NUMBERS DROP FOR MARRIED WITH CHILDREN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NUMBERS DROP FOR MARRIED WITH CHILDREN - Essay Example To be more precise and clear, a few statistical data can be taken into consideration. Over the last five decades, cohabiting couples in the United States have increased tenfold from 0.44 million to 4.2 million. Divorce rates have increased from 9 to 20 per 1000 married couples for the same period. Births to unmarried women have increased from 11% to 38% from 1970 to 2006. Nationally, more than 1.3 million children are born out of wedlock each year. While cohabitation, divorce and unmarried childbearing have increased, marriage in America has alarmingly declined over the last few decades. Married couples with children are one quarters of the total number of households and half of what was in 1960. Some are of the opinion that only the well educated and the well paid are interested in the institution of marriage. It has been observed that marriage not only declined less among the well educated and well paid, but also that they are less likely to divorce. Though college educated women i nitially prefer to live with a partner, they eventually do get married. However, it is worth noting that the constant increase in the number of people attaining college degree from 16.60 million to 88.75 million from 1950s to 1990s has not helped much in improving the statistics related to marriage. So, education is not the sole reason for the changes that are taking place. The increase in the well educated may not have made a direct impact, but indirectly, it has changed various other aspects of life. It has caused a gradual shift in people's priority from religion to science and technology. In the 1950s and 60s, religion played a vital role in keeping the count of cohabitation and unmarried childbearing low. But with the priority shifting, the emphasis is more on career and wealth maximization. Well educated men and women are less likely to marry those who are less educated. This has largely resulted in growth of income inequality. Before 1970, there was a broad based economic pro sperity which has gradually vanished. (http://www.chicagolandmarriage.org/marriage_statistics.htm) Apart from the economic dimension, some look at the same issue with the racial dimension in mind. Childbearing out of wedlock seemed to be more among the black people than the white. However, statistics in the recent past have shown that there has been a drastic decline in such births among the black teenagers (86% to 35% per 1000) as compared to the whites (24% to 12% per 1000). Hence, class based analysis seems to be a better tool. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html) The question still lingers around as to what made the biggest impact, what is the reason for the way things are today. It is a well accepted fact that the present day situation is nothing but an outcome of the past. The number of marriages in the past may have been on the higher side, but there is no reliable statistical information on how many marriages out of those were actually doing well. People, who have spent their childhood in the shadow of a troubled marriage, most of the times, develop a fear towards getting into a serious relationship. Young people who have lived most of their lives in poverty would be of the opinion that marriage is not a commodity they can afford. Therefore, negative aspects in the past have made a negative impact now in

India and Pakistan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

India and Pakistan - Essay Example India has struggled for survival form various invaders from different religions. All invaders tried their best to loot the rich properties India possessed during period of their invasion. The first Anglo-French war took place in the year 1748. Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-aulah was defeated the English in the Battle of Plassey in the year 1757. Again there was a war between French and the English defeated the French. In the year 1761, the ruler of Afghanistan, Ahmed shah Abadi conquered the Marathas great warriors in the Battle of Panipat third. The English gained the Rights in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in the year 1765. Clive Lord has become Governor in Bengal during this period. There was a first Mysore war during 1767-69 between the British and Hyder Ali of Mysore. The English had secured the Northern circars in the year 1766. The British in their parliament passed the Regulatory Act in the 1773. Warren Hastings has ascended the chair of Governor of Bengal in the year 1772. The first Anglo-Maratha was taken place during the period 1775-1782. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born in the year 1780 that had struggled with the British for safeguarding his people in the second Mysore war; the English defeated the Hyder Ali during the period 1780-84. ... The English ahs crushed the Marathas in the second Anglo-Marathas war at Assaye. Sir Arthur Wellesley led the English. Lord William Bentick became the Governor General of Bengal in the year 1828 who had subsequently, successfully brought prohibition of sati in the year 1829 in to force by removing age old customs followed by the people of North in particular this Act was welcomed by most of the communities in India and gave them a sounding support. During the period 1845-46, the English defeated the Sikhs after the death of Maharaja Ranjit singh who died in the year 1839. Lord Dalhousie has become the Governor General of Bengal in the year 1848. First Indian Railway was laid form Bombay to thane in the year 1868. In the year 1858, Indian Government was taken over by the British crown. The important Acts such as Indian penal code, Indian councils and Indian High Courts came into existence and force. The queen of England has proclaimed the empress's of India in the year 1877. The Briti shers gave Mysore state back to their original rules in the year 1881.In the year 1911, the imperial capital shifted form Calcutta to Delhi, The First World War broke out in the year 1914. The Indian National congress consisting of Hindus and Muslims had made Annie Besant as the president in the year 1917. Montague reforms committee offered limited provincial autonomy Indians in the year 1919. In this year the massacre was broke out in Jallianwala bagh where some hundreds Sikhs were killed by the British in a congregation. The Indian national congress gave a call to observe movement, non-cooperation. British clothiers were burnt. Students did not attend colleges. Lawyers left the practice in the courts in the year

Nutrition Comparison of Genders and Ages

Nutrition Comparison of Genders and Ages Day Meal Teenage male athlete Pregnant 30 year old Male elderly patient 1 Breakfast Alpen cereal with yogurt. 2 slices of whole wheat bread with soft cheese. Orange juice. Banana. cereal with milk and berries 1 slice of whole wheat toast. Glass of milk. Porridge. Banana Milk. Lunch Couscous. Chicken breast. Toasted almonds and dried apricot. Apple juice. Chickpeas and carrot. Cake and custard. Spaghetti bolognaises. Mixed salad. Apple juice. Ham in 2 slices whole wheat bread. Cucumber and tomatoes slices. Yogurt. Dinner sardines tined Mixed salad leaves. Sliced tomatoes. Jacket potatoes. Mango. biscuits 2 slices of whole wheat bread. 2poached eggs. Cheese sticks Mixed veg. Shepherd pie Runner beans and carrots. Cake with custard. 2 Breakfast Porridge with milk. 2 slice whole wheat bread with Nutella. Orange juice Apple Muesli with yogurt. Orange juice Apple. 1 slice of whole wheat toast with Nutella. 2 slices of whole wheat bread. 1 scrambled egg. Tomatoes. Orange juice. Lunch Macaroni cheese. Broccoli and cauliflower. Mix berries with yogurt. Baked pasta with chicken and tomatoes. Mixed leave salad and cucumber. Mango. Chicken casserole. Mix veg. Rice pudding. Dinner Ribeye steak in mushroom sauce. Roasted potatoes. Mixed veg (sweet corn, carrot and peas). Rice pudding. 2 slices whole wheat bread. Baked beans. Fruit salad with yogurt. Glass of milk. Noodle soup. Cheese selection. 3 Breakfast Cereal with milk Strawberries 2 slice whole wheat bread with soft cheese. Orange juice. Porridge with blue berry. Glass of milk. 1 slice of mixed seed toast with soft cheese. Banana. Cereal with milk. Kiwi. 1 toast with jam. lunch Sea bass Boiled potatoes. Steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Fruit salad and ice cream. Brown rice with chili con carne. Steamed broccoli, cauliflower. Banana. Orange juice. Fisherman pie. Peas. Apple pie. Dinner Spaghetti in tomatoes’ sauce. Grated cheese. Garlic bread. Mixed leaves salad with cucumber. Beef medallion. Roast potatoes. Mixt veg. Fruit smoothie. Bread roll. Chicken soup. 2 slices of whole meal bread. Peaches slices. 2) The teenage male needs an estimated average requirement of 2755 calories a day. Males require the most dietary energy during this age, due to the body needs of more energy and nutrients, because during teenage years the human body has a rapid growth and development rate. Teenager’s diet in general needs to be rich of carbohydrate, Minerals (calcium, iron ) and proteins which needed for muscle development, bones and growth. Also needs vitamins which are chemical compounds that are required for normal growth and metabolism. He also needs extra calories because he is an athlete. Thus his body needs more sugar to burn during exercise, potassium rich food (mixed berries)because of the excess sweating, more protein which improves athletic performance, carbohydrates and fat. The 30 year female needs 1940 calories and an extra 200 because she is pregnant. Her diet need to consist of high iron rich food like: meat, pulses, dried fruit and nuts, also food rich of vitamin C if she is a vegetarian to help absorb more iron to avoid been anemic. Consume food high in vitamins, folic acid for baby brain development. More Carbohydrate for energy needed, as she the life support for her baby. example of high carbohydrate rich food are pasta, potatoes ,cereals, rice and couscous. Proteins and calcium rich food for example: canned fish with bones, broccoli and dairy product, thus needed for baby development and her general health. Age is a factor that affect the estimated average requirement (EAR).therefore The elderly male does not need as much calories as the teenage athlete . He only needs around 2100 calories; however his body requires proteins to strengthen his immune system by making antibodies and heamoglobin, and increases his strength in general. Examples of high proteins rich food are: meat, seafood and eggs. He needs calcium because the bone density shrinks with age, and Carbohydrate needed for energy as it serve as the main energy source for the human body. TAQ2: Type 2 diabetes is a medical condition that causes the body blood sugar level to become very high. That does occur when the pancreas does not secret enough insulin to control glucose level. With type2 diabetes the body either does not produce enough insulin to control the sugar level (insulin deficiency) or the body cells stops reacting to it, which called insulin resistance. It’s most common in people over 40, however the number of younger people diagnosed is in the increase. The person that is more at risk of developing the condition is overweight or obese, the fat in the abdomen releases chemicals that affect the body metabolic function. Therefore regular exercise and balanced diet helps assist to maintain a healthy weight, which will decrease the risk of developing and managing the condition. Also there is a genetic factor, so if you have a relation with type 2 diabetic you are at risk of developing the condition.(1) Atherosclerosis is a serious condition where the arteries walls thicken, and become clogged up affecting the blood circulation. This is very dangerous for the body’s health as it restrict blood flow resulting in organs damage and malfunction. Furthermore if this fatty substances rupture it can cause blood clot, the latter can trigger a heart attack or a stroke. Atherosclerosis is a risk factor for number of conditions called cardiovascular disease (CVD) because it involves blood flow. In human body the arteries become narrow as the body age, leading to atherosclerosis. However life style plays big role in speeding the process, for example smoking and consuming alcohol. One of the major risk factors is obesity due to poor diet that is high in fat content, cholesterol and consuming food over the estimated average requirement for the person. Also high blood presser and diabetes, which also caused by obesity. (2) Rickets is a condition that affects the bones during development in early childhood. The bones become soft and weak, making them deformed. Rickets was very common in the past, but with medical progress and information it nearly disappeared. The diet plays a big factor in developing this condition, thus the lack of vitamin D and calcium is the most common cause. Therefore this deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D is produced by the skin when it’s exposed to sun light, also found in fortified cereal and small number of food i.e. eggs. Calcium is found in dairy product such as cheese, and in green vegetables. This condition is common in children with darker skin because they need more sunlight in order to make enough vitamin D. (3) TAQ3: a) In order for the human body to be able to absorb nutrient it needed from the food to the bloodstream, the food has to be digested properly. So absorption and assimilation can happen only if food is turned into small molecules. For example when we eat a piece of bread, it start to break by been chewed in the mouth. This mechanism serve two purposes: 1 it become small to swallow.2saves body energy. Then the enzyme in the saliva breaks the carbohydrate into sugar which the body uses for energy. b) Organ/body part Process Importance Mouth/Buccal cavity Chewing /mastication Making food easier to swallow. Chopping food up into small bits. Signal to the body to start the digestive process. Oesophagus Swallowing, contracting or expanding (peristalsis). Pushing the food down into the stomach. Stops the food from getting to air pipe. Stomach Churning, emulsification and contracting. Turning the food into semi fluid. Storage of food, to prevent the small intestine from being too full. Small intestine Absorption. Most Nutrients are absorbed into the blood stream in the jejunum Fat absorption occurs in the duodenum. Large intestine Pushing of fecal matter out. Conserve. Conserve water and sodium. Transport fecal matters out of the body. anus Defecation. Stool excretion. c) Name of digestive juice Site of production Enzymes in digestive juice Function of the enzymes Saliva. Mouth Amylase. Lingual lipases. Digest the starch from food and breaks carbs into sugar. Digestion of fats within the stomach. Gastric juice. Stomach. Pepsin. Rennin. Lipase. Breaks down proteins into small peptides. Breaking down fat into fatty acids and glycerol molecules. pancreatic juice. Pancreas. Trypsin. Lipase. Amylase. chymotrypsin Breaking down large molecules of food, i.e. protein molecules into one-, two-, and three-amino acid chain Allow the gall bladder to release bile. Neutralize the hydrochloric acid. Continue the hydrolysis of starch. Intestinal juice. Small intestine. Maltase. Peptidase. Turns maltose into glucose. Dipeptides break protein into Amino acids. TAQ4: b) Digestive system organ Function(s) Stomach The stomach is responsible for the gastric stage of digestion. It breaks the food into liquid called chyme due to the hydrochloric acid, which works to decontaminate food from bacteria. The stomach wall is protected by mucous layer so the acid does not affect it .the gastric fundal mucosa produce pepsinogen enzyme and with the acid in the stomach it become activated as pepsin, the latter breaks proteins molecules into peptide. The lipase enzyme in the stomach is responsible for fat hydrolysis. The lower part of the stomach is called pylorus, which is responsible for empting the chyme into the small intestine and regulate the amount of acid produced by the stomach. liver The liver has a vital role in the digestive system.it secret bile into the small intestine to break fat molecules. The liver works as a sieve for harmful substances i.e. drugs, and has multiple functions throughout the body systems. Small intestine The small intestine is responsible for most of nutrient absorption and further digestion. The top part of the intestine (Duodenum) works as a neutralization chamber in which Bicarbonate decreases the chyme acidity. It’s in here that the pancreatic juice is secreted, the latter has enzymes: Trypsin, Lipase, and Amylase. And chymotrypsin, which break down large molecules of food. Most of nutrient absorption occurs in the Jejunum, the latter’s surface has villi which create large area for transport of nutrients from the lumen to the blood stream. Ileum is the last part of the small intestine, it absorb any nutrients left. The mouth The mouth is the beginning of the digestive system. Mastication breaks food into small piece that can be swallowed. This mechanical process safes the body’s energy. The enzyme in the saliva starts the chemical digestion. The Amylase which starts by breaking starch into sugar and Lingual lipases begins breaking of fats. TAQ5: The stomach The stomach is muscular bag, where gastric stage of digestion start. The food enters the stomach via the cardiac sphincter, the latter stops the contents of the stomach from splashing up into the oesophagus. The pyloric sphincter keeps food inside the stomach by contracting and controls the amount of food that passes into the small intestine. The stomach has three layers of muscle that contract in order to digest the food mechanically, which aid in breaking the food into chyme, mixing it with gastric juices and moving it around and through the stomach. The longitudinal muscles contraction causes the stomach to shorten and widen, the circular muscles that run around the stomach causes it to lengthens and become narrow, while the diagonal muscle cause it to twist. This muscular contraction called peristalsis. The geometry of the lumen increases the churning action in the stomach, and the rugae lining flatten to create more space for food and become folds when empty.so this movements an d changes to the stomach wall, combined with chemical reaction (mucosal glands secretion of gastric juice), breaks food molecules in the stomach. The small intestine is longer than the colon, but smaller in diameter (hence the name).When the chyme leaves the stomach it deposed in the first part of the intestine called the Duodenum. A canal is linked to this part from the pancreas and gall bladder. It’s through here that the pancreatic juice is secreted into the small intestine. The muscle coats: longitudinal and circular, contract and relax to aid the food to squeeze along the digestive tract. This is called Peristalsis. Most of nutrient the body needs is absorbed in the small intestine through its lining, which is covered by tiny microvilli, the latter gives the lining a large surface area for absorption. The large intestine (colon) is the last stop for food in the digestive system. Its longitudinal and circular muscles aid the movement of food in the colon. The latter is divided into four sections: the ascending colon, the transverse colon, the descending colon and the sigmoid colon. The colon is made up of the mocosa layer, which is lined with goblet cells that secrete mucous, the latter aids the food passage through the colon. The mucosa layer is in top of the submucosa layer, which is a connective tissue. The walls of the colon unlike the small intestine it has no villi, as not much absorption happen her. References: (1) http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/Introduction.aspx (2) www.nhs.uk/conditions/atherosclerosis/page/introduction.aspx (3) http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rickets/pages/introduction.aspx Websites: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09362.html http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/caloric-needs-athletes-7179.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/tissues_organs/organs_in_animalsrev3.shtml http://my.clevelandclinic.org/anatomy/digestive_system/hic_the_structure_and_function_of_the_digestive_system.aspx http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Biology http://www.thevisualmd.com/health_centers/cancer/colorectal_cancer/colon_anatomy_function

