Customer Service and Project Essay

Customer Service and Project Essay Customer Service and Project Essay Assignment 4 1) If I was an employee at Petrie electronics I would like to work on this project to be able to know what products are being sold as well as time frames of the sales. For example if I was a floor salesman and knew that TVs get purchased right after income tax time I am able to research all upcoming TV deals and know what to tell people when they ask about them. Also if a new system is being placed as an employee I’d like to test it and give my feedback on the system and become familiar with the system. It is also a nice gesture to be able to keep tabs on valuable customers so we can make relationships with them to be able to boost sales as well as my commission. 2) If I was part of the management department at Petrie electronics; I would have no issue with approving the project. Jim has given all the information that a scope statement requires, and I do have some suggestions though. A brief description of the problem we are having without the new loyalty system w ould be able to allow management a better understanding of why implementing the project is essential. Also the objectives states, â€Å"†¦ provide superior customer service by rewarding our most loyal customers† which is exactly what we want to do but I feel like we should try to make a connection with all of our customers and not just returning customers. Anyone that walks into Petrie electronics should feel like we want to help them with their needs and regardless of how long they have been shopping with us; they will get the best service and opportunities. 3) Some of the tangible cost pertaining to this project would be the cost of all the hardware that may be purchased to make the system, labor costs for the staff working on the project, training cost to implement the system correctly, and we also need to have some set of rewards set for people to want to join the program. The intangible costs for the project would be some loss of operation efficiency at the beginnin g of the project because, all the staff members must adapt to the new system and all new systems have their hiccups. This could also lead to employee moral going down if the system isn’t implemented well. Yet there are some intangible benefits to look forward to such as being able to compete with other companies that already have a loyalty program. We will also have more timely information on all of our customers to be able to track buying trends and necessity of products in our store. 4) A risk that may be associated with the product is if the system doesn’t work correctly such as customer points not allocating properly they customer will not enjoy they system if they have a hard time with it. This project has a high risk to it because we are trying to stay competitive with other companies as well as make our customers feel like an important part of our company. There will also be many resources used to finish the project and if the project is unsuccessful there is a lot of money wasted that could have been allocated somewhere else. As a team member I would be worried of running the risk of not making the deadline because, Jim is new to the company and I would be unsure of his abilities as a team manager. 5) When using the incremental commitment technique you reassess the project after every step of the SDLC. So while developing the BPP we can reassess the project and it would benefit us by making the new system better. If we stop to take a look at how the project is progressing we can make changes if need or if some new aspect or idea can be added to the project. 6) Economic feasibility analysis is used to aid management on deciding on which projects to go forward with. The economic feasibility of a project should be conducted right after the scope statement, so that the objectives or a vague plan is in place to be able to know how much benefits the project will be adding to the corporation. I think many of the economic feasibility factors are relevant; such as the

Use LinkedIn to network and find a job

Use LinkedIn to network and find a job Gone are the days of deciding that an online presence is â€Å"just not for you† when it comes to the job hunt. If you’re actively look for a job, it’s hard to be taken seriously if you don’t have a professional footprint- or if you have a weak one. You have to have a LinkedIn profile- it’s a no brainer at this point. Recruiters and hiring managers use the site to look for potential job candidates, and everyone in almost every industry uses it for networking. And while it’s bad form not to have  a LinkedIn account, it’s almost as bad to have a profile that says nothing about why you’re a rockstar.Here are a few tips for how to create a LinkedIn presence that shows you in your best light and attracts the right people.1. Customize your URL.Make your URL distinctive so people can more easily access your profile. An ideal URL will look something like this: linkedin.com/in/yourfullname. Don’t force people to type in a bunch of incomprehensible numbers and letters. Simply modify your â€Å"public profile URL† in the settings section to make this change.2. Make a sharp first impression.Create a basic profile that is visually appealing, clear, concise, and welcoming. Upload a photo- the most professional one you have. Write yourself a compelling (but concise) headline to help recruiters and visitors to your page get what you’re about without having to read too much- think of it as a mini elevator pitch.3. Expand upon your application documents.Use your LinkedIn page to detail everything that doesn’t fit in your resume and cover letter. In the description space beneath each job title you list, detail your responsibilities and positive results. Upload links to your portfolio, or other documents and videos that showcase your best work. Add a little something extra to really make every section sing.4. Get eyes on your page.Once your profile and URL are where you need them to be, start con necting. Send requests and invitations to your existing professional and personal contacts- your friends, classmates, former co-workers, current co-workers, etc.- plus to any other people in your industry you know or want to know. Any time you have a positive networking interaction with someone, shoot them an invite on LinkedIn (and personalize the message†¦ don’t waste an opportunity with the standard â€Å"Hi, Name, I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.†) If you get invites from people you don’t know, check out their profiles. Can they be potentially helpful to you and your career? Are they interesting in their own right?5. Snoop around.Start stalking the companies you would love to join. What can you learn by digging around on those company feeds? Do you have any existing contacts that have connections to these companies or industries? Can you score yourself an introduction somewhere?6. Maintain your profile.Don’t just make a profile on ce and forget to do anything new. Stay active. Remind your contacts why they thought you were worth connecting with in the first place. Share articles and links that are relevant to your industry. Keep your profile updated with every professional change. Engage with other people’s content on a regular basis- particularly people you might be trying to impress.7. Use keywords to attract hiring managers.If it’s clear you speak the language of your chosen industry, you will come across as informed and professional. Using key terms in your headline and profile make it more likely that hiring managers will stumble upon you as a candidate, even if they aren’t specifically looking for you.

History up 1977 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

History up 1977 - Essay Example Though witchcraft was prevalent in England, the Church did not take part in it. However, the Salem area was place of the Puritans who believed in witchcraft, Satan and the world of spirits and so witchcraft was very much part of their lives. But since the Chesapeake colonies comprised mainly of entrepreneurs, there was no scare of witchcraft in that area. With regard to the Bacon’s Rebellion, New England did not have a large number of indentured servants for carrying on their work. Rebellions such as the Bacon Rebellion were caused by indentured servants who felt threatened of being suppressed or held down by their employers. However, such indentured workers were quite common in the Chesapeake colonies. Bacon’s Rebellion was a hallmark in the history of the English colonies because it contributed towards making the seed of independence burst open in the hearts of the people and kindled their desire for independence. References The 1692 Witchcraft Scare www.thehistoricpr esent.wordpress.com/.../the-1692-witch-scare-why-salem/

Rewrite - Extended Research Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rewrite - Extended Research Report - Essay Example It is vital to know the skills of employees as to understand the goals that they should take on. Research findings have shown that employee performance evaluations also depend on the development and organizational improvement of the company. By conducting this evaluation, employees can be instructed on how to provide better work. The evaluation can also help to provide the employee with personal development and organizational goals. The possibilities of an increase in salary, a promotion, and good recognition can also result from employee evaluations. This report concludes that not only do employee performance evaluations help to improve employee work, but can also aid a company in improving its business. Goals, whether long-term or short-term, cannot be met without regular evaluations. Recommendations discussed within the report include: increased productivity, making retainable and realistic goals, improving business relations, and helping various industries to narrow down on areas within their business that need improvement. This final paper is based on the extended research report that I have been conducting, providing an up-to-date status on employee performance evaluations based on the subject of human resources in the field of business. To completely understand the challenges that people face with human resource issues, I have opted to research and address the importance of the employee performance evaluation. I began researching this topic on June 10, 2010, and have been steadily adding on to it until it was completed. Employee performance evaluation has been an interesting topic to research and write about. When employers undergo performance evaluations for their employees, they are providing their workers with either praise or criticism, letting them know of the good they are doing and if anything needs to be changed.

