Relationship Between Men and Women Jane Eyre and The...

Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre entails a social criticism of the oppressive social ideas and practices of nineteenth-century Victorian society. The presentation of male and female relationships emphases men’s domination and perceived superiority over women. Jane Eyre is a reflection of Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s own observation on gender roles of the Victorian era, from the vantage point of her position as governess much like Jane’s. Margaret Atwood’s novel was written during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized ‘the excesses of the sexual revolution.’ Where Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre is a clear depiction of the subjugation of women by men in nineteenth-century†¦show more content†¦Her dominance, â€Å"stature almost equaling her husband† and â€Å"more than once she almost throttled him, athletic as he was,† challenges the so cial institutions of men’s intrinsic preeminence. Her confinement in the attic and horrific death in the fire, possibly symbolic of hell, is interpretable as punishment for her rebuttal against societal norms and lack of subservience to male dominance. It defies social convention for a woman to be dominant over a man such as Bertha is to Rochester as she even â€Å"almost throttled him, athletic as he was,† and their marital relationship becomes disastrous when man is not the one upholding power. In contrast to this, Jane’s relationship with Rochester is presented to be undisruptive and therefore more positive in its gentle and peaceful romance. He dubs his own wife a â€Å"fearful hag† and speaks of â€Å"her with hate—with vindictive antipathy† whereas he views that â€Å"every atom of† Jane’s â€Å"flesh is as dear† to him as his â€Å"own.† This stark contrast between his cold, hostile relationship with his wi fe and his loving bond with Jane highlights the dynamic in male/female relationships the female is of a collected nature, as expected by Victorian society. That this is dependent upon the female again leads to unbalanced gender roles and behavioral restrictions on women. Similarly to the repression of women in Jane Eyre’s Victorian era, the handmaids of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale are driven into

The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfields Coming of Age...

It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults. In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an immature teenager. Holden gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four out of five of his classes. He says, â€Å"They kicked me out. I†¦show more content†¦But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game† (8). Holden does not understand Spencer’s metaphor. Holden believes that life can only be a game if people are given advantages. From his point of view, he is one of the unlucky ones, but in reality he is on the side with the hot-shots, because he is given many advantages that others are not. Salinger emphasizes Holden’s immaturity in a very subtle way by having Holden’s authority figures always calling him â€Å"boy†. Both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini call Holden â€Å"boy†. Of Spencer, Holden says, â€Å"I wished to hell he’d stop calling me ‘boy’ all the time† (12) and then later on, Antolini tells Holden, â€Å"You’re a very, very strange boy† (193). Both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini recognize and acknowledge Holden’s immature behaviour in calling him â€Å"boy†. This only stresses the fact that Holden cannot seem to realize he is acting more like a child than a teenager. Holden’s red hunting hat is a very important symbol in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden uses this hat as a way to hide from society. He says, â€Å"That hat I bought had earlaps in it, and I put them on–I didn’t give a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway† (53). Holden thinks that wearing his red hunting hat makes him an individual, but in reality, he will only wear it when no one is around to judge him. It is his immaturity that makes him believe that he is being unique,Show MoreRelatedA Pessimistic Adolescent Is Not What Most Consider A Reliable Narrator1295 Words   |  6 Pagesbut auth or J.D. Salinger challenges this commonly held thought with his coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. The reader is introduced to Holden Caulfield, a secondary school junior that is outcasted and aimless upon expulsion from yet another preparatory school in a post-World War II world. Salinger weaves a myriad of comparisons of genuinity and disingenuousness into his work, each explored through a facet of Caulfield’s personality and experiences. The cynical sixteen-year-old strives to identifyRead More Catcher in the Rye Essay: Themes of Society and Growing Up1366 Words   |  6 PagesThemes of Society and Growing Up in The Catcher in the Rye      Ã‚   In reading J.D. Salingers novel, The Catcher in the Rye, one is compelled to have a very strong reaction to the contents of the book.   Whether that reaction is negative or positive, it is unquestionable that the reader will give the novel a second thought after reading it.   There could be many reasons why this novel has such an impact on the readers.   It may be the use of Salingers catchy slang phrases, bitingly sarcastic andRead MoreAmerican Library Association Vs. Salinger s The Catcher s The Rye 1230 Words   |  5 Pages J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, holds the honor of appearing on â€Å"Time† magazine’s 2010 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 (Lacayo). In contrast, the American Library Association (ALA) notes that the novel also holds the dubious honor of being the tenth most challenged book in the United States from 1990 to 1999. In 2001, 2005, and 2009 the book again made the ALA top ten most frequently challenged book list (Banned and Challenged Books). In the lightRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Young Folks By F. Salinger1627 Words   |  7 Pagesencouraged to publish his first story, â€Å"The Young Folks,† after taking a writing class about fiction with Whit Burnett, an editor from Story magazine. Throughout the following years, Salinger sent in many of his works to well-known magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. He even continued to work on his writing while participating in the United States Army during World War II from 1942 to 1946. When he came home, he began to gain success from his short stories about his experiences fromRead MoreThe Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger and Looking For Alaska by John Green1729 Words   |  7 PagesAmerican history. The Catcher In The Rye and Looking For Alaska, two American novels about young adulthood, provide an insight on the commonalities and differences between these two generatio ns and their unique American experiences. The two novels written by J.D. Salinger and John Green, respectively, were written fifty-four years apart, but their similarities are nonpareil. In fact, Green cites The Catcher In The Rye as an inspiration for his novel. The Catcher In The Rye and Looking For AlaskaRead MoreCatcher in the Rye4413 Words   |  18 PagesThe Catcher in the Rye â€Å"Is The Catcher in the Rye, as a work of literature still relevant for today’s youth?† Name: Sara Sigurdson Course: English A1 Supervisor: Mr. Peter Steadman Word count: 3851 Candidate number: 00136022 Table of Contents Content Page Number Abstract 3 Introduction 4 The Actual Catcher in the Rye 4 The Sexual Matter 5 The Caulfield Family 6 Narrator and Protagonist 8 Role Model 9 Mr. Antolini 10 Targeted Audience 10 Guidance 12 Read MoreThe Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger2004 Words   |  9 PagesThe Catcher in the Rye is a popular novel written by J.D. Salinger. Published in 1951, the book was originally written for adults, but it is now remembered and adored by people from all parts of the world and people from all walks of life – especially by teenagers – a likely effect that was only inevitable considering the center stage of the narrator the great crumby flake Holden Caulfield, to use his style of speaking, who accurately portrayed teenage angst and loneliness in a style that many youngstersRead MoreControversial American Literature, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye1058 Words   |  5 PagesOne of the most controversial American Literature books, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, went into full turbulence and had all the attention of critics everywhere during its release in 1951. Holden Caulfield, a New York City teenager in the 1950’s with man ic-depression is the protagonist, is a protagonist unlike any other in coming-of-age novels. What most critics don’t realize is that his actions are exactly those of a depressed teenager would endure: being an immature compulsive liar who isRead MoreThe Catcher in the Rye and the Truman Show Essay1588 Words   |  7 Pagesexplores many ideas of identity in his book ‘The Catcher in the Rye’; these ideas include ego, expression, personality, environment and perception. The author uses many features such as first person narration to express these ideas of identity. Identity is a common theme in many works including ‘The Truman Show’ directed by Peter Weir and poem ‘Life-Cycle’ written by Bruce Dawe. ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is an emotional journey of 16 year old Holden Caulfield who is struggling to recognise his identityRead MoreHoldens Attempt at Isolation in Catcher in the Rye Essay686 Words   |  3 Pagesand sting. In the coming-of-age tale Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger explores this phenomenon through the voice of the narrator, Holden Caulfield. Although Holden possesses a voice of intelligence, sensitivity and insight he is also bitter with the hypocrisy and ugliness that he perceives in the world around him. The vividness with which he expresses his discontent is seen manifested in the criticisms that Holden aims at various characters throughout the story. As the story progresses, however

Supply and Demand Framework System †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Supply and Demand Framework System. Answer: Introduction: Azevedo and Leshno have clearly stated that lower price does always imply greater demand. This is simply because as and when a good is sold at a cheap and affordable rate, the consumers are able to get more value for their money, resulting in consumer surplus. The authors rightly state that this may not hold truth for substitute goods. For example, even if a box of Coffee is charged low, if the price of Tea is still lower, people would prefer to buy the substitute goods only. However, they also refer to the Demand Curve which clearly demonstrates an inverse relation between the price of a commodity and the demand of the same. One major strength of the article is that the authors have explained the inverse relation between demand and price of a commodity with the help of economic theories, especially the theory of Demand Curve that helps in explaining the scenario in a more effective way. The authors also refer to various cases, where the demand for a product has been found to increase with the reduction of price. This adds to the credibility of the research. However, the weakness of the article is that it does not consider the case of Veblen goods and Giffen goods which are exceptions to this concept. Forstall offers a counter-perspective to the well-known theory of economics regarding the relation between price and demand of a good. Forstall refers to the Apple products and shows how even if the price goes up, consumers will buy the product. Similarly, he also explains that if the price goes down, it may decrease demand of the goods. The reason behind this is the Apple products are regarded more as status symbols rather than necessary products. Hence, Forstall claims people will tend to consume them only if these are priced higher than the rival products. Consequently, a fall in the price will not prove how rich and tasteful these consumers are, and hence with the fall in price, consumer demand will not necessarily increase. A major strength of the article lies in the way it offers a counter-perspective to the established economic theory of price and demand. The article challenges the traditional theory, but it could draw on more examples, as it only refers to the Apple products, and thus the argument becomes weak. The article however is a bit biased in style, as it does not consider the exception. When the price increases, the middle income buyers will demand more of the expensive product even though the higher class may not demand it as before. Saintvilus in this newspaper claims that even if the price of an I Phone will increase, he will not still think of stopping to consume the product. He states that I Phone has become more of an obsession for many, and considering the social status associated with it, people will not buy it at a low price. The newspaper argues that the price reduction will not essentially imply demand increase, and this is especially true in case of luxury and status commodities. The newspaper article lacks critical depth and theoretical framework that is the only weakness of the article. Otherwise, the article is well-structured. Singh, J., 2017.Price Demand Relationship: Normal, Inferior and Giffen Goods. [online] Economics Discussion. Available at: https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/cardinal-utility-analysis/price-demand-relationship-normal-inferior-and-giffen-goods/1069 [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017]. The author argues that in case of an Inferior good, the reduction in price will not always lead to the increase in demand. There are inferior goods which according to Singh are known to be consumed by people of lower social status. As a result, the demand increase on price reduction of these products will entirely demand on the income of the consumer. In case the consumer income increases, he will not think of buying the inferior good even if the good is charged at a low price. The argument is wells-structured and offers a comprehensive insight into the different types of goods, such as inferior goods and giffen goods. The author thoroughly discusses nad explains why the theory of demand curve does not hold truth in all situations. The content is unique as it explains the importance of income effect in determining the relation between consumer demand and price reduction of a commodity. However, while explaining the inferior goods, the author refers to possible exceptions of this situation, and yet has not explained the exceptions well. In the article, the author argues how even if price does not influence quantity demanded, quantity demanded will be more likely to influence price. Referring to the Arabica of coffee beans of USA the author rightly claims how the product being unique has a higher demand, that in turn will result in higher price. In other words, the price will not be low and yet the consumers will be responsible for the same. The article offers a unique perspective and shows how often the price does not determine the quantity demanded, rather the situation can turn out the other way round. This content is unique as it deconstructs the economic theory of demand curve and shows quantity demanded has a greater impact on price. Bibliography: Azevedo, E.M. and Leshno, J.D., 2016. A supply and demand framework for two-sided matching markets.Journal of Political Economy,124(5), pp.1235-1268. Forstall, T., 2017.Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/21/the-limit-to-apples-value-are-they-a-veblen-good/#4bc3712cd9f3 [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017]. Lorenzatti, L., 2017.Americans' Coffee Guzzling Is Pushing Bean Prices Higher. [online] Fortune.com. Available at: https://fortune.com/2016/07/01/americans-coffee-prices/ [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017]. Saintvilus, R., 2017.Yes, I Would Pay $1,000 for an Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone 8. [online] InvestorPlace. Available at: https://investorplace.com/2017/08/yes-i-would-pay-1000-for-an-apple-inc-aapl-iphone-8/#.WZaCs1UjHIU [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017]. Singh, J., 2017.Price Demand Relationship: Normal, Inferior and Giffen Goods. [online] Economics Discussion. Available at: https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/cardinal-utility-analysis/price-demand-relationship-normal-inferior-and-giffen-goods/1069 [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].

Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint Essay Example

Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint Paper Harper Lee chooses to tell the story from scouts viewpoint because it allows the readers to see Scout mature and grow as the narrator and as a person. During the novel Scout learns many things and as we are viewing the events from her viewpoint we are able to see this more clearly. As Scout has grown up and changed, she can now see how things really were, and she can now begin to understand what happened. She can now see and understand the prejudice that was shown to Tom Robinson, Walter Cunningham, Miss Maudie and even herself. In the Novel Atticus teaches Jem and Scout to be polite, caring kids. He taught them to have great sense of love for their neighbour and told them things that would help them get on in life. Scout was very lucky to have someone to guide her along the way. Although she was faced with the real world, she had lots of people who would willingly explain to her and guide her. Because Harper Lee tells the novel from Scouts perspective we are able to see this more clearly. Also we are able to see Scout mature during the book. She goes from a six-year-old child with little understanding of the real world to a ten year old who has been taught a lot of important lessons at a young age. She had to learn, very quickly, that life would not always be easy and fun this is shown well by having an grown old Scout narrate the novel. In the novel She learns many things that when she was a child she couldnt understand but now that she is older she can understand such as Station when she was younger she didnt really understand the class system as she just thought of everyone as equals. We will write a custom essay sample on Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The author, Harper Lee, picked an interesting person to narrate the story. The fact that Harper Lee chose Scout to narrate the story had some advantages and some disadvantages as the story progressed. When Harper Lee uses Scout as the first person, she opens the readers eyes to the way that children think and act. Scout also offers a fair opinion of the affairs of Maycomb, and doesnt dwell on adult matters which would make it boring for the reader. However there are also Some disadvantages of picking Scout for the first person viewpoint, even though she was smart, she didnt really understand what all the fuss was about as she was too young to understand everything that was going on around her. In my opinion Harper Lee the author did an excellent job of making the story easy to understand by using Scout as the narrator. In my opinion by Choosing to tell the story from a childs point of view, it was easier to read between the lines and find the real meaning of what was being said. This was because if Scout didnt understand she could ask someone whereas if the story had been narrated by an adult this would not have been possible. Its when you know youre licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew. This above paragraph speaks about what scout feels the meaning of courage is. There were many people who showed different kinds of courage in the story and even though scout sometimes didnt realise the reader was made aware. Atticus was probably one of the bravest people in the story even though scout and Jem didnt seem to think so. He stood up for a black man who was going against a white man in court. A lot of people disagreed with him, and some went so far as to spit in his face however he carried on against all odds. In the novel Boo Radley was also brave. He risked his own life to save two children that he barely knew. He also faced so much gossip and persecution because of his home life and the way he chose to live. He could have come out any time he wanted to but he didnt, and because he didnt, he suffered for it. Te fact that Boo Radley saved the lives of the children even though he didnt like to go out shows that he has courage and because this is sown through Scouts perspective his courage is shown more. We then begin to hear about how Tom Robinson, a black man, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and how everyone is saying that Atticus defends Negroes. The plot then goes on to explain about the trial and what happens afterwards, but we dont hear about Boo Radley until Halloween. When the kids are attacked, that is when the two plots combine. Boo Radley fights Mr. Ewell and carries Jem home. Scout figures out what happens and realizes who he is. Their game of Making Boo Radley Come Out has finally succeeded the fact that the above is all written from Scouts point of view makes it more effective. Also when Harper Lee wrote the book, she made the entire book like a flashback. She began the story as a reminiscence about her brothers broken arm. By making the entire story a flashback, she could add funny stories and still keeping the story line. . When Lee uses foreshadowing to tell what is going to come, she makes you wonder what is going to happen next. Irony is one of the biggest elements in this story. An ironic moment is when the children spend an entire summer trying to get Boo outside, and when he does come out (of his own accord), its to save them. Irony is important to the story because the theme of the book is ironic in itself. In the novel the childrens relation to Atticus starts out as a child-father relationship. But as the story progresses, they begin to see what a great man he is. They realized that by defending Tom Robinson, he was doing something that no other man would do, not for the glory, but because it was the right thing to do. The children and Boos relationship is probably the most interesting one in the book and is shown well from scouts perspective. It goes from an obsession to an unconditional love. When Boo saves the childrens lives, he proves that he is not scary as they had first thought. They realize that Boo was the one giving them little trinkets in the tree, and they realize that he was the one who folded Jems pants and left them on the fence. Boo cared for the children, even though he barely knew them. He showed an unconditional love that most adults would not show. He was so kind that he risked his life for the children, and that is why Scout grows to understand and care for him because he is the opposite to what they thought he was. I think that Harper lee chose to write the novel from scouts perspective because it gave the reader an added insight into the story and the events of Maycomb. It was good to write it in such a way because even though scout was young she was unusually clever and easily able to grasp what was going on around her and she always acted with the best intentions and didnt care about social class, she was a tomboy in Maycomb which would have been very unusual. Also by writing in this way the story became easier to understand and perhaps more interesting as scout was used as the narrator. Also because of this we can quickly realizes when reading To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout is who she is because of the way Atticus has raised her. While most girls in Scouts position would be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout, thanks to Atticuss hands-off parenting style, wears overalls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill. She does not always grasp social workings this is shown when she tells her teacher that one of her fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch, and human behaviour often confuses her, when one of her teachers criticizes Hitlers prejudice against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks she cant understand it. Atticuss protection of Scout from social pressure has made her forthright and well meaning.

An Unlikely Murderer essays

An Unlikely Murderer essays One would think that crimes with such a gruesome nature would be committed by a hatchet-wielding maniac as put by Russell Aiuto (1). But rather, the suspect was that of a church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, respectable, spinster-daughter(Aiuto 1). The young woman, Lizzie Borden, was charged with the killing of her father and stepmother, a crime worthy of Classical Greek tragedy (Aiuto 1). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to research the life and trial of Lizzie Borden in order to determine if she was innocent or guilty of parricide, the murder of ones parents. It was on the 19th of July, 1860, that in Fall River, Massachusetts Lizzie Borden was born (Radin 268). She grew up there alongside her father, Andrew Borden. He was a very prosperous man, starting out as the towns undertaker and ending up investing his profits into the textile industry. When Lizzie made it in to her teens, Mr. Borden was worth $500,000 (Paton 432). Being as prosperous as he was, he only had to places to spend his money: his two daughters, Lizzie and her older sister Emma (Paton 432). Andrew Borden also had a wife, Abby Borden. She was the stepmother of Lizzie and Emma and a hated one at that. Whenever Lizzie and Abby were together in the house, which happened a lot, the atmosphere was electric (Paton 433). Abby was called Mrs. Borden, and Lizzie did not eat when Abby was around. Their relationship was so distant, that Lizzie only spoke to her when it was needed (Paton 433). Lizzie first despised Abby when Andrew decided to purchase Abbys sisters home and have it in his wifes name. This prevented his sister-in-law from getting evicted, but Lizzie saw it as a chance for Abby to take advantage of Andrews money (Paton 433). What most people do not know, is that Lizzie had somewhat of a criminal record before she was charged with the murder. The fir...

