From the perspective of your own discipline, critically assess the Essay - 3

From the perspective of your own discipline, critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of any TWO research methods discussed on this module - Essay Example Ethnography refers to a research method that involves the study of peoples and their cultural practices when collecting information. Ethnography requires a researcher to be actively involved in the field where the researchers involve in participants’ activities directly (Hammersley and Atikson 2007, p.14). For example, a journalist carrying out research on the kind of meal consumed by a particular community will have to join them when preparing food in order to collect rigid information. This is an effective method for obtaining primary information as journalist obtains data without exaggeration. Additionally, it enables account for the complexity of the group their relationship and providing context for their behavior (OReilly 2009, p.102). However, it encounters some challenges; firstly, respondents may behave differently during research period thus hiding reliable information. Additionally, the journalist is committed so much since they have to be actively involved in the f ield. Finally, it is a tedious method considering time taken to complete research. Ethnography is often referred to as â€Å"Think Descriptive† where gathered data is culminated, and then journalists’ think about it to bring about cultural meaning from the information obtained. It could also be advantageous for a journalist who is knowledgeable on ethnography since they are able to obtain information from nonverbal traits through body language thus ensuring no information is left hidden (Hansen 2010, p.215). Additionally, unique words are noted and their meanings are compared across cultures to note similarity and differences on the same. Ethnography enables journalists to reflect on their findings; thus, gaining more insight on the matter considering their personal observation on the field of study (Peterson and Domingo 2009, p.29). In addition, this method is useful to journalists in their reporting as it

Asda Stores Ltd Is A British Supermarket Marketing Essay

Asda Stores Ltd Is A British Supermarket Marketing Essay In the year 1999 ASDA became a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mark the worlds largest retailer, and is now known to be the second largest chain in the UK. A survey done in December 2010 showed that 16.5% of UK grocery shoppers used ASDA for their main shopping needs, as they were attracted to ASDAs special offers. ASDAs marketing promotions have most of the time been on its price. They have been known as Britains lowest priced supermarket for the past thirteen years. Since ASDA is a fully owned part of Wal-Mart, it does not required to declare quarterly or half-yearly earnings, and submits full accounts to Companies House each October. Organizational Structure and Culture Organizational Structure ASDAs organizational structure is a hierarchical structure. This is because it has a lot of employees working in various departments of the company. Therefore there information has to pass through many people before it can reach the store manager. For an example, a co worker has to report to the supervisor, the supervisor has to report to the assistant manager/manager, the assistant manager/manager reports to the store manager. A hierarchical structure has many levels. Each level is controlled by one person. A hierarchical company tends to be a very big company just like ASDA. ASDA culture ASDAs culture is unique from other organizations in many ways. ASDA has a team of over one hundred and seventy thousand working across the business. All employees wear a name badge, and have daily huddles to keep up to date on their performance. They strictly follow three beliefs that are, service to our customers, respect for the individual, strive for excellence. ASDA believes that their customers are at the heart of everything they do and that their purpose is to make sure that all their goods and services to be as affordable as possible. They strongly believe that it is a culture to work as one team to support their stores, drawing on the strengths and experiences of individuals and sharing them with each other. When it comes to ASDAs attitude, they believe in commitment, where great ideas can be put into action. They like to find out ways to do things, rather than looking for reasons not to do them. ASDA believes in huddles, and uses it to keep everyone informed about the business performance. They use huddles to communicate their key activities for the day and help them remain focused and achieve the set goal for the day. Huddles also give them the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate team and individual success. Every employee working at ASDA group Ltd wears a name badge. They believe that it makes it easier to be approached when wearing a name badge. ASDA holds The Big Bruch which is their quarterly huddle that is held at the ASDA House in Leeds. This gives the employees the opportunity to share important information in a fun and relaxed way. Normally the Big Bruch starts with a performance in the ASDA Houses atrium. Staffs working at ASDA are not pressurized to wear a jacket, as they believe that jackets are a barrier to be approached. ASDA believes in something called the ten foot rule, where if someone is within ten feet from an employee, it can be anyone, either another employee or a customer or a supplier, they should always say hello. They believe that it helps build an atmosphere of friendliness and respect, and after all it only takes a second. Business Model ASDAs business model is quite similar to any other big organizations business model, although the online business can be a little more complex. ASDAs e-commerce platforms support online shopping for both general merchandise (George clothing) and as well as groceries. The grocery business is operates out of one hundred and seventy five stores, and delivers to the local areas within each store, where they use nine-hundred delivery vehicles to cover up to 95% of all UK postcodes. The ASDA Direct business trades around seven hundred and fifty thousand stocked and stockless products in partnership with other third party and carrier specialists. Currently they do home deliveries, but have plans for the future, where the customer will also have the option to place the order online and pick it up from any ASDA store. They launched their first ASDA Direct catalogue in October 2010 and plan to use this to market the proposition ongoing. Global Visibility ASDA Stored Ltd is a huge scale business, but may not be as big as the new Super Stores, where you can find other additional facilities like launderettes etc. But ASDA is known to be a huge scale business as they provide services in many different sectors. While retailing in groceries and general merchandise, they also have a travel and insurance section, pharmacy section, opticians section and also their own mobile network provider. ASDA has two hundred and ninety three stores operating in the UK and has over one hundred and seventeen thousand employees. They also have many stores abroad in different countries but operate under different names, but sell the same products. Business Alliances Major business alliance of ASDA is George Davies partnership. All the clothing section of ASDA is Georges. The partnership was started in 65 stores in February 1989. ASDA became a part of wal-mart group in the year 1999. Business Process ASDAs business process is