Europes Software Patent Law Essay -- Patenting Economics Essays

Europe's Software Patent Law Today in Europe, the issue of software patentability is a heated and controversial topic amongst the software industry. Currently Europe’s software patent law is unclear and inconsistent. There has been a wide spread effort by major players in Europe’s software industry and governmental bodies to try to formalize and disambiguate the law on the patentability of software. But up to know there has been very little progress in the formalization of this law. What has resulted is an ongoing controversy amongst the Europeans. Proponents of software patenting have been calling for an extension of the scope of software patenting. However, its opponents have been calling for a drastic reduction of what should be patentable software. We begin our discussion with the roots of how patent law came to be in Europe and then focus our attention to the current law of software patentability. We then turn to a current controversial issue in Europe’s software industry and then get key ethical perspectives on this issue. We then finish up with my defense on particular position of a proposed ethical issue on the current software patent law. Established by the Convention on the Grant of European Patents (EPC) in 1973, the European Patent Organization was created to establish a uniform patent system in Europe. The European Patent Organization is an intergovernmental body setup by the EPC1, its members are made up of contracting states of the European Union (EU) including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France to name a few. The executive arm of the European Patent Organization is the European Patent Office (EPO) whose function is to grant European patents to each of its contracting states. The administrat... ...ww.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37721,00.html 3.Donald, James A.,"The American Revolution - an HTML project," Locke's Second Treatise (Chap V) On Property, 1997, http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/NQuinn/COEN288/LockeOnProperty.pdf 4.Duke L. & Tech., SOFTWARE PATENT LAW: UNITED STATES AND EUROPE COMPARED, 2003, http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2003dltr0006.html 5.European Patent Office, The European Office, 2003, http://www.european-patent-office.org/index.htm 6.European Software Patent Horror Gallery, European Software Patent Horror Gallery, 2003 http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/pikta/index.en.html> 7.Spinello, â€Å"Frameworks for Ethical Analysis,† Chapter 2 of Ethical Aspects of Information Technology, Prentice Hall, http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/NQuinn/COEN288/framework.pdf 8.The Patent Office, The UK Patent Office, 2003, http://www.patent.gov.uk

Socrates vs Thrasymachus

Any argument relies upon some fundamental agreement about the issue being discussed. However great the divide in opinion may be, there must exist at least some similarity in the participants’ manner of viewing the issue if a solution is ever to be reached. Book One of Plato’s Republic features a disagreement between Socrates and Thrasymachus about the nature of justice. The disaccord between their views of the subject is extremely pronounced, but there are certain underlying agreements which guide the course of the debate.One way to evaluate the validity of the arguments involved is to examine whether the assumptions at the root of the argument are in accord with this common ground. By my reading of the dialogue, Socrates’ reply to the first part of Thrasymachus’ definition of justice rests safely upon this common ground, whereas his answer to Thrasymachus’ second definition moves away from this mutually acceptable base, and is injured as a result. In exploring this topic, I intend to examine briefly Thrasymachus’ two-part definition of justice.For each of these parts I will evaluate one Socratic response and discuss it from the perspective of the â€Å"craftsman analogy† – an analogy which is initially used by common consent, but which Socrates adapts until its original usage almost disappears. Thrasymachus’ first definition of justice is easy to state, but it is not so immediately clear how it is to be interpreted. Justice, he claims, is the advantage of the stronger. On its own, such a sentence could imply that what is beneficial to the stronger is just for and therefore, beneficial to the weaker, and Socrates accordingly asks whether this understanding is accurate.Thrasymachus promptly responds in the negative. The interpretation he proceeds to expound upon can be summed up by adapting slightly his original definition: justice is that which obtains the advantage of the stronger. To support this definition, he points to the example of ruling a city. Any ruling class will fashion the laws of the commonwealth with a view to its own benefit, he asserts. Since it is just to obey the law, those who behave justly will be acting for the advantage of the rulers (whom Thrasymachus interchangeably terms â€Å"the stronger†).Socrates makes his first objection at this moment, but I will treat this here only incidentally: merely insofar as it allows us to see why Thrasymachus introduces the craftsman analogy. Socrates objects that rulers are, as humans, bound to make mistakes – to confuse their disadvantage with their advantage on occasion. In this case just obedience to laws would work to the ruler’s disadvantage. Thrasymachus responds promptly, saying that a man who makes a mistake in ruling is not at that moment a ruler in the strict sense, and introduces the craftsman analogy to support this idea.Insofar as a man is a craftsman, he will not make any mistakes; mi stakes are rooted in ignorance, and so can only occur when a man’s knowledge of his craft is incomplete. The quandary which Socrates introduces is thus avoided by Thrasymachus’ qualification that errors are never made by rulers as rulers. Though the analogy works at first to Thrasymachus’ advantage, Socrates promptly turns it against him in a new objection. All arts, he asserts, are exercised with a view to the benefit of the subject rather than to the benefit of the artisan.The doctor employs his medical art for the betterment of the patient, the pilot navigates for the safety of the ship and the sailors, and so forth. Like Thrasymachus, he identifies ruling as an art, and claims that ruling also is exercised with a view to the subjects’ benefit. Throughout the argument, Thrasymachus passively assents to Socrates’ individual points. But as we shall see later, he rejects the conclusion drawn from these. From an objective viewpoint, one immediately questionable aspect of this argument is Socrates’ idea that ruling is an art in the same sense that medicine and navigation are arts.Despite its potential weakness however, Socrates’ use of the analogy is the one part of the argument which Thrasymachus cannot question without bringing Socrates’ first objection once again into dispute. Thus this definition of ruling forms some part of the common ground I have previously mentioned. Although an objection such as this may affect the objective validity of the argument, it is important to keep in mind the fact that Socrates is not attempting to create an incontestable definition of justice at this point.He is merely answering an invalid argument by demonstrating its weaknesses in terms which correspond to Thrasymachus’ perspective. Agitated by Socrates’ line of reasoning, Thrasymachus proceeds to blurt out a revised version of his original statement. Thrasymachus claims that injustice is freer and strong er than justice and that it results in a happier life. As in the former definition, he does not consider so much what justice is as what it does; he rates the subject in regards to its advantageousness or lack thereof. Essentially, this definition is an extreme extension of the previous one.Also, the example he uses for support – that of a tyrant made powerful and thus happy through injustice – hearkens back to his initial definition as ruling being the advantage of the stronger. It is clear that Thrasymachus has not been convinced by Socrates’ last argument, despite his apparent agreement with Socrates’ points. He is arguing in different terms, but in actual substance this new development is little more than a bare contradiction of Socrates’ previous argument. He still supposes that the unjust will have the advantage, and does no more than give new evidence to support this view.He essentially declares: â€Å"You say that the proper ruler will con sider the benefit of his subjects and thus act justly. I say that injustice leads to a happy life and that craftsmen do aim at their own advantage. † Whereas the weaknesses in Socrates’ previously discussed arguments are more or less excusable, there are several factors in his next argument which make it very controversial. In opening this argument, Socrates asks whether a just man will want to overreach and surpass other just men. The two debaters agree that a just man will deem it proper to surpass the unjust man, but that he will not want to surpass his fellow just man.The unjust man, on the other hand, will want to surpass and get the better of everyone. Now Socrates proceeds to use the craftsman analogy to illustrate his case. With this case Socrates attempts to prove that those who try to overreach their â€Å"like† are bad craftsmen. Returning to the specific example of the doctor, he observes that a medical man will not endeavor to outdo another physician , but will want to outdo the non-physician. One flaw seems to appear at this point in the argument. Socrates, it would seem, has left no place in this for simple ambition here.If the first half of this analogy is true, there is no room for an artist to advance and improve his craft in a just manner, because unless he is unjust, he will not have any ambition to surpass his fellow artists. However this can be answered by a glance back at Thrasymachus’ concept of the artisan â€Å"in the strict sense. † No one is an artisan insofar as he is in error, so the true artist will be unable to surpass another true artist: ideally, the artist, insofar as he is an artist, will already exercise his art faultlessly.Socrates completes this argument by saying that the one who tries to overreach the artist can not have true knowledge of the craft. In other words, true artists will be able to identify one another and to recognize the impossibility of surpassing each other. Since the one who wants to surpass everyone in a specific art must not be an artisan, he is ignorant of this art. Thus, Socrates claims, the unjust man is really ignorant and therefore weak and bad. There is a marked distinction between this use of the craftsman analogy and former uses. Previously the analogy was used in reference to the â€Å"craft† of ruling.This was legitimate in the context primarily because Thrasymachus agreed to this use. Now however, the subject of the analogy is not ruling, but justice. Thrasymachus never explicitly agrees to this switch, and thus when it is made, the analogy no longer rests safely upon the common ground. It is no longer an example accepted by both parties and so its sole justification would have to rest on an objective view of the argument. So we have another important question to examine. That is, can justice be rightly considered a craft? Even if it can in a vague sense, would it be properly analogous to other crafts like medicine or navigation ?There are reasons to support a negative answer to this query. For one thing, it could be argued that justice is more a manner of acting, rather than a craft in its own right. Whereas it is nonsensical to say that one can, for example, read a book medicinally, or in a navigating manner (except perhaps as a figure of speech), one can exercise a craft or perform any action either justly or unjustly. Justice is more easily considered a measure of how well an action is performed than the action itself. The most important thing to note here is that Socrates has moved away from the common ground which has previously supported the argument.Before, the question of whether Socrates’ examples are objectively valid was not so crucial from one viewpoint. As long as Socrates was trying to demonstrate the illogicalities within Thrasymachus’ position, there was much to gain from arguments based on Thrasymachus’ premises, whether the premises were true or not. For this last arg ument, however, Socrates does not base his argument on these guides, but preserves the form of the craftsman analogy while changing it substantially. Thus this particular argument suffers and is at least of questionable efficacy.

