Microsoft Monopoly Case Study - 703 Words

Microsoft Monopoly Case Do old monopoly laws still pertain to life in a modern context? Recently, innovative companies have been hassled by the American government because of their potential for holding a monopoly over the ever-evolving computer systems and processing industries. Although Microsoft may have been in an unfair position, therefore negatively impacting the market as a whole, not all monopolies are bad, as examples of federal agencies clearly show. In 1998, Microsoft was hit with a major blow. It was being investigated for violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. This as a serious controversy, as Microsoft had been producing some of the latest innovations in the personal and industry computer software and processing industries. There were several issues that were at the forefront of the investigation against Microsoft. The company was being blamed for holding a monopoly of Intel computer systems (Fisher 2000). The company held such a monopoly over the innovative new compu ter systems and software used in Intel Processors, it had the capability of charging much more than what would be acceptable within a more competitive market (Wilcox 1999). Also, web browser issues regarding its bundling Microsoft owned Netscape with Internet Explorer was a major issue of why Microsoft was investigated. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson stated at the time that Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operatingShow MoreRelatedCase Study of the Microsoft Monopoly599 Words   |  2 PagesCase Study of the Microsoft Monopoly Introduction Microsoft has a long history of engaging in monopolistic behavior, from the initial efforts to protect their operating system business to the forced bundling of key software components including Internet Explorer (Meese, 1999). The goals of this analysis include a critical evaluation of why Microsoft has been investigated for antitrust violations, an assessment of how they are trying to gain monopolistic strength in the computer software industryRead MoreCase Study Economics- Microsoft and Monopoly808 Words   |  4 PagesMicrosoft and Monopoly Case Study of Strategies used by Microsoft to leverage its monopoly position in operating systems in Internet Browser market Introduction: Microsoft has monopoly in PC operating systems, Windows operating systems which are used` in more than 80% of Intel based PC’s. This market has high technological barriers. Threat to Microsoft is not from new operating systems but from alternate products such as browsers, which are new softwares that can be used with multiple operatingRead MoreCase Study - Playing Monopoly Microsoft1584 Words   |  7 PagesMicrosoft’s journey towards Monopoly Summary The case evolves around the unethical monopolistic actions taken by Microsoft to achieve monopoly. Some major facts in the case are given below – †¢ In 1980 IBM representative met bill gates for Operating System †¢ Bill Gates bought Operating System from a friend in $60,000 Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to IBM with condition that it could license it to others too †¢1981 IBM started mass production of and MS-DOS became standard Operating System for PersonalRead More The Microsoft Monopoly Issue Essay1499 Words   |  6 PagesThe Microsoft Monopoly Issue The best position on the Microsoft monopoly problem is one best for the general public, those who are and will be using Intel-PC products. This position is in opposition to Microsoft and to support the State and the public. This will consequently give the public better choice, thereby keeping the price of the product down and benefiting the general public. To understand why this position is the best choice two simple questions must be answered. The first is,Read MoreMonopoly Between Monopoly And Oligopoly1561 Words   |  7 PagesMonopoly isn’t just a board game where players move around the board buying, trading and developing properties, collecting rent, with the goal to drive their opponents into bankruptcy. However, the game Monopoly was designed to demonstrate an economy that rewards wealth creation and the domination of a market by a single entity. Monopoly and Oligopoly are economic conditions where monopoly is the dominance of one seller in the market and an olig opoly is a number of large firms that dominate in theRead MoreMicrosoft Antitrust Paper1149 Words   |  5 PagesViewed together, three main facts indicate that Microsoft enjoys monopoly power. First, Microsofts share of the market for Intel-compatible Personal Computer (PC) operating systems is extremely large and stable. Second, Microsofts dominant market share is protected by a high barrier to entry. Third, and largely as a result of that barrier, Microsofts customers lack a commercially viable alternative to Windows, the operating system of all PCs. Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatibleRead More Government Regulation of the Microsoft Corporation Essay example1611 Words   |  7 PagesRegulation of the Microsoft Corporation Does the government have the right to regulate large corporations, namely the Microsoft Corporation? If so, then to what extent can the government do so? Based on our research, it is the government’s responsibility to remedy Microsoft’s noncompetitive behavior in order to increase fair competition. The Microsoft vs. the Government trial has many possible outcomes, which may affect a specific party. Not only does the outcome affect the Microsoft CorporationRead More Microsoft Antitrust Paper1119 Words   |  5 Pagesthree main facts indicate that Microsoft enjoys monopoly power. First, Microsofts share of the market for Intel-compatible Personal Computer (PC) operating systems is extremely large and stable. Second, Microsofts dominant market share is protected by a high barrier to entry. Third, and largely as a result of that barrier, Microsofts customers lack a commercially viable alternative to Windows, the operating system of all PCs. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Microsoft enjoys so much power in the marketRead MoreThe Types Of Market Structures1640 Words   |  7 Pageshighlight the criteria of firms, and express the barriers that they may face with entering. There are four types of competition across various market structures. The types of competition are perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Each types of market structures are a direct reflection of the current economic market state. When a company assesses market structures, the company must conduct proper research on the customers, competition, and costs. Understanding the currentRead MoreA Comparative Analysis of the Current Economic Situation of the United States and the Situation Five Years Ago1237 Words   |  5 Pagesits customers. Situation in the past 50 years in which the government has stopped a monopoly from occurring The case of Microsoft Company versus United States government was the company was accused of abusing monopoly powers. Circumstances of the proposed monopoly and the reason the government stepped in Microsoft Company has a monopoly of the windows operating system. The company was said to abuse monopoly powers by bundling of the operating system with Internet explorer in personal computers

The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman - 2032 Words

â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a poem about women facing unequal marriages, and women not being able to express themselves the way they want too. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860, and died in 1935. This poem was written in 1892. When writing this poem, women really had no rights, they were like men’s property. So writing â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† during this time era, was quite shocking and altered society at the time. (Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Feminization of Education). Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an extreme feminist activist during her time. Charlotte was a self- educated woman, and did all she could in life to help serve humanity. Her lover unexpectedly proposed to her leaving her completely torn about work and marriage. Being married at this time era, was being a housewife. Marriage was extremely traditional, meaning she would have to give up overall everything and obey her husband. This gave Charlotte a nervous breakdown, or in other words, she cracked up. Her treatment to fix her breakdowns were total rest because doctors didn’t know how to cure depression during that time. This drove her almost mentally insane. The only way she fully cured herself was by leaving her husband, home, child and going back to writing movements of their day. (Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Feminization of Education). Gilman redefined womanhood of her time. She preached and declared woman to be equal to men, in all aspects of life, all around theShow MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman885 Words   |  4 Pagesbeen a stigma around mental illness and feminism. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1900’s. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† has many hidden truths within the story. The story was an embellished version her own struggle with what was most likely post-partum depression. As the story progresses, one can see that she is not receiving proper treatment for her depression and thus it is getting worse. Gilman uses the wallpaper and what she sees in it to symbolize her desire to escapeRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman846 Words   |  4 PagesHumans are flawed individuals. Although flaws can be bad, people learn and grow from the mistakes made. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, †Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, gives one a true look at using flaws to help one grow. Gilman gives her reader’s a glimpse into what her life would have consisted of for a period of time in her life. Women were of little importance other than to clean the house and to reproduce. This story intertwines the reality of what the lives of woman who were considered toRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1362 Words   |  6 Pagesas freaks. In the short story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both of these elements are present. Gilman did a wonderful job portraying how women are not taken seriously and how lightly mental illnesses are taken. Gilman had, too, had firsthand experience with the physician in the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman s believes that there really was no difference in means of way of thinking between men or women is strongly. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† is a short story about a woman whoRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1547 Words   |  7 PagesCharlotte Perkins Gilman s career as a leading feminists and social activist translated into her writing as did her personal life. Gilman s treatment for her severe depression and feelings of confinement in her marriage were paralleled by the narrator in her shorty story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her parents, Mary Fitch Perkins and Fredrick Beecher Perkins, divorced in 1869. Her dad, a distinguished librarian and magazine editorRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman904 Words   |  4 Pagescom/us/definiton/americaneglish/rest-cure?q=rest+cure). Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as a reflection of series of events that happened in her own life. Women who fought the urge to be the typical stereotype were seen as having mental instabilities and were considered disobedient. The societal need for women to conform to the standards in the 1800s were very high. They were to cook, clean and teach their daughters how to take care of the men. Gilman grew up without her father and she vowedRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman999 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† is a story of a woman s psychological breakdown, which is shown through an imaginative conversation with the wallpaper. The relationship between the female narrator and the wallpaper reveals the inner condition of the narrator and also symbolically shows how women are oppressed in society. The story, read through a feminist lens, reflects a woman s struggle against the patriarchal power structure. In the â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the wallpaperRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman Essay1208 Words   |  5 Pagesthat wallpaper as I did?† the woman behind the pattern was an image of herself. She has been the one â€Å"stooping and creeping.† The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the story, three characters are introduced, Jane (the narrator), John, and Jennie. The Yellow Wallpaper is an ironic story that takes us inside the mind and emotions of a woma n suffering a slow mental breakdown. The narrator begins to think that another woman is creeping around the room behind the wallpaper, attemptingRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman846 Words   |  4 PagesThe dignified journey of the admirable story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† created by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, gave the thought whether or not the outcome was influenced by female oppression and feminism. Female oppression and feminist encouraged a series of women to have the freedom to oppose for their equal rights. Signified events in the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† resulted of inequality justice for women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave the reader different literary analysis to join the unjustifiableRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1704 Words   |  7 PagesEscaping The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) whom is most acclaimed for her short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1891) was a women’s author that was relatively revolutionary. Gilman makes an appalling picture of captivity and confinement in the short story, outlining a semi-personal photo of a young lady experiencing the rest cure treatment by her spouse, whom in addition to being her husband was also her therapist. Gilman misused the rest cure in The Yellow Wallpaper to alarm otherRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman948 Words   |  4 Pagesthis and in ways that lead them to depression, anxiety, who knows what else. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character, Jane, faces those terrible things that eventually lead her to becoming insane. The traits that make up who Jane is, provides the readers with the importance of her identity throughout the story and they also make up the context of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaperà ¢â‚¬ . Trying to free herself from her nervous depression, Jane is propelled into insanity. The