structured of four types: Customers Operating Model Colleagues Shareholders (i) Customers When it comes to their customers, ASDA believes in Treating the customers happily. Keeping the goods available to the customers at any time. Providing best quality of goods. Providing the products cheaply. (ii) Operational Model Maintain prices lower when compared to other competitors. Maintaining lower prices at any circumstances. (iii) Colleagues Providing good environment at the work place. Willing to work with others in a professional way. (iv) Shareholders Maintaining new formats Enriching return on investment Step 02 SWOT Analysis for ASDA I N T E R N A L Strengths Cost advantage Can afford to lower prices to attract new customers. Innovation Online growth Online shopping becoming a lot more popular and ASDA has a good secure website. Loyal customers Loyal customers coming back again and again purchasing from the business Strong brand equity Strong financial position Supply chain Pricing Affiliation to Wal-Mart Mini Cafes (Restaurants) Weaknesses Quality of food substandard Not having petrol stations(Tesco etc has) No Express stores (Tesco etc has) No stores abroad with same name E X T E R N A L Opportunities Product and services expansion Takeovers Diversity to Petrol stations Opening Express Stores Expansion abroad by opening stores abroad with same name Threats Competition Economic slowdown External changes (government, politics, taxes, etc) Exchange rate fluctuations Price wars Product substitution Porters Five Forces Model POTENTIAL ENTRANTS (Treat of Mobility) SUPPLIERS (Supplier Power) BUYERS (Buyer Power) SUBSTITUTES (Treat of Substitutes) INDUSTRY RIVALRY Industry Rivalry Current Competitors: Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks and Spenser Growing industry possibility of new competitors Customers have low switching costs Fixed cost are high resulting huge production and reduction in prices Exit barriers are high and rivals stay and compete Possible Solution for ASDA to avoid competitive rivalry between their competitors (Tesco etc): They should avoid price competition ASDA should differentiate their products By reducing industry over-capacity They should focus on different segments Also they should communicate with their competitors New Entrants Potential competitors with capital requirements to start a business is less Selling of same/similar products or services Customers can easily switch (low switching costs) Price competition Possible ways that ASDA may reduce the threat of new entrants By increasing sales efficiency Have alliances with other products and services Create a brand image (they do have it) By tying up with their suppliers By typing up with their distributers End users/buyers Buyers purchasing in bulk quantity No differentiation in products Buyers can easily switch to competitors product Price sensitive buyers Very low cost (would think twice) Possible ways for ASDA to reduce the bargaining power of their customers ASDA should increase their customer loyalty Use of customer relationship management By increasing incentives and value added services for their customers Suppliers Suppliers being strong and well organized Suppliers can demand when not many suppliers of that particular product is available Suppliers can demand when they supply an effective or unique product When the switching cost of supplier is high When the supplier has captured the market Possible ways for ASDA to reduce the bargaining power of their suppliers ADSA should create partnerships with their suppliers ASDA should use a supply chain management Providing supply chain training By increasing dependency of supplier on them By building knowledge of their supplier costs and methods By taking of a supplier Substitutes Customers can switch when there are many substitute products available in the market When customers find the same product or service for a cheaper price elsewhere Better quality products found at a competitor Competitor earning high profits can reduce price of the substitute product to the lowest level Possible ways for ASDA to reduce the threats of their substitutes By increasing switching costs Having customer surveys to learn customer preferences Emphasize on differences Alliances with other companies Step 03 Bringing competitive advantage through cloud computing What is cloud computing? Cloud computing is an online form of computing and is closely associated with Web 2.0. It enables users to access applications using a browser, while the application is installed and stored along with the data on a server. This helps companies to reduce their capital costs, by not having the need to purchase software and hardware. Cloud computing has become a whole new form of computing where it allows thousands of users from all parts of the world to access something without the need of having to download and install them on their computers. Advantages of cloud computing Reduced cost. It would help ASDA Stores Ltd to receive secure, managed hosting at a very low cost. Also they are able to access it from any computer and still have the file they require. This also makes it easier for the company as they do not have to reproduce the software and ship out to all its branches. By using cloud computing it would help ASDA to reduce it cost and only pays a rent to the server space required. When ASDAs requirements grow they do not have to purchase any additional hardware in order to upgrade their servers, which may also help them keep the cost down. Cloud computing automatically updates the servers for the owners. Therefore owners no longer have to hire specialists to update their servers. Cloud computing is mobile. It lets its users at ASDA connect with any device, which means they can do their work from any part of the world as far as they have access to the internet. This could save time and also information to be up to date. ASDA users can log onto the network without having to download anything. This saves them time and hard drive space. An important feature of cloud computing is that companies share recourses. This means that they are allowed access to the resources via cloud computing. This also helps ASDA save time and money by placing all their resources in one place which makes it easy for its employees to access. It benefits ASDA to keep their files safe on their servers and less likely to be lost or stolen on a hard drive. The server will have an offsite backup in case something goes wrong. Therefore ASDA does not have to worry about losing any information. Disadvantages of cloud computing Additional cost of data transfer fees Another disadvantage about cloud computing is that you do not have control over the remote servers, their software, or their security The companys data is with a third-party company It may be hard to transfer large amounts of data from the provider. Transforming competitive advantage with social media What is social media? Social media integrates the online technology and methods through which people can share content, give their personal opinions and swap different perspectives. Social media website can be made up of many ways. They may include: Text often used to share opinions or post on blogs Images to share images and photos Audio allows you to create podcasts which users may download Video you may record a video and share it with everyone Nowadays some of the most popular types of social media websites are of: Social networking such websites allow you to create a profile of yourself and chat, discuss and also share information with others. A few examples of popular