Connection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Association paper - Essay Example For King, his detainment turned into the very motivation behind why he composed his letter while Thoreau’s detainment in a manner affected his recognitions and understanding just as his fearlessness to communicate his contentions in his article. The two are principled men who gave a valiant effort to remain on what they had faith in even amidst tumult. The two of them present their talk based on reason, utilizing citations from the Bible and all around regarded men; try to be comprehended, engaging sense and reasonableness of the individuals concerned who are government officials, Whites, Blacks, and Clergymen just as examine just laws, out of line laws, endless and characteristic laws. Initially, the previously mentioned political dissidents reflect in their composed works of their impact from the Bible. As a pastor, it was normal for King to make reference to God and the Bible however he stressed how men should function with God to achieve His motivations here on earth. In s pite of his co-clergymen’s talk that the social issues King is battling for are issues that the gospel has no genuine worry for, he contends that â€Å"human progress gets through the indefatigable endeavors of men ready to be colleagues with God†. ... Such citations show how Thoreau utilizes data from the Bible to ponder the conditions he is confronting. To make their contentions much more grounded, the two creators named and cited different savants, for example, Socrates, St. Augustine, Martin Buber, Confucius and Paley. Lord guarantees that he doesn't try to conflict with government while Thoreau remains on the opposite side of the equalization and the two of them are communicated the purpose behind their activities. Lord discussed that he and his associates have gotten their anxiety to the individuals expert for it to be settled. Notwithstanding, their requests for fairness and just treatment have been dismissed so they needed to turn to making a move. He introduced how they have acted with all the caution in agreement to the conditions in Birmingham and clarified how they at long last need to â€Å"create productive, peaceful strain which is vital for growth†. Additionally, Thoreau accounts that he isn't a man who is fi erce in communicating at the same time, he â€Å"quietly proclaims war with the State†, talking about his responses to the requests for him to pay â€Å"a certain whole toward the help of a clergyman†. Utilizing the citations and scholars referenced over, the two journalists introduced their sensible activities. They viably clarified the standards on which they remain on and attempted to convince their crowd utilizing scholarly contentions rather than the brutality that they have been seen to hold. Lord and Thoreau have faith in the presence of treacherous laws. Ruler characterizes and differentiates just and treacherous laws to clarify his comprehension of the subject. He cites St. Augustine saying â€Å"an out of line law is no

Analyse how Public Relations communications theory can help an Essay

Break down how Public Relations correspondences hypothesis can help a comprehension of the job of new media - Essay Example At the century's end, as business partnerships turned into the predominant establishments of our occasions, the extent of PR extended and accepted new jobs in the business domain of item advertising. At the introduction of the new thousand years, the ascendency of computerized innovation into the standard has by and by upgraded and reclassified the nature and job of advertising industry. Independent of the development and change of vehicles of correspondence in the course of the only remaining century, the substance of PR industry has stayed pretty much the equivalent. At the end of the day, the hypothetical structure inside which the PR business works is appropriate across media advances, both new and conventional. This exposition will relate itself to the examination of how Public Relations correspondences hypothesis can help understanding the job of new media. Right off the bat, new media is a term that is utilized to allude to a scope of correspondence alternatives that fall along a range. The exploration group of Diana Owen and Richard Davis have accomplished broad expository work on new media. They portray the wide scope of new media advances in this manner: â€Å"At one end are correspondences stages dependent on old innovations that have taken on new political jobs, for example, radio and TV talk projects, tabloids, and TV news magazines. In the range are blended or mixture media that join components of conventional media with fresher advancements. These incorporate 24-hour link news programs and the Internet destinations of papers and magazines. On the most distant finish of the range are new media that have created because of new innovation that has been put to novel political employments. Web applications, for example, person to person communication Web destinations like Facebook and MySpace, web journals, video-sharing locales including YouTube, and digital broadcasts fall into this category.† (Owen and Davis, 2008) What we gain from the historical backdrop of PR hypothesis in the course of the only remaining century is the recognizable proof of

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia Print Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia By Adrian Preda, MD Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD on July 22, 2016 Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Learn about our Medical Review Board Steven Gans, MD Updated on January 31, 2020 Schizophrenia Overview Symptoms & Diagnosis Causes & Risk Factors Treatment Living With In Children Verywell / Cindy Chung In This Article Table of Contents Expand Causes Types Diagnosis Treatment View All People with schizophrenia can experience both positive and negative symptoms. This doesnt mean that there are good versus bad symptoms. Positive symptoms are behaviors that appear in surplus in people with schizophrenia and are typically not found in otherwise healthy individuals. Positive symptoms, which include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, and disorganized speech, can cause you or someone you love to lose touch with reality. Negative schizophrenia refers to the symptoms that are lacking or decreased in people with schizophrenia. As negative symptoms indicate deficits in functioning they are also called deficit symptoms. Negative symptoms, including lack of emotion, decreased joy or motivation, delayed speech, and difficulty beginning and sustaining activities, can be scary and extremely debilitating. If you or someone you love is struggling with negative symptoms, you may need help in order to complete daily tasks. Causes The cause of negative symptoms is not clear. While some studies say these deficits run in families, there is no known genetic association for negative symptoms or deficit schizophrenia. Interestingly, while winter birth increases the risk for schizophrenia, people with schizophrenia born in the summer appear to be at higher risk for negative symptoms. Causes and Risk Factors of Schizophrenia Types The first step in managing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia is to understand the different types, which typically have one of four defining features: Affective deficits: lack of facial expression, eye contact, gestures, and variations in voice patternCommunicative deficits: speech lacking in quantity or informationRelational deficits: lack of interest in social activities and relationshipsAvolition deficits: severe lack of motivation or initiative to accomplish purposeful tasks (also called conational). Since negative symptoms can include deficits in cognitive, emotional, and socio-abilities, there can be a large number of potential symptoms. The most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) describes negative symptoms as “restricted emotional expression and avolition,” and includes the following five types. Understanding Avolition Blunted Affect This limits a persons ability to convey his or her emotions, causing diminished facial and emotional expressions. A blunted affect is less severe than flat affect, in which a person has an extremely limited range of emotions; for instance, not even being able to crack a smile or laugh during a time of great joy. People can mistake blunted affect as someone being cold or unfeeling. Alogia Defined in DSM-5 as a decrease in verbal output or verbal expressiveness, alogia (also known as poverty of speech) can make it nearly impossible to communicate your thoughts and carry on a conversation. People with alogia may answer a monosyllabic yes or no when responding to questions and/or experience delays in getting the words out. It should be noted that these speech delays are not the same as those caused by positive symptoms like auditory or visual hallucinations and disorganized thinking. Asociality Other terms used to describe asociality are nonsocial, unsocial, social disinterest or a lack of social drive. Asociality causes a lack of involvement in social relationships or increased desire to spend time alone. This is different than a person who isolates him or herself after hearing voices or experiencing feelings of paranoia. Avolition Avolition is a form of emotional or behavioral paralysis that can diminish your drive to participate in social activities and meet goals as well as your ability to complete daily tasks. Many people mistake this negative symptom for laziness but, in the case of schizophrenia, avolition causes a pervasive lack of enthusiasm coupled with a striking lack of concern for both minor and major matters (e.g., what is to eat, how the bills will get paid, what will happen when the family will no longer be around for support). This can even carry over into basic activities like personal hygiene and grooming. Anhedonia In Greek, an means without and hedone means pleasure, so in simple terms, anhedonia is a state where you are unable to feel pleasure. For people with schizophrenia, this can mean a lack of enthusiasm for activities, hobbies, passions, and pleasures once enjoyed. Diagnosing Negative Symptoms Negative symptoms are not always easy to recognize and can be mistaken for depression as well as other mental illnesses. Whats more, they may come and go during the course of schizophrenia. Often times, people with schizophrenia might have one negative symptom in addition to the more commonly observed positive symptoms. At times, some of the medications prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia, such as the first generation or typical  antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics, have adverse effects such as decreased interest or decreased emotional response. Since these symptoms are due to the medications, they are called  secondary  negative symptoms. What Is Deficit Schizophrenia? Deficit schizophrenia, which is not synonymous with  deficit  symptoms or negative symptoms, is diagnosed when patients have:At least two  out of the six negative symptomsThe symptoms are persistent, or present for at least one year, and the patient experiences them even during times of clinical stabilityThe symptoms are primary, or not due to other causes like medication or other conditions People with deficit schizophrenia have a poorer response to treatment, social and occupational functioning, and overall quality of life than people with non-deficit schizophrenia. Treatment Treating negative symptoms is tricky due to the very nature of the negative symptoms; someone experiencing a lack of motivation, enthusiasm, or desire to be social, for instance, may be hesitant to seek and stick with treatment. In addition, the drugs used to treat positive symptoms of schizophrenia can increase secondary negative symptoms and do not work on primary and persistent negative symptoms. This is why effective treatment ideally includes a combination of drugs, therapy, and support. How Schizophrenia Is Treated Antipsychotics Antipsychotic medications (Haldol (haloperidol) and Thorazine (chlorpromazine), which are the first-line treatment for the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations and delusions, are not effective in treating negative symptoms, such as lack of emotion, motivation, or interest in social activities. While effective against positive symptoms,  first-generation or typical  antipsychotics  have a number of neurological adverse effects, such as parkinsonism (when medications cause symptoms similar to Parkinsons disease), that can increase secondary negative symptoms. These drugs, also known as  neuroleptics  or major tranquilizers,  can help treat negative symptoms that are  secondary  to positive symptoms. For example, people can be socially isolated due to paranoid beliefs or voices commanding them not to leave their home. In such cases, antipsychotics that decrease paranoia and auditory hallucinations (hearing voices or sounds) will improve social affiliation. Atypical Antipsychotics If you are still experiencing side effects of antipsychotics, even after your health care provider has adjusted your dose, he or she may switch you to a newer class of medication referred to as second-generation or atypical  antipsychotics. There are many different atypical antipsychotics used to treat schizophrenia, including: Abilify (aripiprazole)Clozaril (clozapine)Geodon (ziprasidone)Invega (paliperidone) Antidepressant While it is by no means a cure, combining antipsychotics with antidepressants has been shown more effective than taking antipsychotics alone. Antidepressants work by increasing the availability of one or several of the following neurotransmitters: serotonin (mood, appetite, sleep, memory, social behavior, sexual desire), norepinephrine (alertness and motor function), dopamine (decision-making, motivation, signaling of pleasure and reward).   The 5 Major Classes of Antidepressants Psychosocial Interventions Psychosocial interventions, including behavioral therapy, support therapy, and family psychoeducation, aim to change a persons behaviors toward a more healthy interaction with society. These therapies can provide people with persistent negative systems as well as their families with tools to identify and cope with deficits in cognitive and emotional functioning and social skills. Find Support With the 9 Best Online Therapy Programs Supportive Therapy Supportive therapy provides an opportunity for companionship, non-judgmental validation, common sense advice, and reassurance from a trained therapist. Often, your therapist will step in on your behalf to facilitate communication with family members as well as authorities like schools and social agencies. Behavioral Therapy Behavioral therapy, including social skills training and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), can teach you to recognize and engage in behaviors and activities that will improve the quality of life and day-to-day living. For example, during social skills training you will be taught how to express feelings and needs, ask questions, and control voice,  body, and facial expressions. CBT can teach you or someone you love to identify and change the deficits that have a negative influence on behavior and emotions. How Behavioral Therapy Is Used in Psychology Family Psychoeducation Family support plays a key role in the treatment of negative symptoms. Psychoeducation  for patients and families is helpful in decreasing stigma and improving opportunities for ongoing social engagement. It can also offer families effective strategies for communicating and coping with a loved one with schizophrenia. A Word From Verywell The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can cause severe disruptions in daily functioning, relationships, work, school, hobbies, and leisure activities. With an appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and support, you or someone you love can find relief from these symptoms and discover ways to cope effectively.