Colour Purple, Porphyrias Lover Essay Example for Free

Colour Purple, Porphyrias Lover Essay Alphonso uses many catches, all of which helped convince Mr________ to accept Celie in marriage. Some of these bribes included â€Å"You can do everything just like you want to and she aint gonna make you feed it or clothe it† and â€Å"She’d come with her own Linen. She can take that cow she raise down there back of the crib. † These quotes show how her Pa believed he owned her. The possession he held for Celie was so great that he was able to offer her for marriage not because of the person she was, but for the things she could bring with her, and the chores she was able to complete. Browning’s Poem â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† uses the plot of this dramatic monologue to represent and tie in the aspect of possession. The man in Porphyria’s life is so engaged in the fact that Porphyria has some sense of feeling toward him and believes that her connections with the outside world is the only thing keeping her from staying with him. This man is so in love with Porphyria that she is able to make everything for him feel better. To him, Porphyria is above all else and changes the atmosphere almost automatically. When glided in Porphyria; straight she shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled down and made the cheerless grate Blaze up and make the whole cottage warm. † Another way Walker uses her novel to develop possession, is when Celie decides to leave for Memphis with Shug, to get away from Mr______. After years of dealing with her husband’s ways of life, putting up with all the beatings, and having to deal with being owned, Ce lie decides that everything would be better off living with Shug who truly cares for her. The true feelings and the streak of possession starts to truly show when Mr______ hears of this. He exclaims to Celie â€Å"Who you think you is?.. You can’t curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, You Ugly, You a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all†. He uses this to try to persuade and convince Celie that she will be no good away from him, but it does not work. She follows her feelings and escapes from the life with him. Similarly, â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† is another example of the man trying to gain possession over the women in his life. Alternatively, Browning allows the man to effectively gain this possession. On realising that Porphyria truly does worship him, and that no matter how much her heart tells her that she loves him, she cannot tear herself away from her vein attires; he becomes determined on what to do. He realises that there is only one way to keep their love together, perfect and pure. â€Å"That moment she was mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good. I found a thing to do†¦. And strangled her. † This example showed how the possession was so great, that Porphyria was unable to escape. An additional way Alice Walker uses â€Å"Color Purple† to develop the idea of possession, very alike to Celie and Mr_____ relationship, is the marriage of Sofia and Harpo. Harpo does not like the idea of Sofia doing her own thing, having her own ideas and independence and so he confides with his father on what he could do. Harpo becomes convinced that to remove this independence, he needs to beat her. On attempting to beat Sofia, Harpo realises that she is not going to give in that way, and how much of a fight she can put up. On deciding that there is no way he is able to win in the frame he is in, Harpo starts to eat uncontrollably in attempt to put on weight to triumph over Sofia. â€Å"He eating more and more each day Harpo eat when he aint hungry † This still does not help him to succeed in possessing his wife. In Browning’s poetry, Porpheryias’ lover actually succeeds in possessing his love. By murdering her, he was able to keep the love between them both, allowing her joyful heart no longer to be able to break. He was able to preserve the moment of perfect love and justify it despite everything. At once, he was able to hold her, and keep her forever. â€Å"Only, this time my shoulder bore her head, which droops upon it still: The smiling rose little head, so glad it has its utmost will†. The next aspect of Love developed in â€Å"Color Purple† is the Powerlessness of women. The poem that relates to this aspect is â€Å"Child Wife† written by Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal. Both these texts help to portray how women in different cultures have to deal with the same feeling of being powerless, as well as having no say in what happens in their life. Walker again uses Celie’s relationship with her â€Å"Pa† as a way to form examples of the way women lack power in their life. Alphonso uses Celie to perform many of his duties, take care of the children as well as for his pleasure. â€Å"He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say you gonna do what you mammy wouldn’t†¦He start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it. † This quote from the beginning of the novel explains how Celie’s Pa used to sexually assault her and how she was never allowed to say a word to anyone. She had no choice or say in what happened to her and always had to do exactly as she was told. Child Wife† is a similar example of the Powerlessness of women. In this poem the young girl has no choice and is forced to marry an old man The cultural ties in this tribe â€Å"Noonuccal† mean that young woman’s husbands are determined by everyone but the women herself, and don’t take int o account any lovers or any other aspects in their life. â€Å"My childhood over, I must sit forever, and the tears fall down† explains how devastated this young girl is about her marriage, but does not have the rights to be able to walk away or say no. Mr______ and Celie’s marriage is again a great example of the Powerlessness of Women. Mr_____ has sex with Celie without ever discussing or caring about Celie’s feelings or wants. Celie explains, â€Å"Most times I pretend I aint there. He never know the difference†¦Never.. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep. † Sex is just an enjoyment for Mr______, a chore, part of the business of being married. Because Celie is tied to marriage with Mr______, she has no choice but to learn to deal with it. Oodgeroo, of the tribe Noonuccal, once again uses her poems very similarly to the powerlessness of women in â€Å"Color Purple†, the only thing being that this young lady is restricted by traditions as well. The tribal traditions in Noonuccal meant that all husbands are chosen by the leaders, not based on age or the girls wants, but on what the man can provide and do, as well on what they personally think would be best for her. In this case the decision is what makes this young girl the least happy â€Å"They gave me to an old man, joyless and old. This leaves her doubting her life’s happiness and wishing she could have what she really wanted. â€Å"It was love I longed for, young love like mine, it was Dunwa wanted me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Another relationship in â€Å"Color Purple† of which the man tries to take the woman’s power is Sofia Harpo’s marriage. Harpo attempts for quite a long period to beat the independence out of Sofia to gain more power i n their relationship. The more Harpo tries to beat his wife, the more determined she becomes in doing her own thing. Eventually Sofia has enough and leaves him, taking with her all her children. â€Å"They come early one morning in two wagons to pick Sofia up. She doesn’t have much to take†¦The children. † This is Celie’s description of when Sofia’s sisters came to collect Sofia and save her from any more hassle with her husband. Harpo had attempted to make Sofia powerless, but failed, losing all his family in the process. Oodgeroo describes the young girl in â€Å"The child wife† surrounded by â€Å"Happy the small birds Mating and Nesting, Shrilling their gladness No grief may drown. Oodgeroo uses this part of the poem to explain that everything else around this little girl is happy, with no grief or sorrow, making her feel trapped by happiness. She has no choice but to be with this old man forever, powerless and drowned in pain. The third aspect of Love described in â€Å"Color Purple† and the last poem â€Å"At Seventeen† by T. S Elliot is loves absence. This aspect does not communicate the same ideas right throughout the two texts but is an aspect of which affects many characters and people in their day-to-day life’s. Whether not having experienced love, losing one that is loved or having been separated from a lover, Loves absence in either one of these texts can and does cause many emotions to evolve. Most of these emotions are powerful and are capable of accumulating into negative feelings. The only similar example, which helps to relate â€Å"Color Purple† and â€Å"At seventeen† in the same way, to the aspect of Loves Absence, is with Celie at the beginning of the novel. Celie never understood how somebody could fall in love, as she had never witnessed it herself. Nobody had ever been attracted to Celie, only ever using her for what she could do and for sex. Walker uses the quote â€Å"She not so pretty†¦Just that head of hair†¦Sure too black † to show how many people used to see Celie before Shug came along. Before Shug, Celie never really understood the meaning of true love. The same idea of Love’s absence, as shown in the first example in â€Å"Color Purple†, is shown all the way through T. S Elliot’s poem â€Å"At Seventeen†. The seventeen year old in this poem has realized that she just cannot compete with the peers her age and that she is not good enough for love. She thinks she does not have the looks or the money to attract anyone to love her. â€Å"I learnt the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens And high school girls with clear skinned smiles†. Elliot uses quotes such as this all through the poem to describe how this seventeen year old believes she is everything but glamour or beauty. Loves absence in this poem has lead this young girl to become mournful, pessimistic and depressed, at the same having a grandiose image of other girls on a pedestal compared to herself. It has lead her to believe that love is a shallow emotion only about beauty not about the person within. As a result, she leads herself to thinking she will never be able to fall in love because she feels she cannot compare. A diverse example but of equal significance in Walkers novel is between Celie and her sister Nettie. Even though the physical absence between the two sisters in this story is immense, and continues to grow and extend, Celie and Nettie still feel the same love and bonds for each other. â€Å"The years have come and gone without a single word from you. Only the sky above us do we hold in common†¦One day I will find myself gazing into your eyes†¦Oh Celie! † The passion that is showing through in this quote is becoming an all-consuming thought in Nettie’s mind, forming constant worry and anxiety about where her sister is and if they will ever meet again. The last example that transmits the same idea of Love’s absence in â€Å"At seventeen† comprises of the quote â€Å"To those of us who know the pain of Valentines that never came†¦and those of whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball†. This does not use the same illustration as what Color purple does, as the young girl had never had a love, to lose. Instead, she wishes she had experienced the love of which others boast about. All these texts, â€Å"Color Purple†, â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover†, â€Å"Child Wife† and â€Å"At Seventeen† represent very similar but divergent issues and aspects that help develop the common theme of Love. Each one of these aspects has helped to demonstrate the boundaries and connections that can evolve in the process of Love.