How To Stop Being So Distracted While You Write In WordPress

How To Stop Being So Distracted While You Write In WordPress Simple, less, fewer, quiet, white space–these are the trends. We want to live by the motto of less is more. We want simplification. We want our lives to be free of distraction, and we want our technology, devices, and apps to reflect that. Minimalism then, with complete functionality. This has carried over into other activities, like writing. Simplified distraction-free writing is all the rage. Written on inkpen.in, one of many online distraction-free writing apps. Distraction free writing app Draft works great, too. SimpleNote will work, too, if you want a basic writing program. Do a search on distraction free writing and youre going to find an endless number of apps and software for every device and operating system: everyone is going distraction free with their writing. Why Use Distraction Free Writing Tools? A 2011 research project by Nathaniel Welch  explored the viability of minimalistic writing software. He began by surveying people who wrote, asking them what they wrote, and what they liked and disliked about the tools they used to write. In Welchs survey, he discovered two kinds of writers: People who wrote in a corporate or academic environment want lots of features and formatting options. People who wrote for their own enjoyment or wrote fiction wanted something more minimal. What can we take away from what Welch discovered? Distracting Tools Slow Us Down Welch points out that software is made to be generic.  Microsoft Word (the king of bloated writing software) can do just about anything for everyone whether academic or corporate or personal use. That means it is so packed with features (spreadsheets! ebooks! resumes! posters! desktop publishing! memos!) that most of us dont use half of them, though if you pool all of the users they all get used somehow. Bloated and distracting software comes when you make a tool for the largest common denominator.   This means writers are carrying a 200 lb. backpack as they climb the mountain of creativity when they only needed a 5 lb. backpack. You might just want to write poetry, but youre carrying the entire toolset for corporate word processing. Distracting tools slow us down. #DistractionFreeWritingWe Are In A Battle Against Features Welch also discovered that [e]very single one of my responders despised Microsoft Word’s auto-correct but thought spell check was the most essential feature any word processor could have. We all want some features and formatting options, but we dont all want the same amount of features. Features quickly become bloat and take up space both on the screen and in our decision making process. Welch then went on to do an overview of several word processing programs, explaining that you could minimize some of those excessive features that many writers didnt want, but that it wasnt easy. Its not a simple one-click option like it is in WordPress (more on that in a bit). You had to fight against the software to make it less distracting. Why go through all that work just to turn off the features that a writing app or software is touting as its strength? Because most of us need to go into Do Not Disturb mode to really get things done. No, multi-tasking doesnt work. No, youre not going to write a detailed an insightful post with useful facts when theres a three-ring circus around you.  It wont happen. Features and options are just more things to fiddle with when you really need to just get words written. Too many features require more decisions, a waste of creative energy. #DistractionFreeWritingWriting Is Like Flying A Plane When I was a student pilot, one of the things that was drilled into me was being aware of cockpit distractions, referred to as keeping a sterile cockpit. Essentially, during any stage of flight that isnt cruise flight, pilots are required to avoid distractions that keep them from performing taxi, takeoff, landing, etc. This includes unnecessary talking, using electronic gadgets, and so forth. Pilots are supposed to pay attention and be mindful of what needs to be done. Distraction-free writing is the sterile cockpit rule for writers, especially  with blogging where  simpler is better, both in the visual look and how we approach content (even  long form content). Of course your writing isnt the same as flying a plane of people safely, but the point is clear: distractions all around us keep us from doing the job well. Noise, discomfort, and visual: these are all distractions.

Fallacy Spotting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fallacy Spotting - Essay Example An appeal to pity or fear also known as the Galileo argument, means a professional has been suffering that he/she might lose loss his/her house due to some dysfunction. Under different situations human being evoke to the appeal to pity or fear emotion. Fear of God and fear of terrorism generates appeal to pity or fear in the human mind. At the time of appeal to pity or fear, different kinds of reasoning come to the mind of the arguer along with opposing party. Emotions have been affecting human behavior in a very inappropriate manner, which is also harmful for the future (Rainbolt and Dwyer 1-446). Therefore, appealing to the emotions like pity or fear is unidentified force created by the arguer, it negatively affect the opponents without knowing the actual reason, whether he/she will surrender to the arguer (Walton 1-55). Pity or fear is a very strong as well as forceful emotion, which made the opponent helpless and at a point of time opponent is forced to give up the

Outpatient civil commitment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Outpatient civil commitment - Essay Example This paper will focus on involuntary civil commitment. Outpatient civil commitment raises ethical and legal issues for the mental health practitioner. Ethical principles require that the decision to commit a patient requires that the clinician balance factors favoring commitment. Such factors include the patient’s welfare and safety, treatment to relieve pain, and the welfare and safety of others. Factors opposing commitment, for instance, individual liberty, patient privacy and the uncertainty of predicting future harm should also be considered by the mental health officer (Schopp, 2003). Ethical principles state that mental health officers who manage suicidal patients need to know the standards and procedures of civil commitment, whether inpatient or outpatient. In cases where commitment laws are strict and commitment is not easy to obtain, other management options must be pursued to obtain adequate treatment for a patient and to reduce the patient’s danger of experiencing more suffering (Schopp, 2003). Mental health officers are bound to be responsible for wrong decisions made. Whenever a clinician is in doubt, he or she should seek judicial review about the commutability of a potentially dangerous action towards the patient. The society defines the role of the clinicians in terms of professional responsibilities to patients. The clinician’s first duty is to do no harm to the patients. They can avoid harming patients by showing respect for their autonomy. Respect of autonomy may be manifested when the patient is allowed to make his/her own decision whether to reject or accept medical care that has been recommended by a medical officer. Acting without the patient’s approval is unethical. Clinicians are also bound by their professional obligations to help patients; doctors are required to provide patients with services that are geared towards benefiting them (Schopp, 2003). On the contrary, there are

Honest Iago Essay Example for Free

Honest Iago Essay Iago is the most unique villain of Shakespeare There has been a lot of controversy about his motives and he has been considered as an incarnation of the devil. At the same time, Iago is one of the most brilliant Shakespearean characters although Shakespeare uses his cunningness only for diabolical purposes. He has can rightly be called an atheist of human nature and a stealthy corrupter of human piety, a fearless disturber of domestic peace and an unbeliever in and denier of anything spiritual. This is interesting to note that all characters in the play, except for Roderigo (to whom he sometimes shows his real face) have a high opinion of Iago and refer to him as â€Å"honest Iago†. He uses this high oestimation of him by these major characters to befool them. The Mutual relationship between Iago and Othello is of trust and reliance on the part of Othello but it is conniving and devious on the part of Iago. Iago has same relationship with Cassio. Cassio is also deceived by the seeming virtue of Iago and actually believes that ensign is a kind-hearted man. But at the same time is a rival to Iago in the royal court. Another facets of his relationship with Othello and Cassio is that he (Iago) lives the part of a blurt outspoken plain fellow who is always prepared to say what he really thinks without caring for the effect it may have on others. Othello is shown as a trustful and thorough in his trust for Iago. Although when Iago starts working on him, he suspects him and asks for evidence, yet from the beginning of the play, he seems to have put entire confidence in the honesty of Iago, who had not been his companions in arms. This confidence is misplaced but it is no sign of stupidity in Othello. He does not have a distinctive fear of him. We find this even before Iago has set a trap for him. Othello fears the monster â€Å"too hideous to be shown† that he discerns about Iago’s thoughts. This manifests a strange relationship based on paradoxical feelings. It is of confidence, trust and fear. But latter events show that Othello’s trust in Iago overpowers the instinctive fear. This happens due to Othello’s non-meditative nature. He does not contemplate over issues and does not weigh their motive and consequences. And this is the thing that helps Iago to get control over Othello. A. C. Bradley rightly says in this regard; The sources of danger in this character are revealed but too clearly by the story. In the first place, Othellos mind, for all its poetry, is very simple. He is not observant. His nature tends outward. He is quite free from introspection, and is not given to reflection. Emotion excites his imagination, but it confuses and dulls his intellect. On this side he is the very opposite of Hamlet, with whom, however, he shares a great openness and trustfulness of nature. In addition, he has little experience of the corrupt products of civilised life, and is ignorant of European women. (p. 217) Relationship between Iago and Cassio exists and develops on the same lines as that of Othello’s. Cassio has a high opinion of Iago and considers him an unmatched person in Florence but Iago’s opinion of him is prejudiced and biased. Iago dismisses Cassio as a mere theorist and not a practical warrior. In their mutual relationship Cassio’s genuine honesty is contrasted with Iago’s seeming honesty. We are never certain that we understand why Iago commits his evil deeds. Coleridge calls his evilness as â€Å"motiveless malignity† (315) there is no doubt that he is throughout an artist in villainy. There is no mystery in the psychology of Iago and the key to Iago’s motives may lie in the composition of his character. One of the noticeable traits in his character is keen sense of superiority and contempt for others. There also the annoyance of having always to play a part, the enjoyment of the action and the absence of fear. Iago’s sense of superiority has been thwarted and it needs satisfaction. The fullest satisfaction, it could find would, no doubt, be in the consciousness to take revenge from those who are so successful and popular. In addition to his strong desire to satisfy his sense of power, there are also certain other forces which drive him on. One of these is a pleasure in action very difficult and perilous. This action and pleasure lends him artistry in the art of being spiteful against other. All these characteristics if nature and his disposition play a part in making him a great villain of Shakespeare. These motives appear and disappear in the most extraordinary manner. Resentment as Cassio’s appointment is expressed in the first conversation with Roderigo, and from that moment is never once mentioned again in the whole play. Hatred of Othello is expressed in the first act only. Desire to get Cassio’s place scarcely appears after the first soliloquy, and when it is gratified Iago does not refer to it by a single word. The suspicion’s of Cassio’s intrigues with Emilia emerges suddenly as an afterthought. Iago’s love of Desdemona is alluded to in the second soliloquy; there is not the faintest trace of it in word or deed either before or after. The mention of jealousy of Othello is followed by declarations that Othello is infatuated about Desdemona and is of a constant nature, and during Othello’s suffering Iago never shows a sign of the idea that he is now paying his rival in his own coin. In the second soliloquy he declares that he quite believes Cassio t0o be in love with Desdemona; it is obvious that he believes no such thing, for he never alludes to the idea again, and within a few hours, he describes Cassio as an honest fool. All these motives have strange paradoxical characteristics in them but it could not have been coincidence that Shakespeare has attributed so many motives to Iago. All these motives manifest the intricate nature of Iago’s characters and disposition. In addition to a man of action, Iago also seems to be something of an artist who takes delight in undertaking a complicated task in a meticulous manner. The action he starts and works out is intricate. We get an impression that at some stage, the action Iago initiates remain no longer within his control and power but rather becomes his master. It is as he was fated to do what he does. Works Cited Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 1905. Colderidge, Samuel Taylor. Lectures 1808-1819 On Literature. Ed. R. A. Foakes. Volume 2. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. Shakespeare, William. Othello. New York: Penguin Books. 1993.

history :: essays research papers

The Shaping of America: Consumer Culture, Suburbanization and Automobile The trends that have been most instrumental in the shaping of America over the past sixty years have been suburbanization and the development of our consumer culture. These two phenomena have changed not only the face of America, but also the fabric of our society, our values and aspirations. Suburbanization and consumer culture are broad, sweeping terms that encompass many different catalysts of change. However, the automobile is an important product and tool of both of these institutions. This paper examines the inundation of American society by the automobile during the post war era as a key catalyst for the rise of consumer culture, its role in facilitating suburbanization and some of the negative impacts the automobile has had on America. Over the past sixty years America has changed greatly to become what it is today, and these changes have largely been driven by our national love affair with the automobile. Starting in the 1920’s America began its shift towards a consumer culture as the economic growth of the nation began to depend more on the proliferation of consumer goods than of capital goods. Even at the outset of this trend, the automobile held a significant place in the new consumer economy. The automobile, which was once thought of as a rare luxury, was being sold by the millions. Assembly lines were becoming more efficient, thus allowing cars to be made more cheaply allowing the price of automobiles to drop. The growth of the automobile helped stimulate the economy through its dependence on other industries such as glass, rubber and steel, which were connected to the production of cars. These automobile related industries created new jobs, greater affluence and more spending power for millions of American consumers. Even at the beginning of America’s transformation into the consumer culture of today the automobile was at the forefront this conversion. The automobile, besides being a product of the new consumer culture in America, also quickly became a major tool to increase this trend’s influence. The automobile, and its cousin the truck, were increasingly used by corporations and businesses to market and distribute their products. Corporations could transport products further and faster for less money to reach the consumer. This, in turn, allowed for wider market areas in commerce, selling more products to more people and generating greater revenue. The automobile also worked to the benefit of consumerism because the increase in privately owned automobiles gave more people the ability to travel.

‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Tea in the Wendy House’, and ‘He said’ Essay

Pride and Prejudice is a novel of love and marriage and how people have prejudices about love. Pride is involved as it blurs the seeing of true love. Jane Austen displays this as she was part of society and she had first-hand experience of this. In Tea in the Wendy House and He Said, there is an visible change in the role of society and attitudes to love and marriage. This is because of the different times each novel was written. Jane Austen does not make the subject of marriage favourable, as she never writes about a completely happy marriage. For example Mr and Mrs Bennet’s relationship, this is not an example of a good marriage as Mr Bennet is always taunting Mrs Bennet. ‘Or you may send them by themselves, will be better, for you are as handsome of any of them’. Here Mr Bennet is ridiculing Mrs Bennet by saying she should go and visit Mr Darcy as she may end up marrying him, as she is just as beautiful. This was one of Austen’s intentions to show that the society she lived in was superficial. Another example of a bad marriage is of Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins. Charlotte is only marrying Mr Collins, as it is her last resort because she is seen as a spinster at the age of 27. Usually girls are married off at young ages, as it is their only ambition. This is shown in Pride and Prejudice, but in Tea in the Wendy House, even though Lyn has an opportunity of marriage she is not hap py. She feels pressured into marrying Graham and doesn’t have the chance to vent her true feelings properly. She feels she is also trapping Graham into marrying her and becoming a father. ‘I didn’t say anything, because Graham was so enthusiastic’. She is worried about other people’s feelings and hers but does not get the chance to show them. Whereas in He Said there is no chance of Bev getting married to Errol, as he is too irresponsible. This is an example of the way society has changed drastically. In Pride and Prejudice it was expected for girls to get married straight away and the most important thing in their life. In Tea in the Wendy House there was some expectation but not as much. In He Said society has changed so much that Errol does not think he needs to propose to Bev, even though she is pregnant. This also shows the attitudes to sex before marriage. As Austen shows more bad marriages than good, there were a few happy marriages, as they contain an equality of character traits between the couple. Elizabeth was too prejudiced to realise her true feelings and Mr Darcy was too proud. Even though she does finally realise Darcy’s good qualities. ‘She began to comprehend that he was exactly the man, in disposition and talents, would suit her’. This is the opposite in He Said, as Bev finally realises that she is stronger than Errol, and how she can cope without him. ‘ I don’t care if I never see him again’. In Jane Austen’s novels the valuable marriage is usually because of chance. If Elizabeth did not read Darcy’s letter and witness the elopement of Lydia and Wickham, she would have realised how much she values him. This is the opposite in Tea and the Wendy House as Graham and Lyn had known each other since their teens and so had got to know each other better. ‘I was fourteen and Graham was fifteen’. As Errol and Bev’s relationship in He Said is just based on sex and so there was no previous acknowledgement of character traits. Intervention played its part in the prevention of Darcy and Elizabeth getting married. Elizabeth’s prejudices intervene and prevent the marriage at first. This does not happen to the main character of Tea in the Wendy House but there is some intervention from Lyn’s parents. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth’s mum is always pushing her to get the best man she can. She is very bossy and likes to get what she wants. In Tea and the Wendy House it is also Lyn’s mother that has an intervening nature as she is making the wedding dress. ‘She was busy, giving final touches to the dress’. There is a difference in He Said, as her parents do not intervene. Although her father does not want to get involved with her situation, he feels no way in abandoning her when she needs them most. As her father is a minister of a church, he has strict religious beliefs but as he does not want to help he comes across as a bully. ‘If that harlot crosses my doorstep, I will strike her down. Then he had gone to church’. This contradicts his religious views. Status is another problem in the prevention of the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth. ‘Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared coloured doubted and was silent. This he considered enough encouragement’. Darcy thought that Elizabeth would have said yes when he first proposed, as she may never get a better offer as that one as he is much higher in status than she was. Darcy has a lot more money than the Bennet’s. In this time it was seen as better if you could marry a man with a large house and very good income. This was so he could provide for his wife when she had children but also to show-off to others. In He Said money is still important to Bev as she is by herself without a husband, so she has to fend for herself. She is struggling and in a poor job. She has not got the financial support from her parents like Lyn in Tea in the Wendy House. Bev’s prospects are limited because of lack of money and there is a slight suggestion that th is will not change much. There is a similarity between pride and prejudice and Tea in the Wendy House. This is because Lyn and Elizabeth both have some financial support from their parents, although it was not the most important thing in Tea in the Wendy House. Lyn’s mother puts it across as a bonus to the marriage, but having a good job is quite important. ‘ And he’s got a job, and course there’s the house. You really struck gold there’. Mr Collins also demonstrates the status prevention, as he expects her to say yes but it comes across as quite pompous. ‘ I am to inherit this estate after the death of your father’. He is openly stating that he will own Elizabeth’s house, as if it was nothing. In the actual proposal of Mr Collins to Elizabeth it was quite formal as he asked permission, which was expected in those times. This differs in the proposal of Graham to Lyn. He seemed embarrassed, it was not very formal but still had the decency to propose. ‘I told you it was corny, but will you, will you marry me?’ There is n o proposal in He Said. Errol obviously does not believe he needs to propose; not formal or gentleman-like. Judgement plays quite a big part of pride and prejudice, as it was a very judgmental society. People are always being judged. Elizabeth prides herself on good understanding of what people are like generally. ‘ The extravagance and general profligacy which he scripted exceedingly shocked her’. This shows how she was wrong about Mr Wickham and Darcy made her realise this in the letter he wrote to her after he proposed. Good judgement is being to see past deception, pride arrogance and hypocrisy. ‘She tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished trait of integrity’. This shows Elizabeth frantically trying to have some recollection that Mr Wickham was not deceptive and devious. Like Mr Darcy explained in the letter. This is a bad judgement that Elizabeth has made, just like the bad judgement of Errol by Bev. She thought he was going to stand by her throughout the pregnancy, but he does not. ‘I don’t want anything to come between us†¦now he would not speak to her’. This shows how shallow and unreliable Errol is. Although she knows Errol is not going to face up to his consequences, it does not stop her from fantasizing about the way she would like things to be between her and Errol. ‘Imagining Errol holding her tightly, perhaps his voice breaking with emotion’. Elizabeth’s first meeting with Mr Wickham compared to her first meeting with Mr Darcy it was not surprised she preferred Mr Wickham. This made her very shocked at the proposal from Mr Darcy. This pitfall almost brings Elizabeth to lose her future husband, although she does come to terms with her mistakes and corrects them. ‘How despicably I have acted, I who have prided myself on my discernment and gratified my vanity, pleased with the preference of one and offended by the neglect of another’. This reveals that Elizabeth has recognised her mistakes and how she has treated both men. Darcy has also overcome his arrogance and pride. Austen believes that a happy marriage is built on good judgement and so introduces a genuine perception. So they see each other for who they really are. Tea in the Wendy House, Lyn’s perception of Graham was not clear, she was not being clear about her feelings. The writer used the Wendy House as symbolism to show that however perfect something seems, it may not make you happy. Although at the end with the last Wendy House reference, you are left wondering if Lyn will ever be happy, but also there is no mention of Graham being with her, in this ideal world. ‘The bright blue walls seem to be closing in around her, the ceiling is coming nearer and nearer. She is a mummy. It doesn’t matter that she can’t get out’. It is making her conform to the stereotypes of typical women. Bev in He Said has made a journey of self-knowledge, from hating Errol for not standing by her to realising she can cope without him, and go along with the pregnancy by herself. From the pressures of society, the doctor telling her it would be best to get an abortion, her father throwing her out, living in a gritty flat and working in a dead end job. Bev has made a miraculous journey from where she was, to feeling confident of having the baby by herself. Elizabeth goes against her time by refusing two marriage proposals, and marrying for true love. In her society a sexual relationship before marriage was seen as unacceptable and shame would be brought onto the family. This is a contrast between our time and Jane Austen’s time. Lyn is pregnant before she is getting married, this is also the case in He Said apart from Bev is not getting married, and so has to cope on her own. This indicates the age and time Elizabeth lived in. Wickham was this type of person who would deceive women into thinking he loves them but then leaves them. This is what he did with Lydia Bennet. This was not the first he tried; he also tried with Darcy’s younger sister. He gambles and lives loosely and does not give a second thought to his sexual immoralities. Sex before marriage is seen as the main corrupt. Wickham’s character is similar to that of Errol. He does not give a second thought to the consequences of his action. ‘ With the faint smell of urine around her realising that probably some man had walked away from relieving himself without a backward thought about the results. Just like Errol’. Lydia’s relationship with Wickham has effected her reputation because of the elopement. Wickham’s love for Lydia is not true. This is the opposite with Lyn and Graham’s relationship. Graham is truly in love with Lyn, but it is Lyn that has the insecurities and does not feel true love. ‘ There is no one in the Wendy house except Lyn. Mandy isn’t there. Graham isn’t there’. This shows how maybe in the end she will be by herself without no one. In Elizabeth’s time courtship between two people would not have lasted quite long, so Wickham and Lydia were not truly in love, it was most probably infatuation. ‘His belief that Wickham never intended to go there or to marry Lydia at all’. Jane Austen was a person in this society and time, which believed marriage, was the most important thing for a young girl. This would lead to prejudices about how much money did the husband have and of what status was he. Jane Austen shows through pride and prejudice that she would not have married because it was convenient but because of love much like Elizabeth. Society has changed, as evident in He said. From wanting marriage as an ambition, to Errol not needing to propose, it does not mean the society has got any better. Society and other people’s thoughts all contribute to prevention of some marriages, even nowadays.