The Ideas of the Classical Theorists, Particularly

The ideas of the classical theorists, particularly those of bureaucracy and scientific management, are generally considered as rather old fashion and out of date, and of little relevance to work and organization today. Is this really the case? The classical theory is the earliest form of management that perceived that a set of universal principles would apply to all the organizations in all situations to achieve efficiency and organization's goals. co.uk/nursing-scientific-management-and-frederick-taylor/">Scientific management and bureaucratic theory were one of the several components of the classical school of organization.Important pioneers among them are Frederick Taylor and Max Weber. The classical theories have been contested of little relevance to work and organization today simply because today’s organizations have moved from industrial revolution to the information age due to the fast-paced change in technology (Toffler, 1984). Although bureaucracy has been synonymous to red tape and has negatives effects such as â€Å"rigidity, alienation and low commitment† (Adler, 1999, p. 7) and dehumanizing people (Grey, 2009), the characteristics of bureaucracy such as specialization, hierarchy of authority, system of rules and impersonality (Stewart, 1986) as well as evidence of ongoing existence of this management method, bureaucracy is proved to remain noteworthy. This essay will examine the situation presented in organization today, and determine whether bureaucracy and scientific management can be considered as old fashioned, out of date and of little relevance to work and organization today.With the broad set of powerful economic, social and technological changes – greater competition, globalization of production, rising demand for innovation, new forms of information technology and wide change in customer preferences have concluded that the days of stable structures of bureaucratic models are over. According to Warren, he concluded tha t there was no longer the stable business environment which bureaucracy exists, resulting in the rigid and formal rules of bureaucracy to be obsolete (Knights and Willmott, 2006). Like dinosaurs, mechanistic organizations are doomed and the days of post-bureaucracies have arrived† (Du Gay, 2005). With an increasing growth in knowledge-intensive sectors, for example consultancy companies, law and accounting firms, advertising agencies, research-and-development and IT companies, the need for flexibility and capacities for creative action has become more important than narrow efficiency (Karreman, Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2002).These knowledge-intensive firms are performing tasks that are more complex than before, making it more challenging to convert them into standardized work procedures and regulations, which make bureaucracy model become less relevant to work today. Supported by Mr Paul, who was the Vice-Chairman of Wipro from 1999 to 200, â€Å"IT service companies need a fundamental redesign. The bureaucracy is killing customer satisfaction† (Narasimhan, 2011). At the same time, it suggests employees demand for more flexibility and autonomy, rather than simply following orders and rules.However, studies show that knowledge-intensive companies are becoming more bureaucratic in their operations. In the case of Beta Consulting Company, â€Å"authority is seen practiced through hierarchy, work methodology is standardized and work procedures are fine-tuned towards predictability of outputs† (Karreman, Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2002). Since the 1970s, there is also an alleged shift from â€Å"industrial† to â€Å"post industrial† era, from mass production of standard products to short products for the niche markets.For example, the Apple IPhone demonstrates a shorter production run such as a new version of the IPhone is released every year (Smith, 2011). Post-bureaucracy is proposed as a new organizational model which is more ap propriate to today’s business environment in a sense that it is based on trust, empowerment, personal treatment and shared responsibility. A flatter and organic structure of post-bureaucracy is fundamental to allow employees to be more creative and capable of adapting themselves to the variety of new problems faced in today’s competitive environment.There is also a reduction in the level of hierarchy to allow employees to take greater responsibility, which in return increases job satisfaction (du Gay, 2005). On the contrary, greater responsibility can actually cause greater stress for employees, as they now no longer have the same level of protection that bureaucracies can provide. Nevertheless, the idea-type of post-bureaucracy also imposes problems such as lost of control, risk and unfairness (Knights and Willmott, 2006). The claims of the death of bureaucracy and the emergence of Post-Bureaucracy are further debated.Evidence of bureaucracy model is shown in George R itzer’s McDonaldization. Ritzer defines McDonaldization as, â€Å"the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world† (Ritzer, 2009, p. 4). The fast-food industry is the paradigm of McDonaldization and reflects on the instrumental rationality that Weber identified. In this case, the success of McDonald’s restaurants has been noticeable up till today and is because it offers consumers, workers and managers â€Å"efficiency, calculability, predictability and control† (Ritzer, 2009, p. 6). It provides convenience for the customer in today’s fast-paced environment and customers are ensured similar taste, quantity and quality to whichever restaurant they go. McDonald’s has also shown great evidence of the continuing use of Taylorism techniques for measuring, timing and evaluating work. One of the main aspects of scientific management that McDonald’s have implemented into their business is the Fordist management style where everyone works according to an assembly line. Fordism has been called â€Å"Taylorism plus the assembly line† (Rosenberg, 1969).During the days of Ford Motors, Henry Ford implemented the fordist model in the car-manufacturing firm, and McDonald’s have distinctly adapted this idea into their corporate culture. For example, the company has designed all of its food chain branches in such a style that employees do not have to take more than two steps to complete their task. Further evidence suggesting that Taylor’s ideas have been implemented would be for example, the importance of creating the best worker for the job, through the division of tasks and specialization among workers.The method in which McDonald’s for example, create their hamburger is a form of deskilling and division of task, by simplification of a task; first grilling the burger, putting in other ingredients, adding sauce, placing them onto bread roll and then wrapping it up. From this, a break down of job task and having each individual to do specific steps improves efficiency. Other aspects such as cooking times, drinks dispensers and french fries machines are used to limit the time needed to complete a task, hence showing aspects of scientific management (Jozzo1000, 2007).Without this management style, McDonald’s probably would not be in such dominant and efficient position in the market. However, the McDonaldization system has been heavily criticized. Despite the effect of Taylor’s scientific management on the workplace has increased productivity while replacing skilled craftsman with unskilled workers, it reduces workers to automatons. Individuals equipped with advanced skills are limited to highly simplified tasks and hence restricting them from living up to their human potential. It also assumes workers are satisfied by money alone.Frederick Herzbergâ⠂¬â„¢s two-factor theory has successfully supported this view. Herzberg developed a theory that contradicted Taylor’s ideas as he developed â€Å"job enrichment†. Herzberg stated that there are two factors that could motivate an individual, Hygiene and Motivator. Hygiene factors once fulfilled will remove job dissatisfaction but will not motivate. In order to motivate, the motivation factors must be fulfilled. This goes against Taylor’s ideas of workers are motivated primarily by salary as Herzberg’s analysis proved that money is not a motivating factor (Brooks, 2009).More criticisms such as in McDonald’s, tasks are repetitive and boring and hence employees are not motivated to do their job enthusiastically. Under those circumstances, it ignores the social and psychological needs of the employees, which in fact exert powerful influences workers behaviours. However, comments drawn from employees working experiences in McDonalds stated otherwise. A c rew member, Michaela said, â€Å"Doing work experience at McDonald’s made a big difference to how I approached things outside of work as well. Working on the till I learnt to make eye contact with people and speak clearly and with confidence; invaluable skills. And it can be further argued that employees do feel motivated working at McDonald’s. â€Å"Working at McDonald’s changed my outlook and made me a more motivated person†, said Umair, a crew trainer (McDonald’s Corporation, 2011). The McDonaldized system is not only seen within the fast-food industry, but also fast growing in call centres, an indication of the relevant bureaucracy model which is also known as â€Å"customer-oriented bureaucracy† (Du Gay, 2005, p. 98). One of the features of call centres is the focus on the standardization of the service encounter.A script is provided for call handlers to follow when talking on the phones. Supervisors regularly check on call centre staf f, listen in on calls to monitor the accuracy and general performance of the call handlers which managers are in fact keeping them under control. Taylor’s idea of payment method have also been successfully implemented such as call centre staffs are given a basic wage and then commission for every sale and if they meet their daily or weekly targets, they are given additional bonuses (Health ; Safety Executive, 2003).The technology offered today had in fact gradually made organizations become more bureaucratic and rationalized. For instance, Amazon had significantly shown to be a highly structured and highly rationalized organization in today’s competitive world. According to Valdez, â€Å"every item is scanned and logged on computers at every stage – knows who touches what† (Barkham, 2011). Staff working in the warehouse is in point of fact being controlled by the technology used today, which aid to the control of managers over workers.Furthermore, the war ehouse processes are simplified to prevent any human error. In short, aspects of scientific management are seen in its day-to-day warehouse operations with the aid of technology. According to Weber, bureaucracy is the most rational form of management. Despite the advantages bureaucracy offers such as efficiency and predictability, beneath the rational system lays the irrationality of rationality. People are dehumanized as they are being treated as machine like â€Å"cogs in a well-oiled machine† (Kast and Rosenzweig, 1979).In addition, â€Å"Instead of remaining efficient, bureaucracies can become increasingly inefficient† (Ritzer, 2009, p. 29). For example the case of IKEA, in terms of efficiency, it offers one-stop furniture shopping with a wide range of products. Furniture sold is unassembled, and customers are required to reassemble the parts themselves when they get home. Yet there are a variety of irrationalities associated with the rationality of IKEA, most nota bly the poor quality of most of its products. Although furniture is supposedly easy to assemble, many are more likely to think of it as impossible-to-assemble† (Ritzer, 2009). Besides the issue about irrationality of rational system, the â€Å"iron cage† of rationality is drawn into further concern. Weber views bureaucracy as a cage, in a sense that people are trapped in them without their basic humanity. The fear for that bureaucracy would grow more and more rational and will dominate an increasing number of sectors of society which â€Å"society would eventually become nothing more than a seamless web of rationalized structures; there would be no escape† (Ritzer, 2009, p. 30).A good example will be a 30 days Europe package tour. Bus travels through only the major cities in Europe, allowing tourists to view and take pictures of sights in the time allowed and then hop on to the next city. With the rationalization of even their recreational activities, people are in fact seen to be living in the iron cage of rationality, treating themselves like machines (Ritzer, 2009). Lastly, it is argued that bureaucracy ignores the substantive rationality and do not care about ethics and moral, they are about getting the task done as quickly as possible.The Holocaust case illustrates a good example that the bureaucratic practice made the Holocaust instrumentally rational while, not being substantively rational. Almost everyone will agree that the Holocaust practice of the massacre of a race of people is irrational, yet the fact that instrumentally rational methods could be applied to it, it exhibits the moral blindness of bureaucracy (Knights and Willmott, 2006). However, Du Gay argued otherwise. Bureaucracy do embodies an important ethic that is fairness.Such as bureaucracy does not care about employees’ gender or culture background but only cares about the basis of experience and qualifications since this is what will be most efficient. It is sa id to safeguard against discrimination. Given these points, bureaucracy embodies rather than ignore the moral and ethics (Du Gay, 2005). Indeed, bureaucracy like any other styles of management, inherently has both negative and positive effects, however some major aspects of bureaucracy and scientific management are still currently being successfully implemented in work and organizations today.Especially to those characterized by large-scale size, routine tasks and to those performance of which is essentially and vitally relies on high degree of hierarchy and formalization of bureaucratic form. Furthermore, the advancement in technology aid in the aspects of using scientific management in organizations today. Good examples will the fast-food industry and manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, in today’s highly competitive business industry, organizations need to increase their level of effectiveness through innovation and motivation of its employees at all levels.In order to ha ndle the growing market demand for constant innovation, a reduction of management structure might be necessary. Yet the core features of bureaucracy such as formalization, hierarchy, rules, staff expertise, conformance and clear accountability remain without doubt essential for organizations to deal with increasing competition. Therefore, to conclude, the classical school has withstood the test of time as it is still relevant to work and organization today. (2200 words) References Adler, Paul S. (1999) Building Better Bureaucracies. Academy of Management Executive, 13(4), pp. 6-49. Barkham, Patrick (2011) Amazon warehouse gears up for Christmas rush on Cyber Monday. The Guardian, [online] 1 December. Available at: ;http://www. guardian. co. uk/technology/2011/dec/01/amazon-warehouse-christmas-cyber-monday/print; [Accessed 10 December 2011]. Brooks, Ian (2009) Organisational Behaviour. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. du Gay, Paul (2005) The Values of Bureaucracy. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Grey, Chris (2009) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organizations. 2nd ed.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Health ; Safety Executive (2003) Psychosocial risk factors in call centres: An evaluation of work design and well-being. [pdf] Sudbury: Health ; Safety Executive. Available at: ; www. hse. gov. uk/research/rrpdf/rr169. pdf ; [Accessed 28 November 2011]. Jozzo1000 (2007) McDonald’s Big Mac making. Available at: ;http://www. youtube. com/user/jozzo1000#p/a/u/1/eUvI2wE2YZk; [Accessed 28 November 2011]. Karreman, Dan. , Sveningsson, Stefan and Alvesson, Mats (2002) The Return of the Machine Bureaucracy?International Studies of Management ; Organisation, 32(2), pp. 70-92. Kast, Fremont Ellsworth and Rosenzweig, James Erwin (1979) Organisation and Management. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Knights, David and Willmott, Hugh (2006) Introducing Organizational Behaviour ; Management. London: Thomas Learning. Mc Donald’s Corporation (2011) 2010/2011 Prospectus. [online] Available at: ;http://www. mcdonalds. co. uk/people/meet-our-people/meet-our-people. shtml; [Accessed 01 December 2011].Narasimhan, Balaji (2011) Bureaucracy hurting customer satisfaction, says Vivek Paul. The Hindu Business Line, [online] 11 November. Available at: ;http://www. thehindubusinessline. com/todays-paper/tp-info-tech/article2616005. ece; [Accessed 03 December 2011]. Smith, Josh (2011) iPhone 5 Release Date: What We Know and Potential Timeline. [online] Available at: ;http://www. gottabemobile. com/2011/08/23/iphone-5-release-date-what-we-know-and-potential-timeline/;[Accessed 03 December 2011]. Stewart, Rosemary (1986) The Reality of Management. 2nd ed. London: Pan Books.