Comparing Women in A Mans Requirements and A Letter to Her Husband Ess

Subservient Women in A Man’s Requirements and A Letter to Her Husband Authors use poetry to creatively present attitudes and opinions. â€Å"A Man’s Requirements,† by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and â€Å"A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment† are two poems with distinct attitudes about love that contain different literary approaches. In both of the poems, love is addressed from a different perspective, producing the difference in expectation and presentation, but both suggest the women are subservient in the relationships. In â€Å"A Man’s Requirements,† Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses repetition, flowery language, and strategic role play to expose her regard for man’s perception of love. The narrator repeatedly pleads the phrase â€Å"Love me,† followed by his conditions, which are painted with adored language such as â€Å"with thine azure eyes, Made for earnest grantings.† For the narrator, the purpose of the poem is to request love; more specifically, it’s a demand for love, but Browning equips the narrator with a begging tone and flattering language, lightening his demand...

Three Disciplines

The Three Disciplines all appeal to me in some ways, but if I had to choose between anthropology, psychology, and sociology, I would have to choose psychology. The reasoning behind it will be explained in detail but it can be broken down to three main reasons; being the first discipline with verified results and facts rather than unproven theories, having more post-high school opportunities considering that I wish to pursue a career in business, and being the most in-depth discipline. Psychology has more quantitative information, more interesting career opportunities and more systemized in comparison to anthropology and sociology.My character is very self-assured and I am not convinced easily, so with all my stubbornness, I cannot be persuaded by theory, I need proof. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2001). Obviously one would know that the beginning of psychology did not start exactly when the laboratory in Germany was opened, but the first sign of actual documentation and recording of results in a scientific environment was created.Laboratories were places where psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner and more would be taken seriously when they would introduce their ideas of psychoanalytic theory, the conscious and unconscious mind, analytical psychology, collective conscious, unconditioned and conditioned response and stimulus, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning (Collinshaw & Kritzer & Warecki, 2011, p. 59, 61, 64, 65). In the 1870s, zoos became unattended â€Å"laboratories†, especially with the so-called â€Å"ethnological exhibitions† or â€Å"Negro villages†. † (Wikipedia, 2011). The earliest anthropological laboratories were the use of zoos, which is very hard to take seriously, even though it makes sense. Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behaviour , and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans, so studying animals first would be an adequate place to start, since animals are much less complex. Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline. It emerged in the early 19th century in response to the challenges of modernity. † (edu. learnsoc. org, 2011). Sociology itself is behind in comparison to psychology and anthropology so it is expected that it would not have as many legitimate records or working environments as psychology. In the future, I wish to pursue a career involving mainly business courses, just because that is what I like. I enjoy economics, which is basically applying the thought of people to numbers and prices, to get an outcome.I researched the economics program and psychology program at the University of Toronto, and they in fact have no relation together, but within my undergraduate years I am able to take psychology courses along with economics courses. In my perception, I feel like I c an use certain psychology courses to understand the mind better and take advantage of that from a business point of view, and generate profit. Courses like Cross-cultural psychology, and Special Topics in Human Communication can help me delve into the human mind.Cross-culture psychology is the examination of culture-blind and culture-bound aspects of traditional psychology that includes issues of diversity, cultural influences on basic psychological processes, and the impact of culture on social and developmental processes (University of Toronto, 2012). By studying cultural influences, I could maybe create a product that is appealing to today’s Canadian culture. Special Topics in Human Communication is the examination of selected topics in psychological approaches to human communication (University of Toronto, 2012).Communicating better or more efficiently could increase sales of some sort where I would have to encourage and convince people to purchase something. There defini tely are courses in anthropology that can be tied into an economics program that would actually help me in my future career, like Social Theory Through Everyday Life, which explains theories of culture and society, with examples from ordinary life and fantasy and their popular expressions (University Of Toronto, 2012), but the issue is that I have no interest in the study of society as a whole, I would rather study an individual.Sociology courses once again pertain to groups of people rather than the individuals in them, with courses like Women and Work, and Race Class Gender, which are pretty self explanatory (University of Toronto, 2012). As a person of specificity and depth, I wish to study individuals rather than crowds. As I already mentioned, I am a person of depth, and psychology is deep because it is broken up into so many sub-fields or â€Å"Schools of Thought† as our course book labels them. Anthropology only has four sub-fields, and sociology is broken up into seve ral issues to study rather than sub-fields.Psychology consists of biological, clinical, cognitive, comparative, developmental, education and school, evolutionary, industrial, personality, social, and positive (Wikipedia, 2012). In our course so far we have not even covered half of those sub-fields. Anthropology consists of cultural anthropology, archeology, linguistic anthropology, and physical anthropology (Wikipedia, 2012). Our course has covered three out of those four sub-fields already. Traditional focuses of sociology have included social stratification, social class, culture, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance.Our course has covered some of those issues. Psychology leads with the most sub-fields that probably needed a lot of work to organize and separate, which is why psychology appeals to me the most. In conclusion, psychology is a much more interesting and diverse discipline since it deals with the individual mind rather than society itself. In my future career psychology courses could be very affective if I deal with people face to face. This essay has proven to me and to the reader what opportunities psychology has for me in the future. References * edu. learnsoc. org. History of Sociology. Retrieved from http://edu. earnsoc. org/Chapters/1%20introduction/3%20history%20of%20sociology. htm * University of Toronto. Arts & Science 2011-2012 Fall/Winter Session Timetable for: Sociology [SOC courses]. Looking for the official U of T Faculty of Arts and Science home page?. Retrieved from http://www. artsandscience. utoronto. ca/ofr/timetable/winter/soc. html * University of Toronto. Course Descriptions — Anthropology. (n. d. ). Welcome to the Department of Anthropology — Anthropology. Retrieved from http://anthropology. utoronto. ca/undergraduate/courses * WGBH Educational Foundation. The History of Psychology.Retrieved from http://www. learner. org/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash. html * Wikipedia. A nthropology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Anthropology * Wikipedia. History of anthropology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_anthropology * Wikipedia. Psychology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Psychology * Wikipedia. Sociology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sociology * * * * * *

