Discussion On Ambiguous Newspaper Headline English Language Essay

Discussion On Ambiguous Newspaper Headline English Language Essay Introduction This assignment is undertaken to understand the language ambiguity and its constituents. A language is used to convey the thought or idea to the audience or the receiver from communicator side. It may happen that the decoder or the receiver do not understand the sentence in a way, in which they are intended for. 1. Two Sisters Reunited After 18 Years At Checkout Counter Two Sister Reunited after 18 years [at checkout counter] Two sisters reunited after 18 years at checkout counter1 (a) 1(b) The Sentence Two Sisters Reunited After 18 Years At Checkout Counter has been shown above with the help of tree diagrams..1 (a) and 1 (b) Interpretation: 1(a) Suggest the sentence meaning that two sister reunited after 18 years at the checkout counter of a mall or at any other premises. It means that they meet after a long time after 18 years. 1 (b) Argue that on the funny part that it has been taken a long 18 year to clear the checkout counter hence the two sisters meet after 18 years. This cannot be possible in a real scenario that such a long time has been taken to clear the checkout counter for the sisters. 2. Man Eating Piranha Mistakenly Sold As Pet Fish 2 (e) A man who is eating a piranha which was mistakenly sold as a pet fish A piranha of the man-eating variety which was mistakenly sold as a pet fish2 (a) A man mistakenly eating a piranha which was sold as a pet fish A man sold as a pet fish who is mistakenly eating a piranha.2 (b) 2 (d) A man, eating a piranha, who himself was mistakenly sold as a pet fish. 2 (c ) Interpretation: 2 (a) means that a man is eating piranha which was sold to by mistake as a pet fish, hence man is innocent and dont know about the piranha, he was eating. He is eating the piranha as a simple fish without being aware of this nature of the fish. 2 (b) Here the man who is eating piranha sold the pet fish. Here the subject is man who sold the pet fish while eating a piranha. 2 (c) From this we can guess the man being himself sold as a pet fish while he was eating piranha. The man was eating piranha and he being sold simultaneously. 2 (d) Here the mistake is of man a different from 2 (a) where the fault is of seller. Here the eater made the mistake and by mistake he eats the piranha which was sold as a pet fish. 2 (e) this can also be referred Piranha could be name given to any other thing other than the fish varieties. Hence Piranha could be other editable variety which was sold as a pet fish by mistake. For Example: Mary bought a brand new Hitachi radio. It was in Selfridges window. Later, when Joan saw it, she too decided it would be good purchase. a) Here the part of the above sentence it was in Selfridges window is a ambiguous statement. A full sure set full specification of the above sentence cannot be given it can lead to two meaning as the referent of the pronoun cannot be specified. Like it can be physically present in Selfridge window. b) In other case it can be one of the many Hitachi radio that were available at Selfridges window. Hence the ambiguity is there but it depends upon the decoder or receiver how he or she perceive things. 3. Lawmen from Mexico Barbecue Guests Lawmen from Mexico Barbecue Guests Lawmen from Mexico [Barbecue Guests] 3 (a) 3(b) 3 (a) Lawmen from Mexico has barbecue his guests a funny ambiguity means the Lawmen a Noun has cooked his guest. 3(b) I explain Lawmen is person belong or coming from Mexico is the guest for the day at barbecue party or dinner. For example: I watched some playful children and some happy dogs from the playground The argument on this sentence is possible by two ways. How ambiguous the sentence is has been shown in square brackets to denote constituency. a)Â  I watched [some playful children and some happy dogs] from the playground. Here the playground qualifies for the viewer not for the playful children and happy dogs hence the watching has been taken place form the play ground and the person see the playful children and some happy dogs in a place other than the play ground. Â   (b)Â  [I watched [some playful children and some happy dogs from the playground]]Â   Here the playground qualifies for the children and some happy dogs and not for the person who is looking at them hence the playful children and some happy dogs are at ground while the watchful person is not at ground. 4. Enraged Cow Injures Farmer With Axe Enraged Cow injures farmer with Axe 4 (a) 4 (b) An enraged farmer injures a Cow with an axe 4 (a) It simple suggest that a agitated cow injures farmer with Axe. However this is not possible how a cow can attack over farmer with Axe. As cow dont know the art the of manipulation of Axe. But the simple meaning of the sentence says that the enraged cow injures farmer with Axe. 4 (b) If we rearrange the wording by little and form a new sentence by new arrangement, we reached to a meaningful conclusion. An enraged farmer injures a cow with an axe which could be possible as it argue that the angered farmer injures the cow with an axe. Answer 5 Question 5: Grammar (grammatical functions) Syntactic Category: A syntactic category can be of two types either a phrasal category it has two part noun phrase and verb phrase. It can further be decomposed into samll-2 syntactic categories or in other way lexical category, such as noun, verb, prepositions, etc. Which further cannot be decomposed? Basically there are only three criteria available in defining syntactic categories. The type of meaning it expresses The type of affixes it takes The structure in which it occurs While drawing a linguistic tree it has to be keep in mind that the left side of the arrow can suggest phrasal categories while lexical categories cannot be on the left side of the arrow. Rationally lexical categories are known as part off speech. Any sentence can be broken down into part of speech which includes a subject, verb, prepositions, adjectives, objects and so on so forth. (Linguistics: an introduction to language and communication) Grammatical Function: From the grammatical point of view a grammatical function can be defined as a functional relationship or grammatical relationship between the participants in syntax. For