Describe a situation in which you combined analysis and creativity to Personal Statement

Describe a situation in which you combined analysis and creativity to solve a challenging problem - Personal Statement Example A major factor in the retail industry is the influence by policy published by Chinese government that takes the anti-corruption campaign against gift-giving culture. Men luxury, jewelry will definitely be affected by the policy. This year, I come back to China to find out the many new stores of famous brands in the Chinese market that have been closed and its sales have reduced from about 150 in 2012 to about 100 in 2013. Meanwhile, the decrease rate is one-third and I think it is very puzzling and challenging to figure out the real reasons of this phenomenon. It is said that Chinas luxury market has grown rapidly from the enclosure stage to the development of sustained attention to the customer experience and comparable store sales stage. I want to establish the reason because I feel very interested in this situation and want to research the reasons for this problem. In this regard, I plan to apply the theoretical and practical knowledge to study this problem. It is not easy to learn all the pictures of all the problems faced by stores of famous brands. Therefore, I run to many stores that sell the famous brand clothing and learn this price in China since I am a Chinese and want to study Strategic design a nd management. It is easy and creative for me to know some situations, sales, and styles by communicating with sellers. Usually, it is thought that the price is the most important reason to explain the reduction and decrease of the sales for luxury clothing. However, only the price in China is higher than the clothing with same style, but also the types of styles are rich. This probably explains the phenomenon that many Chinese customers want to buy luxury clothing in foreign countries instead of China. Meanwhile, from my own research I established that the main method is to search for information from the internet and library in the university to establish the reasons behind this whole scenario. Essentially, 73% of

Strategy to overcome loneliness Essay Example for Free

Strategy to overcome loneliness Essay Though Mrs. Kennedy is indeed a lonely woman, the ritual of having to visit the park each Saturday usually helps her to cope with her boredom and loneliness. It is patent how much this old lady enjoys from the simple activities. The Saturday outing provides a prospect for Miss. Kennedy to be in the presence of other people as she leaves her little boring room which she has lived for the last seventy five years. She has employed the tactics and the techniques of listening keenly and watching in order to passively feel happy and complete in the ongoing activities of the crowd at the park. She is a major expert at eavesdropping to other people’s conversation. This habit of listening and pretending she is not interested has helped her a lot as it makes her feel included too and part of the group. Being an avid watcher, Mrs. Kennedy pays immense attention to all those who are around her. Through the same care that she places in noticing and appreciating the presence of other people, she usually hopes deep inside that somebody among the group would obviously notice incase she was not there. This thought helps her to have a sense of communion and happiness in the midst of strangers on Saturdays. Miss. Kennedy’s seizes each opportunity she get to imagine herself as being connected with individuals that she observes in attempt to have some sense of belonging. She usually likens herself to being a part and parcel of the ‘family’ that the band in the park plays. In effect, the Saturday outing offers her a means to escape from the isolation that is felt and has always been felt in her solitary existence since her husband died through engaging herself in all the happenings of the public park. However, as she listens and observes, she usually prefers to view her entire world through her set of colored glasses in order to confront the truth that she is indeed a lonely woman.

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the Constitution Analysis

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the Constitution Analysis Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the Constitution. By Richard Beeman (New York: Random House) 2009. xxviii + 514 pp. Hardcover, $30.00. ISBN 9781400065707. Richard Beemans book, Plain, Honest Men is a chronological narrative about the day-to-day interactions of the men who made up the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Beeman takes special care in developing the characteristics and personalities of the delegates and explores how their moods, their personal interests, and the hot weather helped to shape the lively debates over the creation of the Constitution. He explores the personal relationships, marriages, and the physical and intellectual idiosyncrasies of the Founding Fathers. Beeman depicts the Framers in a variety of ways. Some of the men were savvy, while others were inept. Some smart and others just mediocre. Some individuals were sophisticated while others were just plain vulgar. Many were quite generous, but others were intensely narcissistic. Beeman characterizes James Madison as being an indispensable but reticent thinker who was incapable of any great oratory or sustained relationships. The author focuses on the issues such as the presidency, slavery, and the necessary and proper clause. On the issue of slavery, Beeman states that for the delegates, it was not the central issue at stake in the making of the American Constitution.[1] The author depicts the angry arguments over representation and its connection to slavery, which Beeman refers to as Bernard DeVotos paradox at the nations core.[2] According to the author, many delegates expressed aversion to slavery, but it was beyond them to conclude a way to abolish slavery without catastrophic consequences to the delicate union. Beeman reconstructs the relationships between Washington and Madison and their intelligent and influential female friends such as Elizabeth Powell, who was the wife of Philadelphias mayor, and also had strong political opinions of her own. Beeman describes George Washington as towering above other men and being reserved in nature. Benjamin Franklin is characterized as being jovial and James Madison as being diminutive. The author portrays Madison as arriving from Virginia with a detailed plan of government that entailed completely scrapping the Articles of Confederation and starting from scratch. William Paterson of New Jersey was balding and of an angry disposition, and yet he spoke his way to distinction as the spokesman of the small states and was resolute to challenge his neighbors in the larger states like New York and Pennsylvania. Roger Sherman was a former shoemaker from Connecticut who overcame his bashful rural persona to become the voice of compromise which soon gained the respect of all convention attendees. Sherman was instrumental in creating the compromise that relinquished some states rights by apportioning the House of Representatives on the basis of population and allowing for equal representation among states in the Senate. Gouverneur Morris, formerly of New York but currently resided in Pennsylvania, had a peg leg and whose arrogance and often careless rhetoric often alienated the other delegates, was a hypnotic speaker. In creating these personalities, he is aware of the confines of his source material. The records of this period were kept by men who most assuredly had partisan agendas and male-controlled receptivity. The book begins with the final days of the Revolution. Congress is bankrupt, the army has turned mutinous because of lack of pay, and the thirteen states do not get along. Daniel Shays, a discontented former army captain, leads his own rebellion in western Massachusetts. Representatives from both the north and the south believe the Articles of Confederation are not working and need to undergo some revisions; therefore, they agree to meet in Philadelphia the summer of 1787. This book is written for general audiences as well as supplemental reading for classroom teachers. In an effort to ensure the reader does not fall into boredom while reading the narrative, Beeman has added peripheral information to keep the readers attention. For example, he adds such trivia as the fact that the State House yard privy had sixteen seats and was divided into four compartments[3], a Philadelphia prostitute charged two dollars[4], and the delegates had beer, bread, and butter for breakfast[5]. The author makes use of both primary and secondary sources. He uses Madisons notes and the papers kept by Hamilton, Madison, and George Washington. Beeman also includes information collected by the Independence National Historic Park to assemble an accurate and authoritative account of the participants of the Constitutional Convention. The books title comes from a remark made by delegate and financier Roger Morris, who viewed the results of the Constitutional Convention as the work of plain, honest men. His important message is that our Founding Fathers could be both realists and idealists. The debates over slavery were the results of the limitations of educated men, who possessed a vision of what effective governance might bear a resemblance to but could not imagine extending the same rights to slaves as citizens. In writing Plain, Honest Men, Beeman avoids controversial issues such as the economic motives of the Founding Fathers and provides readers with an understanding of the fra gility of the consensus emerging from Philadelphia. Richard Beeman is considered by scholars to be an authority on the United States Constitution. He played a leading role in the creation of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and has served as vice-chair of its Distinguished Scholars Panel. Beeman has a vast knowledge of the era and is a noted historian of the late 18th century. [1] Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the Constitution. By Richard Beeman, xii. [2] Ibid, xii. [3] Ibid, 63. [4] Ibid, 74. [5] Ibid, 78.

Battle Of Impunity :: essays research papers

Battle of Impunity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Insults often serve as a catalyst for revenge. Yet, revenge never comes without consequences. These consequences can stay in a person’s subconscious for the remainder of their life. Through the clever short story â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor suffers from being insulted, seeking revenge and living with guilt. Montresor is unsuccessful in punishing Fortunato with impunity. The obsession to confess is a killer. Montresor starts the evil revenge plot with a smile on his face. â€Å"It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.† Montresor believes that he will feel free and better about himself, for he will be completing his mission of impunity. With one brick remaining, â€Å"My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.† He thinks he will feel free, but throughout his life his freedom to do otherwise stands chained in the dank vault with Fortunato. He to is dead to the world, immobile, chained to the rock of his one guilt-ridden act of aggression. The sickness he feels isn’t the dampness of the catacombs, but the first feeling of remorse. He is killing a well â€Å"respected and even feared† man. Now confessing, t here is no way to change the past and his guilty conscience still remains. Through all the trouble Montresor goes through to kill the one person he truly despises, he benefits nothing. He thinks he will be happy. He even smiles at the sight of Fortunato in the beginning. Once he completes the task, the only thing left to do is live his life leaving Fortunato behind physically and mentally. Montresor can be better off leaving Fortunato alone, but instead he takes the unchristian way out and ends Fortunato’s life. He doesn’t gain anything from doing this, except a guilty conscience and a dead body. â€Å"A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.† Montresor doesn’t gain anything positive from the revenge.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With every experience one learns a lesson. Montresor lets the insulting Fortunato go straight to his head. He over reacts and cleverly tricks Fortunato into â€Å"the catacombs of the Montresors.