social networking sites are FaceBook, MySpace, Bebo. Wikis they are websites that lets you create, edit and share information on a particular subject or topic. An example of wikis is Wikipedia. Video Sharing you may upload and share videos with the web community. An example of such website is YouTube. Photo Sharing Users may upload pictures and images from their account and can share them with other users around the world. An example of such website is Flickr. News aggregation Provides a list of the latest news that is published by users from a range of different websites. An example of a news aggregation website is Digg. Social Bookmarking users of such sites are allowed to publicly bookmark web pages that they may find valuable or interesting and share them with other users. Online gaming Lets users do play games online. An example of online gaming is World of Warcraft. Presence apps Such websites lets users to post micro blog-like posts and tell others what they are doing. An example of such website is Twitter. Advantages of Social Media It is said that Asda.com home shopping service serves 97% in the country. ASDA launched financial services such as providing personal loans, general insurance, life insurance and credit cards. Its aim is to take trouble out of financial planning and insurance and to offer cheap prices. ASDAs thinking about social media: Issues get alerted in a brilliant way. Informing things to head office and as well as store level. Strategy is enough for digital world, no need of digital strategy. Be prepared to face good or bad. Some future ways of ASDA Communication: ASDA may create blogs, in order to get feedback from customers etc. They may promote themselves through social networks such as facebook etc. They also may use multimedia or photography in order to advertise their company. And also could allow their customers to comment on their products. This way they may be able to see what their customers think about their products and services and may change it according to customer requirements. Can mobility bring competitive advantage? What is Mobility? Mobility solutions gives people the opportunity to access the companys information from anywhere in the world at anytime in a flawless and secure manner. By making information accessible from anywhere in the world, it can be guaranteed that employees would not have to wait for the data to reach them in other means when making an important decision. Another use of mobility applications is that it can be used to capture delayed or lost information. In the past mobility once used to refer to notebooks. Although notebooks have a positive side, they have several limitations to what they can do. They can be bulky to carry around, expensive, they require a data connection in order to connect to the internet and also most of the time have a low battery life. Nowadays most of us have replaced the use of notebooks with powerful, with a much longer battery life hand held devices such as PDAs and Smartphones. Users can connect to the internet from their cellular networks signal or may also have the option of connecting via Wi-Fi. In most companies Email is the most important application when it comes to mobility. Therefore in most companies the senior management have been equipped with Blackberry and other similar devices with push email technology, which helps easy access to their emails. Even the middle and junior level management can only benefit in mobility solutions in order to guarantee higher levels of productivity and efficiency. Mobility applications can consist of various functionalities such as Sales force autonation, customer relationship management, logistics tracking and planning, performance tracking, push alerts and much more. Using these types of applications can be as easy as typing SMS or as powerful as hi-tech applications running on Smartphones. Before a company can go ahead with the use of mobility solutions, it first needs to consider several restrictions. The company needs to first evaluate which of its business processes require the access to information (PCs). For an example the sales function where the staff requires the latest and accurate information, while having limited access to the companys IT network. After evaluating what business processes require access to information (PCs), the company then has to decide what form of applications they will consider. For some business processes of the company, plain SMS-based querying might be enough. This means the application may be installed on the existing mobile phone that most of the companys staff are having. But if the mobile phones do not have to complexity to hold such softwares, the company might have to provide complex machines such as PDAs or smartphones in order to be able to use such softwares. But for other business process in the company may need of much high tech equipment than a PDA or smartphone. But mobility can also sometimes have a negative side to it. Some employees would take a long time to get used to using such mobile devices, and some employees may not like using such devices, this may have a negative effect on the company. Since the devices are mobile, there are possibilities of thefts or losing the devices. And since it may contain valuable company information, it may be a huge concern to the company of losing such equipment. But to overcome such incidents and to protect their data, companies may install a password based access into the devices, and also have firewalls to avoid hacking. These are some possible ways of protecting the companys data. Step 04 Our business strategy for ASDA consists of three steps Analysis Integration Implementation (i) Anaysis In the analysis part, in order to develop a business strategy for ASDA, we are going to use the SWOT analysis we did in step 2. Using the SWOT analysis, it will help us gather, analyze and evaluate information and identify strategic options that ASDA is facing. We chose SWOT analysis to help develop a business strategy for ASDA because we believe that SWOT analysis is a very effective way of identifying the strengths and weaknesses, as well as examining the opportunities and treats that ASDA may face. Using the SWOT analysis framework, we have put in place what we believe are the Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of ASDA. Strengths and weaknesses are known to be internal while opportunities and threats are external. I N T E R N A L Strengths Cost advantage Can afford to lower prices to attract new customers. Innovation Online growth Online shopping becoming a lot more popular and ASDA has a good secure website. Loyal customers Loyal customers coming back again and again purchasing from the business Strong brand equity Strong financial position Supply chain Pricing Affiliation to Wal-Mart Mini Cafes (Restaurants) Weaknesses Quality of food substandard Not having petrol stations(Tesco etc has) No Express stores (Tesco etc has) No stores abroad with same name E X T E R N A L Opportunities Product and services expansion Takeovers Diversity to Petrol stations Opening Express Stores Expansion abroad by opening stores abroad with same name Threats Competition Economic slowdown External changes (government, politics, taxes, etc) Exchange rate fluctuations Price wars Product substitution (ii) Intergration Using this knowledge, we can now develop a plan of action by first matching the strengths and weaknesses with the opportunities in the external environment, and also oppose any possible threats that might create a danger to plans. A weakness seen in ASDA is that they do not have any petrol