Social Contract essays

Social Contract essays It might not be possible to live an ethical and law abiding life and still be able to maintain control of our destiny without being crushed by outside powers. However, we should try if we want to live as part of a community, we should try because we'll be going back to a state of Nature if we don't. When Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote The Social Contract he stated that ...a point was reached in the history of mankind when the obstacles to continuing in a state of Nature were stronger than the forces which each individual could employ to the end of continuing in it. (Rousseau, p.179) and that ...the human race would have perished had it not changed its manner of existence. (Rousseau, p.179). Thanks to this Social Contract individuals have abandoned a state of Nature where ethic and laws did not exist and they became instead a community developing a ...some sort of central direction... (Rousseau, p.179) and learning how ...to act in concert... (Rousseau, p.179). Even when outside powers can control our destiny we should never stop trying to live an ethical and law abiding life. If we do stop well be affecting us and everybody else around us. It will be the first step towards downhill on the slippery slope. The slippery slope can be defined as: if A is permitted, then by a gradual series of small steps through B, C, ..., X, Y, eventually Z will be too. We should not permit Z so therefore, we should not permit A. Applying living an ethical and law abiding life to this concept we can state that if I stop doing it, my neighbor will stop doing it, and his neighbor will stop doing it, and so on and so forth until the entire society will stop doing it, leaving us in a completely state of Nature. Jean Jacques Rousseau affirmed that What a man loses as a result of the Social Contract is his natural liberty and his unqualified right to lay hands on all that tempts him.....

Chances Fat and Slim

Chances Fat and Slim Chances Fat and Slim Chances Fat and Slim By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about two expressions: For many years I’ve wondered about Fat Chance and Slim Chance – both meaning â€Å"little chance,† but where’d they come from? The Ngram Viewer indicates that â€Å"slim chance† came along about eighty years earlier than â€Å"fat chance† and that â€Å"slim chance† is far more common in print than â€Å"fat chance.† A Google search shows the expressions in about equal use on the Web. One meaning of slim is â€Å"thin† or â€Å"slender,† but its meaning in â€Å"slim chance† is â€Å"meager, scanty, sparse.† I’d guess that the expression â€Å"fat chance† originated as a play on words. Both expressions are popular in titles for books and articles that have something to do with obesity or fitness. Slim Chance, Fat Hope: Societys Obsession With Thinness Slim Chance in a Fat World Fat Chance! The Weight Loss Workbook â€Å"Obese People Have Slim Chance of Obtaining Normal Body Weight† â€Å"Critics say mesotherapy offers slim chance† â€Å"Why dieters have fat chance of losing weight† Although many speakers share the reader’s idea that both expressions mean the same thing, the two have different meanings. If there’s a â€Å"slim chance† that something will happen, then there is a possibility, albeit a small one. That’s the meaning in this headline about the current movement of migrants: How much for a spot on a rubber raft and a slim chance at a better life?† â€Å"Fat chance† is an ironic way of saying there’s no chance at all, as in this exchange between a woman and a former boyfriend: I was just wondering - † â€Å" - if Id  come back to you  now?  Fat chance. Forget it.†    Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†50 Latin Phrases You Should KnowDrama vs. Melodrama