The Classroom Is A Good Size And Is Broken Into Sections

For the final observation, I observed in the toddler classroom in the center. These are the older toddlers ranging from ages 2-2.9. There are 9 children in the classroom and 2 teachers. The kids come from many different kinds of households. Many live with grandparents and some in shelters with parents. They are all mixed race. There are some African American, Latino, and white. The majority of the classroom is on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. Most of the kids have vouchers from the government. There are no diagnosed special needs in the classroom currently. There are some kids with speech delays that are getting a little extra help. The classroom is a good size and is broken into sections. Everything is at the kids eye level and there are so many different things that they can chose to do in their classroom. Overall, I really enjoyed this classroom. The social emotional piece of the QCCIIT has four different components that are rated. These four components are responsiveness to social cues, responsiveness to emotional cues, building a positive relationship, and supporting peer interactions in play. These four components look at the teacher’s social emotional level and can gage their development throughout time in this domain. For the first ten minute session, I observed during free play before their circle time. Their theme this month is transportation. There are different things in the classroom that the children can explore and play with that reflect theShow MoreRelatedThe Basic Components Of Instructional Design Models1227 Words   |  5 Pagesvalue in what we do then we need to stop doing it and try something else. The constructivist and connectivist views have been, at times, criticized for not being able to reach all learners and provide adequate support. In reality, however, classrooms founded in these princi ples do have the ability to focus on the individual learner and their needs. In their work â€Å"The Courage to Be Constructivist†, Brooks and Brooks take a stand and assert that learning in this way can foster meaningful connectionsRead MoreSchool Effectiveness Characteristics Of An Effective School Essay1649 Words   |  7 PagesThe students know what is expected of them. They know to be quiet and do their homework in manner that isn’t disruptive. These students have set goals for the year and even longer. The school that I observed, the students said that they plan getting good grades on their tests for that Friday. If the students didn’t do so well, they would kind of sad because they worked hard. Also, they know that if the entire class were to get all A’s on their tests, they would get a pizza party. This is when the kidsRead MoreCommunication Between Students And Foreign Language1857 Words   |  8 Pagesthe student and teacher relationship in a foreign language classroom and discover an easier and more effective way for both teacher and student to communicate. A way to do this is by using the Universal Design of Learning (UDL), a guideline designed for teachers so that all students can learn in the way that best suits their learning style (udlcenter.org). These guidelines were created as a framework for applying material in the classroom and is most used by teachers, especially those that are teachingRead MoreA Article On Animal Eyes2610 Words   |  11 Pageshelp that particular animal survive and thrive in its environment. It has five different sections that are all very different but tie into each other. It names several unique animals and has multiple photos to go along with each section. Even just at first glance, this article is very eye-catching (no pun intended). At the least, the photographs from this article could be used various ways in a classroom. You could identify the animal each set of eyes belongs to and talk about the physical differences:Read MoreClassroom Comprehension : Building Comprehension Skills3288 Words   |  14 PagesStandards, students need to be able to show their comprehension of text numerous ways, and if the students do not have strategies and skills in place to comprehend a text, their future schooling will prove to be most difficult. Each year in my classroom, a number of students do not have any comprehension ability and fall far behind their classmates. Comprehending a text is what real readers do when they are reading. Routledge (2011) states, â€Å"Skilled readers are those who actively and automaticallyRead MoreThe Debate On Reducing Class Size3147 Words   |  13 Pagesthought that reducing the class size would increase the potential for student’s success, but there are alternatives that impact student’s success more than class size does. The concern with the debate is due to our population continuously increasing; therefore, the debate on reducing class size must evolve into how students help students learn, adapt and develop new skills in any given class size, thus stressing the importance of other factors taking presence over class size in a student’s success. CurrentlyRead MoreAnalysis Of St Stephen s Catholic Primary School3097 Words   |  13 Pages XX% classify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and XX% identify as having special needs. There is also a small percentage of approximately XX%, wh o can be categorized as gifted or talented. Class sizes range from twenty-two students, up to thirty-one students. There are nineteen classroom teachers and several support staff, who assist in the implementation of the Australian curriculum, to ensure each child reaches their potential. The school is renown in the wider community for its manyRead MoreMy Classroom Management Plan Essay2727 Words   |  11 Pages    A classroom management plan is essential in order for a teacher to affect student learning.  Ã‚  An effective plan will take into consideration many factors.  Ã‚  First and foremost the focus must be on the content of the material to be taught.  Ã‚  The teacher must plan the academic lessons thoroughly.  Ã‚  It is important to keep your eye on the ball.  Ã‚  Your goals for the academic progress must be at the heart of this plan.  Ã‚  Therefore you must know where you are taking this class, before a path can be chosenRead MoreCopral Punishment to Students9866 Words   |  40 Pagesapart from physical effects, other side is supporting the use of Corporal Punishment as effective way of discipline the students. Countries such as United State of America are making strides in doing away with Corporal Punishment practices in the classroom. Many Asian Countries such as Bangladesh and India have made no legal provision to outlaw Corporal Punishment [Unicef Asian Report 2001].In African countries such as Kenya and Botswana, Corporal Punishment is still practiced. The United State ofRead MoreEffect of Broken Home19368 Words   |  78 PagesAcademic Perfomance of Students Coming from Broken Homes CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study: Broken homes are experience by some of the students not only with those in poverty line families but same goes to middle and higher class families. Parents chose to live separately regardless how their children feel and its impact to their lives, however, there are still parents in spite of the situation still supports and care of their children in their studies, and others. It is worthy to

Free Cash Flow With A Firms Capital Expenditure - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5104 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Free cash flow and capital expenditure go side by side. What is important to find out is the existence of an association between the two in Sugar Industry of Pakistan by means of ascertaining the strength of their relationship. Annual financial statement data for 27 sugar mills of Pakistan, listed on Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), was taken to calculate free cash flow and annual capital expenditure over the 2000-08 period. Linear regression test was run on the data to study the relationship between the two variables. The results hence proved an association confirming an existence of a relationship. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Free Cash Flow With A Firms Capital Expenditure" essay for you Create order Introduction Overview of the Sugar Industry of Pakistan Pakistan is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of area under sugarcane cultivation, 11th by production and 60th in terms of yield. Sugarcane is the primary raw material for the production of sugar. Since independence, the area under cultivation has increased more rapidly than any other major crop at around one million hectares. The sugar industry in Pakistan is the 2nd largest agro based industry comprising 81 sugar mills out of which 27 are listed on Karachi Stock Exchange. The annual crushing capacity of the industry is over 6.1 million tones. Sugarcane farming and sugar manufacturing contribute significantly to the national exchequer in the form of various taxes and levies. Sugar manufacturing and its by-products have contributed significantly towards the foreign exchange resources through import substitution. Sugar production is a seasonal activity. The mills, at an average operate for 150 days a year whereas the supplies are made throughout the year. As the industry n ow has large daily crushing capacity there are efforts to reduce the production even further. About the subject The purpose of this research is to examine the significance of free cash flow in relation with firms capital expenditure. Many researchers have studied the relationship built around free cash flow and have argued that managers have to play a vital role in deciding where free cash flow eventually ends up. Something known as an agency problem is widely discussed and commented on by several researchers. This problem talks exactly about the conflict of interest between managers and shareholders. Shareholders are interested in earning as much dividends as possible which would increase their value. On the contrary, managers think for themselves. They tend to invest the available cash flow in projects that would not necessarily increase shareholders value but ensure that the tenure of the manager is as extended as possible. New investments would mean more responsibilities on managers thus their uninterrupted length of service is required in the long term interest of the firm. Going one step ahead of agency problem, this study is related to free cash flow which shows an association and a relationship with the capital expenditure. Free cash flow is a  measure of financial performance and one of the sources of capital expenditure in firms. Managers can either disburse the available cash among shareholders in the form of dividends after  keeping aside the money required to expand or maintain its asset base or hold it back for developing new products, making acquisitions, and reducing debt. At this point in time, it is imperative to note that negative free cash flow in itself is not bad. If free cash flow is negative, it  could show that a company is developing new products, reducing debts or even making large investments. If these cash out flows earn a high return eventually, the strategy has the potential to pay off in the long run. Capital expenditures (CAPEX) are those cash outflows that create future benefits for the firm. A capital expenditure is incurred when a business outlay funds to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as property, industrial buildings or equipment. CAPEX is commonly found on the Cash Flow Statement as an investment in plant, property and equipment or something similar in the investing section. Companies listed on stock exchange will often list their capital expenditures for the year in annual reports, which allows shareholders to see how the company is using their funds and whether it is investing in its long term growth. The hypothesis tested in this study is accepted and thus a relationship between free cash flow and capital expenditure is established. Literature Review Cash flow is determined by integrating the cash receipt and disbursement items from the income statement with the change in each balance sheet item; the sum of the cash inflows equals the sum of the cash outflows. Whereas capital expenditure is the amount a company spends buying or upgrading fixed assets, such as equipment, during the year and acquiring subsidiaries, minus government grants received. The free-cash-flow (FCF) hypothesis by Jensen (1986) suggests that excess cash flow is wasted on value-destroying expenditure because managers have a personal motivation to grow the asset base of the firm rather than dispense cash to shareholders in the form of dividends. Cash flow has always been somewhat of a puzzle in the literature on