The Crystal Shard 9. No More a Boy Free Essays

Regis stretched out lazily against his favorite tree and enjoyed a drawn-out yawn, his cherubic dimples beaming in the bright ray of sunlight that somehow found its way to him through the thickly packed branches. His fishing pole stood poised beside him, though its hook had long since been cleaned of any bait. Regis rarely caught any fish, but he prided himself on never wasting more than one worm. We will write a custom essay sample on The Crystal Shard 9. No More a Boy or any similar topic only for you Order Now He had come out here every day since his return to Lonelywood. He wintered in Bryn Shander now, enjoying the company of his good friend Cassius. The city on the hill didn’t compare to Calimport, but the palace of its spokesman was the closest thing to luxury in all of Icewind Dale. Regis thought himself quite clever for persuading Cassius to invite him to spend the harsh winters there. A cool breeze wafted in off Maer Dualdon, drawing a contented sigh from the halfling. Though June had already passed its midpoint, this was the first hot day of the short season. And Regis was determined to make the most of it. For the first time in over a year he had been out before noon, and he planned to stay in this spot, stripped of his clothes, letting the sun sink its warmth into every inch of his body until the last red glow of sunset. An angry shout out on the lake caught his attention. He lifted his head and half-opened one heavy eyelid. The first thing he noticed, to his complete satisfaction, was that his belly had grown considerably over the winter, and from this angle, lying flat on his back, he could only see the tips of his toes. Halfway across the water, four boats, two from Termalaine and two from Targos, jockeyed for position, running past each other with sudden tacks and turns, their sailors cursing and spitting at the boats that flew the flag of the other city. For the last four-and-a-half years, since the Battle of Bryn Shander, the two cities had virtually been at war. Though their battles were more often fought with words and fists than weapons, more than one ship had been rammed or driven into rocks or up to beach in shallow waters. Regis shrugged helplessly and dropped his head back to his folded waistcoat. Nothing had changed much around Ten-Towns in the last few years. Regis and some of the other spokesmen had entertained high hopes of a united community, despite the heated argument after the battle between Kemp of Targos and Agorwal of Termalaine over the drow. Even on the banks of the lake across the way, the period of good will was short-lived among the long-standing rivals. The truce between Caer-Dineval and Caer-Konig had only lasted until the first time one of Caer-Dineval’s boats landed a valuable and rare five-footer, on the stretch of Lac Dinneshere that Caer-Konig had relinquished to her as compensation for the waters she had lost to Easthaven’s expanding fleet. Furthermore, Good Mead and Dougan’s Hole, the normally unassuming and fiercely independent towns on the southernmost lake, Redwaters, had boldly demanded compensation from Bryn Shander and Termalaine. They had suffered staggering casualties in the battle on Bryn Shander’s slopes, though they had never even considered the affair their business. They reasoned that the two towns which had gained the most from the united effort should be made to pay. The northern cities, of course, balked at the demand. And so the lesson of the benefits of unification had gone unheeded. The ten communities remained as divided as ever before. In truth, the town which had benefited the most from the battle was Lonelywood. The population of Ten-Towns as a whole had remained fairly constant. Many fortune hunters or hiding scoundrels continued to filter into the region, but an equal number were killed or grew disenchanted with the brutal conditions and returned to the more hospitable south. Lonelywood, though, had grown considerably. Maer Dualdon, with its consistent yield of knucklehead, remained the most profitable of the lakes, and with the fighting between Termalaine and Targos, and Bremen precariously perched on the banks of the unpredictable and often flooding Shaengarne River, Lonelywood appeared the most appealing of the four towns. The people of the small community had even launched a campaign to draw newcomers, citing Lonelywood as the â€Å"Home of the Halfling Hero,† and as the only place with shade trees within a hundred miles. Regis had given up his position as spokesman shortly after the battle, a choice mutually arrived at by himself and the townsfolk. With Lonelywood growing into greater prominence and shaking off its reputation as a melting pot of rogues, the town needed a more aggressive person to sit on the council. And Regis simply didn’t want to be bothered with the responsibility anymore. Of course, Regis had found a way to turn his fame into profit. Every new settler in the town had to pay out a share of his first catches in return for the right to fly Lonelywood’s flag, and Regis had persuaded the new spokesman and the other leaders of the town that since his name had been used to help bring in the new settlers, he should be cut in for a portion of these fees. The halfling wore a broad smile whenever he considered his good fortune. He spent his days in peace, coming and going at his leisure, mostly just lying against the moss of his favorite tree, putting a line in the water once and letting the day pass him by. His life had taken a comfortable turn, though the only work he ever did now was carving scrimshaw. His crafted pieces carried ten times their old value, the price partially inflated by the halfling’s small degree of fame, but moreso because he had persuaded some connoisseurs who were visiting Bryn Shander that his unique style and cut gave his scrimshaw a special artistic and aesthetic worth. Regis patted the ruby pendant that rested on his bare chest. It seemed that he could â€Å"persuade† almost anyone of almost anything these days. * * * The hammer clanged down on the glowing metal. Sparks leaped off the anvil platform in a fiery arc, then died into the dimness of the stone chamber: The heavy hammer swung again and again, guided effortlessly by a huge, muscled arm. The smith wore only a pair of pants and a leather apron tied about his waist in the small, hot chamber. Black lines of soot had settled in the muscular grooves across his broad shoulders and chest, and he glistened with sweat in the orange glow of the forge. His movements were marked by such rhythmic, tireless ease that they seemed almost preternatural, as though he were the god who had forged the world in the days before mortal man. An approving grin spread across his face when he felt the rigidity of the iron finally give a bit under the force of his blows. Never before had he felt such strength in the metal; it tested him to the limits of his own resilience, and he felt a shiver as alluring as the thrill of battle when he had at last proven himself the stronger: â€Å"Bruenor will be pleased.† Wulfgar stopped for a moment and considered the implications of his thoughts, smiling in spite of himself as he remembered his first days in the mines of the dwarves. What a stubborn, angry youth he had been then, cheated out of his right to die on the field of honor by a grumbling dwarf who justified unasked-for compassion by labeling it â€Å"good business.† This was his fifth and final spring indentured to the dwarves in tunnels that kept his seven-foot frame continually hunched. He longed for the freedom of the open tundra, where he could stretch his arms up high to the warmth of the sun or to the intangible pull of the moon. Or lie flat on his back with his legs unbent, the ceaseless wind tickling him with its chill bite and the crystalline stars filling his mind with mystical visions of unknown horizons. And yet, for all of their inconveniences, Wulfgar had to admit that he would miss the hot drafts and constant clatter of the dwarven halls. He had clung to the brutal code of his people, which defined capture as disgrace, during the first year of his servitude, reciting the Song of Tempos as a litany of strength against the insinuation of weakness in the company of the soft, civilized southerners. Yet Bruenor was as solid as the metal he pounded. The dwarf openly professed no love for battle, but he swung his notched axe with deadly accuracy and shrugged off blows that would fell an ogre. The dwarf had been an enigma to Wulfgar in the early days of their relationship. The young barbarian was compelled to grant Bruenor a degree of respect, for Bruenor had bested him on the field of honor. Even then, with the battlelines firmly defining the two as enemies, Wulfgar had recognized a genuine and deeply-rooted affection in the eyes of the dwarf that had confused him. He and his people had come to pillage Ten-Towns, yet Bruenor’s underlying attitude seemed more the concern of a stern father than the callous perspective of a slave’s master. Wulfgar always remembered his rank in the mines, however, for Bruenor was often gruff and insulting, working Wulfgar at menial, sometimes degrading, tasks. Wulfgar’s anger had dissipated over the long months. He came to accept his penance with stoicism, heeding Bruenor’s commands without question or complaint. Gradually, conditions had improved. Bruenor had taught him to work the forge, and later, to craft the metal into fine weapons and tools. And finally, on a day that Wulfgar would never forget, he had been given his own forge and anvil where he could work in solitude and without supervision – though Bruenor often stuck his head in to grumble over an inexact strike or to spout out a few pointers. More than the degree of freedom, though, the small workshop had restored Wulfgar’s pride. Since the first time he lifted the smithy hammer he called his own, the methodical stoicism of a servant had been replaced by the eagerness and meticulous devotion of a true craftsman. The barbarian found himself fretting over the smallest burr, sometimes reworking an entire piece to correct a slight imperfection. Wulfgar was pleased about this change in his perspective, viewing it as an attribute that might serve him well in the future, though he didn’t as yet understand how. Bruenor called it â€Å"character.† The work paid dividends physically as well. Chopping stone and pounding metal had corded the barbarian’s muscles, redefining the gangly frame of his youth into a hardened girth of unrivaled strength. And he possessed great stamina, for the tempo of the tireless dwarves had strengthened his heart and stretched his lungs to new limits. Wulfgar bit his lip in shame as he vividly remembered his first conscious thought after the Battle of Bryn Shander. He had vowed to pay Bruenor back in blood as soon as he had fulfilled the terms of his indenture. He understood now, to his own amazement, that he had become a better man under the tutelage of Bruenor Battlehammer, and the mere thought of raising a weapon against the dwarf sickened him. He turned his sudden emotion into motion, slamming his hammer against the iron, flattening its incredibly hard head more and more into the semblance of a blade. This piece would make a fine sword. Bruenor would be pleased. How to cite The Crystal Shard 9. No More a Boy, Essay examples