Student Motivation

Student motivation is an important aspect of education, students across all subjects in secondary education lack motivation. Students are intrinsically motivated to learn at an early age but as they get older they lose their intrinsic motivation. Teachers use extrinsic rewards in the classroom not to motivate but to regulate student behavior. Motivation is a dominant part of a students' educational experience from preschool onward but it has received limited attention amongst an education reform agenda engrossed mainly on accountability, standards, and tests, teacher excellence, and school administration. As students move through the school system from preschool to high school they become more disengaged this eventually leads to more high school dropouts. It is very important that we know how motivation is perceived by students as well as teachers. This will give some indication as to the types of professional development that will provide teachers with strategies to help improve student motivation and engagement. This will be necessary if we want our students to be successful and become a function part of our society. Keywords: academic achievement, intrinsic reward, extrinsic reward, strategies, professional development and student autonomy Today many of our students are slipping through the cracks because of their lack of motivation, these students come to school every day sit in our classrooms and walk out of them not learning or attempting to learn. They are not motivated or engaged in our classes even though we utilize strategies to challenge, motivate and engage. Students' motivation can influence what and how they learn. In turn, as students learn and perceive that they are becoming more skillful they are motivated to continue to learn. (Schunk, 2016). This is not the case for most of our students in the classrooms, it is up to the teacher to engage and be cognizant of how they learn. As children advance from preschool to elementary they demonstrate a great amount enthusiasm for learning, they are engaged and are eager for knowledge. Students during this timeframe are intrinsically motivated. However, students' interest in learning and the desire to perform fades as the years go by, their intrinsic motivation decreases. The lack of motivation is the main reason why many students drop out of high school, they feel unmotivated and unchallenged. The lack of motivation in education is a valid and persistent problem that needs to be addressed. Recent studies look at the perception of motivation by students' and teachers' which from the students prospective indicates that their motivation stems from their interactions with their teachers and their social environment. This is a concept seen in Vygotsky's theory of learning which dealt with the impact of the social environment and its influence on cognition. Vygotsky considered the social environment critical for learning and thought that social interactions transformed learning experienced. (Schunk 2016) Trending among these studies are student's interactions with teachers and peers, the classroom environment, building relationships with teachers, teacher feedback and student autonomy over their learning. The research question examined in this paper is: What are students' and teacher's perceptions of motivation and engagement in grades 9-12? In exploring the perceptions of students and teachers this paper will address the effect of the social environment on student motivation and engagement in the classroom.Learning Theory AssociationThe social cognitive learning theory is based on the concept that students learn by observing and modeling the behaviors of others. Students observe models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them. (Schunk, 2016) It also discussed the importance teaching students' strategies that will help them to learn how to control their behavior and direct their own learning. Self-efficacy refers to the perception of one's capabilities to produce actions; outcome expectations involve beliefs about anticipated outcome of the actions. (Schunk, 2016) Students' self-efficacy will shape their motivation for learning and goal attainment. The social cognitive theory is also based on the concept that people learn from their environment. The environment's influence on behavior occurs when students look at a slide without much conscious deliberation (environment =behavior). Students' behavior often alters the instructional environment, if the teacher asks questions and students give the wrong answers, the teacher may reteach the same points rather than continue the lesson (behavior = environment). (Schunk, 2016) Motivation engages students in activities that facilitate learning. (Schunk, 2016) Students may become more motivated by watching similar others succeed than by those who they believe are superior in confidence. (Schunk, 2016) Research indicates that most of the students attributed their engagement and motivation to their teachers. They expressed that their teachers motivated them, building a social relationship with their teachers led to them being motivated. (Seigle, Rubenstein & Mitchell, 2014) The establishment of a positive social relationship fostered students' engagement and motivation. Students also pointed to the fact that they related to those teachers who were passionate about their work, knowledgeable in their field and the method of delivery was interesting and interactive. (Seigle, Rubenstein ; Mitchell, 2014) Another negative impact on student motivation is teacher burnout. The emotional exhaustion of teachers contributed to a reduction of student motivation because it leads to low autonomy-supportive teaching, the conclusion was teacher burnout weakened student motivation because teachers influence students through instructional styles, and the emotions they show. Students' perception of how their teachers feel about teaching can affect their motivation to learn. (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Garn, Kulik, & Fahlman, 2015) Although motivation is boosted when students observe teacher giving praises and high grades others for hard work and good performances, motivation is sustained over time when students believe their own efforts are leading to better performances. (Schunk, 2016). A recent study indicated that students will exhibit encouraging social and academic motivation when their perception that their teachers and peers make available to them clear expectations, help and advice. The contribution of peers and teachers have a positive effect on student motivation. Providing classroom support, help, advice and instruction and the creation of a safe environment and emotional support all contribute to student academic and social motivation. (Wentzel, Battle, Russell, & Looney, 2010) Utilizing an electronic gradebook, and a point system student were the autonomy over their learning and behavior. This gave students the choice of how to perform this gives them the autonomy of making choices hopefully good choices that will benefit them in the end. Giving the students autonomy over their grades motivated them to want to be better students which led to student engagement. (Koth, 2016) Student autonomy over their grades would motivate them intrinsically, when students are intrinsically motivated, they engage in an activity for reasons intrinsic to the activity. The reward comes from working on the task: the task is both the means and the end. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in one's work. (Schunk, 2016) In a perfect world all students would be intrinsically motivated but we don't live in a perfect world so we as educators must foster intrinsic motivation since research shows that as students advance in age this type of motivation deteriorates. To intrinsically engage students, we need to encourage students to take an active role in their learning. We also need build rapport with students, teachers can get to know their students on a more personal level this will encourage engagement. When planning for your students be clear in your expectations of them, what they should expect where content is concerned and when items will be due in advance so they know ahead of time. (Buskist, Busler & Kirby, 2018) Some teachers use extrinsic rewards to encourage academic achievement and appropriate behaviors, teachers gave tangible rewards to help motivate students to behave in a positive manner. However, it was most often used to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009) Research indicate that teachers' perception of student motivation research that teachers do not always know what motivates students in as much as they many claimed that students' lack of motivation was due to that fact that they did not find the subject relevant. Teachers are not using strategies that will motivate students. There is also the implication that teachers need to seek professional development to help them acquire strategies to help motivate student. Which many are not willing to do. (D'Elisa, 2015) Definitions of Key TermsAcademic achievement: this represents routine results that show the degree to which a person has mastered explicit goals that were the concentration of actions in instructional atmospheres, specifically in school, college, and university. For the purpose of this paper the end academic achievement will be graduating high school.Intrinsic reward: is an intangible award of acknowledgement, a sense of accomplishment, or a cognizant satisfaction. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in one's work. (Schunk, 2016)Extrinsic reward: is an award that is tangible or physically given to you for achieving something. This is most often used by teachers to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009) Strategies: A plan of action in the case of education to motivate students, a variety of ways used in the classroom to motivate and engage.Professional development: In education, the term professional development may be used in reference to a variety of focused training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness. Student autonomy: is when students take control and accountability for their learning, in terms of what they learn and how they learn it. The initial point being the idea that students are capable of self-direction and can progress to have independent, proactive approach to their academic accomplishments.Gaps in the ResearchThe gaps in the research points to that fact that most of the research done were done in urban cities rather than a mixture of urban and rural areas.There are also some limitations in what can be done in the schools because of the need for all parties to work collaboratively to use the research finding to improve motivation and engagement. Another gap in the research was that many of the studies done on student motivation were not done in the United States they were done in Asia, Canada and Australia. Students' lack of motivation leads to disengagement and dropout from school and educational pursuits, an inescapable issue, that is widespread among all our schools. Filling in the gap requires identifying and using effective motivational strategies, tested and proven in schools for students, by teachers and administrators. For the most part teachers who can identify the reason behind students' lack of motivation will try to use strategies the feel with help those students. For example, if teachers believe that students are unmotivated because they don't see the content as personally relevant, they tend to include examples of its relevance. Similarly, if teachers believe that school-based skills are disconnected from students' career goals and future aspirations, they tend to work at showing students how skills can fit for them. However, when teachers are confronted with diverse and contrastive needs, such a direct correspondence of strategies is more difficult and a sense of helplessness is common (Hardrà © & Sullivan, 2009).Biblical WorldviewApplying a Biblical worldview to different aspects of education allows for another way to look at education as well as educators.The worldview that is most closely related to the social cognitive learning theory is that of Naturalism. In this worldview we acquire knowledge through innate and autonomous human reason, including methods of science, we can know the universe the cosmos, including this world is understood to be in its normal state. (Sire, 2009) Naturalism denies that there is a God the creator and like the social cognitive theory a child is born with innate faculties which merely have to develop naturally. These faculties work on their own within the framework of the languages and cultures to which they are exposed. According to the social cognitive theory student learn through observation, student observes, models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them (Schunk, 2016). In a Christian worldview God directs us to teach without holding back, in Romans 12:6-7 â€Å"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;† God has given us gifts, which we need to use to its fullest. If god gave you the gift of teaching then you should teach to the best of your ability, to meet the needs of all your students. Conclusion Students' lack of motivation is a huge problem across the United States, if we are to combat this problem we as educators need to know what is the main reason behind this lack of motivation. We need to focus on current research, collaborate with policymakers as well as school administrators if we want to help inspire motivation and engagement. If this means we must give up precious time to learn new strategies to promote student autonomy and self-directed learning it will be well worth it. To be able to see students staying in school graduating high school and moving on to higher education would be an astonishing vision. Students are most likely to display positive aspects of social and academic motivation when they perceive their teacher and peers are providing them with clear expectations for social and academic outcome. As educators we must continuously commit to equipping ourselves with the tools that will help our students to become motivated and engaged. Student Motivation Student motivation is an important aspect of education, students across all subjects in secondary education lack motivation. Students are intrinsically motivated to learn at an early age but as they get older they lose their intrinsic motivation. Teachers use extrinsic rewards in the classroom not to motivate but to regulate student behavior. Motivation is a dominant part of a students' educational experience from preschool onward but it has received limited attention amongst an education reform agenda engrossed mainly on accountability, standards, and tests, teacher excellence, and school administration. As students move through the school system from preschool to high school they become more disengaged this eventually leads to more high school dropouts. It is very important that we know how motivation is perceived by students as well as teachers. This will give some indication as to the types of professional development that will provide teachers with strategies to help improve student motivation and engagement. This will be necessary if we want our students to be successful and become a function part of our society. Keywords: academic achievement, intrinsic reward, extrinsic reward, strategies, professional development and student autonomy Today many of our students are slipping through the cracks because of their lack of motivation, these students come to school every day sit in our classrooms and walk out of them not learning or attempting to learn. They are not motivated or engaged in our classes even though we utilize strategies to challenge, motivate and engage. Students' motivation can influence what and how they learn. In turn, as students learn and perceive that they are becoming more skillful they are motivated to continue to learn. (Schunk, 2016). This is not the case for most of our students in the classrooms, it is up to the teacher to engage and be cognizant of how they learn. As children advance from preschool to elementary they demonstrate a great amount enthusiasm for learning, they are engaged and are eager for knowledge. Students during this timeframe are intrinsically motivated. However, students' interest in learning and the desire to perform fades as the years go by, their intrinsic motivation decreases. The lack of motivation is the main reason why many students drop out of high school, they feel unmotivated and unchallenged. The lack of motivation in education is a valid and persistent problem that needs to be addressed. Recent studies look at the perception of motivation by students' and teachers' which from the students prospective indicates that their motivation stems from their interactions with their teachers and their social environment. This is a concept seen in Vygotsky's theory of learning which dealt with the impact of the social environment and its influence on cognition. Vygotsky considered the social environment critical for learning and thought that social interactions transformed learning experienced. (Schunk 2016) Trending among these studies are student's interactions with teachers and peers, the classroom environment, building relationships with teachers, teacher feedback and student autonomy over their learning. The research question examined in this paper is: What are students' and teacher's perceptions of motivation and engagement in grades 9-12? In exploring the perceptions of students and teachers this paper will address the effect of the social environment on student motivation and engagement in the classroom.Learning Theory AssociationThe social cognitive learning theory is based on the concept that students learn by observing and modeling the behaviors of others. Students observe models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them. (Schunk, 2016) It also discussed the importance teaching students' strategies that will help them to learn how to control their behavior and direct their own learning. Self-efficacy refers to the perception of one's capabilities to produce actions; outcome expectations involve beliefs about anticipated outcome of the actions. (Schunk, 2016) Students' self-efficacy will shape their motivation for learning and goal attainment. The social cognitive theory is also based on the concept that people learn from their environment. The environment's influence on behavior occurs when students look at a slide without much conscious deliberation (environment =behavior). Students' behavior often alters the instructional environment, if the teacher asks questions and students give the wrong answers, the teacher may reteach the same points rather than continue the lesson (behavior = environment). (Schunk, 2016) Motivation engages students in activities that facilitate learning. (Schunk, 