Violating Norms and Food Wastage Personal Statement

Violating Norms and Food Wastage - Personal Statement Example The manager of a cafeteria, kind of knows me since I am her regular visitor. I went to the restaurant with my friend, who too did not have any clues of my purpose that day. We chatted for about 40 minutes, and then thought to grab something. I ordered a plate of pasta. Had no more than three spoons from the content available to me in my dish. More, I did not ask for a separate plate that I could serve myself some in that different plate. I very much started from that bowl only. Just to make a humor out of a whole thing. Then, we finished and I asked for the bill. It was $60 that we were supposed to pay. $20 for a sandwich that my friend had ordered, and $40 for my pasta. I paid $40, for a complete bill. The boy came to me and said it wasn't $40 but $60 that we were supposed to pay. The boys were in the process of collecting the leftovers on our table. I stopped them to keep the evidence that it indeed was half a plate pasta that I consumed, and the other half I was sending back to them. Poor boy said, "Sir, irrespective of what you eat, you are charged for a complete dish." "And you know that, don't you" "Why would I pay for a full plate when I ate only half of it. There still is some food, which I am sending back. You are not going to throw it off, are you This food is supposed to be consumed by somebody else, isn't it" I said. And by the time, it was a scene created in a restaurant. My friend was not able to believe what was happening. Neither were the boys around. The manager smelt the noise and came to the floor too. I threw a big laughter. A very big laughter. And then took a serious position. With everybody's attention towards me, I started, "a management can be judged with its wastage percentage, lesser the wastage percentage efficient is the management: it is applicable for cafeteria, restaurant, family, organization as well as state. There are many types of wastage among which food wastage is on the top as it has great impact on the family expenditure as well as national economy. By saving food wastage we can save billions of dollars in developed countries, which may help us to make hunger free world." I continued, "In the USA alone, 30% of prepared, baked, canned and fresh food is pitched into landfills daily. The estimated loss to the U.S. economy is over $48 billion a year. British government statistics show that, per person, their citizens throw out 378 pounds (171 kg) of food a year. The Australians pitch 145 kilos per person annually." "Elsewhere in the food processing chain, problems that cause food poisoning cost hundreds of millions in recalls and food waste happen more often than we realize. Listeria bacteria in one company's processed meats caused several deaths and made hundreds ill, due to incomplete cleaning of meat slicers. The loss of the public's trust in their products reduced that company's annual income even further." "Food wastage may occurs in many ways: the frozen food stored in the freezer last year that is now rock-hard and stripped of nutrients; the 50 kilos of potatoes the restaurant

Web 2.0 Applications Essay Example for Free

Web 2.0 Applications Essay O’Reilly (2006) in his Commencement Speech at UC Berkley , explained that the genuine Web 2. 0 application is the one where there is a proportionality between the number of users and the development of the application. Because of this, it is argued that the core value of Web 2. 0 is being able to effectively harness the innovativeness of everyone in the group. This kind of development is a step forward as compared to the previous state of the internet where the Web as a platform remained a baffling mess of buzzwords with no real clarity. Spolsky(2005) agreed with this stating that Web 2.0 is â€Å"a big, vague, nebulous cloud of pure architectural nothingness† and that â€Å"when people use the term Web 2. 0, I always feel a little bit stupider for the rest of the day. † Although this is obviously true, in this specific sense, the concept of the Web 2. 0 application is nothing new at all to the World Wide Web. The term Web 2. 0 is used when a read-write aspect of the Web is used in a participatory way that actually creates greater shared knowledge for all. It was the widespread adoption of blogs, wikis, MySpace and other read-write techniques that ushered in a common I-write-and-everyone-reads-it usage pattern (Hinchcliffe 2006). The concept of Weblog or Blogging has been defined by Drezner and Farrell (2004) as â€Å"A web page with minimal to no external editing, providing on-line commentary, periodically updated and presented in reverse chronological order, with hyperlinks to other online sources. † Yet even though this definition exists, other researchers such as Nardi et al (2004) express that weblogs currently accessible in the internet have a great diversity that is there is not a single dominant style of activity in the net. Others (Dyrud , Worley Quible, 2005) agree with this but on the hand, they expressed that there is something common to all blogs and that is they are primarily a venue in order to share information (regardless of the amount and manner) between people, groups, and organizations. According to Blood (2000) there are essentially two types of weblog: those that emphasize the diary and comment aspect, and those that emphasize hyperlinks. The former may seek to influence wider public opinion, or merely to raise the profile of the blogger; the latter act as a filter system, looking at what exists on the Web and recommending content that might be of interest to visitors. If bloggers make mistakes in the information they publish, they rely on their peers to point out any errors (Johnson and Kaye 2004) – this sentence is very ‘stand alone’ you may wish to introduce the idea of authority of authority of Web 2. 0 technologies (which will presumably covered again in Wikis etc) . Thus, Blogs have unique features that traditional web media does not have. About 2. 7 million bloggers update their blogs at least weekly. According to Technorati, new blog creation continues to grow Figure X shows the number of new blogs created each day, from January 2004 to January 2006: As was mentioned above, there are various types of blogs and each variation provides the information to the user as different as possible. Factors to be considered are the type of the media to be used in order to transfer the information, the device that is used, the genre, the legal status of the publishers, blog search engines, and blogging communities and directories. One varying consideration to blogs is the kind of media that is used in order to share the message from the person/organization that would want to give the message to the recipient of the message. Take for example; a video blog is called a vlog, a blog that is comprised of links to other sites or networks is called a linklog. Another kind of blog that contains a series of sets of sketches is called a sketchblog and another type similar to a sketchblog is called a photoblog – one that comprises of photos being shared, uploaded and downloaded.

Speaking Skills Issues And Solution English Language Essay

Speaking Skills Issues And Solution English Language Essay For the longest time, the idea of testing language have always revolved around testing the knowledge of the language itself but now, the idea of testing for communicative competence is getting more and more popular. In testing communicative competence, speaking and listening tasks are commonly used. Those require tasks such as the completion of an information gap and role play (Kitao Kitao, 1996). As teachers of ESL, it is imperative for us to enhance the students delivery skills, increase their confidence, and develop their methods of organization and critical thinking skills. In order to do this, a valid and reliable way of assessment to determine whether the set goals were met is required. The oral communication field needs a clear-cut method of evaluation as can be found in discrete language skill classes such as listening comprehension (Nakamura Valens, 2001). Language teachers and language testers need a method which takes subjective qualitative observations and then transforms them into objective quantitative measures. A critical issue in the assessment is the selection of criteria for evaluating performance. Stiggins (as cited in Butler Stevens, 1997) points out that the selection of these criteria should be one of the first steps in designing performance assessments. Students should understand ahead of time what is expected of them. This can actually help them determine on what basis their performance will be judged. When students are actively involved in establishing assessment criteria for tasks, they do not only have a better understanding of what is expected of them when they perform the tasks, but they will be able to more fully appreciate why the criteria are important (Butler Stevens, 1997). The Issue of Assessing Speaking Skills. Speaking is probably one of the most difficult skills to test. It combines skills that may have little or no correlation with each other, and which do not do well to objective testing. In ( Kitao Kitao, 1996), it was mentioned that there are not yet good answers to questions about the criteria for testing these skills and the weighing of these factors. It is possible to find people who can produce the different sounds of a foreign language appropriately; hence they lack the ability to communicate their ideas correctly. This is one of the difficulties that testers encounter when testing the oral production of learners. However, the opposite situation could occur as well; some people do have the ability of expressing their ideas clearly, but at the same time they cannot pronounce all the sounds correctly. Another difficulty is the actual implementation of speaking skills testing. That is because it is difficult to test a large number of learners in a relatively short time. Therefore, the examiner is put under great pressure (Heaton, 1988). The next difficulty is that speaking and listening skills are very much related to one another; it is impossible to keep them mutually exclusive. In most cases, there is an interchange between listening and speaking, and speaking appropriately depends on comprehending spoken input. Therefore, this has an impact on testing speaking because the testers will not know whether they are testing purely speaking or speaking and listening together. Finally, the assessment and scoring of speaking skills is one of its biggest problems. If possible, it is better to record the examinees performance and the scoring will be done upon listening to the tape. The aspects of speaking that are considered part of its assessment include grammar, pronunciation, fluency, content, organization, and vocabulary. (Kitao Kitao, 1996). Depending on the situation and the purpose of the test, testers need to choose the appropriate methods and techniques of testing. The Solution: Method of Assessing Speaking Skills. 3.1. Monologue, Dialogue and Multilogue Speaking Test. Nakamura Valens (2001) conducted a study on Japanese graduate students at Keio University. They used three different types of speaking tests as a form of assessment. The first type is the Monologue Speaking Test which is also called the presentation. Students were asked to perform some tasks such as; show and tell where they talk about anything they choose. This gives the students a chance to make a mini presentation. The second type is Dialogue Speaking Test which is also known as the interview. It is an open-ended test where the students lead a discussion with the teacher, and students in that kind of test are required to use conversation skills that they have learned before. The third type is Multilogue Speaking Test that is also called the discussion and debating. Here, the discussions are student-generated, and students are put into groups where as a group, they decide on a topic they feel would be of interest for the rest of the classroom. The evaluation criteria that was used in that study was as follows: Evaluation Items: Presentations: Content Language Eye contact Interviews: Comprehensibility Pronunciation Fluency Ability to explain an idea Discussing and debating: Able to be part of the conversation to help it flow naturally Uses fillers/ additional questions to include others in conversation Transfers skills used in dialogues to group discussions The rating scale ranged between poor and good with the symbols from 1 to 4. The finding of their study reveals that among the three test types, the discussion tests was the most difficult followed by interview test and the presentation test. In Malaysia, we saw a similar system being implemented but were poorly regulated and too restrictive. Dialogues are used in the school-based assessment and Monologues and Multilogues are common in both school-based assessment and the MUET speaking test. Although it follows this model, it failed to accurately gauge students speaking ability as the tests were poorly regulated (prevalent in school-based assessment) and too restrictive (MUET). 3.2. Testing speaking using visual material Without even comprehending spoken or written material, it is possible to test speaking using visuals such as pictures, diagrams, and maps. Through a careful selection of material, the testers can control the use of vocabulary and the grammatical structures as required. There are different types of visual materials that range in their difficulty to suit all the levels of learners. One common stimulus material could be a series of pictures showing a story, where the student should describe. It requires the student to put together a coherent narrative. Another way to do that is by putting the pictures in a random order of the story to a group of student. The students decide on the sequence of the pictures without showing them to each other, and then put them down in the order that they have decided on. They then have the opportunity to reorder the pictures if they feel it is necessary. In the Malaysian context, this system is already in use in the school-based oral assessment for primar y school. Another way of using visual stimulus is by giving two students similar pictures with slight differences between them, and without seeing each others pictures they describe their own pictures in order to figure out the differences. However, there is a problem in using visual stimulus in testing speaking, it lies in that the choice of the materials used must be something that all the students can interpret equally well, since if one student has a difficulty understanding the visual information, it will influence the way he/she is evaluated (Kitao Kitao, 1996). 3.3. The Taped Oral Proficiency Test In that approach, the students performances are recorded on tapes and then assessed later by the examiner. This method has some advantage and some disadvantages. According to Cartier (1980), one disadvantage of the taped test is that it is less personal; the examinee is talking to a machine and not to a person. Another disadvantage is that it has a low validity. Moreover, the taped test is inflexible; if something goes wrong during the recording, it is virtually impossible to adjust for it. On the other hand, there are some advantages of that type of test. It can be given to a group of students in a language lab, it is more standardized and more objective since each student receives identical stimuli, and scoring can be performed at the most convenient or economical time and location. I believe that the taped test method is very practical when it comes to testing large numbers of students where the teacher would not have enough time to assess each one of them individually. However, the problem lies in not having enough language labs in some schools which, in turn, creates a big difficulty for teachers. Conclusion Previous research on classroom testing of ESL speech skills provides several models of both task types and rubrics for rating, and suggestions regarding procedures for testing speaking with large numbers of learners. However, there is no clear, widely disseminated consensus in the profession on the appropriate paradigm to guide the testing and rating of learner performance in a new language, either from second language acquisition research or from the best practices of successful teachers. While there is similarity of descriptors from one rubric to another in professional publications, these statements are at best subjective. Thus, the rating of learners performance rests heavily on individual instructors interpretations of those descriptors (Pino, 1998). In spite of the difficulties inherent in testing speaking, a speaking test can be a source of beneficial backwash. If speaking is tested, unless it is tested at a very low level, such as reading aloud, this encourages the teaching of speaking in classes. In my opinion, testing speaking skills could be a very interesting experience, and it gives teachers an opportunity to creative in selecting the test items and materials. Moreover, it has a great impact on students by making them enjoy taking the test and feel comfortable doing so if the teacher chooses the materials that interest their students and that is suitable to their age and levels of knowledge. References Butler, F. A., Stevens, R. (1997) Oral languages assessment in the classroom. Theory Into Practice, 36 (4). 214-219. Cartier, F. A. (1980). Alternative methods of oral proficiency assessment. In J. R. Firth (Ed.), Measuring spoken language proficiency (7-14). GA: Georgetown University. Heaton, J. B. (1988). Writing English language tests. Longman. Kitao, S. K., Kitao, K. (1996). Testing speaking (Report No.TM025215). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED398261) Kitao, S. K., Kitao, K. (1996). Testing communicative competence (Report No. TM025214). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED398260) Nakamura, Y., Valens, M. (2001). Teaching and testing oral communication skills. Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences,3, 43-53. Pino, B. G. (1998). Prochievement testing of speaking: matching instructor expectations, learner proficiency level, and task types. Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, 3, (3), 119-133.