Case Study of Fedex and UPS free essay sample

The location could not have been more appropriate. China was shaping up to be the world’s most significant market for air cargo, and Yan Yuanyuan, director general of China’s General Administration of Civil Aviation, had just announced that China would be opening up its air cargo market to an even greater degree. The major global cargo companies had been picking up their level of investment in China and were poised for growth: FedEx Corp. had just begun construction of a major regional hub in Guangzhou and already had over 200 Chinese cities in its international network, and United Parcel Service of America, Inc. (UPS), was just completing a new logistics hub in Shanghai and had recently begun domestic Chinese express package services. The question on the minds of many was which of these two cargo giants was going to make the most of this opportunity. Spurred in part by entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, growth in trade with China had accelerated and the need for cargo shipment and logistics support had skyrocketed. On June 18, 2004, the United States and China reached a landmark air-transportation agreement that quintupled the number of commercial cargo flights between the two countries. The agreement also allowed for the establishment of air-cargo hubs in China and landing rights for commercial airlines at any available airport. The pact represented the most dramatic liberalization of air traffic in the history of the two nations.  Ã‚  had been quicker to seize the new opportunities this agreement presented. By year-end 2005, it operated more all-cargo flights to China than any other airline. During 2005, the company launched the express industry’s first direct service to China (from Europe). In January of 2006, FedEx announced that it would buy out the remaining 50% of a Chinese joint venture started in 1999 with local carrier Tianjin Datian W. Group. Upon closing that deal, FedEx would employ more than 6,000 people in China. At the announcement of the buyout, Frederick W. Smith, chair, president, and CEO of FedEx, said: â€Å"China is changing the world’s economic landscape. This strategic investment in the long-term growth of China will broaden This case was prepared by Associate Professor Marc Lipson, Robert F. Bruner, and Sean Carr. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright ? 2009 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to [emailprotected]  com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. -2- UV2561 and deepen our relationship by improving access to important markets, fueling economic development for years to come. â € 1 While UPS currently lagged behind FedEx in the Chinese market, it was still the world’s largest package-delivery company and the dominant parcel carrier in the United States. UPS was the first carrier in the industry to offer nonstop service from the United States to China. It had recently completed a partner buyout of its own, acquiring full control of an express delivery service in China. While not the dominant player in China, it was dominant globally. According to UPS Chief Financial Officer D. Scott Davis, â€Å"Our industry is critical to international trade, our position in this industry is strong, and we have a track record of delivering exceptional financial results. †2 With the continued maturing of the U.S. package-delivery segment, the international markets—and especially China—became a battleground for the two package-delivery giants. FedEx had virtually invented customer logistical management and was widely perceived as innovative, entrepreneurial, and an operational leader. Historically, UPS had a reputation for being big, bureaucratic, and an industry follower, but â€Å"Big Brown,† so called for its iconic truc ks and uniforms, was aggressively shedding its plodding image as it too became an innovator and a tenacious adversary. UPS had recently undergone a major image overhaul and was repositioning itself as a leading provider of logistics and supply-chain management services. As these two companies positioned themselves to seize the growth opportunities presented by the Chinese market, the central question was which of these companies would best convert these opportunities into wealth for investors. Both companies made financial performance a part of their mission—what FedEx called â€Å"superior financial returns† and UPS called â€Å"long-term competitive returns. †3 Since the business models of the two companies had largely converged, with FedEx boosting ground capabilities and UPS boosting air capacity, success would hinge on execution, particularly financial execution. FedEx Corporation FedEx first took form as Smith’s undergraduate term paper for a Yale University economics class. Smith’s strategy dictated that FedEx would purchase the planes that it required to transport packages, unlike other competitors, which used the cargo space available on passenger airlines. In addition to using his own planes, Smith’s key innovation was a hub-andspoke distribution pattern, which permitted cheaper and faster service to more locations than his competitors could offer. In 1971, Smith invested his $4 million inheritance, and raised $91 million in venture capital to launch the firm—the largest venture-capital start-up at the time. 1 â€Å"FedEx Express to Acquire Express Business of Chinese Transportation Company DTW Group,† FedEx press release, January 25, 2006. 2 UPS annual report, 2005. 3UPS and FedEx annual reports, 2005. -3- UV2561. In 1973, on the first night of continuous operation, 389 FedEx employees delivered 186 packages overnight to 25 U. S. cities. In those early years, FedEx, then known as Federal Express Corporation, experienced severe losses, and Smith was nearly ousted from his chair position. By 1976, FedEx finally saw a modest profit of $3. 6 million on an average daily volume of 19,000 packages. Through the rest of the 1970s, FedEx continued to grow, and in 1981, FedEx generated more revenue than any other U.S. air-delivery company. By 1981, competition in the industry had started to rise. Emery Air Freight began to imitate FedEx’s hub system and to acquire airplanes, and UPS began to move into the overnightair market. The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) positioned its overnight letter at half the price of FedEx’s, but quality problems and FedEx’s â€Å"absolutely positively overnight† ad campaign quelled that potential threat. In 1983, FedEx reached $1 billion in revenues and seemed poised to own the market for express delivery. During the 1990s, FedEx proved itself as an operational leader, even receiving the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the President of the United States. FedEx was the first company ever to win in the service category. Part of this success could be attributed to deregulation and to operational strategy, but credit could also be given to FedEx’s philosophy of â€Å"People-Service-Profit,† a slogan that reflected its emphasis on customer focus, total quality management, and employee participation. Extensive attitude surveying, a promotefrom-within policy, effective grievance procedures that sometimes resulted in a chat with Smith himself, and an emphasis on personal responsibility and initiative not only earned FedEx a reputation as a great place to work, but also helped to keep the firm largely free of unions. By the end of 2005, FedEx had $20,404 million in assets and net income of $1,449 million on revenue of $29,363 million. The company delivered to 220 countries through an infrastructure consisting of 260,000 employees, 51,500 drop-off locations, 677 aircraft, and 70,000 vehicles and trailers. The company planned to expand its Indianapolis air hub by more than 30% by 2008. FedEx’s Kinko’s division was the leading provider of document solutions with 1,400 locations in 11 countries. Exhibit 1 provides FedEx’s financial and analytical ratios. United Parcel Service of America, Inc. Founded in 1907, UPS was the largest package-delivery company in the world. Consolidated parcel delivery, both on the ground and through the air, was the company’s primary business, although increasingly the company offered more specialized transportation and logistics services. UPS had its roots in Seattle, Washington, where 19-year-old Jim Casey started a bicycle-messenger service called American Messenger Company. After merging with a rival firm, Motorcycle Delivery Company, the company focused on department-store deliveries, and that remained true until the 1940s. Renamed United Parcel Service of America, UPS started an air-delivery service in 1929 by putting packages on commercial passenger planes. The company entered its strongest period of growth during the post–World War II economic boom; by 1975, it-4- UV2561 had reached a milestone when it could promise package delivery to every address in the continental United States. The key to the success of UPS, later headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was efficiency. According to BusinessWeek, â€Å"Every route is timed down to the traffic light. Each vehicle was engineered to exacting specifications. And the drivers †¦ endure a daily routine calibrated down to the minute. †4 But this deman d for machinelike precision met with resistance by UPS’s heavily unionized labor force.

Waiting for Icarus The Faces of Love an Example of the Topic Literature Essays by

