Ancient Egyptian Religion Seen Through Art and Architecture Essay Example for Free

Ancient Egyptian Religion Seen Through Art and Architecture Essay These compositions demonstrated not only a style of art never before seen, but they also showed innovative techniques that have been duplicated for centuries. Although these works, which consisted mostly of pottery and wall murals, seem to be quite simple to the untrained eye, they were what most consider to be a stylized portrait of the times. J. R. Harris comments on this in his book, The Legacy of Egypt, purported lack of grace and charm, unnatural stylizationthese were not shortcomings, but essential manifestations of Ancient Egyptian arts specific nature (194). Another unique aspect of the Ancient Egyptian culture was the construction of elaborate, and sometimes enormous, works of architecture. This is due to the great care that the Ancient Egyptian populace took in constructing the temples, tombs, and halls of their period. In construction, the perfect knowledge of geometry of the architects is fully demonstrated (Howell 41). Ancient Egypt’s buildings were, in their time, the most remarkable landmarks known to man. Also, the ability of the architects of Ancient Egypt to include decorations into the edifices they constructed was highly developed. Tombs and temples alike were greatly adorned with colorful paintings, hieroglyphs, and symbols that added to their beauty. The earliest known art of the Ancient Egyptians was believed to have been very undefined and unskilled, according to Elizabeth Payne in her book, The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Crudely at first, they began drawing the duck and the fish on the sides of their pottery bowls. Then, little by little, over the long years, their skill as artists increased and their everyday objects became as beautiful as they were useful (27). After this eventual increase in the artistic talent of the people, new practices came in to use by which Ancient Egyptians expressed themselves. For example, tombs went from being mere pits and hollows in the sand to being quite complex. These structures have become what the world knows today as the Pyramids of Giza. A main characteristic of their religion was the fact that they believed in numerous gods which each had a special power or purpose. The gods personified everything the Egyptians wondered about or feared or hoped for. Reigning supreme over this multitude was Ra, the great god of the sun (Howell 51). Each entity was constructed his or her own temple so that the people could worship there. Also, the priests made sacrifices to the entities and bathed and anointed golden figures of them. The gods were often represented by animals and specialized symbols. The religion, art, and architecture of the Ancient Egyptians were so closely tied to one another that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between them. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians religion was the most common subject matter of their sculptures, paintings, and structures. For example, the prominent area of construction was that for temples and tombs. Such edifices were skillfully painted with murals to depict the purpose of the room or section; a temple would have pictures of the gods, and a tomb would have art showing a burial or death. In addition, ancient mythological texts were beautifully carved and painted on these walls. Although these were all applications of art and architecture in religion, the most prominent is most likely the funerary art of the Ancient Egyptians. Although the Ancient Egyptians religion has been fully demonstrated through Egyptian art and architecture the influence of their beliefs has extended far beyond what is imaginable. According to Noel Q. King, author of Religions of Africa, Egyptian religion of old has had one of the greatest effects upon Africa’s modern religions (47-48). For example, the multiple gods that the Ancient Egyptians adopted into their theism so long ago are still today present in many African tribes. In addition, the methods used in ancient mummification are the root of corpse preservation in modern society. Such contributions of the Ancient Egyptians have been adapted into methods used by today’s populace in many instances. This is because the culture of Ancient Egypt has provided a stimulus which creates the desire to live, to succeed, and to be remembered in history (Showker 156). ? Works Cited Harris, J. R. The Legacy of Egypt. 2nd ed. Glasgow: Oxford University Press, 1971. Howell, J. Morton. Egypt’s Past, Present and Future. Ohio: Service Publishing Company, 1929. King, Noel Q. Religions of Africa. New York: Harper and Row Publishing Company, 1970. Payne, Elizabeth. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. New York: Random House Publishing Company, 1964. Showker, Kay. Egypt: A Complete Guide with Nile Cruises and Visits to the Pyramids. New York: Fodor’s, 1992.

Influence Of Sales Promotion Impulse Purchase Buying Behaviour Marketing Essay

Influence Of Sales Promotion Impulse Purchase Buying Behaviour Marketing Essay Purpose The purpose of this dissertation is to find out the influence of sales promotion on impulse purchase buying behaviour. This research is focused on the grocery retailer Tesco. Findings- From this study, it has been understood that sales promotions have a major influence on the impulse purchasing behaviour of consumers. It has also been verified that price promotion is the most influencing factor of sales promotion, which drives consumers towards impulse purchase. Conclusions and recommendations at the end of this research will be useful for students who study consumer buying behaviour and for retailers to implement a strategy for sales promotion. Originality/Value: Previous researches that has been carried out about impulse purchase has been influence of culture, mood etc. The function of this research is to find the influence of sales promotion on impulse purchase, which is important especially during the current economic recession. Introduction: This section of the dissertation outlines the research topic the researcher chose to study as part of his Masters in Business Administration (International) in Dublin Business School. This section is divided into the following parts. Background of the research Suitability of the researcher and interest in subject Research Objectives and Hypotheses Approach to the dissertation Recipients of the research Organisation of the research Scope and limitations of the study Background of the research: Ones own personal shopping experiences verify that occasionally we go into a store with no planned purchases in mind. Usually, however we go into a store planning to buy one or more specific items. Sometimes we know that those planned items are offered at a sale price, sometimes they are at regular price, and sometimes a mixture of both. We usually have an idea how much it will cost and how many of them we plan to buy. However, once we are in the store, we sometimes buy all we planned to buy; sometimes we buy more than we planned to buy. This would have happened because of something that stimulated us inside the store. It could be because of various reasons like sales promotions or store atmospherics or uniqueness of the product. This study is based on the influence of sales promotions on unplanned purchases like this called impulse purchase. Consumers buying behaviour is based on the needs of the consumer. This goes down to the basic level of consumer needs developed by Maslow(1971). He suggested a hierarchy of needs from the most basic to the most civilised one. Physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation needs. To satisfy the needs, consumer buys things and this study is on the consumer buying behaviour. The consumer buying behaviour goes through a five sequential steps that is explained in the literature review of this article. Practically, when a consumer feels the need for buying things, he/she goes for shopping. There are many types of shops available, but the retail shop is where consumers can buy the things that they need for daily life. The concept of retail shops are now changing with the evolution of large supermarkets. Retail shops are now becoming one-stop-shops called super markets, offering vast number of product categories and services ranging