the determinants of investment. Gugler (2004) argues that in a strictly neoclassical world, cash flow does not belong in an investment equation. Even than pragmatic studies dating back over 4 decades invariably document that cash flow and investment are positively related. The influence of internally generated cash flow on financing capital investment expenditure is well studied. But what is less well understood is the cause behind this influence. Modigliani and Millers (1958) Irrelevance proposition asserts that firms undertake all positive net present value (NPV) investments regardless of the financing source. Firms that pay low dividends rely more heavily on cash flow as shown by Fazzari, Petersen and Hubbard (1988). The first two gentlemen also found that such firms use working capital adjustments and not external financing to maintain the needed capital expenditure in order to smooth cash flow fluctuations. They further argued that in order to save cash flow, firms choose a low dividend payout policy. Calomiris and Hubbard (1995) proved that those firms have heaviest dependence on cash flow to finance capital expenditure which pay the highest taxes associated with undistributed profits. Devereux and Schiantareelli (1990) found that as compared to smaller firms in the UK, the large firms depend more heavily on cash flow financing. The reason they pointed out for such a trend was the manager/shareholder agency problems in these large firms mainly because of lower managerial ownership and higher costs associated with monitoring mechanism. In this thesis, further evidence have been provided on the role of free cash flow and capital expenditure through observing the data provided by the Karachi Stock Exchange. To measure the market reaction to such expenditure plans, the over and above returns around capital announcements have been used. It was moreover, found that the impact capital expenditure has on firm value that is financed by cash flow depends upon the characteristics of the firm making the expenditures. Firms show a strong positive relation between the level of undistributed cash flow and the level of announced expenditure, although large firms depend less heavily on cash flow as compared to the small firms and those firms that have high managerial ownership. Jensen (1986) suggested that those firms which had a large level of free cash flow were likely to squander it on unprofitable investments. As a result undistributed cash flow must play an important role in explaining capital expenditure by these firms. In addition, certain firms are more prone to the agency problems of free cash flow, especially the large firms which, as discussed by Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990), generally have a more diverse ownership structure. Jensen (1993) discussed such firms as the ones that have more costly internal control mechanisms. About small firms, Jalilvand and Harris (1986) commented that they are more vulnerable to suffer from cash flow restraint mainly because they have limited access to external captial markets due to higher transaction costs of public security isssues and the information problems. Therefore, Vogt (1997) believes that small firms tend to have profitable and at the same time unexploited investment opportunities. The available ca sh flow should be the main source of capital expenditure by these firms. Moreover, if cash flow is used by these firms to fund the capital expenditure, such an announcement must show a positive reaction in terms of appreciated stock prices. Jensen (1986) argues that there are agency costs coupled with free cash flow. His study broadens that argument and speculates that shareholders form their valuation decisions on firms reputations regarding free cash flow exploitation. This notion was tested by examining the stock price responses to equity offers, which generally aggravate the cash flow quandary, for firms differentiated by their recent avaricious behavior. The results suggested that shareholders react more positively to equity issue announcements if firms have obtained only assets related to their key business than to other equity issue announcements. On another occasion, Jensen and Meckling (1976) explained the agency problem between managers and shareholders. They unarguably stated that managers are supposed to be the representatives of the shareholders. But they tend to make those decisions that will maximize their own benefits as opposed to the shareholders value. In order to restrict them from doing so, they must either be provided incentives or be monitored. They further argued that in firms where managers have low level of insider ownership, have greater incentives to invest in unprofitable projects that stretch the firms beyond its optimal size and the expected return on new capital expenditure can be negative for such firms. Such actions would obviously be inconsistent with firms value maximization objective. Jensen (1986) suggests that stock prices are tendered downward to imply agency costs coupled with a firms free cash flow. In particular, managers have an enticement to use unfettered funds to benefit themselves instead of the shareholders. John and Nachman (1985) claim that agency costs can be alleviated through reputation building. Particularly, they demonstrate that the agency problem of underinvestment can be determined through reputation. The observed results recommend that managers build reputation through covetous activity whereas the shareholders state their response on pre-acquisition activity. In an ideal world, managers would disburse the entire free cash flow among the shareholders provided; the interests of shareholders and managers complement each other. This would maximize shareholders wealth and allow them to use the available cash for capitalization. Amihud and Lev (1981) however argued that managers have an enticement to minimize their employment risk. Employment ris k aims to explain the insecurity inbuilt in a managers tenure or the term of employment. Managers have an option of increasing the certainty of their tenure by diversifying the real asset portfolio of the firm and they do it by purchasing those assets that are unrelated to the primary line of business of the firm. Managers have an option of financing diversification projects by using the free cash flow that has been held back and not been distributed to shareholders, thus they need not seek funds from the capital markets. Easterbrook (1984) believes that it is easy to watch the managerial behavior of the firms when they seek funds from the well-performing capital markets. Therefore, on one hand it becomes difficult to keep a check on the performance of managers if they use the hoarded cash flow for the purpose while on the other hand, investors are unable to measure free cash flow as they are incapable of scrutinizing the investment opportunity schedule of the firm. Shareholders are expected to take any unencumbered cash request negatively, coming from the management for the purpose of diversifying. Unless they are provided sufficient proof, they will assume the request to be the acquisition of free cash flow. As a result of this ambiguity, stock prices will fall and show the residual loss caused by the probable misuse of free cash flow by management. Further, managers may wish to expand firm size, irrespective of the fact that it increases shareholders wealth or not, based on the assumption that exec utive promotion and compensation are positively related to firm size (Donaldson 1984; Baker 1986; and Baker, Jensen, and Murphy 1988). Cash flow is related to the expected return from new investment as shown by Myers and Majluf (1984). Those firms which have a shortage of cash flow and liquid assets might let go profitable investment expenditure instead of issuing mispriced securities to fund the investment. As a result, these firms might have unexploited investment opportunities that would increase firm value if sufficient cash flow could be generated to finance them. Capital expenditure of high ownership firms must show a dependence on cash flow and positive excess returns must be observed for these firms when they declare new capital expenditure. Morck, Shleifer, and Vishny (1988) described high levels of insider ownership to be associated with high levels of cash-flow-financed capital expenditure because of managerial-establishment issues. Firms with high insider-ownership levels might wish to finance expenditure with cash flow solely to avoid loss of control associated with weakening their ownership position or restrictions imposed by creditors. Lehn and Poulsen (1989) and McLaughlin, Safieddine, and Vasudevan (1996) defined Free Cash Flow to be operating income before depreciation, less interest expense on debt, less income taxes, less preferred and common dividends. Vogt (1997) calculated both cash-flow measures net of interest expense and dividends in order to control for managerial decisions affecting the level of undistributed cash flow. Ignoring these other decision variables might create a bias in the observed relation among cash flow, capital expenditure, and market returns. As an example he referred to a firm with high levels of cash flow that does not manipulate the agency problem. Such a firm will minimize undistributed cash flow by choosing high interest and/or dividend levels. It might pursue profitable investment expenditure and is unlikely to rely heavily on cash flow for financing. This firm must be associated with positive market responses around expenditure announcements. Using a cash-flow figure gross of interest expense and dividends would incorrectly combine positive market returns to firms with high cash flow rather than the correct low level of cash flow that it actually maintains. Vogt (1997) used 421 firms to observe relationship between cash flow and capital expenditure. When these firms announced expenditure increases, the level of announced capital expenditure seemed to be positively and strongly related to the level of cash flow. The strength of this relation increases for firms with profitable earlier investment opportunities, as firm size declines, and as the proportion of insider ownership increases. His further analysis suggested that considerable diversity exists in the capital markets response to capital expenditure financed by cash flow. The positive and statistically significant excess returns found in the sample of firms announcing increases is concentrated in the smallest of the sample firms, in firms with low cash flow relative to capital expenditure, and, to a lesser extent, in firms with high levels of insider stock ownership. Tests explaining the cross-sectional variation in returns reveal that excess returns for medium and small firms in the sample are positively associated with unexpected increases in planned expenditure. These tests also suggest that the capital market responds more favorably to the announced expenditure by small firms when the planned expenditure is more dependent on cash flow. On the other hand, excess returns for the largest firms in the sample are negative, however not statistically significant. Vogt (1997) observed that due to the fact that small firms and high ownership firms are most likely to face the liquidity crunch associated with asymmetric information, they are also the most likely to let go profitable investment opportunities in times of cash flow shortages. As cash flow rises, the set of profitable capital investment projects the firm can carry out also increases. As a result, capital expenditure announcements are met with positive shareholder reactions, particularly when expenditure is dependent on cash flow. Vogt (1997) concluded by observing that the apparent diversity in the markets response to capital expenditure decisions suggests different capital expenditure financing policies for firms that seek to augment shareholder value. The market values of small firms, firms with significant insider ownership, and firms that are generally cash flow confined appear to be improved, on average, by financing capital expenditure with cash flow. These firms might consider policies of saving undistributed cash flow through low payout and leverage policies. Such an action therefore encourages new capital expenditure from internally generated funds. However, all other firms seem to be less dependent on a cash flow retention policy to facilitate capital expenditure. In 1986 while explaining the free cash flow (FCF) hypothesis Jensen (1986), focuses on the agency issue. He argues that managers can increase their wealth at the cost of shareholders by not paying out the funds from a firms free cash flow in the form of dividends or debt financed share repurchases, rather investing them in unprofitable investment prospects. Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990), Strong and Meyer (1990), Oliner and Rudebusch (1992) and Carpenter (1993) later studied the role that agency problems play in the cash flow-investment relationship. Their findings turned out to be conflicting vis-a-vis the importance of free cash flow. Strong and Meyer (1990) found that share prices of firms that undertake investment expenditure with unrestricted cash flow experience negative performance while Oliner and Rudebusch (1992) found little evidence regarding ownership structure affecting the cash flow-investment relationship. The firms dividend decision has connotation for the FCF theory. According to Lang and Litzenberger (1989), dividends are one means of eliminating free cash flow. Vogt (1994) developed a model in this research paper where he showed that firms with the opportunity to exploit free cash flow will follow low dividend payout policies and cash flow will have a strong influence on investment expenditure. On the other hand, if firms are confined from obtaining external funds because of whatever reason, those firms with profitable investment opportunities will maintain low dividend payout policies in order to preserve on cash flow. Therefore his model was found to be consistent with Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988); it predicts that low payout firms should be associated a strong cash flow-investment relationship. There has been considerable empirical evidence which indicate that internally generated funds are the primary way of financing firms investment expenditures. Gordon Donaldson (1961), in a detailed study of 25 large firms, concludes as follows: Management strongly favored internal generation as a source of new funds even to the exclusion of external funds except for occasional unavoidable bulges in the need for new funds. A later survey of 176 corporate managers by Pinegar and Wilbricht (1989) discovers that managers prefer cash flow to finance new investment over external sources as 84.3% of sample respondents showed their preference for financing investment with cash flow. Vogt (1994) explains the relationship of cash flow and capital expenditure by analyzing the free cash flow theory of Jensen (1986). As monitoring is assumed costly, and managers can benefit from overinvestment, he predicts that cash flow will significantly influence investment expenditure after controlling for the cost of capital. Investment expenditure of firms not paying dividend will be more influenced by cash flow than investment expenditure of firms that pay dividends. This follows because no-dividend firms are able to retain all cash flow and still not reach the retention constraint. For liquidity-constrained firms, cash flow and changes in the stock of the firms liquid assets should have a significant influence on investment expenditure. Firms with many profitable investment opportunities or large information asymmetries will have investment expenditure that is most sensitive to changes in cash flow, and should conserve on cash flow by paying low or no dividends. Firms indicat ing a liquidity constraint by not paying dividends will have the most significant cash flow/investment relationship. In a study; Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) discovered that cash flow has a strong effect on investment expenditure in firms with low dividend payout policies. They argue that this result is consistent with the belief that because of asymmetric information costs associated with external financing, low payout firms are cash flow confined. One reason these firms keep dividends to a minimum is to preserve on cash flow from which they can fund profitable investment prospects. Later in the year 1993, Fazzari and Petersen (1993) found that the same group of firms paying low dividends, even out fluctuations in cash flow with working capital to maintain desired investment levels. This result is consistent with the findings done by Myers and Majluf (1984) which states that the underinvestment problem arising from asymmetric information can be alleviated by the liquid financial assets. Carpenter (1993) studied the relationships between debt structure, debt financing, and investment expenditure to test the theory of free cash flow, comparing the restructured firms with the non-restructured firms. He observed that firms had increased their investment expenditure that was restructured by substituting large amounts of external equity with debt as compared to non-restructured firms. To him these results seemed to be inconsistent with free cash flow behavior. He believed that cash flow committed to debt maintenance must be correlated with reductions in later investment expenditure. Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990) and Strong and Meyer (1990) conducted studies that support the free cash flow interpretation. Strong and Meyer (1990) studied separately the investment and cash flow of firms in the paper industry into sustaining investment and discretionary investment, and total cash flow and residual cash flow. Discretionary investment and share price performance are negatively and strongly related. Discretionary investment and residual cash flow are found to be positively and strongly correlated. This evidence suggests that residual cash flow is frequently used to finance unprofitable discretionary investment expenditure. Study conducted by Vogt (1994) related to cash flow and capital expenditure predicts that firms not paying dividends should exhibit the strongest relationship, while those paying high dividends should show the weakest relationship between cash flow and investment expenditure. His result suggested that cash flow-financed capital expenditure is slightly inefficient and provides facts in support of the Free Cash Flow hypothesis. Regarding the small firms that paid low dividends over the sample period, Vogt (1994) commented that such firms relied heavily on cash flow and changes in cash to fund capital expenditure. Cash flow-financed growth by small, low-dividend firms is likely to be value- creating, whereas cash flow-financed growth is value destroying for large, low-dividend firms. He concluded by suggesting that managers of cash flow-rich companies may consider increasing dividend payouts as a method of increasing the efficiency of their capital expenditure decisions. A continued hig h-dividend-payout policy may also signal to shareholders that extra and expensive monitoring of capital expenditure decisions is unnecessary. Furthermore, since capital expenditures typically add to the amount of assets under managerial control and create more predictable future cash flows, such expenditures generate the opportunity to exploit free cash flow in following periods. Alti (2003) found out that investment is sensitive to cash flow. The sensitivity is substantially higher for young, small firms with high growth rates and low dividend payout ratios. The uncertainty these firms face about their growth prospects amplifies the investment-cash flow sensitivity in two ways. First, the uncertainty is resolved in time as cash flow realizations provide new information about investment opportunities. This makes investment highly sensitive to cash flow surprises. Second, the uncertainty creates implicit growth options relate to long-term growth potential but not to investment in the near-term. Having a weaker relationship with the value of long-term growth options, cash flow acts as a useful instrument in investment regressions. Gentry (1990) analyzed capital expenditure with total cash flow and found out that the percentage of cash flows going to capital investment ranged from an outflow of 60 percent or more. The giant companies invested a higher percentage of their total outflow in plant and equipment than companies in the other size categories. The small companies invested the lowest percentage of their total outflows in capital. There has been a research done previously that was applied to agricultural firms by Jensen (1993). The results were found to be consistent with previous studies for nonagricultural firms which showed that internal cash flow variables are important in explaining investment. It was found that the addition of internal cash flow variables can improve the explanatory power of agricultural investment models. In terms of elasticity, investment was more responsive to internal cash flow variables. Worthington (1995) has found that cash flow measures industry-level investment equations positively and significantly, even after investment opportunities are proxied by capacity utilization variables. The effect of cash flow is greater in durable goods industries than in non durable goods industries. Moyen (2004) explained the fact that the cash flow sensitivity of firms described by the constrained model is lower than the cash flow sensitivity of firms described by the unconstrained model can be easily explained. In both models, cash flow is highly correlated with investment opportunities. With more favorable opportunities, both constrained and unconstrained firms invest more. Raj Aggarwal (2005) conducted a study in which he concluded that investment levels are significantly positively influenced by levels of internal cash flows. Also, the strength of this relationship generally increases with the degree of financial constraints faced by firms. Overall, these findings seem strong to the nature of the financial system and indicate that most firms operate in financially incomplete and imperfect markets and find external finance to be less attractive than internal finance. Research Methodology Introduction The hypothesis tests the relationship between free cash flow and capital expenditure, concentrating on the Sugar Industry of Pakistan. The aim is to ascertain the strength of the relationship between the variables. In order to do that, linear regression seems to be the best test as it attempts to model the relationship between two variables by fitting a linear equation to observed data. One variable is considered to be an independent variable while the other is considered to be a dependent variable. The objective of multiple linear regression analysis is to use the independent variables whose values are known to forecast the single dependent value selected by the researcher. (Hair, 2006) Data Annual financial statement data for 27 sugar mills of Pakistan listed on KSE is taken to calculate free cash flow and annual capital expenditure for the period 2000 through 2008. Variable 1. Independent variable = Free Cash Flow (FCF) 2. Dependent variable = Net Capital Expenditure Independent variable: The FCF is calculated they way Lehn and Poulsen (1989) and McLaughlin, Safieddine, and Vasudevan (1996) defined it. It is operating income before depreciation, less interest expense on debt, less income taxes, less preferred and common dividends. Free cash flow = Operating income before depreciation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" interest on debt à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" income taxes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" preference common stock dividend. Dependent variable: Net capital expenditures are those where funds are used to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as property, industrial buildings or equipment. Change in fixed assets over a year is taken as net capital expenditure by the firm. Net capital expenditure = Current year fixed assets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" last year fixed assets. Net capital expenditure = Ln (FA) Ln of fixed assets is taken to control the variability of the data. Sampling criteria Sample companies that are taken for the purpose of research are 27 sugar mills of Pakistan that are listed on Karachi Stock Exchange. Hypothesis Free Cash flow has a significant relationship with capital expenditure. Data analysis Annual financial statement data for 27 sugar mills of Pakistan, listed on Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), was taken to calculate free cash flow and annual capital expenditure over the 2000-08 period. Model Summary R R Square F Sig. 0.302 0.091 23.676 0.000 Predictors = (Constant), FCF Dependent Variable = Ln FA The researcher has used statistical software SPSS 13.0 to process the data and run regression analysis on the variables. The results are interpreted in light of statistical text book by Hair (2006). All FCF and (ln) FA figures are in Million Rupees. R value: It is the sample correlation coefficient between the outcomes and their predicted values, or in the case of simple linear regression, between the outcome and the values being used for prediction. R value of 0.302 means that the strength of the relationship between FCF and capital expenditure is 30.2%. R squared value: the coefficient of determination, R2 is the amount of variance in the dependent variable that can be explained by the regression model. The R square of 0.091 means that 9.1% of the variability in the data is explained by the predictor. Out of the total free cash flow, 9.1% is used for capital expenditure. The F test for the regression model is significant which proves that regression model is best fit. Regression model summary is showing that FCF has a positive impact on net capital expenditure. Coefficients Model Unstandardized Standardized Sig.    