WANs in Organisations Essay Example for Free

WANs in Organisations Essay 1. WHY ARE WANS USED? Wide Area Networks, or WANs as theyre commonly known, are networks with the ability to span quite a distance; usually 5 kilometres or more. The main reason for any network usually to allow the sharing of resources and WANs are no exception to this; whether it is sharing resources with an employee of your business or a customers business, a WAN will allow data exchanges to be made. They also offer connectivity between both regional and global sites but differ from the Internet. This is looked at later in this information sheet. WANs allow for centralisation, particularly in administration which is important to allow a good level of control and security. 2. NETWORK DIFFERENCES WIDE AREA NETWORKS Wide Area Networks are networks that span a wide area. This is considered to be anything over around 5km meaning that a several site company will be using a WAN. METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORKS This is a network that covers between 2km and 5km and is often found in metropolitan cities. These networks are usually owned by a single company but are provided for use by everybody. Occasionally a network such as this will be implemented by a public company such as the local council. Generally speaking, a MAN is any type of network that connects computers together in an area of around 2km 5km. CAMPUS NETWORKS A Campus network is a network of less than 2km that is operated by a single entity. The buildings connected together may all be owned by the same company, or several companies in this small area. This type of network is frequently found at university campuses and hospitals. Campus networks usually connect the entire site together to allow the sharing of information. LOCAL AREA NETWORK A LAN is a network that covers a single building. This could include a home network or an office network. It has a range of around 300m. PERSONAL AREA NETWORK This is any network that is in your immediate area; usually a network with a maximum distance of around 15m. It is important to note that this is usually a very simple network that it usually only has a temporary use. Wireless PANs are created by systems such as Bluetooth whilst USB and Firewire are both considered wired PANs when used to directly connect devices to each other. Distance Location Uses WAN 5km + Several Locations Connections private computers together over a large area. MAN 2km 5km Several Buildings Part of a City Connections between several buildings possibly covering the same area. This could cover an entire city or just a smaller area. Campus 2km Several Buildings University Campus Style Most used in an area such as a campus. This could be either an actually college/university campus or a group of buildings that require access to each other. LAN 300m Home A Building This is quite a small area and so is most often found in small business and home type networks. PAN 15m Between Computer and Phone/PDF/etc. Sending data such as photos or backups between computer and portable devices such as phones. Table showing the distances, location and uses of the five networks. 3. WAN AND THE INTERNET The Internet and WANs are two very different things but the majority of WANs will require the Internet, just as the Internet relies of WANs. The Internet is a special network that consists of many interconnected networks to provide access to world wide resources and nobody owns it and so nobody can govern its uses unless other laws are broken. A WAN will have a company controlling it and is therefore much more controlled in who can access and how. A WAN also connects much fewer computers and has a smaller coverage area. 4. DEVELOPMENTAL IMPACT ON WANS There are many things that could impact the development and uses of WAN. The major five are; maintenance, costs, expansion, technology, bandwidth and planning. MAINTENANCE Maintenance is important for any part of a system. Good maintenance will keep the WAN usable whereas no maintenance will lead to an unusable system. COSTS Costs are an extremely important part of network development. Lower costs means that more things can be changed at once, but costs also impact quality. TECHNOLOGY WANs can only develop at the speed that the technology is developed. At each network based technological breakthrough; the support for WANs is increased and improved. If technology does not keep up to speed with the needs of WAN users then the network will not work as effectively as it should. BANDWIDTH Bandwidth is very important for the network; without it nothing can be sent. If the amount of bandwidth needed by the network exceeds the amount of bandwidth that is available then problems concerning speed and errors are likely to arise. As bandwidth is improved (and the technologies needed to deliver said bandwidth), so are the speeds offered to business for their networks

Feminism in Indian English Literature

Feminism in Indian English Literature First, the phase of imitation is prolonged and the dominant tradition and the international roles have affected the social roles. Secondly, the phase of protest was established against the standards values of life which also includes demand for autonomy. Lastly, Self-discovery is a phase, where search for identity was the main aim of the writers to project in their writings, as they experienced freedom from self-dependency. Thus the critic supplanted the traditional definition of feminism especially in literature by a new paradigm for manifesting the evolutionary aspect of womans consciousness as reflected in literature specifically in the British novel through three stages of progression- the feminine, the feminist and the female. While the post-colonial enigma gradually changed into a neo-colonial consciousness in India, the creative writers specially the woman factionalists resorted to examining the role of modern Indian women vis-Ã ¢-vis family and society differently and more positively. The second generation of Indian women novelists like Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Bharati Mukherjee and Shobha De specially exhibits a steady progression in context of the three stages advocated by Elaine Showalter. Their female protagonists display a psychic transformation traversing and evolving gradually but firmly through the respective stages of imitation of tradition, protest and advocacy of rights, and eventually introspection leading to self-discovery which metamorphisezes them into strong, independent, expeditious women willing to encounter the onslaughts of life not merely as a minority group but with the cognizance of being powerful sustaining force for society as a whole. It has been observed that the position of women in India has been subjected to varieties of changes over the past few years. From equal status with men in the prehistoric times through the less equality which was prevalent in the medieval period. The promotion of womens rights had been taken up by many reformers in India in order to emancipate their position. In the contemporary times, women have been at high post in the nation like India, that includes, the post of President, Prime Minister, Speaker of Lok Sabha and Leader of opposition party respectively. Not only that women have done exceptionally well in different spheres of life, be it academics, teaching, defense, media or entrepreneur etc. In Ancient India, many scriptures had written about the situation of the women, where she enjoyed equal status as that of men. Not only in the sphere of rights but also in the field of education, were women given equal opportunity. Vedas like Rigveda and Upnishads, wrote about women sages and seers, Gargi and Matreyi. After the medieval period the position of the women got deteriorated and evil practices like Sati, child marriage, ban on widow remarriage became part of social life in India. The conquest of India by the Muslims brought in practice like purdah and Jauhar. The conditions were difficult and stringent for Indian women, and few women excelled in the field of literature, politics, religion and education. To name some women who excelled in different field, Razia Sultan who ruled over Delhi, Durgavati, the Gond Queen, Chand Bibi fought against Mughal forces of Akbar and defended Ahmednagar, Nur Jahan established imperial power and was a real force behind the Mughal throne. Mirabai,a female saint-poet was an important Bhakti movement figures. Many reformers during the British rule also worked for the upliftement of the women, and some of the freedom fighters included women in forefront like Bhikaji Cama, Dr Annie Besant, Vijaylakshmi Padit, Kasturbha Gandhi and Rani Laxmibai If we talk about defining women empowerment, it simply means giving the women crucial authority. It has been proved since time immemorial that women are more responsible when tackling a situation, so delegating authority with confidence is the first step towards women empowerment. It also means to give rights and power to women to face the challenges of life. When we analyze empowering women, it emphasizes on inspiring women with the courage to break free from the barriers of patterns of society or religious norms that kept traditionally women suppressed. It is known fact that women, particularly in India are still backward and they are not aware of their rights that the constitution has endowed. The mission of many reform institutions in India is to make them aware of all these facts and fight against the torture and all evil things caused to them by the society and the husbands and other people is called Women Empowerment. Women empowerment is instilled by many with the aim of giving power to women to make their own decisions in their lives. It includes social, economic, legal, and political and health