stations or any affiliated petrol stations. Their competitors like Tesco has their petrol stations and also other competitors have affiliated petrol stations where they can use discount coupons to get discounts on petrol. ASDA can use change this weakness into an opportunity. Since they are in a strong financial position, they can start their own petrol stations, or get together with a petrol station and sign a contract with them, where their customers can get discounts on petrol when they shop with ASDA. Another weakness ASDA faces is that they do not have any express stores like their competitor Tesco does. Taking into notice that they are in a strong financial position, having a good supply chain, low cost prices, and also being affiliated to wal-mart, they can use this weakness and change it into an opportunity by opening express stores. This could be a huge gain for ASDA. But by doing so, they should also take into consideration the threats they could face. Because when Tesco started their express stores they faced many issues with other shop owners and the government. Therefore ASDA first look into the external changes (government, politics, taxes etc). Although ASDA has stores abroad with other names with different spellings, that sell the exact same products. Most people would not know that it is a part of ASDA. When you look at ASDAs competitor Tesco, they have many stores in many other countries with the same company name. This helps them build up their company name and brand. Therefore if ASDA can also do the same and open stores abroad with its name they can build a better name recognition. And since they are affiliated to Wal-mart, and also currently having stores abroad with different spellings, they already have a good supply chain and structure active already. So it would be easy for ASDA to start its branches abroad with the same name. Since they already have stores abroad with different spellings which are active, the threats of starting business abroad are to a minimum. The possible threats they could have faced is the exchange rate fluctuations, price wars as other countries would have other local competitors etc. But since they already have stores operating abroad, it would be easier to start stores with their own ASDA name. Another possible opportunity that ASDA may consider is expansion of their products and services. Since they are an affiliation to wal-mart, which is considered to be the worlds largest retail company, this can be a positive thing for ASDA. And since they have much other strength like being in a strong financial position, affordable low cost prices, good supply chain, strong brand equity and loyal customers, it would be a good idea for them to expand the number of stores, and also introduce more services. For an example: a launderette. This would help the customers benefit more, as they can put their clothes to wash while they shop. By doing so, they would first have to look for any possible threats. For an example: Competition. They would have to first see if there is any other company specializing in this sort of business, who are offering low cost laundry services close to their stores and whether they would be any threat to ASDA. Another opportunity for ASDA could be takeovers. Since they are in a strong financial position, and a well reputable company, they should see if they can buy over any possible companies that they see could be a possible threat in the future. (iii ) Implementation After matching up the strengths and weaknesses with the opportunities while taking into consideration the possible threats that can affect the plan, we now move onto the implementation part. In this section, ASDA will have individual teams that will have respective roles in bringing the strategy to succeed, by applying specific tactics that is developed in order to support the strategy. So by appointing different teams to work on different subsections of the business strategy, this could help the implementation stage to be a success. Since ASDA is not sure how the results would turn out to be, it is not wise for ASDA to spend a lot of money and time at once into starting something new. Therefore, as a trial, they should first start it on a small scale, and according to its progress they should then decide whether it is going to benefit the company or not. In order to see the progress of the implementation of the new strategies, ASDA will include a measurement module. This is derived from the overall goals established to accomplish the business mission. The goals are broken down, by the new business and the time estimated to accomplish them. The business strategy will include a module to periodically evaluate the current progress against goals. Based according on how well the business strategy has led to goal achievement, the strategic analysis process is repeated to adjust the strategy as required. Theme we selected In order for ASDA to achieve their goals, we believe that social media will bring the most competitive advantage out of the three themes. This is because; ASDA is already a well established company and has a well balanced infrastructure with all the necessary technology and people to operate them. Although cloud computing and mobility also have their positive sides, for an example, in cloud computing, a company does not have keep buying new servers as their business grows, and do not have to spend a lot of money in updating the software and installing new servers etc, and with the use of mobility, according to the business process they can provide their staff with various mobile devices to carry out their tasks to cut down on time etc. But as said before ASDA is not a new company and has been in operation for many years. Therefore they have already invested in all the necessary technology and people they need. If ASDA was a new company it might have been a good option to consider either cloud computing or mobility as they would not have to spend a lot of money on servers etc and pay for only what they require. Since ASDA already has the necessary technology and people, they have to focus on ways to improve their business. This includes what options are there to improve their business, what their customers think about their current products and services, their competitors etc. So by using social media, they are able to achieve this. They are able to advertise their products in many different ways and also get good feedback from their customers, which will help them to know whether their customers are satisfied with their products and services and change it according to the customer requirements. Some ways they could use social media is by having blogs where customers can write on. This is a good way to know what their customers think about their products. This way issues get alerted in a brilliant way, and they are able to cater according to the customer needs. They also may promote themselves through social networking, which also is a good and effective way. These are some of the ways they can use social media to improve on their business. Then according to their customer feedback, they can start implementing the opportunities which they gathered in the SWOT analysis by converting the weaknesses into opportunities with the help of their strengths while taking into consideration the possible threats they may face. Then they could also move onto having a social network within the organization, where they can have a blog where employees within the company can share their thoughts and ideas on how to improve their products and services to satisfy customer requirements.

