Unmarked face Essay Example For Students

Unmarked face Essay Anne pulled a screwed up five pound note out of the pocket of her worn out jeans with her shaking hand and handed it to the elderly cashier, picked up the small paper bag and slowly walked out of the shop.  Anne was 5 feet and 7 inches tall with long golden shiny locks that flowed past her shoulders and blue eyes that always shone like diamonds and made her stand out from everyone else you saw walking the streets and she had a figure people would die for. To everyone else she seemed and looked perfect but under her clothes there were many marks on her soft, fair, unblemished skin given to her by her own flesh and blood, her mother. This showed and proved she was not and neither was her life, far from it in fact. We will write a custom essay on Unmarked face specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now She slumped against the steps outside the shop and placed her bag down on the ground beside her. Holding her head in one hand and rubbing her tender beaten skin with the other where her mother had beaten her the previous night. Her eyes started to fill up and tears started to trickle down her beautiful unmarked face. She was sat there in her own little world watching the real world pass by, she could only think of the events of the night before, feeling the pain once again of the ghastly tight grip of her mothers lanky, sweating hands around her neck, she could remember trying her best to unleash the grip on her neck from her mothers evil clutches but as she did her mothers grip just got tighter and tighter. Anne could hear the load THUD the wall made as she was thrown against it and then her mother slapping and hitting her until she fell into a heap on the floor, crying and begging her mother to stop, but she did not she carried on hitting and beating her harder than ever before. Anne was trying to think of what she had done to deserve all this? Why couldnt her mother be like everyone elses, kind and loving instead of beating her to a pulp, why could she not kiss her, say she loved her and tuck her into bed at night.  She had decided that was it she could not take it anymore; there was nothing she could do, no other alternative. She could not go on her life being afraid, miserable and alone, she had to do something. Anne trembling picked up the small paper bag which was placed at her side and nervously opened it slowly. She took out what was inside the bag. She unscrewed the top of the bottle and empted the contents into her sweating, trembling hand. She paused looked around at the world passing by, to her the world was cruel and vile, this was the place in which she wanted to leave and never return to. She took a deep final breath. This was the end, her journeys end.