2016) Students may become more motivated by watching similar others succeed than by those who they believe are superior in confidence. (Schunk, 2016) Research indicates that most of the students attributed their engagement and motivation to their teachers. They expressed that their teachers motivated them, building a social relationship with their teachers led to them being motivated. (Seigle, Rubenstein & Mitchell, 2014) The establishment of a positive social relationship fostered students' engagement and motivation. Students also pointed to the fact that they related to those teachers who were passionate about their work, knowledgeable in their field and the method of delivery was interesting and interactive. (Seigle, Rubenstein ; Mitchell, 2014) Another negative impact on student motivation is teacher burnout. The emotional exhaustion of teachers contributed to a reduction of student motivation because it leads to low autonomy-supportive teaching, the conclusion was teacher burnout weakened student motivation because teachers influence students through instructional styles, and the emotions they show. Students' perception of how their teachers feel about teaching can affect their motivation to learn. (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Garn, Kulik, & Fahlman, 2015) Although motivation is boosted when students observe teacher giving praises and high grades others for hard work and good performances, motivation is sustained over time when students believe their own efforts are leading to better performances. (Schunk, 2016). A recent study indicated that students will exhibit encouraging social and academic motivation when their perception that their teachers and peers make available to them clear expectations, help and advice. The contribution of peers and teachers have a positive effect on student motivation. Providing classroom support, help, advice and instruction and the creation of a safe environment and emotional support all contribute to student academic and social motivation. (Wentzel, Battle, Russell, & Looney, 2010) Utilizing an electronic gradebook, and a point system student were the autonomy over their learning and behavior. This gave students the choice of how to perform this gives them the autonomy of making choices hopefully good choices that will benefit them in the end. Giving the students autonomy over their grades motivated them to want to be better students which led to student engagement. (Koth, 2016) Student autonomy over their grades would motivate them intrinsically, when students are intrinsically motivated, they engage in an activity for reasons intrinsic to the activity. The reward comes from working on the task: the task is both the means and the end. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in one's work. (Schunk, 2016) In a perfect world all students would be intrinsically motivated but we don't live in a perfect world so we as educators must foster intrinsic motivation since research shows that as students advance in age this type of motivation deteriorates. To intrinsically engage students, we need to encourage students to take an active role in their learning. We also need build rapport with students, teachers can get to know their students on a more personal level this will encourage engagement. When planning for your students be clear in your expectations of them, what they should expect where content is concerned and when items will be due in advance so they know ahead of time. (Buskist, Busler & Kirby, 2018) Some teachers use extrinsic rewards to encourage academic achievement and appropriate behaviors, teachers gave tangible rewards to help motivate students to behave in a positive manner. However, it was most often used to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009) Research indicate that teachers' perception of student motivation research that teachers do not always know what motivates students in as much as they many claimed that students' lack of motivation was due to that fact that they did not find the subject relevant. Teachers are not using strategies that will motivate students. There is also the implication that teachers need to seek professional development to help them acquire strategies to help motivate student. Which many are not willing to do. (D'Elisa, 2015) Definitions of Key TermsAcademic achievement: this represents routine results that show the degree to which a person has mastered explicit goals that were the concentration of actions in instructional atmospheres, specifically in school, college, and university. For the purpose of this paper the end academic achievement will be graduating high school.Intrinsic reward: is an intangible award of acknowledgement, a sense of accomplishment, or a cognizant satisfaction. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in one's work. (Schunk, 2016)Extrinsic reward: is an award that is tangible or physically given to you for achieving something. This is most often used by teachers to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009) Strategies: A plan of action in the case of education to motivate students, a variety of ways used in the classroom to motivate and engage.Professional development: In education, the term professional development may be used in reference to a variety of focused training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness. Student autonomy: is when students take control and accountability for their learning, in terms of what they learn and how they learn it. The initial point being the idea that students are capable of self-direction and can progress to have independent, proactive approach to their academic accomplishments.Gaps in the ResearchThe gaps in the research points to that fact that most of the research done were done in urban cities rather than a mixture of urban and rural areas.There are also some limitations in what can be done in the schools because of the need for all parties to work collaboratively to use the research finding to improve motivation and engagement. Another gap in the research was that many of the studies done on student motivation were not done in the United States they were done in Asia, Canada and Australia. Students' lack of motivation leads to disengagement and dropout from school and educational pursuits, an inescapable issue, that is widespread among all our schools. Filling in the gap requires identifying and using effective motivational strategies, tested and proven in schools for students, by teachers and administrators. For the most part teachers who can identify the reason behind students' lack of motivation will try to use strategies the feel with help those students. For example, if teachers believe that students are unmotivated because they don't see the content as personally relevant, they tend to include examples of its relevance. Similarly, if teachers believe that school-based skills are disconnected from students' career goals and future aspirations, they tend to work at showing students how skills can fit for them. However, when teachers are confronted with diverse and contrastive needs, such a direct correspondence of strategies is more difficult and a sense of helplessness is common (Hardrà © & Sullivan, 2009).Biblical WorldviewApplying a Biblical worldview to different aspects of education allows for another way to look at education as well as educators.The worldview that is most closely related to the social cognitive learning theory is that of Naturalism. In this worldview we acquire knowledge through innate and autonomous human reason, including methods of science, we can know the universe the cosmos, including this world is understood to be in its normal state. (Sire, 2009) Naturalism denies that there is a God the creator and like the social cognitive theory a child is born with innate faculties which merely have to develop naturally. These faculties work on their own within the framework of the languages and cultures to which they are exposed. According to the social cognitive theory student learn through observation, student observes, models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them (Schunk, 2016). In a Christian worldview God directs us to teach without holding back, in Romans 12:6-7 â€Å"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;† God has given us gifts, which we need to use to its fullest. If god gave you the gift of teaching then you should teach to the best of your ability, to meet the needs of all your students. Conclusion Students' lack of motivation is a huge problem across the United States, if we are to combat this problem we as educators need to know what is the main reason behind this lack of motivation. We need to focus on current research, collaborate with policymakers as well as school administrators if we want to help inspire motivation and engagement. If this means we must give up precious time to learn new strategies to promote student autonomy and self-directed learning it will be well worth it. To be able to see students staying in school graduating high school and moving on to higher education would be an astonishing vision. Students are most likely to display positive aspects of social and academic motivation when they perceive their teacher and peers are providing them with clear expectations for social and academic outcome. As educators we must continuously commit to equipping ourselves with the tools that will help our students to become motivated and engaged.

The Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives

The Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives This exercise will give you practice in effectively using the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. InstructionsComplete each sentence below with the appropriate comparative or superlative form of the adjective in italics. When youre done, compare your answers with those on page two. Her voice, which was always soft and melodious, was even _____ and sweeter than usual.All four boys were uncommonly lazy, but Jimbo was the _____ of them all.Of all the silly things people said toward the end of the twentieth century, perhaps the _____ came from the author who declared the end of history. Bright stars filled the night sky, but there was one star that was larger and _____ than the others.A loud voice is needed to command attention, but the _____ voice in the room seldom belongs to the most effective leader.Working in a library may not seem very interesting to most people, but Maggie believed that she had the _____ job in the world.My grandpa told a good joke, but I told a _____ one.Our final exam was difficult, far _____ than I had expected.Terry went directly to the shelf filled with cheap toys and picked out the _____ one he could find.Andrew didnt think the joke was very funny, but after Karen explained it, he laughed like it was the _____ joke he had ever heard.I made up a story about a beautiful bird that sang the _____ song ever heard. Gandalf says that the ring is dangerous, far _____ than anyone can imagine.You own many ugly sweaters, but this one has to be the _____ sweater in the world. Below (in bold) are the answers to the Exercise in Using the Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives. Her voice, which was always soft and melodious, was even softer and sweeter than usual.All four boys were uncommonly lazy, but Jimbo was the laziest of them all.Of all the silly things people said toward the end of the twentieth century, perhaps the silliest came from the author who declared the end of history.Bright stars filled the night sky, but there was one star that was larger and brighter than the others.A loud voice is needed to command attention, but the loudest voice seldom belongs to the most effective leader.Working in a library may not seem very interesting to most people, but Maggie believed that she had the most interesting job in the world.My grandpa told a good joke, but I told a better one.Our final exam was difficult, far more difficult than I had expected.Terry went directly to the shelf filled with cheap toys and picked out the cheapest one he could find.Andrew didnt think the joke was very funny, but after Karen explained it, he laughed like it was the funniest joke he had ever heard. I made up a story about a beautiful bird that sang the most beautiful song ever heard.Gandalf says that the ring is dangerous, far more dangerous than anyone can imagine.You own many  ugly  sweaters, but this one has to be the ugliest sweater in the world.

How You Should Be Launching Your Books

How You Should Be Launching Your Books How You Should Be Launching Your Books in 2015 - An Interview with Eliot Peper â€Å"For someone who loves a book, what would make their day? What would make them happy or make them think of it again or think that it’s cool? I’m always struggling with that.†This is a quote that defines startup-fiction author Eliot Peper. He writes for his readers and would do anything to make them happy.Dedicated readers here at the Reedsy blog may recall that we interviewed Eliot back in July of this year, a few months after the release of his first ever book, Uncommon Stock. If you do, you might also remember the mood in which we left the interview: â€Å"Eliot Peper is the nicest man in the world.† He’s a great, positive guy to be around, and overflows with excitement not just when he’s talking about his writing, but also the aftercare of publishing and promotion.So we’ve brought him back again! And what better day for it than today, for the official launch of the second book in the Uncommon series, ‘Uncommon Stock: Powe r Play’! What’s changed for Eliot since he launched his first book? One one hand, a lot: the first book was a real success and garnered some fantastic reviews. On the other hand, not much: Eliot stays true to his credo: â€Å"At the end of the day the people who read my books, my actual readers, they just want the next book†.How do you successfully launch a book? How do you connect with readers? How do you work hand-in-hand with your publisher to spread the word? All this gravitates around the fundamental notion of â€Å"creative marketing.†If you’re a writer, the big takeaway from this interview is that promoting your book isn’t something to be afraid of. It’s not, as Eliot put it, ‘a black box.’ You need to approach it as a creative challenge, just like you would writing a book. You don’t need to worry about doing what everyone else is doing - in fact, marketing, just like writing, just like anything creative, ma rketing is one of those disciplines where you win by breaking the rules, by being bold, by experimenting. If you think of something that sounds cool, that sounds interesting, like it’s something you haven’t seen done before - that’s a sign you should give it a try. Because, generally, those are the people you remember.As the saying goes, â€Å"here’s to the crazy ones.†I recommend you first read our previous interview with him and then put your headphones on, grab a cup of coffee, and join our hangout here. For the unconditional lovers of the written word (like myself), I’ve transcribed below some of the most insightful parts of the hangout. REEDSYApart from granting us this great interview, what are you doing for the launch of Uncommon Stock: Power Play?ELIOT PEPERWe’re trying to line up a bunch of fun stuff. Book launches are interesting, and particularly for fiction, because it’s not obvious what a book launch should be. Many authors, aspiring authors, or readers sort of assume that if you work with a big publisher, they have a big marketing plan ready for you: maybe you’ll have billboards on the subway, or maybe you’ll be in a private jet flying around the country to do book signings or stuff like that.Obviously, that doesn’t really happen. But even the less sort of over-the-top versions either don’t happen, or don’t work very well. I have a friend who published a major business book this year. They had a lot of traditional marketing behind the book; they actually had billboards and stuff like that. And they were still frustrated, they actually felt that it didnâ€℠¢t really allow them to capture new readers.Of course, for non-fiction it’s a little different, but for fiction, it’s actually pretty simple. The way that I try to think about our launch efforts, and the way I then try to work with independent publisher, FG Press, is to consider the book’s launch from the readers’ perspective.It’s very tempting to thinking of it from the publisher’s perspective – and that equally applies to the author’s perspective if you’re self-publishing – to think through â€Å"How would I want to get the word out.† But that doesn’t work very well. Really, what you need to think about is: â€Å"Why do readers check out new books in the first place?† Those are the people that you are trying to reach.Now, I am a voracious reader – I read dozens and dozens of books a year – and I know that, especially for fiction, the way that I discover a new author, a new seri es or a new book is because someone recommends it to me. It’s really straightforward. A friend says: â€Å"Hey Eliot,   I just read X and you would really like it, so you should probably check it out.† And I do the same - if I read a book I really like, and I know I have a friend who would get a kick out of it, I let them know. A couple of books I recommended this year are Whisky Tango Foxtrott, by David Schaeffer, which is great; The Martian, by Andi Weir; The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, which I just got into even if it was released back in 2009†¦ That’s how many readers discover new books.   So when we think about what a book launch even means aside from just allowing people to buy it, we try to think about it from that point of view.For example, this conversation is great because there are people who are following Reedsy and who are interested in becoming independent authors, who think about what it means to be an independent author, and if they get a kick out of this conversation maybe they are going to go check out Uncommon Stock, right?One thing that is also definitely worth mentioning is that today, the book Uncommon Stock 1.0, the first one in the series that we released back in March, is actually free on Amazon. It is free today, tomorrow, and Friday. So you can check out the story for free, and if you like it, do me a solid and leave a review and buy the sequel! That’s a fun experiment that we’re doing. In addition to that, over the past six weeks we’ve been releasing the entire first book serially on Medium, which is a sort of new blogging platform. We broke the book up into 10 parts and we’ve been releasing each part along the way, so you can follow the story (one new part comes up a week). Right now, we’re about to release part 6, and by the end of the year the whole book will be available for free on Medium, forever.REEDSYExactly, and I think that most of the successful authors we s ee out there during the marketing. I can recall you interviewing Joanna Penn on a similar Hangout a few weeks ago; and I see Joanna at a lot of conferences and events. Basically, these conferences are a way for her to get her message across, let people know about her, her blog, her advice, etc. and she always seems to have fun doing it.So I think lots of authors see marketing as a hustle, when it should be seen as something to experiment and get creative with, just as you’re doing.ELIOTYes, I think Joanna does this phenomenally well: she’s found a niche where her message is also relevant, that’s why people want her to speak at those conferences. And authors can do that in different ways. Hugh Howey for example has been writing a lot about the publishing industry, as do a number of author authors. You’re going to attract different people by writing about different things.But you know, here’s an example of something fun: I was recently in Boulder to visit with FG Press, and we recorded a series of video interviews where I spend 20 minutes just talking to each member of their team about what they did to make the book a reality. I talked to their editorial director about the editorial process for the book, what it looked like behind the scenes, to the designer about typography and cover design, etc.And that second interview has an interesting story: for the cover design, it’s a top-down still-light photo of a laptop with a cappuccino, a book and a handgun on the table. It looks pretty cool, I’m really happy with it. That was our concept and FG Press actually did the photoshoot. They’re in Boulder, which is this nice little mountain town. So they got a gun, and went to the different coffee shops around the office, but none of the coffee shop owners would allow them inside with a gun! And that became a huge problem because they really wanted to have a nice ceramic cup with a cappuccino in it and a nice drawing in the foam†¦ So if they couldn’t bring the gun into the coffee shop, how could they bring the cappuccino in the cup to the gun, without the latte on top degrading?In the end they had to come up with this system where they had to have everything ready in their office to take the picture and then rush the cappuccino over there. So it’s cute, you know, it makes for a really interesting story.Also, they re-did the cover for Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 as well. You’ll notice that it has these leaves in the background, there’s a knife and a backpack, and this burning paperwork. Well, that burning paperwork are real termsheets from Foundry Group that they actually issued to Mozaik, per that press release that we were mentioning.So they went outside, they were on the street in Boulder, collected leaves from the whole neighborhood, made this whole setup, and started burning the termsheets under the camera taking a time-lapse (see below). Obviously, people we re stopping, looking at that and asking what the hell they were doing†¦So the good thing with these little stories is that if you pick up the book, you’ll think (hopefully) â€Å"oh, that’s a nice cover†. And then you read it and you think â€Å"oh, that’s a cool book†. Well, if you liked the book it might be fun for you to know that background story, it’s like a â€Å"behind the scenes† for a DVD extra.Now, we’re going to be able to show these videos, and you could call that marketing, but it is certainly not how it felt! We didn’t feel like we were trying to sell something, we were just thinking: this is a funny story, let’s talk about it.REEDSYNo, absolutely. And I’ve heard of something similar that some authors do: they intentionally cut scenes from their book – often also because the scene wasn’t 100% necessary or relevant – and release that scene a few months after the bookâ €™s launch to keep readers engaged, which I think is very important.Now the great thing for you now is that for this second launch, you already have an established reader base, right? So how does that change things?ELIOTOh yes, there’s actually a number of dynamics that this changes and which should be very obvious but I haven’t really been thinking about. Like, in the beta process of writing the second book it felt very different from writing the first. Because when writing the first, nobody cares, it’s really just you†¦ When writing book 2, you feel more like you’re writing for an audience, because there are these people who’ve been leaving reviews on Amazon for the first one and are waiting for the second one.And that’s true on the launch end too. For example, here’s something that I think every author should do, especially if you’re writing a series: I went on Goodreads, a book review platform, and also on Amazon t o check the reviews of the first book. Now, on Goodreads, you can actually message the people who leave you a review. On Amazon, you can’t do that, but you can comment on their review. So I went through these, and for every reviewer who liked the book, I messaged or commented them and said: â€Å"thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the book. As a writer, that really makes my day because I get feedback from people and it seems you got something out of the book so it’s really rewarding to know about it. If you’re interested, I’d like to thank you by offering you a free Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of the sequel.†Because these people have already proved that they’ve liked the first book enough to leave a review, so getting a direct message from the author offering you an early version of the sequel, that’s pretty awesome, right?And I was really shocked at the results. Our â€Å"conversion rate† (the number of people who r esponded to that) was extremely high. So I’m hoping, now that they have the ARC and have read it, that when the book comes out they’ll write another review and share it with their friends. Being able to do that is really something that makes the second launch different from the first one.REEDSYThanks for your time Eliot.