Waiting for Icarus: The Faces of Love Introduction Waiting is an inevitable part of the daily life. One has to go to many kinds of waiting: for an examination result, for a friends answer to a written letter, for a call to a boss, for the daily allowance or salary, for the pizza delivery, for the lovely evening, or for the beautiful sunrise. Waiting is essential, as the old saying goes. As the famous author and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked in his writing: how much is time does one spent in his lifetime by merely waiting? But of all the waiting that one has done for all his lifetime, isnt the waiting for the special someone the most romantic yet tedious waiting to do? Need essay sample on "Waiting for Icarus: The Faces of Love" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed :Who wants to write assignment for me?Professional writers suggest:Order Papers On Essaylab.ComEssay Helper Online Writing Paper Online To Write Cheap Writing Service Reviews Cheap Custom Writing Service Henry Van Dyke, an American short story writer, once said this famous line. Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity (Van Dyke 51). Can love really wait for eternity? This question is the same question that Muriel Rukeyser asks in her poem Waiting for Icarus. Several views about love and waiting can be seen throughout this poem, most of which reflects the reality of loving, the reality of life. Review of Related Literature. An essay written about this poem and posted in peerpapers.com relates waiting and loving very well. It says that because the narrator of the poem, most possibly Icarus girlfriend, loves Icarus greatly, she does not notice how time pass by easily. As a true lover, Icarus girlfriend does not even notice time. We can also relate this statement to the quote from Van Dyke mentioned earlier, because love is too great, it is definitely willing to wait until eternity. However, love, as seen through the speaker of the poem, lies beyond waiting alone. Besides waiting, she also shows signs of worrying. The article suggests that She is terribly worried about Icarus More than the idea of love and waiting, the poem, according to the article, also shows concern and fear. The essay expresses how in loving, one will be constantly wondering about the welfare of the loved one. Lastly, this first essay reflects the relationship between loving and longing. It says: it is easy to see how much she misses her lover The speaker of the poem really shows, through her words, how much she longs for Icarus. She waits as much as she can because she longs for her love, and as long as she loves Icarus, she can wait until eternity. Another essay, posted in megaessays.com, shows how promises are significant in loving. According to the essay, the speaker of the poem gets close to her lover because of the promises that his lover gave her. While she is waiting, she reminisces about the promises he made to her and about how he confided his dreams and ambitions to her. These promises and confidences made her feel close and special to him. In this passage, we can infer two ideas about love according to the authors analysis of the poem. First, Icarus lover is able wait for Icarus for such a long time because she feeds her mind of the promises that Icarus gave her. It means that the essential part in waiting for a loved ones lies within the memories shared. Second, the promises is essential in loving, it serves a s the fuel of love, just like in the poem. Icarus lover got close to Icarus because of the promises given to her. The essay also suggest another angle of the story: the angle of the Man, referred to as Icarus in the poem. The article says In the title Waiting for Icarus, Icarus symbolizes men who run away from their relationships. It suggests that Icarus does not necessarily refer to the man in the myth, Icarus, who flew with his father, Daedalus, but has disobeyed his father and drowned in the ocean. Instead, Icarus reflects every man who makes promises to their loved ones, not necessarily a girl, but in the end, running away from those promises. In a conclusion, this second essay reflects that, in the relationship where the speaker is in, Icarus is the man who escaped from his responsibility and the speaker is the girl who is left waiting and holding on to broken promises. Critical Perspective: Formalist Perspective Analyzing the story from the formalist point of view, we can infer that the speaker in the poem represents all of those who wait for their lovers and Icarus in the poem represents all that is loved. The setting of the poem is in the beach where the girl is prompt by Icarus to wait for him. Because the girl is unsure whether she is waiting for Icarus for one whole day, we can infer that the time could have been late in the afternoon or just before the sun sets. The characters in the poem are the speaker, preferably a girl, and someone he is waiting for, could have been her lover, and as the title suggests, a lover of the name of Icarus. The girl, having no particular name, can easily be inferred to reflect all the girls who love. The poem can be spoken by any kind of girl who loves, has been given promises, waits, and suddenly realizes that they could have been waiting in vain all those times. The one, who is waited, on the other hand, may s ymbolize all those who is loved. The name of the character in the title, Icarus, is an allusion from the Greek mythology. Icarus is the son of the famous inventor, Daedalus. Two of them are jailed in the tower of the labyrinth. In order to escape prison and death, Daedalus created wings made from wax and bird feathers. They used these wings to soar to the sky and fly away from their prison. However, because the wings are made up of wax alone, Daedalus warned his son not to go too near from the sun because the heat might melt the wax and the wings might loose its feathers. Icarus did not heed to his fathers warnings and instead, enjoyed flying too much that he flew as close to the sun as possible. Because of this, his wings got broken and he drowned in the sea. This story can be inferred to reflect love. Icarus, the lover, ventures on love too much that by the time he realizes that he is flying too close to what he can only handle, it is too late and he is already falling down into the big sea of hopelessness. The language used in the story is conversational English. It resembles an entry of a girls diary or a stream of consciousness that runs in her thought. Since the speaker uses informal language such as cringe before his father and a trashy lot, the reader gets to feel that the speaker is talking to them. They can easy grasp the feeling that the speaker wants to imply. Moreover, they can easily relate to what the speaker is feeling because the words used are conversational and can easily be understood. The meaning that can be conveyed in the poem is direct. It reflects the girl expressing his sentiments about his lover who promises her a lot of things but has left her empty handed. However, different readers of the poem can have different understanding of the poem, depending on how deep they can venture between the words used in the poem. Different levels of meaning lies in the poem, depending on how readers understand it. Analysis The poem Waiting for Icarus is a story that reflects several faces of love. It reflects waiting, hoping, and realizing. Waiting. The poem, as superficially seen, is about a girl who waits for her lover. I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer. The girl who loves waits, and faithfully waits as her love tells him too. This, is the first face of love, waiting faithfully and honestly. Hoping. The speaker in the poem has too many hopes and wishes that can be seen in the poem. First of these are the hopes that all those that her family and friends say about her love is false. He wishes that Icarus proves false what her mother said to her that he only wants to get away from her and that inventors, like Icarus are, do not keep their promises. I remember they said he only wanted to get away from me I remember mother saying: Inventors are like poets, a trashy lot. She also hopes that the girls who make fun of her, thinking that she is waiting in vain, will be proved false. Lastly, she wished for a chance to try what her lover had tried. When she said "I would have liked to try those wings myself," it can be inferred that she wants to have the courage to try other things, have other experiences, rather that locking herself to a love that she is not sure if is worth her waiting. "He said he would be back and we'd drink wine together." This line is full of hopes from the speaker of the girl for his lover to return and bring back the happy times that both of them has shared. She holds on to the promise that once her lover has returned, things are already better and that "everything would be better than before." "He said we were on the edge of a new relation." This line foreshadows the affection their relationship. By saying that their love is on the edge of a new relation, it can mean only two ideas: either their relationship will improve or is better to end that way. "He said he would never again cringe before his father." This, is the start of the many promises that her lover has given her. Her mere listing of these promises creates an illusion that she hopes that these promises will become realities once her loved one has returned. The lines that followed are addition to the list of promises. "He said that he was going to invent full-time/ He said he loved me that going into me." "He said was going into the world and the sky." In this line, the fault of the one being waited can be reflected. He said he was going somewhere, fulfilling some dreams that the girl is not included. However, the girl continues to hope and trust her love. "He said all the buckles were very firm/ He said the wax was the best wax " In these lines, it can be inferred that the boy is quite sure of where he is going. He is sure that whatever it is that he is about to do, he will accomplish it very well. He is too proud of himself. "He said Wait for me here on the beach." Here is another promise that the boy has given: a promise that he will return while the next line, "He said Just don't cry" expresses that the boy still loves the girl, still cares for her. Finally, love is more of realizations. And there are numerous realizations that can be inferred from this poem. "I remember the gulls and the waves I remember the islands going dark on the sea" This shows how long the girl has waited, probably all her life, until the sun sets and darkens the hopes of the girl. When all the lights and the hope that the speaker of the poem has vanished, she realizes that the boy will never return anymore. "I remember the girls laughing I remember they said he only wanted to get away from me I remember mother saying : Inventors are like poets, a trashy lot I remember she told me those who try out inventions are worse" This lines add up to the realizations of the girl that she could have been wrong. That the boy she loved with all her life will never return. And finally, she realized: "I remember she added : Women who love such are the Worst of all" that she stupid for believing in everything that the guy said, just because she loves too much. "I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer. I would have liked to try those wings myself. It would have been better than this." This reflects the girls decision to embark on her own journey, to start anew, take wings, and search again for a new life, a new love that could have been better than what they have in the present. Conclusion In the end, it can be concluded that there are many faces of love as there are many faces in this earth. Each of us loves as unique as how our individualities are, but however we love, we cannot escape the fact that once in our life, we wait, we hope, and we realize a lot. Works Cited Thingexist.com. July 24, 2008. Thinexist. July 24, 2008. Van Dyke, Henry. The Poems of Henry Van Dyke. New York: Hard Press, 2006. Rukeyser, Muriel. Collected Poems Of Muriel Rukeyser. Pittsburg: U of Pittsburg, 2005. Peerpapers.com. July 24, 2008. Peerpaper. July 24, 2008. Mega Essays.com. July 24, 2008. Mega Essays LLC. July 24, 2008. Caraway, James. Mediterranean Perspectives: Literature, Social Studies and Philosophy. Buckinghamshire. 2000.