What Is a Good SAT Subject Test Score

What Is a Good SAT Subject Test Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What's a good Subject Test score? This might soundlike a straightforward question, but it's actually a little more complicated. What makes a good score varies by SAT Subject Test as the number of test takers differs from test to test. For instance, in 2017 more than 140,000 students took the Math Level II Test, more than 48,000 students took the Literature Test, and only 453 took the Modern Hebrew Test. As you'll see below, most good scores for SAT Subject Tests are in the 700s, but there are other factors to consider as you set your target scores. Let's take a look at the average scores and percentiles so you can know what a good score is for each individual SAT Subject Test. While we'll be looking at statistics and college requirements to answer this question, it's also important you learn to define what "good" means to you. Ultimately, with effort and preparation, you should be proud of the Subject Test scores you achieve! What Are the Average SAT Subject Test Scores? Good SAT Subject Test scores tend to be a fair deal higher than good scores on the general SAT since high academic achievers tend to take the Subject Tests. The following chart shows the 2018 averages for each SAT Subject Test. For a full breakdown of what these average scores mean, check out this article. SAT Subject Test Mean Score Chemistry 666 Chinese with Listening 760 Ecological Biology 618 French 628 French with Listening 668 German 620 German with Listening 618 Italian 666 Japanese with Listening 703 Korean with Listening 761 Latin 626 Literature 607 Math Level I 605 Math Level II 693 Modern Hebrew 612 Molecular Biology 650 Physics 667 Spanish 647 Spanish with Listening 662 U.S. History 640 World History 622 Source: The College Board See how the average score for Korean with Listening is an incredibly high 761? The average for Math Level I looks like a more reasonable 605. So a "good" score would be higher than average, maybe even in the top 25% of test takers, or top 5% if you're shooting for the Ivy League. Based on these averages, a score of 700 could mean completely different things depending on the test. It would be a strong score on the Literature test but only slightly above average on Math Level II. And on the Korean with Listening test, a 700 would be way below average. Now that you have a sense of the average scores for each test and why they matter for your percentile,let's look at the most recent score percentiles. What Are the SAT Subject Test Score Percentiles? Along with getting a score somewhere between 200 and 800, you also get a score percentile, which compares you with other students who took the test. Scoring in the 80th percentile, for example, means you scored higher than 80% of students. The charts below show how scores translated to percentiles for test takers in 2018. All information is taken from the College Board. Literature, History, and Math Subject Tests Score Literature U.S. History World History Math Level I Math Level II Score 800 99 97 96 99 79 800 790 98 95 94 98 75 790 780 96 93 92 98 71 780 770 94 90 90 96 67 770 760 93 87 87 95 63 760 750 91 83 85 92 60 750 740 88 80 83 89 57 740 730 85 76 80 86 54 730 720 82 72 76 82 50 720 710 79 68 74 78 48 710 700 75 64 71 74 45 700 690 71 60 68 71 42 690 680 67 56 64 68 39 680 670 65 52 61 65 37 670 660 60 49 58 61 34 660 650 56 46 55 57 31 650 640 53 42 52 54 28 640 630 49 39 49 51 26 630 Science Subject Tests Score Biology E Biology M Chemistry Physics Score 800 97 94 90 87 800 790 96 91 87 84 790 780 95 89 83 81 780 770 92 86 80 77 770 760 91 82 76 74 760 750 88 79 72 70 750 740 86 75 68 67 740 730 83 72 64 63 730 720 80 68 60 60 720 710 77 64 57 57 710 700 74 61 54 53 700 690 70 57 50 50 690 680 67 53 47 47 680 670 63 50 44 43 670 660 60 46 41 41 660 650 55 42 38 38 650 640 52 39 35 35 640 Language With Listening Subject Tests Score Chinese French German Japanese Korean Spanish Score 800 62 80 96 88 62 94 800 790 46 78 96 75 47 91 790 780 35 76 92 68 36 86 780 770 30 73 90 63 30 82 770 760 25 70 88 55 25 78 760 750 22 66 83 50 21 74 750 740 20 64 80 46 18 69 740 730 17 61 76 43 16 66 730 720 15 57 73 40 13 62 720 710 14 55 70 35 12 58 710 700 12 53 66 33 11 55 700 690 11 49 63 32 10 51 690 680 10 47 60 29 9 46 680 670 9 44 57 27 8 43 670 660 8 40 54 25 7 40 660 650 7 38 52 24 6 38 650 Language (Without Listening) Subject Tests Score French German Modern Hebrew Italian Latin Spanish Score 800 87 93 85 88 94 92 800 790 86 88 81 81 92 90 790 780 84 85 77 77 90 87 780 770 81 82 75 72 89 84 770 760 79 81 74 69 86 80 760 750 77 76 71 64 82 77 750 740 74 73 70 61 81 74 740 730 72 71 68 57 77 70 730 720 69 67 66 54 74 67 720 710 67 66 66 52 70 64 710 700 65 63 63 49 67 60 700 690 62 60 62 46 66 57 690 680 60 59 60 43 62 54 680 670 58 56 59 40 60 50 670 660 55 53 57 38 57 47 660 650 53 51 55 36 54 44 650 640 50 49 53 33 51 41 640 630 47 47 51 31 49 38 630 As you can see, there's a lot of variation in percentiles among SAT Subject Tests. That's what makes answering the question of what's a good SAT Subject Test score a bit more complicated. Some tests are considered easier than others, and percentiles can be more competitive depending on the population of test takers. Based on this data, here are my suggestions for good and excellent scores for each test. These are the scores you should aim for if you want to achieve the 70th percentile or above, 80th percentile or above, or 90th percentile or above. Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: Good and Excellent SAT Subject Test Scores The last way to identify a great SAT Subject Test score is to find out which score you need in order to hit a certain percentile. Below, we've compiled all of the scores needed to reach the 70th, 80th, and 90th percentiles on each Subject Test: Subject Test 70th %ile+ 80th %ile+ 90th %ile+ Chemistry 740-750 770 800 Chinese with Listening 800 800 800 Ecological Biology 690 720 750-760 French 720-730 760-770 800 French with Listening 760 800 800 German 720-730 750-760 790-800 German with Listening 710 740 770 Italian 760-770 780-790 800 Japanese with Listening 780-790 790-800 800 Korean with Listening 800 800 800 Latin 710 730-740 780 Literature 680-690 710-720 740-750 Math Level I 680-690 710-720 740-750 Math Level II 770-780 800 800 Modern Hebrew 740 780-790 800 Molecular Biology 720-730 750-760 780-790 Physics 750 770-780 800 Spanish 730 760 790 Spanish with Listening 740-750 760-770 780-790 U.S. History 710-720 740 770 World History 690-700 730 770 Source: The College Board Some tests, such as Math Level II, Chemistry, Physics, Chinese with Listening, French, French with Listening, Italian, Japanese with Listening, Korean with Listening, and Modern Hebrew, require near-perfect scores to get a high percentile! Don't feel overwhelmed by this, though. A lot of these tests have high averages and low standard deviations, meaning that most well-prepared students are able to get a high score near or above the average. If these subjects are your strong suit, then you are statistically likely to be able to achieve a very high score. On the flip side, if you're not so strong in math, chemistry, physics, or these other subjects, keep in mind that the grading curve is very competitive- you'll be competing with students likely bound for top engineering and technical schools, such as Caltech and MIT (or native speakers for any of the language tests). Reflect on your academic strengths and subject mastery to determine whether one of these tests is right for you. As I mentioned earlier, good SAT Subject Test scores are higher than good scores on the general SAT. As you can see, to score in the 70th percentile or higher, you'll have to get in the 700s for almost allsubject tests. There is one more consideration when determining good scores on the SAT Subject Tests: the colleges you're applying to. Your percentiles are comparing you with all students who took the test- but not all of these students are applying to the same colleges as you. Therefore, it's helpful to get a sense of what the average Subject Test scores are for your colleges specifically. What scores do they expect to see? Do admitted students usually score in the low 700s or high 700s? Will the school overlook a low percentile on a Subject Test if it knows the curve for that test was particularly competitive? Let's consider these questions a little more in-depth. Uncovering your college's requirements might take a bit of detective work. What SAT Subject Test Scores Do Your Colleges Want? As with all the other parts of your application, you want to know what your colleges are looking for. What SAT scores do you need? What do they consider a strong GPA? Unfortunately, colleges can be pretty evasive when it comes to giving you answers to these types of questions. Instead, they stress that it's a holistic process andthat admissions officers are looking at all elements of your application to get a sense of who you are as a person. While this is all well and good and you wouldn't want your candidacy to be boiled down only to facts and figures, it still leaves you a bit stuck when it comes to the SAT and SAT Subject Tests. The first step you can take is toresearch the admissions websites of your colleges. Simply Google the name of the college along with "SAT Subject Tests" or "average SAT Subject Test scores" and you might find exactly what you're looking for. If this is a dead end, you could try calling admissions officers and asking if they will share this data (or at least their recommendations). If you're concerned about bothering them, don't be! Lots of admissions officers have tons of valuable information and are happy to share. Plus,demonstrating that you have a vested interest in the college- for example,by speaking with people on campus, visiting the school, or even just putting your name on mailing lists- will further strengthen your application. With the college process, there's nothing helpful about playing hard to get. Put yourself out there! If your sights are set on the Ivy League, check out our article on the Subject Test scores and requirements for the Ivy League. Finally, let's step outside statistics and requirements and consider your own personal goals. Did you celebrate 3/14 this year? Show off your affinity for math by scoring high on the Math Subject Test. How to Customize Your Target SAT Subject Test Scores What are your personal goals for the SAT Subject Tests? Have you memorized the first 100 digits of pi, or are you always the one who calculates the tip at dinner? If you consider yourself a math whiz, then it might be very important for you to score highly on the Math Subject Test. When I was in high school, I absolutely loved English class. Reading and analyzing books revealed new ways of thinking about the world and human relationships. Even when it was hard work, it was work I wanted to do. This doesn't mean I was naturally able to score a perfect score on the Literature Subject Test, though. That test used a much different way of demonstrating subject mastery than my normal classwork did, especially considering its strict time limits. But I felt driven to score well, so I studied practice questions and trained myself to read passages and answer questions under tight time limits. By reflecting on your strengths and interests, as well as by taking practice tests and scoring them yourself, you can develop your own sense of what a good Subject Test score is for you. Once you've set your target scores, tape them to your wall so you can see them every day. Sharing your goals with friends, study buddies, or family members is another good way to stay focused. Once you've set your goals based on this information and your colleges' expectations, you can start preparing for the SAT Subject Tests you've chosen.The College Board offers a helpful breakdown of each Subject Test in addition to practice questions. You can also check out our other resources below to answer any other questions you have about the Subject Tests or SAT. What's Next? You know what makes for good scores on the SAT Subject Tests, but have you decided which ones you're going to take? Check out our expert guide on which Subject Tests you should take. Are you also studying for the SAT? Just as with the Subject Tests, you'll want to set score goals for yourself and work toward achieving them. Read here about good scores, bad scores, and excellent scores on the SAT. If you're considering the ACT instead, this article breaks down the scoring system and helps you set your target ACT scores. Need a little extra help prepping for your Subject Tests? We have the industry's leading SAT Subject Test prep programs (for all non-language Subject Tests). Built by Harvard grads and SAT Subject Test full or 99th %ile scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so that you get the most effective prep possible. Learn more about our Subject Test products below:

Financial stability and resilience of the banking industry are the Essay

Financial stability and resilience of the banking industry are the main current concerns of national and international regulator - Essay Example However, when the economies were overheated and an economic boom was witnessed, many governments and monetary authorities lost sight of the fact that unbridled banking would ultimately cause the downfall of the financial system. Consequently, the fact that many of the financial instruments created were short-sighted in nature and dubious in character was lost among the policy makers and political leaders. Such a situation arose out of the fact that many of their activities were uncontrolled in nature. The global financial meltdown of 2007-2009 the impact of which is felt even today among the global economies brought a shock among them which made such leaders and policy makers to wake up from the slumber and meet the harsh reality that global financial system needs a through overhaul and if appropriate and timely measures were not taken the threat to the global prosperity during 21st century would turn out to be a monster which would become entirely uncontrollable. There was a sudden urgency to enact prudential regulations. However, the continued worsening of the world economies reeling under pressures of weakening manufacturing activities, growing unemployment and uncertainties have brought into focus a set of arguments that such prudential regulations should be slowed down. ... y him for such an argument is that, firstly, â€Å"the financial stability is about resilience†, secondly, â€Å"preserving financial stability involves a wide range of policy areas† and thirdly, â€Å"a globalised financial system requires global rules†, fourthly â€Å" global financial regulators should stay focused on the end result they want to achieve, namely, a system characterised by less leverage, better liquidity management, sounder incentives, less moral hazard, stronger oversight and more transparency†2. Towards realizing the above, he has set an agenda which includes reforms and regulations on the bank capital, liquidity, financial products (e.g. OTC derivates,) and among other things micro and macro prudential regulations. Each one of the points averred by him is analyzed below. 2.1. Resilience Caruana equates resilience with financial stability and believes that this is something which the world economies should prepare well in advance in ter ms of capital, liquidity, infrastructure etc to safeguard themselves from the shocks, external/internal so that there is no repetition of the nasty situation witnessed during the 2007-09 global financial meltdowns. The same view has been advanced by some other scholars. According to Sheehan3, Financial regulations have two sides attached to them, viz, micro and macro prudential regulations. Micro prudential regulations seek to focus themselves towards protecting the interests of smaller savers and borrowers from grey practices of financial institutions while the macro ones engages themselves in the creation and implementation of rules that goes towards promoting the stability of global financial systems and reduction of systemic risks. Whether it is micro or macro, each country creates its own financial regulators and

Teenage Pregnancy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Teenage Pregnancy - Essay Example But it happened again two days later. It was Sunday and Sonakshi had not even stepped out of home since morning. She had only eaten the porridge Mumta poured into her plate in the breakfast. Her exams had been over for two days and she had not even opened any book since then. Her dizziness and vomiting could not be associated with any eating disorder. Mumta was worried more than ever before. She took her to a doctor, and after a couple of tests, she was declared pregnant. That was the doom’s day for Mumta and Mithlesh. Their 15 year old daughter had been in a physical relationship with John Good, the boy next door for the last four months. They could not hurt her against the law, though they so wished they had been in India where they could ferociously beat their daughter. Mumta could not bear it and poisoned herself to death. Having lost the wife and the love for his daughter, Mithlesh got extremely depressed. What worried Mithlesh more than everything was that Sonakshi had n ot respected the cultural traditions of India, according to which, girls do not fornicate outside marriage. He thought it did not matter in USA, but it would certainly not be approved of in India. So he thought about marrying his daughter to John. He explained the whole scenario to John’s parents, Martha Good and Andrew Good who were pure Americans.