from fruits and vegetables, off-licence, bakery, butcher facilities and even pharmaceuticals. It is a common fact that the large grocery stores and super markets have an unfair advantage over small players, by using a low cost selling, which the small convenience stores struggle to match. The Irish grocery retail market has evolved with many changes over the last few years. Tesco is one of the main players that exist in Irish grocery retail market. Organisations have started changing the methods of their grocery business over the last decade. There are innovations coming in the market everyday to attract new consumers and to retain them for a long period. Sales promotion is a quick way to strengthen the sales of an organisation. According to Kotler(2003), sales promotion is a key ingredient in marketing campaign which consists of diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of a particular products or services by consumers or trade. It is one of the effective methods in creating savings to the regular grocery shoppers. For retailers, the sales promotion is an excellent opportunity to promote their products in bulk thereby increase profit margins and consumer loyalty. There are various sales promotion tools used by the retailers, price promotion being one of them. Price promotions help the consumers to buy their goods for a reduced price. There are various types of p romotions which are described in the literature. A phenomenon called impulse purchase is considered as different form of consumer buying action. Impulse purchasing is a phenomenon by which a consumer experiences a sudden and often persistent urge to buy something immediately (Rook, 1987). It is an enigma in the marketing world, which accounts for substantial volume of goods sold every year. It is said that 80 percent of all purchases in some particular goods categories is made through impulse purchase. Virvialite(2009) based on Kacen and Lee(2002).This is a widely used by the retailers as they attract the consumers to buy things impulsively. At the present market conditions, when market competition is high and all types of companies apply promotion in their activities, stimulation of impulse purchasing in the market of consumer goods may become a strong competitive advantage. We go through this phenomenon in our daily life, knowingly or unknowingly. It is the feeling that one cannot resist at that moment, which are affected many fa ctors. An example of this would be when we see an advertisement in the store where it says Half Price sale, Was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬3.99, Now à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.99. The aim of this study is to study the influence of sales promotion on impulse purchase. This research determines if the consumers go for an impulse purchase, if there are sales promotions. There is also a second part to this research which determines if the price promotion is the most important factor in sales promotion that leads the consumer to impulse purchase. This study is an important one considering the current economic climate. In this recessionary period, consumers who are doing grocery shopping actually care for the price factor and look for goods that are value for money. This study establishes the relation between sales promotion and impulse purchase. 2. Suitability of the researcher and the interest in the subject: The researcher is an engineering graduate in Information Technology. The researcher has four years of work experience in I.T and business fields. Researcher has a family business back India, which deals with retail and wholesale trading of steel products. The researcher was taking care of business for one year before coming to Ireland and has an idea of what is happening in the real business world. The ultimate career goal is to take over the family business and expand it with more concentration on retail sector. This study on consumer buying behaviour will certainly help the researcher in achieving this goal. The researcher is currently working in the retail sector and has observed many consumers going for impulse purchase because of the sales promotions. The researcher himself has fallen into the trap of impulse purchase when doing the grocery shopping on many occasions. This has specifically happened after the researcher came to Ireland where there are more sales promotions than seen elsewhere. This curiosity of the researcher encouraged to do a research on the influence of sales promotion on impulse purchase. Organisation chosen for the research: This research is conducted in Tesco, one of the biggest grocery retailers in Ireland. Tesco was founded by Jack Cohenand in 1919 and developed its first super market in 1956. They have come a long way through and now is the fourth largest retailer in the world, measured by revenues and second largest measured by profits. Tesco has its base at The United Kingdom and is spread across 14 countries all over the world. The company started its operations in Ireland as Tesco Ireland in 1997. The theme Every Little Helps is very popular in Ireland. Tesco has almost all the services that is needed in our daily life, including groceries, bakery, clothing, and mobile network. The researcher chose Tesco for the research because of he considers it as the best place where the study of sales promotion and impulse purchasing can be done in the context of a grocery-shopping environment. The research takes place in Tesco, Parnell Street in Dublin, Ireland. 3. Research Topic: Influence of sales promotion on impulse purchasing behaviour in the context of a grocery store. The aim of this research is to find out the influence of sales promotional activities on impulse buying behaviour in the context of a grocery retail store. With this purpose, the research will be conducted in Tesco, Parnell Street, Dublin, Ireland. This research focuses on answering the following questions: 1. Do sales promotional activities in store have a major influence on consumers impulse buying behaviour? 2. Is price promotion the major factor in sales promotion, which drives the consumers towards impulse purchase? Objectives: In order to answer each of these questions, the researcher came out with the following objectives. To identify the sales promotional activities in the store To find out if consumers actually go for an impulse purchase and the most influencing factor that affects it To determine if price promotion is the most influencing factor of sales promotion and if consumer purchase low priced items during impulse buying To justify this research, and to obtain the answer for the research questions, certain assumptions were made initially. Two hypotheses were developed which needs to be proved or disapproved. Hypothesis: H1: Sales promotional activities in the store have a major influence on customers impulse buying behaviour H2: Price promotion is the most influencing factor of sales promotion, which drives consumers towards impulse purchase. Approach to the Dissertation: The objectives derived will be obtained systematically in the research. Firstly, the secondary research is conducted using relevant sources to understand the research problem area in depth. Various sources like journals, textbooks, magazines and websites will be used in accordance with academic regulations. Primary research is carried out next with the help of self-administered questionnaires and focus group interviews. The quantitative data obtained through questionnaires are then analysed with the help of appropriate statistical tool and the result will be drawn. The hypotheses will then be tested with the results obtained and will proved or disapproved. Conclusions will be made and recommendations will be proposed based on the results. Recipients of the research: There are five recipients of the research that is conducted as part of Masters in Business Administration (International) in Dublin Business School. They are as follows: Dublin Business School where this researcher is a full time student studying for his qualification Liverpool John Moores university, who provides the qualification which the student is studying for Mrs. Linda Moran, who is dissertation supervisor, who guided the author through research process to date Staff and management of Tesco Ireland Ltd, who gave the permission for the research to be conducted on them Anybody who has interest in marketing specifically consumer buying behaviour, sales promotion and impulse purchase Organisation of the Research: Chapter 1: Introduction This section of the dissertation introduces the background of the research, the suitability of the researcher and the interest in the topic.   