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free When it comes to social media, every brand wants in on the action. It’s no secret that social media marketing works only if a brand actually has fans or followers. Amassing a respectable audience on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (is that still a thing?), Linkedin, Instagram or any of the other platform du jour  is tough. Many brands and small businesses want their social media presence to be organic, meaning no money invested. Having a good, or great, social media presence can help any   business grow like wildflowers. But, this will only happen after it develops a large following and then works consistently to engage, educate, and cultivate this audience. Brands want the growth and audience, but aren’t willing to pay for it. Seems like a catch 22. Can a brand simply grow their social audience organically?   Is that even possible in today’s pay-to-play landscape? Here are some metrics. Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterHow to Get 129% Organic Growth on Twitter and 239% on Facebook With 100% Organic Tactics No, this isn’t a fairytale in the land of make believe that is social media. It’s actually the metrics after recently (within past two months) concluding a relationship with one of my first social media clients ever. The client, let’s call them DFX (name changed), works in the financial sector so the competition is high, with tight regulations in terms of release of specific information, and it just so happens to be that within this aspect of the industry, some brands are known for tactics that fall within the â€Å"grey area† of digital marketing. After closing up with the DFX, it’s pretty clear that brands can still boost their audience even without investing money. Will it take time and effort? Absolutely, but the euphoria of surviving numerous Facebook algorithms and outperforming your competition is worth it all. Trust me, I’ve been there. So, how did they succeed in growing organically?   Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and Twitter (and it even worked a bit on Google Plus too). Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterKnow the Fundamentals to Grow a Social Media Audience the Right Way Organic growth is based on three fundamentals: Consistency Knowledge Being real (authenticity) Brands must be consistent. If any brand attempts to implement any of these strategies for even a month and then gives up, I guarantee that they will fail. Social media is a long-term game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Limited on time? No problem, just pick a few of the strategies and be relentless in executing them. Brands must know their audience (we all know what happens when we assume things about people)? Understand their patterns, their preferences, their input. Social media is always about being real. There’s no room for bots, auto responders, auto DM’s, and egg heads. It’s about conversation. Organic growth on social media is just as much about knowing, educating and maintaining current followers as it is about gaining new ones. Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value With that introduction, here’s how DFX grew their social media audience organically (all images and screenshots of content are used with permission). With this information in hand, any brand can launch an organic growth campaign. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (And How to Build It) 1. Perform a Social Media Audit After vowing to embrace the fundamentals, an important step in growth is to first assess what’s been done. Conduct a social media audit of your existing process, strategy, and flow. Calendar of content: Yes, this is number one on an audit. Without a content calendar that stresses consistency, valuable brand focused and industry relevant content the entire social media and digital effort will be sloppy. Audience mapping: Identify leaders, influencers, and key figures in the space. Content should be shaped and guided by the conversations of these industry figures. Focus the brands engagement efforts and optimize content to this audience. Additionally, the content style of others in your space should offer insight into what resonates with the readers. Timing: Content should be posted at optimal times based on the highest concentration of readers. The easiest method to start an audit about timing is to use Facebook Insights   which will highlight the trends. Frequency of content sharing and use of hashtags: Posting content at the right time is one aspect of timing. The frequency of sharing relevant content to these audiences is also important. It does take a bit of trial and error. Using hashtags can also boost reach of your content. How often is content posted? When are hashtags, if at all, used? How many hashtags? Image Quality: Unfortunately, this is a problem that many brands confront (more about this later). This should be as important as the rest of your content. Is the image shareable? Will it look right when shared across digital channels? Has it been tagged on the CMS backend? Word Choice: Brands often auto share their content without being mindful of what will actually engage their readers. Engagement vs Automation: Every brand schedules content. Automation helps, but it can’t replace human interaction and engagement. How often is content scheduled and pushed out and how often does the brand engage with its users, those who share its content? After conducting a detailed, unbiased, social audit it’s time to move on to the fun part: successful organic growth. Note: The above audit served as the ongoing reference point for the DFX social team to refine and revise its strategy. Any brand can use this audit style. 2. Build Out Your Content Calendar In order for a brand to truly grow its organic audience and, by default, its reach, it needs to be strategic about its posting of content. Creating a proper schedule that drills down to the topics, the word choice, timing, style on each social platform, what call-to-action (only one per post please), awareness of important calendar dates within the industry or relevant holidays, will focus all marketing and communication efforts. Synchronizing these efforts is the most important. Why? Knowing these critical pieces of information eases the entire flow of content to be a deliberate process. A complete content calendar spans over a few months and includes all of the postings and themes that will be focused on during this time frame. The calendar should be amenable to change, as trends shift and brands need to modify accordingly. A calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or webinars. offers a very detailed content calendar  for free. A content calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or...3. Try Reverse-Engineering Hashtags For several clients, I’ve found that the best way to identify which content should be posted on what days, was to reverse engineer the calendar based on hashtags. How can hashtags define an entire content calendar? Hashtags simply let a brand associate their content, tweets, or posts with a larger conversation on a global scale? Yes, global. So a brand can easily grow their page by using a hashtag? Yes!   It's like adding keywords to your message to make it globally searchable. Which hashtags are right for your brand? Use Hashtagify to identify the relevance of a specific hashtag and other relevant ones associated to the main one. Once identified, brands can then leverage this information for competitive research, content curation, and influencer mapping. Every industry has hashtags. Remember, they’re like keywords. Recommended Reading: How to Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying 4. Search For Relevant Twitter Chats Once a brand has mapped the right hashtags, go one step further by searching for relevant Twitter chats. These weekly or bi-weekly online conversations on Twitter are a secret way to grow an organic audience. Use the Twubs  to search the extensive calendar for relevant conversations: Access a global network of relevant people, engage in meaningful conversations within its industry, and identify active users all organically. For the sake of example, a company working in the travel industry. Every Tuesday, there is a conversation called #ttot, travel talk on Twitter. On this day, travel professionals from around the world engage in industry related conversations. Why not leverage this to grow your audience? Bam! Your brand has just created its content bible by reverse engineering a content schedule framed around relevant conversations, industry topics, and optimal engagement.Tuesdays are now set in terms of branded content. Continuing with the travel theme, any destination is rich with history. Why not use the popular #TBT (throw back Thursday) to highlight the changing landscape of a location over time?! With two days of content framed around hashtags, the rest of the week should be much easier to plug in. Recommended Reading: 30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions 5. Know that Timing is Everything Once you know what to post, now it’s time to determine when to post it. Organic growth starts with knowing when your brand’s audience is online. Timing for each platform does vary. We even wrote a post the best times to post on each platform, which digs deep into the topic of timing content for optimal viewing. For a day-to-day analysis, conducted extensive research  on optimizing the timing of content for best engagement. For DFX, Sundays, an otherwise slow time in the trading/ financial sector, was a chance for the brand to offer valuable information that is relevant to the upcoming week. It was also a time to highlight some key figures and personalities in the industry. Get more social media engagement by offering valuable content during off-peak times.Why? By offering valuable content on a slow day, DFX positioned itself as an active participant in the online conversation. It also presented itself as community-minded brand since every week the content on Sundays was focused around other brands. The proactive content and engagement approach, during an otherwise quiet time in the industry, significantly grew the brand’s organic audience. 6. Get Your Frequency Dialed In Once your brand knows when to post the content for optimal viewing, now the question is how often should a brand post its content. Guy Kawasaki is famous for his unique social media content strategy, sharing the exact content four times a day, eight hours apart. Why? Simply stated, why get 600 views when you can get 2400 by sharing it multiple times? Besides, if your audience sees your content more than once then they’re probably sitting in front of their computer for way too long. Recommended Reading: How Often to Post on Social Media [Proven Research From 10 Studies] A twist on the Guy Kawasaki method, which has helped many clients, is to share the same piece of content on Twitter four to six times a day and on Facebook two to three times a day, but each time either the image or the content (not the link) varies. How does a brand repurpose its content for multiple sharing throughout the day? Think about each blog post as a newspaper article. Every article has multiple angles that may interest a reader. Why not offer them as ‘new’ content options? Here’s a sample of the same link being shared three times in one day. This link got over 120 views in one day. When it comes to social media success, timing is everything.7. Understand Audience Mapping Organic growth on social media can be as simple as mapping your target audiences. Start by telling BuzzSumo  the category of content that best suits your brand, BuzzSumo will produce a list of the most influential people in the space, it will also share a list of content pieces that have performed extremely well. This makes your job a whole lot easier. If you have a BuzzSumo subscription, start by logging in. Then, select Influencers: Next, enter a keyword related to your industry, and click Search: Now, start following these people: For DFX, we mapped over 3,000 influencers and brands that we’d like to work with and engage in meaningful conversations (more on that later). 3,000. It took a long time to map them but the ROI was impressive. Once a respectable list is generated, sort each member of the audience, especially competition, by their social following. Next, is to follow these brands on Twitter and Facebook who share content that resonates with your brand profile. What will most likely happen is that top ones will rise to the top. Use their metrics as a benchmark. At DFX, we followed them across social channels, like Facebook Pages to watch, signed up to their newsletters, and subscribed to their RSS feeds. Watch your competition's Facebook pages, get their newsletters, and subscribe to their RSS feeds.Use a service like Nuzzel to do scour the internet of your main audience and their best performing content. They will email the most-shared content from your audience. If the list of influencers is really good, then the results will be super relevant, making organic growth a cinch. Guess what? Your brand has just mapped the right people and now it also knows what content is doing well. Once you know what’s doing well and what others are writing about, wouldn’t it make sense to add some value to the conversation by writing a content piece about the topic and mention these people?! Of course it would! Then, post the content and tag these brands. Unique, valuable content, targeted to your audience, and garnered by the leaders of your space. Organic growth was never so easy. Want to take the audience mapping to the next level? Create an interview series with these influencers as the guest contributors offering their thoughts on the industry and their vision on certain topics. Influencer marketing does work (for proof, here’s how Huawei rocked  their influencer marketing efforts). Now it’s your turn to share it and engage these people. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience to Create the Best Content That Connects 8. Automate Content Unless your brand is Superman, there’s never enough time in the day to post content around the clock. Automation helps with making social media growth more efficient and effective. It’s not intended to be the only form of social media. Automation is half of the solution. Care to guess the other? Yup, engagement. See number 6. Once a brand understands that automation and real conversations are both  important, that real organic growth can take place. Looking for automation tools? Here’s a list of 9 social media management tools  that cross all platforms. Recommended Reading: Best Time Scheduling is the Easy Way to Get More Engagement [New Feature] 9. Engage Your Audience Social media is a behavioral shift. It’s not a broadcast platform. Engaging an audience and a community is one of the toughest aspects of social media marketing. Finding the right balance between branded content and audience generated content is not easy. For every brand it will vary.   For some it can be funny pictures, memes, videos, gif’s, or a white paper. Once a brand does have a following it means engaging, supporting and sharing their content, responding to their comments, and helping them if necessary. Social media is a behavioral shift. It's not a broadcast platform.How do you get more people talking about and interacting with your brand on social media? Stop talking about your brand! Yup, that’s right. Avoid being overtly promotional. The more narrative based content or industry related content and interesting pieces of information that aren’t brand focused will show the community how real the brand is. It may sound counterintuitive but it works. Want to engage an audience? Find a conference. No brands don’t have to attend every industry conference. Why not use the conference specific hashtag (there’s that reverse engineering thing again) as a means to engage in conversations?! Here’s a targeted conversation with a global influencer from DFX before a conference: Look at that! The brand engaged in a meaningful way and landed a meeting (face-to face) and took the conversation offline. 10. Take it Offline That’s right, one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline. That could be a phone call, a webinar, a meeting at a conference (via the hashtag), or webinar.   Bridge the online offline gap and a put a face to the brand. Make it happen. Tweeting and posting can be done all day, but until a real connection is made, the deal won’t be sealed. one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline.11. Aesthetics is Everything Visuals can make the entire difference in organic growth. It can boost brand visibility while supporting all digital efforts.   With such a cluttered social space, high quality, attractive visuals make a brand memorable. Visual content is easier for humans to process and is an easy way to generate more views, click throughs and followers. Rather than just use the same text, or the default image that comes up when putting a link to Facebook or Google Plus, why not be creative? Recommended Reading: How to Design Blog Graphics With Free Tools Consistent style of content and embedding of images that are high quality and relevant can make all the difference in organic growth and brand awareness. Social media marketing is a marathon. It will take time. The best metric of success in social media is the quality (not quantity) of your networks. Any brand that approaches social media from an organic perspective, the quality of their community will be a natural progression of the effort put in.