Theory of Organizational Culture

It should have made clear and obvious that sustained profitability and high financial turns are not enough to survive and remain successful in today's highly competitive markets because there Is considerable evidence of conflicts and misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. Therefore It Is sensual that firms need to understand their own and other firms' organizational culture and need to adjust their ways and traditions while conducting business with other firms, organizations or individuals with different cultural values. 1. Generally, in lay man terms, culture in an organization can be answered as simple as the way we do things here'. This defines the consistent way in which the tasks were reformed, conflicts were resolved and how customers and employees were treated. In a more articulate manner, an organizational culture can be defined as a core values that defined that particular organization itself. It comprised of its member shared values, behaviors, beliefs and teamwo rk that guide and determine the organization decisions and actions and how it behaves in the local as well international market. 1. 3 Why Does it Matter?In the context of whether it matters or not, an organizational culture is something that cannot be easily capture or define but at the same time it is not something that NY of the organization should take for granted. Many anthropologists and coaches had noticed that ineffective leadership tends to be the major factors of an organization diminishing and weakening (Alveolus, 2002). Rolling back to the Ancient Rome era, the great empire had endured a series of terrible emperors. Due to the culture and structure of the empire was great enough; the tide was often overcome even after decades long.However, one cannot be in denial that without a strong top leadership eventually would be the cause of the fall of even the great empire. 1. 4 Understanding the Organization Culture There is proverb that goes â€Å"When in Rome, do as the Roman s do†. The essence of this is that blending oneself into the foreign environment. Every organization is unique in nature; which is to say the culture of an organization may vary from one another despite having the same nature of business or having the same geographical locality.Even in cases where top managers have strong awareness of the significant of culture, there is often the case that lack of understanding on how the people and organization function in terms of culture. It is normally difficult to attain high level of cultural awareness to decide actions. Understanding organizational culture is essential as a way of understanding the organizational life in all forms and variations (Rachel Parker). Section 2: The Types of Organizational Culture 2. Types Organizational Culture There are few quadrants to be relating to where most of the organizations will fall organization feels comfortable to operate in. However it should be noted that none of the quadrants is inherently b etter than one another Just as there is no culture is necessarily better than another (Tarp). 2. 1. 1 Control (Hierarchy) This culture focused on stability and control in the organization. It strongly emphasized on standardization, integration as well as the decision making mechanism.This means there is layers of management for the decision to go through before the final decision is made. One of the giant companies that practices this pattern of organization culture is Ford Motor Company; they have seventeen levels of management. Government agencies are also well to be associated with this type of culture. 2. 1. 2 Compete (Market) This type of culture focusing on external orientation rather than internal and they emphasized on differentiation greatly than anything else. This culture concentrates n competitiveness and productivity through emphasis on partnership. 2. 1. Collaborate (Clan) Collaborate approach emphasize more on flexibility and discretion over stability and control. The total opposite of individualism, this culture give due credits to team work. Take for example; the Japanese firms have strong Collaborate culture among themselves. They appreciate cohesion, loyalty, and group commitment, and therefore they operated more like families than a team. 2. 1. 4 Create (Autocracy) In this value matrix, they value flexibility and discretion however not to the extent of sharing the inward focus. Instead this culture focused on flexibility and adaptability.This is essential in thriving in the world that many would view as impossible. Google is a good example of a prototypical autocracy organization. Their ability to capture market share has made them leaders in the marketplace and eliminating competition among the industry players. Section 3: The Patterns of Organizational Culture 3. 1 The Cultural Patterns in Construction Industry Due to the rapid internationalization of the construction industry, there is a growing of interest in developing a deep understan ding in the organizational culture and how t can be implemented in this competitive market.It appears that one of the reasons for why the organizational culture gained importance is because more construction companies are conducting business in international markets. (Low, 2001) In addition to the emphasis put on the internationalization of the construction business, the adversarial relations between different stakeholders is considered to be the sensitivity of different project participants to cultural differences which have a culture is claimed to be an effective way to respond to the environment; thus achieving a superior performance.Considering the hyper-turbulent environment and fragmented nature of the construction industry; understanding and managing organizational culture is of particular importance in enhancing organizational performance (Ankara, 2005). 3. 2 The Organization Culture in Malaysian Construction In Malaysian construction industry, Malaysian contractors shared t he same views that the project culture plays enormous impact on the construction project control dimensions such as time, cost, quality and loyalty.In Malaysian construction industry, there are few types of culture that are being practiced by many of the construction rims. These cultures are presented in the below table: Types of Culture Tiger Culture Monkey Culture Rabbits Culture Elephant Culture Dragon Culture Definitions Competitive and Achievement Orientated Teamwork and loyalty Flexibility and creative Strong hierarchies and order Combines the disparate and beneficent attributes of lesser beings into one of extraordinary capability and power Table 1 : Types of Cultural Practices in Malaysia Based on the current research paper produced by C.Wang and H. Abdul Raman (Raman, 2010), the findings below has shown that the â€Å"Monkey Culture† is insider as the most applicable type for the organizational culture in Malaysia. Figure 1: Applicable cultural practices Through the questionnaire survey forms collected from this research, Malaysian contractors have ranked that teamwork and loyalty as highly important in an organization culture. Therefore this has puts â€Å"Monkey Culture† above the rest of the other cultures.In contrast with the US firms which very often considered as individualistic, the Malaysian contractors are very similar to the Japanese culture in the sense of the Japanese has always been a collectivist culture and communities hat put group's welfare over any own individual welfare. The Japanese companies have successfully created an environment and culture where the sense of family has greatly prevails among the employees. Take for example, Toyota, one of the Japanese cars manufacturers, has provided a day-care center for young mothers who wish to work.While the Malaysian contractors have not gone to the extent of creating the family culture in their practice, they have emphasize strongly on good teamwork and coordination between the management and the employees. Figure 2 below shows the analysis extracted from the Hypotheses dimension on Malaysia's organizational Figure 2: Hypotheses Dimension: Malaysia dimension namely Power Distance Index (PDP), Individualism (DVD), Masculinity (MASS) and Uncertainty Avoidance Index (AJAX).The fifth dimension which is not included in this analysis is found later after the implementation of the four dimensions. The fifth dimension is the Long-term Orientation (L TO). As shown in Figure 2, individualism (DVD) has ranked the lowest among the rest dimensions. This shows that Malaysian do not prefer to work alone. Malaysian in fact are very social community and they also practice collectivist culture like the Japanese do. This applies in the case of the construction industry. All members work in a team and like a team.The Project Manager needs his subordinates to cooperate with him in order to get the project running and this applies to the subordinates as well. Like the prov erb goes â€Å"No man is an island†. Therefore, Malaysian construction industry sees this as an important elemental culture that should not be ignored. During the tenure of Tuna Dry Mathis Mohammad as the Malaysia's fourth premier way back in the asses, Dry Mathis has ladled for the citizens of Malaysia to practice the â€Å"Look East Policy'.He considered that the secret of Japanese success and its remarkable development lies in its labor ethics, morale, and management capability. For this purpose, Malaysia decided to dispatch their students to Japan, to study not only academics and technical know- how but also to learn labor ethics and discipline of the Japanese people. One good example of the Japanese culture that should be implemented in the Malaysian construction industry would be the Japanese strong sense of family.

Writing Essay Topics Use Any Opportunity to Achieve Perfection!

Writing Essay Topics Use Any Opportunity to Achieve Perfection! There are two things that any educated person knows: the Earth turns round and students write essays. Of course, you know that being a student presupposes writing numerous essays. Sometimes students are not ready for such a task. Do you know how you can be ready to write a successful essay? You should devote several minutes to writing essay topics for your future possible papers. Writing essay topics beforehand: is it possible? Of course, it is possible to write essay topics beforehand. You are likely to know what any course is about and what major points you are going to discuss. Well, you can start your study with compiling a helpful list of possible topics. Thus, you can start writing essay topics in several ways. You can read the content of your manual and choose some most interesting topics. During the course you may come across many exciting topics. You read various additional sources where you can find numerous outstanding ideas and continue writing essay topics in your list. Finally, when you are given assignments you can have many interesting ideas for your future researches and you can continue writing essay topics list. Writing essay topics: how to use it? Well, this is the easiest question. When you have several ready topics, you can just choose any of them for your essay. Writing essay topics: is it helpful? Writing essay topics gives you several advantages: It saves your time. When you have limited time for fulfilling some task, every minute can be decisive. It keeps you from stresses. You do not have to worry: you already have topics for your researches. It brings you joy. You write down topics which can be interesting to you.

Calidad vs. Cualidad, Spanish Words Meaning Quality

Calidad vs. Cualidad, Spanish Words Meaning Quality Both calidad and cualidad are usually translated to English as quality  - but the two words arent used in the same way and arent interchangeable. A look at these two words show how the meanings of words can change over time  and how corresponding words, known as  cognates, in two languages can take different paths. Calidad, cualidad and quality all come from the Latin qualitas, used to refer to categories or kinds of things. (You can still see echoes of this meaning in the word cual.) Cualidad comes close to retaining that meaning and is used to refer to the inherent characteristics of something. In fact, it can almost always be translated as characteristic as well as quality. Here are some examples: El pelo corto tiene la cualidad de mantenerse en mejores condiciones por ms tiempo. Short hair has the quality of remaining in better condition for a longer time.Mi mejor cualidad como actor es la autenticidad. My best quality as an actor is authenticity.Antonio posee muchas cualidades deseables. Antonio has many desirable qualities.El magnetismo es una cualidad de algunos metales. Magnetism is a quality of some metals. Calidad, on the other hand, suggests excellence or superiority: Siempre queremos la mejor calidad para nuestros clientes. We always want the best quality for our customers.Tenemos que consumir nutrientes en cantidad suficiente y de buena calidad. We need to consume nutrients that are sufficient in quantity and of good quality.La mayorà ­a de las ciudades con mayor calidad de vida estn en Europa. Most of the cities with a better quality of life are in Europe.La baja calidad del servicio hace perder ms clientes que el precio. The low quality of services causes the loss of more customers than does price. Sometimes calidad, especially in the phrase en calidad de, can refer to someones position or status: El representante, actuando en calidad de presidente interino, firmà ³ tres documentos. The representative, acting in the capacity of interim president, signed three documents.