This section also states the research objectives and hypotheses. Further, it gives a brief description about how the research is carried out. This section also mentions the recipients of the research and also about the scope and limitations of the research.   Chapter 2: Literature Review This section the researcher critically reviews the literature which provides the theoretical background to the study. In the first section, the consumer buying behaviour is described in general. Further, the researcher introduces the concept of impulse purchase. The next section explains the sales promotions and its different types. The final section describes the relation between sales promotion and impulse purchase. Chapter 3: Research Methodology This section describes the research methodology adopted for undertaking the research. This chapter begins with the research onion proposed by Saunders et al.(2007) and proceeds layer by layer beginning from research philosophy towards data analysis. The justification of population and sampling method used are also discussed later. Chapter 4: Data analysis and Findings. This section describes the findings from the data analysis with the help of focus groups and questionnaire. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations. The section integrates the concepts of theories discussed in the literature review earlier and incorporates them with the data analysis and findings. The section concludes the research by providing justifications for proving or disapproving hypotheses. Recommendations are made and can be utilised by retailers and consumers for further studies. Chapter 6: Self Reflection on Own Learning and Performance. The section describes the researchers learning process and performance over the course of the International MBA programme. This section also describes the researchers development of various skills during the course. Chapter 7: Bibliography The section provides the list of various books, academic journals and websites that have been used in the dissertation. Harvard referencing system is used to reference the sources used. Chapter 8: Appendices Appendix includes the final questionnaire and project management Gantt chart. Major contributions of the study: Scope and Limitations of the research: The main limitation of this study is faced during the primary research. The sample size taken for this study is a small population and of consumers of Tesco, Parnell Street. The results and conclusions are based on a single store and cannot be used for generalisation. Another issue that the researcher faced while conducting the primary research is the biasing problem. The researcher has remained neutral to his best of the ability while conducting the focus group interviews and questionnaires. The study being cross sectional is only relevant for a particular period of the present research. Any future changes in consumers attitudes can alter the results of present research.

Computer Graphics Effect On Animation

Computer Graphics Effect On Animation The history of computer animation can be traced back many decades to such films as Peter Foldes 1971 film Metadata, or even a 1968 attempt by Soviets to animate a cat. It was in the 1980s, however, that the techniques became more widely used and the industry truly began to experience big changes in how things were done. The advent of this new technology meant that machines could do more of the work, much like with the use of robots in manufacturing. While this machinery is a godsend for productivity, it brings with it concern for peoples jobs and the survival of the traditional way of doing things. One animator by the name of Bill Kroyer brought these concerns to the forefront in 1988 with his own animated interpretation of the ongoing development of this threat. Bill Kroyers Technological Threat serves as an excellent metaphor for the advent of computer animation and how it affected the animation industry and validity of the fears it brought forth. From its infancy up until recent decades, traditional animation techniques were the only methods of animation available before the advent of more powerful computers. Much of it requires each frame to be hand-drawn or, in the case of stop motion, each character or object has to be sculpted and moved little by little for each frame that is captured. It is tedious work. These traditional techniques take a lot of time and patience to do successfully. Throughout the decades there have been attempts to minimize the work involved with animation, such as the introduction of cel animation which put characters and objects on clear celluloid which would then be animated on top of a background image. This meant that a background would only have to be made once, whereas beforehand it had to be redrawn completely with each passing frame. Another time-saving innovation came in the form of Walt Disneys multiplane camera system, which took cel animation even further by making the creation of depth mu ch easier by separating and moving each individual part of the scenery independently and at varying distances from the camera. Even with these advancements, however, the same traditional techniques were required to actually animate anything. Computers brought forth a drastic change in the playing field, essentially turning the art into a science. Soon one of the first instances of computer animation would come in 1960 when John Whitney developed his analog computer to make title sequences for movies and television, using surplus anti-air guidance hardware from World War II. While computers became widely used in animation during the 1980s, there were still quite a few instances of it in the preceding decades, starting with the aforementioned machine developed by Whitney. The computer technology of the time was rather limited and therefore usually only used for experiments. For instance, Peter Foldes used the first implementation of key frame software to create Metadata in 1971. While it entailed the use of a data tablet, which was surprisingly modern for the era, it was limited to two-dimensional animation and could only show simple line drawings of objects in a couple of colors. This film was merely experimental, however, and was followed 3 years later by Hunger in 1974, which was intentionally done in black and white line dr awings. Computers would quickly become powerful enough to render much more realistic imagery, as was exemplified by Loren Carpenters Vol Libre which he presented at SIGGRAPH in 1980, a computer graphics conference held annually. It used fractals to generate breathtaking mountainous scenery and instantly landed him a job at Lucasfilm. Of the animators that worked during the era that computer animation became more widespread, one particularly interesting perspective is that of Bill Kroyer. Bill got his start in animation in the mid-1970s, just before the computer revolution of the 1980s. He originally was denied a job at Disney, but would later be hired by them in 1977, during a time when Disney Animation, and the animation industry as a whole, was in the midst of a slump. He did not stay with Disney long, as he soon left to work with Steve Lisberger on Animalympics. The major milestone in Bills career, however, came in 1982 when they developed Tron which they teamed up with Disney to work on. As Kroyer himself put it, Tron was the beginning. It was the moment when computer graphics made its first contact with the animation industry-like the sperm and the egg. It was neat, because nobody had ever done it before. There were no experts around (Kroyer). It was the first time computer animation would be used so extensi vely on a feature film, and it became almost a prophecy of what would develop in the coming years. Jobs that used to take hundreds of people to do, such as painting backgrounds, can now be accomplished cheaply and quickly by using computers. While Kroyer enjoyed working with computers to animate, he longed for the illusion of hand-drawn cartoons and decided to start Kroyer Films with his wife in 1986 with