Intraracial Racism Essay -- Sociology Race Sociological Papers

Intraracial Racism Racism. African-Americans and â€Å"Whites†, African-Americans and Hispanics, Asian Americans and â€Å"Whites†, Asian Americans and Hispanics. Think of racism, and thoughts of clashes and conflicts between one of these ethnic groups and another predominate. The idea of racism is seldom associated with two groups of the same ethnicity. However, another type of racism exists, one not necessarily rooted in ethnic differences, but rather on cultural and demographic differences, as well as location and economic status. It is expressed between communities or sectors within a racial group, and works to further partition them. Intraracial racism fragments communities already struggling with interracial racism. Being internal to an ethnic group, this notion is rarely considered by outsiders to the group. In recent years, I have experienced two examples of internal racism within a racial group. The first one deals directly with my identity as a Puerto Rican. Puerto Ricans living in the Island have a general view of those who have migrated and now live in the United States. In most cases, individuals have moved to the US searching for wider economic opportunities, mainly during the first half of the 20th century, when the Island was shifting from a mainly agricultural to a predominantly industrial economy. Emigrants were looked at as inferior, as they represented the lower end of the economic spectrum. Additionally, most of them did not have a high level of education. Similar to many immigrant groups nowadays, they were financially hard-hit and could only obtain the lowest jobs when moving to the United States, which in turn led to the formation of a specific type of community. They were constrained to housing in p... ...skin color. In addition to physical traits, this kind of racism can also be class-based, as in the case of Puerto Ricans. Racism within a racial group is a problem that is not as readily addressed as interracial racism. However, it is a concrete problem that needs to be tackled as much as any other form of racism. Despite this, it remains an issue not thoroughly explored, and consequently not sufficiently dealt with. Maybe it roots in and feeds on racism between racial groups, and one cannot have one without the other. Works Cited: Jones, Trina. â€Å"Colorism.† Duke Law Magazine. Fall 2000. Volume 18, Number 12. < http://www.law.duke.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2000/colorism.html> Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York, New York: Penguin Books, Ltd. 1970. PBS Frontline. â€Å"A Class Divided.† 1985. Intraracial Racism Essay -- Sociology Race Sociological Papers Intraracial Racism Racism. African-Americans and â€Å"Whites†, African-Americans and Hispanics, Asian Americans and â€Å"Whites†, Asian Americans and Hispanics. Think of racism, and thoughts of clashes and conflicts between one of these ethnic groups and another predominate. The idea of racism is seldom associated with two groups of the same ethnicity. However, another type of racism exists, one not necessarily rooted in ethnic differences, but rather on cultural and demographic differences, as well as location and economic status. It is expressed between communities or sectors within a racial group, and works to further partition them. Intraracial racism fragments communities already struggling with interracial racism. Being internal to an ethnic group, this notion is rarely considered by outsiders to the group. In recent years, I have experienced two examples of internal racism within a racial group. The first one deals directly with my identity as a Puerto Rican. Puerto Ricans living in the Island have a general view of those who have migrated and now live in the United States. In most cases, individuals have moved to the US searching for wider economic opportunities, mainly during the first half of the 20th century, when the Island was shifting from a mainly agricultural to a predominantly industrial economy. Emigrants were looked at as inferior, as they represented the lower end of the economic spectrum. Additionally, most of them did not have a high level of education. Similar to many immigrant groups nowadays, they were financially hard-hit and could only obtain the lowest jobs when moving to the United States, which in turn led to the formation of a specific type of community. They were constrained to housing in p... ...skin color. In addition to physical traits, this kind of racism can also be class-based, as in the case of Puerto Ricans. Racism within a racial group is a problem that is not as readily addressed as interracial racism. However, it is a concrete problem that needs to be tackled as much as any other form of racism. Despite this, it remains an issue not thoroughly explored, and consequently not sufficiently dealt with. Maybe it roots in and feeds on racism between racial groups, and one cannot have one without the other. Works Cited: Jones, Trina. â€Å"Colorism.† Duke Law Magazine. Fall 2000. Volume 18, Number 12. < http://www.law.duke.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2000/colorism.html> Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York, New York: Penguin Books, Ltd. 1970. PBS Frontline. â€Å"A Class Divided.† 1985.