Animal Test Should Be Stopped Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Animal Test Should Be Stopped - Essay Example   Ã‚   Animals form a pliable target for beings, but still, it is not just to take unjustified benefit of their defenselessness. It should be clear that a mouse or a monkey would go through similar throbbing that beings would do if subjected to certain hurting measures. These animals do not get food, water and, sleep. In various circumstances, they undergo cruel treatment. For example, dogs under lock and key in chambers to experiment whether a given insecticide is secure for breathing by people. On many occasions, there is no use of anesthesia at the time of testing. This is due to a callous attitude towards the safety of animals and avoids the alteration of the test results (Sherry, 1994). However, just imagine that you are in a theatre with no anesthesia or stacked in a filthy cell since a famous person wants to experiment how your body responds to that given surroundings. If individuals take the initiative of being kindhearted towards some creatures that you will realize the so mewhat pain these innocent animals have to bear during such experiments. Some countries, the likes of Netherlands New Zealand have forbidden the utilization of brilliant apes among other primates for experiments. (Thomas, 1995). Results obtained from the practice assist in checking whether a given sample of drug or cosmetic artifact would result to any reactions on people. The functioning mechanisms of human beings are different from those of animals. The extensive use of Aspirin is for the cure of pain, fever, inflammation, etc. in people. Conversely, this exact drug proves to be poisonous for rats.    Most conducted experiments are on the natural world, which cannot be a dependable basis for foretelling results on people. This shows that, the rats or mice are not the right forms to hypothesize reactions in people, where as only monkeys and chimpanzees are because their close relation to humans. Many of us are not aware that drug-manufacturing companies are not answerable for side effects or illnesses ensuing from their vaccines or medicines; however, many lately tested drugs they proudly trade; do not yield-required results. The reactions of drugs like clioquinol and thalidomide are an indication to the allegations that drugs tested cannot form a basis of considerations on animals as well as secure for human consumption (Types of Animal Testing, 2010).

Reflection and Evaluation of Technologies(Module Learning Outcome 2) Essay

Reflection and Evaluation of Technologies(Module Learning Outcome 2) - Essay Example HTML5 falls under client side technology and can be considered to be a rich interface technology, given that it significantly enhances user interaction within a browser. Such technology as HTML5 is crucial in the development of a website since it highly improves the outward appearance of a browser and enhances its functionality as well as the look and feel of an application. Most of the shortcomings of the first generation web applications and development technologies are addresses by HTML5 in addition to the improvement of the user interface. It can be in the form of a fully interactive browser or a web-based enterprise application that is capable of offering the interface functionality and flexibility of a desktop application (Pilgrim, 2010). One of the major advantages of such technology as HTML5 is that it provides safe and result-oriented applications that offer a faster and more expensive interface as compared to the traditional technologies and applications. User interaction with the application becomes more attractive and fun, given the aesthetic value added by HTML5 to the browser and applications. With the adoption of HTML5 in the development of websites and applications, businesses are able to improve their productivity while utilizing advanced communication system to level up their services to their customers (Schmitt and Simpson 2011). There are a number of rich interface technologies, but currently HTML5 is considered to be the best among them. It is the latest revision of the previous HTML developed with the purpose of addressing the needs of modern web applications, mainly in order to eliminate the dependence on external browser plug-ins for most browsers. HTML5 is a significant improvement of the previous HTML, given that it comes with added features and new elements which did not exist in the previous versions of HTML. For instance, the standard web design has been improved