the intention of combining traditional and computer animation. He became a pioneer in combining the two techniques. While Kroyer was skilled at animating, he was also knowledgeable about writing computer programs, and developed one with his wife that could use a plotter to draw out the computer animations on paper. Such use of computers for animating made many animators begin to fear it taking over and forcing them out of their careers. In response to these fears, Kroyer made Technological Threat in 1988. In it, a group of hand-drawn cartoon dogs are employees at a company and are threatened by their seemingly inevitable replacement by highly efficient robots, which are computer animated. This paranoia culminates into a struggle for survival that ultimately ends in the last remaining dog employee taking down his now-robotic boss with the help of one of the robots, which he proceeds to double-cross to eliminate the threat altogether, leaving him the only remaining employee, the top dog as it were. The film was essentially about traditional animators ultimately working in harmony with this new techn ology and ultimately being highly successful in their careers, perhaps more so than they would have previously. The dog protagonist, symbolic of traditional animators fearing the loss of their job, defies the odds and in the end triumphs, rising in rank to become the new boss. The robots represent the computers used to do computer animation, appearing innocent and diligently going about their work, but ultimately are no less susceptible to losing their jobs than the dogs are. Kroyers approach to animating goes against traditional animators fears by combining both methods and using them to their fullest potential. According to the theories of Paul Wells, this film would be considered developmental animation, as it maintains many traditional aspects of orthodox animated films but mixes two different styles of animation in a more modern approach. According to him, Developmental Animation operates as a mode of expression combining or selecting elements of both approaches, representing t he aesthetic and philosophical tension between the two apparent extremes (Wells, 35). There was no doubt a tension between the two approaches during the time this film came out. Kroyer goes on to explain that, despite this new and highly capable tool, the artistic vision of the animator is still crucial to a films success. Computers are merely another tool in the animators arsenal. Throughout the 1980s, computers went into widespread use, from businesses to residential homes. These machines revolutionized everybodys lives and had far reaching effects on many peoples jobs, not just those of animators. While computers have increased productivity almost everywhere, they have threatened to eliminate many jobs and force many to either learn to use the new technology or remain unemployed. It is truly a situation where we are made to keep up with changes in the workplace or else risk being left behind in a dust cloud of our own stubbornness. This was an especially trying time for many animators as computers had finally reached the point where they would be practical to use in animation. But unlike many jobs that were completely taken over by computers, animation allows for the coexistence of computers with traditional techniques. Understandably, one would think traditional animation to be doomed through the development of this amazing new technology. This could not be farther from the truth, however, as traditional animation remained strong through the 1980s and continues to grow. In fact, it has seen a sort of revival in recent years. In 2009, Disney released The Princess and the Frog, their first traditionally animated feature since they made Home on the Range in 2004. During the 1990s, the Disney Renaissance brought us multiple wildly successful films using traditional techniques, including such films as The Lion King and Mulan. Even with the massive success of Toy Story in 1995, Disney continued to make traditionally animated films on a yearly basis even after the end of the renaissance in 1999. While the renaissance did die out and Disney seemingly put traditional animation on the backburner after Home on the Range, they have shown us that it really is not dead after all with Princess and the Frog and ha s promised to release a traditionally animated film every 2 years from now on. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki, a highly acclaimed animator from Japan, has built his career off of creating fantastical feature films primarily using traditional animation, and has won various prestigious awards for his creations. Since creating Princess Mononoke, he has begun to implement computer animation in some sequences of his films. Despite this, he retains traditional 2D cel animation as his primary medium of choice. Through all of this it is also important to note that traditional animation still continues to garner critical acclaim insofar as receiving awards and nominations for awards. The medium, while requiring a greater amount of labor and time, still produces many high quality films worthy of critical praise. For instance, Disneys recently released Princess and the Frog was nominated for a Golden Globe, and Miyazaki has been nominated for or won awards for a lot of his films. Bill Kroyer was also nominated for an Acedemy Award for Technological Threat. This just goes to show that the look of traditional animation is not seen as obsolete and can be beautifully done, as has been shown for countless decades. Another important aspect of these two techniques to consider is the overall cost of production for films that use either technique. There has been a growing misconception that computer animation is far more cost-effective overall than traditional animation. While this is true in some instances, in actuality it is subjective to the films being compared. One good comparison to make that disproves this fallacy is between two feature films released by Disney: Bolt and Mulan. Bolt was Disneys CGI major feature released a couple of years ago in 2008, while Mulan was their traditionally animated feature of 1998, which happened to come out towards the end of the Disney Renaissance. Both films have about an hour and a half of runtime. There is a staggering difference in production budgets, however. While Mulan carried a production budget of 90 million dollars, Bolt had an astonishingly large budget of 150 million, 60 million more than Mulan! This clearly shows that the cost of production is s ubjective to the film being worked on and can change in favor of either computers or traditional techniques. Despite the hype for computer animated features following the massive success of Toy Story in 1995, there have been CGI films that have been less than successful, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001. This film, despite having ultra-realistic CGI and a budget of 137 million dollars, was a total flop, with revenues not even covering the production costs for the film. A films financial viability can depend on many factors, like the quality of what is being animated, and of course how it is marketed, but that is another issue entirely. In short, CGI-animated films can be cheaper than those made with traditional animation in some cases, but often can cost just as much if not more. The costs of each are comparable to each other, the only major difference is traditional techniques tend to take longer. Much like in any other industry, computers drastically changed the way animation can be done and people feared losing their jobs because of the changes brought forth by them. But, as is exemplified by Kroyers film Technological Threat, there is little need to fear the future. Today, traditional animation and computer animation coexist and are often even used in combination on some films. Traditional animation remains a prominent form of animation to this day, and continues to grow with new animators joining the ranks. Computer graphics is not meant as a replacement for the old fashioned hand-drawn and stop motion styles, but rather another tool in their box of tricks. Just because one owns a drill does not make a screwdriver obsolete. They each have important purposes as well as advantages and disadvantages. After all, a tool is only as good as the person trained to use it.