The Defeat of Ethiopia Essay -- African History

In the beginning of the 20th century, all of Africa was in European hands except for just one country. Despite all the factors against this one country, Ethiopia, in1896 they successfully defended themselves from the Italians in the Battle of Adwa. Unfortunately, when the Italians invaded a second time in 1935, the Ethiopians were not so successful. How come the Ethiopians were defeated when not 50 years earlier they were victorious? Was the advance in technology to much for the Ethiopians to combat or was it the lack of good leadership that they once had in the years leading up to the second invasion. I believe that due to the lack of good leadership before and during the second Italian invasion attributed to the defeat of Ethiopia, rather than their technological deficiencies. To first understand the loss in the second war we must first briefly look at their victory in the first war. In this conflict Ethiopia defeated the Italians because their leaders made all the right choices before and during the war. It started with Emperor Tewodros II, who â€Å"reunified the Ethiopia under a single emperor†. Before that Ethiopia was in great disarray, with many different kings and warlords ruled different parts of Ethiopia. This was a crucial step in defeating the Italian because without the full cooperation of all the Ethiopian warlords, than the Italian military would have easily defeated the fragmented Ethiopian states. Another crucial decision that Tewodros II made was to modernize the Ethiopian military with firearms. He learned this lesson harshly after a tough defeat from the modern equipped Egyptian army and from this experience he used it to better his empire. With just these two simple improvements Ethiopia was now in ... ...talian bullets ever could. Even in our time, the most modern army like the United States is not assured victory against a less advanced foe like the Taliban. In the end, it all comes down to the soldiers training, and the leadership of their superiors. WORKS CITED Del Boca, Angelo. Guerra d'Abissinia. Translated by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. The Ethiopian War 1935-1941, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969. Milkias, Paulos. The Battle of Adwa. N.p.: Algora Publishing, 2005. Nicolle, David, and Raffaele Ruggeri. The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-36. London: Osprey Military, 1997. Wienholt, Arnold. The Africans' Last Stronghold. London: John Long, 1938. Gilbert, Erik, and Jonathan T. Reynolds. Africa in World History: From Prehistory to the Present. Boston: Pearson, 2012.

Poetry and Lentil Essay

Read the English translation of the following poem by the Armenian poet Zahrad. It will aid in your comprehension if you take note of the poem’s title. Then, in one or two carefully constructed paragraphs, explore how rhythm is created in the poem and how it interacts with other elements such as imagery to create an effect—an impact on the audience. In your response, be sure to describe what feeling, effect, or impact the rhythm and other elements achieve. The Woman Cleaning LentilsA lentil, a lentil, a lentil, a stone.A lentil, a lentil, a lentil, a stone.A green one, a black one, a green one, a black. A stone.A lentil, a lentil, a stone, a lentil, a lentil, a word.Suddenly a word. A lentil.A lentil, a word, a word next to another word. A sentence.A word, a word, a word, a nonsense speech.Then an old song.Then an old dream.A life, another life, a hard life. A lentil. A life.An easy life. A hard life. Why easy? Why hard?Lives next to each other. A life. A word. A lentil.A green one, a black one, a green one, a black one, pain.A green song, a green lentil, a black one, a stone.A lentil, a stone, a stone, a lentil. 1| I believe the rhythm is set by the repetition of short units. For example â€Å"a len/til, a len/til, a len/til, a stone†. So the base rhythm for this specific quotation would be anapestic tetrameter. I believe the title is tied into the poem through a metaphor. The repetition of how a lentil (plant) is talked about in the poem I believe is talking about the woman’s job; how it is repetitive and ordinary. The imagery in the poem reinforces this metaphor I believe through the quotation â€Å"a green one, a black one, a green one, a black. A stone†. When the quotation is said a second time it gives the reader an image of the â€Å"pain† the woman faces with her difficult job. The woman faces a â€Å"hard† life as a peasant. I feel the rhythm and imagery work together sort of as I explained in the last paragraph. They connect together through the metaphor of cleaning and how repetitive the woman’s job is. The effect it has on the audience is that the poem essentially balances on interest and dullness. The interest is reading the poem and understanding it, and the dullness is the content of the poem, and how we know the woman’s life is very dull and repetitive. The dullness of the poem is kept to a minimum by keeping the poem so short, otherwise us as the audience would lose interest in the poem. In a quick analysis of the poem, the woman is doing a boring, repetitive job and becomes one with the ‘rhythm’. While she is doing her mindless tasks, in rhythm, her thoughts are wandering over the life she’s living, including her dreams and her pains.

River Island Clothing Co. Ltd. Essay Essay Example

River Island Clothing Co. Ltd. Essay Essay Example River Island Clothing Co. Ltd. Essay Paper River Island Clothing Co. Ltd. Essay Paper The concern started in 1948 as a little lock-up store in East London selling wool and ladies dressing. As the concern increased stores were added under the name of â€Å"Lewis Separates† and the focal point became ladies dressing. By 1968 there were some 70 shops in the UK and â€Å"Lewis Separates† introduced into a few of its shops a trade name new construct and name. Innovative in design and format these shops used strong colorss. bold manner imagination and dad music to make â€Å"Chelsea Girl. † the first UK concatenation of manner dress shops. With continuing enlargement. menswear was introduced in 1983 under the â€Å"Concept Man† trade name and from 1988 farther development took the signifier of the development ofa new trade name construct of a themed shop offering manner for work forces and adult females. The new trade name was called â€Å"River Island† and today the merchandise scope includes men’s and women’s vesture and fo otwear. accoutrements and cosmetics. A dedicated in-house design and sourcing squad creates stylish. fashionable and quality vesture stand foring value for money. targeted at the manner witting 18-35 twelvemonth old market. As at 28 December 2002 River Island had net capital resources of ?85. 5 million and achieved gross revenues of ?377. 6 million for the 52 hebdomads. River Island is a entirely owned subordinate of Lewis Trust Group Ltd. which is the parent of a diversified group engaged in the retailing. belongings. leisure and fiscal services sectors. As at 31 December 2002 Group consolidated net capital resources amounted to ?408 million. Relevant Markets River Island designs and retails men’s and women’s vesture. footwear. accoutrements and cosmetics. The bulk of merchandises are designed in-house and sold chiefly under the River Island trade name. although other River Island owned trade names are used. A little proportion of gross revenues are attributable to thirdparty trade names. River Island has shops in over 180 locations Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 9 stores in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in the universe retails through franchise spouses in Kuwait. Saudi Arabia. United Arab Emirates. Bahrain. Malta. Cyprus and Poland. In all districts the mark market is the manner cognizant 18-35 twelvemonth old sector. In add-on to its stores. River Island retails through mail order catalogue and web site. RI/11427 ( updated ) 25/05/2004 1 Within the geographic markets mentioned above. the River Island shop card is available merely in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In add-on to its shop card. River Island accepts a full scope of payment methods from clients. including hard currency. check. recognition and debit cards. Competition within these markets. Our commentary relates merely to the UK market. Within the retail vesture market there is non merely important competition in footings of the figure and differing nature of retail merchants engaged in the sector ( e. g. big section shops. little independent vesture stores. multipleoutlet vesture retail merchants. specializer footwear retail merchants. etc ) but a significant comprehensiveness of pick of merchandise available to the populace. Unlike some other merchandise sectors ( which participate in shop card issue ) the retail vesture sector is non dominated by a limited figure of retail suppliers and the populace has an extended portfolio of dressing retail merchants with which to put their usage. A big bulk of consumers besides have a broad pick of alternate payment methods and/or beginnings of deferred payment ( e. g. shop cards. recognition cards. personal loans. debit cards linked to borrowing installations ) . We see the proviso of a shop card as offering both an alternate payment method ( where the client has the immediate ability to pay by other agencies ) and an extra payment method ( where the client does non hold the immediate ability to pay by other agencies ) . We try to aline the card to our trade name. and to make benefits for our clients. by offering trueness price reductions and particular offers. For a retail merchant such as River Island. the intent of our shop card is chiefly to supply a convenient method of payment ( whether option or extra ) . Whilst it makes no identifiable difference to us whatever agencies of payment a client chooses. we do hold the ability to pass on with card holders and to offer them benefits which we consider will help trueness. We offer such benefits as: RI/11427 ( updated ) 25/05/2004 Cardholder one-off price reductions Invitations to particular events Loyalty price reductions and wagess Sale previews 2 Discounts on 3rd party services/products Third party offers Forthcoming new merchandise information. These benefits can be promoted by and large. or more specifically targeted based on purchase behavior demonstrated by card disbursement patterns A shop card programme besides provides the retail merchant with a important channel of communicating with clients. a installation non available through other payment mechanisms. The River Island shop card. whilst it includes an optional recognition installation ( i. e. deferred payment ) in common with all recognition cards. is non intended or promoted as a vehicle for longer term adoption. Neither is the card intended as a agency of recognition for those who find trouble with other beginnings of finance. First. the card is a agency of payment. It may be that users choose to utilize the card because they do non hold another agencies of payment at that minute. However. it does non so follow that they will utilize the card installations since they will non incur involvement if they pay off the balance within up to 54 yearss. We have no fiscal involvement in the card operated for us by GE and we have no influence over our card provider’s statistical recognition hiting standards and mechanism. Nor do we hold any contractual influence over the APR charged. or other footings. We sell manner merchandises. It is our position that our clients base their buying determination on their desire for a specific merchandise. We do non believe that the handiness of recognition is a driver as it might be for furniture or larger family goods. Shop cards are usually tied to a individual trade name proprietor or retail merchant and to that extent shop cards do non straight vie with each other. They do vie with other signifiers of payment. peculiarly mechanisms which include the ability to postpone payment. Any analysis of the benefits/costs associated with shop cards and the competitory place of shop cards in the market place. when compared with other agencies of payment. needs to take history of the entirety of the shop card offering and non merely a individual facet of comparing. Barriers to Entry/Ease of Switch overing Merely one or two retail merchants operate their shop cards in-house. River Island uses the services of GE Capital Bank Ltd. In the context of River Is land sing conveying its shop card operation inhouse ( which could potentially better competition in the 3rd party supplier market ) there are important barriers to entry. including. ( a ) Set up costs for RI/11427 ( updated ) 25/05/2004 3 ( B ) Ongoing costs Name Centre operation Computer systems to pull off card histories Hardware costs for the above Development of recognition hiting system Human resources recruitment Training Department Compliance Department Recognition hiting Human resources Occupancy costs for call Centre Higher selling costs covering design/print issue of shop card certification Card fabrication costs Bad debts Fraudulent card applications and use Against these barriers the lone important advantage would be fiscal if we could bring forth more value. However. it has to be borne in head – whether in relation to a self-operated card or an alternate to GE – that we need to offer our clients continuity and we need certainty that our card supplier is able to execute. Store card operation is a really hard concern. GE have demonstrated that they can execute. To day of the month few others have done this in the UK. There is a little figure of 3rd party store-card suppliers in the UK market and of those suppliers GE Capital Bank is reported to hold over 50 % of the market. Because of differing accomplishments involved in the proviso of shop card and recognition card services. suppliers ( e. g. Bankss and finance houses ) of other consumer cards and other signifiers of episode recognition are non in a place to readily offer shop card services for retail merchants. Therefore there is some inelasticity in the supply side of 3 rd party store-card suppliers. In add-on. easiness of exchanging by a retail merchant can be influenced by Exclusivity clauses in an bing contract Lengthy contract periods Existing supplier has developed a information base of cardholder disbursement and borrowing behavior that is non readily movable to a new supplier. Financial and clip costs involved in exchanging. New cards have to be issued to all bing cardholders. showing a possible break hazard. Customer Information The River Island store card can be applied for in individual at any one of our stores or electronically through our Website World Wide Web. Riverisland. com. The application process is that prescribed by our card supplier. The card is promoted on the River Island Website. in our mail-order catalogue with application for the card being made through either method described above. but chiefly through our stores. Customer information about the shop card is provided through In shop postings A â€Å"please take one† cusp available in our stores During history gap processs when the client is finishing an application signifier with our gross revenues advisor A â€Å"welcome† brochure issued at the clip the shop card is issued to the cardholder. The cusp and brochure in peculiar provide written information in untechnical linguistic communication about the benefits of the shop card in add-on to summarizing cardinal information about the fiscal facets of the card. The full footings and conditions of the card recognition understanding are provided to the client on the contrary of the card application signifier. a transcript of which is handed to the client following its completion. The full footings and conditions are besides repeated when the card and any renewal/replacement of it are despatched to the cardholder. Customers are entitled to take away a clean â€Å"voided† application signifier prior to doing any application and successful appliers are besides offered a â€Å"no quibble† warrant that within 60 yearss of opening their history. they may pay off any outstanding balance. shut their history and non be charged any fees or involvement.