Coefficients Coefficients       B Std. Error Beta    (Constant) 3.251 0.107    0.000 FCF 0.004 0.001 0.302 0.000 Dependent Variable: Ln FA Unstandardized Equation: Ln FA = 3.251 + 0.004 FCF Standardized Equation: Ln FA = 0.302 FCF If FCF changes by 1 million, ln of net capital expenditure changes by 0.004, which means Net Capital expenditure increases by 1.004008 million. The regression coefficient represents the amount of change in the dependent variable for a one unit change in the independent variable. The coefficient plus the constant both are significant at 0.05 level. Implications As discussed through out, the importance of Free Cash Flow and Capital Expenditure, it is quite clear that these two variables have a relation between them. The extent of their relation, although, will vary from industry to industry and economy to economy. The reason behind conducting this study was to look inside the Sugar Industry of Pakistan and trying to establish the same association between these two variables that is found universally. The extent of association varies but what is important is the establishment of an association between Free Cash Flow and Capital Expenditure in this industry. Reiterating the earlier discussion, free cash flow can be put to several uses; capital expenditure is one of them. Researchers in Pakistan will be able to use this study for their own analysis, comparing results with other industries and watching the industry-wise trends. Whereas the foreign researchers will be able to take help from this study while they study and compare their own economy with that of Pakistan. It will help them benchmark the 5th largest country in the world, in terms of area under sugarcane cultivation; to compare and contrast with the country they wish to study. Conclusion The sugar industry in Pakistan is the 2nd largest agro based industry of the country. Pakistan earns heavy foreign exchange resources through import substitution of sugar. Despite of the importance of this industry, significant attention is not paid at the government level to develop it. Lack of support at educational institution level for research and development in this industry is sabotaging the prospects of its better future. Among several other reasons, this research has been done to mark a contribution towards sugar industry, cultivating a field for other researchers to come forward and take the study steps ahead. The relation that exists between free cash flow and capital expenditure is observed in this study. The conclusion verifies that this industry is also consistent with several other industries all over the world in terms of using free cash flow for capital expenditures.

Isaac Newton Free Essays

Imagine a world with no concept of gravity, a world that knows not what forces affect a moving body, a world that does not understand the science affecting light and a world without calculus.   Imagine a world without one of its greatest minds, Sir Isaac Newton.   Sir Isaac Newton is neither a mathematician nor a scientist, he is neither an astronomer nor a chemist, he is all of these compressed into one genius. We will write a custom essay sample on Isaac Newton or any similar topic only for you Order Now His works have greatly contributed to the advancement of the sciences and civilized society as a whole.   Present day natural and chemical sciences including mathematics will not be the same without his ideas.   To pay homage to a man this great, let us study his life and his legacies, let us delve into his mind, view his past, learn a little about his childhood and make sure that he is not forgotten in the annals of history. Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas day 1642 (4 January 1643, Gregorian calendar) in Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. He came from a family of farmers but never knew his father, also named Isaac Newton, who died in October 1642, three months before his son was born.   When he was barely three years old Newton’s mother, Hanna Ayscough placed her first born with his grandmother Margery Ayscough at Woolsthorpe in order to remarry and raise a second family with Barnabas Smith, a wealthy minister from nearby North Witham (Hatch, 2002). Basically treated as an orphan, Isaac did not have a happy childhood, he felt very bitter towards his mother and his step-father Barnabas Smith, proof of which he wrote as among his sins at age nineteen:- Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them. Isaac began attending the Free Grammar School in Grantham but shown little promise in academic work.. His mother thought that her eldest son was the right person to manage her affairs and her estate so Isaac was taken away from school but fortunately showed that he had no talent or interest in managing an estate. Isaac was allowed to return to the Free Grammar School in Grantham in 1660 to complete his school education and entered his uncle’s old College, Trinity College Cambridge, on 5 June 1661. Newton’s aim at Cambridge was a law degree but nevertheless Newton studied the philosophy of Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, and in particular Boyle. The mechanics of the Copernican astronomy of Galileo attracted him and he also studied Kepler’s Optics. He recorded his thoughts in a book which he entitled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions) (Robertson, 2000). In 1665 Newton took his bachelor’s degree at Cambridge without honors or distinction. The university closed for the next two years because of plague so Newton returned to Woolsthorpe in midyear. There, in the following 18 months, he made a series of original contributions to science.   He himself admitted that All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666, for in those days I was in my prime of age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since. In mathematics Newton conceived his ‘method of fluxions’ (infinitesimal calculus), laid the foundations for his theory of light and color, and achieved significant insight into the problem of planetary motion, insights that eventually led to the publication of his Principia (1687). There, in a period of less than two years, while Newton was still under 25 years old, he began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy (Hatch, 2002). In April 1667, Newton returned to Cambridge and was elected a minor fellow at Trinity. In the next year he became a senior fellow upon taking his master of arts degree, and in 1669 he succeeded Isaac Barrow as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. From this point until 1678, Newton published two papers which according to Robert Hooke were plagiarized and were taken from his research, this led to several arguments between the two but as history would have it, society favored the older more brittle Robert Hooke.   In 1678, the blow of this controversy caused Newton to suffer a serious breakdown and the year immediately after, his mother died.   These past events took its toll on Newton, he cut off himself from others and started to engross himself in alchemical research. In 1687, with the support of his friend the astronomer Edmond Halley, Newton published his single greatest work, the ‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ (‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’). This literature showed how a universal force, gravity, applied to all objects in all parts of the universe (Hatch, 2002). In 1689, Newton was elected MP for Cambridge University and eventually was appointed warden of the Royal Mint, settling in London in 1696. He took his duties at the Mint very seriously and campaigned against corruption and inefficiency within the organization. In 1703, he was elected president of the Royal Society, an office he held until his death. He was knighted in 1705. By the early 1700s Newton was the dominant figure in British and European science. He died on March 20, 1727 (31 March, Gregorian) in London, England and was buried in Westminster Abbey (BBC.co.uk). After his burial, he was exhumed so he could be buried in a more prominent location in Westminster Abbey and in this process it was discovered that Newton had large amounts of mercury in his body, probably as a direct result of his alchemical experiments. Exposure to large amounts of mercury may explain Newton’s eccentricity in his latter years, as well as his cause of death (Conservapedia, 2007). Newton’s contributions to the sciences involve the fields of optics, mathematics, mechanics, gravitation, chemistry and alchemy. In the field of Optics, he discovered measurable, mathematical patterns in the phenomenon of color.   He found â€Å"white light to be a mixture of infinitely varied colored rays (manifest in the rainbow and the spectrum), each ray definable by the angle through which it is refracted on entering or leaving a given transparent medium†(Hall). He correlated this notion with his study of the interference colors of thin films using a simple technique of extreme acuity to measure the thickness of such films. He held that light consisted of streams of minute particles. From his experiments he could infer the magnitudes of the transparent â€Å"corpuscles† forming the surfaces of bodies, which, according to their dimensions, so interacted with white light as to reflect, selectively, the different observed colors of those surfaces (Hall). In Mathematics, Newton made contributions to all its branches, but is especially famous for his solutions to the contemporary problems in analytical geometry of drawing tangents to curves (differentiation) and defining areas bounded by curves (integration). Not only did Newton discover that these problems were inverse to each other, but he discovered general methods of resolving problems of curvature, embraced in his â€Å"method of fluxions† and â€Å"inverse method of fluxions† which is later known as calculus (BuddenbrooksInc). In the field of mechanics and gravitation, Newton published his greatest work the Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (Principia) – arguably the greatest scientific book ever written.   The Principia, composed of several volumes, states the foundations of the science of mechanics, developing upon them the mathematics of orbital motion round centers of force.   A volume discussed the theory of fluids: Newton solves problems of fluids in movement and of motion through fluids. From the density of air he calculated the speed of sound waves.   Another volume showed the law of gravitation at work in the universe: Newton demonstrates it from the revolutions of the six known planets, including the Earth, and their satellites. However, he could never quite perfect the difficult theory of the Moon’s motion. Comets were shown to obey the same law In later editions, Newton added conjectures on the possibility of their return. He calculated the relative masses of heavenly bodies from their gravitational forces, and the oblateness of Earth and Jupiter, already observed. He explained tidal ebb and flow and the precession of the equinoxes from the forces exerted by the Sun and Moon. All this was done by exact computation (Hall). Despite his genius, Newton was a complicated man.   He would suffer emotional breakdowns and would engage other scientists in arguments, he would also cut himself off from the rest of the world and go into seclusion. The world has also seen, during his fight with Leibniz, what great lengths he would employ to come out on top.   These small things may be attributed to the fact that at some points in his life the world seemed to act in consonance and revolted against him, however, neither criticism nor accusations could suppress his genius.   All throughout his life, he kept his secret weapon – he had an incomparable passion for learning. REFERENCES BBC.co.uk. Isaac Newton. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml BuddenbrooksInc. Sir Isaac Newton’s Invention of the Calculus Fluxions and Infinite Series–The Important First Edition. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.polybiblio.com/bud/19178.html Conservapedia (2007, November 8). Isaac Newton. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.conservapedia.com/Isaac_Newton Hall, Alfred Rupert. Isaac Newton’s Life. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/newtlife.html Hatch, Robert (2002). Isaac Newton.   Retrieved, December 8, 2007, from http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/01-Courses/current-courses/08sr-newton.htm Robertson, E.F. and J. J. O’Connor (2000 January). Sir Isaac Newton. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Newton.html The Newton Project. Newton’s Life and Work at a Glance. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=15          How to cite Isaac Newton, Essay examples