Summary of Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay example -- Ethan B

Summary of Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne In the short story Ethan Brand, Ethan Brand lusts for knowledge that leads him on a quest for the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin, as one may interpret, is pride and self-gain. It is a loss of the brotherhood with man, and a loss of respect for God. Once this knowledge is gained, he faces alienation from all those around him. In searching for this sinful knowledge, Ethan Brand leads himself into intellectual isolation. He cannot separate his head from his heart, his intellect from his soul. After tending the kiln, in solitude for so long, his thoughts became his only company, as did the flames that danced in his eyes. Over come with the urge to seek knowledge, he falls to temptation. Adam and Eve's downfall was in knowledge, as was Ethan Brand's fall. His sin is best described as, "The sin of intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims". Upon leaving for his twenty-year journey, Brand becomes deranged in the eyes ...

Murdstones in Charles Dickens Great Expectations :: Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essays

Murdstones in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations I think the Murdstones are the two main villains in the story. Mr.Murdstone, step dad of David, he is evil, cruel and treats David harshly. He hates David and wants him out of the way. Mrs Murdstone, sister of Mr.Murstone also vicious and self-centred. Both of them together ruin the early childhood of David and have control of the Copperfield family. The sheer evilness of the Murdstones resulted in the death of David's mother-Clara, although at one point he did love Clara, but her pretty house and her income probably added to her attractions in his eye. I think worst of all the Murdstones tormented David both physically and psychologically. Dickens is very clever in describing the appearance of the Murdstones, it very much relates to their ruthlessness. He describes the eyes of Mr.Murdstones as "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. with his ill-omened black eyesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." Already we are given a warning of impending disaster from the looks of his eyes. ". Shallow black eyeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an eye that has no depth in it to be looked into" This just shows the wretched character he is. As much as I hate the character, I noticed that Dickens have put a touch of gentleness to the character of Mr.Murdstone. This is stated when David notices his 'handsomer' side. "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦In spite of my misgivings, a very handsome man." I think this description is very cleverly done. It makes the character more real and life like so we can relate to. It emphasizes "never judge the book by its cover". Miss.Murdstone, sister of Mr.Murstone, doesn't perform well either, description wise. ". Gloomy-looking lady she was: dark, like her brotherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦" This shows the similarities of the characters, not only connected by blood, but also by appearance and by heart. Jane Murdstone is stronger, colder, and more heartless than her brother. Dickens makes her seem inhuman by comparing her to metallic objects, especially locks, chains, and prisons. In a society where a spinster is a dependent creature, she uses her power over her brother to secure a home for herself. "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Hard lack boxesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦" "Hard brass nail." ". Hard steel purseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦" ". Jail of a bagà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." ". Heavy chain." ". Metallic lady." All the above quotes describe the 'characters' of the things she carry and how they resemble her. The word "hard" have come up several times and so has anything that has got to do with it. This just shows how much wickedness she posses only in her belongings. I think the main feature in which Dickens expresses that really brings out the villainous of the characters are the things they do. Ever since entering the Copperfield household they have been controlling

Community Diagnosis Essay

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A community is a group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. People with common agenda, interest, or cause, who collaborate by sharing ideas, informaton, and other resources. In communty health nursing, community is the client who needs promotion and preservation of the health of the population. Community diagnosis is a means of examining aggregate and social statistics in addition to the knowledge of the local situation, in order to determine the heath needs of the community. It is a tool to disclose the hidden problems that are not visible to the community people but are being affected by them. This tool is important and has helped many communities in improving their health status. The main purpose of community health and nursing services is to improve and sustain the health situation of the community that doesn’t have access to basic health care services and to help individuals who need help to promote quality care for the whole community. This study will mainly benefit the people in Barangay 842, District VI of Manila. The researchers were optimistic that through this study they will be able to assist the community in developing measures that will enable the local residents to identify and manage their own health related problems and be able to achieve good health. Read more:  How to write a diagnostic essay of my self. Rationale This study aims to present the nature of the community of Barangay 842, District VI, Pandaca Manila thus aiding the nursing students to practice their knowledge and skills with discipline accuracy and in logical manner like contributing to the improvement of the condition of the locality. The community as the center of this study provides them to do their role in the field of health care as a responsible health nurse. It can produce data and information that can help to determine and identify needs, interest and problems of the community through joint efforts and cooperation among students and the people affected. Recognizing their needs, interest and problems of the community will enable them to plan the action needed, offer proposals, alternatives and solution and solve these problems with unity and coherence to have a better community setting. Community diagnosis provides the students exposure to the real-life situations, thus developing their decision-making skill and learn on ho w to deal on different people and situations in a right and ethical manner that we will encounter while conducting this study. It also helps them develop our knowledge, skill, attitude, cooperation, and participation on improving the condition and organizing a community and learn how to deal on a chaotic situation effectively. In addition, nursing practice in the community – The community diagnosis helps raise the level of health dissemination of the community. This will also help students to maximize our potential and to render the potential on preventing diseases, promoting health and organize and participate on the development of health plan that will benefit the community to attain optimum health to individuals, families and communities. STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES GENERAL OBJECTIVES After two weeks of gathering information at Barangay 842, Pandacan Manila BSN level Group 1 will be able to identify their community’s health concerns and make actions towards acquiring of health resources and services. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the health condition and needs of the community and identify existing health programs and resources available. 2. To identify the health conditions that requires the highest priority and needs to be addressed. 3. To plan with the barangay officials and health care personnel a program that will help resolve the health concerns and needs of the barangay. Scope and Limitation The prioritization of the problems observed and stated by our group focused more on the gathered data from the families interviewed residing from Barangay 842. The content of the data gathered from the random sample may not be reliable enough to represent the whole community of Barangay 842. However, the study may post significance in the sense that it may be useful in determining the problems of the community. Methodology/Tools Used There are 110 family respondents which compromises of 496 individuals in Barangay 621 Zone 62, District VI,, Sta. Mesa, Manila for our Community Diagnosis. This family represents the people we interviewed. This survey will serve as the representation of the community. The main method we used to assess the problem of the community is â€Å"survey† by means of survey forms. We assess the community by asking questions through interviewing that is clear and specific that can gather exact and specific answers. In addition, we gathered data through â€Å"observing† to complete the data needed in the survey form. The survey form was adapted from the Municipal Health Department and was modified by Mr. Kenneth Joe Lovely RN, faculty member – College of Nursing of Universidad De Manila. We used a â€Å"spot-map† to locate the area for our community diagnosis. Data Gathering Procedure The community assessment was conducted over the entire Barangay 621 Zone 61, Sta. Mesa, Manila. Only 110 families are surveyed to represent the entire community. All the questions are restricted in the survey form that is made by the Municipal Health Department and modified by Mr. Kenneth Joe Lovely RN, faculty member – College of Nursing of the Universidad De Manila. All the data gathered was according to what the researchers see and hear. The history of the barangay is available at the barangay hall of the community. SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION The barangay 621 is one of the Barangay at Sta. Mesa, Manila. It has a total number of populations of six thousands four hundred forty. Juan Philip P. Manabat is the current Barangay Chairman. It is bounded at the Cordillera Street. Tagalog is their medium of communication, but as we observed there are also other languages that present in the community such as Bisaya, Cebuano, Ilocano, etc. the Barangay boundaries are 590 north, 603 east, 611 west, and 630 south. Approximate land area of more or less 6.5 hectares. Covering the streets of Jacinto Zamora Link and Valenzuela Street. The existing facilities in the community are: * Water pumps * Half courts The most common means of transportation in their street are pedicabs but some of the people that live there also use motorcycles and cars. The road of the streets are fully cemented, there are also parts of the roads that are rough roads. HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY The Barangay 621, Zone 62, District VI of Manila was created around 1970’s through the effort of their ancestors. Their Barangay Patron is Saint Labrado which is the Patron Saint of Farmers which they celebrate every 3rd week of May in commemoration of their ancestors. COMMUNITY PROFILE The Barangay 621, Zone 62, District VI of Manila is the 2nd Barangay that can be seen when entering the Bacood Area. The best landmark of this Barangay is the Bacood Park which is within the jurisdiction of this Barangay. Barangay 621 has an estimated land area of more or less than 6.5 hectares. Covering the streets of Jacinto Zamora Link and Valenzuela Street. The boundary of the community is a river at the south near the Pandacan Bridge (Zamora Bridge). The certain spots of the Barangay started from a house near the river. Consequently, the houses were mostly were wood type houses and some are concretes. A lot of stray dogs and cats can be seen in the streets. During anytime, its an extreme hotness while as nighttime approaches, a little bit breeze of coldness can be felt. Polluted air can be inhaled due to the cars passing by. The nearest schools in the Barangay are Regina Apostolorum Academy, Tzu Chi Great Love Campus which is near some basketball courts and near the Pandacan Bridge (Zamora Bridge). Some children go to the Bacood Elementary School which is in the other Barangay near Barangay 621. Utilization of their own resources was one of the main factors in their livelihood. Sari-sari stores are the primary livelihood in the Barangay. Others also exists such as junk shops, karinderyas, pedicabs are rented for transportation purposes. The Barangay hall is just near the houses and there are Barangay tanods in yhe community, which provides safety and security. SPOT MAP * Chapter II The Community and Population Group Population of the Barangay6440 Total Families Surveyed:110 Families Total Population of Individuals Surveyed:496 Sex Ratio: (SR) Sex Ratio:= MaleX 100 Female = 251 Males / 245 Females X 100 = 102 Males per 100 Females The Families surveyed in Old Sta. Mesa St. Brgy. 621 zone 62 accounts for 110 families in whom individuals are 496, there are 251 Males and 245 Females. Using the above formula, the computed sex ratio is 102 Males per 100 Females. The sex ratio of individuals who is

Blogs and communication Essay