Investigations of the risks and challenges with offshore outsourcing Research Paper

Investigations of the risks and challenges with offshore outsourcing - Research Paper Example IT companies outsource their programming process. Despite being cost-effective, developed countries faces some risks and challenges outsourcing their IT. These also include hidden costs incurred during the outsourcing process. These factors have hindered the attainment of the desired wage rate savings. At times, companies adopt this labour arbitrage play with little or no regard of the risks, challenges or hidden costs involved leading to later regrets. These include distance, vendor selection, confidentiality, chain management, reduced wage gap, competition, compliance risks among others. India has benefited most from IT offshoring due to its technically proficient manpower and large pool of English speaking people. Risks and challenges Challenges of distance and transition According to Gonzalez et al (2010), great distance poses a challenge in vendor selection. This force IT companies in developed countries to rely on consultants in the foreign country hence making the initial proc ess expensive. The long distance between the country of origin and the vendor leads to high travelling expenses. This is because the company management needs to make regular direct monitoring of the business process in the foreign country to ensure smooth operation and maintenance of quality standards. This leads to additional costs that threaten to wipe the anticipated savings. During the offshore outsourcing, transition has been found to be an expensive part of the business. Companies have to restructure their delivery pyramids in order to overcome the operational complications of offshore outsourcing. The need for restructuring gets some companies off guard. This leads to significant increase in project costs in ways that were not expected (Doh 2005). The importation of workers with foreign knowledge is necessary during the transition phase. These workers are usually imported from the mother country of the company making the offshore outsourcing. The imported workers are required to learn how applications work, create required documentation and query offshore staff. They smooth up the requirements process and reduce rework. Some of them are brought in as business analysts or project managers. However, this is not sustainable for long if at all the company has to cut down on labour costs. In some cases, the imported staff experience language and cultural barriers during their offshore business relationship. Communication difficulty makes it challenging for them to work with staff in the vendor country. This means that the workers of the vendor country may not be able to get all the directions they need for effective and quality operations (Herath and Kishore 2009). There have been concerns from some of the consumers concerning the technical support and levels customer care offered oversees workers due to language barrier. A serious damage to technical support and quality of customer care affects the market. Customers may loose confidence in the quality of pr oducts being offered to them. When the challenge of distance is compounded with language and cultural barriers, it makes it difficult for the onshore and offshore teams to function as a coherent team. It also leads to reduced effectiveness in task assignments, project delays and missed requirements (Falk and Wolfmayr 2008). According to Raisinghani et al (2008), the cumulative result of the challenges of distance and, language and

Human Cloning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Human Cloning - Essay Example Besides therapeutic and reproductive cloning another category of cloning called the replacement cloning is also gaining prevalence. Replacement cloning is an amalgamation of therapeutic as well as reproductive cloning. The term gained prominence as it involves comprehensively injured, abortive, or weakening body, and replacement of the whole or partial organ or part of the body. The present article discusses the pros and cons of human cloning while extracting attention to understand the significance of human cloning in the advancement of human civilization. Human cloning is the process of generating a genetically indistinguishable replica of human being. It is a technique of imitating genetic information (Roxanne, 2010). The process is thought to be of therapeutic or reproductive importance. Therapeutic cloning encompasses cloning cells for their exploitation in treating various ailments. On the other hand reproductive cloning generates human clones, this is prohibited in many nation s because of ethical concerns. The moral predicament of human cloning lies on the argument either to promote or to impede cloning (Robert, 2001). Numerous molecular techniques are involved in the process of cloning encompassing molecular cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning (Manninen, 2010). There are numerous controversies associated with the cloning procedures some may favor cloning while others oppose the same. The present thesis discusses various aspects of the cloning as 1. The Cons/ Problems/Dangers and Controversies of Cloning a. Cloning is discouraged by various nations as cloning is against the rule of nature, which is generating humans, nurturing them and paving the way for uncertainties related with the repercussions of science. At present human population has crossed the figure of 7 billion, a huge burden on the planet. Is cloning going to resolve the issue of exponentially increasing human population is a big question imposed by the detractors of human cloning (Gary, 2012). b. Detractors of human cloning have their say about the loss of genetic diversity leading to higher probability and pervasiveness of genetic diseases. Poor adaptability of clones may become detrimental for situations of jeopardy. Inbreeding leads to self-annihilation. c. Cloning is inhumane as it abolish the bond of love and care and is said to be transgressing the nature. The process of cloning highlight that the human or scientists can play the role of Creator or God as cloning is a kind of asexual reproduction, therefore reduces the sense of distinctiveness of a character, lacking uniqueness and freedom. It is also noteworthy to have an insight regarding the amplification in human population and ecological burden on resources and on other surviving species. Growing population is putting pressure on the demands of basic amenities, infrastructures and social set ups; with human cloning, further contribution to disaster cannot be eluded. According to Savulescu (1999), human cloning is accountable to abuse, a person's right to individualism and self-sufficiency and being self is violated, moreover genetic individuality is also lost and human beings are used as a model organism. Cloning also enhances the risk of self safety due to genetic irregularity, cancer and diminished lifespan. 2. Pros/ Advantages of Cloning a. According to

Natural sister Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Natural sister - Essay Example condary intervention in the case of the disaster would include laboratory testing and x-ray imaging in order to detect internal fractures and metabolic upsets. For example, the nurses in Haiti could use X-ray images to identify broken limbs. The testing enables nurses to make well-versed diagnoses and thus offer effective treatment. Tertiary intervention involves follow-up activities that nurses can engage in after treating an incident. In this case, the nurses would conduct physical examinations especially for broken limbs and laboratory tests for other metabolic problems. The intervention is easier if access to health care services for victims is streamlined. The above intervention would be ideal in the response phase of the disaster. The reasoning is that at this stage, the health hazards can be determined. In addition, it is impossible to ascertain the level of damage before a disaster. The response requires a collective effort of the public, government and civil societies. The government plays a bigger role in ensuring that the medical services reach all the people affected by the disaster and ensuring availability of medical