See Below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 13

See Below - Essay Example ood chainsbecause of the monotonous way of performing the same tasks.McDonald food chains havefood recipes with known ingredients and every employee knows those recipes, therefore, each employee is assigned a different task along the food processing line in a sequential manner. For instance, let us take a look at making a mangojuice. Every day, one employee will be unloading mangoes from the truck to the kitchen, another employee will be washing the mangoes, another employee will be cutting the mangoes into small pieces, and another employee will be blending the mangoes to make mango juice. While we can see scientific management improves productivity in this mango juice making process there is also monotony in the process, however, it gets the job done fast and in a simple way. Unlike scientific management theory, classic organization theory being a merger of scientific management, bureaucratic theory and administrative theory, itis widely used in businesses with more emphasis on management with clear line of authorities and hierarchy. For instance, the government of the United States may want to pass a bill about women’s rights in the society, however, because of authority, the house will first pass the bill then the president being the highest authority will sign it into law (Taylor 11) Therefore, we can draw conclusions that both classic organization and scientific management are relevant today, however, it depends on which business you are looking at. If it entails repetitive tasks, then scientific management is the best approach, however if it entails management with authority and hierarchy them classic organization is the best

Contract Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Contract Law - Coursework Example The two situations involve contracts that are governed by observance of There are therefore various legal principles that will govern the two situations to have involved formation of binding contracts. A contract is defined as an agreement made between two or more parties that is legally binding. Parties to a contract usually expect a win-win situation where they can both benefit from the contract. However the there is usually no certainty for both parties to attain this situation.2 One party may end up having a legal liability towards the other party. Any contract made whether in an attorney’s office or just written by the involved parties is valid and binding provided that the legal principles involved are understandable to both parties. The contract becomes valid on the acceptance of an offer, provided it is in compliance with the laws of the state. The first principle is the legal capacity which for many states the parties are expected to have attained the majority age of 18 years. The parties are as well expected to be in their sound mental capacity to understand the terms of the contract and consequences for non performance.3 The party representing a business organization is in a position to sign the contract thus binding the business to the contract.4 The second principle is the offer and acceptance. A contract comes to existence upon acceptance of the offer. A person may reject an offer and opt for a counter offer if they fail to agree to the terms allowed. Once accepted, offer can be revoked at any time. A contract is therefore formed on acceptance of offer or counteroffer by both parties. The third principle in formation of a legal contract is the exchange of value or consideration. This is the payment made for the performance of the contract. Consideration may be anything valuable for instance cash or goods and services. Where the consideration made is not stated

NYSE and AMEX Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NYSE and AMEX - Research Paper Example The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) are examples of stock markets that this paper will address. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) original name was the New York Stock & Exchange Board at its inception in 1817. The NYSE resides in New York City and stands out as the largest equities-based exchange based on market capitalization in the world and the only exchange operator in the Fortune 500. It also known as the "Big Board† and only became a public entity in 2005 on acquiring the electronic trading exchange Archipelago. However, in 2007, NYSE merged with the European exchange to establish a parent company called the NYSE Euronext, which operates the NYSE. The merger marked a great step in the global financial markets where most of the NYSE operations are now electronic. Subject, to its rich history, the NYSE attracts majority of the largest and successful companies in the world. Indeed, the NYSE even allows foreign-based corporations to list their shares on the NYSE upon satisfying the listing standards (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). On the other hand, the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) also resides in New York City. Its original name was the New York Curb Exchange until it changed to AMEX in 1953. Initially, members in a mutual organization owned the AMEX. The AMEX attracts many smaller companies who cannot meet NYSE's strict listing and reporting requirements (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). As a result, the AMEX stands out as the third largest stock exchange in the U.S by trading volume where it handles approximately 10% of all American trades and comes after NYSE and NASDAQ (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). However, the NYSE Euronext acquired AMEX on October 1, 2008 and its equities changed to NYSE Amex Equities (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) owns the AMEX but the NYSE Euronext operates it (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) now known as the NYSE Euro next operates global financial markets and provides innovative trading technologies in the financial market. It also offers the largest futures and options trading venues in the world where it provides derivatives on commodities, FX, equities, bonds, interest rates, indices, and swaps. Specifically, the NYSE deals with U.S equities, European equities, NYSE technologies, global derivatives, exchange trade products, indices, and bonds (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). Indeed, the NYSE Technologies are significant in offering high-class transaction, data, and infrastructure management services and solutions across the globe (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). Notably some of the corporations that trade with the

HEALTH PROGRAM EVALUATION (Impact Evaluation and Accountability CASE Research Paper

HEALTH PROGRAM EVALUATION (Impact Evaluation and Accountability CASE 4) - Research Paper Example GAO supports the senate in curbing errors of federal processes in healthcare through reporting on the progress of health standards. Furthermore, it enhances performance analysis in policies and drawing choices for senate objectives, auditing operations of the organization to conclude whether state funds are subject to appropriate organization. Indeed, it equally looks into improper and unlawful allegations and issues legitimate verdicts like information about agency rules. Most of GAO’s responsibilities in the State healthcare programs base on organizational planning objective one, which is offering well timed and excellence services to U.S senate. It also ensures that the State government handles current issues for their well-being and financial safety of American people. For example, FY2007, GAO delivered information which helped in coming up with ways of solving problems that were disabling the provision of services to the injured veterans and soldiers (Dodaro, 2010). The organizations well-known products comprises of lawful choices and views, reports, special publications and testimonies. In addition, the GAO suggests solutions to problems that evident in government programs; they detect long-term developments and raise concerns on the fiscal status of the state. Among its latest distinctive report is the 21st period challenge, which was about reexamining Federal government base. The report’s aim was to assist the U.S in the review and deliberation of State spending and tax programs in healthcare spending. GAO also analyses and monitors the changes involved in lasting fiscal outlook, consequences of healthcare and demographic costs and other fiscal commitments in the state (Dodaro, 2010). Evaluation process exudes various challenges. Apart from timeliness, quality and relevance that evaluation entails, the main challenge is in conveying of evaluation outcomes to audiences participating in

NYSE and AMEX Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NYSE and AMEX - Research Paper Example The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) are examples of stock markets that this paper will address. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) original name was the New York Stock & Exchange Board at its inception in 1817. The NYSE resides in New York City and stands out as the largest equities-based exchange based on market capitalization in the world and the only exchange operator in the Fortune 500. It also known as the "Big Board† and only became a public entity in 2005 on acquiring the electronic trading exchange Archipelago. However, in 2007, NYSE merged with the European exchange to establish a parent company called the NYSE Euronext, which operates the NYSE. The merger marked a great step in the global financial markets where most of the NYSE operations are now electronic. Subject, to its rich history, the NYSE attracts majority of the largest and successful companies in the world. Indeed, the NYSE even allows foreign-based corporations to list their shares on the NYSE upon satisfying the listing standards (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). On the other hand, the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) also resides in New York City. Its original name was the New York Curb Exchange until it changed to AMEX in 1953. Initially, members in a mutual organization owned the AMEX. The AMEX attracts many smaller companies who cannot meet NYSE's strict listing and reporting requirements (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). As a result, the AMEX stands out as the third largest stock exchange in the U.S by trading volume where it handles approximately 10% of all American trades and comes after NYSE and NASDAQ (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). However, the NYSE Euronext acquired AMEX on October 1, 2008 and its equities changed to NYSE Amex Equities (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) owns the AMEX but the NYSE Euronext operates it (â€Å"ADVFN† 1). The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) now known as the NYSE Euro next operates global financial markets and provides innovative trading technologies in the financial market. It also offers the largest futures and options trading venues in the world where it provides derivatives on commodities, FX, equities, bonds, interest rates, indices, and swaps. Specifically, the NYSE deals with U.S equities, European equities, NYSE technologies, global derivatives, exchange trade products, indices, and bonds (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). Indeed, the NYSE Technologies are significant in offering high-class transaction, data, and infrastructure management services and solutions across the globe (â€Å"NYSE Euronext† 1). Notably some of the corporations that trade with the

Roles and Functions Essay Example for Free

Roles and Functions Essay Management is important in any environment, but especially so in the healthcare field. As the health care system continues to evolve, sound management is critical to the survival of health care institutions (Johnson, 2005). The management team in a healthcare environment must always aim to improve the efficiency of the day to day activities and constantly plan for ways to improve the productivity and efficiency. Every manager’s main duty is to succeed in helping the organization achieve high performance while utilizing all of the organization’s human and material resources. On a daily basis health care managers must recognize performance problems and opportunities, make good decisions, and take appropriate action (Lombardi and Schermerhorn, 2007). There are four major functions in healthcare management, they are; planning, organizing, controlling the use of resources, and leading to accomplish performance goals. In my previous position, I was a manager over seven associates. Even though I technically was over that small group of people, I was still a manager in the store and often had people from other departments coming to me with issues. All of the major functions played a definite role in my day to day activities. Planning was usually the first step of the day. I would look at everything as a whole and make sure I was including everything that would be important for the day. Organizing almost went hand in hand with planning. Once I knew everything that needed to be done for the day, I could then organize and prioritize everything accordingly. Being organized is a very important; if you are unorganized there is a greater chance of tasks being forgotten or not being finished in a timely manner. Controlling the resources is something I dealt with every day. I was responsible for the ordering of the department; if I was out of a certain product and a customer came in for it, that was a problem. Also being responsible for my human resources was a daily problem, if my people weren’t doing what they were supposed to in a timely manner, then that would throw off my whole day. Lastly, leading to accomplish goals is something everyone strives for. Leading by example is also important, I felt like if I did not work alongside my people, I could not expect them to work. Showing my associates how to work together and address any issues immediately is important to leading my team and accomplish the ultimate goal. The management team in the healthcare environment has a very important role within their facility. There are ten managerial roles that fall within three categories. The three categories are: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. â€Å"A manager’s interpersonal roles involve interactions with people inside and outside the work unit. The information roles involve the giving, receiving, and analyzing of information. The decisional roles involve using information to make decisions, to solve problems, to address opportunities† (Lombardi Schermerhorn, 2007. P. 13). Interpersonal roles involve interactions with people inside and outside the unit. Informational roles of a health care manager involve giving, receiving, and analyzing information. Finally, the decisional roles of a health care manger involve using information for decision making, problem solving, and addressing opportunities (Lombardi Schermerhorn, 2007. P. 13). Of all these different roles, I believe the most important role is the interpersonal role. The interactions between the people inside and outside the unit are an important base. Making sure all of your associates work together and let you know about any issues is important, because if any of that gets out of sync, the rest will as well. In this class, I hope to gain more information on all the roles that are necessary for a good healthcare manager. With everything I hope to learn in this course, I can apply it to my future career as a healthcare administrator. References Johnson, S. W. (2005, April-June). Characteristics of effective health care managers. Health Care Manager, 24(2), 124-128. Lombardi, D. M., Schermerhorn, J. R. (2007). Health care management: Tools and techniques for managing in a health care environment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.

