree on the number of specific components that encompass an effective listener, yet there are certain key elements that are generally accepted as guidelines to make a listener more effective and serve to enhance the quality of communication between the involved parties. Listening is one of those special skills that, because we can hear, we tend to believe that we can automatically listen. Yet for many people hoping to facilitate, listening is the most difficult skill to master. As I write this I am remembering one of todays well-worn clichà ©s, often used by those who arent listening: I hear what you ar e saying, but.So says Mr. Trevor Bentley, who has developed a very specific set of criteria to define an effective listener. In his article, The special skills of listening, he states that specific situations require specific responses or set of listening skills. According to Bentley, one can narrow these instances to six main groups, which consist of monologue, dialogue, conversation, discussion, debate, and argument. Websters defines a monologue to be an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media (plays, films, animation, etc.). In daily life, a monologue refers to that one individual who talks incessantly upon all subjects, often without pause to consider the effect of any of their utterances upon those in their immediate vicinity. On the other hand, dialogue is an interaction of sorts, its everyday basis and counterpart is a conversational exchange between two or more people. Now, a conv ersation is by definition communication between multiple people. It is a social skill that can be accomplished by the average individual. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from one another. For a successful conversation, the partners must achieve a workable balance of contributions. A successful conversation includes repeating, answering, creating and countering connections between the speakers or things and topics that the speakers know. For this to happen, those engaging in conversation must find a topic on which they both can relate to in some sense. They speak or from personal experience or from others observations and knowledge. Those engaging in conversation naturally tend to relate the other speakers statements to themselves. They may insert aspects of their lives into their replies, to relate to the other persons opinions or points of conversation. Again, all these are examples of different forms of listening. Finally there are discussions, debates, and arguments. While one can argue that these are all escalating forms of the same condition, the general meaning and reference of these three words is an explanation of an issue or a topic, compared and contrasted according to logical rules, and factually affirmed by persuasion and logic to declare one viewpoint in better standing than the other. Bentley recommends that in order to maximize communication in each of these situations one should chose a level on which to listen again, based upon the situation and to use a combination of directive, facilitative and active listening to have the most effective communication occur. His eight stages of listening cover non-listening, passive listening, judgmental listening, attentive listening, visual listening, reflective listening, active/creative listening, and directive listening. While the Bentley system has very logical and effective solutions to many communication dilemmas and situations, othe r experts take a more instinctive and generalized view of effective listening and non-verbal communication. In the article Turn listening into a powerful presence, Richard Harris states that Better-than-average listeners are keenly aware of the following important issues: partnership, reviewing systematically, effort, star events, empathy, neutralizing snap judgments, and tenacity. Listening is not by any stretch of the imagination a passive endeavor if practiced correctly or effectively. As a listener, one is always trying to receive or understand the meaning of the conversation, while dealing with all the non-verbal communicational clues on a subconscious level. If you are blindfolded in a room with some friends, you could participate in conversation actively. However, your responses and understanding could range from a little bit off to very misdirected, depending on how many visual cues and gestures you miss due to the blindfold. Active listening is not just generating responses to sounds or answering the question. It requires the listeners to understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard. Today, the ability to listen is an invaluable skill in interpersonal commun ication. It improves personal relationships by reducing conflicts, strengthening cooperation, as well as fostering understanding. Harris stresses the importance of practicing the issues that arise when holding a conversation, fully confident that a normal person can adapt and learn these techniques in order to become a more effective communicator. Sometimes effective listening is simply making sure that one is completely engaged in the conversation, suspending judgment, and making evaluations after all the issues have been discussed. However, it is not natural for humans to listen in this form, and patience and practice are key aspects to developing natural listening skills, which will eventually feel like a normal part of the mental acrobatics exercised on a daily basis by anyone who must communicate in any form. Effective listening is essential for anyone who wants to perform at his or her best, work easily and gracefully, and learn effectively. Few people realize that the art of listening has everything to do with intuition and little to do with the mental gymnastics of trying to concentrate on the words themselves. As you begin to see listening as an art and conversation as something that creates beauty, you will begin to understand how your own thoughts interfere with the experience. One expert argues that the less thinki ng that goes on during a conversation, the more effective the listener is, because more of the actual conversation is retained and absorbed.(Gunn) This particular expert states that in his personal research, the more open and clear a person is when engaged in conversation, the more recall is available after the conversation. Intuition and feelings are also very important to this particular theorist. For effective listening, this theory requires one to be very aware of the feelings that are being inspired throughout the course of the conversation, to be stored in the memory and analyzed after the conversation is over, which one presumably will have more recall thereof since one did not get mentally distracted by emotions or thoughts during the conversation. Effective listening is also closely related to non verbal communicational forms such as gestures. Gestures are another tool that can be used to maximize a listeners input on the conversation and its outcome. While this specific tool is very culture based, it can be very effective when interpreted and practiced correctly. One of the most common cultures to use gestures in the United States is the Latin-Americans. Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak. For example, in the Cuban culture there is quite an amount of hand gesturing that leads throughout a conversation. Depending on the speed of the gesture shows the mental or emotional state of the person doing the speaking; if smooth motions are made with the hands, the words being said are meant to pacify or to be taken calmly, regardless of their content. Though gestures are not part of syntactic language, their processing take s place in the same areas of the brain used by speech and sign language. Another simple form of listening is reflective listening. Reflective listening is a communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speakers idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly. It attempts to reconstruct what the client is thinking and feeling and to relay this understanding back to the client. Reflective listening is a more specific strategy than the more general methods of active listening. It arose from Carl Rogers school of client-centered therapy in counseling theory. (Hughes) It is important to observe the other persons actions and body language. Having the ability to interpret anyones body language allows the listener to develop a more accurate understanding of the speakers words and possibly even the intent of the conversation, which may or may not be audibly stated. Having heard, the listener may restate or paraphrase what the speaker is saying. This is a technique for reassuring the spe aker of ones undivided attention. It really does not imply understanding or agreement. In emotional conversations, a good listener may intuit or sense underlying feelings and emotions. For example, when in an argument, one would say I sense you are angry. Can you tell me why? Again, the interplay between the non verbal clues and tools such as gestures and reflection all play a role in maximizing the effectiveness of the listener. While one cannot make a judgment call about the best way to listen, it is clear that the most definitive way to become an effective listener is to be mentally ready and to challenge oneself to practice skills that lead to naturally recalling and understanding everything that is said and intimated in conversation. While listening has much to do with the physical ability of the person, the intellectual application for effectiveness is more of a mental and psychological exercise that can only improve with constant practice. Not to trash the visually impaired, but the eyes are consistently the best source for all the cues that guide effective listeners. For many in the business world, the time spent becoming an effective listener will be priceless in terms of communication that can open doors and opportunities. Furthermore, an effective listener that applies their professional success to their personal life can also ensure a very productive and emotionally satisfying life, because all of us have something to say, and everyone wants to be heard. In the words of Bishop TD Jakes, Listen with your ears. The ears work better when windpipes are closed. Listen with your mind. Many times words are based on a point of reference that you may not be aware of. Listen with your heart. Many times words do not convey whats in the heart; so when you listen, hear what is said but also what is meant. Compassion is a critical part of understanding. It is difficult to love people without understanding them. Love seeks to understand. Listening with your heart will take away your natural propensity to be selfish. Listen with your heart. Many times words do not convey whats in the heart; so when you listen, hear what is said but also what is meant. Compassion is a critical part of understanding. It is difficult to love people without understanding them. Love seeks to understand. Listening with your heart will take away your natural propensity to be selfish. Sound words to guide the spiri tual health of his parishioners, but also very applicable to any successful individual in todays world.