The role of the banks in terms of decreasing unemployment, maintaining Essay

The role of the banks in terms of decreasing unemployment, maintaining price stability and facilitating economic growth - Essay Example Capitalism tends towards the idea that organizations are in good luck when they make significant profits but its tough luck when they make significant losses, getting neither sympathy nor envy. However, the economy today is not a pure free market but, rather, it is a mixed economy, in which the markets are regulated by a government instituted framework. In addition, the government also carries out various functions, instead of leaving the private sector to make decisions (Mitchell, 2014: p61). The banking sector is a prime example because of their importance to the economy, including management of loan and savings facilities. The banking crisis of 2007 initially led to a rush by UK citizens to withdraw their money all at once, meaning that banks would have failed since they would have been unable to pay, portending potentially incalculable damage to the UK economy. It was, therefore, the responsibility of government agencies to stabilize the system by supervising banking activities and propping up banks that threatened to destabilize the system through bailouts (Cordella & Levy-Yeyati, 2013: p34). In essence, it is the people owed money by the banks that the government is bailing out. In addition, some of the biggest investment banks in the world are institutions that are so critical to the market and job creation that they have gradually come under the control of the government. This explains the bailout of AIG by the US government with a $100 billion loan that ensured American businesses would not collapse if they suffered losses, hurting national employment levels. Takeover of big mortgage guarantors in the UK, such as Bradford and Bingley, was also necessary because, in spite of its private shareholding, it was a de facto agency of the government and, in effect, the public (Cordella & Levy-Yeyati, 2013: p35). Failing to nationalize the company would have

Neuropsychology paper on Split Brain Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Neuropsychology on Split Brain - Research Paper Example The brain is also very segmented in that specific parts of the brain are responsible for different tasks in ability and processing. Even though all of these different parts of the brain operate differently in processing and storage of a particular stimulus, they still communicate with one another in effort to process and integrate sensations more efficiently and more fully. One of the biggest divisions in the brain’s structure is the right and left hemisphere. Each is responsible for its own processing of data and they have to communicate with each other in order to understand the whole picture. As a result of this, a great deal of research has been devoted into split-brain studies in trying to figure out how the two hemispheres work in tandem as well as how they work separately. Like the Earth, the brain is divided into two hemispheres: the right and left hemispheres. They are as much independent as they are intertwined. Researchers and psychologist hypothesize that the divis ion of the two hemispheres makes them more like two minds rather than one. Research has shown that the left hemisphere is more dominant and responsible for processes involving language whereas the right hemisphere is designed to process spatial relationships. This has been proven through experimentation as well as natural medical phenomenon. When a person has a stroke and it impacts an area of the brain, it is observed that functioning that is associated with that area decreases. The way in which we process the environment and information is when these two hemispheres are in sync and are communicating with one another. For example, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the ride side of the brain controls the left side of the body. This is achieved by a connection known as the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is a thick band of neural fibers, which essentially anchor both hemispheres together in order to facilitate communication. If this connection we re to be severed, then the way in which the hemispheres could communicate would be separated, thus creating two different minds within one. This is never done for research, although it has been used in epileptic patients in order to cure seizures. Research was conducted (not through severing the corpus callosum) on the dual processing of the two hemispheres and designing tests in which the effects of separating the corpus callosum could be simulated and the behavior observed. This involved a combination of visual recognition tasks as well as tactile response tasks. In the visual tasks, their vision was altered in some way in which the disruption of communication occurred to where only one side of the brain was processing, while the other was missing the sensory input. In tactile response experiments, participants were asked to identify objects. Depending on which hand it was placed in had an effect on whether they could verbalize the recognition of the object. The research was able to conclude that there were remarkable differences in the way the two minds operate independently of each other. In fact, it is shown from some research that by having a set of brains versus one unified one leads to increased ability to dual process and complete tasks (Gazzaniga, 1967). Since the first studies and research that were conducted into split brain research

Edward Tufte put forward a series of principles for visualisations Essay

Edward Tufte put forward a series of principles for visualisations - Essay Example There is an importance of ensuring that such visual graphics are presented in a way that attracts and not repels the audience. There are various ways in which this might be achieved, and may include ensuring that the graphics are captivating to the eye and proper arrangement of the graphics is attained systematically in the graphical representation. The important aspects of presenting these visual graphics was investigated and presented by Edward Tuft, who presented an influential, approach of presentation of visual graphics through several principles. Tuft argues that graphical excellence in statistical graphics for example, must have complex ideas that are communicated with clarity, efficiency and precision (Seintra, Adriaansen & Liere 2009, 163). Therefore, tuft put forward a few principles that any graphical excellence has to abide with. ... These principles by tuft have to guide the design and presentation of any graphical presentation that effectively serves its purpose as was designed for. According to (Seintra, Adriaansen & Liere 2009, 163), Tuft further considers visualizations that have cluttered graphics, that are incomprehensible as tempting to remove the data. Cluttered information is therefore an aspect of poor design and cannot be considered as being affected by the data presented by such design. (Source: http://www.shadedrelief.com/world/) Fig. 1 example of a well designed geovisualization The geovisualization to be investigated against the Tuft principles of visualization is a man showing the physical features of the globe that is found in the following link (http://www.nacis.org/data/world_map/map1/world1/world_map1.html. ). This geovisualization has been selected due to its unique presentation aspects that the designer of this map incorporated and the different perspectives in which the map can be viewed a t. This geovisualization also portrays contrasting features as presented the designer and offers a good model through which Tuft principles of visualization can be well understood. The geovisualization portrays aw old map with all the important physical features visible and with descriptions well embedded in the map. It is an informative geovisualization that can be used to make decisions concerning this subject. One of the conditions as given by Tuft in designing visualization is that such visualization has to be clear and present the graphics and data with precision (Seintra, Adriaansen & Liere 2009, 163). The geovisualization in question has well portrayed these conditions in that the maps as representing the continents are clear and well visible with precision, it is