Gender Role and Sexuality Essay

I can fortunately and happily say that I personally have not experienced unequal treatment in regards to my chosen career, educational path or previously held jobs. What I do still see currently being stereotyped are gender roles and the way they are allowed or not allowed to sexually express themselves in the public eye. From my experience it is more acceptable for men to compose music about sex, be in main stream media selling sex, have successful careers in sex, and everyday unequal expectations in dating, sex and relationships. Men have more sexual freedom in the world today. Men are encouraged and in most cases applauded on the discussion of how many partners they have had in the past and the specifics of each experience, yet woman are still expected to hide their sex from the world in fear of ridicule and isolation. In our society today woman who are overly sexual or dress in form fitting clothes or lack thereof are automatically stereotyped as the promiscuous type. Why the double standard? I don’t agree at all with displaying private sexual acts to the general public to gain fame and wealth and in by doing such corrupting children and destroying the beauty of sex but I don’t believe that we should have to hide that women are as much sexual beings equally as men. I feel religion and culture play major roles in the history of sexual repression of woman. Even dating back to the Puritan who believed that anything resulting in pleasure was a sin, women’s freedom to express their sexuality has been suppressed in fear of domination because we are just as powerful as men. Growing up in a strict catholic home I was always taught to act like a lady in public. Exactly what was meant by that I wasn’t fully sure but I knew its underlying symbolism was repressing my sexuality. I wasn’t allowed to wear spaghetti straps, mid drift shirts, shorts above my knees, or make up till I was 18 years old. Sex was not spoken of in my household at all, and if it happened to be seen in a movie or on television I was instructed to cover my eyes because sex was forbidden. Being a sexy woman was seen as vulgar. If I had male friends I could not talk on the phone with them or play outside of school with them without a parent or chaperone. On that contrary my younger brother was encouraged to dress well, wear cologne and have many female friends. It was a symbol of popularity. In my father’s Hispanic culture the young men were pampered and treated as kings with double standards. The women were there to serve them. We are not allowed to be sexy or let alone discuss sex in anyway shape or form. As an adult now I can understand why I completely rebelled against the stereotypes created by my religion and culture. It’s not fair to make women feel less than human than men. We are sexual creatures who share the same desires and needs. I now embrace my sexuality. I’m not afraid to be who I am, and say how I feel. Being a single mother in society today puts me in another stereotype as well. Having a child out of wedlock is still looked down upon, and more so with the mother. We are labeled as â€Å"promiscuous†, â€Å"unholy†, and â€Å"irresponsible†, but to me I loved a man for 8 years and wanted to create a life with him. Unfortunately the abuse I endured was too great to allow after the child was born, so I chose to leave. On the other hand the single father is praised and labeled as â€Å"hard working†, and â€Å"honorable†. In news and media woman are portrayed as sex objects in order to entice society. It draws women in because they either want to be like them or look like them and it draws men in because they love the visual stimulation. Sexuality is used as a shock value for ratings. Are sexy woman who love their bodies and the way it makes them feel really that shocking? Instead of conditioning our young woman to hide their sexuality we should be teaching them healthy ways to explore and express their human desires of sexuality in a safe, healthy way.

010 Saying Why it Matters Professor Ramos Blog

010 Saying Why it Matters Quick Write Quick Write Why does the essay of your topic matter? What are the larger implications or consequences? What should your reader take away from your essay? So What? Saying Why it Matters The â€Å"so what?† helps the reader understand what the larger implications or consequences of the topic are. Midterm Presentations Keep presentations between 3 to 5 minutes. Quick Write Does college still matter? Why or why not. Comment below this post. Group Work We had two readings for this week. We are going to split up the readings and work in groups to figure out the main takeaways, important points, and necessary examples we need to remember. Chapter 13  (â€Å"Don’t Make Them Scroll Up: Entering Online Conversations) (166-175) Liz Addison’s Two Years are Better Than Four (365) You will have ten minutes to figure out the main points. Pick a scribe, and presenter. Write the points up on the board. The presenter will have 3 minutes to explain the main points. What argument is Addison responding to? Addison discusses her own education experience as part of the argument. What role does this use of autobiographical narrative play in her argument? Does college still matter?