example: subject, adjunct, complement, object etc. it should be noted down that these are different from the semantic notions of agent and patient. It can be demonstrate by the fact that the how the English passive voice change the agent and patient relationship how the object became subject and a subject became object. a) [The woman who lives in the caravan] [[finally] told [her future husband] [the truth]] the syntactic category of the first sentence [the woman who lives in the caravan] is lexical category. The woman is noun, which lives are mod, the verbal part is lives and in caravan is the object part. [Finally] is other verbal part. [Her future husband] here the noun part is her that is a pronoun and future husband is the object or verbal part. Here the woman is a doer and action oriented the noun. Who is an interrogatory word which talked about who live in the caravan that is the woman herself? The future husband is object to whom the truth being told. b) [After the news about the baby], [Alfie] [felt [a total fool]] [After the news about the baby] is in itself a full syntax or sentence. Here the noun phrase is the baby and verbal part is after the news about is conjunctions and prepositions. [Alfie] is the persona it can be man or woman not gender specific its a noun a subject noun part. Felt is verb which infers that the Alfie fall after as soon he/she heard the news about the baby. [A total fool] it seems to be another additional syntax. Without this syntax the sentence is in it was complete though by addition to this it gives a new meaning to the sentence. It is itself a objective or verbal phrase this was talked about the noun as a total fool total adjective and fool can be noun. c) [Many viewers] [consider [Alfie] [an unlikely father-figure]] The first part of the sentence [many viewers] many is the quantum part it is itself is a part of verbal phrase many viewers are the noun who were involve in watching. Consider as a thought of viewer about the Alfie how and what they think about Alfie. [alfie] the in the syntax is again a noun part while in the sentence [consider [Alfie] [an unlikely father-figure]] it is noun part too here it has been talked to consider alfie is unlikely father -figure. [An likely father-figure] is a verbal part. Likely is the verb which describes the viewers opinion about the Alfie. Discussion It is common practice among English teacher to discuss about metaphor. And it can be better understood by applying the logic of metaphor as most of the student is having some understanding and grasp of metaphor. Hence metaphor is taken as an example to understand the grammatical form and their fuction. We will understand it taking the example of people and their occupation. There are only two type of people on the earth man and woman. Since we do live in this real world hence the concept of two types of people or form is comparatively easy for us to comprehend. So, the two forms of people are: Man Woman But the occupation in which these two people are engaged are multiple or countless. It may be a teacher, doctor, mother, father , doctor, engineer, manager, supervisor etc. occupations are the function which people do hence they are the functions of people for example Mother Father Teacher Doctor Lawyer Engineer There are only two form (man and woman) while the function for these forms are unlimited for example (teacher, mother, father, doctor etc). The forms are what the people look like and the functions are what they do. It is not imperative that the man form of people can manage all the function, for example a man can not be a mother or a woman cannot be a father. A man can be father as well as doctor too. A woman can be a mother as well as teacher too. Hence it may or may not be possible for a fore to perform one or more than one function or any specific function. But for a function may or may not be performed by any form. Answer 6 The given is the list of utensils commonly used in kitchen. After carrying on the practical task as asked in the question at hand, the results were found. The following are the kitchen utensils selected by the 3 participants Participant 1 bread-bin fork frying pan knife microwave mixer oven plate spoon toaster Participant 2 teacup teapot spoon wooden spoon oven microwave plate bowl chopping board fork Participant 3 toaster nutcracker saucer saucepan salad spinner sink-plunger sink plug bowl plate blender Rating of the utensils as written by the first 3 participants were as follows:- Participant A bread- bin 3 fork 2 frying pan 2 knife 1 microwave -3 mixer -3 oven -2 plate 1 spoon 3 toaster -1 Participant B teacup 3 teapot -2 spoon -1 wooden spoon -4 oven -3 microwave -3 plate -2 bowl 2 chopping board -7 fork -3 Participant C toaster -2 nutcracker -4 saucer -2 saucepan -4 salad spinner -5 sink-plunger -5 sink plug 5 bowl -2 plate -2 blender -3 Prototype theory, basically aims to understand the nouns commonly used in everyday practice for learning the situation at hand for the daily activities (Ross, 2006; Geeraerts, 2006; Evans and Green, 2006). Both these researchers quite well worked on the theory of prototype to understand the social stereotypes. Ross (2006) divides the prototypes into 4 categories such as:- Vagueness There are chances for the vagueness of some of the items. There are certain items such as sink plunger and sink plug, which look sometimes common. Participants are sometimes confused with the words. There are instances that the utensils need to be remembered for use. However, most of the other utensils were clearly recalled by the participants. The participants made use of the utensils, which are quite common in practice. These utensils are found of everyday use in the kitchens day- to- day activities. Therefore, the utensils with vagueness were recalled in mind for clarification in front of the participants. Typicality There are chances that the similar products have different level of typicality. The products shall not have that level of complexity attached with them. Nutcracker, for an example is one of the products with quite higher level of complexity attached with it. The respondents have although, easily listed the utensils such as plate, spoon, bowl etc. These utensils are found in common use in the kitchen. This acted as the major