Ohms Law and Resistance

Aim: To determine the relationship between the length of eureka wire, and resistivity of the wire. Hypothesis: As the length of the wire increases, the resistance of the wire will increase. Background: Some materials have consistent resistance at the same temperature regardless of how much voltage is applied through them, these materials are known as ‘Ohmic’ resistors. This is because they are said to obey Ohm’s law, which states that if a voltmetre is used to measure the voltage (V) of an unknown resistance (R), and an ammetre is used to measure the current (i) through the same unknown resistance, then ‘R’ would be given by R = V/i .The eureka wire used in this experiment is an ohmic resistor, so theoretically it can be used to measure the relationship between its length and resistance without other variables affecting it. Equipment: 1. 1 metre length of eureka wire 2. Power supply unit 3. 1 Voltmetre 4. 1 Ammetre 5. 1 Rheostat 6. Connecting wires Pr ocedure: 1. Measure and cut 1 metre of wire 2. Set up the electrical circuit as in the diagram 3. Set the rheostat at its furthest point on one end. 4.Connect the wire into the circuit at 10cm length 5. Turn the power supply on, and record the voltage and amp readings. Turn the power supply off immediately after to prevent temperature build up in the circuit. 6. Repeat step 5 twice, adjusting the rheostat to the middle position, and then the other end position. 7. Repeat steps 3-6 increasing the length of the wire 10cm at a time, up to 1 metre total length 8. Divide the voltage by the amp readings to calculate the resistance 9.Plot the wire length against the resistance Diagram: Results: Table showing the calculated resistance of the wire Wire Length (cm)| Resistance 1(? )| Resistance 2(? )| Resistance 3(? )| Average Resistance(? )| 100| 3| 2. 9| 2. 7| 2. 87| 90| 2. 8| 2. 5| 2. 2| 2. 5| 80| 2. 5| 2. 4| 2. 6| 2. 5| 70| 2. 2| 1. 9| 1. 8| 1. 97| 60| 1. 9| 1. 6| 1. 6| 1. 7| 50| 1. 7| 1. 4| 1. 4| 1. 5| 40| 1. 2| 1. 3| 1| 1. 17| 30| 1. 1| 0. 8| 0. 8| 0. 9| 20| 0. 7| 0. 5| 0. 6| 0. 6| 10| 0. 2| 0. 3| 0. 4| 0. 3| Discussion:The results support the hypothesis, showing that as the length of the wire was increased, the resistance also increased. The voltage and current readings were taken over 3 trials at different settings on the rheostat. The plotted results do not all sit in a linear pattern as they should in theory, showing that the precision of the results is poor. For example, there is a comparatively large inconsistency which can be seen in the results at 80 and 90cm wire lengths, where the resistance remains the same at 2. ohms rather than increasing. Smaller deviations in the data can be seen at the 50, 60 and 70cm wire lengths, where the points are above and below the trendline. These inconsistencies suggest the presence of random errors, which may arise from poor resolution of the voltmetre and ammetre, and build-up of heat in the rheostat and the wire causing excess resistance. Accuracy of the results may have been affected by systematic error, which may have been caused by incorrect calibration of the voltmetre and ammetre.Inconsistencies in the eureka wire’s structure such as curvature or bends in the wire may affect the actual length of the wire compared to the measured length, and inconsistencies in the compound makeup of the wire may have also affected the results, causing them to be all higher or lower than the true value. In the circuit setup, the ammetre is measuring current through both the wire and voltmetre. This could cause the measured current to be higher than the true value, and therefore the calculated resistance to be too low. To reduce the effect of random errors, digital multimetre’s could be used to provide more accurate readings.Allowing time for the rheostat and wire to cool down after each trial, or using new sections of wire stored at room temperature in each trial would minimise the effect of heat on the wire’s resistance. To identify the presence of systematic error, the experiment should be repeated with a single multimetre rather than two separate volt and ammetres. The experiment should then be further repeated with new sections of wire to identify error caused by any inconsistencies in the wire. Conclusion: As the length of the eureka wire increased, the wire’s resistance also increased

American Ethnic Literature

The word ‘ethnic’ denotes or derives from distinctive ways of living created by a group of people. Hence, American ethnic literature must be influenced by the ethnic or cultural ties of an ethnic American author, and must reveal to some extent the distinctive ways of living practiced by the ethnic group that the author represents. Biographical criticism entails a deeper comprehension of an author’s work by knowing the essential details of his or her life.Because writers are real people, the literature that they write generally contains reflections of themselves, the kinds of people they encounter in their lives, and the circumstances that they face. Not all people in the United States belong to the white European race. The Indians were settled on our land before the European whites came along to change the history of the land for ever. Africans were initially brought by the European whites to work as slaves on plantations. The Hispanics and the Asians also entered the land as immigrants.Still, the dominant community in the United States, in terms of population, is that of the European whites. Theirs is the predominant culture in America, and their literature is known as mainstream American literature. At the same time, the Native Americans maintain some of their ancient rites, in spite of America’s predominant culture of the European whites. The African Africans continue to be influenced by the music that their ancestors made on the ships that brought slaves to America (McBride, 2007). The Hispanic Americans and the Asian Americans also maintain aspects of their culture through their distinctive languages and foods.Unsurprisingly, these cultural differences must reveal themselves in American ethnic literature as compared to mainstream American literature. American Ethnic Literature 2 All of the different groups representing the Americans today are maintaining their ethnic differences, even if many of their members feel that they are o ne with the mainstream culture. As a matter of fact, it is but natural for the various ethnicities representing America in our time to be maintaining cultural differences, while trying to fit into the mainstream culture.As mentioned previously, the culture of different ethnic groups must reveal itself in the writings of ethnic American writers. When an American ethnic author does not reveal his or her distinctive culture in literature, however, it is reasonable to claim that the person’s writings represent mainstream American literature. Zane, for example, is an African American author of erotic fiction who is writing mainstream American literature. Although the author belongs to an American ethnic group, her writings do not reflect her ethnicity.She sometimes uses middle-class African American characters in her novels, but she also employs white American characters. Even so, an American writer of European descent may also be expected to do the same. Besides, Zane does not ma ke references in her books to her own race as opposed to the Americans of European descent, and neither does she complain about the problems that the Africans have gone through in America. Rather, the characters in Zane’s erotic novels could be people belonging to any number of races (Zane, 2001; Zane, 2005).One of Zane’s novels, Afterburn, is about a chiropractor in Washington D. C. who visits his local bank because he is interested in one of the employees of the bank. He believes that she is too beautiful to be a single woman, which is the reason why he has never asked her out. When American Ethnic Literature 3 he does, however, he finds out that she has a history of disastrous relationships. He, too, has a broken heart. And so, the two of them finally get together (Zane, 