empowerment. It is a central issue which is growing at a slower pace. In India, Women Empowerment was a challenging task and one needs to acknowledge that gender based discrimination and due to this social malice was prevalent for many years. The malice cannot be removed by adopting few laws or policies, as many of them though may be on paper, but are not implemented in actual terms. The power structural forces of the society never tried to uplift the status of women at different levels and the growth of the women was stunted. At this juncture of complexities related to the rights of women, the situation can only be improved, once the social attitude is revamped and the prevalent evil practices against the women should be banned. This can be brought in by womens access and control over the decision making. Further increasing the social interaction on women at different levels in the society. In India, women are marginalized at every level of the society whether in economic, social or political participation and gender disparity is crept in the life of people that The rise of the novel in India was not purely a literary phenomenon. It was a social phenomenon as much, rather the fulfillment of a social need. It was associated with social, political and economic conditions which were comparable to those which favoured rise in England. The rise of novel and appearance of it in nineteenth century India as it did in eighteenth century England synchronized with the rise of individualism and with all the consequent political and social reorientations which followed. The eighteenth century was an age of anarchy from a political point of view, torn as it was by wars, conquests and annexations.The character of Indian novel is bound to vary from language to language and is bound to be conditioned by the regional, linguistic and cultural peculiarities characteristic of the writer and his environment. But the Indian novel, whether in English or in any other Indian languages, has an individual quality, a distinctiveness which calls for serious critical attention and the Indian novel in English has this distinctiveness much more than the novels in other languages of the country, a distinctiveness which transcends all the peculiarities characteristics of different linguistic and cultural milieus. Though this would mean our accepting the Indianness of the Indian novel in English as one of the important frames of reference in all critical studies of the genre, one has to guard oneself at the same time, against the danger of the `Indianness becoming, with t he writer and the critic alike, an obsession, an unhealthy pre-occupation with orientalism, lush scene painting and with a desire to pander to the national self esteem of the Indians or gullibility of European intellectuals. A novel written by an Indian writer will certainly be Indian without any conscious effort on the part of the writer to the extent to which it depicts Indian life and culture, reflects faithfully the life and spirit of the Indian ethos and grapples with the problems and tensions generated by the rather unique way in which an individuals life and character are determined by home, family and society in the Indian social milieu. It can be peculiarly Indian in respect of its form, narrative techniques employed and the manner in which it adapts the English language to the native sensibility. It can be much more characteristically Indian in its moral and spiritual content and in the values and ideals it upholds and it may even show another worldliness, a predilection for myth and fantasy, a tendency to turn ones back on the here and now and show a basic hunger for the unseen- all deriving from the Indian writers unconscious affiliation with the world of legends, fables and puranas. But any deliberate attempt made by the writer to make his novel Indian or to design it for a Western audience will make it artificial and unreal. Though no Indian writer writing in English can be absolutely free from being conscious of the Western reader, he can at least avoid designing his work specifically for a Western audience. He may write for a Western audience as much as for an Indian audience but he must write as an Indian with India in his bones, of course, but without a conscious or deliberate effort to make his work distinctively Indian. Indian fiction in English has emerged as a separate entity for the study of the rapid change and development in social, economic, political and psychological facets of Indian society.

Gender Differences In Politeness

Gender Differences In Politeness Nowadays the difference between mens and womens use of language is one of the most important research subjects among sociolinguistic scholars as a result of its importance in communication. Understanding the different communication patterns which women and men typically use assists interlocutors to reach to better understanding and finally to achieve effective communication. Numerous studies have been widely and deeply conducted to come to conclusion that women and men are dissimilar in the way of interacting and communicating in terms of minimal responses, turntaking, changing the topic of conversation and self-disclosure. As a noticeable feature in cross-gender communications, politeness has begun to draw a lot of interests from many researchers during the past forty years. Therefore, there has been an upsurge in discussions, seminars, journals and researches in such fields as word choice, syntax and intonation to portray how dissimilarly men and women use politeness strategies. It is a high likelihood that gender differences in polite behavior will lead to failure in cross-sex communication. So as to get effective communication, speakers need to understand verbally politic behavior in different genders well. There is a general agreement that women are more likely to use politeness patterns than men in their speech. Lakoff, one of the most significant pioneers in this issue, distinguishes womens speech from mens speech in these striking features including the use of words related to their interests, empty adjectives, question intonation, hedges, hypercorrect grammar and superpolite forms (1975, p. 53-55). Based on Lakoffs commonsense beliefs and stereotypes about differences in the way of being polite between men and women in daily conversations, Montgomery concludes that womens speech is more polite than mens (1995, p. 151). This claim is supported by a great number of well-known empirical works. There is a substantial body of evidence supporting the view that, in general, womens linguistic behaviour can be broadly characterized as afliliative or cooperative, rather than competitive or control-oriented (Cameron (1985), Kalcik (1975), Smith (1985)) and as interactively facilitative and positive politeness-oriented (Holmes (1984b, 1986), Thorne, Kramarae and Henley (1983)) (as cited in Holmes, 1988, p. 451). In fact, every study makes a marked contribution in building an assumption on the difference between men and womens speech. In order to continue forming a clear sociolinguistic picture of gender differences in communications, this research is dedicated to a Vietnamese social setting. It will provide a profound study of whether female speakers are more polite than male speakers or not in foreign language centers. In this research, some linguistic politeness devices are focused to contribute to better understanding about dissimilarities in polite ways of talking between women and men. Methodology Based on the theoretical study in politeness-related differences between males and females, this project uses the noticeable findings as a data elicitation procedure to investigate the following question: To what extent do the male and female English learners from the foreign language center of Ho Chi Minh Technology University use similar or different politeness devices in daily conversations? Participants In this small-scale research, 50 male and 50 female speakers aged between 18 and 25 from the foreign language center are selected to answer some questions. The selection is carried out through the background questions in the first part of questionnaire given to 100 English learners at the foreign language center. All of chosen participants are native speakers of Vietnamese from different family, social and educational backgrounds. In details, the majority of objects are university students whose level is intermediate. They spend a lot of time studying English because they believe that a good command of English will provide a better chance of getting a good job in the future. Instruments The questionnaire used as the instrument for this project contains 3 opened-ended questions and 3 closed-ended questions. The reason why the questionnaire is used and there is no interview is that they can have more time to think about the answer and give response naturally in English. Most importantly, in this way, they can avoid losing their face when they encounter some confusing situations. First of all, the open-ended questions contain some common scenarios in day-by-day communication, namely making compliments and requests. In particular, every situation requires students to provide two responses in which one is for the same gender and the other is for the different sex. It is widely known that the level of politeness partly depends on many variables including age, social status, and relationship; therefore, two control settings are designed for aforementioned speech acts. Additionally, each part is set up to ask the participants to respond to friends or strangers. All the situations are divided into two main topics. Topic 1: Situation in which participants give a compliment. Topic 2: Situation in which participants ask a person to do a favor. Secondly, in the closed questions participants are