factor to retain the memory space of individuals for these utensils. Genericity Some of the products are quite common at the most instances. However, the products, which do not have common practice to be remembered, are also thereon. The genericity of certain products create the need for extensive thought on the product. The spoon and plate for an example, are the generally used products in the kitchen. Opacity It is not an easy task to divide the products into groups. There is the need for clear understanding of the products at hand. This can help in formulation of groups of different types. The categories are designed based on the product of choice, and their features involved, and the usefulness and need of the product in the kitchen. Thus, there are different types of utensils being found of common practice in the kitchen. These products are easy to remember and are used more and more in kitchen operations. The individuals (participants in this case) are more prone to make use of these utensils, and are thus more easily able to recall the products in their list. These products have different features attached with them. For example, spoon and wooden spoon are common words to some extend. These are used more and more in a similar manner. Therefore, the individuals did not need to put up much of their efforts to recall these products at once. Utensils such as saucer and sauce pan are somewhat related terms. The Participant 3 was able to recall these utensils in a flow. The main reason for this might be because of the relatedness of these products. Additionally, sink plunger and sink plug are also the related terms. The 3rd participant was able to identify these products also at once. Therefore, there are some of the products of common practice. However, others are not commonly used in the kitchen for daily use. The products of more use are easily listed by the participants, whereas for the rarely used ones, it is required that they memorise them before listing. However, depending on the use and need of these utensils, the participants listed them in different order. They have also covered different range of products in their list. The factor again depends on ones use and need of the product. Answer 7 From the list of words provided, I have selected guess word. Using this word, the below sections would have ten examples at place. Although there are n number of sentences that can be formed from any grammar word, but as per the requirement, I have made use of the word to write here 10 examples. The search on web had provided me with very large number of examples to select from, but I have tried to do the selection of examples for each of the 10th (or sometimes may be more then that) selection. The focus I had used is to try to cover wide range of areas to write different kind of examples hereon. The below are the examples written in my own words:- The word guess in dictionary means (The American Heritage, 2009; Murphy, 2010):- To predict about anything, without the sufficient available information To assert about anything without complete details Word Guess My last birthday was an astonishing event for me. I guess; I was floating in the air due to the grant arrangement done by my parents to celebrate the day for me. Hereon, the speaker made use of the word guess to exemplify his last birthday party in which he enjoyed the day and felt like he was floating in the air. The floating in air here means that he would remember the day due to importance attached with it. Thus, the use of word here is not exactly in line with the dictionary meaning, although the interpretation is same. The blue sky is today covered with clouds. I guess it would rain. Hereon, the speaker assumes that it would rain from the limited information he has. He is estimating that rainfall would occur because of the clouds all around and does not make use of other information sources, such as weather forecast or any other source to identify humidity level etc. My net book is not working today. I guess there is some problem with the software of it due to some virus attack. Hereon, as the speaker says that his net book is not working properly, he assumes that there is the problem in software part of the net book (not the hardware part as per his saying) and this is due to the attack of virus. I had worked hard to prepare for exams during my last summer. I guess I would top the class this time. Here, the speaker assumes that his hard work would make him attain good marks in the class examination, so that he can attain top position in the class. I guess you are squeezing against my proposal in the company, as the boss is not entertaining me anymore now. Here, the speaker is suspicious about the change in behaviour of his boss. He assumes it because of his the other person. Thus, the dictionary meaning is well used in the example for this case. The economy is improving now after the crash of economy of US in the year 2008; I guess it would not happen again. The speaker here is making an assumption from very limited information. As per his words, the present economy is improved now after the crisis- situation for the year 2008, and he assumes from this, that the economy would continue its growth and would not fail further. This seems to be very tough assumption made by him. My son had failed in his last examination due to his unhealthy situation during exams, but now he is perfectly fit to give the exams. I guess he would score well this time. Here father says that his son had failed in the last examination due to his unhealthy situation. This time, he makes an assumption that his son would score well this time due to his good health. Again, this is in line with the meaning of the word guess. Brazil had performed great in the last soccer against England. I guess Brazil is maintaining good fitness of its players. Here the speaker makes assumption from the good performance of Brazilian team, that its players are physically fit. This is mainly due to the reason that the team players are performing good. Thus, the speaker has made use of the word guess in the right manner. My all students are working hard day and night to score first class in this examination. I guess this motivation is due to the conference they attended last week. Here, the teacher