Social Work Assessment Better Intervention â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Social Work Assessment Better Intervention? Answer: Introduction Social work refers to an academic discipline as well as a profession that provide concern to the individuals and their families during their difficulties. Various agencies are associated with social works. In order to give a better life to the people by supporting them Financial and emotionally social workers play a major role. However, a number of practices are involved in the social work to understand the psychology of individuals (Rubin Babbie, 2016). This study deals with the life event of Sam that leads them to feel more stress in his life. On the other hand, Task centered approach and Solution focused approach will be addressed in this section to understand the critical situation of Sam and his family. Application of Task centered practice or TCP in context of Sam Task centered approach or TCP is a popular practice that enhances collaborative work between the service users and the service providers. Application of such theory is done by the social workers to generate the behavioral ideas and cognitive approach to support the individuals in their difficulties (Doel Marsh, 2017). This practice motivates the service users and individuals are able to be independent if they have been suffering from issues for a long time. According to the case study, Sam is a 34-year-old father of two children. However, he has lost his job recently and is not able to pay the family bill. On the other hand, he has not shared his difficulties with his partner. This present situation leads Sam to be worried regarding his family situation. Hence, the social worker of community social service agency can apply TCP to provide support to Sam to recover his critical situation. TCP has four stages the first stage enables the social worker to identify the target problem. After identification of the target problem, the goal is set to deal with the problem. In the context of Sam TCP helps the social worker to identify his issue that is created for his unemployment as Sam is worried about the financial condition of his family. Then the social worker will understand that emotional and financial support is necessary for Sam to overcome his situation. Stage two enables both Sam and the social workers to marketing a contract between them to facilitate the changes in the service user's life by making a proper schedule. Step three enables the social workers to take several sessions over how to deal with Sam to mitigate his stress (Paciello et al., 2016). Therefore, stage four allows the social worker to measure the success of the social work intervention in the context of Sam. The current situation of Sam leads him to face difficulties in his life. However, Sam wants to be a good provider of his family. Hence, loss of his job brings a critical situation for him as he is unable to give financial support to his children. This present situation leaves a negative impact on Sam's body and mind that is dangerous for him. Hence, application of TCP practice will be an effective approach to release Sam from his crisis (Turner, 2016). Application of such model enables the social worker to get a clear idea of the current problem based on which he or she can understand that emotional support is the prime requirement for Sam in his present crisis. TCP practice includes short timescale that will allow Sam to be more committed in multiple tasks. During the session of TCP practice, the support worker will able to give the task to the service users that increases their engagement, which keeps aside themselves from their worries (Roozeboom, 2014). Therefore, the social workers will able to improve the skill of Sam that makes him deal with his present issues by increasing his confidence level. However, TCP practice is a strength based approach that makes a clear communication between the service users and the service providers (Murphy, 2015). Such clear communication enables Sam to share his issues with the social worker and gives him relief as well as the proper idea to overcome his issues. Well, support can be provided b y the support workers in TCP that allows Sam to take control over his life despite accepting issues. Sam feels hesitation to share his issues with his partner that leads him to face more stress. Hence, TCP practice can reduce such issue by developing a collaborative work between Sam and the social workers thorough and effective communication. Use of Solution focused approach in context of Sams life event Solution focused approach or Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) is another vital practice that is applied by the social workers to support the vulnerable people (Pichot Dolan, 2014). This is a collaborative approach based on the specific goal. However, by applying such approach the social workers are able to make the psychotherapeutic change in client's condition by keeping them in direct observation. This approach gives the client to express their problems without any hesitation. Hence, the social worker can develop a positive culture for Sam to exhibit his worries about his life. SFBT is a goal oriented approach and the aim of such therapy is to support individuals who are facing difficulties in their present life (Gingerich Peterson, 2013). Application SFBT allows the support workers to focus on the present situation of Sam rather than the past. Therefore, the social worker of the community agency finds tools to cope with the present challenges by using their skill which enables them to make changes in Sams situation. Practitioner encourages the individuals to imagine their future and to carry out collaborative work to achieve their goals (Kim, Brook Akin, 2016). In this therapy, the social worker will give the specific type of questions to Sam, which helps them to understand his present situation and his current need. Such questions enable Sam to recognize his strength and skill to cope with this adverse situation. However, unemployment leads Sam to lose his confidence and belief and he is feeling helpless. Thus SFBT is effective for him to envision his near future by answering miracle questions. Such questions enable people to think about a problem free life, as a result, the people are able to take immediate action to bring changes in their life (Neipp et al., 2016). The social worker can use scaling question in this therapy to assess the present condition of Sam. This enables him to listen to the story of Sam's life and to provide the possible solution regarding this issue. SFBT practice empowers the vulnerable people by motivating themselves. In the case of Sam, it uses of SFBT enables the social worker to empower him to regain his confidence and make the necessary decision such as the search for a new job to get rid of the stress of unemployment. Changes of the problem clarification stages in the work of a social worker by applying Solution focus approach Solution focused approach is an effective practice in the social work to deal with the problem of individuals (Ate?, 2016). In the case of Sam, it has been found that he has been suffering from the poor financial condition due to loss of his job. Hence, the social worker is associated with this vulnerable person to solve his problem by using TCP and SFBT approach. However, in the TCP approach, the social worker will be able to identify the problem by taking a long conversation with the client (Creswell et al., 2017). However, through the normal interaction, the social worker will not able to understand the exact issues and needs of the service users. Hence, the solution based approach allows the social worker to ask a variety of questions to Sam through which the social worker is able to detect the core area of his problem and depression. Other social practices easily identify the problem of the clients, however, often there is no account of the solution of the identified problem. He nce, SFBT approach includes the solution besides identification of the problem. Traditional process in the social work provides support to the clients to recover their present condition however, solution focused approach makes changes in the working pattern of the social worker (Metcalf LPC-S, 2017). Problem clarification is the vital stage while providing support to an individual. Hence, if the social worker is not abale to a clear idea regarding the pain areas of the individuals then it is difficult for them to develop the solution for such problem. According to the case scenario, it is necessary for the community social worker to understand the psychology condition of Sam to give him support. Hence, by providing specific questions in SFBT approach such social worker can identify that only the unemployment is not the single reason of Sam's depression besides that inability of Sam to share his problem with his partner is another reason of his stressful situation. Such clear assessment and problem clarification stages regarding the work of such community worker can be changed by the above way through the application of solution focused approach. Application of solution focused approach according to the different situations of Sam Maori refers to the indigenous people live in New Zealand. Their origination is eastern Polynesia. Such people have adopted many aspects of the Western culture. However, racial discrimination and workplace bullying are very common with Maori as they are the group of indigenous people (Balon, 2014). Hence, if Sam was Maori then application of solution focused approach will be changed for him. In this situation, the community social worker can apply SFBT practice to understand the effect of racial discrimination on Sam's mind that may be a big reason for his unemployment. Workplace bullying might lead Sam to lose his job as he is a Maori. On the other hand, due to ethnic discrimination, he is not able to get a better job and his family fails to get proper support from the society as Sam belongs from a minority group. Identification of such negative factors associated with the current satiation Sam can be possible by the application of SFBT. As a solution to this situation, the community social worker needs to provide social support to Sam and his family by make a good communication between Sam's family and the society. Therefore, by applying such theory this social worker will be able to establish optimistic approach, which is a vital part of SFBT theory (Coady Lehmann, 2016). This approach enables the social worker to change the view of the people regarding Maori, as a result, they will able to accept the cultural differences and to support Sam's family in his difficulties. Asian born people prefer to speak in their own language that creates a big problem during communication (Hsu, 2017). However, if Sam is Asian-born then the community worker needs to give value to his local language to identify his problem. SFBT process is based on the theories of language. Hence, by applying this approach the social worker is able to give priority to the mother tongue of Sam in order to detect his problem and to develop the solution. Application of solution focused approach will be different if Sam was a gay. However, social discrimination often occurs with gay in workplace and society (Balon, 2014). Hence, this might be a reason for Sam's unemployment. Hence, by applying SFBT practice the community social worker can develop the solution based on the life event of Sam. Emotional support can be provided to Sam by this theory. This will encourage Sam in order to cope with his difficulties. Conclusion The entire piece of work highlights on the application of TCP and SFBT in social work. However, the case study reveals that TCP and SFBT practices are effective for Sam to improve his situation. Due to loss of job Sam has been suffering from mental stress as well financial difficulties. On the other hand inability of sharing his problem with his partner is also affecting his mind. Hence, the community social worker will able to give him support by using these two theories. SFBT is helpful to identify the problem through ask questionnaire to the client that enables the service provider to develop solution according to the problem. It has been found that development of the solution is crucial besides the recognition of the problem that can be done through the application of SFBT theory. References Ate?, B. (2016). The Effect of Solution-focused Brief Group Counseling upon the Perceived Social Competences of Teenagers.Journal of Education and Training Studies,4(7), 28-36. Balon, R. (2014). Learning Solution-Focused Therapy. An Illustrated Guide. Annals of Clinical economics, 26(4), 307-309. Coady, N., Lehmann, P. (Eds.). (2016).Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic approach. Springer Publishing Company. Creswell, C., Violato, M., Fairbanks, H., White, E., Parkinson, M., Abitabile, G., ... Cooper, P. J. (2017). Clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of brief guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy and solution-focused brief therapy for treatment of childhood anxiety disorders: a randomised controlled trial.The Lancet Psychiatry. Doel, M., Marsh, P. (2017).Task-centred social work. Routledge. Gingerich, W. J., Peterson, L. T. (2013). Effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy: A systematic qualitative review of controlled outcome studies.Research on Social Work Practice,23(3), 266-283. Hsu, W. S., Lin, H. J., Sun, S. T. M., Chen, H. J. (2017). The Training Effects of Solution-Focused Brief Counseling on Telephone-Counseling Volunteers in Taiwan.Journal of Family management, 1-18. Kim, J. S., Brook, J., Akin, B. A. (2016). Solution-focused brief therapy with substance-using individuals: A randomized controlled trial study.Research on Social Work Practice, 1049731516650517. Metcalf, L., LPC-S, L. S. (2017).Solution Focused Narrative Therapy. Springer Publishing Company. Murphy, J. J. (2015).Solution-focused counseling in schools. John Wiley Sons. Neipp, M. C., Beyebach, M., Nuez, R. M., Martnez?Gonzlez, M. C. (2016). The Effect of Solution?Focused Versus Problem?Focused Questions: A Replication.Journal of marital and family therapy,42(3), 525-535. Paciello, M., Ghezzi, V., Tramontano, C., Barbaranelli, C., Fida, R. (2016). Self-efficacy configurations and wellbeing in the academic context: A person-centred approach.Personality and Individual Differences,99, 16-21. Pichot, T., Dolan, Y. M. (2014).Solution-focused brief therapy: Its effective use in agency settings. Routledge. Roozeboom, W. D. (2014). Solution-Focused Counseling. InEncyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, pp. 1679-1683. Rubin, A., Babbie, E. R. (2016).Empowerment series: Research methods for social work. Cengage Learning. Turner, F. J. (2017).Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches. Oxford University Press.

Storytelling How Effective it is as a Tool to Foster Childrens Engagement in Literacy Essay Example

Storytelling: How Effective it is as a Tool to Foster Childrens Engagement in Literacy Essay Even as the idea that the advent of sophisticated toys and digital programs have scored over the age-old storytelling as means of fostering childrens engagement in literacy continues to influence new parents, storytelling is still considered as the best method by many. What makes it so different from its new challengers? How far can it be used and what are the ways to achieve best possible results out of it? How it has evolved with time and made itself more equipped with the help of modern technology? This paper probes all these and more towards determining the efficacy of storytelling, before concluding with an approbatory note.The JourneyIn way towards fostering the kids engagement in education, storytelling remains the first and foremost tool since the advent of language, where the senior members of the family would web the stories to the children. That would subtly form the bond between generations, let alone evoking the ideas of the little, virgin minds to the nuances of the sur roundings as well as the world beyond that.It is the keenness of the children to listen to the stories, their eagerness to learn and probe about life and events on earth and beyond gradually made the early storytellers to formulate certain line of action – such as, incorporating certain values and certain do-s and donts pertaining to better living within the folds of fantasy, adventure or human-interest stories. This way, the primary concept of keeping children engaged at home to safety gradually took turns towards preparing them for the greater world. This pattern got crystallized from the print era, and the print world continued to dominate freely till it faced competition from the audio and video versions of it.New BendThough at the early stages of storytelling, there was not much emphasis on literacy learning, i.e., stressing on fostering the ability to read and write among the children, with time, storytelling added this prime responsibility of citizen-building into its fold, which now has become an inseparable part of the society. It is now treated as an extremely important tool to equip children in reading and writing before they are inducted into school, besides preparing them to express their own ideas symbolically or exchange ideas with peers or the adults. Alongside, storytelling has to add another responsibility in its bag: that is, to imbibe the computer literacy in them.Current SituationSince the concept of joint family has been on the wane, in walked the preparatory schools for the children to do the job. Again, with the advent of digital media, the children started having the scope of a storyteller in the audio mediums, and later in the audio-visual mediums as well. Now the technology has come of the age to play the social role too, as there are many digital peers with their bag of stories are out in the market. These are animated creatures made according to the likes of the children.The Greenroom of StorytellingIt might look like a vast storeroom of various bridges to an imaginative eye – where each of the bridges is made up of one or the other essential knowledge for the young mind – Covering all possible branches of it. All the bridges are decorated beautifully – that is, done up with elements that are bound to catch and sustain the interest of children to walk along the bridge, albeit unknowingly. Divine bait, one can say, to see the future citizens up and ready to take up the cudgels of the future world!How the Greenroom EvolvedThe research on storytelling would be never-ending, all because of its proven power of reaching childrens mind and bringing in the desired feedback from them. A good many theories have also come into being, such as Emergent Theory (Teal ; Sulzby, 1986).This theory stresses on gradual learning process of the children from infancy. This concept goes for concurrent development of language through a wide range of variation applied at various ages of the children. It ext ends its classroom beyond the formalities and walls.Besides this, Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998) distinguished between the inside-out and outside-in skills of literacy. The former refers to the childrens ability to decode the information in a sentence, while the later points at the ability to comprehend the meaning of the sentence from a context. It is the development of the later that matters most in life, as it deals with comprehension and expression in all areas of life.While a group of researchers have dedicated themselves to find the relationship between storytelling and the taxonomic nuances of cognitive progression, some others have devoted themselves in devising instruments to empower storytelling to foster all levels of cognitive progression in the children.Thus the digital media with its array of avenues have come out with many forms of storytelling, which are packed with features that are capable to entice, educate and entertain the little ones in one go! In todays world, computer characters (the storyteller) and pedagogical applications prove to be a perfect match (Maldonado, 2007).ImpactAlthough the quest to find the facts behind the efficacy of storytelling in literacy will ever be on, current research findings already suggest that storytelling stimulates the imagination besides helping to increase vocabularies and introducing them to the elements of the stories. (National Education Goals Panel 1997; Moss and Fawcett 1995).Young minds tend to switch on their imagination tab with good sparks. Storytelling stimulates auditory or the visual parts at a time or together; in all situations, it is capable of not only grafting the information for future use, but also of sparking the initiative in the children for its improvised usage in the future. Another researcher, Snow (1983), coined the term decontextualized language to identify the language that is not limited to spatial or the historical context. And here the storytelling weaves its magic, as it us es a then-and-there language, which the children pick up from there (Ryokai, K. et al., 2003).Through this, the intangible ideas like values or societal behavioral process can easily get into their perception. It also enhances the scope of interpersonal communication, besides providing the scope of peer-discussion in case of collective participation in a storytelling session.Emotive characters enhance the learning process. Storytelling almost always banks on the various shades of emotion. This raises a question about the efficacy of the modern-day virtual peers or the animated storytellers of the digital media. Are they capable of rising to the rank of human storytellers?The research findings, say yes, under certain conditions, they are! Researchers Marita Jong and Adriana G. have come out with their findings, where they are convinced that even pre-readers can become acquainted with new stories (Jong, 2007).Recognition of StorytellingGoal One of the National Education Goals recogniz es the importance of family/child engagement in literacy activities to children’s learning and readiness for school. The goal suggests that for all children in America to start school ready to learn, parents need to devote time each day to teaching them (Nord et al, 1999). This in turn recognizes the storytelling as the prime tool towards fostering literacy among children.DiscussionStories are the fragmented reflections of the world and its subjects and their actions and or reactions in a package that educates, informs and entertains the children. Such a package, if formulated rightly, is bound to evoke interest among the children. Such a package makes things easier towards fostering literacy among the children, as here they get close to it rather involuntarily. In its fold, storytelling can cover the entire gamut of knowledge a child requires to know and pass it on without any routine curriculum. Thus, storytelling can easily be termed as the most carefree means of fostering literacy in children.   And for the present times, storytelling has consolidated its position further through its digital avatar. Researches tell about their high degree of acceptance in the children, and thus its pedagogical application is on the rise. Even in the distant learning system, or online literacy programs, these story-packed CD-ROMs or the DVD-ROMs form an integral part of the process (Hodgson, 2005).The growing numbers of unit family has heightened storytellings significance. Gone are the days of a joint family, when the grandpa or the grandma would satiate the craving for listening to stories for their grandchildren. It is now mostly the case of Home Alone for the children worldwide. This big and dangerous void is somewhat filled up by these digital storytelling systems or attractively printed books.CONCLUSIONJudging from all aspects, it is clear that storytelling does all what it is needed to foster literacy in the children, and under the present situation, it is e ven doing more than expected, thanks to the advent of the new technology.Ranging from supplying the creative juices to providing company to the children, storytelling has now become an integral part of the life of children, let alone harnessing the literacy acumen. Thus this ancient, sublime learning system for the little ones should always be treated with care. Because, it would always remain a truth that children have to know about the past, apply that knowledge to the present and be equipped to meet the challenges of life – not to mention about contributing to the future of the world. This legacy would go on, and storytelling would ever remain a potent catalyst in the chemistry of communication among the past, present and future course of civilization! This idea again brings back the imagined picture of those tiny knowledge bridges, but in a new avatar – In the final round of imagination, all those bridges from the storytelling greenroom magically merge into one big bridge between the future citizens and the earth!