The inter relationship between firm growth and profitability

The inter relationship between firm growth and profitability Abstract There is a widespread presumption that there is a close relationship between firm growth and firm profitability. However, most of the past studies on firm growth and profitability have been conducted without mutual associations. Only a few studies, thus far, have examined the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability and the results have been inconsistent. The reason for the inconsistency is mainly due to the lag structure of the models in each study. To address the issue, this study conducted panel unit-root tests on firm growth and profitability separately and then made appropriate models using dynamic panel system GMM estimators. Through the analyses of the models, this study found that in restaurant firms the prior years profitability had a positive effect on the growth rate of the current year, but the current and prior years growth rates had a negative effect on the current years profitability. This outcome implies that profit creates growth but the growth impede s profitability in the restaurant industry. More implications are also discussed in this paper. Keywords: Firm growth; Profitability; Panel unit-root test; Dynamic panel system GMM 1. Introduction The dynamics of firm growth and profitability (or profit rate) is an important issue for industrial practitioners as well as academic researchers (Goddard, McMillan and Wilson, 2006). Theoretically, if firm growth rate is unrelated to firm size and prior growth rate, then firm growth follows random walk and the variance of firm size can increase indefinitely. This is known as the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE). This stochastic growth process implies unlimited industry growth in the long run. However, if growth rate is inversely related to firm size, firm growth would converge in the long run. On the other hand, Mueller (1977) claimed that firm profitability converges at a certain level due to market competition, which is referred to as Persistence of Profit (POP). The POP literature argues that firm entry and exit are sufficiently free to quickly eliminate any abnormal profit and that the profitability of all firms tends to converge toward the long-run average value. However, Goddard, Molyneux and Wilson (2004) stated, even though it is generally presumed that firm growth and profitability effect each other, that firm growth and profitability are not necessarily connected. Overall, the impact and direction of this relationship remains ambiguous. The ambiguity is associated with various econometric issues. First, due to the endogeneity it is difficult to capture a clear causality and direction between them. Further, if firm growth and profitability time lags are incorporated into the models the endogenous relationship becomes more complicated due to the unknown effects of different time lags. Recently, there have been a couple of attempts to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability (Coad, 2007; Davidsson, Steffens, and Fitzsimmons, 2009). Although it is worth exploring the relationship, the results of the studies turned out to be inconsistent. In the previous studies, two types of methodologies were used: panel unit-root test and dynamic panel system GMM estimator. The panel unit-root test is appropriate for testing the convergence hypotheses of firm growth and profit rates. It is also useful for finding the significance of the lag term in a simple autoregressive model, but it is difficult to control the endogenous effect in the model. Moreover, the panel unit-root test cannot directly examine the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability. Dynamic panel system GMM estimator can control for endogeneity and test the inter-relationship, but determining the number of lag terms remains ambiguous. Thus, in order to address the analysis problems in the previous literature, we first employed the panel unit-root test and subsequently made a testable model for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Through those analyses, we intended to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability under various time lags. More specifically, the objectives of this study were: 1) to examine the panel unit-root test on the series of firm growth and profitability separately and to find an appropriate lag structure; and 2) to make an appropriate model to investigate the inter-relationship between them through a vector autoregression (VAR) model via dynamic panel system GMM estimator. We used restaurant firms for the study sample and, thus, the results are useful for understanding the dynamics of firm growth and profitability in the restaurant industry. In the following section, we summarize prior LPE and POP literature and present the potential inter-relationships between firm growth and profitability. Next section outlines the details of the study methodology. The following section shows the results of panel unit-root test and dynamic panel system GMM regarding the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability. Finally, we conclude this study with managerial implications and suggestions for further studies. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE) and Persistence Of Profit (POP) The notion that firm growth rate is independent of firm size and past growth rate is known as the Law of Proportionate Effect (LPE) (Gibrat, 1931). According to the LPE, firm growth happens by chance and thus past growth is not a reliable predictor of future firm growth (Goddard et al., 2006). Hence, deterministic factors of firm growth (i.e., managerial capacity, innovation and efficiency) are randomly distributed across firms. However, recent empirical studies have claimed that there is an inverse relationship between firm growth and firm size, rejecting the LPE (Hall, 1987; Evans, 1987; Dunne and Huges, 1994; Geroski and Gugler, 2004). Most empirical studies of LPE used cross-sectional regression models through a simple autoregressive model (for example, AR(1)), but the models were criticized due to their arbitrariness in choosing lag terms. Recently, Chen and Lu (2003) and Goddard et al. (2006) tested the LPE using panel unit-root models because the LPE assumes non-stationarity i n the time series analysis. The benefit of the panel unit-root test on LPE lies in its ability to test a long series effect in non-stationarity, while the weakness of the test is its inability to include control variables that may affect firm growth (i.e., prior profitability, leverage, and market competition). Conversely, researchers on persistence of profit (POP) argue that firm profitability converges at a certain level across all firms and no firms could achieve an above average profit rate in the long run. Mueller (1977) developed the deterministic time-series model for testing the POP and subsequently (Mueller 1986) demonstrated profit rate convergence through an autoregressive model. Since Mueller (1986), most studies on POP have adopted the autoregressive model. However, Goddard et al. (2006) stated that the typical methodology for POP estimated individual effects and autoregressive coefficients for each firm, so the estimated coefficients were often unreliable and the testing power was low. Hence, Goddard et al. (2006) tested the profit rate convergence hypothesis using a panel unit-root test in order to find the stationarity in a profit rate time series. 2.2. The inter-relationship between firm growth rate and profitability (or profit rate) As noted earlier, it is widely believed that firm growth and profit rates are related to each other (Goddard et al., 2004). Some prior studies have suggested that profit rate has a positive impact on growth rate. Alchians (1950) theoretical study argued that fitter firms survive and grow, but less viable firms lose their market share and exit through the evolutionary selection mechanism. Thus, if profit rate reflects the degree of fitness, it is possible to predict that profitable firms will grow. Further, according to the financing constraint hypothesis retained profits can be readily used for investment, whereas firms with low profitability could not grow even if they have positive growth opportunities. This is also consistent with the pecking-order theory, which claims that managers prefer internal capital to external capital, such as debt and equity financing. However, the influence of growth rate on profitability is inconsistent in theories and empirical studies. A Classical Ricardian perspective claims that if a firm shows high profit rates it would grow to exploit additional growth opportunities that are less profitable but still create additional profits. This notion implies three things. First, the profit rate is converges at zero from a long-term perspective. Second, high profit rates have a positive impact on growth rates until the profit rate is zero. Finally, firm growth has a negative influence on profit rate. Along similar lines, the Neoclassical view argues that firms first exploit their most profitable growth opportunities and then consider less profitable opportunities until the marginal profit on the last growth opportunity is equal to zero. Consequently, profitable firms maximize their overall level of profits through profitable growth opportunities but experience a decrease in profit rates. Even though this argument exclud es market competition, it theoretically explains the relationship between firm growth and profit rates. However, managerial growth-maximization hypothesis under market competition (Marris, 1964; Mueller, 1972) claims that the managerial objective of a firm is to maximize growth rather than profit. Thus, this hypothesis proposed that growth and profits are in a competitive relationship with each other, which suggests the possibility that growth victimizes profit. Nevertheless, there are a number of theoretical claims that growth rate has a positive impact on profit rate. First, the Kaldor-Verdoorn Law in economics (Kaldor, 1966; Verdoorn, 1949) claims that growth increases productivity and in turn the enhanced productivity increases profit rates. This notion is consistent with scale economies (Gupta, 1981). Thus, because firm growth contributes to an increase in firm size, the larger size could gain benefits from an economy of scale and in turn this affects profit enhancement. That is, growth can help increase profitability. However, empirical studies on the effects of growth rate on profit rate have not always been supportive. Capon, Farley and Hoenig (1990) reported that firm growth is related to high financial performance, but it was significant only in some industries. Chandler and Jansen (1992) and Mendelson (2000) reported a significant positive correlation between sales growth and profit rates, whereas Markman and Gartner (2002) found no significant relationship between growth and profitability. Furthermore, Reid (1995) claimed growth had a negative effect on profitability. The relationship between growth and profit rates are more complicated when time lags of the two variables are considered. Only a few empirical studies have considered the link between growth and profit rates using various time lag terms. Goddard et al. (2004) found profitability to be important for future growth in European banks. Conversely, through panel data estimates of French manufacturing firms Coad (2007) found that the opposite direction of causation (i.e., growth to profitability) might be true. Both Goddard et al. (2004) and Coad (2007) investigated the relationship between firm growth and profit rates with vector autoregressive models using dynamic panel system GMM estimators. The difference between the two studies was that Goddard et al. (2004) used a one-year time lag but Coad (2007) incorporated three-year time lags in the analysis. More specifically, Goddard et al. (2004) found that a one-year lagged profit rate had a positive significant effect on the current-years gr owth rate, but a one-year lagged growth rate did not have a significant impact on the current-years profit rates. However, Coad (2007) showed that two- and three-years lagged profit rates have a positive significant influence on the current-years growth rate and that the current-years growth rate was positively significant in terms of the current-years profit rates. As noted, Goddard et al. (2004) and Coad (2007) reported opposing empirical results, which could be attributed to the difference in lag length. Considering the scarcity of past studies on the growth-profitability relationship and the problems with analytic methods, there is a need for a study that can verify this important relationship in a more holistic way. Hence, we intended to address the above research need in this study. A detailed outline of how the study was conducted follows in the next section. 3. Data and methodology The data used in the analysis was collected from the COMPUSTAT database using SIC 5812 (eating places). The data covers fiscal years 1978 to 2007 for U.S. restaurant firms. Profit rate (or profitability) was measured as net income divided by net sales and growth rate was gauged as the difference between the current and prior years net sales divided by the prior years net sales. After deleting severe outliers in the two main variables, growth rate and profit rate, this study used 2,927 firm-year observations for the analysis. As previously indicated, this study first conducted panel unit-root tests on growth and profit rates separately. The Dickey-Fuller unit-root test was set up for testing the stationarity of a time series. For example, if à Ã¢â‚¬  1 is equal to a unit in equation (1), the series is non-stationary. Equation (1) could be expressed as equation (2) by subtracting Yt-1 on both sides. Yt = à Ã¢â‚¬  1Yt-1 + ÃŽÂ µt (1) ΆYt = ÃŽÂ ³Yt-1 + ÃŽÂ µt (ÃŽÂ ³ = à Ã¢â‚¬  1 1) (2) Equation (2) above is a simplified Dickey-Fuller unit-root test (DF test). The null hypothesis of a DF test is that ÃŽÂ ³ equals zero and the alternative hypothesis is ÃŽÂ ³ p ΆYt = ÃŽÂ ³Yt-1 + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ Ã¢â‚¬  iΆYt-i + ÃŽÂ µt (ÃŽÂ ³ = à Ã¢â‚¬  1 1) (3) i=1 However, the data structure of this study was an unbalanced panel. Thus, equation (3) could be expressed as a panel setting following equation (4): p ΆYi,t = ÃŽÂ ³Y i,t-1 + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ Ã¢â‚¬  iΆY i,t-i + ÃŽÂ µ i,t (ÃŽÂ ³ = à Ã¢â‚¬  1 1) (4) i=1 Equation (4) is the testable model for the panel unit-root test in this study. A few studies have developed panel unit-root tests (Im, Pesaran and Shin, 2003; Levin, Lin and Chu, 2002; Maddala and Wu, 1999). However, in the case of an unbalanced panel setting, the Fisher test is the only one available. It combines the p-values from N independent unit root tests, as developed by Maddala and Wu (1999). Based on the p-values of individual unit root tests, Fishers test assumes that all series are non-stationary under the null hypothesis against the alternative that at least one series in the panel is stationary. Unlike other panel unit-root tests, Fishers test does not require a balanced panel. Thus, this study conducted Fishers test on the growth and profit rates and selected an appropriate lag length in ADF formula. After selecting the proper lag length in ADF formula, it was transformed as follows: p ΆYi,t = ÃŽÂ ³Y i,t-1 + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ Ã¢â‚¬  iΆY i,t-i + ÃŽÂ µ i,t i=1 = ÃŽÂ ³Y i,t-1 + à Ã¢â‚¬  1ΆY i,t-1 + à Ã¢â‚¬  2ΆY i,t-2 + à Ã¢â‚¬  3ΆY i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ + à Ã¢â‚¬  pΆY i,t-p + ÃŽÂ µ i,t = ÃŽÂ ³Y i,t-1 + à Ã¢â‚¬  1(Y i,t-1 Y i,t-2) + à Ã¢â‚¬  2(Y i,t-2 Y i,t-3) + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ + à Ã¢â‚¬  p(Y i,t-p Y i,t-(p+1)) + ÃŽÂ µ i,t = (ÃŽÂ ³ + à Ã¢â‚¬  1) Y i,t-1 + (à Ã¢â‚¬  2 à Ã¢â‚¬  1) Y i,t-2 + (à Ã¢â‚¬  3 à Ã¢â‚¬  2) Y i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ + (à Ã¢â‚¬  p à Ã¢â‚¬  p-1)Y i,t-p à Ã¢â‚¬  pY i,t-(p+1) + ÃŽÂ µ i,t (5) Consequently, equation (5) could be expressed as follows: Yi,t = (1 + ÃŽÂ ³ + à Ã¢â‚¬  1) Y i,t-1 + (à Ã¢â‚¬  2 à Ã¢â‚¬  1) Y i,t-2 + (à Ã¢â‚¬  3 à Ã¢â‚¬  2) Y i,t-3 + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ + (à Ã¢â‚¬  p à Ã¢â‚¬  p-1)Y i,t-p à Ã¢â‚¬  pY i,t-(p+1) + ÃŽÂ µ i,t (6) Thus, if the panel unit-root test chooses p lags in ADF formula, it could be transformed to AR(p+1) model. This AR(p+1) model was then used for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Also, since the purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-relationship between firm growth and profitability, this study adopted the vector autoregression (VAR) model to find the reciprocal relationship between growth rates and profit rates. p+1 q+1 p+1 SGi,t = ÃŽÂ ²0 + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ·iSGi,t-i + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ Ã¢â€š ¬iPRi,t-i + ÃŽÂ ²1Salei,t-i + ÃŽÂ ²2LEVi,t-i + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¶iΆDMAi,t-i i=1 i=1 i=0 + DYeart + ÃŽÂ µi,t Model 1 q+1 p+1 PRi,t = ÃŽÂ ²0 + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ Ã¢â€š ¬iPRi,t-i + à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ·iGRi,t-i + ÃŽÂ ²1Salei,t-i + ÃŽÂ ²2LEVi,t-i + ÃŽÂ ²3MarketSharei,t-i i=1 i=0 + DYeart + ÃŽÂ µi,t Model 2 SGi,t is the sales growth rate and PRi,t is the profit rate at time t for firm i. Salei,t is the net sales at time t for firm i. We also included control variables in both models. In the LPE literature, recent studies showed that prior firm size is inversely related with current growth rate (Evans, 1987; Hall, 1987; Geroski and Gugler, 2004). On the other hand, Baumol (1959) provided evidence that firm profitability increases with firm size, while Amato and Wilder (Kwangmin!!, Year and reference?) showed that no relationship exists between firm size and profit rate. Finally, Samuels and Smyth (1968) stated that profit rate and firm size are inversely related. Thus, we included the prior years net sales as a firm size variable in both models to control for size effect. Debt leverage (LEVi,t) was also incorporated in both models as a control variable, which was calculated as total debt divided by total assets. Theories of optimal capital structure based on the agency costs of managerial discretion suggest that the adverse impact of leverage on growth increases firm value by preventing managers from taking on poor projects (Jensen,1986; Stulz, 1990). Opler and Titman (1994) empirically found that sales growth is lower in firms with higher leverage. Thus, the influence of debt leverage on growth could be negative. However, the prior literature on the relationship between debt leverage and profit rate, has shown mixed results. Debt affects profitability positively according to Hurdle (1974), but negatively according to Hall and Weiss (1967) and Gale (1972). Debt could also yield a disciplinary effect under the free cash flow hypothesis (Jensen, 1986; Stulz, 1990). Firms with high debt leverage can reduce wasteful investment opportunities and increase f irm performance, suggesting a positive relationship between debt leverage and profit rates. However, using debt can increase conflicts between debt and equity holders. Equity holders encourage managers to undertake risky projects because the benefits are transferred only to equity holders (Stiglitz and Weiss, 1981). Thus equity holders tend to support the use of debt. However, high uses of debt could deteriorate firm profitability by taking on overly risky projects. The effect of leverage on profit rate may not be uni-directional. Consequently, we incorporated leverage as a control variable due to its important potential effects on profitability. In the growth rate equation (Model 1), we incorporated mergers and acquisitions (MA) dummy variables from time t to t-(p+1) because MA execution abnormally increases growth rates. MA executions were identified from the SDC Platinum database. In the profitability equation (Model 2), we included a market share variable, which was calculated as the net sales of firm i at time t divided by the sum of net sales at time t. According to Buzzell, Gale and Sultan (1975), market share had a positive impact on firm profitability. Because a larger market share means stronger market power, firms with large market shares could have the power to control market prices and be in a better position to negotiate with their suppliers. Thus, a positive relationship between market share and profit rates is expected. Because the current years growth could affect the current years profit rate, following Coad (2007), we included the current years growth rate in Model 2. Statistically, ordinary least square (OLS) regression requires that the right-hand side variables should be independent of the error term. However, if there is a bi-directional causation between dependent (left-hand side) variables and explanatory (right-hand side) variables, this condition is not satisfied and thus OLS regression produces biased and inconsistent estimates. This endogeneity problem could be solved by choosing appropriate instrumental variables, which are correlated with the explanatory variables but not the error term. This means that the instrumental variables should be exogenous but if they are endogenous, the equation would be over-identified. However, if the instrumental variables are weakly correlated with the explanatory variables, which is called a weak instrument, the estimates are biased and inconsistent. Arellano and Bond (1991) proposed the GMM estimator for panel data, which could control the potential endogenous explanatory variables. This method uses the first difference model, which eliminates the time-invariant firm-specific effect, and instrumental variables for the endogenous variables were generated by lags of their own level. However, if the lagged level instruments are weakly correlated with the endogenous explanatory variables, there could be a finite sample bias in estimators. In particular, if the variable series tends to show a highly persistent profit rate series (Mueller, 1977), this weak correlation between lagged level instruments and endogenous explanatory variables is problematic. Arellano and Bover (1995) and Brundell and Bond (1998) developed a dynamic panel GMM estimator that estimated with level-equation and difference equation, which is called a system GMM. Consequently, the dynamic panel system GMM estimator has better asymptotic and finite sample propertie s than the one used by Arellano and Bond (1991). Thus, this study analyzed the proposed models using the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, which produces unbiased and consistent estimates after controlling for endogeneity and firm-specific effects even when the sample period is short. Even though the full sample period of this study is 30 years, the panel structure is not balanced due to the entry and exit of firms. Bludell and Bond (1998) suggested the minimum requirement for panel length as T à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 3. Thus, we excluded firms which did not exist at least three years in the sample period. Another requirement was that there is no serial correlation of the second order error terms. We conducted the serial correlation test for panel GMM estimators developed by Arellano and Bond (1991). In order to test the exogeneity of instrumental variables, we used the Hansen test instead of the Sargan test because the Sargan test is not robust enough to detect heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation (Roodman, 2006). Finally, as Roodman (2006) suggested, we included year dummies in the models and estimated the system GMM by two-step estimator because the two-step estimator is robust enough to detect the heteroskedasticity. For comparisons with the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, we conducted ordinary least square (OLS) and fixed-effect regression. 4. Results 4.1. Panel unit-root test for firm growth and profit rates As indicated, we conducted the panel unit-root test developed by Maddala and Wu (1999) using Fishers test, which assumes that all series are non-stationary under the null hypothesis. Equation (4) was tested on both growth and profit rates. The results are presented in Table 1. For the series of sales growth and profit rates, lag(4) was justified. Thus, the law of proportionate effect hypothesis was rejected but the persistence of profit hypothesis was validated. The results indicate that the growth rates are serially correlated and the profit rates are convergent. The purpose of the panel unit-root tests on growth and profit rates was to examine the stationarity of the two series and to make an appropriate model for the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. As shown earlier, if the panel unit-root test justifies p lags, the ADF formula could be transformed to AR(p+1) model. Consequently, the testable model is AR(5) for both growth and profit rates. Based on the lag length from the pane l unit-root test, we excluded any firm that existed less than five years in testing the dynamic panel system GMM estimator. Then, we tested the proposed models using AR(5) in order to identify the inter-relationship between firm growth and profit rates in various time lag structures. (Insert Table 1 Here) 4.2. Descriptive statistics and scatter plots of growth and profit rates Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the major variables of this study. The average sales of the sampled restaurant firms was 541.8 million dollars and the average growth rate in sales was 16.3%. The average profit rate (return on sales) was 1.3% and total debt rate (debt leverage) was 61.3%. Thus, the figures show that the restaurant industry has a high growth rate, but its profitability is not positive and it uses more debt than equity. (Insert Table 2 Here) Before conducting the dynamic panel system GMM estimator, we checked the scatter plots between growth and profit rates using various time lags. As Coad (2007) indicated, the non-parametric scatter plots of growth and profit rates gave us a visual appreciation of the underlying phenomenon. Thus, before testing the quantitative relationship, we can obtain useful information via scatter plots. Figure 1 shows the scatter plots of growth at time t (Y-axis) and growth rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis) for all samples. Except for the first plot (growth rate time t versus t-1), all other plots seem to show no relationship. The plots, excluding the first plot, look like a cloud shape but are a bit scattered horizontally. Based on the plot for growth rate time t and t-1, the current and prior years growth rates are positively correlated. However, Figure 1 represents all firms, including MA firms. Apparently, firms with MA can experience abnormally high growth rates compared with non-MA firms. Thus, we checked the same scatter plots after excluding MA firms, as presented in Figure 2. The relationship between current and prior years growth rate is clearly positive and growth rate at t-2 also looks positive on current years growth rate. However, the earlier years growth rates (i.e., t-3, t-4 and t-5) appear to have no relationship with the current years growth rate. Figure 3 shows scatter plots of profit rate at time t (Y-axis) and profit rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis). Interestingly, clear heteroskedasticity is detected in the relationship between them. Thus, the usage of the two-step estimator in the dynamic panel system GMM estimator is justified by Figure 3. In all of the scatter plots there is a tendency toward a positive relationship between current and prior profit rates. (Insert Figures 1, 2, and 3 Here) Figure 4 shows scatter plots of profit rate at time t (Y-axis) and growth rates at time t-1 to t-5 (X-axis). In all plots, points were spread horizontally. It seems that there is no effect of growth rate on profit rate. Surprisingly, the scatter plot of current growth rates appears to have no relationship with current profit rate. On the other hand, Figure 5 shows that profit rates clearly have a positive influence on the current growth rate. The majority of the points were spread vertically. The scatter plots show that prior profit rates seems to have a positive influence on current growth rates, but the influence of prior growth rates on current profit rates was not found. (Insert Figures 4 and 5 Here) 4.3. Results from Dynamic panel system GMM estimator Tables 3 and 4 show the results of the proposed models explained in the methodology section. Even though yearly dummies were not reported in Tables 3 and 4, they were included in the models. As shown in Table 3, the prior years growth rate at time t-1 was found to be positively significant on current growth rates in all three regressions (OLS, fixed-effect and system GMM). However, the directions and significances of the coefficients of the other prior growth rate terms varied across the three models. As explained earlier, however, the system GMM is the most appropriate model for this study due to the endogeneity and time invariant firm-specific effect and the results of the OLS and fixed-effect regression models were used simply for the purpose of comparison. Goddard et al. (2004) reported that the prior years (time t-1) growth rate was positive but not significant. It is difficult to directly compare their results with ours due to the difference in the lag length structure. Interestingly, our study showed that growth rates at time t-1 and t-5 were positively significant on current growth rates, but growth rates at time t-2 and t-4 were negatively significant. These results suggest that short-term and long-term prior growth rates have a positive impact, but mid-term prior growth rates have a negative influence on current growth rates. Our primary interest in Model 1 was the effect of the prior years profit rates on current growth rates. The system GMM results show that profit rates at time t-1 and t-5 were positively significant. The magnitude of the coefficient of profit rate at time t-5 was small, meaning that the positive impact of long-term prior profit rates on current growth rates is small. However, the prior years (time t-1) profit rate has a positively significant effect on current growth and the magnitude of the coefficient is large. Coads (2007) study showed that profit rates at time t-1 to t-3 were all positive but the prior years (time t-1) profit rate was not significant. Coad (2007) used an AR(3) model and thus a direct comparison of ours to Coads (2007) is not possible. Yet it is clear that the direction of the coefficients were very similar. Overall, our study results provide evidence that recently profitable firms may grow faster. In terms of the relationship between prior years firm size and current growth rate, all three results show a negative coefficient but the negative effect was significant only in OLS. Also, debt leverage had a negative effect on current growth rates but the system GMM result was not significant. Additionally, all serial correlation tests were not significant, showing that there was no serial correlation problem. Also, the over-identification tests were not significant, meaning that our instruments were not endogenous and the estimates were reliable. (Insert Table 3 Here) Table 4 shows the results of the profitability equation (Model 2). The results of the system GMM shows that profit rates at time t-1, t-2 and t-5 were had positively significant effect on current profit rates. However, profit rates at time t-3 and t-4 were negatively significant. The results suggest that short-term and long-term prior profit rates have a positive impact on current profit rates, but mid-term prior profit rates have a negative influence on current profit rates. Similarly, Goddard et al.s (2004) results showed that the prior years (time t-1) profit rate was positive and significant in its AR(1) model. Table 4 also presents the effect of the prior years growth rates on current profit rates were negatively significant in time t and t-1. Unlike our results, Goddard et al. (2004) found that the prior years growth rate was posi