assumes that his students are increasingly making efforts to gain better marks in the class. This is mainly due to the reason that they had attended the conference of motivation last week. Thus, it is assumed that the conference has helped the students to work hard for getting better marks. My uncle is very good in stock market analysis. I guess he took the right decision to invest in the shares of XYZ Company. Hereon, the speaker assumes that the strong knowledge of his uncle, in stock market would not fail. He assumes that his uncle would never make any wrong decision. Uncles investment in the shares of company XYZ would not be a wrong decision as per the assumption of speaker. Thus, the meaning of the word guess is again similar to that of the dictionary meaning hereon. Thus, there was quite a mixed approach found in the results. These are quite in line with the dictionary meaning at most of the instances. However, the first sentence, in spite of the similar meaning, is used in a different manner. Answer 8 The session here uses discourse strategies to explore the speech of Tony Blair. Discourse strategies are quite a common way to evaluate the strategy used by the speaker (or speakers) to share their thoughts with others. In this process, it becomes mandatory for one to evaluate the discourse in a thorough manner. Zammuner (1981) designed these discourse strategies. The discussion is about the social and linguistic context to describe the way in which the speaker shares his thoughts in front of the whole genera. The person also uses the approach of rephrasing. However, at some of the instances, he used quite common ways of explanations. The speaker in the given details has made use of the narrative discourse strategy. He is recalling everything he had experienced right from the start. The speaker has made use of descriptive sentences in his speech. The socio cultural knowledge studied well by Drew (1992) has been explored in the speech. The speaker started with an effort to thank all those people who had helped him in one or the other way to be at such a position. The author had then used his narrative approach to describe his past. He discussed the matter with all the people around to describe the ways in which he started with the work. There is no standard pattern in which, the discourse strategy of linguistic nature and interactional nature correlate with each other (Stubbe, 1999). There shall be the requirement to follow set of patterns in order to attain outcomes. The author had initially used the approach for transmission of his sentences to the audience. The use of socio linguistic approach by him helps in creating an environment in which all the audience feels comfortable for being their. The sensual lines used by the speaker such as Its about friendship, art, culture, sport. Its about being a fully paid up member of the human race before being a fully paid up member of the Labour party. These lines demonstrate the degree of sense in which speaker says that he lived in the very good environment, which is full of comfort. These points have raised the attention of the audience. The satisfactory words motivated listeners to take an interest in hearing. These adds to the liveliness of the speech. The speaker has also thanked all the people for their support in one or the other way to make him reach to the position he reached at present. The speaker had also made an effort to make the environment cool making use of his sense of humour. His sentence I know I look a lot older. Thats what being leader of the Labour party does to you. Is followed by the sentence Actually, looking round some of you look a lot older. This showed that he thanked the people for considering him as an important part of the society. Just after this thought, he said that he has grown older in the work place. This was said with an attempt to make the joyous scenario in the hall. He followed this sentence by saying that he is not only the old person, but others are even older then him. Thus, the approach made use of the humorous environment to maintain the liveliness of the environment. The people increasingly took interest in his speech. The confidence of the speaker shall be appreciated. He has made use of a good sense of variation in his speech to make the scenario more interesting. His thoughts started from the time he started being the part of the society. He explained how he went to the John Burton in a narrative manner. Further, he explored the way he got response from John Burton at his home. This helped him in understanding that the human beings are of top priority. The human beings should be given due importance for managing any task. These should not be ignored. The socio linguistic environment should be there for one and all. Individuals shall actively participate in the speech program by making the lively environment. There should not be any lack of confidence in the people participating in any discussion. He added that the staff of NHS was of quite importance to make them reach to this level. The information exchange is of supreme importance, without which, the work practices can fail abruptly (Coupland, 1991; Borjars, 2010). Overall, the speaker in sharing his thoughts in front of the whole crowd has used a very good approach. His ideas have been clearly explored. He has made good use of the political sort of speech to attract the peoples attention (Holmes, 1999). The flow of the whole speech was quite appreciable. The speaker has made good use of the selected discourse strategies to cover wide range of topics and attract the attention of listeners. All the individuals must have been quite affected by his speech. The narration of the past record of the speaker was well supported to show his level of satisfaction being thereon with the society. The strategic choice of individuals to consider more and more the people as an important asset was also done. The speaker has used his discourse strategies for covering these wide range of topics to explore his ideas. However, he could have made a bit more interesting environment by making use of the conversational discourse strategy in which all the individuals would have been participating in the discussion. That would have added to the importance of the speech session of Blair.