Business law Reflective The WritePass Journal

Business law Reflective Abstract Business law Reflective , p. 140). Outline of law The presentation was based upon the advantages and disadvantages of Limited Liability Partnership’s (LLPs) and whether LLPs have been taken up by many professional (unlimited) partnerships. Accordingly, it was thus made clear that LLPs are advantageous in that partners of LLPs have limited liabilities (Cody et al, 2007, p. 82) and are therefore not responsible for another partner’s misconduct or negligence (Haywood, 2010, p. 546). As such, there is a reduced risk to the personal wealth of all partners from creditor’s claims. LLPs also provide great flexibility for partners in that they facilitate participation in the management and maintenance of the partnership (Rouch and Smethurst, 2004, p. 46). Moreover, because LLPs require registration at Companies House, these types of partnerships may give the perception that they are much more substantial than they actually are. LLPs do, however, have a number of disadvantages including the lack of privacy since all finan cial information must be disclosed to the public (Morris, 2001, p. 161). In addition, there is also the requirement for an LLP agreement which may not be desirable for many partnerships. LLPs are also taxed in the same way as sole traders and traditional partnerships and so do not obtain the same tax benefits that a Limited Liability Company would receive. The limited liability protection that is provided may also lead to trade suppliers being unwilling to provide credit to the partnership as they may perceive the protection as a high risk for themselves. If an LLP fails, no redress would be provided to the partners even if they are owed money (Murray, 1998, p. 15). The strengths and weakness of the workings of group Strengths In undertaking the above presentation, I was provided with the opportunity to work as part of group. In doing so, I was able to pool my ideas together with others and understand the advantages and disadvantages of LLPs from different perspectives. In addition, any complex problems that I faced were more easily tackled since I was able to discuss the problems with the others in the group and therefore gain relevant feedback. As a group, we were able to meet up in order to work on the presentation together, which enabled us to generate ideas that we may not have come up with individually. The end product was therefore a success because of the fact that everyone in the group was able to contribute to what was being said. Weaknesses Although it was enjoyable working with other people, there were many drawbacks of the workings of the group. This was evidenced by the lack of team work that existed at times as some individuals provided more input than others. As a result, I often found myself taking the leading position on this assignment as opposed to working with the group as equals and I subsequently ended up providing the group with the appropriate guidance needed to conduct the presentation. This could have been due to the fact that I was better at organising what needed to be addressed, whereas the others in the group were better at expressing their opinions. When we were initially provided with the instructions for the presentation, we all agreed that it was best to start off by each giving our own opinions as to what we thought would work best for this particular topic. It was then decided that each individual ought to research a different matter on the topic. Some parts of the research that was gathered we re, however, stronger than other parts and so further clarification was needed. Nevertheless, one of the main things that I learnt from this process was the acceptance of other people’s ideas and opinions. At times it was difficult to decide whose particular research was the most useful and it seemed as though the information being gathered was not sufficient enough to convey the issues surrounding LLPs within our presentation. Hence, it would have been a lot better if the group had communicated with each other more effectively and were thus prepared to get more involved with the team (Maughan Webb, 2001, p. 1). This is because, it seemed as though a lot of independent work was still be undertaken for this assignment even though it was a group project. This had a significant impact upon the overall presentation as it appeared that the group had not worked together in considering the advantages and disadvantages of LLPs. This could have largely been due to the difficulty it was in getting groups members together since we had to find an appropriate time th at was convenient for everyone in the group. This was quite difficult to achieve as we had to figure out a time that would suit the needs of all and then email each other to find out if this was in fact appropriate. The strengths and weakness of presentation Strengths The presentation skills of each individual in the group were sufficient in that we all maintained a fair level of eye contact and an appropriate use of language throughout. We also maintained a very good pace and I became aware of my strong expressive voice and powerful eye contact. The presentation was also well organised and we had memorised what we had included in the presentation so there was little need to script read. Overall, the presentation was well delivered and organised in an a clear concise manner that allowed the reader to easily identify the advantages and disadvantages of LLPs. Weaknesses In conducting the presentation I felt that I lacked the ability to put my audience at ease because of the lack of clarity that existed in the presentation. Better preparation would have rectified this, yet because of the complexities that existed within the group it was extremely difficult to prepare as well as we should have done. Furthermore, although I had the ability to explain the different concepts of LLPs clearly, I was unable to answer the question that was put to me at the end of the presentation appropriately. As a result, it is evident that further reading on the topic would have been beneficial as it would have enhanced my knowledge and understanding of LLPs and would have provided me with the ability to answer any questions that were put to me. The tone of my voice could also have been a little more varied and I could have had greater confidence in the subject matter. More preparation would have resolved this as well as further collaboration with the other group members. In addition, we also had a lack of skill when it came to using PowerPoint and so it would have been better if we had got ourselves familiar with the software before making the presentation. How any weaknesses can be overcome in the future? Whilst there were certain parts that appeared to be satisfactory, such as the appropriate level of eye contact and use of language, it has become evident that my presentation lacked any clarity. As such, I will ensure that future presentations will be a lot more clear and concise. This can be achieved through preparation and ensuring that greater efforts are made to communicate with the group. Preparation and practice would also allow me to answer questions from the audience with greater confidence and I would have a better understanding of the topic (Marathe, 2007, p. 7). I would also practice the tone of my voice in order to ensure that more variance was provided throughout. In relation to the use of PowerPoint, I would ensure that I am fully aware of how the software works so that difficulties do not arise during the actual presentation. What you learnt about teamwork and oral presentation skills After listening to the feedback I received following my presentation, I have learnt that there are certain elements of my teamwork and presentation skills that need improvement. For teamwork to be effective, all members of the group need to be confident in the subject matter and willing to participate through group discussions. This will ensure that the ideas are expressed with greater clarity and the nature of each individual’s contribution will be better understood. I also learnt that in order for a team to be successful, we need to be more efficient with resources and therefore need to manage time more effectively. From this experience, I also learnt the complexities that can arise from trying to collaborate with others and although I was often left frustrated, it all came together in the end. In effect, it became evident that different ideas are often generated when collaborating with others, yet it is important that all group members listen to each other as well as provid ing their own information. For oral presentations to be effective, it is important that the presenters know the subject matter inside and out as this will become clear to the audience. Confidence is thereby important for a successful presentation to be conducted, which can be conveyed through eye contact. This provides an element of intimacy and makes the audience feel comfortable. In addition, too much information should not be provided to the audience as this will divert their attention away from the most important points. Preparation is also essential, especially for presenters who lack experience, because those who do not prepare as well end up going off on tangents. References Cody, T., Hopkins, D. A., Perlman, L. A., and Kalteux, L. L., (2007) Limited Liability Companies, Business Economics, 9th Edition. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, SCED, Birmingham. Haywood, J. (2010) LLP Members: How Limited is Your Liability? Part 1, Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, Volume 9, Issue 9. Marathe, M. (2007) The Successful Speaker: 273 Tips for Powerful Presentations, Lulu. Maughan, C., and Webb, J., (2001). Small group learning and assessment. Retrieved August 01, 2007, from the Higher Education Academy ukcle.ac.uk/resources/temp/assessment.html accessed 01 May 2013. Moon, J. A. (2013) A Handbook of Reflective and Experimental Learning: Theory and Practice, Routledge. Morris, G. D., (2001) Limited Liability Partnerships, Tolley’s Practical Business Fortnightly for Senior Administrators, Volume 24, Issue 21. Murray, C. (1998) Comment – Take it to the Limit, Law Society Gazette, Volume 95, Issue 40. Rouch, D. and Smethhurst, J. (2004) Limited Liability Partnerships: Flexing the Body Corporate, Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, Volume 49, Issue 2. Thorpe, K. (2010) Reflective Learning Journals: From Concept to Practice, Reflective Practice: International Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 5, Issue 3.