2005). While forming their bond, the man and the woman have to meet a variety of characters who add spice to their relationship.The woman has a fickle minded mother, the man has got playboys as budd ies, and then there are lovers from the past that keep trying to disrupt the new relationship. Nevertheless, Zane manages to turn the relationship into a tie of deep love and longing (Zane, 2005). Most importantly, she creates a story that could happen in anybody’s life. Because Zane is an American, her literature must be considered mainstream American literature. She is an African American, but her literature cannot be considered American ethnic literature seeing that it does not solely reflect the culture and values of the African Americans.Instead, Zane is one of those ethnic American writers who appear to have totally blended into the mainstream American culture. On a similar note, Jamaica Kincaid (1990) in her novel, Lucy, presents a nineteen year old young woman by the name of Lucy Josephine Potter who is trying to forget her roots in the West Indies. In the process, no doubt, the girl is trying to blend into the mainstream American culture. Kincaid is an American ethni c writer who was born in the West Indies (Benson & Hagseth, 2001). A biographical critic might assert that Lucy, the girl who came to North America as a nanny, is a reflection of the author.Regardless, Kincaid’s novel about Lucy may be considered American ethnic literature only because it contains glimpses of the author’s ethnicity. Lucy hated her old home, a British colony; and yet memories of her mother continue to haunt her, taking her back to West Indies. Her mother acts as a symbol for Lucy’s motherland. The American Ethnic Literature 4 girl feels emotionally unattached to her mother, and finds a better motherly model in the United States by the name of Mariah, who acts as a symbol for the new land the girl has come to occupy.Mariah replaces Lucy’s mother with respect to the kinds of feelings people are taught by nature or nurture to feel for their mothers. Moreover, Kincaid’s novel establishes a clear difference between Lucy’s mother a nd the character of Mariah. For example, Lucy’s mother was emotionally dependent on her daughter, to the point of becoming an emotional pain. The mother was also neglectful of the needs of her young daughter. Mariah, on the contrary, treats Lucy as a grownup. She exposes Lucy to the museums of America, and gives her presents.She also looks out for the well-being of the young Lucy during the time that she is adjusting to the new environment (Kincaid). Lucy feels far from her roots in West Indies. She would not read her mother’s letters that arrive in the mail. She wants to avoid the emotional pain that her mother brought into her life, by being oppressively reliant on her daughter. Furthermore, Lucy is trying to leave colonialism behind. She had shown rebellion in West Indies toward the oppressive invasion of the British. She had refused to sing in her school choir, â€Å"Rule, Britannia!† Just as her mother keeps on being brought to mind, colonialism surfaces in young Lucy’s flashbacks of West Indies. She wants to get away from it all. In America and on her own, the young girl would like to be an individualist, able to make her own decisions, and forgetting all that was painful and negative about the past (Kincaid). Because the focus of Kincaid’s book is the girl’s desire to blend into the mainstream American culture while forgetting the past, the novel may also be termed mainstream American American Ethnic Literature 5 literature.Given that it describes the author’s ethnicity thoroughly, however, it must be considered in part American ethnic literature. Amy Tan’s (1989) The Joy Luck Club is similarly part mainstream and part ethnic American literature. Containing sixteen stories that revolve around conflicts between old-fashioned mothers who are Chinese immigrants, and modern daughters who have been raised in the United States, the novel describes the mainstream American culture in addition to the Chines e culture. Tan is an Asian American author, and therefore her writing should have been ethnic American in its entirety.However, her writing reveals that an Asian American author feels like an American before she can relate to the Asian experience. Additionally, although the writer tries to bridge the gap between the two cultures that she is supposed to represent by having her characters travel to China, it is a fact that the American experience cannot be discounted by any means. The only ethnic American authors who write American ethnic literature must be ones who reflect solely on their ethnicity in their works, showing utter disregard for the mainstream American culture.The following passage describes some of these authors: During the years preceding the Civil War, America’s ethnic and racial minorities began to publish novels, poems, histories, and autobiographies that explored what it meant to be an outsider in a predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant society. The r esult was a unique body of ethnic writing chronicling the distinctive experience and changing self-image of ethnic Americans. One of the earliest forms of African American literature was the slave narrative, graphic American Ethnic Literature 6first-person accounts of life in bondage, written by former slaves, including William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Josiah Henson†¦ These volumes not only awoke readers to the hardships and cruelties of life under slavery, they also described the ingenious strategies that fugitive slaves used to escape from bondage. William and Ellen Craft, for example, disguised themselves as master and slave; Henry â€Å"Box† Brown had himself crated in a box and shipped north. †¦Native Americans, too, produced firsthand accounts of their lives. Among the mostnotable is the Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-she-kia-Kiak or Black Hawk (1833), a classic spiritual and secular biography, in which the Sauk warrior explains why he resisted white efforts to seize Indian land in northwestern Illinois during the Black Hawk War (1832). William Apes, a Pequod, published one of the earliest histories from an Indian vantage point in 1836. John Rollin Ridge, a Cherokee journalist, published the first novel by an Indian in 1850, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, which recounts the heroic adventures of a Robin Hood–like bandit in California who protects Mexican Americans from white exploitation. Much more than a simple adventure story, this novel is also a thinly veiled protest of the treatment of Native Americans by someone who had personally experienced the removal of the Cherokees from their tribal homelands in Georgia (â€Å"American Ethnic Literature,† 2007). Such is truly American ethnic literature. It focuses solely on the ethnicity of the author, while disregarding if not rejecting the mainstream culture.On the other hand, novels by ethnic American authors that reveal the differences between mainstream Americ an culture as opposed American Ethnic Literature 7 to the authors’ respective ethnicities are not true American ethnic literature. This is due to the fact that the authors as well as their characters have attempted to blend into the mainstream culture by getting rid of their ethnic identities to a large extent. American Ethnic Literature 8 References American Ethnic Literature. (2007). Digital History. Retrieved September 24, 2007, fromhttp://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/database/article_display. cfm? HHID=646. Benson, K. M. , & Hagseth, C. (2001). Jamaica Kincaid. Voices from the Gaps. Retrieved September 24, 2007, from http://voices. cla. umn. edu/vg/Bios/entries/kincaid_jamaica. html. Kincaid, J. (1990). Lucy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. McBride, J. (2007, April). Hip Hop Planet. National Geographic. Tan, A. (1989). The Joy Luck Club. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Zane. (2001). Addicted. New York: Atria Books. ——. (2005). Afterburn. New York: Atria Books.