Summary of Walden Pond :: essays papers

Summary of Walden Pond For about the first half of the book Thoreau questions the lifestyles that people choose. He makes his readers wonder if they have chosen the kind of life that will really offer them happiness. Are they merely living a career or some other narrowly focused routine or is a worthwhile life being lived. Thoreau wonders if the truly valuable elements of life are being taken advantage of if a person isn't living simply. If a person is so caught up in working or never having enough then life, its wonders, and satisfaction are difficult to obtain. As he states in the beginning (pg4), "most men even in this comparatively free country, though mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that is finer fruits cannot be plucked by them." This to me means that people care more about the fine things in life and easier work instead of nature's gifts and hard work. Thoreau draws a parallel between others preoccupation wit! h money and his own enjoyment of non-monetary wealth. Thoreau's statement " A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone" means that rich refers to having the opportunity for spiritual and intellectual gains and afford refers to the self-actualization rather than to cash in the bank. Those are just some of the materialistic terms that Thoreau uses to refer to non-materialist values, making fun of the capitalist in the process. Thoreau uses the opportunity of the first chapter to discuss the issue of how we spend our time and energies. It is obvious that his townspeople are not as economical as they spend many hours working very hard to accomplish very little, showing a false sense of economy. Thoreau believed that all attempts to redeem mankind from its problems were useless unless such attempts began with the person. The individual person had to stop thinking more about the lesson nature had to offer. Thoreau thought that by living simply with few needs or material possessions man would have more time to enjoy life to its fullest natural potential. In the other chapters of the book Thoreau goes on to tell about his experiences with nature while living on Walden Pond. The bean field which he grew, and put so much work into. He did not know himself what the meaning was of planting the garden only that he felt self-respect from doing so. They "attached him to the earth." And he got strength from it.

The World is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth Essay -- William W

The World is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth In William Wordsworth's 'The World is Too Much With Us,' this poem heeds warning to his generation. This warning is that they are losing sight of what is actually important in this world: nature and God. To some people both of these are the same thing '...as if lacking appreciation for the natural gifts of God is not sin enough, we add to it the insult of pride for our rape of His land' (Wordsworth). With his words, Wordsworth makes this message perpetual and everlasting. William Wordsworth loved nature and based many of his poems on it. He uses very strong diction to get his point and feelings across. This poem expresses Wordsworth's feeling about nature and religion containing a melodic rhythm (Wordsworth). Each line and each word were chosen very carefully to express his thoughts and feelings. His references to God and Greek Gods catch the reader's eye to find out why he connects God to nature (Gill). His soft tones and harsh words make the reader feel and see what the speaker do es. This relatively simple poem angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with the material and have lost touch with the spiritual and with nature. The first part, the octave, of "The World Is Too Much with Us" begins with Wordsworth accusing the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and everything meaningful: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; /Little we see in Nature that is ours; /We have given our ...