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work Brainstorming doesnt work. It leads to ideas that conform to each other, and not to novel new ways of thinking.  The idea of brainstorming in a group seems to make sense, but the end result, the final product, is less than it could have been if group brainstorming could have been avoided. Sounds sacrilegious to say that, doesnt it? Why Do We Brainstorm? You have a blank screen in front of you. Youre pretty  desperate for an idea. Youre not sure about where to  find something to write about. Your project or product is in need of something and youre not sure where to go. It seems that you cant come up with the idea on your own, so you turn to the group and brainstorm. Brainstorming originates from Alex F. Osborn who, in the 1940s, wrote a book sharing the creative secrets he used at his advertising agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine Osborn. He called his book Your Creative Power and it became a runaway success. His idea of   getting a group together and storming the problem with your brain caught on and pretty soon the idea of brainstorming was the standard way for business, education, government, and the military to solve problems. The concept behind Osborns idea is that brainstorming was a method that would free participants from inhibition, self-criticism, and criticism by others so that a specific problem might receive the maximum ideas possible. For years, no one questioned the validity of the concept.  Brainstorming seems like the best way to apply the idea that we are stronger as a group than we are if we are alone. It seems logical to bring in your whole team, start throwing around ideas, and building on them. The best will rise to the top and youll get ideas that one person alone could not have come up with. We assumed that the group, and not the individual, can achieve more success with each persons creativity springboarding off of anothers. We were wrong. Brainstorming is where the ideas are born before reality sets in.In A Brainstorming Group, We Think Alike Strong personalities rule the show. Leadership unconsciously steers ideas towards preferred conclusions, or asks questions that beg a specific kind of answer. Team members fear negative evaluation from those higher up and their input is limited and the ideas they share are only the ones they deem reasonable. Why does group brainstorming so consistently fail despite the protestations of those who swear by it? How could they miss seeing whats happening? 1. We see what we expect to see. The end of a brainstorming session will leave us with exactly what we intended it to: lots of ideas to choose from.  From all appearances, it looks like a success. Clearly, the group can come up with more ideas in total than an individual person can. (Taylor, Berry, Block; Administrative Science Quarterly 1958, PDF) But mere quantity doesnt answer the question: does group participation help or hurt creative thinking? You dont know about all the ideas that were stifled in the process. In fact, if youve ever heard a team member say, weeks or months down the road of a project when something needs changing, I thought of that but didnt want to say anything you can bet your brainstorming session didnt work. A full whiteboard doesnt mean your brainstorming session gave you the best possible results. It might have only given you lots of output. 2. Personalities that dont mix. Any time you get a group of people together, you quickly see who is dominant, who is vocal, who is quiet, who is meek, who is extroverted, who is introverted, who is passive, and who is aggressive. To expect this group to provide creative ideas unfettered and freely is a foolish assumption. Personalities are always at work (and sometimes at war) in a group. Our ideas are a personal thing. We all naturally have a tendency to both want to get along with others, and to not appear foolish in front of others. Asking certain personality types to be willing to temporarily throw these driving forces to the wind is asking too much. Consider the introvert, whose creative energy is derived by not being around other people. Putting him or her in a group with extroverts and expecting a great performance is asking too much. The introverts best ideas often come when people are not around to distract and wear on them. A passive person might prefer to not have conflict, while an aggressive person requires it as fuel for their engine. Who do you think will speak up and who will quietly acquiesce to the popular idea? 3. The rise of the lowest common denominator. Brainstorming curtails creativity unconsciously. We all want to get along. Few people actually like conflict (though some do). A kind of equilibrium is reached, to the detriment of the group. Brainstorming also makes us lazy. When in a group focused on being creative, the idea is that you will feed off of each other, and springboard even further with the help of ideas that you would not have come up with.  The reality is that brainstorming allows for social loafing, a term used in a 2010 Applied Cognitive Psychology study by Nicholas W. Kohn and Steven M. Smith. According to Kohn and Smith, group brainstorming means that the participants compare themselves to the others, leading to social loafing and social matching. Social loafing occurs when individuals give less effort in a group because responsibility is diffused. Social matching is a tendency to conform to peers. According to Latanà ©s (1981) social impact theory, larger groups lead to greater conformity and greater downward performance matching. The larger the group, the more they conform to each other and actually match their input and performance to the lowest common denominator. In other words, group brainstorming participants are less productive than they would be on their own. 4. Idea plagiarism and fixation is rampant. Kohn and Smith continued their exploration of groups and the creation of ideas, explaining that we are unconsciously influenced by the ideas around us. Using Dunckers candle problem as an example, they showed how the ideas of others infect our own ideas in such a way that we cannot even discern when flaws that were present in the original idea are carried over into our own ideas. We create a solution built on the flaws of another. If we are left to come up with ideas without the input of others, our ideas tend to truly be unique and not merely derivative. The moment we are surrounded by the ideas of others, we absorb them as our own. Sometimes the idea of another unconsciously becomes our idea. This ties into fixation, or how, in a group, we become fixated on a solution and though we might generate many ideas, they are all fixated on a relatively narrow set. In other words: you might end up with lots of quantity after a brainstorming session, but did you ever have that feeling that not a single idea even came close? That they were all off in the same way? You had a group of people who absorbed each others ideas, flaws and all, and the solution became a too-narrow one despite the number of ideas that surrounded it. Brainstorming works best on your own. A group weakens the results.Solving The Group Brainstorming Problem Re-injecting anonymity to the procedure will directly reduce several of the barriers that make group brainstorming fail. It removes the fear of being judged by fellow team members and by leaders for possible silly ideas or suggestions. It allows voices to be heard that would otherwise be drowned out by others in a verbal-dominant meeting. These methods dont, however, address the social loafing aspect and the problem that comes with wanting our ideas to fit together and conform to levels perceived as appropriate or acceptable. Brainstorming, One Person At A Time The idea of brainstorming, a no-holds creative attack at a problem, isnt wrong. We cant rely purely on passive luck and gestalt to solve all of our problems. There are times we have to run hard at a problem from any and all directions to find a chip in its armor. Its when we mix this brainstorming with a group that those group dynamics are put into play and the creative power of individuals is actually lessened. Thats where singular brainstorming comes into play.  You can brainstorm on your own, as one person, without a group. The same rules apply regarding the removal of inhibition and self-criticism.  When brainstorming on my own, I use a few basic techniques as I attack a problem: 1. Get The Obvious Out Of The Way There will always be one or two ideas that immediately pop into your head. Just write them down. Get the obvious solutions out of the way so you can move on from them. I find that I free up thinking space once I write down all of the obvious solutions and ideas. Its one way I get past the self-criticism and inhibition problem that brainstorming is meant to avoid.  I tell myself that, if all else fails, I can always come back and revisit those initial sensible solutions.