Cómo registrarse para votar en Estados Unidos

Cà ³mo registrarse para votar en Estados Unidos Para votar, 49 de los 50 estados de Estados Unidos exigen estar registrados, pero las leyes que regulan cà ³mo registrarse  son diferentes en cada estado. En este artà ­culo se especifica cules son las opciones en cada uno de ellos. Por sus graves repercusiones conviene empezar subrayando cules son las consecuencias de votar cuando no se tiene derecho. Castigo por votar en elecciones en Estados Unidos cuando no se tiene este derecho Solo los ciudadanos estadounidenses mayores de 18 aà ±os no incapacitados legalmente pueden votar en Estados Unidos. Si un extranjero vota est cometiendo una violacià ³n migratoria grave que puede ser castigada con la deportacià ³n, incluso en los casos en los que el votante fuera un residente permanente legal. El derecho de los ciudadanos a votar puede estar suspendido temporalmente. Por ejemplo, cuando estn en prisià ³n. Las reglas de cada estado establecen cà ³mo y cundo se recupera ese derecho, asà ­ como si afecta o no a las personas condenadas pero en libertad condicional  o que han recibido un parole. Votar cuando la ley del estado lo prohà ­be puede estar castigado con pena de prisià ³n, por lo que si alguna vez se ha sido condenado por algà ºn delito o falta es altamente recomendable verificar las reglas que aplican en el estado  donde  vive. Es una falta grave brindar informacià ³n falsa en las planillas para registrarse para votar. Los ciudadanos americanos que habitualmente viven en otro paà ­s pueden conservan su derecho a votar en las elecciones estadounidenses. En la mayorà ­a de los estados es posible registrarse en el Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados cuando se tiene que ir a esa agencia en persona a realizar trmites para sacar o renovar la licencia de manejar o registrar un vehà ­culo. Tambià ©n en muchos estados es posible ver en la calle mesas de inscripcià ³n de votantes, por ejemplo, a la salida de los lugares donde tiene lugar las ceremonias de naturalizacià ³n. Son todas legales y es posible registrarse en ese momento. Cà ³mo registrarse para votar en los 10 estados con ms poblacià ³n latina Estas son las reglas en cada uno  de los 10 estados con ms poblacià ³n latina en orden decreciente: California En California la  inscripcià ³n para votar puede hacerse online  o por correo ordinario. En el primer caso es necesario tener a mano el nà ºmero de identificacià ³n (I.D.) o de la licencia de manejar de California y el nà ºmero del seguro social. Para registrase por correo, debe  llenar el  National Mail Voter Registration Form  y enviarlo a la direccià ³n indicada en ese formulario. Para votar en California es necesario registrarse al menos 15 dà ­as antes de celebracià ³n de las elecciones. Texas Solo es posible registrarse para votar en Texas enviando un formulario oficial a la direccià ³n que aparece en el mismo y  que puede obtenerse en cualquiera de las siguientes oficinas:  Voter Register  del condado en el que se vive, oficina del Secretario de Estado, bibliotecas pà ºblicas,  escuelas secundarias  y muchas oficinas de correos. En ese formulario se exige escribir uno de los siguientes tres nà ºmeros: licencia de manejar de Texas, nà ºmero del seguro social o nà ºmero de identificacià ³n personal del  Texas Department of Public Safety. Si no se tiene ninguno de esos tres nà ºmeros, para votar ser necesario mostrar una identificacià ³n.  El formulario oficial debe ser enviado como mà ­nimo 30 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Texas es, adems, un estado en el que los ciudadanos naturalizados que utilizaron la licencia de manejar como I.D. para registrarse han sido excluidos de los listados de votantes registrados. Ese es uno de los problemas que pueden encontrase los migrantes en Texas. Florida Para votar hay que registrarse al menos 29 dà ­as antes de las elecciones llenando el formulario  DS-DE 39  y envindolo por correo a la oficina supervisora de las elecciones en el condado en el que se reside. El formulario tambià ©n puede presentarse en persona en cualquier biblioteca pà ºblica, oficina de reclutamiento de soldados, oficina electoral o en las de  FLHSMV  (Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados de Florida). Nueva York Este estado permite  registrarse online, pero en este caso es necesario que el distrito para el cual el votante desea registrarse tenga el mismo cà ³digo postal que aparece en la licencia de manejar. Tambià ©n es posible hacerlo por correo, completando  el formulario de inscripcià ³n  (disponible en espaà ±ol) o en persona, utilizando esa misma planilla y presentndose en la oficina electoral del condado  donde  se vive. Illinois Para registrarse en Illinois se pide residencia en ese estado por al menos 30 dà ­as. Para votar, la inscripcià ³n debe hacerse al menos 27 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Es posible registrarse en persona en la Oficina del Comisionado Electoral del distrito en el que se reside, en las oficinas del Secretario del Condado, municipales o de reclutamiento de soldados. Tambià ©n es posible hacerlo en las escuelas o en las bibliotecas pà ºblicas. Adems, se admite la posibilidad de registrarse por correo, enviando la planilla de la Aplicacià ³n para Registrarse como votante en Illinois conocida como  Form SBE R-19  a la oficina electoral del condado  donde se reside o a la central del estado. Es necesario enviar una copia de dos documentos para probar la identidad y residencia en el estado. Finalmente, tambià ©n es posible  la inscripcià ³n online. Arizona En Arizona es necesario registrase al menos 29 dà ­as antes de las elecciones y ese dà ­a se exige mostrar una I.D. para poder votar. Adems, para registrarse es imprescindible mostrar un documento que acredite la ciudadanà ­a estadounidense como, por ejemplo, el pasaporte de EE.UU., el certificado de naturalizacià ³n o el certificado de nacimiento. La inscripcià ³n puede hacerse en persona en la oficina del  County Register  o por correo, enviando a esa oficina el formulario.  Tambià ©n puede hacerse online, pero solo si el estado tiene previamente en rà ©cord la firma digital del solicitante o por correo ordinario. Nueva Jersey Es necesario residir en ese estado por al menos 30 dà ­as para registrarse para votar y  utilizar un formulario  que debe ser entregado en las oficinas de las agencias estatales o enviado a las oficinas electorales locales. Tambià ©n puede entregarse en los despachos de reclutamiento del ejà ©rcito en ese estado. Colorado El estado de Colorado es uno de los que ms opciones brinda para registrarse al  admitir las modalidades online, por correo ordinario, email, fax, o en persona. En este à ºltimo caso, debe presentarse a las oficinas de reclutamiento militar, asistencia pà ºblica estatal, secretario del condado  donde se reside, Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados o centros de votacià ³n y servicio  al votante.   En todas las instancias, excepto  online, es necesario completar  el formulario  Colorado Voter Registration Form  (Form  100). Nuevo Mà ©xico Es necesario hacerlo al menos 28 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. El trmite se puede efectuar en la oficina del secretario del condado  en persona o por correo, o en el Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados al solicitar la licencia de manejar, renovarla o cambiar algà ºn dato. Georgia En este estado es posible  registrarse online  o por correo. Solo es posible hacerlo en persona en las oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados cuando se saca la licencia de manejar por primera vez o se renueva. La tarjeta de registracià ³n se recibe en un plazo de 4 semanas, pero para votar es necesario, adems, mostrar una I.D. con foto, como la licencia de manejar, pasaporte estadounidense, I.D. de empleado del gobierno federal, estatal o local, I.D. militar o de una tribu indà ­gena o una I.D. de votante, emitido por el estado de Georgia a las personas que no tienen ninguna de las identificaciones seà ±aladas. Cà ³mo registrase para votar en el resto de los estados, por orden alfabà ©tico Alabama En Alabama, la inscripcià ³n tiene que realizarse al menos 14 dà ­as antes de las elecciones admitià ©ndose las formas online o por correo ordinario. En este à ºltimo caso, debe llenar el State of Alabama Mail-In Voter Registration Form  (Form NVRA-2)  y enviarlo a la oficina local del Board of Registrars. Tambià ©n es posible registrarse en persona en cualquier oficina local del Board of Registrars, bibliotecas pà ºblicas, agencias de Medicaid y en el Departamento de Recursos Humanos. Adems de registrarse, el dà ­a de la votacià ³n debe presentar una I.D. con foto como, por ejemplo, la  tarjeta de I.D. o licencia de manejar de Alabama, pasaporte de EE.UU., tarjeta tribal, I.D. de votante, tarjeta de empleado o estudiante de una universidad pà ºblica o privada, o tarjeta militar. Alaska Las opciones para registrarse son online, por correo o en persona. En estas dos à ºltimas opciones, debe enviar la planilla  State of Alaska Voter Registration Application  (Form C03)  a la oficina local de la Divisià ³n de Elecciones, con copia de certificado de nacimiento, pasaporte de EE.UU., tarjeta I.D. o licencia de manejar de Alaska. Arkansas Solo es posible registrase en persona en la oficina del secretario del condado o por correo enviando el formulario a la direccià ³n consignada en el mismo. Es necesario indicar el nà ºmero de la licencia de manejar de ese estado o los cuatro à ºltimos nà ºmeros del seguro social. Carolina del Norte Es necesario registrarse al menos 25 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Es posible hacerlo por fax, email, correo o en persona en las oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados (DMV) o de las agencias estatales de empleo, salud mental, salud pà ºblica o incapacidad. En todos los casos es imprescindible completar el  formulario oficial de inscripcià ³n. Carolina del Sur Para votar en Carolina del Sur es necesario registrarse como mà ­nimo 30 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Es posible hacerlo online, en persona, presentndose en una oficina del Board of Registration del condado  donde se vive o del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados. Finalmente, tambià ©n se admite la posibilidad de registrarse por correo, llenando el formulario del  South Carolina Voter Registration Mail Application  y envindolo a la oficina local del Board of Registration. Adems, para poder votar, es necesario proporcionar al estado de Carolina del Sur una I.D. con foto para que pueda guardarse  en sus archivos. Si no se tiene una licencia de manejar de ese estado, es necesario obtener una tarjeta de votante, para lo cual es necesario probar con otra documentacià ³n los siguientes puntos: identidad, fecha de nacimiento, ciudadanà ­a estadounidense, residencia en Carolina del Sur y nà ºmero del seguro social. Connecticut Es posible registrarse online  o por correo completando el formulario  State of Connecticut Mail-In Voter Registration y envindolo al ayuntamiento de la localidad  donde se reside. En esos edificios tambià ©n se admite la inscripcià ³n en persona. En el estado de Connecticut es posible registrarse el mismo dà ­a de las elecciones, pero no en los lugares donde se vota, sino que se exige presentarse antes en el  Registrar of Voters  local con una  I.D. y un documento que muestre la direccià ³n  donde  se reside. Dakota del Norte Este estado no tiene inscripcià ³n previa para votar en las elecciones. El dà ­a de los comicios, los ciudadanos deben mostrar una identificacià ³n que pruebe su nombre completo, fecha de nacimiento y residencia mà ­nima de 30 dà ­as en Dakota del Norte. Dakota del Sur Para votar es necesario registrarse al menos 15 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Es posible hacerlo completando un formulario y envindolo a la oficina local del auditor del condado. Otra opcià ³n es presentarse en una oficina local del auditor del condado, del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados, oficinas de gestià ³n de los cupones de alimentos o de Recursos Humanos, o agencias de reclutamiento de soldados. Delaware En Delaware es posible registrarse por telà ©fono, en persona en las oficinas estatales de Servicios Sociales y Salud, Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados o Departamento de Trabajo, o por correo, enviando la aplicacià ³n a la direccià ³n que figura en esa planilla. Para registrarse por primera vez hay que enviar o mostrar una I.D. del estado o la licencia de manejar y, si no se tiene, la tarjeta del Seguro Social. Adems, debe mostrar un documento que acredite residencia actual, como cheque que se recibe del gobierno, factura de la electricidad, extracto bancario, etc. Hawaii En Hawaii es posible registrarse online, para lo cual debe tener a mano una ID. del estado o la licencia de manejar y la tarjeta del nà ºmero del Seguro Social. Tambià ©n puede hacerse por correo, llenando la planilla del Voter Registration and Permanent Absentee Form  o en persona en ayuntamientos, oficinas de correo, bibliotecas pà ºblicas, agencias estatales o en los campus del sistema estatal de la Universidad de Hawaii. Idaho En Idaho solo es posible registrarse en persona o por correo llenando la planilla Form ERM-1. Las personas que se registran por primera vez deben  enviar o presentar copia de una I.D. o copia de una factura de servicios pà ºblicos, nà ³mina o extracto bancario en el que aparezca reflejada la direccià ³n del votante. Para registrarse es necesario haber vivido en el distrito  donde se quiere votar por al menos 30 dà ­as.   Indiana Para registrarse hay que probar que se ha residido en el distrito  donde se quiere votar por al menos 30 dà ­as. Es posible hacerlo en persona, por correo o tambià ©n online. El dà ­a de las elecciones  ser necesario mostrar una I.D. estatal o federal en la que el nombre coincida exactamente con el del registro de votantes. Iowa   En Iowa se requiere registrarse al menos 11 dà ­as antes de las elecciones y solo es posible hacerlo en persona o enviando el formulario de inscripcià ³n  por correo a la oficina local del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados o a la del auditor del condado  donde se reside. Kansas Para votar en Kansas hay que registrarse al menos 21 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Es posible hacerlo en persona, online, fax, email o correo ordinario. En cualquier caso, se exige prueba de la ciudadanà ­a estadounidense, como puede ser el pasaporte, el certificado de naturalizacià ³n, etc. Kentucky Las personas con residencia en Kentucky por al menos 28 dà ­as pueden registrarse para votar en dicho estado por correo, en persona o utilizando un formulario electrà ³nico.   Louisiana Es posible registrarse en persona, por correo o por internet. En este à ºltimo caso, el formulario pide un cà ³digo Audit. Para encontrarlo, debe buscar en la licencia de manejar o I.D. emitido por ese estado. Maine Es obligatorio completar el formulario de inscripcià ³n  que puede enviarse por correo o presentarse en persona en las oficinas del registro municipal del lugar  donde se vive, en las oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados o cualquiera agencia estatal o federal. Maryland Este estado permite registrarse a los ciudadanos con residencia durante al menos 21 dà ­as. Puede  realizarse online, en persona o por correo. En algunos casos, a los votantes por primera vez se les puede solicitar una I.D. que puede ser la licencia de manejar, tarjeta militar o de estudiante, pasaporte de Estados Unidos o una factura de un servicio pà ºblico de los à ºltimos tres meses.   