Feasibility Study Essay

2.1 FEASIBILITY STUDY The feasibility of the project is analyzed in this phase and business proposal is put forth with a very general plan for the project and some cost estimates. During system analysis the feasibility study of the proposed system is to be carried out. This is to ensure that the proposed system is not a burden to the company. For feasibility analysis, some understanding of the major requirements for the system is essential. Three key considerations involved in the feasibility analysis are ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY SOCIAL FEASIBILITY ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY This study is carried out to check the economic impact that the system will have on the organization. The amount of fund that the company can pour into the research and development of the system is limited. The expenditures must be justified. Thus the developed system as well within the budget and this was achieved because most of the technologies used are freely available. Only the customized products had to be purchased. TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY This study is carried out to check the technical feasibility, that is, the technical requirements of the system. Any system developed must not have a high demand on the available technical resources. This will lead to high demands on the available technical resources. This will lead to high demands being placed on the client. The developed system must have a modest requirement, as only minimal or null changes are required for implementing this system. SOCIAL FEASIBILITY The aspect of study is to check the level of acceptance of the system by the user. This includes the process of training the user to use the system efficiently. The user must not feel threatened by the system, instead must accept it as a necessity. The level of acceptance by the users solely depends on the methods that are employed to educate the user about the system and to make him familiar with it. His level of confidence must be raised so that he is also able to make some constructive criticism, which is welcomed, as he is the final user of the system.

Greenmail & firing employees Essay

The term is a greenmail is formed by combining the terms greenback and blackmail, invented by journalists and commentators who saw the practices of corporate raiders as a form of blackmail. The target company is financially held hostage, and is legally forced to pay the greenmailer to go away. Greenmailing is a variation on the corporate raid or hostile takeover. The greenmailer commonly targets a publicly traded company that is cash rich but often undervalued, with large assets and possibly a solid customer base. Other targets are companies that are simply inefficient. The greenmailer isn’t really interested in the business of the company. It doesn’t want to own the company, improve it, or further build it up. It will, if forced to acquire the target, sell its parts off piecemeal, which can bring a greater profit than selling the whole target. This is called asset stripping and involves replacing management and firing employees. Greenmail proved lucrative for investors such as T. Boone Pickens and Sir James Goldsmith during the 1980s. In the latter example, Goldsmith made $90 million from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in the 1980s in this manner. Occidental Petroleum paid greenmail to David Murdoch in 1984. However, if a proper greenmail occurs, the greenmailer merely secures a significant stake in the target company. The greenmailer can offer to end the threat to the target company by selling its share back at a substantial premium. The target or â€Å"mark† can also go private with the same results: a profit to the greenmailer. The greenmailer gets away with no oversight, low overhead, and its profits. The target is left poorer and without the assets that attracted the raid in the beginning. A company which agrees to buy back the bidder’s stock position avoids being taken over. In return, the bidder agrees to abandon the takeover attempt and may sign a confidential agreement with the â€Å"greenmailer† who will agree not to resume the maneuver for a period of time. Greenmail is a corporate defense mechanism to buy back shares from shareholders attempting to control the firm. The practice has many critics but it can result to potential windfall for the company by protecting company shares from low takeovr bids and gives the firm the opportunity to restructure management. While benefiting the â€Å"greenmailer†, the company loses capital and other assets. This hamstrings its future growth potential. This means the shareholders lose as well in addition to impacting the supplier and customers economically linked to the company. Generally the company’s existing management may remain in place but the employees usually see their ranks reduced. Courts in states such as Calfornia have favored shareholder lawsuits, based on the contention that greenmailer constituted a breach of fiduciary responsibility. Greenmail is arguably counter productive because once such a payment becomes public others may feign a takeover attempt. Greenmail is money paid by a company (or allied company or individual) to acquire its own shares of stock from a shareholder who is threatening to take control of, or unwanted influence over, the company. In the parlance of the financial community, strategies to prevent a takeover are called a â€Å"Poison pill†. This implies that the corporate raider will suffer if they try to swallow the target of the takeover. This involves a myriad of arcane changes in the details of corporate ownership structure, investment market rules, and may involve legal requirement in the jurisdiction where the company is incorporated. Individual states may pass â€Å"protectionist† laws that impose limits for launching formal bids, or obligations to seek shareholder approval for the buyback of its own shares, and in Federal tax treatment of greenmail gains have all made greenmail far less common since the early 1990s. Heckmann et al. v. Ahmanson trial in July 1989. This was one of the final cases involving the payment of †greenmail†. Greenmail is slang for targeted share repurchases – transactions in which a company repurchases shares from specific holders, rather than on the open market. In the 1980s, it was not uncommon for companies to pay greenmail to large investors who were challenging corporate management and threatening a takeover of the firm. In this case, Disney had paid a premium price to repurchase shares accumulated by Saul Steinberg’s Reliance Group. Working with attorney Michael Hennigan, I explained to the jury how this could damage Disney’s other shareholders and to estimate the amount of the damage. Following my direct examination, as Arthur Liman was standing to begin his cross, the judge decided recess the trial early for the July 4th holiday. During the recess, the case settled. It was the only greenmail case in which plaintiffs received a cash settlement.