Corporate blogging is a new method of communication in which employees of different firms and corporations are allowed to express themselves in the current trend in media communications. Several studies suggest that corporate blogs should be limited to only conveying of information beneficial for the company or firm, and thus there is the need to create a strategic management scheme for blogging. As a form of communication, blogs can certainly evolve into a more powerful means of communication. This power entailed in written texts of blogs shall be seen as a tool in encompassing more productive results of the business sector. According to Business Week Online issued in 2006, â€Å"A Weblog (or blog) can be a powerful marketing tool, but it can also expose a business to a legal minefield† as reported by Jacqueline Klosek. â€Å"Blogs can be used to market a company’s products and services, facilitate communications with clients, and even counter negative publicity. † (Klosek, 2006). From the research, many benefits of corporate blogging have been found: it is a tool for search engine marketing, an aide in building the company’s reputation as a thought leader, a good support in crisis management, tool for building relationships with customers, used as a human voice to a company, illustrates transparency, immediate customer service and feedback, acts as differentiator, and tool to find out what others think about you and your company. Presently, corporations are now much more concerned about their reputations. The vigilant companies realize that knowledge is power in cyberspace. They are trolling chat rooms, discussion boards, online news media and Web sites run by their competitors and critics to detect rumblings that could end up making headlines if a reporter or financial analyst discovers them first (Alsop 2004, 21). The existence of cyberspace, wherein the transfer of information is relatively faster than it was ten years ago has just become a threat to the reputations of corporations which are forced to enter cyberspace for more exposure. Corporate blogging is one dependable medium which corporations may pursue in order to protect their reputations and cut of their costs in terms of crises scenarios which could have been avoided. Although, the most of the companies set up corporate blogs for the purpose of promoting their services, building their good image or gaining any other befits. There is however a limitation in blogging, since legal problems may arise in the process. â€Å"Careless statements posted on a company-sanctioned blog can come back to haunt the company through litigation and other avenues† Klosek stresses. Blogs can cause violations on intellectual-property rights since most corporate blogs do not have specific rules that can be followed by the employees. Trade secrets may be revealed accidentally risking the protected status of company information. Disclosure of trade secrets can jeopardize the blogger’s career since this problem may cause his suspension or termination from his position. From many studies and articles written about corporate blogs, the question has been raised on insufficient management. The integrity rules for protection and management of blogs are expected to be established immediately. This research proposal aims to determine that how does corporate blog as a kind of new innovation be widely adopted and used by the both of the individual blogger and various organizations? What are the benefits of the corporate blogs bring to the organizations? How the public perceives corporate blogging as a kind of new innovation? What are the perceived relative advantages of corporate blogging according to the bloggers? Why is it to be welcome and popular as a successful new innovation? Is corporate blogging compatible with the existing values and practices of the bloggers? 1. 2 Overview of the Structure This proposal is structured into several sections. This section provides the audience with the motivations, objectives and a brief introduction to the research proposal. In the following sections, it includes the Literature review concerning blogging phenomenon and the process of this successful innovation, the benefits and limitation will be critically reviewed to provide a background for the research theme. In order to further understand real world practices, a theoretical framework is introduced. In section 3, known as Diffusion of innovation theory will be applied in the analysis part. The DIO theory is also used in combination with literature review to analyze and illuminate primary data, which will be used to answer the research question and the respective supporting the arguments. Section 4 describes the research methodology and various techniques which the author used to collate empirical data. In this section, the case research has been choosing to track and understand the history of the perception and adoption of blogs as a new innovation by the successful corporation in the business industry. An interview will also be carried out in the research process. The interview will help to find out the relationship between the employer and internal blogger, and further testify, discover and summarize the effects and benefits of the corporate blog as a new innovation. Finally, the discussion and the conclusion sections will be given to summarize of the expectation of findings, contributions, limitations of the research and points in which the research could further be improved or developed. 2 Literature review 2. 1 Understanding of blogs A weblog or blog is a form of an online journal. Schiano, Nardi, Gumbrecht, and Swartz (2004) defined blogs as â€Å"frequently updated web pages with a series of archived posts, typically in reverse chronological order†. According to Gordon (2006), blogs use â€Å"straightforward content management tool, allowing web pages and entries to be created and updated easily, without the need to worry about design or architecture issues† (Gordon, 2006). Although blog posts are primarily textual, authors may also include photos or other multimedia content in their posts. The blog is the fourth biggest communication tool after the e-mail, BBS and ICQ. According to Cooke (2005), about 70 million blogs exist and over 75,000 blogs are being created each day. Blogs is indeed increasingly becoming popular. Sprague (2007) traced the growth and evolution of blogs. He also discussed how businesses use blogs to communicate with customers. There are different kinds of blogs present today at cyberspace. The most popular ones are personal blogs, service, and corporate blogs (Geerts and Kim 2005, 12). Personal Blogs provide information about the thoughts, interests and activities of different people whether they are individuals or are blogging by groups or affiliations. Service blogs are often topic oriented and they are context specific and much informative than personal blogs. Some groups use service blogs to introduce new technologies and recent development regarding the corresponding technologies which they present. Finally, the corporate blog which is created and maintained by a business entity, and is used to provide information about the company’s products and services and to interact with clients and customers. (Geers and Kim 2005, 12). Since most scholars who work in the area of life writing have chosen to see blogs as a development of the handwritten diary (Rak 2005, 166) more and more people engage in writing in blogspots or blogsites. There are both threats and advantages which corporate blogging gives to the corporations. At some point, corporate blogging has strengthened the transparency and corporate communications. Since at present, Corporate communication channels include not only printed materials but also information posted on a company’s Web sites and blogs (Argenti 2006, 358). However, some corporations fail to further improve their corporate communications because they limit their corporation’s blogspots only to their employees and their advertisers. It is highly doubtful whether they have fully utilized the capabilities of new two-way communication tools because