Essay Writing In Malaysian Schools

Essay Writing In Malaysian Schools Essay writing is a must for Malaysian secondary schools students. There are few types of essays that the students need to master. Guided writing, summary writing and continuous writing are the three main types of essay that are tested in examination. These three different types of writing test students ability to understand and use correct grammar, to apply language skills for interpersonal purposes, to apply language skills for informational purposes, and to apply language skills for aesthetic purposes (Malaysian Examinations Syndicate, 2004). Students have to excel in these three types of writing to be able to apply it in real life situation. Students are assessed on their writing skills in school tests as well as in the national standardized test. Different methods of assessment are used in evaluating students essays. At different levels and tests, there will be at least a minor difference in the method of assessing. In Malaysia secondary school, teachers are not given any specific guides to assess students written works. They assess according to their own methods and experiences. Many methods can be used for assessing students essays. Every method has its own specific guidance and teachers can use them based on their needs and students performance. For example, holistic scoring method is used to assess students essays in a generalized way that is to look at their works as a whole piece without analyzing it in details. Any method is analytic scoring method where teachers look at students performance in details. Both methods can be applied by teachers in classroom- based assessment. In this study, only two methods of essay scoring will be discussed which are mentioned above. Holistic and analytic scoring methods are very different and unique in their own way. Therefore, it is important that teachers know how to use both of them in assessing students essays. The subjects that will be chosen for this study are English teachers in secondary schools in Malaysia. They will be investigated on the ways they use to assess their students essay. A few students from their class will also be chosen to give feedbacks about their teachers assessment. 1.2 Statement of Problem Students essays are marked without a standard scale in Malaysian secondary schools. Teachers score their students based on what they think is good for them. They use mostly holistic scoring method which might not be fair to students (Bloom, Daiker White). The ministry of education might be responsible for what had happened. Teachers mark students essays according to what the ministry suggests. Holistic scoring method has long been implemented in schools. Is it the best method for teachers and students? Some problems have occurred with this method because it is not specific enough. It might also create biasness in the case where students are close to their teachers. This method views the essay as a whole without further analysis on each component. While analytic scoring method views the essay in a more specific way, it provides details for students to be able to know what is lacking in their essays. Analytic scoring method uses a rubric as a standard scale to mark essays. Analytic scoring method is regarded as requiring more work and is expensive while holistic scoring method is considered cheaper and more efficient. Holistic scoring method provides less information to students than analytic soring method. Each of the methods has their own advantages but there should be one method that is more suitable for essay scoring. 1.3 Purpose of the Study This study is aimed at investigating the use of holistic scoring method and analytic rubrics in essay scoring among teachers of Malaysian secondary school. This study is also aimed at discovering the relationship between the two methods. Another goal of this study is to find out how analytic scoring method can be applied in Malaysian secondary schools. 1.4 Significance of the Study Methods of essay scoring have been discussed by many experts all around the globe. It is important in a sense that it reflects students ability in writing essay. The wrong method used to mark their essays will cause their performance to drop. How students write essays, sometimes depend on how the teachers mark their essay. There is a vital connection between the two. Basically, Malaysian secondary schools teachers mark students essay according to what they believe is correct and suitable for their students and the method they use can be considered as holistic scoring method. It is very important that they know a method in specific so that they can mark students essay in details. With this study, it is hope that teachers will realized that analytic scoring method is a more suitable method to be used in essay scoring as it will enhance students writing skills precisely and increase the quality of their essays. 1.5 Research Questions The research questions for this study are as follows: How is holistic scoring method used in marking students essays? How are analytic scoring rubrics used in marking students essays? Why is the holistic scoring method mostly used in school? Why is the analytic scoring rubric rarely used for marking essays in school? How far is it possible to integrate analytic scoring rubric in the curriculum of Malaysian secondary school? CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction According to Normah Othman (2006), there is no specific scoring strategy implemented specially for a classroom-based assessment of direct writing in Malaysian secondary schools. As it is now, ESL teachers currently use a scoring method adopted from the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate. Therefore, teachers can choose to use analytic or holistic scoring. But most of the teachers use holistic scoring in Malaysian Secondary context. Below are the researches done at different countries on analytic and holistic scoring method. According to Alharby (2006), studies addressing issues related to performance assessment seem to be taking two relatively different directions. One if it is to search for the best scoring method that maximizes reliability and validity of assessment. This is usually accomplished by comparing two of the most popular scoring methods used with performance assessment, the holistic scoring method vs. the analytic scoring method. According to him again, the holistic scoring method is usually used with large scale assessment because it is less time consuming than the analytic method; the latter often producing a very large number of responses that need to be evaluated in a short period of time. The analytic scoring method, on the other hand, is usually used with classroom assessments because it provides more detailed feedback on students learning progress for teachers, students, and parents than does the holistic scoring method. In this research paper, the two essay scoring methods will be f ocused on in Malaysian secondary school context. Moon and Callahan (2001) reported that performance assessments have become more popular within classroom assessments for the last two decades. Methods used in performance assessment are analytic and holistic scoring methods. This two types of scoring methods have been concerned by many researches regarding issues such as its reliability (Parkers, Zimmaro, Zappe, Suen, 1998), validity (Kane, Crooks Cohen, 1999), cost (Picus, 1994), and practicality (Baker Aschbacher, 1992). In this research paper, all the mentioned issues will only be dealt as general factors that affect teachers of English in Malaysian secondary context in choosing essay scoring method. Waltman, Kahn Koency (1998) found that the way raters score individual responses affect reliability as well as the validity of an assessment. The two most common ways to score individual responses such as essays written by students are the holistic scoring method and the analytic scoring method. According to Clauser (2000), analytic scoring method is recommended for simple tasks such as tasks to evaluate students ability in spelling and grammar usage. On the other hand, Clauser recommends the holistic scoring method when the tasks are more complicated such as evaluating the adequacy of a haiku. According to Charney (1984), the holistic scoring method tends to be favored by large scale assessment with numerous examinees because it is less time consuming. In contrast, Vacc (1989) claimed that the analytic scoring method tends to be favored by classroom assessment because of the detailed feedback it offers to teachers, students, and their parents in terms of how students performed on t he assessment. Holistic Scoring Method The holistic scoring method was first introduced in 1960s and was known as the general impression scoring method (Hunter, 1996). Similarly, Ojeda (2004) stated that the holistic scoring approach is an approach where graders read to evaluate an essay as a whole-without focusing on or overemphasizing any one particular part or aspect. It started to become popular in the middle of the 70s (Boring, 2002). Huot (1990) pointed out that the holistic scoring method is a technique in which raters are asked to evaluate individual responses as a whole by their first impression without going to specific possible subdomains of the trait being tested. Klein et al. (1998, p.122) stated that this approach [holistic scoring method] is usually most appropriate when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, that is when scores need to be sensitive to general features of answer quality, such as organization, style, and persuasiveness. In recent year, the holistic scoring method has become even mor e popular, especially with large scale assessments. In Malaysian secondary schools, this method is widely used. Besides that, many researchers have also tried to define holistic scoring approach. White (1984, 1985) defined holistic scoring as a global approach to texts, reflecting the idea that a written text is a single entity. White (1984, 1985) maintained that holistic scoring is preferable because it more closely simulates the impression a reader the meaning of the text as a whole rather than focus on individual features of the writing, such as grammar. White (1985), Weigle (2002), and Hyland (2002) describe holistic scoring as involving carefully selected and experienced raters who use their skilled impressions to give a paper a single, integrated score that is supposed to represent the writers overall writing ability. Powills, Bowers, and Conlan (1979) explained that this holistic approach to scoring essays is an attempt to evaluate wholes rather than parts so that performance on one facet does not determine the judgment of performance on the whole. Different researchers have identified different reasons for the increase of the holistic scoring methods popularity. Some think that it is because the holistic scoring method is the most direct assessment technique (Cooper, 1997); while others think that the reason is that the holistic scoring method is the most economical, flexible and applicable assessment (Huot, 1990; Veal Hudson, 1983). As for White (2004), he pointed out that despite disagreements that arise about the scorings of some papers; this has become the standard way of scoring gatekeeping writing tests in large-scale writing assessments. Findings by Coffman (1968), Freedman (1979), and Breland and Jones (1984) supported that holistic scoring helps focus raters on meaning, showing that holistic raters of essay writing ability seem to attend more to content features than to mechanics and sentence structure. One potential advantage of holistic scoring methods in the assessment of second language writing ability is that they are more practical. Godshalk, Swineford, and Coffman, (1966), Alloway (1978), and Powills, Bowers, and Conlan (1979) all found holistic scoring methods to be more efficient than analytic scoring methods, particularly for large-scale exams, noting the advantages of such an approach in saving time and money. Furthermore, Smith, Winters-Edys, Quellmalz, and Baker (1980) estimated that holistic scoring takes approximately two-thirds the time of analytic scoring. Although holistic scoring method is widely accepted as the most appropriate tool for this purpose, many writing practitioners and administrators reportedly view the holistic technique with reservation (Enginarlar, 1991, p. 39). Hamp-Lyons (1996, p. 234) objects to the single point score resulting from holistic grading, which she claims obscures a pattern of consistent overemphasis or underemphasis on basic language control. Another claim is that a higher share of midlevel papers seem to end up with split scores-scores 2 points apart that must be resolved by a third grader-so holistic scoring may be less effective for evaluating midlevel performances than an analytic method might be (Elbow, 1996b). According to East (2009), the strength of holistic scoring lies in its practicality, which in large-scale testing contexts is an important consideration. Besides that, Vaughan (1991) argues that researchers looking at holistic assessment have often assumed that given a scale that describes the characteristics of an essay at each level, trained raters will assess the essays in the same way every time (p.112). Despite all the strength of holistic scoring, Prior research has established that there are some problems with holistic scoring method. Charney (1984) speculates that scores in holistic readings are based on superficial features, such as handwriting, essay length, word choice and spelling errors. This is in accord with Stewart and Grobe (1979), who concluded that raters were primarily influenced by essay length and freedom from simple mechanical errors (p. 214). Diederich, French, and Carlton (1961) found that judgments made by essay raters under holistic scoring conditions were unreliable. They recommended that considerable effort should be done to establish and maintain reliable ratings. Diederich (1974) claimed that until holistic scoring procedures were refined, the score an essay received could depend more on who the rater was than on any qualities of the text itself. Charney (1984), Gere (1980), and Odell and Cooper (1980) also questioned the premises on which certain conclusions about the reliability of holistic scoring have been based. Charney observed that the way holistic raters read texts may create an unnatural reading environment in which scores might only reflect agreement on salient but superficial features of writing, such as the quality of the handwriting or the presence of spelling errors. According to Hamp-Lyons (1995), English as Second Language writers have a special need for scoring procedures that go beyond just the assign of a single score because one score does not allow raters to distinguish between various aspects of writing, such as language control, range of vocabulary, or organizational control. Hamp-Lyons also pointed out that it is problematic for second language (L2) writers since different aspects of writing ability seem to develop at different rates for different writers. Some writers may be strong in expressing content and organization, but limited in grammatical accuracy; others may have excellent language control at the sentence level, but be unable to organize their writing. All the aspects