Unit Guide Essay Example

Unit Guide Essay Example Unit Guide Essay Unit Guide Essay List of changes since first version was published Learning Outcomes Graduate Capabilities Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking Creative and Innovative Effective Communication Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative Problem Solving and Research Capability 4 5 6 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 Assessment Tasks Group Presentation Written Assignments Class participation 10 10 11 12 Unit Schedule Delivery and Resources Policies and Procedures Student Support Student Enquiry Service Equity Support IT Help 14 18 22 2 22 22 22 Page 2 of 22 General Information Convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor: Shirley Chan Email: shirley. [emailprotected] edu. au Credit Points 3 Prerequisites CHN209 or permission of Executive Dean of Faculty Corequisites N/A Co-badged status N/A. Unit Description This course focuses on some central topics in the field of Chinese history. Such topics may include a parti cular historical period or event, a school of thought, particular philosophical or historiographical texts, or issues relating to the process of history making itself, that helped to shape the socio-cultural spheres of China’s existence.Students will read and analyse sources in Chinese and English relevant the specific topics. A level of Chinese approximately equal to HSC for Background Speakers is required as class discussions will be mainly in Chinese. Page 3 of 22 List of changes since first version was published Date 13/07/12 30/01/12 30/01/12 Change The Description was updated. The Description was updated. The Description was updated. Page 4 of 22 Learning Outcomes At the end of this unit students will have developed the following skills: 1. To appreciate the long and dynamic Chinese history and culture. 2.To improve understanding of the central issues of Chinese history, from historiorgraphical and archaeological sources. 3. To gain familiarity and facility with concept s, themes and theoretical perspectives on Chinese history and Chinese historiography. 4. To demonstrate capacity for analytical and critical thinking as well as appreciation of, and respect for cultural diversities 5. To engage in independent and reflective learning through assessing and responding to ideas 6. To develop an ability to work with and collaborate with others effectively and communicate findings to other fellow studentsPage 5 of 22 Graduate Capabilities This unit provides opportunities to develop in the graduate capabilities in the following ways: Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards.They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems. This graduate capability is supported by: Learning Outcome Learning Outcome Learning Outcome Learning Outcome Assessment Task Assessment Task Assessment Task Class participation and attendance 2 Written Assignments (30% each) To improve understanding of the central issues of Chinese history, from historiorgraphical and archaeological sources.To gain familiarity and facility with concepts, themes and theoretical perspectives on Chinese history and Chinese historiography. To demonstrate capacity for analytical and critical thinking as well as appreciation of, and respect for cultural diversities Group Presentation To appreciate the long and dynamic Chinese history and culture. Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questio ning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique Page 6 of 22 onstraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30% each) Class participation and attendance Creative and Innovative Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge.They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30% each ) Class participation and attendance Effective Communication We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences.We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30% each) Page 7 of 22 Assessment Task Class participation and attendance Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nations historical context.They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30% each) Class participation and attendanceCapable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30 % each) Class participation and attendanceProblem Solving and Research Capability Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and Page 8 of 22 solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations. This graduate capability is supported by: Assessment Task Assessment Task Group Presentation 2 Written Assignments (30% each) Page 9 of 22Assessment Tasks Task Weight Due Date Linked Learning Outcomes Group Presentation 20% one week in Week 3-13 Written Assignments 60% Weeks 7 and 12 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 2 Written Assignments (30% each) Class participation 20% Every week in class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 Class participation and attendance 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Linked Graduate Capabilities 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 Group Presentation Brief Description Group Presentation Due Date: one week in Week 3-13 Weight: 20% There will be one group (2 people) presentation. In the beginning of the semester, you will be asked to choose a tutorial topic.You are expected to lead a discussion on your chosen topic for that week. Your oral presentation is expected to be 6-7 minutes in length (no more than 4 min each person). You have to finish your presentation within the time limit or marks will be deducted. The group project should reflect the collective efforts of every member of your group. You should be prepared that the rest of the class will raise questions. You will need to prepare a 2 page report which needs to be handed in. In preparing to lead discussion, you may wish to consider the following questions: 1)What are the readings about? )What are the main points being argued? 3)What evidence is marshalled to support the author’s arg ument? 4)Do you agree/disagree with the arguments put forward in the readings? Page 10 of 22 5)What did you find most interesting about the topic or the reading? 6)How does this topic/discussion contribute to your understanding/knowledge of Chinese culture and society? Written Assignments Due Date: Weeks 7 and 12 Weight: 60% Students will submit two written assignments, one in Chinese and one in English on a chosen topic which needs to be approved by the convenor. Details will be posted in Blackboard.These assignments should be your own original work. Plagiarism is not acceptable (For further information and advice, see www. student. mq. edu. au/plagiarism). You marks will be determined by but not limited to: a) Grasp of the task and focus. Are you really answering the question(s)? Is there a well-defined framework or scope of argumentation? b) Knowledge of content and research. For example, is there a well-developed argument/critique? Does the essay re? ect a clear insightful knowl edge of the topic in a clear and critical analysis? Does the written work re? ect a substantial and skilful research e? rt? The essay may incorporate text materials linked together with your own commentary and conclusions. This will involve research activities such as locating materials, books and journal articles. c) Creativity and judgement. Does the essay show good judgement in the selection or arrangement of materials? Is there an evidence to support your argument/thesis? d) Communication and presentation. Does the work show a good job of the technical aspects of writing an essay? What will be assessed here also include such matters as grammar, punctuations, spelling, presentation of source citations, etc. ) Referencing and ethical use of materials. All cited works need to be properly acknowledged. Is referencing consistent and precise? Required and recommended resources Readings in research and translation methodologies, see also: Page 11 of 22 Writing a Research Paper An excel lent guide from Purdue University http://owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/658/03/ There are many more guides available online as well as in the library. Students will only be granted extensions/special consideration with valid reasons (eg. serious and unavoidable disruption from completing any unit requirements in accordance with their ability. ) Work that is submitted late will be subjected to an assessment penalty if an extension has not been granted. Even where an extension has been given, a penalty may still be imposed if fairness to other students requires this. The general guideline is that 5% will be deducted for the first day and 2% for each day in subsequent days. Class participation Due Date: Every week in class Weight: 20% Class attendance and participation in discussion is required.Participation will be marked on attendance, willingness to participate in class discussion, preparation and performance of reading and responding to questions. Students are expected to b e well prepared in order to participate in class discussion – this will ensure good use of class time as well as improving your learning skills and sharing your knowledge with others. Class attendance and participation is expected and will be part of the assessment. This means you not only come and sign in the class but come well prepared and participate in class discussion.You need to read the assigned reading material and think about the topics and share your thought with others. Your marks for class attendance and performance will be determined by a) Whether you attend class regularly or not; Page 12 of 22 b) How much effort you have taken to prepare for the class; c) How actively you participate in class discussion; and d) How helpful your comments are on the work of our fellow students. Page 13 of 22 Unit Schedule Lecture Tutorial readings /discussions Assessment Week 1 Introduction to the unit Meet your peers and introduce yourself; choosing a presentation topicThe Stud y of Chinese History: Retrospect and Prospect Week 2 Early Chinese Historical Works Yu in Kao, pp. 7-26; or Yu Yingshi, pp. 1-20. Class participation/discussion (The Study of Chinese History: Retrospect and Prospect) Week 3 Archaeology and History Burton in Kao, pp. 35-48. Class participation/discussion (Early Chinese Historical Works) Week 4 Palaeography, Philology and History Li, pp. 47-80. Class participation/discussion (Archaeology ; History) Week Page 14 of 22 Class 5 The Various Medium of Historical Writings I Li, pp. 81-156. participation/discussion (Palaeography, Philology and History)Week 6 The Various Medium of Historical Writings II Li, pp. 157-234. Class participation/discussion (The Various Medium of Historical Writings I) Week 7 Myth, History, Cultural Values, Social Tensions Li, pp. 234-264. Class participation/discussion Assignment 1 due today (The Various Medium of Historical Writings II) Week 8 Power of Writing east-asianhistory. net/textbooks/PMChina/ch12. htm Cl ass participation/discussion (Myth, History, Cultural Values, Social Tensions) Page 15 of 22 Week 9 History and Writing the State Lewis, pp. 1-11. Class participation/discussion Power of Writing) Week 10 History and Writing the Masters Lewis, pp. 13-48. Class participation/discussion (History and Writing the State) Week 11 Writing the Past Lewis, pp. 53-98. Class participation/discussion (History and Writing the Masters) Week 12 The Political History of Writing Lewis, pp. 195-240. Class participation/discussion Assignment 2 due today (Writing the Past) Week 13 Revision Feedback/evaluation Lewis, pp. 287-307. Class participation/discussion (The Political History of Writing) Page 16 of 22 Page 17 of 22 Delivery and Resources Recommended Texts and/or MaterialsChang, K. C. The Formation of Chinese Civilization: an Archaeological Perspective. Yale University Press. 1988. Ebrey, Patricia, Buckley. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. (2 nd ed). Cambridge University Press. 2010. (Availa ble in the Co-op bookshop) Elman, Benjamin ; Kern, Martin (eds). Statecraft and Classical Learning: The Rituals of Zhou in East Asian History (Studies in the History of Chinese Texts). Brill Academic Publishing. 2009. Hsu, C. Y. Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social Mobility 722-222 B. C. Stanford University Press. 1965. Kao, George.The Translation of Things Past: Chinese History and Historiography. Hong Kong: the Chinese University Press. 1982. Lewis, Mark, Edward. Writing and Authority in Early China (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture). State University of New York Press. 2007. Li Xueqin ; Guo Zhikun. . Shanghai: Shanghai Keji Jiaoyu. 2002. Page 18 of 22 Pine, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era. University of Hawaii Press. 2009. Puett, Michael J. To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China (HarvardYenching Institute Monograph) Harvard University Asia Centre. 004. Schwartz, B enjamin. I. The World of Thought in Ancient China. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1985. Schuberg, David. A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Harvard East Asian Monographs). Harvard University Asia Centre. 2002. Wang, Aihe. Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China (Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions). Cambridge University Press. 2000. . . . 1985. Zhao Yi bookshop) , Zhao Yifeng (eds). Ancient Chinese History. Beijing: Higher Education Press. 2010. (Available in the Co-opYou will find some of the URL links containing materials on Chinese history, archaeology, art, culture extremely handy. Among these are: chinapage. com/ princeton. edu/~classbib/ Page 19 of 22 This pointer will bring up the introduction page of the Classical Chinese Historiography for Chinese History. Scroll down to get to the table of contents. The display includes full-style Chinese characters (fanti zi), but you will only be able to display them if the computer you are using is equipped with Chinese script. Otherwise they will display as gobbledy-gook, but this does not matter to the rest of the bibliography.The most useful section for this course is section 9: Select Bibliography of Chinese Classics and Literature in Translation With Recent Related Histories; Section 10: Selected English Bibliography For Chinese Civilization: A Brief Historical Survey. You can reach this by using the contents page. Unit Webpage and Technology Used and Required Students should check iLearn regularly under the unit concerned, for announcements and updated information. Library Databases Students should make good use of the library databases for scholarly articles, books and other sources of information, which is an essential part of learning and research skills. ttp://www. library. mq. edu. au/ Please note that attendance at all classes is compulsory. This applies particularly to assessments. Students will only be granted extensi ons/special consideration with valid reasons (eg. , serious and unavoidable disruption from completing any unit requirements in accordance with their ability. ) Work that is submitted late will be subjected to an assessment penalty if an extension has not been granted. Even where an extension has been given, a penalty may still be imposed if fairness to other students requires this.The general guideline is that 5% will be deducted for the first day and 2% for each day in subsequent days. Special Consideration Policy Page 20 of 22 mq. edu. au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy. html Applying for Special Consideration Students applying for Special Consideration circumstances of three (3) consecutive days duration, within a study period, and/or prevent completion of a formal examination must submit an on-line application with the Faculty of Arts. For an application to be valid, it must include a completed Application for Special Consideration form and all supporting documentatio n.The on-line Special Consideration application is found at: arts. mq. edu. au/current_students/undergraduate/admin_central/special_consideration. Page 21 of 22 Policies and Procedures Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. You may find of particular interest those which can be found in the Learning and Teaching category. Student Support Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at: mq. edu. au/currentstudents/. Student Enquiry ServiceDetails of these services can be accessed at student. mq. edu. au/ses/. Equity Support Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Unit who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies. IT Help If you wish to receive IT help, we would be glad to assist you at http://informatics. mq. edu. au/help/. When using the universitys IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy . The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students and it outlines what can be done. Page 22 of 22

Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power

Greeting Cards and Their Power Today’s greeting cards portray many of our society’s norms. For example, norms about age are portrayed. Many norms are portrayed by greeting cards, such as family, age, illness, and gender. Many of these cards can also make certain groups or a behavior of people seem deviant. Greeting cards have the power to establish social norms and also make a behavior or person appear deviant. I found a card on a printing program on my computer. The card had two leprechauns standing beside a building and the word "beer" written in big letters across the top. The inside of the card says, "Essential Building Block for strong muscles and bones! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!" There is also a laughing leprechaun inside the card. This card illustrates the norm of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day and in general. In a way, it also implies that Irish people are supposed to drink a lot. Drinking is definitely a norm some of our society holds. In a lot of areas, it is acceptable and pretty much expected to have a drink every day, as long as you do not drink in the morning. Drinking in the morning places an "alcoholic" label on people. It is also a common expectation that Irish people drink a good bit. People who do not follow these norms appear to be deviant. Based on the card I found, if you do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day, or you are Irish and do not drink, then you are deviant. Greeting cards like this, along with other forms of media, are one of the reasons our society expects people to drink. It appears to be the "cool" thing to do and our society has conditioned us to want to do the "cool" thing and fit in. Most people do not want to be deviant. They want to follow the norms, such as the ones this greeting card establishes. I do not agree with this card. I am part Irish and so is most of my family and we do not drink. I also do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day and most people I know do not e... Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power Greeting Cards and Their Power Today’s greeting cards portray many of our society’s norms. For example, norms about age are portrayed. Many norms are portrayed by greeting cards, such as family, age, illness, and gender. Many of these cards can also make certain groups or a behavior of people seem deviant. Greeting cards have the power to establish social norms and also make a behavior or person appear deviant. I found a card on a printing program on my computer. The card had two leprechauns standing beside a building and the word "beer" written in big letters across the top. The inside of the card says, "Essential Building Block for strong muscles and bones! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!" There is also a laughing leprechaun inside the card. This card illustrates the norm of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day and in general. In a way, it also implies that Irish people are supposed to drink a lot. Drinking is definitely a norm some of our society holds. In a lot of areas, it is acceptable and pretty much expected to have a drink every day, as long as you do not drink in the morning. Drinking in the morning places an "alcoholic" label on people. It is also a common expectation that Irish people drink a good bit. People who do not follow these norms appear to be deviant. Based on the card I found, if you do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day, or you are Irish and do not drink, then you are deviant. Greeting cards like this, along with other forms of media, are one of the reasons our society expects people to drink. It appears to be the "cool" thing to do and our society has conditioned us to want to do the "cool" thing and fit in. Most people do not want to be deviant. They want to follow the norms, such as the ones this greeting card establishes. I do not agree with this card. I am part Irish and so is most of my family and we do not drink. I also do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day and most people I know do not e...