Massachusetts Este estado permite la inscripcià ³n online, en persona o por correo para los ciudadanos con al menos 16 aà ±os cumplidos, sin embargo, solo se puede votar a partir de los 18. Michigan Este estado exige residencia previa por 30 dà ­as para permitir la inscripcià ³n, que puede hacerse en persona o por correo en las oficinas del Secretario del Condado. Adems, el dà ­a de las elecciones debe presentar una I.D. con foto, como la licencia de manejar de ese estado o una tarjeta militar. Si no se tiene, es necesario firmar una declaracià ³n jurada. Minnesota Para registrarse en ese estado es necesario residir en à ©l al menos 20 dà ­as antes de la inscripcià ³n. Puede hacerse online, por correo o en persona en la oficina del secretario del condado. Incluso es posible registrarse el dà ­a de las elecciones en el lugar de votacià ³n. Mississippi Este estado exige residencia por un mà ­nimo de 30 dà ­as antes de registrarse. Es posible hacerlo completando el formulario y envindolo a la oficina del Secretario del Condado  donde se reside. Missouri La forma para registrarse es por correo, enviando el formulario de inscripcià ³n a la oficina del Secretario del Condado  donde se reside. Montana Montana exige una residencia mà ­nima de 30 dà ­as para permitir la inscripcià ³n y, a diferencia de otros estados, no permite hacerlo online. Las opciones son por correo,  enviando un formulario  a la oficina  electoral del condado  donde se reside (cuya direccià ³n est en ese formulario), o presentndose en persona en dicha oficinas. Nebraska Es posible registrarse online, por correo o en persona. En estos dos à ºltimos casos, es necesario llenar un formulario especà ­fico. En el primer caso, se exige tener licencia de manejar o una I.D. de ese estado. Nevada Para registrarse en Nevada se exige ser residente de ese estado por un mà ­nimo de 30 dà ­as y de un mà ­nimo de 10 dà ­as en el distrito donde se va a votar. Es posible registrarse en persona o por correo  en las oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados. Tambià ©n se admite hacerlo online en espaà ±ol, pero es necesario tener una licencia de manejar o una I.D. de ese estado. Nuevo Hampshire Para registrarse hay que probar identidad, residencia en el estado, edad y ciudadanà ­a estadounidense. Como lugares para registrase se admiten las oficinas del secretario de la ciudad o el propio lugar de votacià ³n el dà ­a de las elecciones. Ohio Para votar en las elecciones, los residentes de Ohio deben registrarse para votar al menos 30 dà ­as antes de la fecha electoral. Es posible hacerlo online. Tambià ©n es posible hacerlo en cualquier oficina del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados cuando se tiene una cita para obtener la licencia de manejar, su renovacià ³n o para notificar cambios de nombre o de direccià ³n. Oklahoma Los residentes en Oklahoma deben  completar el formulario oficial  para registrarse para votar al menos 24 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Se les pide el nà ºmero de la licencia de manejar de ese estado y, si no la tienen, el nà ºmero del Seguro Social. Oregà ³n Los residentes en el estado de Oregà ³n pueden registrarse a partir de los 16 aà ±os, aunque solo se puede votar a partir de los 18. Los nuevos ciudadanos estadounidenses deben gozar de ese estatus por al menos 21 dà ­as antes de registrarse.   Para registrarse existen varias opciones: online en espaà ±ol, para lo que es necesario tener a mano la licencia de manejar o licencia de identificacià ³n de ese estado, en persona en la oficina electoral del condado donde se reside, o por correo, enviando la planilla SEL 500 a la oficina electoral del condado. Tambià ©n puede  registrarse cuando saca la licencia de manejar. Pensilvania Los residentes en  Pensilvania por un mà ­nimo de 30 dà ­as pueden registrarse para votar en cualquier oficina del Departamento de Vehà ­culos o por Internet rellenando el formulario del Departamento de Estado de Pensilvania. Se exige a los nuevos ciudadanos al menos un mes antes de la fecha de la votacià ³n para estar autorizados a votar. Rhode Island Aunque no se puede votar antes de cumplir los 18 aà ±os, es posible registrarse para votar a partir de los 16. Puede hacer online o por correo ordinario enviando el formulario  Rhode Island Voter Registration Form o el  National Voter Registration Form a la oficina del Board of Canvassess del condado donde se reside.   Tambià ©n se admite la inscripcià ³n  en persona entregando cualquiera de esos dos formularios en el Board of Canvassess o en una oficina local del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados (RI DMV). Finalmente, Rhode Island exige registrarse un mà ­nimo de 30 dà ­as antes de las elecciones para poder votar. Tennessee Para votar en las prà ³ximas elecciones es necesario registrarse al menos 30 dà ­as antes. Puede hacerse enviando el formulario de inscripcià ³n a la oficina local de la comisià ³n electoral del condado donde se reside. La otra opcià ³n es presentarse en una de las siguientes oficinas: oficina del secretario del condado, bibliotecas pà ºblicas, registro civil (Register of Deeds), Departamento de Salud en el rea de gestià ³n del programa WIC, departamentos de veteranos, recursos humanos, salud mental o vehà ­culos motorizados. Utah En Utah es posible inscribirse online hasta 7 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Tambià ©n es posible enviando el formulario State of Utah Mail-In Voter Registration Form a la oficina del secretario del condado donde se reside. Una tercera opcià ³n es registrarse en persona al menos 30 dà ­as antes de las elecciones en la oficina del secretario del condado, colleges o universidades pà ºblicas, oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados.   Vermont En Vermont es posible registrarse online, en persona en el Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados cuando se realizan gestiones para sacar la licencia, renovarla, solicitar una inscripcià ³n  del auto o renovar una que ya se tiene. Tambià ©n es posible presentando el Vermont Application for Addition to the Checklist (VT Voter Registration)  (Form SOS-VR)  en la oficina del secretario de la ciudad o municipalidad, o envindola por correo a la misma direccià ³n. Cualquiera que sea la forma que se elige para registrarse, es necesario presentar o enviar copia de uno de los siguientes tres documentos: licencia de manejar de Vermont, factura de un servicio pà ºblico, extracto bancario o un documento oficial del gobierno. Adems, hay que jurar o prometer lo que se conoce como Juramento del Hombre Libre (Freeman ´s Oath, en inglà ©s). Virginia Para registrarse online es necesario enviar el nà ºmero del seguro social y de la licencia de manejar de ese estado. Tambià ©n es posible hacerlo en persona o por correo completando el formulario  Voter Registration Application  (Form VA-NVRA-1)  a la oficina local de inscripcià ³n  de voto. Finalmente, otra opcià ³n es presentarse en una oficina del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados. Virginia Occidental Es posible registrarse online, en persona en el Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados, en la oficina del secretario del condado donde se reside o por correo ordinario, enviando un formulario oficial a la oficina del secretario del condado. La inscripcià ³n debe tener lugar al menos 21 dà ­as antes de las elecciones en las que se desea participar. Washington En el estado de Washington es posible registrarse online, en persona en las oficinas del Departamento de Vehà ­culos Motorizados o por correo, enviando el  Washington State Voter Registration Form a la oficina del condado donde se reside. Quienes se registran online o por correo deben hacerlo cuatro semanas antes del dà ­a de las elecciones. Sin embargo, quienes se registran en persona pueden hacerlo hasta siete  dà ­as antes de la celebracià ³n de los comicios. En el estado de Washington solo se vota por correo.   Wisconsin Es posible registrarse online  o por correo, completando el formulario  Application for Voter Registration  (Form EL-131)  y envindolo al secretario municipal al menos 20 dà ­as antes de las elecciones. Tambià ©n es posible registrarse en persona en dicha oficina hasta las 5 p.m. del viernes anterior a las elecciones. En todos los casos es necesario presentar prueba de residencia en el estado y, adems, una I.D. o licencia de manejar de Wisconsin y, si no se tiene, el nà ºmero del Seguro Social. Wyoming Es posible registrarse en persona en la oficina del secretario del condado o por correo llenando el  Wyoming Voter Registration Application and Change Form, firmndolo ante un notario y envindolo a la oficina del secretario del condado donde se vive.   Es todos los casos es necesario probar la identidad, para lo cual se admite cualquiera de los siguientes documentos: licencia de manejar de Wyoming, pasaporte de Estados Unidos o I.D. militar o de una escuela. Finalmente, tambià ©n es posible registrarse el dà ­a de las elecciones en el colegio electoral. A tener en cuenta Una vez que se registra una persona, no necesita volverlo a hacer a menos que cambie de nombre o de direccià ³n. En estos casos, es necesario notificar los cambios. Sin embargo, los ciudadanos condenados por un felonà ­a no pueden votar mientras cumplen sus sentencias. Cada estado establece sus propias reglas sobre cundo pueden volver a votar: cumplimento de condena, de parole, o libertad condicional (probation), de todas ellas o, incluso, ajustar la prohibicià ³n al tipo de crimen cometido. Por sus posibles graves consecuencias se recomienda no votar a las personas que han sido condenadas por una felonà ­a mientras no se verifique si se est autorizado a hacerlo.  ¿Por quà © es importante hacerse ciudadano? En Estados Unidos, ms de ocho millones de residentes permanentes legales califican para solicitar la ciudadanà ­a estadounidense por naturalizacià ³n. Las ventajas son muchas, no solo votar. Por ejemplo, protege frente a la deportacià ³n, amplà ­a los casos de familiares que pueden ser pedidos y agiliza los plazos e, incluso, abre categorà ­as de trabajos que estn vedadas a quienes no son ciudadanos. Puntos Clave: registrarse para votar en EE.UU. Solo los ciudadanos estadounidenses pueden votar en las elecciones federales. Es un delito muy grave votar sin ser ciudadano con consecuencias migratorias serias.Para votar es necesario registrarse. Cada estado establece sus propias normas sobre requisitos, plazos y modos de hacerlo.Aproximadamente 6 millones de estadounidenses no pueden votar por haber sido condenados por una felonà ­a. Cada estado establece sus propias reglas para determinar en quà © momento se puede restaurar ese derecho.Florida es el estado con ms estadounidenses apartados del derecho a votar por haber cometido una felonà ­a: aproximadamente 1,5 millones. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Free Essays on Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae Enhances True Cost Calculator; Version 2.0 Offers New Features to Help Lenders and Borrowers Consider Cost of Mortgage Products Faster WASHINGTON, DC – As consumers decide whether to buy or refinance their mortgages to benefit from the recent drop in interest rates, Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE), the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages, today introduced its newest version of the True Cost CalculatorSM, an online tool that provides a simple way for consumers to consider various mortgage options as they work with their mortgage lender. The newest release of True Cost Calculator 2.0 allows consumers to benefit from a more intuitive design and new features such as the ability to create a file and save multiple loan scenarios for comparison purposes without having to re-enter their data."We are pleased to offer these enhancements to the True Cost Calculator," said David Voth, chief product development officer, Fannie Mae/eBusiness. "With our new web in frastructure, we are able to provide our lender partners with a version of True Cost Calculator that is more powerful, faster, and more reliable. This enables us to offer the new online capabilities, and time-saving efficiencies to the growing number of partners who are linking to the True Cost Calculator."Launched in April 2000 as part of Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Consumer Bill of Rights, the True Cost Calculator helps consumers calculate all the costs of getting a mortgage including interest rate and points, mortgage insurance costs, appraisal fees, title insurance fees, and miscellaneous settlement charges.The True Cost Calculator also allows borrowers to calculate those fees over the full term of the loan or the time they actually plan to hold the loan. By calculating the costs over the period of time the borrower actually plans to hold the loan, the True Cost Calculator can provide a more useful and realistic cost assessment.Through their Web browsers, consumers ca... Free Essays on Fannie Mae Free Essays on Fannie Mae Fannie Mae Enhances True Cost Calculator; Version 2.0 Offers New Features to Help Lenders and Borrowers Consider Cost of Mortgage Products Faster WASHINGTON, DC – As consumers decide whether to buy or refinance their mortgages to benefit from the recent drop in interest rates, Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE), the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages, today introduced its newest version of the True Cost CalculatorSM, an online tool that provides a simple way for consumers to consider various mortgage options as they work with their mortgage lender. The newest release of True Cost Calculator 2.0 allows consumers to benefit from a more intuitive design and new features such as the ability to create a file and save multiple loan scenarios for comparison purposes without having to re-enter their data."We are pleased to offer these enhancements to the True Cost Calculator," said David Voth, chief product development officer, Fannie Mae/eBusiness. "With our new web in frastructure, we are able to provide our lender partners with a version of True Cost Calculator that is more powerful, faster, and more reliable. This enables us to offer the new online capabilities, and time-saving efficiencies to the growing number of partners who are linking to the True Cost Calculator."Launched in April 2000 as part of Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Consumer Bill of Rights, the True Cost Calculator helps consumers calculate all the costs of getting a mortgage including interest rate and points, mortgage insurance costs, appraisal fees, title insurance fees, and miscellaneous settlement charges.The True Cost Calculator also allows borrowers to calculate those fees over the full term of the loan or the time they actually plan to hold the loan. By calculating the costs over the period of time the borrower actually plans to hold the loan, the True Cost Calculator can provide a more useful and realistic cost assessment.Through their Web browsers, consumers ca...

