Fast Food and the Problems with Fast Food Essay Example for Free

Fast Food and the Problems with Fast Food Essay Fast Food Having an Effect on U. S Health Fast food chains are anywhere and everywhere. You cannot drive to town without passing at least two or three of these â€Å"restaurants. † The concept behind fast food was a good idea, but the results were catastrophic in the health aspect. Now that fast food has become one of the top industries in the world, everything has gone awry. The fast food industry has drastically changed the way people view food, how convenience is rising and the cost for products. Fast food restaurants first started as drive-ins with car hops, but in the 1980’s began with drive-thru windows. McDonald’s was one of the first ones to convert from car hops to drive-thru windows. The idea of fast food service brought about a whole new concept to how we view food. Without proper education in the health field typical Americans would not know what their body needs and what they consume. Maybe if that was the case the obesity rate and rates of chronic heart disease would plummet and we could focus on more important problems. When these restaurants began to spring up, it spread like wildfire. Sonic, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and etc. all became multi-million dollar companies. They discovered they could mass-produce products that were cheap and that could make them money faster than what they had to been doing before (Super-Size Me). Fast food has sprung up and become a leading industry because they are focused on quick, cheap food for people. Despite how bad it is for them it is cheap and fast to produce. They are extremely convenient due to the drive-thru windows that are being incorporated into any and all fast food restaurants. The food that you buy is relatively inexpensive and cheap also. Another key point to fast food restaurants popularity is that they are advertising their foods more towards the children. McDonald’s has their cartoon show that advertises their products to children along with the play places and their mascot, Ronald McDonald. They also incorporate toys and such for the kids’ meals. Burger King does something similar to McDonald’s with their characters. There are many lawsuits against corporations advertising to children for fast food, which are still being reviewed for the time being. This advertising is being sued because of the high rates of obesity in younger children is sky rocketing and chronic heart diseases at younger ages is also a factor in these lawsuits (Food, Inc). The health factors play perhaps the largest role in any type of food industry. â€Å"The disadvantages to fast food is that the products are higher in soya, fat, sugar, oil, fried meat, salt cheese, mayonnaise, and obviously salt†(Bose). There are very little nutrients in fast food if any due to the process of frying the foods to cook them. There is also bacteria present on the food before frying it which can do harm to our bodies if not destroyed also. There is a direct link between fast food and obesity, coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes. Fast food is loaded with salt and fats that are not needed for the body to function which after a long period of â€Å"exposure† can lead to CHD and obesity. â€Å"Eating fast food two or more times a week was also found to increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 27 percent† (University of Minnesota). The advantages of fast food are more for convenience than nutrition. †In a survey done by WebMD the top 11 reasons for eating fast food are as follows: They’re quick, they’re easy to get to, I like the taste of fast food, they’re inexpensive, I’m too busy to cook, it’s a â€Å"treat† for myself, I don’t like to prepare foods myself, I don’t like to prepare foods myself, My friends/family like them, it is a way of socializing with friends and family, they have many nutritious foods to offer, they’re fun and entertaining†(Hitti). This survey just shows that most Americans do not have time or do not make the time to prepare meals for themselves and their families. If families are too be healthier individuals they need to make time to prepare meals for the entire family. Choosing one day out of the week to cook meals for the whole week is a great and convenient solution to this problem. The major chains that have flourished greatly are McDonald’s with their advertising towards children and very inexpensive foods, Burger King with their better â€Å"quality† tasting food, and Sonic which kept the drive in style fast food, but incorporated a drive thru into their layout. Each of these restaurants have one thing in common, they all advertise to children as their main concentration. Keeping their restaurants friendly and geared towards kids pushes the kids to want to keep going to these places so they can eat and play. Sonic does not offer a play place or anything like what Burger King and McDonald’s have. Sonic keeps more of the older style of fast food using car hops and drive ins which plays to their advantage being one of the very few restaurants that even do this anymore. One of the biggest problems with fast food is that they try to keep us in the dark about what we are consuming. That should raise the question of what is being hidden from us. In the documentary, Food Inc. all of the corporations producing foods refused to comment on their procedures. The farmers were not even allowed to let the cameramen into their chicken houses. This alone should tell us there is something that these companies are hiding that could cause them to lose a lot of money. If you watch closely to how these companies operate then that alone should raise an eyebrow or two as to what is their big secret and why are we the consumers kept in the dark about this. For McDonalds, the chicken nuggets they sale are not actually chicken nuggets. The â€Å"nuggets† are the leftovers of the chicken made into a pink paste like substance that is then made into a chicken nugget. None of the meats made are 100 percent beef or chicken or fish. The products are leftovers of the real ingredients ground up and mixed with other products to make what we consume. Trans-fatty acids are placed into the products to preserve them which only make them worse for us, which leads to insulin resistance over time and cause Type 2 diabetes. The beef has been reported to have less than 2 percent actual beef in the burgers. Many of the mystery ingredients in fast food are typically industrial chemicals. The occurrence with deaths due to how our food is processed is becoming a major concern for most states. Unfortunately FDA regulations are very lax with food processing companies and fast food companies because some of the â€Å"big wigs† are working for these food companies (Food, Inc. ). The beef that is being processed for our consumption are typically standing in their own manure, which causes infected meats and disease ridden food. Also chicken houses are very similar to the way beef is raised. The chickens are packed into these houses and pumped with steroids so they will grow much faster and much larger than normal. This means less time spent raising the chicken and faster money in the pockets of the corporations. Food is an essential part of life. It is necessary to live and to function throughout the day. The type of food we consume is up to us, we can have healthy, nutritious food or we can have quick, unhealthy food. The choice comes down to our knowledge of what we consume and need as humans. Unfortunately fast food has changed how we view food, how convenience is a greater commodity than nutrition and the cost for products. Works Cited Bose, Debopriya. â€Å"Advantages and Disadvantages of Fast Food. † 12 Nov. 2013. Buzzle. Web. Clarke, Nancy. â€Å"Health Risks Involved When Eating Fast Food. † 9 Sep. 2013. Demand Media. Web. Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Gary Hirschberg, and Joe Halatin. Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Documentary. Henshaw, Ashley. â€Å"The Major Health Hazards of Fast Food. † 9 Sept. 2013. SymptomFind. Web. Hitti, Miranda. â€Å"Top 11 Reasons for Fast Food’s Popularity. † 12 Nov. 2013. WebMD. Web. Pereira, Mark, David S. Ludwig, Alex I. Kartashov, Cara B. Ebbeling, Linda Van Horn, Martha L. Slattery, David R. Jacobs. â€Å"Fast-food Habits, Weight Gain, and Insulin Resistance (The CARDIA Study): 15-Year Prospective Analysis. † 9 Sept. 2013. 365. 9453(2005): 36-42. Web. 9 Sept. 2013 Martindale, Diane. â€Å"Fast Food is a Major Public Health Hazard 177. 2380. † 2 July 2012. Organic Consumers Association. 9 Sept. 2013. Web. Super-Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs, and Lisa Ganjhu. Kathbur Pictures, 2004. Documentary. University of Minnesota Academic Health Center. â€Å"Fast Food Intake Increases Risk of Diabetes and Heart Disease in Singapore. † ScienceDaily. 9 Sept. 2013. Web. Weiss, Thomas C. â€Å"Associated Health Risks of Eating Fast Foods. †. Disabled World. Fast Food Having an Effect on U. S Health Fast food chains are anywhere and everywhere. You cannot drive to town without passing at least two or three of these â€Å"restaurants. † The concept behind fast food was a good idea, but the results were catastrophic in the health aspect. Now that fast food has become one of the top industries in the world, everything has gone awry. The fast food industry has drastically changed the way people view food, how convenience is rising and the cost for products. Fast food restaurants first started as drive-ins with car hops, but in the 1980’s began with drive-thru windows. McDonald’s was one of the first ones to convert from car hops to drive-thru windows. The idea of fast food service brought about a whole new concept to how we view food. Without proper education in the health field typical Americans would not know what their body needs and what they consume. Maybe if that was the case the obesity rate and rates of chronic heart disease would plummet and we could focus on more important problems. When these restaurants began to spring up, it spread like wildfire. Sonic, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and etc. all became multi-million dollar companies. They discovered they could mass-produce products that were cheap and that could make them money faster than what they had to been doing before (Super-Size Me). Fast food has sprung up and become a leading industry because they are focused on quick, cheap food for people. Despite how bad it is for them it is cheap and fast to produce. They are extremely convenient due to the drive-thru windows that are being incorporated into any and all fast food restaurants. The food that you buy is relatively inexpensive and cheap also. Another key point to fast food restaurants popularity is that they are advertising their foods more towards the children. McDonald’s has their cartoon show that advertises their products to children along with the play places and their mascot, Ronald McDonald. They also incorporate toys and such for the kids’ meals. Burger King does something similar to McDonald’s with their characters. There are many lawsuits against corporations advertising to children for fast food, which are still being reviewed for the time being. This advertising is being sued because of the high rates of obesity in younger children is sky rocketing and chronic heart diseases at younger ages is also a factor in these lawsuits (Food, Inc). The health factors play perhaps the largest role in any type of food industry. â€Å"The disadvantages to fast food is that the products are higher in soya, fat, sugar, oil, fried meat, salt cheese, mayonnaise, and obviously salt†(Bose). There are very little nutrients in fast food if any due to the process of frying the foods to cook them. There is also bacteria present on the food before frying it which can do harm to our bodies if not destroyed also. There is a direct link between fast food and obesity, coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes. Fast food is loaded with salt and fats that are not needed for the body to function which after a long period of â€Å"exposure† can lead to CHD and obesity. â€Å"Eating fast food two or more times a week was also found to increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 27 percent† (University of Minnesota). The advantages of fast food are more for convenience than nutrition. †In a survey done by WebMD the top 11 reasons for eating fast food are as follows: They’re quick, they’re easy to get to, I like the taste of fast food, they’re inexpensive, I’m too busy to cook, it’s a â€Å"treat† for myself, I don’t like to prepare foods myself, I don’t like to prepare foods myself, My friends/family like them, it is a way of socializing with friends and family, they have many nutritious foods to offer, they’re fun and entertaining†(Hitti). This survey just shows that most Americans do not have time or do not make the time to prepare meals for themselves and their families. If families are too be healthier individuals they need to make time to prepare meals for the entire family. Choosing one day out of the week to cook meals for the whole week is a great and convenient solution to this problem. The major chains that have flourished greatly are McDonald’s with their advertising towards children and very inexpensive foods, Burger King with their better â€Å"quality† tasting food, and Sonic which kept the drive in style fast food, but incorporated a drive thru into their layout. Each of these restaurants have one thing in common, they all advertise to children as their main concentration. Keeping their restaurants friendly and geared towards kids pushes the kids to want to keep going to these places so they can eat and play. Sonic does not offer a play place or anything like what Burger King and McDonald’s have. Sonic keeps more of the older style of fast food using car hops and drive ins which plays to their advantage being one of the very few restaurants that even do this anymore. One of the biggest problems with fast food is that they try to keep us in the dark about what we are consuming. That should raise the question of what is being hidden from us. In the documentary, Food Inc. all of the corporations producing foods refused to comment on their procedures. The farmers were not even allowed to let the cameramen into their chicken houses. This alone should tell us there is something that these companies are hiding that could cause them to lose a lot of money. If you watch closely to how these companies operate then that alone should raise an eyebrow or two as to what is their big secret and why are we the consumers kept in the dark about this. For McDonalds, the chicken nuggets they sale are not actually chicken nuggets. The â€Å"nuggets† are the leftovers of the chicken made into a pink paste like substance that is then made into a chicken nugget. None of the meats made are 100 percent beef or chicken or fish. The products are leftovers of the real ingredients ground up and mixed with other products to make what we consume. Trans-fatty acids are placed into the products to preserve them which only make them worse for us, which leads to insulin resistance over time and cause Type 2 diabetes. The beef has been reported to have less than 2 percent actual beef in the burgers. Many of the mystery ingredients in fast food are typically industrial chemicals. The occurrence with deaths due to how our food is processed is becoming a major concern for most states. Unfortunately FDA regulations are very lax with food processing companies and fast food companies because some of the â€Å"big wigs† are working for these food companies (Food, Inc. ). The beef that is being processed for our consumption are typically standing in their own manure, which causes infected meats and disease ridden food. Also chicken houses are very similar to the way beef is raised. The chickens are packed into these houses and pumped with steroids so they will grow much faster and much larger than normal. This means less time spent raising the chicken and faster money in the pockets of the corporations. Food is an essential part of life. It is necessary to live and to function throughout the day. The type of food we consume is up to us, we can have healthy, nutritious food or we can have quick, unhealthy food. The choice comes down to our knowledge of what we consume and need as humans. Unfortunately fast food has changed how we view food, how convenience is a greater commodity than nutrition and the cost for products. Works Cited Bose, Debopriya. â€Å"Advantages and Disadvantages of Fast Food. † 12 Nov. 2013. Buzzle. Web. Clarke, Nancy. â€Å"Health Risks Involved When Eating Fast Food. † 9 Sep. 2013. Demand Media. Web. Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Gary Hirschberg, and Joe Halatin. Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Documentary. Henshaw, Ashley. â€Å"The Major Health Hazards of Fast Food. † 9 Sept. 2013. SymptomFind. Web. Hitti, Miranda. â€Å"Top 11 Reasons for Fast Food’s Popularity. † 12 Nov. 2013. WebMD. Web. Pereira, Mark, David S. Ludwig, Alex I. Kartashov, Cara B. Ebbeling, Linda Van Horn, Martha L. Slattery, David R. Jacobs. â€Å"Fast-food Habits, Weight Gain, and Insulin Resistance (The CARDIA Study): 15-Year Prospective Analysis. † 9 Sept. 2013. 365. 9453(2005): 36-42. Web. 9 Sept. 2013 Martindale, Diane. â€Å"Fast Food is a Major Public Health Hazard 177. 2380. † 2 July 2012. Organic Consumers Association. 9 Sept. 2013. Web. Super-Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs, and Lisa Ganjhu. Kathbur Pictures, 2004. Documentary. University of Minnesota Academic Health Center. â€Å"Fast Food Intake Increases Risk of Diabetes and Heart Disease in Singapore. † ScienceDaily. 9 Sept. 2013. Web. Weiss, Thomas C. â€Å"Associated Health Risks of Eating Fast Foods. †. Disabled World.

Case Study Ethics Guide Dialing For Dollars Marketing Essay

Case Study Ethics Guide Dialing For Dollars Marketing Essay In Dialing for Dollars, a company is faced with low sales. Desperate to meet quota, a boss authorizes a salesperson to offer customers a 20% discount if they take delivery before the end of the quarter, and to start dialing for dollars. Get what you can. Be creative. This prompts the salesperson to try out a few creative but questionable ways of trying to boost sales. The sales person moves from customer to customer trying different tactics to convince the customers to buy some products. This article raises the question of how far one is willing to go to succeed. In this report, we aim to discuss the creative sales tactics the salesperson employed, to evaluate if they were ethical or not, and in instances, to evaluate whether they were legal or not. We will also discuss the merits and demerits of each tactic, and whether they were in the scope of what the company would find acceptable. The four questions asked are: Is it ethical for you to write the email agreeing to take the product back? If the email comes to light later, what do you think your boss will say? Is it ethical for you to offer the advertising discount? What effect does that discount have on your companys balance sheet? Is it ethical for you to ship to the fictitious company? Is it legal? Describe the impact of your activities on next quarters inventories. Case Study Questions Q1. Is it ethical for you to write the email agreeing to take the product back? If the email comes to light later, what do you think your boss will say? According to the American Marketing Associations Statement of Ethics, marketers should be forthright in dealings with customers and stakeholders. To this end, marketers should strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times.  [1]   In business, stakeholders refers to any person(s) and/or entity/ies that has/have vested interest in the decisions businesses make. In general, these people are usually employees, customers, stockholders, consumers, and even society at large if a companys business decisions were to affect them. In the case of Dialing for Dollars, a salesperson finds himself in quandary when the sales forecasting system predicts quarterly sales to be substantially under quota, prompting the salespersons boss to suggest that the salesperson start dialing for dollars. Get what you can. Be creative. This results in the salesperson offering a management-authorized 20% discount on orders that are delivered before the end of the quarter to its customers. Unknown to management, the salesperson also offered to take back any unsold stock the following quarter. He confirms this offer by email to the customer instead of on the purchase order, as accounting would not log the order this quarter under those conditions. The question is: Who is affected by this decision? And what would be the outcome to those affected? In the case of the salesperson, his total sales would be upped, including his commissions, resulting in a net gain to him. In the case of the customer, he gets his 20% discount on the new merchandise, along with a guarantee than unsold inventory could be returned the following quarter. For the customer, this is also a winning situation. In the case of the company, the companys bottom line shows hearty sales and income flows for the quarter as a result of this decision. In the short time, it is a good business decision. But businesses do not exist to operate for a short term. They exist with the hope that they will continue operations indefinitely. So a decision such as this that may appear to be a net positive in the short-term, could have disastrous consequences in the long term. This brings me to the other stakeholders, the stockholders. Stockholders purchase stock in a company based on the faith they have that the company will go on to thrive. A business decision that seeks to be deceitful and cut corners in one quarter, which will negatively affect business the following quarter, is a bad one from the point of view of stockholders. A companys public reputation is dependent on the internal ethics of the company and its employees. Any hit to its public image could perceivably cause stock prices to plummet drastically, as was the case with Martha Stewart stock during her insider-trading scandal. To answer the question, it was not ethical to write the email to take the product back without the expressed consent of management, and if the email comes to light, the boss would probably be disappointed at the action. To quote the American Marketing Associations mantra referred to above à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ marketers should strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times. Clearly this was not the case. Q2. Is it ethical for you to offer the advertising discount? What effect does that discount have on your companys balance sheet? Because the companys sales forecasting system has predicted that quarterly sales will be substantially under quota, the vice president of sales has authorized a 20-percent discount on new orders, with the only stipulation being that customers must take delivery prior to the end of the quarter so that accounting can book the order. Start dialing for dollars, she says, and get what you can. Be creative. With that said, three creative strategies were implemented. The second strategy that the salesperson tried was that instead of offering the discount, the salesperson offers the product at full price, but agrees to pay a 20-percent credit in the next quarter, that way the full price is booked for this quarter. The salespersons pitch claims that the companys marketing department analyzed past sales with a fancy new computer system and determined that increasing advertising will cause additional sales, so if they order more product now, next quarter the company will give 20-percent of the order back to pay for advertising. The obvious is that the customer is going to receive the credit next quarter and not buy product in that quarter, killing your sales for that quarter, but thatll be a problem for next quarter. According to the Journal of Indian Management, Advertising is the life blood of all business organizations, without which the products or services cannot flow to the distributors or sellers, and on to the consumers or users. Unethical issues in advertisement include providing misleading information, using ambiguous terms and defaulting and promised rewards.  [2]  After analyzing the given circumstances that the companys salesperson created, many of these unethical issues were brought up. The salesperson first gave misleading information, by claiming that the marketing department analyzed past sales using a fancy new computer system that determined increasing advertising will cause additional sales. Secondly, the salesperson promised a reward, by stating that by buying more product in this quarter, the company in return will reward 20-percent of their order back for advertising. Lastly, the whole sales pitch used ambiguous terms. For example, the salesperson used terms such as, ou r fancy new computer system, but mainly well give you 20-percent of the order back to pay for advertising.' What and how exactly will the company determine whether or not the 20-percent given back to the customer will be used for advertising, as that is a part of the agreement in the salespersons pitch? With all said and done, the salespersons advertising discount offer strategy for increasing the companys quarterly sales is highly unethical and raises several red flags. If the advertising discount offer is accepted by both sides, then the balance sheet for the current quarterly sales will show a boom in sales, however in the following quarter, the advertising discount will show up as a bust in the balance sheet, because that is when the 20-percent of the customers order will be credited back to the customer for advertising purposes. Q3. Is it ethical for you to ship to the fictitious company? Is it legal? According to Business Law and the Legal Environment by Beatty and Samuelson, Ethics is the study of how people ought to act.  [3]  We believe the Dialing for Dollars salesperson acted very unethically for the reasons stated below. Many organizations create a Code of Ethics which states the organizations primary values, and sets the rules employees should abide by. No legitimate business will have a Code of Ethics that makes behavior such as this salespersons actions acceptable. Due to expected low quota, the vice president allowed employees to offer a 20% discount on new orders. The words start dialing for dollarsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and get what you can. Be creativeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are not instructions to behave unethically. They mean that the salesperson should use creativity in trying to sell as much merchandise as possible, but in an ethical and legal fashion. This particular salesperson, out of desperation, sold $40,000 dollars worth of merchandise to a fictitious company owned by his brother-in-law. It is not ethical to ship to a fictitious company. The quota is met but the product is returned in the next quarter. A big lying scheme was formed with the brother-in-law. This deception causes the company to produce more merchandise based on deceptive sales amounts, which will result in the company being harmed in the long run. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, their mission is to reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime. They performed a research using Benfords law to detect fraud,  [4]  which looked at investigative and audit sampling methods. They described something similar to what was done by the salesperson to be an embezzlement scheme. It is also illegal because the sales person created a fictitious company using his brother-in-law as the front person and allowed the company to perform a credit check. Moreover, this salesperson is also causing his company to record fictitious revenue which is also fraud. This is a serious problem as the company is not aware of the scheme it is being unwittingly involved in. The CPA Journal provides ways for company auditors to catch this type of fraud. They provide the following advice: Be skeptical about large revenue transactions recorded near the fiscal year-endà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and In reviewing purchase orders, auditors should look for cancellation clauses that could negate the sale. Auditors should read sales contracts and look for cancellation privileges and lapse dates. Revenue should not be recorded until the cancellation privilege lapses.  [5]   In summary, shipping products to a fictitious company is both unethical and illegal. It causes many problems for the company in the long run. Ultimately, the company is responsible as it should take the proper steps in reviewing sales to ensure no such scheme is happening. Since the salesperson represents the company, if caught, they will both be charged with fraud. Q4. Describe the impact of your activities on next quarters inventories. The impact of the three sales actions above would have terrible effects on the inventories. All of the returned material would become overstock. Since the automated system noticed the trend of increase in sales of the product it would wrongly forecast higher demand of the product. This would result in compounding the overstock problem by eventually increasing the amount of finished goods of the product in stock even more. On top of receiving back the returned product, the automated process to increase production would cause increased orders for raw materials for the manufacture of the product. With the finished product overstock from the returns as well as ill-advised over-production and increased raw materials, space for storing all of the inventories within the warehouse may also become a problem. Further, with the increased orders for the raw materials and possible negative net income from all of the returns, the company could be placed in jeopardy with its cash flow. Depending up on how bad the situation gets, the company may be put in a position to have the sales team sell the product at a loss in order to get inventory levels back to normal and not take any further, worse losses. In terms of accounting for inventories, one can also look at the calculation for Cost of Goods Sold as referenced from Cornerstones of Managerial Accounting: Cost of Goods Manufactured + Finished goods inventory (beg. of period) Finished goods inventory (end of period) Cost of Goods Sold The Finished Goods inventory at the end of the next quarter (regardless of when the items are returned) would be increased dramatically by the returned product. This in turn would inevitably have a negative effect on the Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the next quarter. Materials inventory as used in calculations for Cost of Goods Manufactured would also be affected because of the increase in raw materials purchased. The formula for Cost of Goods Manufactured as shown in Cornerstones of Managerial Accounting is: Direct Materials + Direct Labor + Overhead + WIP (beg. of period) WIP (end of period) Cost of Goods Manufactured Since the Direct Materials would be increased because of the increase in purchases, then the Cost of Goods Manufactured would be increased, which in turn would increase the Cost of Goods Sold again. Summary Why is ethics in business important? Society views unethical behavior by business leadership as being socially irresponsible. Bad ethical behavior can result in crushing blows to a companys public image, resulting in a greatly decreased bottom line. Ethics is so critical that management has to pay close attention to it in order to survive. Customers reaction to unethical management behavior can force an organization out of business. Additionally, deceptive behavior and short cuts usually result in lawsuits and injuries, adding to a companys woes. In the end, its always best to do the right thing from the outset.

Formal Analysis of Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Young Good

A Formal Analysis of Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is an interesting short story that creatively tells two stories at once. One story is of a man leaving his wife one night and venturing into the woods, and the other is of his struggle with his religious faith. In reading this story, it is beneficial for one to look at it from a formalistic point of view. Formal analysis makes the reader look closely at how a story is written to see its deeper meaning. Hawthorne takes advantage of careful word choice and images to create a picture of one man's journey that can easily parallel our own. The word choice of every story plays a key role in understanding the story. In "Young Goodman Brown" almost every word contains a special meaning. The title Hawthorne gives to his story is simple and informative; it tells the reader right away that the focus of the story is a young man. The use of the name Brown is also significant. The name is universal so that it can relate to anyone (Rhetoric 102L class discussion, January 15 2001). The fact that his title is Goodman, instead of Mister, suggests that it took place around colonial times. The name of his wife, Faith, is a clue held in the opening paragraph of the text that gives the reader and idea of what the story is about. Though out the story Goodman Brown says phrases such as, "Faith kept me back a while," which on the surface looks as though he is talking about his wife; however just below the surface he is talking about how his faith in God that kept him from heading towards the Devil. (HCAL 376). Caref... ...odman Brown goes is also significant. The Puritans believed that the witches and even the Devil lived in the woods, which can be a hint foreshadowing what Goodman Brown will find in the forest. "Young Goodman Brown" is full of carefully selected words. Each place, item, and name described is significant to the story. The word, faith, has two functions, a name and a belief. Images such as the pink ribbons and the staff are useful for more than their everyday function. Hawthorne knows the power of words and chooses wisely, thus creating a story that, when looked at beyond the surface, has a completely new meaning. - (Guerin, Wilfered; Labor, Earle; Morgan, Lee; Reesman, Jeanne; Willingham, John, A Handbook of Critical Appraches to Literature, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999.)

Abandonment in Jamaica Kincaids Autobiography of My Mother Essay

Abandonment in Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiography of My Mother Xuela, the protagonist of Jamaica Kincaid's novel, The Autobiography of My Mother , comments, "I felt I did not want to belong to anyone, that since the one person I would have consented to own me had never lived to do so, I did not want anyone to belong to me" (112). The outward coldness of this statement is clearly observed, but it is the underlying statement Xuela is making that is truly a significant theme within the novel; Xuela's fear of abandonment. She aborts the child she is carrying, leaving her barren. She chooses not to be a mother herself. She refuses to form close relationships with men or women. She is terrified that, like her mother, everyone around her will desert her. Shortly after her mother's death, Xuela's father places her in the care of the the woman who does his laundry. Even as a child, Xuela understands that first her mother, and now her father, have abandoned her. She realizes, "My mother had died when I was born, unable to protect herself in a cruel world beyond ordinary imagining, unable...

There is More to Vikings than Violence Essay -- essays research papers

History typically describes the Vikings as the fiercest, most brutal of all the barbarian groups that invaded Europe. Historians agree that the Vikings were fierce, but was there more to them than that. The word 'Viking' has been used to identify people who lived in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in early medieval times. In the language Old Norse, 'Viking' means pirate. Sometimes they were known as 'Northmen' or Danes. The Vikings shared a similar heritage as the Saxons, a group of people who had previously invaded Britain. The Vikings sailed to other foreign countries because they weren't able to do many profitable things in their own homes. The soil was infertile, and the land was rocky and covered in ice and snow for most of the year. The Vikings also wanted to leave their homes because they marvelled at the prospect of adventure, trade and plunder. Many simply sailed to foreign lands for the summer, raiding villages and killing those within them and them returning home for the rest of the year. However, some chose to settle in the lands that they raided. The Vikings travelled extensively across the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Vikings of Denmark and Norway sailed England, Ireland, France, Greenland, Iceland and North America (Vinland) and some settled there. The Vikings of Sweden resettled in Russia. There was a lot more to the Vikings than their reputation would suggest. For example, Vikings had their own beliefs and religion. Before the Vikings resettled in other countries, they had their own religious beliefs and worshipped many different gods. The stories they told are known as ?Norse Myths?. The majority of them are about competitions between the gods and giants. The god of thunder, Thor, who was also ... .... There is clear evidence to suggest that Vikings were not purely bloodthirsty. The Vikings contained some passion and a feeling of ?servant-ness?, as they worshipped many gods. Thor was the most popular Viking god, but some Vikings converted to Christianity after resettling in Britain. The Vikings enjoyed being well dressed but images of bloodthirsty villains don?t often look elegant. Vikings hardly had enough food, so they had to be very frugal with it. If they were so bloodthirsty, they would probably just go and steal the food from their neighbours. This substantial amount of evidence obviously shows that Vikings were seen as bloodthirsty outside their homeland and acted viciously towards foreigners. However, at home, they led normal lives like people living in Britain and other countries in that era and loved and cared for each other as we still do today.

All quite on Western front-Enrich Maria Remarque Essay

Remarque, being a veteran German of the World War 1, could depict the physical and psychological duress, the government soldiers had to tolerate. He narrates the mental tug of war the soldiers had to bear on being detached from civic life comprising of family and friends. This mental war was allying with the field fight. Remarque in his book does not articulate heroism, but he gives a vivid description of the mental agitation the soldier goes through . having once sailed in the same ship, Remarque could feel the monotony and constant fight for life. This story relates to the kind of trauma and loneliness, the foot soldiers went through. The war had snatched their peace of mind there by causing a situation of alert all the while around them. There was an air of struggle flowing throughout, struggle for piece, struggle for victory, struggle for food and struggle for existence. Remarque remarks, the life of soldiers are always at a jolt and yet they appear old and dead being thoroughly, emotionally drained. The soldiers are here merely escaping from their own self. At this jovial age, the world of love that they had once created is brutally shattered to pieces by their own hands. The author depicts a poignant description by narrating the awe and feeling of being abandoned makes the mental state of the foot soldiers all the more morose. The protagonist of the story, Paul Baumer who was moved by his mentor, joined the German army and entangled himself into an unsigned bond of serving the country at the price of leaving behind the personal life which had just started showing the colors of youth brimming with high spirits. He had also left behind his ailing mother. But now avenues of repentance are lost. Many others like Paul had been a false prey to the futile war. This amusing anecdote throws light on the life in the trenches of the German camp. The outcome of the war brought nothing but destruction, death and needless waste of mankind. The youth directly, though bravely, encountered brutality, soiled dead bodies and evident death which might be their awaiting future. The story highlights the psychological insight resulting out of the pathetic incidences in the trenches. Though being part of the war, the protagonist and his co-mates realized the futility of the war which had brought with it a needless waste of human life in form of mass death. The trenches had a miserable and pitiable sight. The priceless human life turned valueless. Even a stone heart would surely melt at such a terrible death game. The very sight traumatizes people, but the soldiers were facing them boldly. Though trained to be tough, the soldiers break down at the loss and sufferings of the fellow beings. The cooks of the army cooks for hundred soldiers but ends up in serving eighty of them. They often show their frustration by declaring not to serve unless all hundred are present. But they realize the fact that this figure would always be a diminishing trend and complains fatality to none other than fate. The author depicts the character of Tjadesa as a carefree, apathetic person grinning over the cook’s reaction. Though it seemed that there were no trace of repercussions on Tjadesa, but it was his unnatural behavior which depicted his concern and fear. He showed joyous expressions despite the losing his comates for ever, this were out of gratitude of still being alive. Though tjedas’s behavior seemed weird, but his discrete way of accepting the inevitable losses. The ideas ejaculating out of the soldiers mind were often weird, like they felt the war should have been fought by the leaders within a ring rather than such merciless slaughtering and cruel blood shed. The futility of war has given rise to restraint traits of human like selfishness, jealousy, envy, violence and being opportunist. Eventually the brutal results of the war some how dries up the sense of morality, dignity, empathy and many such emotions in the soldiers and life becomes like an unfertile land yielding nothing grow more unfertile for days to come. Similarly wars too yield nothing but destruction, emptiness and ruined humanity. The war may end in victory but the society is held back by the rudderless youth detached from social and moral life and lives with frustrations of shattered dreams. The rumbustious youth turns into old folk. The author relates the feelings of Paula’s, â€Å"Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk. † BIBLIOGRAPHY: – Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front. – Wikipedia- All Quiet on the Western Front. – www. docshare. com.

Planning to Meet the Needs of Learners in Education and Training Essay

Initial and diagnostic assessment involves the process used by trainers to get to know the learners and making a healthy relationship with them. Gravells and Simpson (2010) provided that the initial assessment occurs when learners are introduced to new learning programs. It is a comprehensive approach whereby the trainer and the learner begin to create a picture of their achievements, interests and skills. The learners also build up their learning experiences and needs correlated with their goals. The diagnostic assessment assists in identifying specific learning needs and strengths. It evaluates the learning targets of students and suitable teaching and learning strategies essential in achieving the set goals (Gravells & Simpson 2010). As an educator, it is imperative to initially diagnose and assess the individual learning goals of each and every learner in order to be able to map their future progression. It is essential to analyse their skills and achievements, and correlate them with their intended targets. Carrying out this analysis will enable the trainer to understand the task ahead and how to meet each learner’s requirement. Explain how your own planning meets the individual needs of learners As a trainer, relating to real life circumstances and situations is one of the simplest means of making learning more accessible to both the learners and trainers. This context provides a more perceptive framework for learners’ skills and enhances additional learning (Petty 2009). Besides, allowing the learners to review the literature of the taught subjects enables them keep the information fresh in their minds. This promotes additional learning in the fact that the learners improve their ability to maintain currents skills and create new skills. Planning it provides an opportunity for the implementation of curricula reforms in light of the dynamics and the characteristics present within a group of students, finally resulting to an enhanced learning experience. Educators should plan various strategies depending on the learning environment and the nature of the study. Students adopting this approach not only focus on the literal aspects of learning but also on the underlying concepts, and their main interest is the task at hand. They further seek  integration to widen their understanding of a subject across disciplines. Explain ways in which teaching and learning plans can be adapted to meet the individual needs of learners Most classrooms consist of different learners with a wide range of needs, which the trainers have to consider while planning, teaching and assessing their students. The most effective teaching and learning plans must have clearly stated objectives that the learners should learn. Gravells and Simpson (2010) explained that teaching and learning plans consist of an introduction to the lessons, the engagement of learners in learning activities that enable them understand the content of the lesson, and the opportunities for learners to participate in providing the feedbacks on the lesson learned. Hence, it is paramount for a trainer to know the strengths of every learner, and how they can be assisted to develop their talents, skills and knowledge. While designing teaching and learning plans, it is also important for any trainer to consider the specific learning needs of all the learners (Petty 2009). Differentiated instruction is another way to be adapted to meet learners’ needs. Learners are different, and they do not learn in the same ways. With trainer’s teaching and learning plans in mind, it is essential to know how the students learn and create a design instruction which accounts for the different types of learners (Gravells & Simpson 2010). The trainer has to assess the current knowledge of students on the outcomes, and he or she is likely to evaluate that learners have diverse skills on the planned learning outcomes. Petty (2009) stated that the trainer should also present teaching in different instructional experiences. This can be achieved by making small group of learners and providing them with assignments and projects. Identify Opportunitites for Learners to Provide Feedback to Inform Inclusive Practice Allowing self assessment enables the learners to provide feedback on their learning and development. According to Petty (2009), self-assessment outlines major areas that need improvements and enhances knowledge and skills among the learners. Inclusive learning provides individual needs of the learners; therefore allowing the trainer to develop lesson and activities associated with learner’s needs. Learners’ feedback is more constructive than trainer’s feedback because it only focuses on negative aspects of learning outcomes (Gravells & Simpson 2010). Peer assessment also provides positive effects towards the development of learner cohorts and inclusive learning practice. In relation to the proximal learning theory, learners gain knowledge for each other and this is one of the productive ways of learner feedback. Group discussions are very essential in a classroom setting because they not only improve student-student interaction, but also they assist the teacher in evaluation the level of knowledge acquire. This can be very useful in inclusive practice feedback. The teacher is able to assess the student’s as they discuss. Also, use of feedback evaluation forms, question and answer discussions also provide ample opportunities for providing inclusive practice feedback. Analyse ways in which minimum core elements can be demonstrated in planning inclusive teaching and learning As a tutor, every lesson plan distributed should incorporate all the necessary minimum core elements. In most cases, deployment of numeracy proves an intricate aspect while planning to fit the lesson plans. It is an intricate issue particularly when dealing with art subjects but it can fit when students are deploying the laser cutter, which demands exceptional measurements practice. When considering written assignments learners should be given word count papers. Thus, they comprise of both English and numeracy subjects. Well, it is quite imperative to constrict in minimum core as much as possible during lessons. Normally, embedded learning and teaching coalesces the development of language, numeracy, and literacy with vocational skills (Keeley-Browne, 2014). The acquired skills provide students with necessary motivation and confidence sufficient to guarantee students excellent qualifications both in their career and in life. In lesson planning, a selection of the following ways of minimum core features predominantly. Literacy, which handouts use, written homework set, presentation, and self-participation through written board exercise, features most. The second example is numeracy where student use measurement and laser cutter for their exercises saved on the computer. Language is the other way of encouraging students to engage in-group work. Educators should normally sit with students on a personal level and deliver an interactive verbal lecture (Keeley-Browne, 2014). This mode of teaching ensures and encourages students open-up on their work experiences. Lastly, deploying ICT through computer use for various researches and set essays during the unit. References Gravells, A & Simpson, S 2010, ‘Planning and Enabling Learning in the Lifelong Learning Sector’, Exeter, Learning Matters Keeley-Browne, L. (2014). Achieving Your Award in Education and Training. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Petty, G 2009, ‘Teaching Today’, 4th Edition, Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes Source document