Response paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Response paper - Essay Example During the 1500s, this expansion continued the journey reaching its zenith in 1590 when the empire became truly gigantic and influential. The Ottomans were not only at the height of power at this point in the history of the empire, but they also became very progressive socioeconomically. Using the gunpowder technology, the Ottomans managed to thwart the Safavids establishing their influence on them. This technology helped a lot in facilitating the Ottoman successes and ensuring the empire’s dynamism and expansion. The empire also expanded due to growing influence of the Sultan because many rulers like the one of Algiers voluntarily submitted to Selim clearly intimidated by him. Growing expansion of the Ottoman empire and establishment of authority in different states helped the Ottomans in controlling the trade coming from those areas. This ability to control the trade and interact with a broad range of people from diverse cultural backgrounds helped the Ottoman empire to grow economically and socially. The empire reached its maximum size when benefiting from dynastic issues encountered by the Safavids, the Ottomans â€Å"in a war between 1578 and 1590, captured Safavid territory in the Caucasus and western Iran† (Imber, 2004). Like the Ottoman empire, the Safavids also made the empire economically strong by benefiting from their control on trade. The empire was based in what is modern day Iran. So, the strategic location between East and West promised the Safavid empire a fascinating stronghold on trade. General consensus is that the economic strength of the empire came from its highly strategic and valuable location â€Å"on the trade routes† (BBC, 2009). It was this control on trade between East and West that the Safavids became influential enough to challenge two strong empires, one from East called the Mughal empire and other from West known as the Ottoman empire. It is also agreed that during the period from 1501 to 1722,

Reflective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflective - Essay Example The familiar is comfortable, even if it is not the best arrangement for all parties involved. In the field, for instance, the nurses were initially hesitant about being part of the training, and had many questions and private qualms that they shared with me. This was the reality, even as they allowed me to explain the protocol in broad strokes. The doctors, meanwhile, while generally quiet, had a stance of wait and see, and leaned on the skeptical side. The administration of the hospital too, even when they agreed to the change project, also obviously wanted to make sure that the change would result in positive changes in the unit in general, and liked that the scope of the change was limited and very specific to ankle injuries. There had to be interventions and explanations prepared for the patients as well. Underneath some of these concerns is a need to take charge and be control of the situation. The change was to unsettle them from their cozy and safe positions. The conflicts tha t are to come from the change in the balance of power between nurses and doctors when it comes to decision making are profound, even if they are limited to just ankle and foot injuries in the emergency setting. ... These are seemingly benign issues, but from the perspective of who takes responsibility for patient well-being these are profound conflicts that the change project needed to properly evaluate, negotiate and resolve (Institute of Medicine, 2006). In the above evaluation conflicts it is clear too that there are dependencies in the actions and the outcomes of the actions of the various stakeholders to the change project. For instance, nurses can become empowered only with the trust and confidence given to them by the doctors, with whom the triage nurses have to work in tandem in taking care of patients with ankle injuries, making use of the Ottawa ankle rules. If doctors fail at trusting the competence of the nurses’ decisions tied to these rules, then the whole process and change project falters. Doctors will make their own decisions regardless of the nurse recommendations. On the other hand, if the nurses persist with making use of the protocol even without the cooperation of t he doctors, the dependencies also break down and nurses and doctors can duplicate each others’ work. Taking a step back, the decision of the hospital administration to allow the change project to push through also cascades down the line into making all of the involved parties cooperate and see to it that their actions at least give the project a chance to make it to completion. This is so they can see whether the protocol improves their work and the patient outcomes. In the change project even the nurses were hesitant at first to make use of their new power to make recommendations on x-rays, because they knew too that the patients and the doctors depended on the accuracy of their diagnoses. On the other hand, the

Lack of communication between students and academic advisors Essay

Lack of communication between students and academic advisors - Essay Example First, students are not assigned to ‘individual advisors’; in other words, they keep on changing advisors as the course of their study progresses; hence, the problem crops up as a result of inconsistent communication. For sure, there are differences in advising strategies from one advisor to another so once a student is not being assigned to his or her individual advisor throughout the entire duration of the study, it only blurs the approaches that students will have to implement in their studies. Second is record keeping: the downside of having to be assigned to various teachers is the lack of constant communication and the disarray of record-keeping. As aforementioned, each advisor has varying counseling and advising strategies; and this only cause nothing but potential confusion on the part of the student. Because they are not assigned to a single advisor, chances are they are not going to develop a singular approach towards their study or research. And that is aside from the fact that they do not get to meet their advisor on a permanent basis. Lastly, the issues on policies whether to employ individual advising or one on one advising or not only exacerbate the situation: academic institutions should be able to address this concern once and for all. Lack of communication between students and advisors is a result of inconsistency of meetings between students and advisors. If we can get the students assigned to a single advisor throughout the entire duration of their study, then there is a greater chance that they will be able to complete their degrees; but again, the decision entirely depends on the policies of the schools. The above argument proves that each student should be given a separate student and not a horde of people who just care to get done with their work without much caring about the probable outcomes of their research. Coming to our main issue, dealing with the biased attitude towards students that are not assigned to individual ad visors. Coming to other questions which state that since this is such a small proportion of people so why such big enforcements are needed? The answer is that they are citizens too and thence it is their right to have everything that is destined for them. Though, this is agreed that there are laws for the disabled but how many people respect them? And how many universities; both private and state universities, follow the instructions laid down by the ADA act? So the duty falls upon the fellow students to minimize their biases and help push the implementation of policies that encourage assignment to individual advisors. Contentions on Policy Changes One particular reason as to why assigning students to individual advisors cannot be carried out is that the student to teacher ratio suggests it cannot be done. Well, that is if the intention is to assign one student per advisor and that is it. However, assignment of students to individual advisors should not be defined by claiming the en tire exclusivity of the advisor for the students advising needs for the entire duration of the study. The point is that students needs to have â€Å"

The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls Essay

The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls - Essay Example The Guardian’s lead media blogger Cory Doctorow led the critical analysis in asking three main questions about the dataset as presented by Murdoch’s company. (Doctorow, 2010) â€Å"What sort of purchases are the paid subscribers making?† â€Å"How much do advertisers value the additional information the Times can supply about paying users?† â€Å"What does it cost to get a subscriber?† These questions are important in determining what the paywall and subscriber numbers mean to News Corp’s bottom line profit figures. This experiment with the online subscriber model for news is important to the sector due to the declining revenues and bankruptcy of many traditional newspapers. If News Corp is successful in attracting consumers to its online subscription models, iPad only newspaper, and financial industry news, then it represents a business possibility or even necessity for other newspapers in the sector like the Guardian to follow. Looking at t he actual numbers released by News Corp in their Nov. 2nd, 2010 press release: â€Å"News International today announces that the new digital products for The Times and The Sunday Times have achieved more than 105,000 paid-for customer sales to date. Around half of these are monthly subscribers. These include subscribers to the digital sites as well as subscribers to The Times iPad app and Kindle edition. Many of the rest are either single copy or pay-as-you-go customers. In addition to the digital-only subscribers, there are 100,000 joint digital/print subscribers who have activated their digital accounts to the websites and/or iPad app since launch. As a result, the total paid audience for digital products on The Times and The Sunday Times is close to 200,000 (allowing for some duplication in the digital customer sales number).† (Paid Content, 2010) Felix Salmon adds another aspect of the paywall that may not be immediately evident from this news release, reporting that â₠¬Å"traffic has fallen off a cliff, from 21 million to 2.7 million pageviews per month† for these same sites. (Reuters, 2010) From these statistics, the 200,000 paid subscribers are only viewing on average 10 pages or news articles per month. This does not indicate a strong pattern of readership, but more of the average daily or single-setting news content of a site browser. In analyzing the effect of this, for example, as it relates to the Guardian business plan, it should be noted that by page volume this is approximately a 90% reduction in the number of advertisements served by the website per month. Thus, looking at the issue of paywalls and online newspapers from a strictly profit and loss perspective, the GMG can calculate whether a 90% reduction in advertising revenue would be offset by the savings on server infrastructure with reduced site traffic and the revenues generated by the subscription fees. To put this in context with what the News Corp numbers mean, Dan Sabbag ah of the Guardian reviewed the three different subscription plans represented in the statistics and came up with an estimate: â€Å"the total is ?5.5m a year, gross.† (Sabbagah, 2010) This includes the 1-day subscriptions, the monthly subscriptions, and iPad newspaper subscriptions. In this manner, it could be related that loss of 90% of site traffic and viewership for the newspapers was not worth the minimal