Short responses Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Short responses - Assignment Example I use Microsoft Excel for budgeting as it includes simple formulas for the calculations, which is why accountants also use spreadsheets for advanced budget calculations (Coy, Nelson, Buchanan and Fisher, 1998). Researchers also use spreadsheets to organize large data and this helps them to analyze data to draw meaningful conclusions from the raw data (â€Å"Using Spreadsheet†, 2013). Grocery shopping lists always involve numerous goods and items which become perplexing if not handled well. To avoid confusion and losing money on unnecessary items, I use Google Drive to create a list of items I need to buy. Google Docs provides grocery list templates which make grocery shopping easier and simpler (â€Å"Using Google Docs†, 2013). Listing my grocery items on a spreadsheet prevents me from missing on an item and helps me plan my weekly budget on food. Spreadsheets allow the organization of data to help in the analysis of these data which is particularly useful for researchers. This helps them import the data to spreadsheet software which carries out calculations on the data for statistical analysis (Meyers & Gamst et al.,

Sustainable development for Iraqi oil and gas in the light of Dissertation

Sustainable development for Iraqi oil and gas in the light of international law with particular reference to Kurdistan region - Dissertation Example Chapter two describes the process of the evolution of the concept of sustainable development from the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, where the first United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) has been created, to the today’s more comprehensive and profound understanding of sustainable development as a â€Å"specific call to prioritize improvements in the well-being of the very worst-off now and in the future† (Paul 2008: p.579). Nowadays strong sustainability development of non-renewable resources, which oil and gas resources are relating to, implies that such resources should be recognised as a specific form of natural capital, and should not be exhausted for short-term benefits only (Ayres et al. 1998: p.4). In addition, chapter two gives an overview of the philosophical and theoretical dimensions of the sustainable development. This overview, made on the basis of the existing academic and professional literature, provides useful information r egarding the research in hand and helps to define the ways and concepts of reaching sustainable development in the oil and gas industry through different perspectives. ... l extent, they help to realise a process of shift from a policy of the development of environment without regard to possible negative consequences, to a political culture, which takes into consideration all current and future needs and interests of governments, communities and individuals. Chapter three views these principles in relation to the sustainable development of petroleum resources, in particular. It is emphasised that sustainable use of petroleum resources requires taking into account the criticality of these resources, the availability of technologies that intend to minimise depletion and the likelihood of other resources or technologies that can substitute for petroleum resources (WCED 1987: The Concept of Sustainable Development, Para.12). In other words, the principles of sustainable development are considered in this chapter so that they should be used to prevent â€Å"resource-use activities and projects by actors from within and outside the State† (Bottriell & French 2005: p.5). Chapter four â€Å"Strategic issues of the sustainable development of Iraqi oil and gas† explores the constitutional and legal strategies for the sustainable development of Iraqi oil and gas industry. The general assumption underlying the investigation within this chapter is that the national strategies should address the concept of sustainable development, complying with the international environmental law, on the one hand, and dealing with specific issues related to national and regional environmental legislations, on the other hand (Boer et al. 1998: p.1-3; Bosselmann 2008: p.145-148). Besides, at the national level, it is considered that the concept of sustainable development should be addressed both from the perspective of regulations related to particular environmental

Organisational Behaviour Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Organisational Behaviour - Assignment Example Hofstede explains that culture is a group of individuals with a collective mind programming. Schein (1992) explains the need for individuals to adapt to change without the need to impact the culture. It is crucial to understand the term culture before entering into the organisational culture. Cultures are deep-seated and pervasive. Schein (1992) explains that change is not possible without affecting the culture. Similarly, organisation culture is a concept used to explain the ‘similar collective mind programming’ of the individuals in the organisation. In most cases, when individuals work together in a wok environment, with the set down regulations and framework on the job, the approach to work becomes a common aspect for all employees, hence making them a group of people with similar mind programming. Based on Hofstede’s definition, this clearly makes an organisational culture. For around two and a half decades, the concept of organisational culture has been grow ing and being accepted to a great extent. Considering an open systems perspective, it is clear that the culture of an organisation is important element and environmental condition which affects the systems and the subsystems. The organisational culture is also a very valuable tool for analysis of a company and is very effective in getting a clear understanding of the company. To be able to understand the concept of culture better, it is essential to understand the definition. The next sub section details the definition of culture for organisations. Culture has been described in many different manners and various different ideas have been put forth to explain the concept. Anderson explains nations to be an ‘imagined community’ and Wallerstein explains that he is â€Å"skeptical that we can operationalise the concept of culture ... in any way that enables us to use it for statements that are more than trivial† (Wallerstein, 1990, p. 34). Another renowned author Hof stede has explained that there are four (later turned to five) main dimensions of culture (Hofstede, 1880, 1984, 1991). In 1998, he claimed that the true shift in paradigm was proved by the acceptance of the concept of unique, specific and powerful national cultures. Considering his theory, this model can be evaluated in a number of manners. The theory portrays to a great extent the national cultures that have emerged in the recent years and his theory has been more focused on the rich origin of the culture. This has been argued to be misleading as it is to a great extent considered to be immeasurable. The findings have been argued to be based mainly on the predictive value and the reviewing of smaller scale replications is also essential. Hofstede has provided a very different approach to the concept of culture. He classified culture based on dimensions. These are a) Power / Distance, b) Individualism, c) Masculinity, d) Uncertainty/Avoidance Index, and e) Long Term Orientation. Th ere have been a number of arguments regarding the accuracy of the theory. As explained by Brendan McSweeney, â€Å"Hofstede's apparently sophisticated analysis of extensive data necessarily relies on a number of profoundly flawed assumptions to measure the 'software of the mind' as did Morton's measurement of the hardware, as it were, of the mind† (Mc Sweeney, 2002, p. 116). Mc Sweeney moves on to also explain, â€Å"Hofstede's claims are excessive and unbalanced; excessive because they claim far more in terms of identifiable characteristics and consequences

Art history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Art history - Essay Example Condottiere was the name given to the captain or leader who commanded a mercenary in the 14th and 15th century in Italy. The leader together with his mercenary engaged in fights in the Italian city-states on behalf of the contracting Papacy and the city-states. Thus, the word condottiere originated from condottiero meaning contractor. The mercenary worked with states directly fighting for them, and a fighting contract was signed with the highest bidder. Nevertheless, the contract bound them to a certain city or state with whom the contract was signed, but they moved from one lord or city to another, a game that was fatal for both parties. Additionally, some condottiere had their own small towns acquired through inheritance of conquer, for example, Attendolos who founded the Sforza family. In the Renaissance society, military skill was very expensive, but a wealthy city such as Venice was in a position to afford the services of a condottiere and his mercenary. Therefore, such wealthy cities hired military services only when needed, and this provided a way for them to spare its citizens from the horror and the rigors of war, and save on the cost of maintaining a standing military. Furthermore, the condottiere played a significant role in influencing the field of art as some of the greatest statues of all time in Italy were of the condottiere. An example of work of art that demonstrates the role of condottiere is Denatello’s Equestrian Statue of Erasmo da Narni, referred to as Gattamelata.

Biographical approach to antheap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biographical approach to antheap - Essay Example The main theme of the story focuses on how the two boys are able to sustain their friendship despite the tribulations that occur. According to Lessing (13), Macintosh who is a goldmine owner oppresses the Africans who work in their mines. The eviroment in which the Africans work are deplorable and the state of the mine continues to get dangerous (Lessing 20). Tommy, who is white, plays with black children despite the refutation from his mother. Tommy’s parents who are immediate neighbors to Macintosh refrain their sin from engaging with the black children ( Lessing 25). â€Å"New Historicism† is a technique that critics utilize to examine skeptically the writers content. Critics tend to associate the books content to the authors character, which is not a concrete basis. The writer’s mannerisms can be autonomous of the information of his work. The happenings of an autobiographical subject, for example, Doris Lessing describes of the racial experience of black peop le in Zimbabwe through the troubles of small boys, while this is not reflective of the experiences of the author. She is of British descent and has spent a large fraction o her life in Europe away from the impediments that exist in Africa particularly Zimbabwe. This further emphasizes that the expression of the author cannot determine his character since she may utilize expressive language to sweeten the story. This approach of critics is speculative and no concrete authentication to the views the critic proposes can be verified. The language of a writer is not credible enough to warrant the biography as prejudicial. The biographical details should not be an estimation of the writer’s opinions on the written issues. In addition, some critics utilize less credible sources to disregard the information put forth by the author. Doris has written numerous fictional articles

Textual analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Textual analysis - Essay Example In Chapters I-6 in Section IV, the topic of discussion was filled with the idea of how the soldier should distance himself from the enemy so that he will not hesitate to kill. This topic in turn affected how Grossman wrote the book as spoke about killing casually and objectively just like his argument s in the book. For example, he talked about the predisposition of a killer as a matter of fact to the point of being casual. In this instance, he hid under the blanket of studies to make the discussion impersonal and seemingly objective and achieve an emotional distance that enabled his book to carry the argument of Ben Shalit saying; â€Å"To me they were less than animals†. Increasing the distance between the combatants – whether by emphasizing their differences or by increasing the chain of responsibility between the aggressor and his victim allows for an increase in the degree of aggression – Ben Shalit. There are also several concepts in the book that have affected Grossman’s writing style to be distant and detached. These concepts are authority or the proximity and intensity of a demanding leader to the subject that is viewed legitimately makes an individual or soldier operational to kill. Next is through the group absolution whereby the individual feel less guilty to kill when a legitimate group has a support for the kill. The distance of the victim of which Grossman has inadvertently adopted in the writing style of the book which fell under two categories of moral distance and mechanical distance. Moral distance is the vilification of the enemy that justifies vindictive action while mechanical distance reduces the act of killing to a sterile video game, thermal sight, sniper sight or other kind of mechanical buffer that detaches the killer from his victim. In the same manner that he talked about killing as a distant and unemotional thing as best

Art history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Art history - Essay Example Condottiere was the name given to the captain or leader who commanded a mercenary in the 14th and 15th century in Italy. The leader together with his mercenary engaged in fights in the Italian city-states on behalf of the contracting Papacy and the city-states. Thus, the word condottiere originated from condottiero meaning contractor. The mercenary worked with states directly fighting for them, and a fighting contract was signed with the highest bidder. Nevertheless, the contract bound them to a certain city or state with whom the contract was signed, but they moved from one lord or city to another, a game that was fatal for both parties. Additionally, some condottiere had their own small towns acquired through inheritance of conquer, for example, Attendolos who founded the Sforza family. In the Renaissance society, military skill was very expensive, but a wealthy city such as Venice was in a position to afford the services of a condottiere and his mercenary. Therefore, such wealthy cities hired military services only when needed, and this provided a way for them to spare its citizens from the horror and the rigors of war, and save on the cost of maintaining a standing military. Furthermore, the condottiere played a significant role in influencing the field of art as some of the greatest statues of all time in Italy were of the condottiere. An example of work of art that demonstrates the role of condottiere is Denatello’s Equestrian Statue of Erasmo da Narni, referred to as Gattamelata.

Textual analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Textual analysis - Essay Example In Chapters I-6 in Section IV, the topic of discussion was filled with the idea of how the soldier should distance himself from the enemy so that he will not hesitate to kill. This topic in turn affected how Grossman wrote the book as spoke about killing casually and objectively just like his argument s in the book. For example, he talked about the predisposition of a killer as a matter of fact to the point of being casual. In this instance, he hid under the blanket of studies to make the discussion impersonal and seemingly objective and achieve an emotional distance that enabled his book to carry the argument of Ben Shalit saying; â€Å"To me they were less than animals†. Increasing the distance between the combatants – whether by emphasizing their differences or by increasing the chain of responsibility between the aggressor and his victim allows for an increase in the degree of aggression – Ben Shalit. There are also several concepts in the book that have affected Grossman’s writing style to be distant and detached. These concepts are authority or the proximity and intensity of a demanding leader to the subject that is viewed legitimately makes an individual or soldier operational to kill. Next is through the group absolution whereby the individual feel less guilty to kill when a legitimate group has a support for the kill. The distance of the victim of which Grossman has inadvertently adopted in the writing style of the book which fell under two categories of moral distance and mechanical distance. Moral distance is the vilification of the enemy that justifies vindictive action while mechanical distance reduces the act of killing to a sterile video game, thermal sight, sniper sight or other kind of mechanical buffer that detaches the killer from his victim. In the same manner that he talked about killing as a distant and unemotional thing as best

Athletic Leadership Development Program Essay Example for Free

Athletic Leadership Development Program Essay There is great need to develop effective athletic management programs in high schools. Apart from the fact that students derive direct benefit from such programs, it is also a good training resource since todays high school athletes will eventually take shape as tomorrows sports leaders as coaches, trainers, athletic administrators, sports physicians, sports psychologists and other capacities (Lanasa, Ciletti Lackman, 2005). High school is a very important stage in which students prepare for the future by getting a good education, making friends and participate in other activities such as athletics. It is unfortunate, that many schools have adopted budget cuts that under provide for sports, taking the opinion that money would be better spent on academics. Though it is right that academics come first, sacrificing high school sports is dangerous to the students’ high school experience as it affects their ability to perform at optimum academic levels (Amorose Horn, 2000). Sports are also an important component that helps students develop into well-rounded adults who give full benefits to the country at large. INTRODUCTION This paper will carry out a literature review to illustrate how a School Athletic Leadership Plan works to give students full benefits. In extension, the school as an institution also derives high levels of achievement and satisfaction from the same. It will show how students with an interest in the field of training and treatment of athletes can effectively be prepared by the school athletic training programs. They are a perfect opportunity of gaining college and career preparation. These programs give an appropriate opportunity to the attainment of information, certification, scholarships and networking for students (MacGregor, 2005). HOW TO DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP PROGRAM This section will evaluate the leadership program adopted by Wheeler High School in Indiana. It presents a situation that is appropriate to most high schools where there are potentially good players but their hopes and targets fail to materialize due to lack of a well organized sports framework and leadership in the school. On evaluation of the progress and areas that need change, Snodgrass notes that the foremost problem was the lack of player leadership in the students’ teams coupled with the lack of senior talent (2005). Borrowing from the plan adopted by this school, this paper will give guidelines on how a school athletic leadership plan can be developed. Structure of the program An effective leadership program should start by identifying players that can participate in the plan. For starters, the first class could be made up of six senior and two junior students who would meet weekly for two to three hours over a ten week period (Snodgrass, 2005). In this period, they would they would participate in the curriculum by carrying out the following; Interaction They are expected to visit and spend one or two hours in the curriculum each night (Snodgrass, 2005). From this interaction, the head of the plan identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the selected team by observing how they interact and how committed they are. This is the stage at which the leaders and those with skills valuable to the plan are identified. As they share ideas, hopes and aspirations, this pilot group can come up with an excellent blueprint of the plan since they are better positioned to know what would work with their fellow student athletes and what would not. Activities strengthening core values The activities that strengthen core values are important as they set the plan in motion with the rest of the student athletes. The pilot group of eight should each be assigned a group of student with which they carry out these activities. This could occur in class for discussions and after knowing each other, the group members should engage in out of class activities. Group leaders are expected to call incoming players and engage with them with an aim of getting to know them intimately (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This is a very important step as the group leaders get in a position to identify strengths and weaknesses that might be hidden from the coaches and teachers. This enables the teams to avoid failures that commonly arise from the lack of proper understanding within the team. Leadership in youth camps The eight members of the pilot team should serve as counselor at the summer youth camp. They are expected to take up roles such as teaching a position, coaching the team in flag football, running the punt-pass-kick contest etc (Young Edmonson, 2010). It should involve activities such as story narrations to emphasize the importance of team playing. The plan should be sure to implement a youth summer camp. The Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology underscores the importance of such camps in the development of leadership plans. It is from such camps that the members emerge as a team understanding each other, with strong leadership and ready to work together (Fiedler, 2002). The above activities lay the foundation on which the plan can be built upon. After getting the required individuals to spearhead the program and the necessary team sprit, the plan can proceed into the next step in which it formally assembles the best ideas and strategies for the leadership program in form of a blueprint discussed in the following section. PLANNING THE BLUEPRINT Snodgrass defines a blueprint as the process of designing a leadership program in any field from start to finish (2005). It guides the implementation of the whole process and it gives guidelines on how to check progress and success levels. This paper will provide a blueprint that is divided into steps as follows; Step 1: Assembling the planning team According to the program adopted by the Leigh University for the summer of 2007, the planning team should comprise all the key stakeholders to build a program that is acceptable campus wide (Fiedler, 2002). It is imperative to ensure that all individual stakeholders understand the importance of athletics in the life of the students. Teachers and other members of staff should be ready to sacrifice some academic hours in order to bring the plan into track. In this university, the team consisted of coaches from the Athletic Department, administrators and student-athletes as well as staff from the Dean of Student’s Office to attain a healthy balance (Young Edmonson, 2010). They should meet weekly to discuss the rest of the steps in the blueprint. Step 2: Conducting a leadership audit â€Å"The leadership audit is a systematic assessment of leadership development opportunities at the institution and beyond. A complete audit includes both internal and external reviews and inventories all leadership opportunities† (Lanasa, Ciletti Lackman, 2005). Internal audit: The information from this audit should find out whether there are other leadership initiatives on campus in which student-athletes can participate (). Fiddler finds that often these programs are not designed to directly increase the value of the student’s leadership and do not fundamentally impact Athletics as a whole(Amorose Horn, 2000). There should be goal setting and skill building workshops that are conducive to the unique schedules of student-athletes and athletics department staff. External audit: This involves researching specific leadership opportunities at other institutions. This should particularly look for leadership development programs and delivery options within other institutions (Robinson Skinner, 2008). It can be done in neighboring schools that have highly successful leadership development programs to identify crucial aspects that can be adopted. It can also be done online or from other literature on the issue to set good standards for a comprehensive plan. Step 3: Identification of an anchor The anchor is another crucial aspect of the plan that should be in place. Young and Edmonson define it as the â€Å"existing institutional purpose, outreach or reason that makes the program’s efforts essential and justifies the investment of time, energy and resources to support the effort (2010). It helps in the acceptance of the plan since it does not appear as something totally alien. For instance the mission statement of Lehigh University is; â€Å"To advance learning through the integration of teaching, research, and service to others† (Young and Edmonson, 2010). To be in tandem with the school’s mission statement, the Lehigh Athletics Mission Statement could be made to capture that of the institute, e. g. â€Å"Our mission in the Lehigh Athletics Department is to advance learning to develop leadership, and to foster personal growth through comprehensive athletics programming. † (Young and Edmonson, 2010). This way, the plan manages to entrench itself within existing institutional goals and hence all stakeholders can comfortably identify with it and work towards its implementation. As such, teachers for instance would drop their hard line stance towards the plan as they feel it helps in academics. Step 4: Determining the scope The scope is the extent of the leadership experience which encompasses aspects such as how deep the program will be embedded in institutional culture and the programmatic mission and learning objectives (Robinson Skinner, 2008). The scope should be connected to the vision, mission, and learning outcomes of the school’s sports department. Vision: the plan should be aimed at cultivating a culture of leadership which encourages self-awareness, commitment to team playing, and emphasis on values and actions that enhance a good athletic experience. (Amorose Horn, 2000) Mission: the sports department should use the plan to complement and support the larger missions of the institution as a whole. This can be achieved with the use of the transformational leadership theory that enhances student’s leadership skills and understanding (Fiedler, 2002). It should accomplish a sense of community among al stakeholders focusing on the value of positive leadership. Learning outcomes: these are the benefits that the students should derive from participating in the Athletic Leadership Program. Firstly, they enhance their knowledge of basic leadership skills and principles. Others are interpersonal skills, integrity, peer motivation, self awareness and the value of diversity in every situation (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This will enhance their wellbeing in every field of life in school and beyond. Step 5: Shaping the philosophy A philosophy is important in shaping an appropriate vision, mission and goals for a comprehensive Athletic Leadership Program. Robison and Skinner put forward two examples of philosophy that can be used to achieve this end. They do so by addressing the unique needs of student-athletes, teams and coaches (2008). The Transformational Leadership Theory is the primary philosophy in which the program is embedded. â€Å"It describes a course of action where both leaders and participants engage in a mutual, ongoing process of raising one another to higher levels of motivation, moral reasoning, and self-consciousness† (Robinson Skinner, 2008). This encourages collaboration and interdependence within participants by appealing to social and community focused values. Principle-Centered Leadership Theory: this theory is based on principle based leadership. Leaders are required to center their practices in natural based practices. Their values can only be effective if they remain true to these guiding principles, which are identified as; â€Å"continually learning, service-oriented, radiate positive energy, believe in other people, lead balanced lives, see life as an adventure, are synergistic, and exercise for self-renewal† (Robinson Skinner, 2008). Step 6: Selecting delivery framework These are the strategies and individuals to be used for teaching participants about leadership. This includes positional leaders and emerging ones. Positional leaders include coaches and captains who are directly responsible of development of athleticism in individual-student athletes which will ultimately lead them to winning championships (Fiedler, 2002). Emerging leaders include students joining the program and those who have been it for a while and want to further their leadership skills. This way, the plan ensures that it has a never ending supply of talent and new leadership, i. e. it is sustainable. Step 7: Select Assessment and Evaluation Strategies This step ensures that intentional assessment and evaluation tools will are available. It is recommended that the implementation of the blueprint is assessed after the first full year of implementation. The tools to be used for this assessment may include â€Å"focus groups, student-athlete exit interviews, pre- and post-surveys, student-athlete post-season evaluations, etc† (University of Wisconsin, 2007). This process is meant to explore needs, outcomes and satisfaction derived from the plan. CONCLUSION A School Athletic Leadership Plan like the one outlined above will go a long way in accomplishing a varied range of needs in the school. It clearly shows the need to implement an effective plan from which students can derive numerous benefits. The step by step process is imperative in creating a leadership program which is self sustaining and which is deeply rooted in the institutional goals and vision. This ensures that it is embraced by all. REFERENCES Amorose, A. J, and Horn T. S (2000). Intrinsic Motivation: relationship with collegiate athletes’ gender, scholarship status, and perceptions of their coaches’ behavior. Journal of sport and exercise psychology. 22(1), 63 – 84. Fiedler, F. E (2002). Proactive ways to improve leadership performance. Handbook of organizational consulting psychology, 76 – 105, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Lanasa, J. , Ciletti, D. and Lackman, R. (2005). Designing a Model for Improved Outcomes Among Students- Athletes in Sports Education. Left Coast Press. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http://lcoastpress. metapress. com/index/6jp60m3240x253mm. pdf MacGregor, G. M. (2005). Designing Student Leadership Programs: Transforming the Leadership Potential of Youth. Youthleadership. com Robison, T. I and Skinner, T. (2008). The Athlete and the Grade Change. Cases in Educational Leadership. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http://jel. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/106 Snodgrass, S. (2005). Building a high school leadership program. Gale, Cengage Learning. University of Wisconsin. (2007). A Grounded Theory Of High Quality Leadership Programs: Perspectives From Student Leadership Development Programs In Higher Education. Madison: University of Wisconsin. Young, J. and Edmonson, S. (2010). High School Athletic Directors and Educational Leadership Traits: A Conceptual Analysis of the Literature. Retrieved, 6th August, 2010http://www. ncpeapublications. org/attachments/article/33/m34613. pdf