mentioned by Hamp-Lyons should be taken into consideration when teachers of English in Malaysian secondary schools score an essay. Additionally, holistic scores are not easy to interpret because raters do not necessarily use the same criteria to arrive at the same scores. One rater may assign a score to a writing sample based on content and organization, while another rater assigns the same score on the basis of language control (grammar) and vocabulary. Charney (1984) noted that time constraints affect raters depth of processing. When spending only two minutes on a paper, a rater may assign a score that only reflects agreement on salient but superficial features of writing, such as the quality of the handwriting or the presence of spelling errors (p. 78). In another study, Arthur (1979) found that the holistic rankings of second language learners (L2) essays written by lower-intermediate adult learners were related to frequency of spelling and grammar errors, and that the best predictor of rating was the length of composition. In addition, Raforth and Rubin (1984) found that college instructors perceptions of composition quality were most influenced by mechanics. A single holistic score assigned to a writing sample may thus represent different aspects of writing ability for different raters. In holistic rating of L2 writing samples, a significantly larger amount of inconsistent textual information must be processed in a limited amount of time, which may affect the ratings. Several studies have suggested that a quick holistic read of an L2 writing sample may not allow the rater the time necessary to accurately assess the writing performance. Huot (1993) noted that when the rater is required to read a text so quickly for a limited set of criteria outlined in a scoring rubric, the need for agreement may hinder a rich, personal response to the text, thus affecting the consistency of the scores. Hamp- Lyons (2003) has cautioned that it is difficult to accurately capture the criteria used by raters during the quick read of a holistic scoring. Apart from that, Grobe (1981) concluded from an analysis of essays and correlation with holistically obtained scores that teachers see good writing as being closely associated with vocabulary diversity (p. 85). Sakyi (2001) supports Grobes view that raters decisions on awarding scores are significantly influenced by vocabulary diversity and the extent of grammatical error, but also by the range and sophistication of syntax and the style or format of the writing. Sakyi also notes from his own research that for raters who made a conscious effort to follow the scoring guide, the restrictions imposed on them to assign a single score at the end caused them to depend mostly on only one or two particular features to distinguish between different levels of ability (p. 129). Analytic Scoring Method The analytic scoring method was introduced at the same time as the holistic scoring method (Boring, 2002). Hunter (1996) explained that for the analytic scoring method, the domain being tested is subdivided to smaller subdomains. Each of these subdomains is then evaluated by itself. The sum of these subdomains would, by default, reproduce the whole. Proponents of analytic scoring methods (Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, Hughey, 1981; Hamp-Lyons, 1990; Huot, 1993; Weigle, 1999) have found several advantages to this method of scoring. One of the advantages is with multiple scores; analytic scoring schemes provide more information about a test takers performance than holistic scoring schemes and permit a profile of the areas of writing ability. Analytic scoring methods can provide specific feedback, which is needed in measuring achievement, predicting future success, and accurately placing students (Shaw, 2002; Bacha 2001), as well as providing useful diagnostic feedback on writing performance (Jacobs, et al., 1981; Hamp-Lyons, 1991; Cohen, 1994). In the assessment of L2 writing ability, analytic scales are very useful if a students writing ability is developing at differing rates for situation such as when vocabulary is good, but organizational control is lacking. Hamp-Lyons (1991), Huot (1996) and Weigle (2002) have suggested that analytic-type scales are generally more reliable than holistic-type scales since each candidate gets more than one score, and multiple scores contribute to reliability. Regarding intra-rater reliability, some research has suggested that analytic scoring is more useful than holistic in training inexperienced raters. It is argued that the raters can more easily interpret and apply the scoring criteria in separate domains than the criteria as described in one holistic rubric (Francis, 1977, and Adams, 1981, both cited in Weir (1990); Hartog, Rhodes, Burt, 1936; Cast, 1939; Bauer, 1981; and Weigle, 1998). Cumming (1990) suggested that an analytical scale tends to reflect what raters do when rating samples of writing or other language performance that is consider the individual features of writing one by one. According to Vacc (1989), the analytic technique is preferred over the holistic scoring method when detailed feedback is needed, especially with classroom assessments. Another reason to use analytic scoring method is that it has been argued that training raters to use analytic scoring rubrics is relatively easier than training them to use holistic scoring rubrics (Cohen, 1994; McNamara, 1996). According to Boring (2002), one advantage of the analytic scoring method over the holistic scoring method is that with the analytic technique, it is possible to give various weights to different subdomains based on their theoretical importance. In addition, Kroll (1990) described that it can help meet the need that many ESL learners who fail writing tests have, for feedback on both the deficiencies and the qualities in their writing (Kroll, 1990). There are, however, a number of disadvantages to using an analytic scoring scheme for the assessment of direct writing samples. The primary concern regarding analytic scoring is practicality. As Weigle (2002) pointed out, it generally takes longer to score a writing sample using an analytic rubric since the rater must make multiple decisions for each writing sample and thus must read the sample multiple times. Some critics doubt whether writing ability can be measured by a composite score based on different aspects of writing. White (1985) argued that writing is more than the sum of its parts, and that the use of an analytic scoring scheme may in effect divert attention from overall essay effect. Weigle (1999) noted information is lost when raters revise their scores on the different scales once they consider the single composite score. Raters may also tend to rate holistically rather than analytically so that the rater ends up assigning a writing sample the same score in every domain (Cohen, 1994). An additional problem with analytic scoring and rater bias surfaced in Cummings (1990) descriptive analysis of raters comments. Cumming (1990) also found that both novice and expert raters tended to analytically evaluate ESL compositions on both language control and writing ability, implicitly attributing separate values to each of these domains. Hamp-Lyons (1989) noted another potential problem in the reliability of analytic scoring schemes in that an analytic scoring method may favor essays where performance criteria are easily and quickly extracted from the writing sample. While an analytic scoring method offers the potential of additional information regarding the students L2 writing ability, there are potential problems of reliability and validity derived from the scoring procedures. Conclusion All the researches had shown that the method used by teachers in assessing students essay will definitely have an impact on students writing skills and ability. It is very vital to use the correct method so that students will improve their performance. From all the researches also, it can be concluded that most of them focus on the reliability, validity and practicality of the two scoring methods from many perspective. There is very few or none research is done on the teachers point of view on the two methods. In this research paper, the teachers opinions will be concern as much as possible. 2.2 Definition of terms Holistic scoring method is a method which teachers use to evaluate a piece of students writing for its overall quality. It is a method used in essay scoring whereby a single mark is awarded to an essay from a range of marks categorized in different performance bands in which each band is characterized by descriptors based on the total impression of the essay as a whole. It is widely used in Malaysian schools to mark essays in school-based and public examinations. Analytic scoring method is a method that teachers use to assess students written works more specifically and in detail. It is usually based on a well structured rubric where all the components that need to be assessed are stated out clearly and in detail. This method views an essay in as technical a manner as possible. It is not a common method used in Malaysian secondary schools. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction The first purpose of this study is to investigate the use of holistic scoring method and analytic rubrics in essay scoring among teachers of Malaysian secondary schools. This study is also aimed at discovering the relationship between the two methods. Another goal of this study is to find out how analytic scoring method can be applied in Malaysian secondary school. As for the research questions in this study, the first one is how holistic scoring method is used in marking students essays. The second question is how analytic scoring rubrics are used in marking students essays. The third question is why holistic scoring method is mostly used in school. The fourth question is why analytic scoring rubric is rarely used in marking school essays. The last question is how possible is it for analytic scoring rubric to be integrated in the curriculum of Malaysian secondary school. To fulfill the purpose and research questions for this study, only one method is used. Fifty survey questionnaires were distributed. 3.2 Population and sampling The population chosen for this study was teachers of English from Malaysian secondary schools. The population was selected randomly. There was no distinction between gender and races. Fifty teachers from different schools were given the questionnaire. Six schools were chosen to answer the questionnaires. All the teachers chosen to answer questionnaire were teachers of English. All the schools chosen are selected randomly to ensure that there is no bias. 3.3 Instrumentation The instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of 5 sections. The survey is constructed in 5 sections to answer all the research questions. A copy of the survey is attached to appendix A. 3.4 Procedure and time frame This research took about 6 weeks to complete. It started during the 6th week and ended in the 12th week of the semester. During this period of time, the researcher went to six Malaysian secondary schools to give out the questionnaire. First of all, the researcher identified the schools that are suitable for the study. Schools that have at least 8 teachers of English were selected. Secondly, the researcher went to the schools and met with the principal of each school. The researcher asked permission from the principal to give out the questionnaires. Almost all the schools asked the researcher to leave the questionnaires there for collection the next week. The researcher left the questionnaires there according to the number of teachers of English in each school. Thirdly, the researcher went back to each school the next week and collected all the completed questionnaires. Some questionnaires were not collected mainly because teachers were busy with examinations. After collecting all the questionnaires, data were analyzed. 3.5 Analysis plan All the data collected from the survey will be analyzed according to research questions. The first and second sections of the questionnaire are to answer the first two research questions on analytic and holistic scoring. These two sections consist of characteristics on both analytic and holistic scoring. The answers respondents have chosen will reveal their scoring method accurately. Item A1 to A3 will be on analytic marking method, while A4 to A6 will be on holistic marking method. The following graph will present the result for each item. Figure 3.1 . The outline of the presentation of result for section A of the questionnaire Where: A1 I use analytic marking method (mark according to specific criterion) A2 I concentrate on one criterion at a time and read the response specifically for that criterion. A3 I read the response and mark errors in spelling, sentence structure and coherence A4 I use holistic marking method (mark essay as a whole) A5 I read the response and give a mark as a whole A6 After the first reading I assign one band score to the response and confirm this after subsequent readings. Another graph will be for section B. The following graph is to summarize the percentage for section B. Figure 3.2. The outline of the presentation of result for section B of the questionnaire Where: B1 Is the marking scheme holistic guide? B2 Is the marking scheme analytic guide? B3 Do you find the marking scheme easy to interpret? B4 Do you find the marking scheme easy to apply? B5 Do you feel the assessment criteria in the marking scheme provide an accurate and fair assessment? B6 Do you think it is necessary to change the current marking scheme? The third section answers the third research question on holistic scoring. This section is to explore the reasons of teachers who use holistic scoring. The fourth section answered the fourth research question on analytic scoring. This section is to explore the reasons of teachers who use analytic scoring. 7 reasons presented in the questionnaires were according to literature review. This is to find out why teachers like to use holistic or analytic scoring. Two graphs as follow will be used to summarize the result. Figure 3.3. The outline of the presentation of result for section C of the questionnaire Where: C1 I like to use it. C2 It is more convenient. C3 It costs less. C4 It saves time. C5 It is reliable. C6 It provides good feedback for students. C7 It is fair. Figure 3.4. The outline of the presentation of result for section D of the questionnaire Where: D1 I like to use it. D2 It is more convenient. D3 It costs less. D4 It saves time. D5 It is reliable. D6 It provides good feedback for students. D7 It is fair. The last section is to examine the possibility of using analytic scoring in Malaysian secondary context. This answered the last research question. This section is on curriculum of Malaysian secondary school and the use of analytic scoring. If teachers are more positive towards using analytic scoring, it suggests that it is possible to use. The graph used to analyze the result is as follows. Figure 3.5. The outline of the presentation of result for section E of the questionnaire Where: E1 It is possible to mark students essays based on specific features and criterion in school E2 I think that teachers are willing to use analytic scoring rubric in school E3 Analytic scoring rubric is suita