Mandating Writing Courses Essay

Writing is slowly becoming a lost art.   With modern technology, the writing process has become simpler; sometimes words are even completed and corrected by word processing programs for the writer.   Gone are the days of looking through dictionaries to find spellings and meanings of words. Writing is becoming shorter and more abbreviated, and many feel that since technology is cheapening our language, that college writing courses are not necessary.   They are mistaken.   College writing courses such as English 103 and 104 provide an opportunity to learn the skills that are taught through writing.   These very valuable, transferrable, and necessary skills for life and career are organization, research, and persuasion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Organization is a skill that is reinforced through writing courses, specifically courses like English 103 and 104 that force the writer to think critically about the timing of his or her argument and placement of fact.   Organization is a valuable skill to grasp for both life and career.   Organization aids in the ability to provide directions or information to other people. It also is essential when speaking in front of people in order that they can follow what is being said. An organized speaker or writer can communicate more effectively, and communication is paramount in both life and career in order to be successful.   Writing classes force students to practice being prepared and to put time and effort into their work.   These are skills students cannot succeed in other classes without.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   English 103 and 104 offer also opportunities to learn to research correctly and effectively.   Research is a necessary skill for college as well as in life and career.   It enhances learning and teaches students where to look for information.   It also teaches students how to be responsible for their own learning, which will carry over into their careers as they become responsible for their own jobs. In life, researching skills allow people to take control of their own spending habits and have more consumer power through the ability to have product knowledge and healthy living information available to them.   Research also teaches time management skills and enhances reading exposure to different media.   Research is an essential tool not only in school, but in life and career.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps the most valuable skill taught in writing classes such as English 103 and 104 is that of persuasion.   Once a student can organize and research effectively, he or she can present a credible and believable argument or persuasive talk or work not only in school, but in real life.   Persuasion is what is used to get a job initially and then to be promoted.   Even relationships require persuasion.   The art of the argument will never die; writing classes are essential in teaching this skill.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is sad that as time goes by the English language, a beautiful and complex set of rules and symbols, becomes less important to society.   Colleges and universities should keep the requirements of writing courses such as English 103 and 104 for every student.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Educated people should know how to read and write well as well as posses great organizational skills, researching strategies and effective argumentation abilities.   Writing courses teach these skills.

Activity Based Costing †Definition and Concept Essay

An approach to the costing and monitoring of activities which involves tracing resource consumption and costing final outputs. Resources are assigned to activities, and activities to cost objects based on consumption estimates. The latter utilise cost drivers to attach activity costs to outputs.’ Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing methodology that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. This model assigns more indirect costs(overhead) into direct costs compared to conventional costing. CIMA Official Terminology, 2005 A development of the principles of activity based costing (ABC) is activity based management (ABM). Operational ABM is defined as: ‘Actions, based on activity driver analysis, that increase efficiency, lower costs and/or improve asset utilisation.’ CIMA Official Terminology, 2005 Strategic ABM is defined as:‘Actions, based on activity based cost analysis, that aim to change the demand for activities so as to improve profitability.’ CIMA Official Terminology, 2005 The main focus of this topic gateway is ABC. However, the development of ABC into ABM will be discussed further under Application. The concept of ABC was first defined in the late 1980s by Robert Kaplan and William Burns. Initially ABC focused on manufacturing industry where technological developments and productivity improvements had reduced the proportion of direct labour and material costs, but increased the proportion of indirect or overhead costs. Comparison of traditional costing and ABC The traditional method of costing relied on the arbitrary addition of a proportion of overhead costs on to direct costs to attain a total product cost. The traditional approach to cost allocation relies on three basic steps. 1. Accumulate costs within a production or non-production department. 2. Allocate non-production costs to production departments. 3. Allocate the resulting production department costs to various products, services or customers. This type of costing system usually allocates costs based on a single volume measure, such as direct labour hours or machine hours. While using such a simplistic volume measure to allocate overheads as an overall cost driver, this approach seldom meets the cause-and-effect criteria desired in accurate cost allocation. This method of costing has become increasing inaccurate as the relative proportion of overhead costs has risen. This distortion of costs can result in inappropriate decision making. ABC is therefore an alternative approach to the traditional method or arbitrary allocation of overheads to product, services and customers. AIM of the model With ABC, an organization can soundly estimate the cost elements of entire products and services. That may help inform a company’s decision to either: * Identify and eliminate those products and services that are unprofitable and lower the prices of those that are overpriced (product and service portfolio aim) * Or identify and eliminate