Forgetting Jerusalem from the Bible to Faulkner Essay

Forgetting Jerusalem from the Bible to Faulkner - Essay Example He then imprecates God to remember what the Babylonians did to Jerusalem. How they tore down the city to its foundations, and treated it as something worthless. Having his beloved nation torn down as something worthless, the Psalmist curses the daughters of Babylon. He desires revenge, seeking that what they had done to the children of Zion, too, will be done unto them - having their infants snatched and dashed against the rocks! Psalm 137 is basically a song of anger, as well as of a desire for revenge for all the wrongdoing that has been implicated to him and his people. He is singing to God, reminding Him of his faithfulness, and seeking justice for him and his nation. The harsh, cursing prayer song of the Psalmist to God against the Babylonians in Psalm 137 shows that in these kinds of prayers, cursing the enemy or offender, is due to the believers feeling of distress. In 1 Samuel 24-26, it is shown how David, a model of patience, who on more than one occasion refused to avenge himself on his persecutor Saul. David spares Saul. As any other man, David had weaknesses, and one of these was being too lenient. He was compassionate with such offenders as Shimei, who cursed him (in 2 Samuel 16), and his son Absalom, who rebelled against him (2 Samuel 18-19). David didn't seek out personal vengeance upon his enemies and offenders, but in his prayers, he could hardly pray for compassion upon them. In his prayers, he could not bring himself to sincerely pray to God that Saul should win or that God's promise to him which included the promise of the Savior should be overthrown by Saul or Absalom. He very much opposed their schemes with prayer. Psalm 137 is a very reflective work by the original writer with overtones that reach into the lives of all of us today. Until such time as the knowledge of Yahweh fills the earth as it was written by Jeremiah, we are waiting by the "river of Babylon" with our captors, struggling to make sense of the things that are before us in our daily lives. Just as it is stated in Jeremiah 31:33-34, "But this is the covenant that I will make the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know Yahweh; 'for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says Yahweh; for I will

Physical Activity for Older Adults Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Physical Activity for Older Adults - Essay Example Apart from the drawing conclusions, the authors of the article have found little nuggets of information that have been overlooked by other researchers, for one reason or another. They are such nuggets that give distinction to the work and make it not only credible but also innovative. The article bases on the specific ways of improving quality of life for older adults including recommendations on intensity, type, frequency, progression and time of exercise followed by disease-specific guidelines. In addition to all the recommendations and exercise instructions, the article deals with the questions of problem-solving and self-monitoring issues. Moreover, the authors give a multilateral analysis of the question considering social and cultural standards, logistics etc. The business of setting up additional material (diagrams, graphs, statistical tables) is taken really very seriously. Illustrative material is carefully chosen and prepared so as to give information. It enlightens and adequately complements the text. Illustrations, text aside, are self-explanatory on their own visual terms. The basic virtues of the illustrations are clarity and relevance. The writers are making an effort to think graphically, to present information conceived visually, not tied to verbal forms. It is not solely a mathematical concept; it is an excellent visual device that helps not only to decide problems of increasing of exercise continuation rates but it also contributes to general desirable health outcomes. All these intensify the projection of the theme. Besides the material used throw direct light upon the point considered in the text. Thus, it is great for the reader to view with ease text and illustrations together. Older Adults and the Arts. The Importance of Aesthetic Forms of Expression in Later Life by Britt-Maj Wilkstrom is a greatly organized article developing an argument about aesthetic forms of expression that contribute to physical and intellectual activities of older adults. The value of the article consists very largely in semi-structured interviews with 166 Swedish participants age 65 to 89. Moreover, it represents bibliographical acknowledgements on the topic in question that specifically and individually document facts and opinions referred to. Without such kind of thematic acknowledgements, the reader would have to read additional sources to get the point. There would only be not proved and doubtful information. And, thus, the source couldn't be considered as a credible one. But besides using a good quantity of well-grounded bibliographical acknowledgements the author leads the reader into the works of others while reasonably comparing the thoughts and ideas. Older Adults and the Arts. The Importance of Aesthetic Forms of Expression in Later Life is a wonderful synthesis of theoretical background and practical qualitative examination, analysis and discussion. The results of this practical study demonstrate that older aesthetic experiences of older adults could actually represent a potential means contributing to successful aging. The figures, data and evidence of this study represent useful practical information both for nurses and physicians to plan and create aesthetic programs in gerontological practice. The

The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls Essay

The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls - Essay Example The Guardian’s lead media blogger Cory Doctorow led the critical analysis in asking three main questions about the dataset as presented by Murdoch’s company. (Doctorow, 2010) â€Å"What sort of purchases are the paid subscribers making?† â€Å"How much do advertisers value the additional information the Times can supply about paying users?† â€Å"What does it cost to get a subscriber?† These questions are important in determining what the paywall and subscriber numbers mean to News Corp’s bottom line profit figures. This experiment with the online subscriber model for news is important to the sector due to the declining revenues and bankruptcy of many traditional newspapers. If News Corp is successful in attracting consumers to its online subscription models, iPad only newspaper, and financial industry news, then it represents a business possibility or even necessity for other newspapers in the sector like the Guardian to follow. Looking at t he actual numbers released by News Corp in their Nov. 2nd, 2010 press release: â€Å"News International today announces that the new digital products for The Times and The Sunday Times have achieved more than 105,000 paid-for customer sales to date. Around half of these are monthly subscribers. These include subscribers to the digital sites as well as subscribers to The Times iPad app and Kindle edition. Many of the rest are either single copy or pay-as-you-go customers. In addition to the digital-only subscribers, there are 100,000 joint digital/print subscribers who have activated their digital accounts to the websites and/or iPad app since launch. As a result, the total paid audience for digital products on The Times and The Sunday Times is close to 200,000 (allowing for some duplication in the digital customer sales number).† (Paid Content, 2010) Felix Salmon adds another aspect of the paywall that may not be immediately evident from this news release, reporting that â₠¬Å"traffic has fallen off a cliff, from 21 million to 2.7 million pageviews per month† for these same sites. (Reuters, 2010) From these statistics, the 200,000 paid subscribers are only viewing on average 10 pages or news articles per month. This does not indicate a strong pattern of readership, but more of the average daily or single-setting news content of a site browser. In analyzing the effect of this, for example, as it relates to the Guardian business plan, it should be noted that by page volume this is approximately a 90% reduction in the number of advertisements served by the website per month. Thus, looking at the issue of paywalls and online newspapers from a strictly profit and loss perspective, the GMG can calculate whether a 90% reduction in advertising revenue would be offset by the savings on server infrastructure with reduced site traffic and the revenues generated by the subscription fees. To put this in context with what the News Corp numbers mean, Dan Sabbag ah of the Guardian reviewed the three different subscription plans represented in the statistics and came up with an estimate: â€Å"the total is ?5.5m a year, gross.† (Sabbagah, 2010) This includes the 1-day subscriptions, the monthly subscriptions, and iPad newspaper subscriptions. In this manner, it could be related that loss of 90% of site traffic and viewership for the newspapers was not worth the minimal

Physical Activity for Older Adults Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Physical Activity for Older Adults - Essay Example Apart from the drawing conclusions, the authors of the article have found little nuggets of information that have been overlooked by other researchers, for one reason or another. They are such nuggets that give distinction to the work and make it not only credible but also innovative. The article bases on the specific ways of improving quality of life for older adults including recommendations on intensity, type, frequency, progression and time of exercise followed by disease-specific guidelines. In addition to all the recommendations and exercise instructions, the article deals with the questions of problem-solving and self-monitoring issues. Moreover, the authors give a multilateral analysis of the question considering social and cultural standards, logistics etc. The business of setting up additional material (diagrams, graphs, statistical tables) is taken really very seriously. Illustrative material is carefully chosen and prepared so as to give information. It enlightens and adequately complements the text. Illustrations, text aside, are self-explanatory on their own visual terms. The basic virtues of the illustrations are clarity and relevance. The writers are making an effort to think graphically, to present information conceived visually, not tied to verbal forms. It is not solely a mathematical concept; it is an excellent visual device that helps not only to decide problems of increasing of exercise continuation rates but it also contributes to general desirable health outcomes. All these intensify the projection of the theme. Besides the material used throw direct light upon the point considered in the text. Thus, it is great for the reader to view with ease text and illustrations together. Older Adults and the Arts. The Importance of Aesthetic Forms of Expression in Later Life by Britt-Maj Wilkstrom is a greatly organized article developing an argument about aesthetic forms of expression that contribute to physical and intellectual activities of older adults. The value of the article consists very largely in semi-structured interviews with 166 Swedish participants age 65 to 89. Moreover, it represents bibliographical acknowledgements on the topic in question that specifically and individually document facts and opinions referred to. Without such kind of thematic acknowledgements, the reader would have to read additional sources to get the point. There would only be not proved and doubtful information. And, thus, the source couldn't be considered as a credible one. But besides using a good quantity of well-grounded bibliographical acknowledgements the author leads the reader into the works of others while reasonably comparing the thoughts and ideas. Older Adults and the Arts. The Importance of Aesthetic Forms of Expression in Later Life is a wonderful synthesis of theoretical background and practical qualitative examination, analysis and discussion. The results of this practical study demonstrate that older aesthetic experiences of older adults could actually represent a potential means contributing to successful aging. The figures, data and evidence of this study represent useful practical information both for nurses and physicians to plan and create aesthetic programs in gerontological practice. The