asked to rate the level of politeness as well as the frequency of some functions according to their perceptions of using tag-questions and requesting in cross-sex conversations. These multiple-choice questions are created for categorizing and summarizing the results in any meaningful way. Procedures The data were gathered by employing questionnaire used to evaluate the participants politeness performances in their daily conversation. To strengthen the argument, each question asked them to write down their responses in either verbally or nonverbally. There is no time limitation so that they cannot suffer from the time pressure. Presentation and analysis of data After collecting the date, participants are classified into two main categories in terms of gender. One is the male group and the other is the female group. Next, under each group, their performance of politeness is analyzed in line with syntactic structure and lexical items among the same sex or different sex interlocutors. The result is gathered into three major parts, namely using tag-questions, complimenting, and making complaints. Tag questions It is widely acknowledged that the major grammar function of a tag question is seeking agreement from the listeners. Besides, tag questions are considered a kind of polite statement in which it does not force any agreement or belief on the addressees as in Lakoffs pioneering research, she concludes that womens speech sounds much more polite than mens in terms of linguistic forms like tag-questions and requests (p.17-19). Therefore, using tag questions is one of linguistic features which this research is primarily concerned to verify gender differences in politeness. The finding of question about the frequency of using tag-questions reveals that men tend to use more tags questions than women in communication. The number of male speakers who often use tag-questions doubles that of female speakers with 7 and 3 out of 30 respectively. Although the result is completely opposite to the description of womens speech given by Lakoff, one of the most significant pioneers in gender-difference research, that women have a tendency use more tag questions than men (1975, p. 53). However, it matches with Dubois and Crouchs surprising findings that in at least one genuine social context, men did, and women did not, use tag questions both formally and informally. In this context, the claim that tag questions signify an avoidance of commitment, and cause the speaker to give the impression of not being really sure of himself, of looking to the addressee for confirmation, even of having no views of his own, is open to serious doubt (1975, p. 294). A small number of people choose tag questions when interacting with other speakers is that they are not familiar with the structure of tag questions. For them, the grammatical rules are too complicated and various to acquire in a foreign language as it is a new terminology which does not exist in their first language. In fact, Zhang explains that mistakes arising in the process of learning English tag questions are caused by students incomplete application of rules. In order to produce some sentence structures, more than one rule should be used or a rule is used to some different degrees. But learners sometimes fail to understand or apply these rules completely. For example: She hardly plays with you, doesnt she? (does she) I never said she was wrong, didnt I? (did I) The learner knows the agreement rule of forming an English tag question. But when there are some words which denote negative without the word not, the learner has some difficulties in dealing with the whole sentence. Thus he produces the above sentences instead of correct ones. (2010, p. 580) Another reason for low level of frequency in using tag questions is the variation of intonations. In English, the intonation on the tag questions determines the function of the tag. In other words, communicators can change the meaning of a tag question with their pitch of voice. For instance, with rising intonation, tag questions sound like a real question. Notwithstanding, when the intonation falls they sound like a statement which does not require partners to give a real answer. If the tag is spoken with a rising intonation, as in a question, the function of the tag is much closer to that of an interrogative. The speaker indicates that he has made an assumption about the state of affairs but he is not sure as to the validity of that assumption. The listener is requested to indicate whether the assumption is valid. If the tag is spoken with a falling intonation, as in a declarative sentence, the speaker indicates that he has made an assumption and is requiring only confirmation of its validity from the listener (Mills, 1981, p. 643). In addition to the frequency of using tag questions, there is a big gap in the purpose male and female speakers use in daily conversation. The following table presents the result after investigating how similarly men and women use tag question. Function Men Women Expressing uncertainty 54% 30% Facilitative 23% 27% Softening 23% 43% It is clearly seen from the table that male and female interlocutors have completely different purpose in using tag questions. While numerous men use tag questions to signal doubt about what they are asserting and look forward to information confirmation, a large number of women consider them as facilitative devices and softening tools for negative comments. This finding is the same as Holmes summary in her research into tag questions as politeness devices. She identifies that women put more emphasis than men on the polite or affective functions of tags, using facilitative positive politeness devices. Men, on the other hand, use more tags for the expression of uncertainty (1992, p.320). This finding is mainly explained by the most widely-identified difference theory which reveals that men and women use language for different social purposes, having been socialized in different ways from earliest childhood (Edwards, 2009, p. 137). In his large-scale study, he clarifies that womens gossip traditionally focuses on personal relationships, experiences and problems in a generally supportive atmosphere. They consider the world as a network of connections and conversations as negotiations for closeness in which people seek support and reach consensus. Men, on the contrary, are more concerned with factual information, often in a competitive or combative format. They see the world in a hierarchical social order in which they are placed either up or down. For them, life is a contest and a struggle to achieve and maintain their power (Edwards, 2009, p. 137). Compliments In everyday life, there are a large number of speech acts we can use to show positive politeness like greetings, seeking agreements, avoiding disagreements, joking and showing sympathy. Among them, a compliment serves the function of not only positive politeness strategies but also potential face threatening acts (Holmes, 1988, p. 445). The questions four and five are designed with the intention of measuring how many politeness linguistic patterns both male and female speakers use when they pay their friends or a stranger a compliment. Response to friends Response to strangers From the two above bar charts, in general, women are more polite than men in paying and receiving compliments, which matches with Wardhaughs claim that women are reported to use more polite forms and more compliments than men (2010, p. 343). In details, in the scenario in which the participants is required to give a compliment on their same sex friends new clothes, the figure of female speakers choosing to compliment in an extremely polite way is four times more than that of male speakers. The percentage of the former is nearly 80% and the latter is 20%. They use some compliments such as It really looks good on you, doesnt it?, How pretty your dress is and What a pretty blouse youre wearing! as positive politeness devices. Another evidence is that when they compliment on a strangers a pair of shoes, men use less polite compliments than women to either the same sex or the opposite sex partner. The dominance theory is one of most significant explanations of the commonly held belief that women are more polite than men in cross-sex conversations. The relationship between gender-related difference in politeness and power has been investigated for the past a few decades. After OBarr and Atkins (1980) explore the complexity of the aforementioned relationship, they find out that the different language features particularly politeness strategies between males and females are related to the status rather than the sex of the speaker. They indicate that more females use polite linguistic forms than males in everyday interaction because they are more likely to be in lower-status positions (as cited in Kendall Tannen, 2003, p. 549). Thus, in the society women wish to gain higher status; for example social class, occupation, etc. by using more standard language and more polite forms in day-by-day conversations. As a result, they become more aware of the importance of linguistic politen ess in maintaining communication. In a word, higher speaker power will be associated with lower level of politeness. However, it is interesting to find that male participants use as many politeness linguistic strategies as females when they have a cross-sex conversation with both friends and strangers. It means that men tend to compliment more politely to women than to men. In addition to the belief that womens self-esteem is lower; hence, their face needs to be protected, females are more nurturant, more emotional, and more sensitive to the needs of others than males (Bern, Eagly, Piliavin and Unger, as cited in Durkin, 1995, p. 456). That is the reason why male