Orwells Writing Rules Are Made to Be Broken

Orwells Writing Rules Are Made to Be Broken Orwell’s Writing Rules Are Made to Be Broken Orwell’s Writing Rules Are Made to Be Broken By Mark Nichol George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, has been celebrated far and wide (including on this site) for his essay â€Å"Politics and the English Language.† The moral force of his argument is undeniable: Orwell, a socialist, witnessed the, well, Orwellian, tyranny of the Soviet Union and feared the power of propaganda and the insidiousness of authoritarian obfuscation, hence his passion for clear, simple writing. Toward the end of this justifiably influential tract, Orwell exhorted readers to adhere to six commandments about writing. However, as he himself wrote in a subsequent paragraph, â€Å"I have not here been considering the literary use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought.† Beyond that caution, though, literal adherence to his dicta is inadvisable, and to some extent I disagree with each of them. 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Certainly, many figures of speech such as â€Å"bite the bullet,† â€Å"push the envelope,† and â€Å"go the extra mile† should be sent to the metaphor retirement home, and I’ve warned about buzzwords, but not every common figure of speech has worn out its welcome. They can be especially catchy when used in punny contexts: A government agency turns over a new leaf about deforestation, a rock band plays musical chairs with its lineup, a pharmaceutical company’s setback is a bitter pill to swallow. 2. Never us a long word where a short one will do. Utilization of sesquipedalian vocabulary unquestionably mitigates comprehension, but never is dishearteningly uncompromising. Better to advise minimizing multisyllabism. But must I always write do in place of accomplish? Spread instead of disseminate? Try in favor of endeavor? That’s an oddly totalitarian rule, coming from Orwell. 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Um, is always really necessary in that sentence? And â€Å"Omit a word† is more concise than â€Å"cut a word out.† But omit has more letters than cut. Do you see where this is going? The answer is, too far. Striving to attain Hemingwayesque conciseness is appropriate for assembly instructions, and journalistic writing should be as transparent as possible, but Bill Bryson never met an adjective or an adverb he didn’t like, and if anyone’s complained about that, I haven’t read the grievance. In moderation (or, in Bryson’s case, in excess), modification is merited. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. The case for active language is often strong. But passive constructions are acceptable when the actor in a sentence (in the following sentence’s case, the â€Å"seer†) is not significant: â€Å"Punk music can be seen as a reaction to the overblown theatricality of disco and arena rock.† And sometimes the object is more important than the subject. Yes, favor active voice, but don’t categorically prohibit occasional passive structure. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Am I prohibited from referring to an eminence grise, in favor of â€Å"power behind the throne† or â€Å"puppet master†? The French phrase for â€Å"gray eminence,† or â€Å"gray man,† is admittedly somewhat pretentious, but it’s also a rich metaphor and if you don’t know what it means, after you look it up, your word-hoard is in turn enriched. Likewise, scientific terminology and topic-specific jargon can become tiresome, but it’s often appropriate in moderation. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. I disagree with this rule as well. Better, I say, to break any of these rules you like, but only after you acknowledge that each has its justifications and if you remain alert, in your writing, to abuses of the English language they caution against. But â€Å"Orwell, or else† is a policy that smacks of rigidity. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Is Irony? (With Examples)Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should KnowDouble Possessive