Business Intelligence in a Corporate Environment Essay Example for Free

Business Intelligence in a Corporate Environment Essay The purpose of this literature review is to provide an overall perspective to the workings of business intelligence in a corporate environment. With the onset of massive technological gains in the past decade the implementation of business intelligence has grown accordingly. In the workplace the demand for business process improvement, responsive reporting, cutting edge forecasting, and internal business customer relations has triggered a need for a unit that understands the business needs as well as the impact on company technology. This review will focus on the various areas that business intelligence impacts in the workplace. There will also be an emphasis on understanding the longevity of these types of units. With these units in the workplace questions concerning departmental automation goals and the impact on the maturity stages that are involved with the creation of business intelligence units. Finally, with the growth of data collection and ease of use, the security and management of company information is intertwined with the operation of business intelligence. The Age of Information The Role of Shifting Technology Throughout history technology has influenced the very fabric of business operations. The role of business intelligence in this shift is the implementation and continuous improvement of that technology. This role is ever changing because technology continues to improve. While to some the role of business intelligence seems new and upcoming the usage and practice goes back to the earliest days of industry. An example of this history would be in the automation industry. In years past large amounts of labor was done by hand. The role of the business analyst would be to collect and analyze the entire business process from start to finish. Once this was done the analyst would narrow their focus to the individual in an attempt to provide management with data to increase speed and efficiency. That role is now used  to analyze the systems and machines that are responsible for making the products. While the example above is simple the connection between the shift in technology and the role of business intelligence is clear. With any business the desire for information is strong. To be competitive a company needs to be aware of the business environment in which they operate. Business intelligence serves to meet the information and improvement goals that drive the company to greater success. For this literature review there is an article written by Elliot King that exemplifies the shift of technology and the role of business intelligence on it. King focuses on the large amount of company resources that are spent on the implementation, development, and management of business intelligence technology in the workplace. This attention has been driven by the increasing demand for such software products and personnel to manage them. Understanding this current shift King focuses on the role business intelligence has and will continue to have on the business that use data en mass. The article provides a brief look at the history of data storage and misconceptions about employee interest in accessing the data. This interest has largely been pushed down due to the complex nature of interacting with the information present within the data warehouse. With the explosion of the internet and user assimilation to it these technical barriers are slowing beginning to fall (King, 1998). With the ease of use and understanding increasing employees are beginning to grasp the value of data. This is where the role of business intelligence has thrived. Business intelligence has been implemented to bridge the gap between the employee and the business data stored in the warehouse. This is done through a variety methods that have made data more and more useful to the companies that have and utilize their data. King summarizes his article with the theory that as the internet was opened  far and wide to all this should concept should be applied to the data warehousing. While King understands that the two pieces of technology are different he affirms that they are similar enough in nature that the same approach can be applied. Overall, the article provide a good look at how the shift of technology in business can affect the demand for systems and the personnel that maintain and operate them (King, 1998). The impact of Business growth With the growth of business the world has begun to shrink. No longer are companies that employ a hundred or even a thousand considered to be impressive. In 2014 Bank of America was reported to have employed two hundred and eighty four thousand people to run its operations around the globe (Bank of America, 2014). The implications of companies of this size are astounding and have significantly impacted the demand for business intelligence. To truly understand why a company would spend millions of dollars on business intelligence operations a simple example can be provided. For Bank of America each employee is assigned a unique number or code that distinguishes him or her from the rest of the employees within the organization. On the other side of the table each customer that has interacted with the bank is also assigned a unique identifier. If these are added together the quantity of unique entities starts to become astounding. The example above shows why a business like Bank of America would be heavily interested in utilizing business intelligence assets to manage the data associated with its business units. While the example provided only touches on areas concerning employees and customers the amount of data associated with those people can be mind boggling. For employees this data could be anything from human resource forms to vacation day requests. For customers the data could be products purchased, recorded marketing calls, website interaction as well as a host of other areas. In 2000 Deborah Rowe an article that centered on business trends pushing database management systems to greater growth. Rowe focuses on the data  warehousing concept that has proved to meet a large majority of business needs in terms of information management. The focus of the article is to explain how progress is pushing for better and better systems for managing data. The article talks about how increasing competition has created a lean environment for data management. Companies that are complacent with their data are either failing or catching on to the need for better interaction and usage of their data. Rowe delves into the process of choosing these systems from a corporate perspective. The challenges presented by this type of implementation are rather glaring. These challenges include upfront cost, long term cost, and mismanagement of data. If a company chooses to implement a product that its employees don’t understand correctly the effects can be devastating on the business. Hiring knowledgeable employees to manage and implement the product is essential to long term success. With all of these hurdles of implementing a DBMS system the task can be daunting. Rowe discusses how the task of purchasing and implanting a DBMS needs to be done with great caution and a clear focus. If a business isn’t able to look further down the road and consider how the DBMS can be used in the future it will fail completely. Having a perspective that encompasses as much of the companies goals and visions is critical. This is why companies are constantly looking for individuals that are able to focus on a detailed system but be able to at the same time look at the broader scope of the company’s needs (Rowe , 2000). In summation the article leaves the reader with an interesting perspective on the increasing demand for these systems. Rowe concludes that the ERP industry will grow and tremendous pace in the future. With that growth the need for knowledgeable employees that understand the systems use and can translate the data to affect business needs will continuing to increase. The increasing corporate demand. At its very core business is driven by two simple concepts. These are the laws of revenue and expenses. In business these two laws drive companies on a daily basis. Popular opinion about these  concepts can sometimes sway in either direction. Proponents may put all of their support into revenue generation while others will focus on creating the perfect lean business model. Whatever the theory or opinion is the law of revenues and expenses will remain the same. As discussed in this review the expenses of implementing DBMS systems and employing highly skilled individuals can be massive. To a company that purely focuses on the expense side of the equation these systems may seem like a waste of precious assets. To others who understand the future and current impact of these systems the decision to utilize them is an easy one. Like the concepts of revenues and expenses the goals of a company can dictate the perspective of business intelligence units. The reason demand has begun to steadily increase over the past decade is the potential to affect both the expense and revenue side of the business structure. Business intelligence units are designed to support departments in ways that can amplify their current revenue production and decrease their expense habits. An article written by Ken Rudin explains how corporate demand for business intelligence in their companies is steadily increasing. Rudin talks about how business intelligence has become a very high priority for business executives who understand the values they can derive from business improvement. This demand has grown to the point where corporate leaders are focusing on moving past the traditional business intelligence processes (Rudin , 2007) . Rudin explains the implications of this progressive thought process by paralleling the impact of software applications that software products have had on industry to business intelligence services. The discussion is focused on how executives are looking into custom company specific solution provided on an instant. This type business process software is highly intuitive and seeks to provide all of the necessary tools needed to make an informed business decision. Examples of these on-demand solutions are software’s likes SQL Server Reporting Services by Microsoft. This software allows for not only the display of information but the real time interaction with the data that the web services are pulling their content from. Rudin discusses how these types of solutions are not only catching fire they are exploding all over the business world. This explosion of demand is driven by the complexity of the data being pulled as well as the cost associated with the data being collected and stored. This cost and complexity equation is what Rudin believes is the key piece to business intelligence demand. Like the example of revenues and expenses the idea surrounding on-demand solutions is the same. The question asked is, â€Å"What can these solutions do that allow a normal employee to do their job at a higher level which in turns into a higher rate of return for their employer?† Concluding Rudin’s article he discusses that a key factor associated with on demand business intelligence solutions is the usability of the product. Having solutions created that users do not understand or lose trust in can be a major drain on process improvement. Rudin emphasizes that the development of these processes needs to be done in such a way that they take into account the users that are interacting with them. This is essential to developing a trust relationship between the users and the product (Rudin , 2007). Business Intelligence Tools The Role of Reporting Reporting is one the most essential pieces of and type of business process. If a company sells laundry detergent it needs to know how much product it has, how much product it has sold, and how much it should produce. These three simple questions speak to the ramifications of good reporting data within a business. There is so much information that is gathered by companies with the singular intent of providing reports for business decisions. This gathering is done in a way that the information collected in stored in some type of server  which houses a virtual warehouse. Like a physical warehouse it is critical to understand how and where something is stored so that it can be retrieved for future use. When it comes to reporting the challenge presented to businesses is the quantity and placement of their data. If a business is unable to utilize their data efficiently they are sacrificing business opportunities every second the data is left idle. This quandary has been analyzed and the solution has been to purchase and employee people and products to provide this data in a useful format for business use. In a business intelligence unit a data analyst will focus on first understanding the overall goal of a report request. This is important because the impact of creating something purely based on the request can lead to disastrous results. These can range from customers not understanding the terminology used within the reporting system to not grasping the capability or usage of the system being used to provide the report. To make sure these requests are understand correctly a business intelligence unit is commonly found implemented within a specific area of the business. This cultivates a cross knowledge between the highly technical nature of the reporting systems to the broad scope goals of a particular business department. This type of side by side interaction can be a major benefit to not only getting more precise and accurate reporting it also serves as educating tool to the department through exposure. An article written in 2005 by Harry Debes explains this process in detail. The author of the article begins the discussion by emphasizing the importance of timely and accurate data. These two pieces are the bread and butter of business intelligence. The reason for this is that both factors are highly dependent on each other. Debes explains this concept by focusing on the energy market and the application of business reports in this area of industry. He shows that there various daily functions that are conducted that are in need of  constant monitoring to allow for efficient operation. Some of the examples include repair requests, credit collections, meter usage, demand fluctuations, and most important customers (Debes , 2005). All of the examples cited by Debes are common sense in nature but they require an entire business process to effectively report on. Using the