production or service processes that are ineffective and allocate processing concepts that lead to the very same product at a better yield (process re-engineering aim). In a business organization, the ABC methodology assigns an organization’s resource costs through activities to the products andservices provided to its customers. ABC is generally used as a tool for understanding product and customer cost and profitability based on the production or performing processes. As such, ABC has predominantly been used to support strategic decisions such as pricing, outsourcing, identification and measurement of process improvement initiatives. Application In contrast to traditional cost accounting systems, ABC systems first accumulate overheads for each organisational activity. They then assign the costs of these activities to products, services or customers (referred to as cost objects) causing that activity. The initial activity analysis is clearly the most difficult aspect of ABC. Activity analysis is the process of identifying appropriate output measures of activities and resources (cost drivers) and their effects on the costs of making a product or providing a service. ABC systems have the flexibility to provide special reports so that management can take decisions about the costs of designing, selling and delivering a product or service. The key aspect is that ABC focuses on accumulating costs via activities, whereas traditional cost allocation focuses on accumulating costs within functional areas. The main advantage of ABC is that it minimises or avoids distortions on product costs that might occur from arbitrary allocation of overhead costs. Steps in development of an ABC System ABC uses cost drivers to assign the costs of resources to activities and unit cost as a way of measuring an output. There are four steps to implementing ABC. 1. Identify activities The organisation needs to undertake an in-depth analysis of the operating processes of each responsibility centre. Each process might consist of one or more activities required to produce an output. 2. Assign resource costs to activities This involves tracing costs to cost objects to determine why the cost occurred. Costs can be categorised in three ways: i. Direct – costs that can be traced directly to one output. For example, the wood and paint that it takes to make a chair. ii. Indirect – costs that cannot be allocated to an individual output, that is, they benefit two or more outputs, but not all outputs. For example, maintenance costs or storage costs. iii. General/administration – costs that cannot be associated with any product or service. These costs are likely to remain unchanged, whatever output is produced. For example, salaries of administration staff, security costs or depreciation. 3. Identify outputs Identify all of the output for which an activity segment performs activities and consumes resources. Outputs might be products, services or customers. 4. Assign activity costs to outputs This is done using activity drivers. Activity drivers assign activity costs to outputs (cost objects) based on the consumption or demand for activities. ABC in practice Steps to implement Activity-Based costing 1. Identify and assess ABC needs – Determine viability of ABC method within an organization. 2. Training requirements – Basic training for all employees and workshop sessions for senior managers. 3. Define the project scope – Evaluate mission and objectives for the project. 4. Identify activities and drivers – Determine what drives what activity. 5. Create a cost and operational flow diagram – How resources and activities are related to products and services. 6. Collect data – Collecting data where the diagram shows operational relationship. 7. Build a software model, validate and reconcile. 8. Interpret results and prepare management reports. 9. Integrate data collection and reporting. ABC activities have been around for nearly 20 years and many companies in a variety of sectors have implemented activity based thinking. ABC and ABM have brought about radical changes in cost management systems. The principles and philosophies of activity based thinking apply equally to service companies, government agencies, process and manufacturing industries. Management practices and methods have changed over the last decade and will continue to change. Organisations have moved from managing vertically to managing horizontally. There has also been a move from a function orientation to a process orientation. However, management information systems to track and provide information about the horizontal aspects of business have lagged significantly behind managers’ needs. ABC and ABM fill this information gap by providing cost and operation information that mirrors a horizontal view.ABC focuses on accurate information about the true cost of products, services, processes, activities and customers. Using ABC, organisations gain a thorough understanding of their business processes and cost behaviour during ABC analysis. Management then applies this insight to improve decision making at operating and strategic levels. This is then known as ABM. Simply, ABM is ABC in action. HOW ABC IS USED IN THE ORGANISATION This detailed study of how organisations are practically applying ABC can be found on the BetterManagement.com website (to access this study you must register, and then click on the link to activity based management in the top left hand corner of the home page). Available from: www.bettermanagement.com Accessed 4 November 2008] The study was carried out in July 2005 to determine the state of ABC within over 500 organisations across numerous industries of different sizes and locations. It provides a useful and interesting insight into how ABC is used in organisations. Reported benefits †¢ ABC provides a more accurate method of costing of products and services. It allows for a better and more comprehensive understanding of overheads and what causes them to occur. †¢ It makes costly and non-value adding activities more visible, so allowing managers to focus on these areas to reduce or eliminate them. †¢ It supports other management techniques such as continuous improvement, scorecards and performance management. Reported drawbacks †¢ ABC can be difficult and time consuming to collect the data about activities and cost drivers. †¢ It can be costly to implement, run and manage an ABC system. †¢ Even in ABC some overhead costs are difficult to assign to products and customers. These costs still have to be arbitrarily applied to products and customers.