participants pay much more attention to their use of words and speak more politely when having a talk with female partners in order to avoid the risk of hurting their feelings. In this case, gender plays an indispensible part in the choice of polite language forms. Requests Most sociolinguists remarkably appreciate the role of indirect requests in building up the politeness in conversation. Ervin and Tripp, for instance, illustrate that it is useful for speakers to use indirect interrogative requests because they give listeners an out by explicitly stating some condition which would make compliance impossible (as cited in Saeed, 2003, p. 234). In terms of requests, from the above data, not only female participants but also male interlocutors prefer using indirect and polite structures so as to reduce the risk of threatening the addressees negative face. Will you please close the door?, Wont you close the door? and I wonder if you could be so kind as to close the window are used by over 60% of men and women when they are required to ask a person to do a favor. The finding is partly against the general agreement that female communicators use more superpolite forms than male ones. This result offers some new insights into how gender influences the way men and women uses politeness strategies. Therefore, a new way of studying the gender difference in politeness-related linguistics is found in the 1990s. Many recent sociolinguists appreciate the social constructivist approach in explaining the variation of politeness behavior between men and women. A social constructivist approach shifts the emphasis to language as a dynamic resource used to construct particular aspects of social identity at different points in an interaction. Social categories are not fixed but are subject to constant change; talk itself actively creates different styles and constructs different social contexts and social identities as it proceeds. (Holmes, 2001, p. 14565) Additionally, in her research, Goodwin view activities rather than society as the relevant unit for the analysis of the data. She concludes that stereotypes about womens speech fall apart when talk is arranged in a range of activities. In order to construct social personae appropriate to the events of the moment, the same individuals articulate talk and gender differently as they move from one activity to another (1990, p. 9). In other words, speakers do not hold the same communication style across a wide range of activities. For example, a woman may choose linguistic forms which can contribute to the construction of a more feminine identity in a romantic date. Nonetheless, in a meeting in the role of a chairwoman, she will linguistically construct a powerful identity. When interacting with her children at home, she may use linguistic devices with the intention of creating a maternal identity. Therefore, the way speakers use structures to construct proper events changes in their comm unication activities. Criteria It can be clearly seen from the table that it is the relationship between the communicators that affects how politely participants speak, not the gender difference. Both men and women claim that they will take the relationship into consideration when they make a request (the figure of the former is 56% and that of the latter is 67%). The closer the relationship is, the more direct their request is. Their answer is supported by Samovar, Porter and McDaniels conclusion in their 2009 work. They find out that the closer the relationship between two persons, the less the power differential between them and smaller the magnitude of imposition the less likely it is that they will employ conversational indirectness (2009, p. 173). The implication in a language classroom All the results of this small-scale study not only confirm the previous findings discovered by numerous celebrated sociolinguists but also reveal some new findings from Vietnamese foreign language classrooms. These interesting findings about the differences in politeness use between male and female learners lead to some implications for the process of language teaching and learning. The first implication centres on the acquisition of tag questions in classrooms. From the survey, a great number of Vietnamese students whose level is intermediate or even advanced hardly use tag questions although they can adequately manipulate the form, usage as well as intonation when they are required to do so. Therefore, as an English teacher, a well-prepared presentation and a lot of intensive exercises and drills should be used in order to get students to apply them to real life situations. Besides the basic rules, some exceptions and complications should be introduced to learners so that they give a correct form of tag questions in no matter what conversation they have. More importantly, educators should help students recognize the importance of this grammar points in communication. Whenever learners know that tag questions are regarded as an extremely useful tool in daily conversations regardless of their complexity in the forms, meanings and intonations, they prefer using tag questions more often. For example, tag questions are not normal questions which are used for asking new information but powerful devices for addressers to confirm certain information, express uncertainty, facilitate and soften negative comments. Last but not least, owing to the complicated system of tag questions, Beardsmore (1970) recommends that the teaching should be undertaken from an easy to more difficult stage. The difficulties come on three levels including form, meaning, and intonation. To achieve a positive use of tags, the teaching should pay more attention to basic patterns and leave some anomalies to the end (p. 18). Another implication for English teaching and learning comes from the new results in complimenting and requesting. It cannot be denied that the gender difference plays an important part in selecting appropriate polite forms; nevertheless, there are other criteria such as age, social status, culture and relationship which communicators should bear in mind before making up their mind to use a certain politeness strategy. Accordingly, in their 1985 book, Tillitt and Bruder advise that in many cultures it is considered inappropriate to compliment babies while in the U.S it is common to say What a cute baby!. Moreover, when you are invited to a dinner in an English family, the host is happy to hear that you appreciate the food. Hence, you should compliment the food no matter how delicious the real food is. However, you do not need to compliment each dish separately. You can give a general compliment which is followed by a s specific one. For example, the meal was delicious, especially the lamb (p. 68). Additionally, based on many ELT researches into communicative approaches, Canale and Swain summarize that communicative competence consists of three components like grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. In their well-known work Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches, they write: In view of Chomskys (1965) strong claim that competence is to be associated exclusively with knowledge of rules of grammar, both Hymes (1972) and Campbell and Wales (1970) propose a broader notion of competence, that of communicative competence. This notion is intended by them to include not only grammatical competence (or implicit and explicit knowledge of the rules of grammar) but also contextual or sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the rules of language use). Furthermore, Hymes (1972) explicitly and Campbell and Wales (1970) implicitly adopt the distinction between communicative competence and performance, where this latter notion refers to actual use (as cited in Canale Swain, 1980, p. 4) Therefore, I strongly suggest that the procedure of teaching and learning either compliments or requests consists of three following steps: Teaching and learning some possible patterns used in compliments and requests in line with the scale of politeness (from less polite to more polite and then to superpolite) Teaching and learning sociolinguistic competence of these patterns. Practising these patterns in real life exercise so that learners can get used to the patterns. As a result, they can use these politeness devices naturally. Lets take a clear illustration. Firstly, teachers ought to provide learners with the knowledge of requests especially the importance of indirectness of requests in maintaining politeness. For instance, the function, whom to request, what to request, how to request and how to reply to a request need to be presented in various situations in daily life. Next, social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately should be given for Vietnamese learners to acquire sociolinguistic competence. In this way, they can know when to use some superpolite forms or when to use less formal language. After that, they are given some authentic drills to practice how to give and reply to a request appropriately. Conclusion In summary, this paper gives a view on politeness gender difference between Vietnamese male and female learners. The findings make a positive contribution in portraying the picture of both similarity and difference in the way men and women use polite language. It can be concluded that women are not always more polite than men in Vietnamese context. Many interesting insights; for example, the gender of the listeners is one of crucial factors influencing polite behaviors of the speakers are found in this research. Besides, language educators can know that Vietnamese students see politeness as an effective way to avoid conflicts and to save face in conversations. Lastly, Vietnamese leaners politeness strategies change with the relationship between addressers and