What Led To The Introduction Of Itv Media Essay

What Led To The Introduction Of Itv Media Essay British broadcasting has come a long way in the past fifty years, from a monopoly held by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) to the huge diversity of channels we now have, from not only terrestrial television, but also Sky and cable. The genres of the programmes on these channels are now so diverse that there is rarely a point in time when somebody cannot find something on television. From the birth of television in 1936 and up until 1955 the BBC had held the monopoly over broadcasting, at first, only showing 6 hours a day of programmes deemed suitable by traditionalists, like Sir Lord Reith who at the time was the Director-General of the BBC, for the public. It was in 1955 that the first big change in broadcasting came about with the introduction of ITV which broke the monopoly and thus by the same token led to greater competition within the market. In this essay I will discuss what important factors and issues with the BBC led to the introduction of the commercial channel ITV a nd later, Channel 4; and how it caused unlikely alliances, disputes and controversy. At the BBCs creation it was deemed appropriate that it should be a public service broadcaster, while this meant that it would be isolated from commercial pressures it also meant that it would need to have alternative funding; this came in the form of the television license fee which was basically a broadcast receiving tax. As the BBC was funded by the Government via a tax they had to provide an impartial service which had to conform to its Royal Charter of 1927; among other things it said that the BBC had to: Sustain citizenship and civil society, promote education and learning, stimulate creativity and cultural excellence and represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities [3]. After the WWII, the BBCs monopoly began to be questioned, this lead to a growing aversion towards paternalism and a yearning for freedom of choice. Subsequently, after a change in power in late 1951, the Conservative party decided to publish its own ideas for the breaking of the BBC monopoly. They suggested: In the expanding field of television, provision should be made to permit some element of competition when the calls on capital resources at present needed for purposes of greater national importance makes this feasible. In essence this was the first step in the creation of ITV. Unlike the BBC, ITV was to be funded via the sale of slots in its broadcasting timetable for advertisers (another option was to allow sponsorship; however, the regulator thought this was not appropriate). The nature and quality of the advertising was, however, stringently controlled by the regulators and no more than 6 minutes of adverts were to be shown within any given hour. One of the main factors in the introduction of ITV was to increase consumer choice. Up until 1952 there was only one channel to watch and so you had either the option of watching the one programme that was on at the time or not watching television at all. This was at a time that the country was feeling more confident, workers wages were increasing and the first whiff of prosperity was filtering across the country. Individual identity was starting to be questioned, one could argue that this was partly due to the American influence of TV and radio; whether it was the gritty US hero films, the songs of Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash or just the feeling that the US had everything bigger, better, richer and possibly, to use a more modern expression, more trendy. The introduction of ITV not only doubled the number of programmes people could choose from but also led to higher quality programmes being directed. People liked this increased choice and freedom to make their own decisions; as Frede rick Ogilvie, a former Director General of the BBC, stated Freedom is choice And monopoly of broadcasting is inevitably the negation of freedom no matter how efficiently it is run [2] The reason for greater quality of programmes was the increased competition after the creation of ITV. For ITV to receive the maximum amount of revenue from its advertising it needed to have a high proportion of the public watching its channel. While this required a lot of initial investment to create the programmes in the long term it would provide more than enough advertising revenue to cover this cost. This also, although maybe subtly, influenced the BBC. While at first glance it may seem that the BBC and ITV have different revenue streams and are therefore not direct competitors, the BBC had to keep up with the increasing quality of the ITV programmes. This was not because, unlike ITV, they needed to increase revenue but because if they were not seen to have programmes of a similar or greater quality than ITV then soon the general public would start to question the television licence fee which could have led to the end of the BBCs funding and indeed the end of the company itself. Another criticism of the BBC was that they only really catered for the population inside London which was exposed in the report of 1951. This report shocked many people as it was written by MP Sir William Beveridge. People expected him to side with the BBC as he upheld many traditional values, like Lord Reith. He suggested that it should set up national commissions for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland [1]. Beveridge, however, didnt agree with the introduction of commercial television, after seeing how the advertising worked in America he deemed it obtrusive and objectionable à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ironically it was the Beveridge report that spurred the conservative government in 1951 to move forward with plans of commercial television as his report encouraged, the conservative MP Lloyd Selwyn to do a follow up report, in which he agreed with many of Beveridges points, he was for the introduction of commercial television. Selwyn along with many other business men saw the potential investm ents that could be made in commercial television; they believed that many benefits would come from advertising their products as it would reach millions. This self-profit idea didnt go unnoticed and caused some controversy, one even said At what point are the MPs representing their constituencies and web are they speaking as directors?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Initially it was planned that ITV should be made up of three separate franchise regions: London, the Midlands and the North, each of which would be occupied by more than one contractor. This would lead to competition not only between the combined ITV force and the BBC but also between the different contractors. However, there was a failure on the governments behalf, due to not allocating enough frequencies, this was unable to happen. Instead to still keep competition high the ITA decided to split the franchises on a weekday/weekend basis. People were fed up of the American commercial nature of ITV and how all of its shows strived for ratings rather than quality and so there was a committee set up to investigate the state of broadcasting in the 1960s. It was called the Pilkington report and its function was to clean up the vulgarity of ITV. The report praised the BBC and allowed the introduction of a second channel, BBC2. In a way the Pilkington report was like going back in a way in broadcasting history, it took on the paternalistic role, that the public so hated about the BBC. Eventually people accepted ITV and the BBC working together and the competition grew much less fierce. People had decided what shows they did and didnt like and would pick and choose between the two, this was known as the golden age of television which lasted nearly twenty years. Between 1960 and 1962 The Pilkington Committee met to consider the future of broadcasting in Britain. This was at a time of increasing hostility towards the relatively newly formed commercial broadcaster, ITV. At the time the committee published their report it was unsurprising that ITV came under particular criticism. The committee found ITV broadcasted programmes of a trivial nature. This was most probably a not a reference to the actual subjects discussed but to the actual style and presentation of these subjects. This report led to the introduction of a second BBC channel, BBC2, in 1964. In 1980 the Broadcasting Act was passed which commenced the process for the creation of a fourth channel, Channel 4, which began broadcasting on 2nd November 1982. While for some time there had been a belief that a second commercial broadcaster would be launched after ITV, it was expected that this would come sooner than it did. It is most likely that the biggest reason for the delay, for almost three decades, was politics. Summed up it was a clash of beliefs between the expansion of the commercial character of ITV and the public service approach of BBC. I believe one of the main reasons for the introduction was because times were becoming more liberal and there were many creative directors and producers who wanted to make interesting cultural and controversial shows. These people, no matter how good their programmes were, were unable to get them shown on the BBC or ITV either because the content was too risky or it would not have pulled in a big enough audience to satisfy the advertisers. However, the market researchers at the time saw the need for a channel that would represent minorities and address hard hitting topics; it was also believed that these programmes would help discourage racism and discrimination. The other thing that made the government back the introduction of Channel 4 was that all of the programmes were going to be independently made by different production companies all over the country, and that initially the existing commercial companies would fund them. Over time Channel 4 began commissioning the programmes it self. Also the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher was incredibly supportive of the idea of entrepreneurship and so this was another reason Channel 4 was backed. It was however the Labour Government that finally got the channel up and running; they wanted the channel to tackle political issues without feeling the pressure from higher individuals to tone down. In conclusion, the history of terrestrial television was a hard struggle. To reach the level of freedom of content that we see today, whether, it is scenes of a violent or sexual nature in programmes like BBCs The Tudors or channel 4s dispatches series even the Question time with Nick Griffin, all of these broadcasts whether you agree with the content or not, are there for viewing with our own discretion, and a far cry from the paternal monopoly that the BBC held for so many years. Ultimately the reason for the introduction of these channels was to increase consumer choice which as a Democratic country was wanted by the people. It was this demand for consumer choice that brought us to the hundreds of channels that we see today. Out of this spawned the huge competition between channels that will be never-ending, with programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing scheduled at the same time as the X Factor. Referances [1]Kevin Williams Get me a Murder a Day! a history of mass communication in britan, Arnold 1998 chapter 8 [2] Quoted by Crisell An Introductory History of British Broadcasting, p77. [3] a statement from the BBCs public service remit

Plath’s Daddy Essays: Allegory in Plath’s Daddy :: Plath Daddy Essays

Allegory in Plath’s Daddy  Ã‚   In her poem "Daddy", Plath artfully intermixes the "factually" true with the "emotionally" true. There are scraps of her own life here, but the poem is much bigger than that, and goes beyond the face-value interpretation that is it nothing but a self-indulgent literary vengeance spree. Daddy works on both a biographical/personal level for Plath, but also on an allegorical level as well. I see this poem as a dual testament to Plath's (and all women's) struggle against male power, authority, influence, etc. She never "had time" to define her feminine self in opposition to her father, in the context of this male relationship, or legitimately break free of it, because of his untimely death. She first resented his being emotionally absent in her life, and then physically absent. In her journals she admits how she struggles in her relationships with men because of this lack. Accounts by both Plath and Aurelia, assert that her father was quite the stereotypical authoritarian male, and although she loved him, she came to hate what he represented and how he had treated Aurelia and her. Many women of that time, (and all times) can understand this dynamic---loving men, but hating how they treat us and view us and exploit us--- consciously or unconsciously, on either a personal, or societal level. Taken from this perspective, the Holocaust/victim analogy takes on a whole different slant. Rather than referring (exploitatively) to the personal sufferings of one individual woman, it can allegorically represent the mass, historical victimization of women by patriarchy, which has been well-documented (witch hysteria) and which continues (female circumscision) She says "every woman adores a Fascist in boots"--all women in some way participate (if only in their passivity, in refusing to reject the roles that society attempts to force upon them) in this social and cultural situation. The child-voice of the poem can represent,on a deeper level, that innocence young girls lose as they become women and find themselves being "chuffed off like a Jew," often reluctantly or unknowingly, into the expected roles for women in marriage and childbearing---when fairy tale expectations of love crash into the reality of the Sisyphian tasks of dishes, cooking,cleaning,laundry, child care, when so many women have their dreams and identities erased under the daily grind of domesticity---a different sort of confinement, slavery, suppression, another and altogether different kind of death and destruction of the spirit.

Case Study Spooked by Computers Essay

This case study, Spooked by Computers, clearly points out the change in mindset of technology with cost saved with the use of computers in the workplace. With the addition of newer, fresher minds sometimes comes with it, newer, fresher ideas and means of operating In this particular case, organizational development would be a well implemented plan. As the different levels of management all working together for a common goal as it is, implementing the OD would bring all of them together to be more cost and time effective. When working with a spectrum of learning levels we sometimes come across a resistance to change. We see this by Suzanne who was confident that all control would be lost if automation was brought into the workplace. She believed that she was too old to take on something new and bound to be much more confusing. Martin Walker was brought into the technology innovation to bridge the workplace gap as he was fresh out of college and was on top of his game with word processors. He was able to educate or at least inform those who needed to be apprised or the newest advances in technology. He was respected by his fellow co-workers as he seemed to create a camaraderie of sorts. Advancement in technology will always be a source of resistance in the workplace. The case study was an ideal example of any American small business trying to transform to the coming of age. As we hire the fresh out-of-college faces, slowly pushing the ‘grandfathered’ generation through, we will see this scared to change mentality.