more corporate home pages have been primarily used as a platform to push mundane advertising messages (Liu et al. , 1997; Salam et. al. 1998; Young and Benamati, 2000). Another point presents the fact that, there might be leaks in confidential corporate information which might be given out through the engagement to blogs of employees. Cases of such has led to the termination of employees active in Web blogs, which gives a corporate disadvantage as it losses some of its quality workforce due to the lack of policies and rules which apply to blogs. A good example would be the Delta Air Lines flight attendant who lost her job after she posted photos of herself in uniform on her blog. Delta stated that those photos, in which she is wearing Delta uniform with the blouse partly unbuttoned, were â€Å"inappropriate and unauthorized use of Delta branding† (USA Today, 2005). Web blogs is a critical accessory in information dissemination, yet at the same time, it might cause some corporate failures, as although the Internet allows companies to present their viewpoints directly to key constituents, control over information dissemination is lost (Ihator 2001). There are several studies that investigate the nature of blogs and bloggers. Schiano et. al. (2004) interviewed 23 bloggers between the ages 19 and 60. The interviews included questions about the participant’s blogs, blogging habits, thoughts on blogging, and use of other communication media such as e-mails, instant messaging, phone, and web pages. They found out that blogging is becoming increasingly popular because it serves as an easy-to-use personal journal in which he can express his thoughts and opinions. Nardi, Schiano and Gumbrecht (2004) describe blogs as a social activity. They interviewed the same population and questions as with their study entitled â€Å"Blogging by the Rest of Us†. After the interviews, the authors continued to read their participants’ blogs and communicate with some of them through email. The participants reported the reasons they started blogging, the reasons they continue blogging, and the changes in their blogging habits as time pass by. A variety or reasons emerge: readers inform bloggers they need the new posts; the friends influence their friend to blog. Due to these responses, Nardi et. al. (2004) conclude that blogs are â€Å"a form of social communication in which blogger and audience are intimately related through the writing, posting and commenting of blogs† . (Nardi, 2004) These studies give us an idea on the perceptions of bloggers about blogs in general. 2. 2 Corporate blogs and applications in the real world Different types of blogs have been posted in the internet ever since the adoption of different corporations in the late 1990’s. Corporate blogs however have different types in which each is branded according to the specific user or blogger. Dearstyne (2005) cites five different types of corporate blogs as: employee blog, group blog, executive blog, promotional blog, and newsletter blog. Employee blogs are blogs which are much like personal blogs and are maintained by a single rank-and-file employee. They vary in their content and are sometimes managed by different hosts which the corporations recognize. Although, often times, corporations gather all the blogs their employees post. Majority of employee blogs are still hosted independently of the Web site, employee blogs are increasingly being hosted independently of the company Web sit, employee blogs are increasingly being hosted on company-owned domains as more and more companies are officially sponsoring employee blogging. (Lee et. al. 2006, 319). Group Blogs are blogs which are written by several people or groups. Employees collaborate and write on a specific topic or different topics pertaining to a certain theme; they are made by those who are experts on the certain topics. Group blogs are sometimes made through the initiatives of employees themselves and self-hosted. Though, many group blogs are driven by strategic plans crafted by management and hosted by companies own Web sites (Lee et. al. 2006, 320). Executive Blogs, coming from the name itself, executive blogs are blogs which are written by various corporations’ executives. Corporations and consumers have been keener on what position blog writers are on as awareness about corporate standing is widespread. People have become more interested in top executives who run companies than in individual companies (Gaines-Ross 2000). Promotional blogs are those which primary purpose is to create a buzz about products and events of corporations. This blog however sparks controversy as most of the blogs which are promotional blogs are often times computer generated and is largely called as fake by some bloggers who remain critical about using blogspots as advertising media. The blogging community severely criticized this strategy as deceptive and bloggers even proposed product boycotts (Gallagher 2003). This case suggests that, marketing in the blogsphere is often times discouraged due to the lack of human voice in the ads which are placed in the blogsphere. Some corporations have moved from the traditional type of blog with a domain, and instead created a newsletter type of blog wherein opinions, thoughts, and positions of different corporate or organizational members are voiced out. They carry different information about the corporation, the people inside the corporation, and the corporation’s products which are widely discussed by members of the organization through the electronic newsletter. Sprague (2007) further explains the influence of blogs to the American society. There is an increasing number of both bloggers and blog readers each day. At present, the blog has already extended its influence to the business society. Blogs are reported to influence what people think, do and buy. By the summer 2005, it is estimated that there are nearly 5,000 corporate blogs. Nowadays, there are a number of companies who have already set up their own corporate blogs. Aside from the influx of bloggers, talking about anything and practically everything under the sun, in some countries wherein political turmoil is prominent and shouting against a regime could practically lose you your head. Blogspheres are considered as sanctuaries wherein anyone could voice off their thoughts. In Iran, the Blogsphere is one of the major mediums wherein the populace could voice out their political positions freely with minimal risk of persecution. Any foreigner who visits Iran is struck by the gap between the image projected by the regime to the outside world and the reality of Iranian society. The blogs quoted here vividly convey the bitter disillusionment many Iranians feel not just towards the hard-line mullahs, but toward the failed reformist project and its erstwhile leader (Berkeley 2006, 73). The safeness and freedom of the blogosphere from any political and other accusations which may arise from its use due to the arbitrariness of the policies governing the blogosphere may be seen as an advantage of corporate personalities in advertising and the diffusion of their advocacy especially in corporate social responsibility.