addressees. In this case, gender becomes less significant factor affecting the change of interlocutors politeness strategies. Thanks to the result of this paper, language planners can know more about their leaners communicative competence especially in using politeness linguistic devices in the process of language teaching and learning. Gender Differences in Politeness Gender Differences in Politeness From my experience and observation in teaching English in a great number of mixed-gender classes, there is a big gap in the way men and women use a certain language. For example, when both male and female students are asked to discuss one particular topic, men interrupt women more often than women do. The differences lead me to the wonder whether or not there is a correlation between language and gender. In fact, differences in the way men and women use a certain language have been of interest in the study of sociolinguistics. Therefore, there has been an upsurge in discussions, seminars, journals and researches in gender-related differences. A lot of issues such as word choice, syntax and so on have been taken into account so as to portray how dissimilar men and women use a language. Not understanding gender differences when interacting in either formal or informal situations will result in communication breakdowns. In order to communicate effectively, communicators need to make use of some appropriate politeness strategies as speakers always hope to obtain the respect from the counterparts. Hence, based on a great number of theoretical bases and empirical studies, my paper examines gender differences in conversations in in terms of politeness. My review comprises four sections. The first part looks at the definition and the function of politeness. There is an analysis and synthesis of differences in the way men and women use politeness strategies in the second section. From some explanations for these differences in section three, I suggest some implications for teachers to help learners to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation in conversations by using politeness techniques in the teaching process. The definition, genres and strategies of politeness A multitude of researches on politeness have been carried out to explore and expand the classic sociolinguistic work of Brown and Levinson (1987), who state that it is important to avoid causing offence in communication by showing deference to other interlocutors. They consider deferential responses as forms of politeness to avoid communication breakdown between individuals (as cited in Meyerhoff, 2006, p. 84). From the above definition, I assume that the focus of politeness is on the hearer. In this way, tactful consideration of other peoples feeling assists to avoid some potential conflicts, to gain better understanding and then to achieve effective communication. Conversely, modern linguists consider politeness as proper social behavior. In ordinary language use, according to Geyer (2008), politeness is associated with civil or well-mannered behavior and with social attributes such as good upbringing, status and formal etiquette. In addition, Watts (2003) adds his idea to validate the current conceptualization of politeness. Politeness is not something we are born with, but something we have to and be socialized into, and of politeness are available (p. 10-11). Accordingly, Holmes suggests that making decisions about what is or is not considered polite in any community involves assessing social relationships along the dimensions of social distance or solidarity and relative power or status (Holmes, 1992, p. 297). In order to be linguistically polite, communicators should choose some proper expressions which show the degree of social distance and the status difference. Based on two aforementioned dimensions, politeness is classified into two different genres. Positive politeness which is solidarity oriented emphasizes shared attitudes and values while negative politeness involves expressing oneself appropriately in terms of social distance and respecting status differences (Holmes, 1992, p.297). In terms of the social significance especially politic behavior, Lakoff (1989) distinguishes three kinds of politeness: (1) polite behavior, which is manifest when interlocutors adhere to politeness rules, whether expected or not; (2) non-polite behavior, amounting to non-conforming with politeness rules where conformity is not expected; and (3) rude behavior, where politeness is not conveyed even though it is expected. (as cited in Kasper, 1990, p.208) It is advisable to use some proper strategies in order to maintain politeness between speakers and listeners in the conversation. Following the above notion of politeness, Brown and Levinson (1987) point out that some linguistic strategies need to be realized in language to minimize the risk of losing face. They outline four main super-strategies such as bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record. Firstly, bald on-record strategies used in situations where the speaker has a close relationship with the addressee are direct and unmitigated. The next strategy is positive politeness one which is often utilized to make the hearer comfortable when communicators know each other rather well including using in-group identity makers, seeking agreement, joking, and raising common ground. In contrast, negative politeness strategies are chosen to avoid imposition on the audience through distancing styles like giving deference, hedging, questioning rather than asserti ng, and apologizing. Lastly, off-record or the indirect strategy explores conversational implicatures by using hints and involving irony. For example, a speaker may use a proverb A penny saved is a penny earned to serve as criticism You are always spending a lot of money instead of a piece of advice You should save money (p. 91- 227). Some politeness variations between men and women Differences in the ways that men and women use politeness language strategies have been one of the most important research subjects in sociolinguistic. Lakoff is one of the most significant scholars of gender-difference research for the past forty years. Her 1975 study into language and womans place plays a key role in launching the issue of gender-related differences in politeness. In her influential research, she concludes that womens speech sounds much more polite than mens sound in terms of linguistic forms like tag-questions and requests (p.17-19). In other words, in conversation females are more likely to use politeness strategies in their speech than males. One aspect of politeness strategies is that the speaker should not impose a viewpoint on other people. Thus a tag-question is a kind of polite statement in that it does not force agreement or belief on the addressees. Using tag-questions is a special linguistic feature of gender differences in politeness. Holmes agrees that in general the women use more tags than the men, as Lakoff predicts. She summarizes her findings in the following table after she carries out a research into a sixty-thousand word corpus containing equal amounts of female and male speech collected in a range of matched contexts. On the contrary, as it is clearly seen in the result that Holmes identifies that men and women do not use tag questions for the same purpose. Women put more emphasis than men on the polite or affective functions of tags, using facilitative positive politeness devices. Men, on the other hand use more tags for the expression of uncertainty (1992, p.320). In fact, women tend to consider tag questions as an indicator of politeness while men use them to express uncertainty in colloquial situations. The different conversational strategies of men and women can be analyzed in terms of compliments to demonstrate that women tend to be more polite than men. Like tag questions, compliments are regarded as exemplary positive politeness strategies as the apparently main function of compliments is to consolidate the solidarity between participants. The remarkable gender difference in politeness is the way women and men use compliments. From the obvious data given by Holmes (1988), it is clearly seen that women give and receive significantly more compliments than men do. Holmes does not only focus on the frequency of complimenting patterns but also the purpose men and women use compliments. Her study finds out that women generally perceive compliments as positively affective speech acts, while men may perceive them differently (Holmes, 1988, p. 451). This claim is supported by many well-known empirical works. There is a substantial body of evidence supporting the view that, in general, womens linguistic behaviour can be broadly characterized as afliliative or cooperative, rather than competitive or control-oriented (Cameron (1985), Kalcik (1975), Smith (1985)) and as interactively facilitative and positive politeness-oriented (Holmes (1984b, 1986), Thorne, Kramarae and Henley (1983)). Linguists describe womens contributions to interaction as other-oriented, and then come to conclusion that women regard compliments as positive politeness devices. Therefore, the assumption that women use more compliments than men is consistent with this orientation. (as cited in Holmes, 1988, p. 451) While many linguistic studies on gender and language agree with the hypothesis concerning that women are more polite than men, there are also some researchers who disagree. Based on the data drawn from voice mail messages in a legal setting, Hobbs argues that the frequency of male speakers negative politeness markers is roughly equal to that of womens whereas men prefers to use more positive politeness techniques than women (Hobbs, 2003, p.243). Hobbs collected 22 informational messages of which 11 were gathered from the