When Should You Start Studying for Your AP Exams

When Should You Start Studying for Your AP Exams SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips So you’re taking a couple AP classes, they’re going well, and you feel pretty good about most of the material. The exam in May seems a long way off. Do you need to start studying?The answer is, that depends! Every student and every exam is different. However, my general advice is to start studying no later than the midpoint of the school year. (That would be after winter break for most of you.)Why the midpoint of the year? Keep reading to find out! I’ll also discuss how many hours you should plan to prep based on how the course is going and what score you are aiming for. Then I’ll present some strategies for determining how you should balance general conceptual review of the material and dedicated exam prep like taking practice exams. Finally, I’ll make suggestions as to when and how you should study based on overall course subject (math, science, foreign language, and so on.) Note that in this article I’m going to generally assume that you are taking the class for which you are going to take the AP exam. For self-study, see my article onstudying for AP exams without taking the class. 3 ReasonsYou Should Start Studying for Your AP Exams by the Midpoint of the Year The way I see it, there are three reasons why you should start studying for you AP exams in earnest by the midpoint of the school year. Reason 1: You’ll Know a Good Amount of Course Material By the middle of the school year, you will have covered enough material in class that you will be able to answer a decent amount of practice questions and problems without wanting to tear your hair out in frustration. If you start looking at AP practice exams in October, you will have only learned a fraction of the course material, so they will be of limited use to you. Reason 2: Avoiding the Cram! The midpoint of the year is also still early enough that you won’t have to cram for the exam. You’ll have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the exam format and make sure you understand all of the course content. A major danger of waiting too late to prep is you might find that there’s a segment of the course material that you really don’t understand or a section on the test that is very foreign to you, so if you start in the middle of the year, you can be confident you’ll have enough time to fully prepare. The only cramming you should be doing is these delicious cookies into your mouth. Reason 3: Pacing Yourself Another advantage to starting early is that you won’t necessarily have to spend hours and hours a week studying to hit your target amount of study-hours, which will help you later in the semester when things are busy and you may not be able to devote entire weekends to cramming for an AP exam. If you’re in a particularly content-heavy course, you should probably review class material throughout the first semester so that it stays fresh. In general, though, the midpoint of the year will give you enough time to brush up on the material, identify any gaps in your knowledge, and prepare for the exam format. What If You’re in a Semester-Long Course? Some schools offer semester-long AP courses. If you’re in one of these, should you still start studying at the midpoint of the year?This depends on when you take the class. If you take the class during the first semester,keep the midpoint of the year as your prep start point. You'll basically start prepping as soon as the class is over. This is for two reasons: first, you will know all the material before you start studying for the exam, so you can take practice tests and write essays without being concerned that there may be questions about material you haven’t studied yet. Secondly, prepping throughout the second half of the yearwill help you remember the material. Keeping it fresh in your mind will be much easier than trying to play catch-up in the few weeks leading up to the exam. If it’s a second-semester only AP course, you’re in less danger of forgetting the material, but you also have less time to study. This is fine. Semester long APs don’t cover as much material as full-year ones, so just so long as you are doing well in the class, you can afford to wait until four to six weeks before the exam to put your studying in full gear. That said, if there are any concepts you aren’t clear about or that seem fuzzy, try to learn them as soon as you realize there’s an issue. This will save you a lot of heartache during the studying process. Not this kind of fuzzy. How Many Hours Should I Study for My AP Exam? There is no magic number of hours you need to study for an AP exam to get a certain score. There are, though, two main factors that together should give you a rough idea of how many hours you should plan to study. Factor 1: How You’re Doing in the Course If you’re acing exams and the material clicks with you at an A+ level, you can probably get away with studying around 15 hours for the exam and walking away with a 5 in the bag (Remember, you’re spreading the prep out over a semester, so 15 hours total would only be about an hour and a half a week for ten weeks). If, though, you’re scraping by with a C+ or B- (which is perfectly respectable- these courses are hard!) you may well need to devote 40+ hours to get the same score. (An added bonus is that all of that extra studying will probably raise your course grade.) Factor 2: How Well You Want to Score Obviously the higher you want to score, the more you need to study relative to how you are doing in the course. If you’re aiming for a 3 and you’ve got a B, you may well only need to study for 15 hours to pull it off. If you want a 5, that may be more like 35 hours. See my handy table below, where you can cross-reference the letter grade you have with the score you want on the AP exam and the absolute minimum hours you should plan to study. (I assumed no one is aiming for a grade lower than a 3, the general minimum accepted for college credit.) The more demanding the course is overall, and the more content it covers, the more you should plan to study. Ultimately, only you can truly gauge how much time you need to spend preparing to feel comfortable with your chances of getting your target score. Mimimum Study Time Based on Letter Grade and Target Score 5 4 3 A 15+ 10+ 10+ B 25+ 20+ 15+ C 40+ 30+ 20+ D 60+ 45+ 30+ F 80+ 60+ 40+ As you can see, how many hours you need to study depends on a lot of things- how well you're doing in class, how much material there is, and your skill level in the given components of the test. If you’re great at timed essays, you won’t need to spend as much time studying for AP Lit and Comp as someone who struggles with them. In general,it’s better to spread your prep out over time- a couple months at least- as opposed to doing massive cramming. Cramming will stress you out, especially in May when you are probably also trying to wrap up projects and study for exams in other classes. Once you have an idea of how many hours you will need to study for the exam, how should you spend those hours? Read on for my recommendations on balancing general review of the course material with dedicated exam prep. Study slow and steady like a snail. Say that five times fast. General Review vs. Dedicated Exam Prep: How Much of Each? Once you determine how much time you’re going to spend studying, you need to decide how you’re going to spend that time. There are, generally speaking, two kinds of studying you can do for the AP. You can review the material the course is based on, or you can prepare specifically for the exam by taking practice questions, writing practice essays, and so on. Obviously, to do well on the exam, you need to have a good grasp on the material. But understanding the material is not always enough to ace the exam. Many AP exams have portions that test special skills, like the DBQ on the history exams, so it’s good to prep for the actual format of the exam as well. Understanding the material is like the foundation, and doing well on the exam is like building a strong house on that foundation. So how should you split your exam prep time? What should you focus on? In general, I would focus more on reviewing the material when you first start studying, especially if you decide to do any studying during the first semester. Before you know a decent amount of material, taking practice tests etc will just be frustrating, because there will be a lot of questions you have no idea how to answer. As you pass the midpoint of the class, you can start to familiarize yourself with the exam format. Familiarity with the format will become more critical as time goes on. So the closer you get to the day of the exam, the more the balance will shift from material review to exam prep. That way you’ll know you’ve got a strong foundation before you start trying to build a house on it! You might also (politely!) ask your teacher what you will be doing in the course to prep for the AP specifically. If you are going to be doing a lot of dedicated exam prep exercises during class time, you may not need to do quite as much outside. If you are just trying to race headlong through the material so you aren’t still learning on WWI material on exam day, you’ll know it will be pretty much up to you to familiarize yourself with the exam format. Remember, regardless of what you learn in the classroom, it will be you taking that exam on test day, so you are ultimately responsible for your own prep. Now that we’ve discussed balancing conceptual reviews and dedicated prep, I have some more specific recommendations based on the exam’s general subject matter. You are as majestic as this crane, and better-prepared for the AP exam. When and How To Start Studying for AP Exams Based on Course Content The general guidelines I’ve given so far will hold for most, if not all, AP exams. Still, it is worth calling out that the best way to use your study time, and when you should ideally think about preparation, will vary quite a lot among exams. In the following section I give my study recommendations based on the general subject matter of the course. When and How to Start Studying for Math AP Tests In general, math coursework is cumulative- everything you learn builds on what you learned before. So the single most important thing you can do for prepping for an exam like AP Calculus is to make sure you learn concepts as soon as it is clear you are struggling with them. If you do poorly on a test in class, the time to try to learn that material is decidedly not in the two weeks leading up to the AP exam, it’s right after you realize you don’t get it. There is no shame in this! There are some hard, hard concepts in these classes.Overall, making sure you really learn the material as you go along is the best thing you can do for your AP exam score. So basically, the time to start studying for a Math AP is immediately, by making sure you know the material backwards and forwards as it is being presented to you. When and How to Start Studying for Science AP Tests Most of the science APs- Chemistry, Physics, and Biology- cover a lot of material and have reputations for being fairly difficult. This is another category where studying right from the get-go is quite important, and where content is probably more important than test format. Don’t get me wrong- it will still help you to be familiar with the general format of the exam- but most of your energy should be focused on making sure you understand all of the huge swathes of material throughout the year. Focus on content throughout the year, and format after the midpoint. Space: the final frontier that's not your AP exam. When and How to Start Studying for Foreign Language AP Tests To build a strong foundation in a foreign language, constant practice is the name of the game. If your high school class is pretty intensive, you may not have to study quite as much outside, although brushing up on vocab and grammar rules occasionally to stay sharp is a good idea. It will also help you to do things like watch TV or movies in the language you are studying, and to read books. It will definitely help you to do dedicated AP test prep, but the most important thing is bringing your language skills as close to fluency as you can, and you can work throughout the year to do this. It’s also fairly common to take a foreign language AP in a language that you grew up speaking at home. This means you probably already have a phenomenal foundation in the language, but you should still prepare. For one thing, you should brush up on all those pesky grammar rules; it can be surprisingly difficult to remember the specific grammar rules for a language you have mastered. You should also practice writing timed essays.Fluency won’t carry you all the way if you can’t give the AP graders what they want. When and How to Start Studying for English AP Tests The most important thing you can do to practice for the two English AP exams is timed essay practice. You should hone your timed essay skills for all of the different kinds of essays that appear on a given exam, and carefully study the rubric. This is an exam area where general subject mastery of English is certainly helpful, but developing AP-rubric-specific timed essay-writing skills will make a huge difference in ultimate success. So when should you start writing practice essays? I would advise getting your start fairly early in the year- around or even before the midpoint- so you can gauge how much additional practice you should put in throughout the year. If things are going well, you’ll know you won’t need as many outside-of-class prep hours. When and How to Start Studying for History AP Tests A main challenge with learning historical material is that it can be fairly siloed: you learn about the Civil War and then don’t come back to it, you learn the French Revolution inside and out and then won’t be tested again until the AP, and so on. This is why keeping historical information fresh is essential, and you should be doing it throughout the year. You may need to do more dedicated content review for AP History exams, and start reviewing old content earlier than for any other AP, simply because so much of the exam relies on your ability to recall historical facts and details. Obviously, a sense of overall historical trends is very important, but an occasional dip back into your textbook will go a long way towards helping you remember the peskier little details. Pesky details like whoever this lady is. When to Start Studying for AP Exams - Conclusions So as you can see, when exactly you need to start studying for your AP exam depends on several factors.In general, the latest you should start studying for the exam is during the midpoint of the school year. The number of hours you should plan to devote to studying depends both on how you are doing in the course and what your target score is. Reviewing conceptual material is more important earlier in the year, while specific AP exam prep becomes more salient later on.How much to weigh one or the other depends on the specific exam and your own knowledge and skill level. It’s a lot to consider. But if you study as you go and balance content review with dedicated test prep, you can go into the test with confidence. What's Next? Need help registering for your upcoming AP exams? Check out our article on registering for AP tests and classes. Still considering which AP classes to take next year? Let us help you with our AP class schedule planning guide. If you're taking the SAT this year, be sure to check out our guide to the new SAT, which was offered for the first time on March 5th of this year! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: