Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Analyzing of Economic Data Using Big Data

Analyzing of Economic Data Using Big Data N.Rajanikumar, Dr.A.Suresh babu, Mr.G.Murali Abstract: Big data can help at the e commerce data. The big-picture problems, the economic indicator many investors, business fortunate and judges are rely on are just too outdated by the time they’re out. People â€Å"pitch to the number,† but the world has often moved since it was considered and they won’t know it until the next report comes out. Take, for example, the case of increasing food prices in India and China that are pouring up price rises for a major percentage of the world’s residents. But principle claims to have been seeing the movement shaping up for weeks. Premise is able to capture economic data in close to real-time in some cases or at least much closer to it in others thanks to the technology trifecta of e-commerce, cloud computing and Smartphone’s. However, while e-commerce data is supportive for gauging the prices of certain goods in certain economies, it doesn’t really touch emerging economies where the vast popular of transactions are still local and cash-based. If groceries prices are rising across Asia, for example, that likely income, along with other things, inferior health and less money to spend on non-essential end user goods. That’s where mobile devices come into play in the form of Premise’s Android host. The company has more than 700 contributors in 25 cities, mostly in Asia and Latin America, who go into stores and markets and capture data about exact items on which Premise desires data. â€Å"We use them as sort of detection agents. The contributors take a picture of the item either on the shelf or in a market stall; it syncs with Premise’s servers in the blur; and Premise’s system is then able to extract information from the photos. It can verify information such as price, brand and quality of the items, and even ecological information such as how clean the store is and how stocked the shelves are. Interestingly, but not without warning, the app that con tributors use is only for Android phones. Keywords: Apache Hadoop API Using HDFS, Mapreduce, Pig, Hive, Linux-Unix, windows,Eclips. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper mainly focuses on how to manage huge amount of data and how to analyse the data. The technology used for this is hadoop technology . In this project the data taken is Economic data from various E-commerce websites. Then the data is stored into HDFS( hadoop distributed file system) format in the form of clusters. After the storage is done, then the processing of data can be done based on the user requirements. The processing of data can be done using many modes. Hadoop basically contains many ecosystems which provide different ways of processing or analyzing the data in different environments. There are two basic methods of Hadoop are HDFS and MapReduce. HDFS is used to stock up the data and MapReduce is used to progression the data. In MapReduce we write codes in java to analyze the data in whatever way we want to. The ecosystems in Hadoop are also for processing and analyzing the data. The different ecosystems of hadoop are pig, hive, chukwa, HBase, ZooKeeper, sqoop etc. Here pig, hive and sqoop have been implemented. So the first ecosystem implemented is pig. Pig is scripting language. It can process both structured and unstructured data. In this pig scripts are written on the data to get results. Then hive is a query language, it can handle only structured data. In this queries are written on to the data to analyze it. Then finally sqoop, it is actually a support for hadoop rather than an ecosystem. It is used to transfer data from one data base to other. And after the processing of data the results are displayed. 2. What Is Big Data? Big Data refers to the data sets whose size makes it difficult for commonly used data capturing software tools to interpret, manage, and process them within a reasonable time frame. Big data sizes are a continually moving target, as of 2012 ranging from a few dozen TERABYTES to many PETABYTES of data in a single data set. With this difficulty, new platforms of big data tools are being developed to handle various aspects of big quantities of data. BIG DATA concept means a datasets which continues to grow so much it difficult to manage it using existing database management concept and tools. The difficulty can be related to retrieve the capturing of data, storage, searching and virtualization, etc. The challenges associated with Big Data are the â€Å"4 V’s†: Volume, velocity, Variety, and value. The Volume challenges exist because most businesses generate much more then what their system were designed to handle. The velocity challenge exists if company’s data analysis or data storage runs slower than its data generation. The variety challenge exists because of the need to process difference types of data to produce the desired insights. The value challenge applies to deriving valuable insights from data, which is the most important of all V’s in my view. Fig1. 4V’s of Big Data 3. What is E-Commerce? A type of trade model, or part of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual to perform business over an electronic network, typically the internet. Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer and consumer to business. It can be thought of as a more advanced form of mail-order purchasing through a catalogue. Almost any product or service can be offered via ecommerce, from books and music to financial services and plane tickets. Investopedia explains Electronic Commerce: e-commerce E-commerce has approved firms to set up a market existence, or to improve an active market spot, by providing a cheaper and more capable distribution chain for their products or services. 4. Why Big Data is a must in ecommerce The buzz nearby Big Data is far away from being needless. Not only does it permit merchants to gain deeper insights into customer behavior and industry trends, but it also lets them make more precise decisions to improve just about every feature of the business, from selling and publicity, to merchandising, operations, and even customer maintenance. Below are a few more points that deeper explain the impacts of Big data in the Ecommerce empire. From improving customer familiarity to developing better products or marketing campaigns, it’s no question that Big Data is the next big thing for online businesses. 5. Characteristics of Big Data A Big data proposal can give a solution which is planned specifically with the needs of the venture. The following are the basic characters of the Big data: Comprehensive – It should offer a broad platform, and address all three dimensions velocity, volume and variety. Enterprise Ready – It should include the performance, reliability, performance and security features. Integrated – It should enable integration with information supply chain including databases, data warehouses and business intelligence applications. Open Source Based It should be open source technology with enterprise class functionality. Low latency. Robust and reliability. Scalability. Extensibility. Allows adhoc queries. Minimal Maintenance. 6. BIG DATA OFFERS There are many vendors offering BIG DATA Analytics are IBM, KOGNITO, etc. Here in this paper I have discussed about the IBM Platform. Fig -2: IBM Platform of BIG DATA 7. Big Data Challenges There are focal challenges of BIG DATA are data variety, velocity, volume and analytical workload intricacy More number of organizations is belligerent to compact with many problems with the large amount of data. In order to solve this problem, the organizations need to ease the amount of data being stored and develop new storage techniques which can improve storage use. 8. Uses of Big Data for Online Retailers Most minute merchants’ think that Big Data analysis is for well-built companies. In fact, it is essential for minute businesses, too, as they attempt to partake with the larger ones. This becomes even more important as online retailers proceed together with their customers in real time. Note, however, that management large sets of data can increase a site’s load time. A slow site troubles every aspect of the shopping procedure. Here are six uses of Big Data for online retailers. Personalization, Dynamic pricing, Customer service, Managing fraud, Supply chain visibility,Predictive analytics. ‘Big Data’ and e-commerce Tuesday 25 September 2012 9. Conclusion The expansion of information particularly of unstructured dataposes a special challengeas the volumeand diversity ofdata. One of the most promise technologies is the Apache Hadoop and Map Reduce structure for dealing with this big data problem. Big Data is a popular trend in business and in marketing. The concept can indicate different things to different businesses. For ecommerce, retailers should seek to use Big Data to collect big information, if you will, that may be used to make better marketing decisions,. 10. REFERENCES [1] Ecommerce.about.com [2] bloomreach.com/2012/05/ecommerce-challenges-that-can-be-solved-by-hadoop-and-big-data-apps/ [2] Ziff Davis, â€Å"E-Commerce.† Software World, 2003, vol. 30,pp. 207-212. [3] X. J. Tong, W. Jiang, â€Å"Research of Secure System of Electronic Commerce Based on Mix Encryption,† Microprocessors, 2006, vol. 4, pp. 44-47. [4] S. H. Qing, Cryptography and Computer Network Security. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2001. [5] Y. P. Hu, Y. Q. Zhang, Symmetric Cryptography. Beijing: Machinery Industry Press, 2002. [6] S. Z. Guan. Public Key Infrastructure PKI and Certification Authority. Beijing: Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2002.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini

Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini Compare and contrast Marshall Bermans and Nestor Garcia Canclinis account of the dynamics of Modernity To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often to destroy all communities, values, lives; and yet to be undeterred in our determination to face these forces, to fight to change their world and make it our own. (Berman:1983:13-14) Modernity has long been hailed as one of the most powerful forces to have emerged in the world, with the capacity, according to Marx, to move mountains, and to ensure that all that is solid melts into air. Within the statement by Berman that begins this essay, we can see one of the dynamics that has created this impression. Modernity, despite its deeper roots, begins to be talked about by a series of thinkers who combine a high degree of abstraction with a imperative to act. Thus Marx argues for huge motors of historical telos that exist outside of our will, and at the same time argues for an immanent need to change historical conditions. This relationship between abstraction and concreteness is perhaps the most fundamental dynamic of modernity. It gives rise to the planned economies of communism, and the controlled biopower of modern states that Foucault (1998) talks about, which attempt to rule over the function of life itself. At the same time is gives rise to what Badiou (2005:12 ) calls the passion for the real; the search for an authentic existence in the absence of the certainties with which previous epochs lived. What is crucial about these two movements is the way in which they inflect each other. The idea of authentic will becomes possible only with the collapse of grand narratives and the rise of administered life, and the administered life then uses the same notion of self-fulfilment within consumerism to further be able to administer biopower. It is this covalence that is fundamental to modernity, and which this essay will argue is entirely misunderstood by Berman. One of the reasons for this is that, as Braudel (1995:14) notes, â€Å"each civilisation tends to overestimate its own objectivity.† Likewise, each age tends to see itself as more unique than the last. However, this is particularly a problem with the period called modernity because during this period it was thought reason could break with the past, and a utopia of the state was possible. We can see this legacy in both the Communist economies and in the artistic movements such as Marinettis futurism, which had as its mot to: â€Å"make it new.† It is precisely this trap that Berman falls into: confusing the ideas of modernity with the effects of modernisation. In fact, Bermans fetishished notions of will and authenticity, played out in the ahistorical telos of his modernist planar development, resemble nothing as much as a 19c treatise on the movement of history. Perhaps part of the reason for this is the combination of Bermans European sources with his background in the strong individualist tradition of American pragmatism, as we can see in his first book (1970). Canclini stands just south of Berman, but from the perspective of Mexico, modernity is a not a finished project to be talked about nostalgically in the way Berman does. Because this project is unfinished, Canclini is much better placed to understand the complex and intertwined relationship between what is constructed as tradition and what is constructed as modernity. His notion of hybridity, placed in the context of a heavy reliance on Gramscis theory of hegemony, allows one to understand that supreme category of modernity: tradition. For instance, Canclini notes (1995a:53) that there is no clear line between popular and hegemonic culture, because (ibid:75) peasant culture is necessary for capitalism as a symbol of national identity and because (ibid:83) it offers the construction o f a hegemony through the management of cultural fragmentation.† Thus modernity can be seen here as a hybrid form whereby old identities are mobilised rather than changed and uprooted. Canclini understands that modernity, if it means anything, means a change in underlying structure rather than the type of cultural universalism which lies as the undertone of the work of Berman. This essay will consider how Berman sets up the dynamics of modernity within this ahistorical schema, and argue, as previously alluded to, that he misses the important aspects of the relation. It will also be argued that Canclini, within his much more modest project, understands the underlying dynamics of the abstract and the concrete to a far greater degree. Perhaps Bermans problems begin with his tripartite division of modernity into modernity, modernisation and the modern, without every looking at how these categories are mutually constitutive of each other. Modernity, Berman explains is (1983:15): â€Å"a mode of vital experience – experience of space and time, of the self and others, of lifes possibilities and perils.† Bermans book is more of an evocation than a scholarly argument, but nonetheless is seems pertinent to insist on some evidence for such a claim: did other ages not experience space and time? The problem here is not simply that Bermans generalisations do not tell us anything about modernity, but that they conceal the real dynamics of the process. For instance, Berman often insists on the sense of newness, of authentic experience, within modernity. Yet understood as what Berman construes it to be, the sense of the new is not an experience particular to modernity at all. What is important here about the dynam ics of modernity is the way in which the experience of the new, what Berman calls modernity, is an essential part of the process of modernisation. This has been argued well by one of Bermans claimed inspirations, Walter Benjamin, whose Arcades Project (2002) traces the way in which a sense of wonder was used to create the consumer sensibility. This is also laid out in the work of Canclini, who chronicles the powerful political effect created by constructing modernity as something to come – around which one can mobilise people towards new identities and on new political projects. However, this is a discursive effect, rather than a fundamentally new ontological possibility for the modern subject, and Berman asserts the latter as a property of the former without giving a single argument. Instead, Berman (1983:15) gives us evocation and adjective, one strung after the other. The underlying dynamic of modernity for him is: â€Å"modernity is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish.† Underlying all this purple prose is Marxs statement, that inspires the books title, that all that is solid melts into air. Yet what Marx is talking about is the ability of capital to undermine use-value and create a world of people alienated from their labour and extracted of surplus value. Now one can take issue with Marxs account, (as Baudrillard (1983) most usefully does by pointing out that use-value is also a fetishisation, this time of authenticity, and that the original alienation occurs with the construction of value) but what he draws attention to is the way people see the imaginaries of capitalism as real: capital is perceived by people in Marx as somethin g actually existing, rather than a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration. Here, Berman fails to give proper account of why he diverges from Marx. What can we salvage from Bermans account of the dynamics of modernity? It is true to say that the political subject in modernity was thought of as massively flexible and capable of continual reinvention. Though it must be added that this notion has much broader historical roots that Berman gives credit for: one can already see it in Machiavellis (2004) notion that people are capable of masking their intentions and this constitutes the basis for politics. However, this continual possibility for reinvention led to some of the most firm sets of continuities the world has seen for some time: the idea of class war, the tradition of the French bourgeoisie, and the modern state. Berman writes off in a few lines most of the great thinkers who have analysed this mutually constitutive relationships, Adorno here meriting a line. Canclini, in contrast, is alert to the way the supposed newness of modernity function to preserve power, and in his account of modernity in Mexico draws attention to th e the way newness is made a continuity of ritual and hegemonic power. Berman then separates out modernization as the social process that brings this maelstrom into being. In doing so he outlines some clear divisions between the phases of modernity. These phases resemble nothing so much as the clear evolutionary steps of early modern thinkers like Morgan. In doing so he makes a mockery of the patient work of people like Arrighi (1994), who have worked to uncover all the continuities that exist between different periods. Furthermore, his account is not even internally consistent. There is insufficient clarity in his work as to the difference between the 19C and 20C: Pushkin and Biely are made manifestations of the same movement, despite the widely different impulses that inform their work. What Canclinis work manages to do very well is to understand the way in which modernity, more than any other epoch (for it is the epoch of men who make history themselves without reliance on religious narratives) is complicit in its own construction of history. He trac es the way in which history is used as a political tool, and that the function of the type of planar divisions Berman uses is to extract a continuity from a succession. Which is to say that such divisions function as a political tool to extract a notion of destiny and objective inevitability from a history which is contingent and uncertain. Bermans one-sided and simplistic reading of modernity reaches its apex in his account of the American city. His account is a one sided view of power, as if Le Corbusier had artfully created American cities and all the modern man needed to do was stand up against this bloody tyrant. Canclini (1995b: 743-755) charts the way in which the modern man is complicit in the spaces that he builds, and that the solution is to problems of alienation that occur in such spaces is not some type of revolt by a careful reworking of the practices and delimitations of space that occur in the city. It is working through the very dynamics of modernity that one resolves its problems, and to do so requires an understanding of their complex inter-relation. Such an understanding is accurately posed by Jameson (1992:335) in his understanding of how it was the very construction of space in Los Angeles that led to the possibility of that constructions overthrowing. Furthermore, Berman misunderstands how contest ed Le Corbusier is in architectural theory. He fails to see the varying currents that inform modernity and that produced a diverse and heterogeneous formation of space, even within Le Corbusiers own school (Rabinow: 1991). Theoretically, he also fails to see what De Certeau (2002:19) has persuasively argued for, which is that it was the very relationship of time and space in modernity that leads states to forget the possibility of space. He argues that the spatial organisation laid out by the modern state was predicated on a notion of time as mode of organisation (e.g. wage labour) and a possibility of reinvention which necessarily allowed the particularities of space (as somewhere one has a proper place and a tradition that cannot be reinvented) to left to the people. Thus the conditions for contesting the state in modernity emerges from the intertwining of the micro and macro processes. These complex processes are ignored by Berman, because he is looking for a will-to-power to set against what he sees as the large bureaucratic structures of modernity. This is why he is so against Foucault, who attempts to set out the co-relation between these things. In attempting to find human creativity outside of any sort of system (though without offering any kind of rigorous account of how that might be achieved) he gives to much credit to bureaucratic systems. Canclini, in understanding how the four divisions of modernity he sets out (the rationalising, renovating, emancipatory and democratising projects) are frequently in conflict and lead to a conflicting and contested legacy, is in a much better position to understand. Ultimately, Bermans work seems as if it was written with a long nostalgia to badly understood 19C authors. He uses a notion of freedom as fetishised will (where he deploys what one could reasonably call a notion at all) without understanding that the development of modernity has destroyed this very category. As Zizek (1999:389) artfully pointed out it is the search for the real, for fetishised will, that, when not placed in a grand narrative, ends up in indulging in its simulacrum; the real emptied of risk. Likewise, it is the bureaucratic form of government that has led to the globalisation and decentralisation of its own form. These processes are ignored by Berman, who sees modernity as a universalism, even if a contradictory one, issuing like a new beacon of hope from a centre in Europe. Canclini understands modernity as a hybrid formation that cannot be tied to Europe, and has begun to chart the complex ways that modernity brings to bear on itself, and construct it own legacy. Bibliography Arrighi, G. 1994: The Long Twentieth Century. London: Verso. Badiou, A. 2005: La Sià ¨cle. Paris: Seuil. Baudrillard, J. 1983: For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. London: Telos. Benjamin, W. 2002: The Arcades Project. Harvard: HUP. Berman, M. 1983: All that is Solid Melts into Air: Experiences of Modernity. London: Verso. Berman, M. 1970: The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society. New York: MacMillan. Braudel, F. 1995: A History of Civilisations. London: Penguin. Canclini, N. G. 1995a: Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Canclini, N. 1995B: Mexico: Cultural Globalization in a disintegrating city. American Ethnologist. Vol. 22, No. 4: pp. 743-755. de Certeau, M. 2002: The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: UCP. Foucault, M. 1998: The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin. Jameson, F. 1992: Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. Machiavelli, N. 2004: The Prince. Oxford: OUP. Rabinow, P. 1991: French Modern: Norms and Forms of the Social Environment. Mass: MIT. Zizek, S. 1999: The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. London: Verso.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Essay --

In Homer’s epic The Odyssey a powerful symbol is the dual role of food. Throughout the novel, food was apart of their culture but it also represents situations in which feasting was a form of temptation. There were many feast and celebrations because hospitality was very important in their culture. It ranged from feasting of wine, meat, and bread, and even cheese. Food becomes a test for the weak, and sick men who accompanies Odysseus along the journey. The temptation began when Odysseus men did not return home after the war. It was first shown by the Lotus Eaters. The Lotus Eaters are people who do nothing at all during the day and sit and fulfill their appetites on this appealing plant. In result of them eating the plant they tend to become very lazy and forget their intended task, which was to get back home to Ithaca. Due to them falling into temptation Odysseus had to pull them himself back to the ship. His men fall prey to this food, and you can conclude that Odysseus’ men lack self-control. Along the journey Odysseus’ men are constantly tempted by food but the gluttony come...

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Salvador Dali :: essays research papers fc

(1904-1989) Salvador Dali was born into a middle-class family on May 11th, 1904 in Figures Spain. In 1921 he entered the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid where he made friends with Federico Garcia Lorca, Luis Bunuel, and Eugenio Montes. He pursued his personal intersest in Cubism and Futurism. In June of 1923 Dali was suspended from the Academy for having indicated the students to rebel against the authorities of the school. He was let back in October of 1925, and a year later Dali was permanently expelled. In 1924 he was imprisoned in Figures and Gerona for political reasons. Dali joined the Surrealists in 1929 due to the influence of metaphysical paintings, and his contact with Miro. Dali developed his method over the next few years. He describes his method as 'paranoic-critical, a 'spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on critical and systematic objectivation of delirious associations and interpretations.' Works he produced at this time include The Lugubrious Game 1929, The Persistence of Memory 1931, and Surrealist Objects, Gauges of Instantaneous Memory 1932. Salvador Dali was the top Surrealists of this time. Surrealism explored the subconscious, the dream world, and irrational elements of the psyche in the belief that the discoveries to be made from such exploration would be of more fundamental importance to the human condition than any other form of social analysis. Salvador Dali was very fascinated by the fleeting state of the mind between sleep and consciousness, dream and reality, sanity and insanity, as one in which the mind functioned purely, free from the constraints of logic and social behavior. He read psychological case histories, hoping to represent neuroses in an ultra-realistic style, objectifying the irrational with photographic accuracy. In 1936, Dali began painting in a classical manner again, switching between Italian, Spanish and pompier styles. Dali was very politically involved, and had some extreme opinions. He was fascinated with Hitler, and his relations with the rest of the Surrealist group became strained after 1934, breaking away in 1939 when he declared his support for Franco. He moved to the USA, living there from 1939-1948. Dali held many one-man shows during his career. He directed and was a part of many films including the first surrealist film "Un Chiea A Dalou A Andalusian Dog", with the director Luis Bunuel. In 1945 he designed the surrealistic dream sequence for Hitchcock's Spellbound, and filmed Don Juan Tenorio, in 1951. Salvador Dali :: essays research papers fc (1904-1989) Salvador Dali was born into a middle-class family on May 11th, 1904 in Figures Spain. In 1921 he entered the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid where he made friends with Federico Garcia Lorca, Luis Bunuel, and Eugenio Montes. He pursued his personal intersest in Cubism and Futurism. In June of 1923 Dali was suspended from the Academy for having indicated the students to rebel against the authorities of the school. He was let back in October of 1925, and a year later Dali was permanently expelled. In 1924 he was imprisoned in Figures and Gerona for political reasons. Dali joined the Surrealists in 1929 due to the influence of metaphysical paintings, and his contact with Miro. Dali developed his method over the next few years. He describes his method as 'paranoic-critical, a 'spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on critical and systematic objectivation of delirious associations and interpretations.' Works he produced at this time include The Lugubrious Game 1929, The Persistence of Memory 1931, and Surrealist Objects, Gauges of Instantaneous Memory 1932. Salvador Dali was the top Surrealists of this time. Surrealism explored the subconscious, the dream world, and irrational elements of the psyche in the belief that the discoveries to be made from such exploration would be of more fundamental importance to the human condition than any other form of social analysis. Salvador Dali was very fascinated by the fleeting state of the mind between sleep and consciousness, dream and reality, sanity and insanity, as one in which the mind functioned purely, free from the constraints of logic and social behavior. He read psychological case histories, hoping to represent neuroses in an ultra-realistic style, objectifying the irrational with photographic accuracy. In 1936, Dali began painting in a classical manner again, switching between Italian, Spanish and pompier styles. Dali was very politically involved, and had some extreme opinions. He was fascinated with Hitler, and his relations with the rest of the Surrealist group became strained after 1934, breaking away in 1939 when he declared his support for Franco. He moved to the USA, living there from 1939-1948. Dali held many one-man shows during his career. He directed and was a part of many films including the first surrealist film "Un Chiea A Dalou A Andalusian Dog", with the director Luis Bunuel. In 1945 he designed the surrealistic dream sequence for Hitchcock's Spellbound, and filmed Don Juan Tenorio, in 1951.

Friday, August 2, 2019

Emily Dickinson :: Author Biography Emily Dickinson Essays

Emily Dickinson Breaking news revealing the truth about Emily Dickinson’s life has recently been uncovered. For the past hundred-plus years literary historians believed Dickinson to be a plain and quiet type of person who did not communicate with the public for most of her life. Her romanticism poetry drew attention from fellow literary legends. After corresponding with the well-known Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who showed interest in her work but advised her not to publish it, she became defiant to publish any of her work. Dickinson grew up in a very strict Puritan family. However, her poetry did not reflect her Puritan upbringing at all. As the late eighteen sixties came about, Dickinson became very attached to her family home and refused to leave it. She cut off most of her relationships with her friends. The only way she could express her feelings was through her writing. She eventually died in 1886 of a kidney condition called Bright’s disease. Against Dickinson’s request, her sister Lavinia turned over the rest of her work to be published. The biography you have just read is a summary of the life of Emily Dickinson we have all taken to accept. The following story is the truth revealed. The shocking discoveries will leave you in amazement. One hundred-fifteen years later, who would have thought historians could ever crack a scandal like this one? Emily Dickinson grew up as a New England Puritan. The values she was taught were all but revealed in the poetry she wrote. How could such strict Puritan parents raise a child to express such anti-Puritan values in her writing as Emily Dickinson did? That question has recently become invalid now that scientists have discovered that Emily Dickinson indeed had a twin sister to whom the credit for all of the poetry is now given. How and why did such a disgrace take place, you ask? It was a complicated situation-one which would probably never happen today! Sexuality and enjoyment were things thought of as satanic to Puritans. When Emily Dickinson’s parents gave birth to twins in Amherst, MA, society saw them as grotesque and the parents themselves were humiliated. To Puritans, having twins meant the couple enjoyed sexuality twice as much as others. They would have been shunned and looked down on if they kept both of the babies. With the idea of murdering one of the babies out of the question, one of the twins was given to a caretaker of the Dickinson’s.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Language Learning Strategies Essay

Japanese designed site meant for starters in English language. In it are so many great links that are not only useful but also interesting to kids and other ESL learners. The reason for making it interesting is that kids may get bored if the material is not appealing to them. This site is maintained by TESL, the internet journal and the input is from teachers across the globe. This gives a lot of credibility to the site. Several books also have information meant for ESL learners and teachers. One of them is Oxford’s (1990) Language Learning Strategies outlines what a teacher should know in his/her quest to make learners be competent in English as a second language. It gives all the strategies, their pros and cons, the appropriate level of learners’ cognitive abilities that are in tandem with each strategy and the methods of evaluation of the learners’ understanding after a new concept is initiated. The book cannot be said to fully cover all the participants in the learning environment. Teachers and what they should know have been heavily outlined but the learner has been considerably left out. The ESL competence of the learner will by and large depend on what the teacher has to offer and not what the learner can do to improve his/her ESL competence. Mayer, in Weinstein (1988), Learning and Study Strategies: Issues in Assessment, Instruction and Evaluation tackles issues pertinent to holistic ESL learning namely assessing, instruction and evaluation. The learner needs to be instructed, assessed and evaluated on the much that a teacher has taught him/her. The book is therefore a masterpiece in enabling a well structured acquisition of ESL competence by a learner. The focus here is on the learner and has he teacher as guide, an assessor and evaluator of the progress the learner has made after a given time. The kindergarten kids have been catered for those teaching them will gain the skills to lead them in becoming competent. Elly (`1991), in his book Acquiring Literacy in a Second Language maintains that other than using structured audio-lingual programs , children should be exposed to a variety of story books and motivated to read and share what they get with other children. This way, they are able to acquire the second language easily. Their grasping of vocabularies becomes easy since they find them in the books they read as opposed to teaching them vocabularies non-contextually. The implication in Elly’s book is that practical as opposed to theoretical approach to ESL teaching and learning should be adopted. In terms therefore it content value, this book is invaluable. Boyle and Suzanne (1990) in Literary Scaffolds outline the strategies for firs and second language leaders and writers. It provides scaffolding activities which enhance successful intercourse with the print works and shows children how to read and write. Scaffolding is discussed and how it enhances writing and reading. Teachers and students of ESL can find invaluable information in this book. Genishi (1989) in Observing the Second Language Learner: An example of Teachers Learning illustrates how a kindergarten teacher recorded her observation of some ESL learners thus making critical points on effective language teaching and learning. She observed, according to this book, that each learner followed his/her own timetable and a unique path in learning a second language. It also states that it is important to enhance the activities and situations that provide an opportunity of talking by learners. Lastly, it emphasizes the central part the teacher plays in the language learning environment. This way, they are able to practice what they already know via exchanging with others. This book borrows from the Psychological aspect of behavioral learning whereby children learn from the environment and thus cutting a niche in being one of the best books for use by both teachers and college or University students learning or preparing to teach ESL. In conclusion, the books used are generally relevant based on their individual assistance to learners and teachers of ESL although they most of them are a decade old. The sites too provide the necessary information for those teachers of ESL wishing to help kindergarten kids acquire ESL competence. Students of ESL in colleges and Universities will find these sites vital. References Starters in English language, (2005), available at http://www. aitech. ac. jp/~iteslj/ESL. html: retrieved on 12 Feb 2009. Strategies for learning English as a second language, (2007), available at theenglishweb. com, retrieved on 13 Feb 2009. English as a second language, (2008), available at http://cla. univ-fcomte. fr/english/index_s. htm: retrieved on 14 Feb 2009. ESL for Kindergarten kids, (2006), available at http://home. earthlink. net/~mediadesigns/Calendar. html, retrieved on 12 Feb 2009 ESL teaching strategies, (2007), available at http://iteslj. org/Articles/Lessard-Clouston-Strategy. html retrieved on 10 Feb 2009. Oxford, R. (1990): Language Learning Strategies. New York, Newbury House Mayer, R. (1988): Learning Strategies: An Overview, in Weinstein, C et. al (Eds. ) New York, Academic Press. Genishi, C. (1989) Observing the Second Language Learner: An Example of Teacher’s Learning New York, Prentice Hall Elly, W. B (1991): Acquiring Literacy in a Second Language, Baltimore. Collins Publishers Boyle, O. F & Suzanne, F. P. (1990): Literacy Scaffolds† Strategies for First and Second Language Readers and Writers. New York, McGraw Hill

BTEC BUSINESS LEVEL 2 UNIT 11 P1-P5 Essay

Businesses that are well known for providing superb customer service have several characteristics in common: they understand what customer service really means they understand their customers and aim to fulfil their needs in every way every single person in the organisation wants to achieve this aim. Customer service is the customer’s complete experience, from the second they enter a business or view a website, to the after-sales service, such as spare parts or repairs. Superb customer service means providing services that customers did not even know they wanted, but are delighted to find are provided. Identifying Customer Needs Effective customer service involves satisfying customer needs, so the first step is to find out what these are. All customers contact a business because they want something. Businesses use several methods to identify the needs of their customers quickly. E.g. restaurants, supermarkets, Argos, Thomas Cook how do you think Chelsea FC identify the needs of their customers? Common customer needs: Make a purchase Order a product or service Obtain information Ask for advice Enquire about an order Change an order Report a problem Ask for assistance or help Return or exchange goods Complain Presentation Skills What do other people see when you approach them? Someone who looks smart and professional, or someone who looks like they fell out of bed 10 minutes ago? Presentation skills have nothing to do with good looks, but everything to do with a welcoming smile, appropriate clothes and a smart appearance. Personal presentation  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ uniforms, guides on hairstyles, jewellery, discrimination Body language  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ posture, facial expressions, gestures working environment  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ tidy work area, cooperation and politeness towards staff Interpersonal Skills These relate to your attitude and behaviour towards other people. Attitude –  Be positive, leave problems behind Behaviour –  Courteous, respectful, honesty, thoughtful First impressions and greetings –  Nice reception areas, formal and polite greetings Interpersonal skills –  Listening carefully, note taking, asking questions,  positive  responses, courtesy, concern, confidence, interest, thoughtfulness, respect, tact, efficiency Responding to customer behaviour –  Watch customer body language, listen for their mood, choose words and timing carefully, see the whole picture Communication Skills You need to speak to your customers and how you do this is important. You must take into consideration: Tone of voice – The way in which you say something, expressing yourself when you speak Pitch – The sound that you make when you speak, high/low, loud/quiet Language – Use appropriate language, avoid slang and jargon Pace – The speed at which you speak, speak slowly and clearly Listening skills – Active listening (concentrating on the speaker, notice their feelings), Reflective listening (restating what you hear at points during the conversation to check your understanding) Scope of job role – Staff should know what they can and cannot do as part of their job and the type of issues they must refer to a supervisor. This should not stop them using their own initiative to resolve a straightforward problem quickly, providing they do not make arrangements or promises that are outside their authority Knowledge of Products/ Services – You can only give customers accurate information and advise them about the best options to suit their needs if you have a good knowledge of the products and/ or services available. Because you cannot always memorise these, you also need to know where to find the information, such as in a catalogue, brochure or database. Type and Quality of products/services Businesses monitor and evaluate  their  customer service so that they can remedy problems and introduce improvements. This can be done in various ways. The methods used usually depend upon the size and type of business. Informal customer feedback  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ easy and cheap; an example is a waiter asking you how your meal is when you are eating Customer questionnaires/comment cards  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ issued by many businesses e.g restaurants; these give the business an idea of how effective their customer service is.  Question) – What do you think a disadvantage of this form of monitoring might be? Staff feedback  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  this is invaluable, and not just because it is free; many staff receive or overhear customer comments, both positive and negative. In addition, if staffs are unhappy and leave to work elsewhere, it is sensible to find out why. Mystery customers  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ employed to visit stores to assess staff. They may also check competitor’s stores to compare service levels.  (Question) – What things do you think a mystery shopper will be looking out for? Complaints and compliment letters  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ encouraged by many organisations as a form of feedback; If several simi lar complaints are received, there is  obviously  a problem that needs immediate attention. This is why organisations record the complaints they receive and then check to see if there are any common factors.