males and 11were from the females to analyze the dissimilarities in the way men and women use politeness strategies. The findings indicate that the general claim about women being more polite than men turns out to be incorrect in the legal voice mail messages. Positive politeness strategies such as compliments, joking, claiming reciprocity, etc. were used almost exclusively by male speakers; only one female speaker used any of these strategies. Moreover, positive politeness was used only by attorneys; five of the six male attorneys, as well as the sole female attorney, used positive politeness in their voice mail messages. (Hobbs, 2003, p. 249) The research analysis mainly falls into two kinds of politeness including positive and negative ones. In contrast with positive politeness strategies which are used by the majority of male speakers, the 2003 study of Hobbs reports that men and women use an equal number of negative politeness strategies in their voice mail messages. Such strategies as thanking, taking blame and apologizing, softening the force of requests are frequently used by both male and female lawyers. (p. 252) Why women and men use differ in the way they use politeness strategies The commonly held belief that women are more polite than men in cross-sex conversations has been well documented in range of linguistic features from tag-questions to directives. This assumption enables innumerable scholars to undertake a number of researches to explain why this difference exists. Some researchers argue that innate biological differences account for gender differences in politeness while others place an emphasis differential distribution of power between men and women in society. First of all, dominance perspective is used to interpret gender variations in politeness. After OBarr and Atkins (1980) explore the complexity of the relationship between gender and language concerning with polite strategies, they find out that more females use polite linguistic forms than males in everyday interaction because they are more likely to be in lower-status positions.(as cited in Schiffrin, Deborah Heidi, 2003, p.549) Moreover, Edwards (2009) concurs that most explanations centre on womens allegedly greater status-consciousness. If women in the society are more status-conscious than men, they may wish to gain status by using more standard forms and polite strategies. Therefore, they are more aware of the social significance of linguistic politeness variables to make their speech a sort of surrogate status. If womens and mens speech differs because the status of the genders differs, then it is clear that large social issues of power and subordination are involved. As a subordinate social role implies less freedom of movement, greater insecurity, uncertainty and lack of confidence, womens speech is expected to be more polite than mens speech (p. 134-135). In fact, it is necessary for women to secure their social status linguistically especially through the use of politeness strategies. Thanks to politeness strategies in daily conversations, women avoid straightforward statements as politeness involv es an absence of a strong statement, and womens speech is devised to prevent the expression of strong statements (Lakoff, 1975, p. 19). Another answer to the questions why the way men and women use polite strategies varies is associated with the difference approach. This philosophy is mainly based on gender socialization. According to Edwards (2009), a great number of noticeable analyses of gender differences in speech reveal that womens features especially using greater politeness forms imply more about genuine facilitative and supportive desires than about insecurity and lack of confidence. In other words, men and women may use language for different social purposes, having been socialised in different ways from their early childhood. Women are traditionally expected to focus on personal relationships, experiences and problems in a supportive atmosphere in which networking is a key whereas men are more concerned with factual information often in a combative context. (p. 137) It can be clearly seen that two above theoretical explanations of gender-related differences in politeness are influenced from diverse philosophies. However, Weatherall (2002) discovers the connection of two assumptions by giving an obvious illustration. The interactional styles of women and men as co-operative and competitive, respectively, have also been viewed as reflecting mens powerful social position relative to women. Being polite and co-operative is likely to be most effective at promoting positive interactions for those who hold little power. (p. 80) Although these explanations come from two different strands of thinking, they have the same goal that is why in cross-sex interactions, polite strategies are used by more women than men. However, they are not an explanatory factor for Hobbs finding from his research. His surprising findings are elucidated by the social constructionist approaches. A social constructionist approach shifts the emphasis to language as a dynamic resource used to construct particular aspects of social identity at different points in an interaction. Social categories are not fixed but are subject to constant change; talk itself actively creates different styles and constructs different social contexts and social identities as it proceeds. (Holmes, 2001, p. 14565) For example, a woman may select linguistic forms contributing to the construction of a more feminine identity in a romantic dinner. Nevertheless, in a meeting she will linguistically construct a powerful identity, for she is a chairwoman. When interacting with her children at home, she may use linguistic forms so as to build a maternal identity. Therefore, the way members of a society use structures to construct proper events changes across the communication activities. The implication in a language classroom It is widely acknowledged that understanding the different polite patterns which women and men typically use makes speakers to achieve more effective communication. The fact that interlocutors make fewer attempts to involve politeness in daily conversations because they have been taught not to expect participation!, Stereotyping can have intense negative effects, especially The conception of gender-differentiated politeness use leads to some implications for language teaching and learning. The first implication for foreign and second language classroom centres on social power awareness. As an educator, we had better reduce the role gap between men and women by selecting materials that represent identity groups more equally, by reorganizing classroom interaction so that all students have the opportunity to talk and demonstrate achievement in their everyday conversations regardless of gender (McKay Hornberger, 1996, p. 261). Another implication for teaching focuses on gender difference in stereotype rather than on so-called dominance approach. Because womens interactional style is absolutely different from mens, the interaction between teachers and females students differs from males. While men consider conversations as negotiations to compete women regard as a social network to gain support. It is difference in interactional styles that teachers should take into account when they perform, monitor and conduct one certain activity in class. Due to their opposite viewpoint, teachers had better balance the number of male and female students when they ask students to cooperate to fulfill one task. A group of men is likely to be over-competitive whereas a women group tends to be more supportive. As a result, there will be an imbalance of arguments in a discussion or debate. Last but not least, teachers should design some tasks related to gender-related differences in politeness so that students can acknowledge what kind of polite linguistic form they use in a cross sex communications. It will result in a more effective interaction in their real life. Teachers help students to realize that stereotypes of womens speech cannot stay the same style from one activity to another activity. The question is that how and when male speech and female speech are similar or different depends on the conversational contexts, not gender. Conclusion As a result of womens liberation movements, researches on gender and language in politeness started dramatically in 1970s. During the past several decades, many investigators examine politeness variations between women and men in daily interactions. Based on many well-known studies of gender-specific language, this literature review leaps to the conclusion that women tend to be more polite than men through a range of differences in tag-questions, compliments, etc. Most of these linguistic forms are used by more females than males to maintain politeness in cross-sex conversations. Notwithstanding, there are some oppositions to this belief in sociolinguistics. Many researches into language and gender in term of politeness rely on three distinct approaches including dominance approach, difference approach social constructionist approach to give an explanation for these discrepancies. In summary, I have explored politeness variations between men and women and questioned the validity of the assumption that womens speech is more polite than mens. In an attempt to determine the truth of this statement I have concluded that in daily conversations, politeness is regarded as a social lubricant which helps to create rapport. Knowing the differences in polite behavior between men and women can be very helpful to achieve effective communication as well as to enhance relationship. Therefore, politeness plays an indispensible in todays modern world in which a lot of interactions take place at both personal and business-related level.

Marketing MA Management and International Business Essay -- Business a

Marketing MA Management and International Business Introduction CRM is a term for methodologists, technologies and e-commerce capabilities -used by companies to manage customer relationships. (Foss, 2001:1) It is also called customer management, customer care and sometimes customer centricity or customer-centric management. (Brown, 2000:1) All the names and definitions of CRM have customer, as its core-it is the management of customer relationships, which attempts to revolutionize marketing and reshape entire business models. To survive and grow the business must make a profit. To make a profit it has to find people who are willing to pay more for its products/services than they cost. Therefore profit comes from customers. All Profit comes from customers So if no profit=no business And no customers=no profit Then no customers=no business Therefore customers ARE the business The idea of CRM is not new-it was the way the local shopkeeper treated his customer-he knew him, knew what was happening in his life, what he was buying, (one to one marketing?) etc. What is new though is that nowadays the retailers try to establish dialog with tens of thousands or even millions of customers in an attempt to understand them better, their individual needs and maximise the lifetime value of this relationship. In this respect it is not ‘revolution’ of marketing, but rather ‘evolution’. The old model of doing business is back into action but armed with technology and different schemes to reach the customer and retain them for life. The four types of CRM programmes, described by Stanley (2000) are aimed at enabling the company to win back customers, who have defected or are planning to, (Win Back or Save), to create loyalty among customers (Retail Loyalty), to up-sell or cross sell services to these customers (Cross Sell/Up-Sell) and to prospect for new customers (Prospecting) Retail Loyalty "Loyalty is a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection; or the act of binding oneself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action. (http://dictionary.reference.com) In everyday life loyalty implies emotional commitment to family and friends, fidelity in marriage. It also suggests monogamy-one choice above all others. (Humby et.al, 2003:9) In this sense loyalty is something expected. But when it comes to... ...ce a Customer, Always a Customer† Dublin: Oak Tree Press Foss, B., Stone, M., (2001) â€Å"Successful Customer Relationship Marketing† London: Kogan Page Gilbert, D., (1999) â€Å"Retail Marketing Management† Harlow: FT/Pitman Humby, C. et al., (2003) â€Å"Scoring Points† London: Kogan Page Oliver R. (1997) â€Å"Research† New York: McGraw Hill Omar, O (1999) â€Å"Retail Marketing† London:FT Management Reichheld, R. (1996) â€Å"The Quest for Loyalty† Boston: Harvard Business School Press Daley, J (2004)† Is a toaster a fair swap for your loyalty as a shopper?† The Independent (http://proquest.umi.com) Davis, H. (2002) â€Å"Marketing is all about intellectual use of data† Loyalty Guide Jones, K (2002) â€Å"Are you exploiting the potential of your customer base?† Loyalty Guide http://www.at1.uk.com/Loyalty_Fundamentals.htm www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results. asda+loyalty+scheme www.foodanddrinkeurope.com/news/news- -loyalty-cards http://www.mori.com/polls/2002/blacksun.shtml 2002) http://money.guardian.co.uk/(Datamonitor report by E.Ripley) www.mori.com http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/52056.stm Cross J. (2004) Lecture notes Southampton, University College

Crown Casino Essay -- essays research papers

The casino industry in Australia operates under an environment of uncertainty. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Australia’s 13 casinos recorded a total operating loss of $288 million in 97-98. Outsiders predict a gloomy future for the casino industry in the next few years due to the reduction in international high rollers and the low level of management talent in Australia’s young casino industry. In this business environment Crown must implement business strategies will carry it into the next century as one of the worlds most successful casino complexes. The Crown was set up as a multimillion-dollar establishment in order to attract international gamblers especially the Asian junket gamblers. However with the economic meltdown of countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia Asian gamblers are fewer and have less money to gamble. The present focus of Crown casino towards the Asian market is fruitless as its competing in a highly saturated international market. International casinos have a much better operational efficiency compared to Crown due to the high levels of tax and intense monitoring experienced by Australian casinos. Nevertheless this excessive regulation reduces the perception of corruption which can be used to market Crown as a reputable operator in the world stage. Its current strategy of focusing on the Asian market is an inefficient management of resources. Crown should focus on the growing local market, which would stabilise the b...

Guns Germs and Steel summary

Europeans had an advantage over the Native Americans. They had the horses and the guns. Guns played a major role in the success of the Europeans. Guns not only aided in overthrowing the Native Americans, but also aided in keeping the Europeans alive by allowing them to hunt and gather food. Horses also played a huge role. They made battle and travel easier. Over time, the use of animals began advancing. Animals provided warmth and lolls.They aided in warfare as well by providing transportation for those fighting and also for transportation of foods and other goods. Animals were a major tool in the farming of land. This allowed for the technological advance of going from hunter- gatherers to food producer. This advance increased the crop yields, which allowed for an increase in population. Food production and larger populations favored more rapid technological development. People began inventing things Just out of curiosity or even to take up a new hobby.Many Native tribes, such as th e Navajo, began adapting the European use of dyes for weaving. Some tribes also took up ranching. A big technological advance was writing. The Europeans created a writing system, which would allow the transmission of knowledge across the land. Writing allowed long distance communication among the Europeans. It was the new technological advance that changed their lives for the better. They could write to someone a ways away without they, themselves, having to be there.Writing also yielded communication and record keeping of certain events. The next advance was the organization of societal roles. Bands and Tribes had egalitarian governments with Informal leadership and no real structure to conflict resolution. Chiefdoms Justify kleptomaniac and have a centralized form of conflict resolution. States have a centralized government with many levels of bureaucracy. States are good at developing weapons and providing troops. Egalitarian governments with informal leadership and no real struc ture to conflict.

Case Study 1

Li-Hsien Chen 09/16/12 Case Study 1 The Springfield Nor’ easters : Maximizing Revenues in the Minor League 1. Critically analyze the research undertaken by Larry Buckingham, Nor’ easters Marketing Director. Discuss if you feel the objectives, questions asked, sample chosen, and method utilized were appropriated and why they were or were not. What type of questions would you have added to the survey and why? 2. ————————————————- What do you consider to be the key findings of both the League Sports Association Survey and the research survey conducted by the Nor’easters?Discuss any potential biases that might exist. Comment on what Buckingham learned about a prospective customer profile, pricing, and single ticket versus season-ticket packages from both. The sport marketing research plan that Buckingham tried to do is well organized especially in this shor t time stress. However, it may not fully accomplish and still need some more steps to achieve the goal. The purpose and problem of the research is simple and clear. Buckingham want to know how many people would come to see and how much to charge them.There are many of key findings that Buckingham can make a good use of it. According to the League Sports Association Survey, over 73% residences are willing to attend baseball game who having an income ranging from$22,500 to $75,000. Base on the statement, Buckingham used non-probability sampling method. Trying to focus on the most possible group that becoming the game attenders. I think the problem is only one existing finding and Buckingham just used it as model. It seems to me that he trying to prove the result from the previous found but there is no novel or creative finding appear.It's a pity that he couldn’t use this time to find something new and more inspiring result, Because of time stress and budget consideration, Bucki ngham chose postcard and internet survey to finish the research instead of mail survey. But in the end, approximately just 4% of postcards were return to the office and totally 625 responses (add to internet response) were tabulated is just not enough samples for me to make critical decision. According to statistic calculation, the confidence interval of survey is about 94~95% that still can make it more reliable and validity if Buckingham gathered moreinformation.Blesch noted that Minor League teams (unlike Major League Baseball) won-lost records appeared to have little to do with attendance; mediocre teams that provided a high entertainment value often had very high attendance. What Blesch’s note is so right to me because you have nothing to do with your roster and team’s competition. It’s all in charge of Major League. Sometimes, the most productive or talented player may get promote to higher level of minor league teams as soon as they have breakout performa nce. It’s graceful if your team has good prospect and future superstar.But you just cannot put all eggs on it. How to use advertisement, promotion to attract local residences attending games and make them believe it would be great experience no matter the host team win or lose. Another key finding is how much money residents are willing to pay for a ticket. Range from $10-$14. And no matter how cheap the tickets are, concession will make up for it. No less than 39% team’s profit make of concession sales. One MD who Buckingham has talked with said it even makes more than half team’s revenue.It seems that Buckingham should pay more attention on concession sales. On the questionnaire, Buckingham can put some questions, like what type of snack, beverage and food sports fans hope to have in the games; what kind of souvenir and team’s goods that fans are willing to buy it. It’s all about gaining the profits and fans’ attending. Asking one question that how much do fans expect to spend on concession is too general to me. The potential fan base which Buckingham described by himself is anybody who can enjoy a good ball game. To more specific, they need to be baseball fans at least.However, 60% of responses were not baseball fans, 72% of responses didn’t attend a professional baseball games in the past year which means most part of this survey result came out from people who really doesn’t care about tickets price or new professional baseball team coming to this city. The result may be misunderstanding and understated because people who are not baseball fan don’t want to spend even one dollar on attending the games. As a result, Buckingham better separate different type of responses. He can establish price policy based on the esponses which are baseball fans and trying to find another way to pursue the non-baseball fans, like promoting the feature and fun of game not related to baseball. To do with these â⠂¬Å"media consumers† and â€Å"indirect consumers† in sport marketing concept is do your best as you can but don’t expect to get too much return of it. 3. ————————————————- Based on your finding who would you recommend that the Nor’easters target and why? Base on the article, I would say that Family with children age from 5~16 and high school (College) students should be the target market.Without a doubt, the commitment sports fans should be count in too. But it’s easy to take care of those die-hard fans. It’s all about long-term service and other consideration. On the other hand, to create the new potential sports consumers related the article about pricing policy, previous two groups would be critical. According to the research, most part of ticket buyers are group consumers rather than individual consumer. For family, it’s good for parents to take their children seeing the professional performance and have good time in the weekend afternoon with relative low cost compared to other entertainment.For students, they can hang out with friend and classmates. Why they wouldn’t opt to attend games with reasonable cost and convenient transportation (especially important factor for students. ) Take my personal experience as example, I usually went to see my country professional baseball game not only I’m a big baseball fan but also there is special discount for students. Students can have half price, and take free shuttle bus from my college to the stadium. Because of it, we were glad to attend the games even there is not my supported team of the matchups.Just experience the games circumstance and atmosphere. So I would recommend the Nor’easters to pursue the more potential attenders as they can. 4. ———————————â €”————- What consideration should the Nor’easter take into account in establishing a pricing policy? The price is the factor that the most visible and flexible part of sport marketing. I think there are few considerations that need to be count in establishing a pricing policy. Offering more ticket packages for different type of consumers that can attract more people attending games.As I mentioned before, Nor’easter should try to know about and do survey on students, families and school groups’ preference of ticket price. Offering specific ticket package should be good way to focus on different distinct groups’ consumer behavior. Also, special date of calendar can let people willing to spend money on recreation. Minor League short A season starts from mid-June through the first week of September. There are some dates should be used to promote, such as â€Å"Father’s day† and â€Å"labor day†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦etc.No r’easters can give a special promotion for these days that let Springfield residences have more choice on their holiday for celebration. Not only setting reasonable price that can compete other sports, varies entertainment should also be counted, such as Movie, bowling and music concert. Knowing why people (as baseball fans) choose other activities over attending games is important for organization to decide the ticket price. I think that it’s opportunity for Nor’easter making more revenue if they take a look at these factors into their pricing policy. 5. ————————————————-Design a ticket pricing plan for the Nor’easters first season. Your plan should include specific pricing and package. Discuss how and why you decided on the prices and what package you are offering or not offering. Ticket Type| $ per ticket| Note| Regular| | | Single ticket| 12 | | 5-game ticket | 10| | 20-game ticket| X| Not offering| 38-game ticket| 6| With grandstand seat and one special team’s souvenir| Package| | | Family plan for single game| 10| $30 for three persons with tickets and hot dogs. Additional can be added on for $10 per person. | Family plan forWeekend| 8| Include two games on the weekend. 48 for three persons with tickets and hot dogs. Additional can be added on for $8 per person. | Students plan| 10| Only qualify with Students ID cards| Group Sales| 8| 25+ with adult group| | 6| 25+ little leaguer or elementary school| Special Promotion| | | Father’s Day| Free for father who take at least one children or wife with him| Ladies’ Night| Free for female who take at least one male with him| Children Day| Every attender person who age no more than 10 get extra hotdogs and beverage| Labor Day| Every attender get special meal for celebration|I design the ticket pricing plan based on the Buckingham’s survey. Even tho ugh there are still some problems and flaws in this survey (as mention before). But that’s all materials I have. Here are some strategies of my plan First, I choose not to offer 20-game ticket because it doesn’t have distinct difference from other types of ticket. Little series package like 5-game ticket are good enough for people who like to attend more than just one game but not every games of season. Furthermore, even though only 2% of responses likely subscribe 38-game full season ticket.In my opinion, it’s still necessary for Professional Baseball team to work on it. It’s kind of symbol. And teams should take good care of it. Giving them grandstand seat like VIP area and team’s special souvenir like hat or badge that only belong to whole season ticket holder. Make them feel worthy spending on large money supporting this team. I also delete grandstand seating service because 72% of responses will pay only 10% more than original ticket price. It doesn’t necessary for me to execute this policy.Second, 81% of responses are willing to spend from$6 to $15 on concessions. Concessions sales are somehow equally important as ticket sales. So I try to attract as more attending as I can by the reasonable low pricing policy and various special packages. For different target you will need different specific promotion. The most important thing for the new team of city is to make local residents familiar with and then support this team. I’m sure Nor’easters can provide great game experience and service, and hence my priority is to attract people attending and feeling it. Case Study 1 Week 1 Case Study Summary Joanne Zippittelli was a 63 year old woman who filed a claim of against J. C. Penney and her employer, James Johnson, in 2004. She decided to file a claim when she was not promoted to Shift Operations Manager. The reason she cited for the claim is that she was passed over for a promotion that she felt she was most qualified for because of her age which is a clear violation of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination Act in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967.The job was given to another female under the age of 40. Since the plaintiff could not provide sufficient evidence that Anita played a role in the decision-making process or that the defendant used discriminatory factors against her the case was awarded to the defendants. Questions 1.Given a conversation that an employee had with her supervisor about applying for a promotion, which resulted in a question about age and a response by the supervisor when she found out that the applican t was 63 that the applicant would â€Å"probably not† coupled with the fact that the applicant had better performance evaluations than the younger woman who was awarded the position, would not a reasonable layperson in the position of the applicant think that she had been discriminated against because of age?Yes, a reasonable layperson would agree with the 63 year old employee that age discrimination was a factor in the hiring process. One may think that the verbal response and previous job performance would have guaranteed him or her that position. However, there could have been additional selection criteria that the employer was looking for that would be a better fit for the organization. Unfortunately that is not case. If the person making the verbal response has no role or influence on who gets hired or promoted, there is not a case for age discrimination unless other factors are brought to the forefront. . Was the fact that the plaintiff had better performance evaluation s than the younger worker promoted to the job evidence of discriminatory intent because of age? Yes, with the plaintiff having better work performance evaluations supports her claim of age discrimination. Based on comments made by Anita Benko, the plaintiff received better performance evaluations and was still passed over for a younger candidate therefore provided substantial evidence for the plaintiff to pursue a claim of discriminatory intent because of age.Based on the evidence she has made a prima-facie case showing she’s in a protected class, she was qualified for the position, she was dismissed in spite of being qualified, and that she was replaced by a younger and less qualified person. Because of the plaintiff moving her case forward allowed J. C. Penney can review its hiring practices. 3. Was Benko’s remark that the plaintiff would â€Å"probably not get the job† when the plaintiff revealed her age sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the defenda nt’s stated reasons served as a pretext to hide a discriminatory practice?The remark made by Benko was not sufficient evidence in order for a jury to find the defendant’s reason a pretext to hide a discriminatory practice. Benko was not on the hiring committee nor was she consulted on the applicants. Her comment was solely based on her opinion and she clearly misspoke with such an offensive remark. Her comment could be perceived as a form of harassment. There may have additional factors in the hiring process which the plaintiff may not have been privy to when seeking the promotion.