The Three Main Goals Of Research Psychology Essay

The Three Main Goals Of Research Psychology Essay Research is the examination of a particular topic using a diversity of reliable, scholarly resources. The three main goals of research are establishing facts, analyzing information, and reaching new conclusions. The three main actions of doing research are searching for, reviewing, and assessing information. This KAM will examine the different research paradigms available for my study. The paradigms will be compared and contrasted against other research methods that are available in order to determine which the best methods to use are. There are many different paradigms available which include: the positivist/empiricist view, the constructivist/naturalist worldview and the pragmatic model. Abstract Depth There are many research paradigms and research methods available to be used by researchers depending on the nature of the study that is being undertaken. This thesis paper on the depth component explores the strengths and weaknesses of each paradigm and outlines the key research methods that can used to ensure successful use of the approach. The depth portion will include the traditional annotated bibliography addressing the research paradigms and their use in accounting research. This report employs secondary research on the internet and most of the information gleaned is from the content and literature. Additionally this paper lays the grounds for further research in research methods and their uses. Abstract Application In the application section both the breadth and depth will be brought together with other research in regards to developing or discussing uses of the different research paradigms. The breadth section of this thesis paper will lay out in detail all of the available research paradigms and how the relate to accounting research. When looking at these paradigms this paper will try to focus on the one that will be chosen for my research, and how it compares and contrasts to the rest. This paper will particularly detail the chosen research paradigm and how it relates to the concept of auditing practices and their effects on the corporate governance of a company with a conceptual focus on international accounting principles. This report employs secondary research on the internet and most of the information gleaned is from the content and literature from non-profit organizational case studies, applications and on-going research on auditing practices on an international level. Breadth Section Organizations use research, especially in market research activities. Market research is used to identify potential markets, the needs and wants of each, how those needs and wants can be met, how products and services could be packaged to be most accessible to customers and clients, the best pricing for those products and services, who the competitors are and how best to complete against each, potential collaborators and how to collaborate with each and many other applications of research. Organizations can conduct this research without having to have advanced skills (Free Management Library, n.d.). Academic research is research and development (RD) undertaken in the higher education sector, including universities, polytechnics, etc., and research centres that have close links with higher education institutions. Higher education research has grown during the past 20 years. Between 1981 and 2003, the share of RD carried out by the higher education sector increased from 14.5% to 17.4% of the total RD effortà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Vincent-Lancrin, 2006, p. 170). Drivers of this growth include professionalization of the academic profession (including specialization and standardization of the trade), the importance of the quantitative research output in academic career paths and the emergence of strong external incentives to publish following the introduction of research assessment exercises in several countries. The well-known publish or perish rule is rather recent (Vincent-Lancrin, 2006). Research Paradigms A paradigm offers a theoretical framework for seeing and making sense of the social world. The implication of paradigms is that they shape how one sees the world and are reinforced by those around us and the community of practitioners. Contained by the research process the attitudes a researcher holds will reflect in the manner they research is planned, how data is both gathered and analyzed and how research results are presented. For the researcher it is significant to distinguish their paradigm, it permits them to identify their role in the research process, decide on the course of any research project and differentiate other perspectives (Methodology, n.d.). There are numerous research paradigms that are used across and within different disciplines. These include (a) the positivist/empiricist view, which supports the use of quantitative methods, (b) the constructivist/naturalist worldview, which supports the use of qualitative methods, and (c) the pragmatic model, which supports the use of quantitative, qualitative, or a combination or mix of both methods (Tashakkori Teddlie, 1998). Other paradigms that will be looked at in this paper include post-positivism and interpretivist view. Paradigms guide how we make decisions and carry out research. As a researcher, it is important to know where ones discipline belongs, that there are different ways of viewing the world and that ones approach to knowledge is one of many. Paradigms can be characterized through their: ontology (What is reality?), epistemology (How do you know something?) and methodology (How do go about finding out?). These characteristics create a holistic view of how people view knowledge: how they see themselves in relation to this knowledge and the methodological strategies they use to discover it (What is your paradigm, n.d.). Positivist/empiricist View The positivist paradigm of exploring social reality is based on the philosophical ideas of the French Philosopher August Comte. According to him, observation and reason are the best means of understanding human behaviour; true knowledge is based on experiences of sense can be obtained by observation and experiment. At the ontological level positivists assume that the reality is objectively given and is measurable using properties what are independent of the research and his or her instruments; in other words, knowledge is objective and quantifiable. Positivistic thinkers adopt scientific methods and systemize the knowledge generation process with the help of quantification to enhance precision in the description of parameters and the relationship among them. Positivism is concerned with uncovering truth and presenting it by empirical means (Research Methodology and Design, n.d.). Using scientific method and language to investigate and write about human experience is supposed to keep the research free of the values, passions, politics and ideology of the researcher. This approach to research is called positivist, or positivist-empiricist and it is the dominant one in social research. Positivist researchers believe that they can reach a full understanding based on experiment and observation. Concepts and knowledge are held to be the product of straightforward experience, interpreted through rational deduction (Ryan, n.d.). According to the positivist epistemology, science is seen as the way to get at truth, to understand the world well enough so that it might be predicted and controlled. The world and the universe are deterministic; they operate by laws of cause and effect that are discernable if we apply the unique approach of the scientific method. Thus, science is largely a mechanistic or mechanical affair in positivism. Deductive reasoning is used to postulate theories that can be tested. Based on the results of studies, we may learn that a theory does not fit the facts well and so the theory must be revised to better predict reality. The positivists believe in empiricism, the idea that observation and measurement are at the core of the scientific endeavor. The key approach of the scientific method is the experiment, the attempt to discern natural laws through direct manipulation and observation (Krauss, 2005). The social scientist must study social phenomena in the same state of mind as the physicist, chemist or physiologist when he probes into a still unexplored region of the scientific domain. Objectivity is then defined by being the same as that of natural science and social life may be explained in the same way as natural phenomena. This tradition may therefore be characterized in terms of the prediction and explanation of the behaviour of phenomena and the pursuit of objectivity, which is defined as the researchers detachment from the topic under investigation. The results of research using this method of investigation are then said to produce a set of true, precise and wide-ranging laws (known as covering laws) of human behaviour. We would then be able to generalize from our observations on social phenomena to make statements about the behaviour of the population as a whole. Positivism thus explains human behaviour in terms of cause and effect and data must then be collected on the s ocial environment and peoples reactions to it (May, 2001). In its broadest sense, positivism is a rejection of metaphysics. It is a position that holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience. The purpose of science is simply to stick to what we can observe and measure. Knowledge of anything beyond that, a positivist would hold, is impossible. predict how people will behave everything else in between (like what the person is thinking) is irrelevant because it cant be measured. Positivists believe that reality is stable and can be observed and described from an objective viewpoint, without interfering with the phenomena being studied. They contend that phenomena should be isolated and that observations should be repeatable. This often involves manipulation of reality with variations in only a single independent variable so as to identify regularities in, and to form relationships between, some of the constituent elements of the social world (Positivism Post-Positivism, 2006). In empiricism knowledge is only validated through sense experience, or in more recent versions through the surrogates of scientific instrumentation (which in the social sciences would include survey questionnaires and interview data). Its importance to scientific method in the natural and social sciences lies in the centrality of emphasis placed on empirical hypothesis testing. Thus if we formulate a hypothesis such as industrialization leads to worker alienation, this is only meaningful if it can be verified empirically; anything less is metaphysical speculation. Moreover empiricists (unlike realists) eschew claims of causal necessity, because (after Hume) it is maintained that although event A may precede event B in time, we cannot be sure A brought about B. In social science this principle is exemplified by the social survey where the strength and direction of association between variables is expressed, but no necessary function claimed (Williams, 2006). Post- Positivism Post-positivism is a wholesale rejection of the central tenets of positivism. A post-positivist might begin by recognizing that the way scientists think and work and the way we think in our everyday life are not distinctly different. Scientific reasoning and common sense reasoning are essentially the same process. There is no difference in kind between the two, only a difference in degree. Scientists, for example, follow specific procedures to assure that observations are verifiable, accurate and consistent. In everyday reasoning, we dont always proceed so carefully (Positivism Post-Positivism, 2006). Constructivist/Naturalist Worldview Constructionism is a perspective that considers facts, descriptions and other features of objective reality to be inescapably contingent and rhetorical. This is a more recent formulation of constructionism (without the social) which follows the traditional view of social constructionism as a perspective wherein people are seen as produced (constructed) through social interaction rather than through genetic programming and biological maturation (Hepburn, 2006). Naturalism is the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system in the sense that nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it. More simply, it is the denial of the existence of supernatural causes. In rejecting the reality of supernatural events, forces, or entities, naturalism is the antithesis of supernaturalism (Augustine, 2012). The naturalist or constructivist view says that knowledge is established through the meanings attached to the phenomena studied; researchers interact with the subjects of study to obtain data; inquiry changes both researcher and subject; and knowledge is context and time dependent (Krauss, 2005). Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists and not discovered from the world. Constructivists argue that the concepts of science are mental constructs proposed in order to explain sensory experience. Another important tenet of Constructivist theory is that there is no single valid methodology in science, but rather a diversity of useful methods. Constructivism is opposed to positivism, which is a philosophy that holds that the only authentic knowledge is based on actual sense experience and what other individuals tell us is right and wrong (Guba Lincoln, 1994). Pragmatic View The pragmatic approach to science involves using the method which appears best suited to the research problem and not getting caught up in philosophical debates about which is the best approach. Pragmatic researchers therefore grant themselves the freedom to use any of the methods, techniques and procedures typically associated with quantitative or qualitative research. They recognize that every method has its limitations and that the different approaches can be complementary. The pragmatic approach to science involves using the method which appears best suited to the research problem and not getting caught up in philosophical debates about which is the best approach. Pragmatic researchers therefore grant themselves the freedom to use any of the methods, techniques and procedures typically associated with quantitative or qualitative research. They recognize that every method has its limitations and that the different approaches can be complementary. Being able to mix different approa ches has the advantages of enabling triangulation. Triangulation is a common feature of mixed methods studies. It involves, for example: the use of a variety of data sources (data triangulation) the use of several different researchers (investigator triangulation) the use of multiple perspectives to interpret the results (theory triangulation) the use of multiple methods to study a research problem (methodological triangulation) (The four main approaches, 2012). Research is a necessary ingredient for a knowledge-based society, which includes a knowledge-based economy and its growth. A professional publication process is indispensable for the dissemination of knowledge and the advancement of knowledge through further, innovative research. These goals of publishing are best reached by means of an open access publishing business model. It is essential that open access becomes the standard and does not remain the exception. Open access publishing should become a requirement for publicly funded research. In order to make open access publishing a success, the enthusiastic cooperation of the professional publishing companies active on the market is highly desirable (Engelend, 2011). Interpretivist View Interpretive researchers believe that reality consists of peoples subjective experience of the external world; thus, they may adopt an inter-subjective epistemology of the ontological belief that reality is socially constructed. Some believe that interpretivists are anti-foundationalists who believe that there is no single correct route or particular method to knowledge. It has also been argued that in the interpretive tradition there are no correct or incorrect theories. Instead, they should be judged according to how interesting they are to the researcher as well as those involved in the same areas. They attempt to derive their constructs from the field by an in-depth examination of the phenomenon of interest. Interpretivists assume that knowledge and meaning are acts of interpretation, hence there is no objective knowledge which is independent of thinking, reasoning humans (Research Methodology and Design, n.d.). The interpretivist research paradigm emphasizes qualitative research methods, which are flexible, context sensitive and largely concerned with understanding complex issues. Researchers widely debate how the trustworthiness of interpretivist research efforts is evaluated. Positivist researchers, who emphasize the issues of validity, reliability and generalizability, often regard qualitative research methods as unscientific. Several researchers suggest new criteria for evaluating qualitative enquiry and many different approaches to evaluating qualitative research have been discussed in the literature (Carcary, 2009). In the interpretivist paradigm, the researcher is not perceived as being entirely objective; rather he/she is a part of the research process. Interpretivism recognizes the difficulty in making research value-free and objective. In terms of this view, a single objective reality does not exist. The social world does not lend itself to being understood by physical-law-like rules. Multiple realities need to be considered. These include an external reality, which is what actually occurred in the physical world, and internal realities, which are subjective and unique to each individual. Because each situation is different, the researcher needs to delve below the surface of its details to understand the reality. The meaning derived by the researcher is a function of the circumstances, the people involved and the broad interrelationships in the situations being researched (Carcary, 2009). The interpretivist paradigm emphasizes qualitative research methods where words and pictures as opposed to numbers are used to describe situations. In qualitative research, the researcher is actively involved and attempts to understand and explain social phenomena in order to solve what Mason (2002:18) calls the intellectual puzzle. It relies on logical inference (Hinton et al, 2003) and is sensitive to the human situation as it involves dialogue with informants. In general, the researcher collects large quantities of detailed evidence. Thus, qualitative research may achieve depth and breadth. Further, qualitative methods are useful when the researcher focuses on the dynamics of the process and requires a deeper understanding of behaviour and the meaning and context of complex phenomena. It is the most appropriate approach for studying a wide range of social dimensions, while maintaining contextual focus (Mason, 2002). Conducting qualitative research requires considerable reflection on the researchers part, and the ability to make a critical assessment of informants comments. It involves debating the reasons for adopting a course of action, challenging ones own assumptions and recognizing how decisions shape the research study (Carcary, 2009). Once a paradigm for research is chosen one must then decide on which research methods to employee in order to conduct their research. There are three different types of research methods that are available to those who are undergoing research. These include: quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. These methods will now be explored in great detail throughout the rest of this paper. There have always been important differences between the research findings derived from quantitative research and those of qualitative research. The two methodologies have different approaches and their intended goals are not the same. In many ways, they also have competing visions of what constitutes truth. Despite these differences, however, the two methodologies often work in effective symbiosis with each other and each brings to the other a level of understanding that it would not otherwise achieve (Barnham, 2012). Quantitative Research Research involving the collection of data in numerical form for quantitative analysis. The numerical data can be durations, scores, counts of incidents, ratings, or scales. Quantitative data can be collected in either controlled or naturalistic environments, in laboratories or field studies, from special populations or from samples of the general population. The defining factor is that numbers result from the process, whether the initial data collection produced numerical values, or whether non-numerical values were subsequently converted to numbers as part of the analysis process, as in content analysis (Garwood, 2006). Quantitative research tends to be associated with the realist epistemology, the approach to knowledge that maintains that the real world exists, is directly knowable (although not necessarily at this moment) and that the real world causes our experiences. That is, real things exist, and these can be measured, and have numerical values assigned as an outcome measure, and these values are meaningful. These values can only be meaningful if researchers accept some of the criteria associated with the positivist standpoint (Garwood, 2006). Gaining numerical materials facilitates the measurement of variables and also allows statistical tests to be undertaken. For example, descriptive statistics can be used to illustrate and summarize findings, detect relationships between variables, as in correlation coefficient values, or inferential statistical analysis can be undertaken to establish the effects of different interventions, as in analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance. Interactions between variables can also be investigated within experimental designs and also as part of the analysis of data from surveys or secondary sources. Changes over time can be more easily tracked using quantitative methods, as measures of the same properties can be taken at several points during an intervention (Garwood, 2006). Quantitative studies provide data that can be expressed in numbers-thus, their name. Because the data is in a numeric form, we can apply statistical tests in making statements about the data. These include descriptive statistics like the mean, median, and standard deviation, but can also include inferential statistics like t-tests, ANOVAs, or multiple regression correlations (MRC). Statistical analysis lets us derive important facts from research data, including preference trends, differences between groups, and demographics (McClain, 2012). Quantitative research design is the standard experimental method of most scientific disciplines. These experiments are sometimes referred to as true science, and use traditional mathematical and statistical means to measure results conclusively. They are most commonly used by physical scientists, although social sciences, education and economics have been known to use this type of research. It is the opposite of qualitative research. Quantitative experiments all use a standard format, with a few minor inter-disciplinary differences, of generating a hypothesis to be proved or disproved. This hypothesis must be provable by mathematical and statistical means, and is the basis around which the whole experiment is designed. Randomization of any study groups is essential, and a control group should be included, wherever possible. A sound quantitative design should only manipulate one variable at a time, or statistical analysis becomes cumbersome and open to question. Ideally, the research should be constructed in a manner that allows others to repeat the experiment and obtain similar results (Shuttleworth, 2008). Qualitative Research Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. Qualitative research consists of a set of interpretive, mate ­rial practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, record ­ings, and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempt ­ing to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the mean ­ings people bring to them (Denzin Lincoln, 2011, p.3) Qualitative research is not a single set of theoretical principles, a single research strategy or a single method. It developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, across a range of disciplines, on varied and sometimes conflicting philosophical and theoretical bases, including cultural anthropology, interpretive sociologies (such as symbolic interactionism), phenomenology and, more recently, hermeneutics, critical theory, feminism, post-colonial theory, cultural studies, post-structuralism and postmodernism. These diverse approaches inevitably give rise to substantial differences and disagreements about the nature of qualitative research, the role of the researcher, the use of various methods and the analysis of data (Sumner, 2006). However, qualitative research is often based upon interpretivism, constructivism and inductivism. It is concerned to explore the subjective meanings through which people interpret the world, the different ways in which reality is constructed (through language, images and cultural artifacts) in particular contexts. Social events and phenomena are understood from the perspective of the actors themselves, avoiding the imposition of the researchers own preconceptions and definitions. There is also often a concern with the exploration of change and flux in social relationships in context and over time (Sumner, 2006). The methods used in qualitative research, often in combination, are those which are open-ended (to explore participants interpretations) and which allow the collection of detailed information in a relatively close setting. These methods include depth interviewing, ethnography and participant observation, case studies, life histories, discourse analysis and conversational analysis. It is in the nature of qualitative research, with its emphasis on depth and detail of understanding and interpretation, that it is often small-scale or micro-level (Sumner, 2006). According to Glesne (2006), qualitative methods strive to understand some type of social phenomena through the perspectives of the individuals involved. Two major assumptions include a predisposition that reality is socially constructed and that the variables in a situation are highly complex, interwoven and difficult to measure. The purpose of such research is to contextualize, understand and interpret a situation. Typically, qualitative research begins with some type of inductive inquiry, resulting in a hypothesis or participant generated theory. The researcher is considered the main instrument in a setting that is as naturalistic as possible. The methods involved require a high level of descriptive writing and attention to detail. Moreover, a significant amount of time to collect and process the data is required. The researcher is directly involved with the research in a personal way. The various methodologies of qualitative inquiry allow a researcher to choose a strategy that is best suited for his or her purpose. Examples of qualitative research include ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenologies and narratives (Designing a Qualitative Study, n.d.). Each methodology relies on specific protocols such as interviews, observations, content analysis, fieldwork, video and audio-taped transmissions, surveys or open-ended questionnaires. Data resulting from qualitative research should be thick in description, meaning that it go beyond surface explanation, expressing in-depth understanding not possible with quantitative methods. The methods of qualitative research are concerned with process, or how something occurs within the confines of the inquiry. The researcher constructs, analyzes and interprets data in a non-linear, non-chronological fashion (Szyjka, 2012). Participant Observation One of the most frequently used methods for qualitative data collection is participant observation, which is also one of the most challenging. It necessitates that the researcher become a member of the culture or context that is being observed. The literature on participant observation discusses how to penetrate the context, the function of the researcher as a participant, the compilation and storage of field notes, and the examination of field data. Participant observation frequently requires months or years of concentrated work because the researcher needs to become accepted as a normal part of the culture in order to guarantee that the observations are of the natural occurrences (Qualitative Methods, 2006). Advantages These include that it affords access to the backstage culture; it allows for richly detailed description, which they interpret to mean that ones goal of describing behaviors, intentions, situations, and events as understood by ones informants is highlighted; and it provides opportunities for viewing or participating in unscheduled events. It also improves the quality of data collection and interpretation and facilitates the development of new research questions or hypotheses (Kawulich, 2005). Disadvantages Disadvantages include that sometimes the researcher may not be interested in what happens out of the public eye and that one must rely on the use of key informants. Different researchers gain different understanding of what they observe, based on the key informant(s) used in the study. Problems related to representation of events and the subsequent interpretations may occur when researchers select key informants who are similar to them or when the informants are community leaders or marginal participants. To alleviate this potential bias problem, it has been suggested that pretesting informants or selecting participants who are culturally competent in the topic being studied (Kawulich, 2005). Direct Observation Direct observation is notable from participant observation in a number of ways. First, a direct observer doesnt characteristically try to become a participant in the environment. However, the direct observer does attempt to be as inconspicuous as possible so as not to prejudice the observations. Second, direct observation proposes a more disconnected perspective. The researcher is observing rather than taking part. As a result, technology can be a helpful part of direct observation. For example, one can videotape the occurrence or observe from behind one-way mirrors. Third, direct observation tends to be more centered on participant observation. The researcher is viewing certain sampled circumstances or people rather than trying to become engrossed in the complete context. Finally, direct observation tends not to take as long as participant observation. For example, one might observe interactions among people under specific conditions in a laboratory setting from behind a one-way mir ror, looking particularly for any nonverbal cues that are being used (Qualitative Methods, 2006). Advantages Simply observing people bypasses all the prob