example of meter usage by having daily reports energy companies can identify issues based on real time data and not be forced to swallow a catastrophe because of something as simple as mechanical fault. The problem could easily be identified by a simple reporting tool that was programmed to expect a specific range of usage. If the range was violated the system would send an alert with a level of priority based on the disparity of the ranges. The article written by Debes is a good example of how business intelligence reporting can be implemented in ways that benefit the company at levels of the corporate ladder. From interactive financial data and forecasting to specific customer energy consumption and history reliable and accurate reporting in the energy industry is a very powerful tool that has been used and is being continuously improved upon for future endeavors (Debes , 2005). Impact of data driven Forecasting Forecasting is an important an element of any business. At its most basic level it is simply looking to the future and making guesses to a specific result based on past and present data. This is where the role of business intelligence arrives. Data analysts like their namesake are paid to look at data and decipher how that data works and relates to the business. Once a data analyst is able to firmly grasp company data they can provide constructive advice based on the knowledge of that data. In addition to providing advice the data analyst can create reports that take past data and make estimations programmatically based on definable trends. These reports can be provided through an assortment of software’s and displayed in formats that best fit the target audience. Having a system in place that looks to past data and provides useful  forecasts can not only give a company an idea of where they are going they can also give an idea where their competition is going as well. This ability to compare company performance to the market and project where the company is headed is critical. With timely and reliable forecasting a company can discern opportunities and threats within the marketplace before they even occur. With market competition becoming more and more intense the role of forecasting has been prioritized highly by most companies that operate on a large scale. This is clearly supported by an article written by Susana Schwartz about the greater need for more robust forecasting technologies. The concept of the article focuses on the next level of forecasting that business intelligence units are seeking to achieve. The author talks about how the next set of tools utilized by business intelligence units will be integrated into the business processes that have already been laid down. The key factors that are emphasized are the broad categories that these tools can influence. Examples of these are products such as SSRS by Microsoft, ARGOS by Ellucian, and APEX by Oracle. Each of these tools provide granular interaction with business process data while still being able to be applied to other categories. These tools are used to be the developing platforms that take the business process driven data and formulates it into reportable information used for forecasting. In the article these are the types of tools that Schwartz describes when talking about integrated and real time driven tools (Schwartz, 2007). Concluding the article by Schwartz she emphasizes the value of report generation. She talks about how even if the emphasis might be redundant the need to focus on this factor is critical to accurate forecasting. This is because all of the past data collected is contained within the reports. Schwartz’s realizes that for business units to understand any of the forecast data they need to be familiar with the data that has been collected and displayed within the provided reports (Schwartz , 2007). Data analysis and Improvement The core of what business intelligence does is data analysis and improvement. Both of these factors contribute to each other in a never ending spiral of push and pull. When data is analyzed it is used to improve a process which in turn is analyzed. With this concept firmly in place understanding the role of business intelligence becomes clearer. As the facilitator of analysis and improvement business intelligence units are responsible for the flow between the two actions. When a department senses a need for analysis or improvement the business intelligence unit is used to facilitate that action. This responsibility to facilitate these actions is what drives the demand by corporate leadership. As expressed earlier in this review having units that are constantly looking at moving the expense line down and the revenue line up is very beneficial a corporate entity. An article that was created in response to a seminar on business data analysis describes how this process is essential to the strategy development and future readiness of company’s based on data analysis. The article provide insight into a couple areas within the sphere of data analysis. One of these is building the foundations and structure of the culture within the company to respect the data and make decisions off of it (Computer software .., 2012). This whole concept of creating a decision based culture is driven by the need for action in the market. If a company fails to take action on its corporate strategy it will fall behind its competition fairly quickly. The article discusses how through data analysis an attitude of decision making individuals can be created to promote action. The key of this data driven culture is the analysis that goes into making the data credible. Without credible data the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively is crippled. If employees can’t trust the data they are working with they will begin to question the entire infrastructure based on a single data set. In addition to data analysis the article talks about  improving recruitment through data analysis tools. Being able to create a clear picture of who a person is before the expense of bringing them in for an interview can be a great time and money saver. This is done through internal and external data analysis (Computer software .., 2012) . Once research is done on an individual the business intelligence units can categorize potential recruits and provide reports based on recruiters specifications. If an office manager needs someone with three years of experience and a knowledge of a specific software system a tool can be created to provide that data in real time to the inquiring party. When it comes to data analysis and improvement making sure that they are used in conjunction is essential for seamless implementation and continued success. An example of poor usage is providing a complicated and detailed report within a system that can’t handle the data correctly. Even though the data itself is good the system used for improvement is poor. This can create animosity towards certain products and mistrust in data (Computer software .., 2012). Data management The term data management is something that has been thrown around industry the past few years. When this happens the real meaning of the terminology begins to take on a life of its own based on the perception of those trying to comprehend its true meaning. A clear way to explain what the definition of data management is to show the similarities between an industries accepted practice. Like employee management data management requires a certain style to correctly guide the direction of the data. In a department setting a manager may spend time developing a plan that their employees will play specific roles in. The same is true with data management. Depending on the setting and usage data is set aside in specific formats to meet highly granular needs. A good example is list of information that is associated with a company’s employees. The data will stay the same but it requires a level of management to break into specific formats to meet different needs. The human recourse depar tment might need the list as a reference sheet to pull information about quickly and efficiently. That same information could also be used by the employee development department to conduct surveys and  gauge employee satisfaction. These examples are very simply but they do provide a good idea of how managing data in a succinct and efficient way can broaden its usage and usability immensely. There is an article written in the Journal of Digital Asset Management that describes the role of business intelligence on data management. This article provide a brief look into how the emergence of big data has pushed an emphasis on utilizing business intelligence units to provide levels of data management. The article talks about how business intelligence is beginning to play critical role in the storage, maintenance, and usability of the data. These three factors are critical in guaranteeing the reliability of information collected and scrubbed for company use. The first of these factors briefly mentioned is the storage factor. Arguably the most important of the three storage is the bucket where all unstructured and structured data is stored (Jordan Ellen , 2009) . Within the context of the article the authors describe how storage is the first step that business intelligence units have to consider when managing data. The tasks associated with this piece range from creating feeds to port information from various databases to creating tables and views within specific schemas. Within these tasks the question that is constantly asked is the question of available space. This question permeates each of the three factors but is most prevalent at the initial of data management. The second piece is the maintenance portion. This factor is most prevalent once data has been stored and refined into a usable manner. The article shows how this responsibility is what keeps business intelligence units in a critical role to companies data management needs. The tasks that occur with data maintenance can range from eliminating old data, archiving, inputting new systems, and creating methods to encourage more efficient data retrieval and reporting. The final factor addressed in the article is the factor of usability. This concept is what non-IT personnel will focus most of their attention on when looking at data resources. Business intelligence plays critical role in getting the data into an understandable and usable format at the customer level. This is the defining piece of business intelligence focus. Employers look specifically for individuals who are able to translate the technical data from a database perspective and be able to make that information as clear as possible for non-information technology users (Jordan Ellen , 2009). Internal communications When considering things that business intelligence employees should do well is internal communications. In many companies business intelligence units will be the ambassador between the data and the customer. These individuals are responsible for understating the customers’ needs from an IT perspective. Once the needs have been determined the customer needs to be made aware of how close or far away from their original needs are to the ones seen by the business intelligence personnel. Being able to discern what a customer needs is extremely important. The emphasis placed on cultivating effective communications between all parties is absolutely critical to getting the information needed to create or improve business processes. There are so many adverse situations that occur within corporate setting that could have been avoided by simply establishing channels of communications with involved parties. A good way to do this is to provide updates on the progress of the project. This c an done by collaboration software, email, phone calls, and face to face interaction. By establishing a working and efficient internal communication structure customers are more at ease with the progress and process being developed. This is essentially a status gauge that shows that all parties are involved and have a say in what is happening. An article released by press wire gives a good example of how companies are understanding the importance of internal communications and the role of business intelligence in it. Based on the trends within industry the article shows how the shift of technology has affected the way internal communications are done between IT and the various corporate departments. What has occurred in recent years is the need for new strategy development with business intelligence as key factors in these strategies (Business intelligence..,2001). From a corporate standpoint these new strategies have ushered in a different perspective of IT individuals in the workplace. No longer are individuals that work with databases left out of conference calls a nd meetings that determine company direction. The article clearly explains that the need for individuals with technical and corporate goal understanding need to have an opinion in new processes and strategies. These individuals are becoming more and more important because of their perspective on how technology is being used in the marketplace. The final portion of the article by press wire addresses an important decision the  transitioning companies have to make. The authors emphasize that decisions makers need to reshape their perspective of units like business intelligence and truly value the opinions that are being shared. If this perception of the average IT worker from the 1970’s continues to permeate a company’s upper level management the likelihood of less opportunities and more threats to occur is much more likely than competitors who are understand the shift (Business intelligence..,2001). Business Intelligence Outlook From a sustainable field outlook the question has been raised is whether business intelligence as a field is here to stay. In any profession this question has been and will be asked as the world changes. No profession is one hundred percent guaranteed that the field will continue to be useful to the society in which operates. This simple truth puts into perspective the fragility of any profession. In regards to business intelligence determining whether the field is going to progress for years to come is difficult. Currently, the demand for business intelligence employees and or software is currently high. With many top competitors in various industries searching for ways to cut cost and improve efficiency the current market outlook is good. On the flip side of this equation the risk for business intelligence to improve itself out of a job is a definite possibility. With new software’s being created the technical barrier created by big data is beginning to slowly fall. The threat to the field is that companies will purchase a customer based software that provides cookie cutter reports that can be used by non-IT users to make business decisions. An article by the journal of Journal of International Technology and Information Management touches on this topic and describes how measuring the effectiveness of business intelligence on a company can determine its future market outlook. The authors take a detailed look at how in some situations a business intelligence department has been effective for some companies while for others the effectiveness has been limited (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). The important factors that the authors cite for effectiveness center on corporate understanding of the role of business intelligence, implementation, defined goals, and perceived value opinion. Each of these factors are cited because of they are all touched at the inception of the business intelligence unit within the company. Without these factors being addressed correctly the ability for a business intelligence unit to operate effectively is severely hampered. The first of these factor is the identity of the department. Just like meeting a person for the first time the impression created on the meeting is what defines the perception of the relationship. The article talks about how it is the responsibility of those implementing the unit to clearly lay out the benefit that the department will bring to the company as a whole. These individuals include directors and manager. This push stage is the first step in gauging whether business intelligence will be effective within a company. If corporate leaders understand the benefit of the unit and put their support behind it the initial reaction is more likely to be positive than negative. The caution that is applied to this phase is that if there isn’t top down approval the unit will not succeed. The authors strongly emphasize the need for an executive push at the inception of the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). The second factor discussed by the authors is the implementation phase of a business intelligence unit. This is the first step to making a concerted effort for a business intelligence impact on a company. The authors talk about how this phase needs to be handled in a way that allows for immediate impact. The rational for this approach is that if the business intelligence unit can prove its value at inception the perceived value of the unit will be cemented in its early success. With this approach the authors also caution at the risks involved. If the unit is not prepared the likelihood of error is high. Just like the  perceived value of the unit based on a positive rollout the same can occur for a negative one. The authors are adamant in their idea that to make a good impact the unit needs to be prepared and aware of the tentative situation in which the unit is placed on the onset. The third factor is defined goals. The unit needs be able to clearly express their goals for improving the company’s internal and external business processes. The article describes how the focus of the department needs to be grounded in the goals and direction set at the onset. This allows for an immediate understanding of what the unit hopes to achieve. The authors caution that without clear goals for the department the unit will not be able to work succinctly. The final and most important factor discussed in the article is the perceived value opinion of the business intelligence unit from the rest of the company. This perceived value is critical for unit to be able to provide opinions and trusted data. The reason cited by the authors why this value opinion is most important is because the opinion can be had by every employee within the company. The simple truth is that with more eyes watching the unit there is a higher level of critique applied to the actions done by the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). Departmental Goal Impact In most businesses the unit structure is broken out into various departments that meet company specific needs. Examples of these include accounting, budgeting, marketing, human resources, RD, and many more. These departments all do things that are subject specific but require a certain level of overlap with the rest of the company. For example the budgeting and accounting departments are joined at various stages of the financials that the company uses. Having an understanding of these departments is very important from the perspective of the business intelligence unit. The reason business intelligence units need to grasp the subject impact as well as overall impact of departments is because the processes built usually touch more than one specific department. What this means is that a data analyst needs to be able to determine what is best for not just one department but for all parties involved. With a macro perspective of the company the business intelligence units are able to impact broad groupings of departments. This in itself is a big benefit to the company as a whole. The reason for this is because the improved processes help promote better interaction between departments. This is like connecting various standalone silos to each other with an agreed on process. An article that addresses this departmental impact comes straight from the Business Intelligence Journal. The whole premise of the article is the authors argue that by assimilating business intelligence units into departments these units can change the departments core business practices. This can be done by embedding individuals from the business intelligence department into other departments through the company (Elbashir Williams , 2007). The authors lay out a plan for making sure the company gets the best benefit when the embed business intelligence personnel in a different department. The authors talk about how it is important to make sure an understanding of the units function is clearly laid down before the unit is implemented. The importance of this is that the departments understand the business intelligence units are not directly under the units they are embedded in. The article makes it clear that to make the relationship work between the BI unit and the department the BI unit cannot be under the department they are servicing. The rational for this is that if the BI unit is under their own department they will be less inclined to favor a department when building a business process for multiple departments. This is important because it allows the business intelligence employees to say no to things that might be requested out of ignorance or selfishness. The second step for success when embedding a BI unit is to establish the  relationship. The authors describe how important it is to set up the way communication is supposed to occur. In most situations it is important to have the directors of the department as the individuals responsible for setting up the proper channels. The benefit of this is that it forces employees to acknowledge the support of the department’s directors. This means the BI unit will be able to get the information they need from department employees to formulate effective business process improvements (Elbashir Williams , 2007). The final piece that the article discusses is how much leeway the BI unit has to make departmental decisions. In some cases the BI unit make most improvement decisions based on technology understanding and departmental trust. In others the unit has little leeway and requires approvals from the department to enact improvements. Whichever way the process is set up it is important to have that clearly explained and understood by all parties involved to avoid confusion (Elbashir Williams , 2007). Tiers of maturity. In the business intelligence community there are various levels of maturity associated based on the length of time the unit has been in service to the company. Each of these levels are determined based on the progress the unit has made. These level begin at inception and end at forecasting. It is important to recognize these levels to determine the progress the department is making in the company that it is being utilized in. These levels are broken out into three specific categories. These are the inception phase, the break even stage, and the forecasting stage. Each of these stages is unique and presents its own set of challenges to the business intelligence unit. The most critical phase is the inception phase. Since this phase is what spawns the impact that the BI unit makes it is critical that it goes well. During the inception phase of the unit the challenges presented center on assimilation to the company. The unit must be able to find their place within the work environment if they are going to effective in the company. By analyzing company needs prior to actually meeting and planning with departments the unit can have a head start on how to make an immediate  impact on their departmental customers. The second tier is thoroughly described in an article by a group of authors writing for Information Technology and Management. This group of authors describes how the second phase of maturity is centered on getting to a point of break even. This term refers to the business intelligence unit being able to complete/automate enough critical tasks that they are able to look begin forecasting (Zeng Duan, 2012). During this second phase the authors stress the importance of consistency and performance. These two ideas are what the authors believe drive the unit towards a proactive mindset and away from a reactive mindset. This transition of thought processes is what make this phase important. Once a unit can break though to a state of mind that is forward looking they can begin to develop ideas that will prevent problems before they happen and predict future opportunities before they occur (Zeng Duan, 2012). The final phase is briefly addressed in the article and deals with the forecasting and future opportunities phase. This is tier of maturity that each business intelligence unit strives to get to at some point in its existence. With this phase the unit is able to think more creatively and follow leads and trails into data that could provide beneficial to the company (Zeng Duan, 2012). The conclusion makes a final point in regards to the level of maturity. The point made is that these levels once attained are not concrete. With the ever changing needs of the company as well as the creation of new technologies the department can easily waver between different tiers. The authors suggest that having a proactive approach is the best way to stay at the highest level of maturity for the longest periods of time (Zeng Duan, 2012). Marketplace perspective The final point of this literature review centers on the industries perception of business intelligence as a whole. This perception is what drives the demand for business intelligence within the workforce. If  industry believe the benefit of a business intelligence department is greater than the cost then demand for these units will be high. If the value garnered is perceived as minimal then the field will falter. The real question that the marketplace has been asking falls on longevity. There has been speculation the technology will eventually push this field out into the cold. This would be done by platforms that mimic the various functions and responsibilities that are currently being held by business intelligence employees. If this happens the need for large quantities of analysts would no longer be needed. An article written by Chen talks about the perspective of business intelligence by outside entities. He looks at how a business intelligence unit can provide a competitive a dvantage to a company based on the agility it affords. He argues that by having units that can provide data quickly the competitive advantage created is enough to sway popular opinion into the positive (Chen, 2012). Chen talks about the need for business intelligence units and his belief that the agility of these units will continue to drive demand. His entire argument is based on the unit’s ability to adapt to new technology and processes quickly enough to afford decision makers consistent windows of opportunity. Chen’s belief is that no matter how advanced technology gets the need for individuals to understand and communicate it to decision makers will always be needed. Chen concludes by describing how business intelligence units need to maintain a high level of flexibility. He addresses the issue of complacency and warns that if laziness creeps into the department then shifting technology will engulf the department. The real value is the ability to quickly analyze and develop a well thought out process that improves the current one using the existing resources at their disposal (Chen, 2012). Conclusion Business intelligence at its very core is business process improvement. This can be done through many different ways but the concept never changes. An individual working in a business intelligence department always ask the question, â€Å"How can I make this process better?† This simple phrase is the core of what business intelligence is and what it will always be. There are many companies that understand the importance of business intelligence. These companies have realized how important it is to strive for a lean work  environment. This is achieved by isolating areas of work that can be automated or improved through the efforts of business intelligence units. The impact that can be made by tasking a unit to think through a process from every perspective and redesign it to meet current needs can be a massive benefit. In conclusion, there are many areas in which business intelligence can be utilized to benefit a company. From data management to data security business intelligence departments are meeting the needs of companies as today’s technology moves faster and faster into the future. It remains to be seen whether these units will become a staple of the workplace but their current impact has been instrumental to the information technology industry as a whole. Reference Bank of america company statistics. (2014, March 3). Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/bank-of-america-company-statistics/ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Internal communication excellence is critical to business success. (2001, Jun 29). M2 PresswireRetrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/444695082?accountid=12085 Chen, X. (2012). 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