Glorious Death Essays - France, Battle Of The Somme, Trench Warfare

Glorious Death Essays - France, Battle Of The Somme, Trench Warfare Glorious Death With the current situations in Angola and Kosovo. And Past situations like the Civil War and WWII. A question arises. Is it glorious to die for your country?.... This question has been posed to many young people about to embark on war although the answer has usually been 'yes' in response to their country due mainly to the fact that the government instills it in the people of the country to support one's country and one way is to send young abled bodied men into the army. If you were one individual that was not in favour of fighting for your country you would surely become an outcast by the countries people. To avoid ridicule and becoming outcasted by the people living around you, you would join the army just in the thought that you were obligated to for the sole sake of your country. Such thoughts were reinforced by the government promotion of propaganda. Glorifying death is not needed to be taught and should be up to the sole individual. School systems should teach an unbiased point of view of war to enable the child to make their own decision to fight for one's country. Within the education system it was instructed to the teachers to teach the children at a young age during the brink of war to instill that their the life of the country and for them to defend their country against the enemy. Teachers showed being in a army was representing honour and the pride of the country. Guilt was laid on the students who showed rebellion by the teacher. Many times the teacher would try to show a soldier that looks happy and content trying to represent being a soldier makes you happy and content. Many young inexperienced soldiers were sent to training camps near the battle fields that they would soon be sent to fight, for their country and their life. The training camps were situated on similar enviroments that resembled the battle fields of where the fighting would take place. Reinforced displine to the young and ignorant men. Trench warfare is when many soldiers of opposing countries fight against each other across a vast desolate, dirt covered land, and the only sense of cover was to crouch in a usually water logged trench. The sense of death engulfed your very soul, the constant bombardment of shells echo in your mind long after it had ceased. On the Western front conditions were horrible to say the least, stench of death remained constantly in the air, bodies riddled with bullet wounds lay across the bottoms of the trenches, dismembered bodies scattered across the landscape and the sounds of agonizing and dying men echo across the battle grounds. Very limited rations offering very little in flavour was the only food available to the soldiers. Often raining, it caused muddy, damp conditions. The men staying in a trench filled with water and muddy conditions often caused such diseases as trench foot and trench mouth. Contagious diseases were spread quickly. Lack of cleaniness gave many soldiers lice and rats would run through the trenches feeding on the garbage and human wastes. Thousands of soldiers would line up under the cover of their trenches for a stretch of miles and wait for the leading officer to give the signal for the charge. When the signal was given the thousands of soldiers would all try to run across the no-man's land to attempt the breach of the enemies trench. This charge would be under constant machine gun fire and mortar shelling by the enemy. These kind of attacks usually failed maily due to the fact the odds were already stacked against the attacking party. The distances the charging men had to run to get to the enemies trench was far enough for the enemy to use it's constant shelling and it's machine gun fire to dwindle the attacking army significant enough for the attacking army to retreat. Counter attacks were quickly attempted after the attacks. The counter attacks were similiar to the actual attacks except the difference was that the counter attack involved the killing of the retreating of the enemy instead of attacking someone under the cover of

Psychology of Exceptional Children essays

Psychology of Exceptional Children essays Teaching On-Task and On-Schedule Behaviors to High-Functioning Children with Autism Via Picture Activity Schedules. In this article, the authors set out to prove the importance of the development and future use of visual activity schedules. It is believed that the visual activity schedule system will promote independent functioning of students with autism spectrum disorders in their least restrictive environments. PECS, or Picture Exchange Communication Systems, was claimed in the article to be effective in teaching students to use a type of picture-based system in order to communicate socially. Visual prompts, such as pictures and words, are thought to help children to identify their play choices during free play. They also teach a variety of tasks to people with disabilities including cooking and basic cleaning and custodial skills. Also, of importance in todays society, is the fact that they have been useful in teaching autistic people computer skills. The main goal in this article was to teach children with low-functioning autism to follow the visual activity schedule, in order to complete daily living tasks. These tasks include getting dressed, washing laundry, and setting the table. The schedules used visual prompts to show the students what work was to be completed. Many autistic children have trouble going from one activity to another. The visual schedules gave the students a structured environment for learning and performing. Each students individual activity schedule was displayed in a 4 x 6 inch plastic photo album with four line drawn pictures of academic activities. A 2 x 2 photo card was placed in a transparent plastic envelope that allowed only one picture per page. After the children were introduced to the visual activity schedules, there were immediate positive increases in the level of performance. When the schedules were taken away, there was a decrease in the per...