How can retail banks in UK restore customer confidence and improve Dissertation

How can retail banks in UK restore customer confidence and improve customer satisfaction after the financial cri - Dissertation Example action and customer confidence. It gathers the multiple determinants of such problems based on several surveys involving about 10,000 respondents made of mostly customers of banks or households, some bank Branch Managers, and some bank employees. What will provide a way to improve customer satisfaction and customer confidence must be the creative initiative of all the UK Retail Banks. Since, it has been recovering from the economic crisis (in terms of profitability) while its customers do not enjoy the results of that recovery, the UK Retail Banks should identify the specific needs of customers, comply with FSA regulations, and offer customers a way to be a part of the economic recovery. That is aside from doing their services properly. After all, it was discovered that the customers were not the cause of decline in the economic variables. Speculations and lack of knowledge concerning the risks involved in the Capital Market were found to be the root cause of the most recent recessio n. Unfortunately, it appeared that the customers were the people castigated for the economic decline, while the banks that speculated were bailed out by government funds. Credit became hard to find for customers of banks. Terms and conditions became difficult to accept. Now the banks are recovering while the general public are still struggling to be treated fairly by the banks. How to revive customer satisfaction can be answered by the provision of the needed products and services for customers who need them in order to grow or be revived economically. There are many determinants of customer satisfaction. All of them point to one thing. Be concerned with the peoples’ needs and supply their needs properly. Chapter I Introduction In order to revive the UK economy during the recession period in 2008, the Bank of England implemented Quantitative Easing for its monetary policy effective 2009. In the month of March 2009, ?75 billion was added to the money supply when BoE printed ca sh to purchase Gilts (government bonds). This was followed by ?50 billion in May 2009; another ?50 billion in August 2009; and the final ?23 billion in November 2009. These amounts were anticipated to reach the households eventually so that the consumer spending would increase and the market was supposed to be revived. (BoE, 2009) Unfortunately, the money got stuck in the banks (Inmam, P. 2011). The appended Figure 1 shows how the velocity of transfer from banks to the corporations, SMEs, and households turned out to be very slow. When BoE researched for the reason why, it was reported that the banks had to rebuild its liquidity first with the total of ?200 billion released.

Effects of Rover Sell Off on the Financial Performance of BMW Case Study

Effects of Rover Sell Off on the Financial Performance of BMW - Case Study Example This is amidst the rising gross profit margin (16.04 to 16.28) from 1998 to 199 indicating that the company is trying to make higher profit by charging a higher mark-up. Asset turnover have also significantly declined from 1997 to 1999 reflecting the company's inability to manage assets as efficient as the previous years. In 1999, a dollar of the company's asset yields only $0.91 in total sales compared to the $1.11 in 1997. In terms of leverage, the three year span under consideration also sees the increasing dependence on debt as a major source of financing. Total debt as a percentage of total assets is 40.92% in 1999 which is significantly higher than the 34.34% and 36.75% reported in 1997 and 1998, respectively. BMW appeared satisfactory in terms of liquidity as its current assets can more than pay-off its immediate obligations. It current ratios are 1.33 in 1999, 1.09 in 1998, and 1.27 in 1997. However, the ballooning of accounts receivable is evidenced by the increasing percent age of receivables to current assets which peaked to 57.36% in 1999. Three years after the sell-off of Rover, BMW seem to fail in improving its financial position except its profitability. In fact, its computed financial ratios indicate further deterioration in terms of leverage, asset utilization, and liquidity.

Baroque Style :: essays research papers

The Baroque style was a style in which the art and artists of the time focused upon details, and intricate designs. During this time the portraits began to portray modern life, and artists turned their backs on classical tradition. Buildings were more elaborate and ornately decorated. These works of art created history and altered the progress of Western Civilization. The progress has been an uneven one. Regression and progress often alternated, and shifts in direction often occurred. Art, architecture, literature, and historical events shaped the ideas of the era we know today. Architecture such as the palace of Versailles, and artists like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Goya symbolize these ideas. The palace of Versailles is a grand building outside of Paris, which exhibits the characteristics of the Baroque style. It was elaborately decorated and the final product took 20 years to create. The fence is covered with a sheet of gold; every room is filled with intricate carvings and elegant figurines. Each room reflects a certain time or king by the change in furniture and style. These rooms demonstrate this with items such as back-less chairs, which were created to accommodate the clothes of the period. The materials used to create each piece also distinguish the time period. First generation furniture was made of sterling silver, and the upholstery was changed with the seasons. Second generation furniture was very elaborate and made of wood. Versailles is a perfect example of progression in Western art. The entire house displays the transition from Medieval to Renaissance to the Baroque stylings. The palace is like a museum, which shows the progress of society using art and architecture. Caravaggio was an artist of this period who was also a pioneer in art. The artists of this period began to portray modern life, instead of religious figures. Caravaggio was a violent man who came to Italy to paint. Rebelling against conventional ideas- divine intervention, Virgin Mary, and death- he came to create his own style, forcing civilization ahead, and forcing others to follow his path. His paintings show pleading through man's direct knowledge of God. By revolting against the classical traditions, he created his own style, which other artists wished to portray also. Thus, he created a forward movement in the fashion of art and architecture. Rembrandt was also an artist who wished to depict art in a new manner. "Rembrandt, although in fact he was a profound student of the classical tradition, wanted to look at every episode as if it had never been depicted before, and to try to find an equivalent for it in his own experience." (Clark, 203). "...Rembrandt's paintings

Anlysing of Tv Commercial

The Selected TV Commercial We have selected a television advertisment of bKash, a Brack bank company, for our given assignment. bKash is a service providing company newly launched in Bangladesh which mission is to provide financial services allowing people of Bangladesh to safely send and receive money via mobile devices that are convenient, affordable and reliable. The TV commercial in details: Here on the add Sokhina is the main actress who is a garments worker and uses bKash regularly to send money home to her family.She narrates how bKash has made her life so much easier, and how it is transforming the lives of everyone around her too. How the other people are being benefitted by bKash according to this advertisement are describing below. Her neighbor Milon is a driver who used to receive his salary in cash. Milon is happy because bKash is a better means to keep his money safe as he does not have a bank account. He does not need to cash out the whole amount at a time. Ronnie is t he son of the Chairman of Sokhina’s village who is a university student and lives on campus away from home.He needs to pay his tuition fee urgently and calls his father to send him the money through bKash. He also assured his father not to be worried to lose the money as only he knows the pin code to make the money cash. Soo it is secure even the cell phone is lost. Again her madam Nina buys some groceries from a nearby superstore and happily pays with bKash at the store. Nina likes paying with bKash as it is simple, convenient and she no longer needs to carry cash. According to the TV commercial at present sending or receiving money using bKash is only possible under Grameen Phone and Robi network throughout the country.WEB link: http://www. bkash. com/video/something-everyone If facing any problem please visit http://www. facebook. com/Zelius. Miraz? fref=ts TARGET MARKET ANLYSIS Consumer markets can be segmented on the following customer characteristics. * Geographic * Dem ographic * Psychographic Geographic Target Market: If we consider about the geographical target market for bKash on the basis of the advertisement then it would be the whole Bangladesh where the network of GP and Robi is available as it talks about sending and receiving money from one end to another.Demographic Target Market: Age: People of ages 18 to 50. On the add we have seen that Ronnie, a university student, needs to use bKash for the payment of his tuition fees again on the other hand Sokhina sends money to her parents through bKash. So all of them are the target market of bkash. Gender: Both male and female. Income: People who earn money and do not both are the target market of bkash as it is providing one type of banking service. Occupation: Service Holder, Driver, Students, Housewife, Farmers, Businessman etc. ccording to the advertisement only. Psychographic Target Market: Social Class: Lower, middle and upper. Attitude and beliefs: Security conscious. Behavioral Target Ma rket: Benefits sought: Sokhina the garment worker describes about the benefits of bKash. User status: Potential and regular. OBJECTIVE OF THE ADVERTISEMENT The main objective of the advertisement is to attract the people of all sectors especially including garments workers, other lower earning people, students and housewives to use the financial service of bKash. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR