Literary genres Essay Example for Free

Literary genres Essayliterature (ltrchr, -chr) noun. 1. The consistency of write kit and caboodle of a language, period, or culture. 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic valueLiterature must be an digest of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity (Rebecca West). 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written scat produced by scholars or researchers in a given fieldmedical writings. 5. Printed material collected all the available writings on the subject. 6. Music All the compositions of a legitimate kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble the symphonic writings. 1.written material such as poetry, novels, essays, etc. , esp works of imagination characterized by excellence of agency and expression and by themes of general or enduring interest 2. the body of written work of a finical culture or people Scandinavian literature 3. written or printed matter of a feature type or on a particular subj ect scientific literature the literature of the violin 4. printed material giving a particular type of in contour lineation sales literature 5. the art or profession of a writer 6. Obsolete learning 1. writing in prose or verse regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence.2. the perfect body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc. 3. the writings dealing with a particular subject. 4. the profession of a writer or author. 5. literary work or production. 6. any kind of printed material, as circulars, leaflets, or handbills. 7. Archaic. literary culture appreciation of letters and books. literature the humanistic study of a body of literature he took a course in Russian lit. literary study the humanistic study of literatureliterature creative writing of recognized artistic value literature published writings in a particular style on a particular subject the technical literature one aspect of Waterloo has non yet been treated in the litera turepiece of writing, written material, writing the work of a writer anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect) the writing in her novels is excellent that editorial was a fine piece of writingliterature creative writing of recognized artistic valuehistoriography a body of historical literature literature the profession or art of a writerher place in literature is secureprofession an occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences)literature creative writing of recognized artistic valueTypes of Literature Fictional Literature Drama Drama is the theatrical dialog performed on stage, it consists of 5 acts.Tragedy, drollery and melodrama argon the sub types of drama. e. g William Shakespe atomic number 18, an Elizabethan dramatist composed the plays Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear that are famous because of its combination of tragedy and comedy. Problem play, far ce, fantasy, monologue and comedy of dexterity are some kinds of drama.Tragedy It is a story of the major character who faces bad luck. Tragedy, elements of horrors and struggle usually concludes with the death of a person. The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer are the ii famous Greek tragedies. Comedy The lead character overcomes the conflicts and overall look of the comedy is full of laughter and the issues are handled very lightly.The elements used in the comedy are romanticism, exaggeration, surprises and a comic view of life. Melodrama Melodrama is a blend of two nouns melody and drama. It is a musical play most popular by 1840. Uncle Toms Cabin is one of the most popular plays describing cruelty of labor life.It has happy ending like comedy. Tragicomedy The play that begins with serious mode but has a happy ending is tragicomedy. Prose Literature History, journalism, philosophy, fiction and fantasy writings, scientific writings, childrens literature authors and writers are in cluded in Prose Literature. Myth Myths are the fairy tales with lots of adventure, deception and it lacks scientific proof.Nursery rhymes, songs and lullabies are forms of myths that strike the interest of children. Creative and nature myth are stories of the stars and moon. Magic tales are wonderful tales of quests and fantasy. Hero myths are ideal heroes of adventure. Short storyThe small commercial fiction, true or imaginary, smaller than a novel is known as short story. Short stories are well-grouped that followed the installment of easy and no complexity in beginning, concrete theme, some dialogs and ends with resolution.They are oral and short-lived which hurl gossip, joke, fable, myth, parable, hearsay and apologue. Novel Novel can be ground on comic, crime, detective, adventurous, romantic or political story divided into many parts. The major kinds of novels are Allegory The symbolic story revolves around two meanings. What the writer says directly is totally different from the conveyed meanings at the end. Political and Historical allegory are two forms of Allegory.Comedy Satire is very common form in comedy novels and tries to focus on the facts of the society and their desires. Epistolary The collection of letters or mails is the epistolary novels. Samuel Richardsons Pamela and Henry Fieldings Joseph Andrew are the few examples of Epistolary novels. womens rightistThese types of novels are written by women writers around the world to describe the place of women in a male dominated society. E. g Virginia Woolfs A Room of ones Own. Gothic Gothic fiction is the combination of both horror and romance. Melodrama and parody were grouped in the Gothic literature in its early stages. Ironic Ironic novels are known for excessive use of taradiddle technique.It is satire on the contemporary society about cultural, social and political issues. Realism The realistic novels are based on the truths of ordinary society and their problems. It focuses on the plot, structure and the characters of the novel. Romance Love and relationship topics are handled optimistically in the romantic novels. It stemmaated in western countries basically the story revolves around heat affairs of main characters. Some popular sub categories of romantic novels are paranormal, erotic, suspense, multicultural and inspirational romance. Narration In narrative style, writer becomes the third person who narrates whole story around the characters.Naturalism Naturalism is based on the theory of Darwin. Picaresque It is opposite to romance novels as it involves ideals, themes and principles that refuse the so-called prejudices of the society. Psychological Its the psychological prospective of mind with a resolution. Satire Satirical novels criticize the contemporary society. The most famous novels are Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels (1726), Kingsley wrong(predicate) Lucky Jim (1954), George Orwells Animal Farm and Randell Jarrells Pictures from an Instituti on (1954). Stream of Consciousness James Joyces stream of consciousness is all about the thought coming up in the minds of the readers.A novel also constitutes categories on social and political aspects like proletarian, psychological, protest novel, government, didactic, materialist novel, allegorical novel, novel of engagement, naturalistic novel, Marxist novel, radical novel, revolutionary novel, anti-war novel, Utopian novel, futuristic novel, anarchist novel, problem novel, social philosophy novel, novel of ideas, problem play and speculative novel.Folk Tale Folk Tales are traditional stories that have been creating interest since ancient times. The children and old persons like religious story, magic and superstition as well. Fable, tall tales, cumulative, trickster and proverbs are the sub categories of folk tales. Mythology or legend is the ancient religious stories of origin and human civilization such as story of Robin Hood. Types of poetryPoetry is the spontaneous overfl ow of powerful feelings recollected in the tranquility. Greek poetry is found in free verse and we have rhymes in the Persian poem. Are you wondering how to write a poem, here are the followings forms of poem? Sonnet Sonnet is the short poem of 14 lines grouped into Shakespearean and Italian sonnets.Ballad The poems that are on the subject matter of love and sung by the poet or group of singers as telling readers a story. Elegy This type of poem is the lamenting of the death of a person or his near one. Elegy Written in Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray is one of the famous poems marked as sad poems of the ages. Ode Ode is the black-tie and long poem serious in nature.Allegory Allegory is the famous form of poetry and is loved by the readers because of its two symbolic meanings. One is the real meaning and another is the deep meaning. Epic and Mock epic Epics are the narrative poems that convey moral and culture of that period. The Odyssey and Iliad are one of the largest philosop hical epics written by Samuel Butler. Rape of the Lock is the great mock epic focusing on the minor incident of cutting of a curl. Lyric It has Greek origin that gives a melody of imagery. It is the direct appeal of a poet to the readers about any incident or historical events. Lyrics are most of the time similar to ode or sonnets in the form. Nonfiction LiteratureNonfiction Literature is opposite to fiction as it is informative and comprises the interesting facts with analysis and illustrations. Main types of Non- fiction literature muniment and Biography An autobiography is the story of the authors own life. Family Life at the White House by Bill Clinton is focused on his life and achievements. Wings of onslaught by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Mein kampf of Adolph Hitler are the autobiography books on real life. Essay Generally the authors point of view about any particular topic in a detailed way is an essay. Essay has simple way of narrating the main subject therefore they are d escriptive, lengthy, subject oriented and comparative.Different types of essay Personal essay, expositive essay type, response essay, process essay, persuasive essay, argumentative essay, critical essay type, interview essay, reflective essay type, evaluation, observation essay, comparison type of essay, application essay, equalize and contrast essay and narrative essay type. Literary criticism It is the critical study of a piece of literature. Here critics apply different theories, evaluation, discussion and bill to the text or an essay to give total judgments. Plato, Aristotle, T. S. Eliot, Saussure and Frye are some of the famous critics. Travel literature It is the narration of any tour or foreign journey with the description of the events, dates, places, sights and authors views.Francis Bacons natural philosophies in the middle of Seventeenth century is one famous example of travel literature. Diary Diaries are the incidents save by the author without any means of publishin g them. It is the rough work of ones periodical routine, happenings, memorable days or events in their life. E. g. Anne Franks Diary of a youth Girl was published by her father in 1940s its a story of a girl trapped during German invade Amsterdam. Diaries consists of business letters, newsletters, stomach listing. In todays world of Internet, writers write in blogs, forums, polls and social networking sites to convey their thoughts. This also is a form of diary writing.Some profound forms of diaries are online diary, travel, sleep, tagebuch, fictional, daydream and death diaries. Journal Journal is one of types of diaries that records infinite information. They are of following types Personal It is for personal analysis. In this journal one can write his goal, daily thoughts, events and situations. Academic It is for students who do research or dissertation on particular subjects. Creative journals Creative journals are the imaginative writing of a story, poem or narrative. Trad e Trade journals are used by industrial purposes where they dictate practical information. Dialectical This journal is use by students to write on twofold column notebook.They can write facts, experiments, and observation on the left side and right side can be a series of thoughts and response with an end. theme It is a collection of daily or weekly news of politics, sports, leisure, fashion, movies and business. Magazine Magazines can be the current affairs or opinions well collected finishing various content. Frame communicatory The psychoanalysis of human mind is present in a frame narrative. Here we find another story deep down the main story.Some of the popular narratives are Pegasus, Wuthering Heights, The Flying Horse, The Three Pigs, A Time to keep and the Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays. Outdoor literature Outdoor literature is the literature of adventure that gives whole exploration of an event.Exciting moments of life such as horse riding, fishing, trekking can be a par t of literature. Some out-of-door books are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Treasure Island by Robert Louis, Voyages by Richard Hakluyt and A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. Narrative form of Literature Today we find movies, audio and video CDs and Cassettes that present current literature in use.Digital poetry is an upcoming trend too. comedian books, cartoons, eBook and Internet games are the learning methods for children. Literature includes centuries, human nature, cultures and souls. Isnt it? Read more at Buzzle http//www. buzzle. com/articles/types-of-literature. html

The Basic Characteristics of an Effective Management Essay Example for Free

The Basic Characteristics of an Effective Management EssayI.Management-orientedThe basic objective of MIS is to provide information support tothe management in the organization for decision making. So an effective MIS should startits journey from appraisal of management needs, mission and goal of the businessorganization. It may be individual or collective goals of an organization. The MIS is suchthat it serves all(a) the levels of management in an organization i.e. top, middle and lower level.II.Management directedWhen MIS is management-oriented, it should be directed by themanagement because it is the management who tells their needs and requirements moreeffectively than anybody else. Manager should guide the MIS professionals not unless at the stage of planning still also ondevelopment, review and implementation stages so that effective system should be theend product of the whole exercise in making an effective MIS.III.IntegratedIt means a comprehensive or complete view o f all the sub systems in theorganization of a company. Development of information must be integrated so that all theoperational and functional information sub systems should be worked together as a singleentity. This integration is necessary because it leads to retrieval of more meaningful anduseful information.IV.Common data flowsThe integration of different sub systems will lead to a commondata flow which will further help in avoiding duplicacy and redundancy in datacollection, storage and processing. For example, the customer orders are the basis for many activities in an organization viz. billing, sales for cashing, etc. Data is collected bya system analyst from its buffer source only one time. Then he utilizes the data withminimum number of processing procedures and uses the information for productionoutput documents and reports in small numbers and eliminates the undesirable data. Thiswill lead to excretory product of duplication that simplify the operations and produce ane fficient information system.V.Heavy planning-elementThe preparation of MIS is not a one or two day exercise. Itusually takes 3 to 5 eld and sometimes a much longer period. So the system expert hasto keep 2 things in mind one is that he has to keep future objectives as well as the firmsinformation well in advance and also he has to keep in mind that his MIS will not beobsolete onward it gets into action.VI.Sub System conceptWhen a problem is seen in 2 sub parts, then the better solution tothe problem is possible. Although MIS is viewed as a single entity but for its effectiveuse, it should be broken down in small parts or subsystems so that more attention andinsight is paid to each sub system. Priorities will be set and phase of implementation will be made easy. While making or breaking down the whole MIS into subsystems, it should be kept in mind that the subsystems should be easily manageable.VII.Common databaseThis is the basic feature of MIS to achieve the objective of usingM IS in business organizations. It avoids duplication of files and storage which leads toreduction in costs. Common database means a Super file or Master file whichconsolidates and integrates data records formerly stored in many separate data files. Theorganization of the database allows it to be accessed by each subsystem and thus,eliminates the destiny of duplication in data storage, updating, deletion and protection.VIII.ComputerizedMIS can be used without a computer. But the use of computersincreases the effectiveness and the efficiency of the system. The queries can be handledmore rapidly and efficiently with the computerized MIS. The other benefits are accuracy,storage capacity and timely information.IX.User friendly/FlexibilityAn MIS should be flexible i.e. there should be room for further modification because the MIS takes much time in preparation and our environment is dynamic in nature.MIS should be such that it should be usedindependently by the end user so that they do n ot depend on the experts.X.Information as a resourceInformation is the major ingredient of any MIS. So, an MISshould be treated as a resource and managed right on

Working With Sexual Abuse Victims Social Work Essay

Working With knowledgeable Abuse Victims Social Work EssaySexual holler has been a growing concern in our society. The statistics on sexual evil in America are alarming. According to Finkelhor (1994) approximately 150,000 confirmed cases of electric shaver sexual ill-usage were reported to child welfare authorities in the United States during 1993 (p.31). Lucinda stated, I have rub downed with children who have been sexually maltreated and it is a devastate experience for the exclusive.Working with an individual who has a chronicle of sexual abuse would be very difficult. The individual will analogously be guarded and by chance closed off from the surrounding environment. He or she may not want to talk about what happened in their past, and want to shut it a steering so they never have to relive the horror that happened to them. Since this abuse is not as visible as physical abuse, it is breatheder for pack outside the abuse to recognize it. The individual in the abuse may feel that it is their fault, or they are inviting the abuser into the relationship. The abused individual may also feel that when speaking about the abuse to some other person, that person will judge them think it is the fault of the abused.Core IssuesSome of the core pops in treatment while working with some genius diagnosed with a history of sexual abuse is gaining the clients self-assertion so that they may disclose their history of universeness sexually abused and feeling safe and not being judged. Lucinda stated, For me, the nigh important factor for the clinician is to gain the trust of the individual first before the client feels safe enough to share such(prenominal) an experience with a total stranger. Sexual abuse is a touchy subject to some and some individuals do not disclose having been sexually abused because they feel mortified or guilty or they fear being judge has damaged goods. According to Levs post, 88% of cases of sexual abuse are never disclosed by t he child. In agreement, Alaggia (2005) states, 50% to 80% of victims do not purposefully disclose childhood sexual abuse before adulthood (p.454).Another core issue is the ability to gain that initial trust between the client and the clinician. For someone that has had a history of sexual abuse this can be a hard aspect to have happen. This is understandable because at some come in in that persons life they lost the ability to trust when someone took that opportunity a vogue from them. Its alike that individual had their bond of trust violated and that may carry over as an adult for the ability to trust their own feelings and judgment. Additional core issues detect with those sexually abused would be placing the blame on themselves or taking the responsibility for what has occurred to that individual. Also, having a constant fear instilled in them that something is wrong with them. Perhaps sluice issues with power and control because one may feel that was stripped away from them . An abused child will not open up unless they can trust again (trust is obviously something that is tarnished and even lost with the abuse).Another core issue in treatment while working with someone diagnosed with a history of sexual abuse is using reminiscence to work through the trauma. As Courtois (1992) points out, Therapy is geared not only to the retrieval of autobiographical memory, but towards the integration of fall upon with recall to achieve resolution of the trauma. Because so many feelings, emotions of the memories are difficult to deal with on a day to day basis, many victims of sexual abuse tend to dissociate and therefore can suffer from dissociative dis hallow and PTSD. I think it is extremely important to address sexual assault of males. So often is hard to come forward about the assault but as Hopper (2010) addresses, Approximately one in six boys is sexually abused before age 16. He goes on to talk about the yearn lasting affects of sexual abuse and how it c an become a perpetuated cycle of being hurt Avoiding getting close to people and trying to hide all of ones pain and vulnerabilities may creating a sense of preventative. But this approach to relationships leads to a enormous deal of loneliness, prevents experiences and learning about developing true intimacy and trust, and makes one vulnerable to desperately and naively putting trust in the wrong people and being betrayed again. A core factor for many that are abused is that they are not alone. Many times knowing that others are dealing with a similar situation can make a huge difference.Therapeutic ModelsThe types of therapeutic modality that works best for someone who has been abused should be ascertain based on the individual and the healer preference. In the article by Courtois (1999) discusses that the resolution of sexual abuse trauma requiring retrieval of memory and the working through of the associated affect. This is important so the individual can heal by having full y acknowledged what has occurred to them in the past. The article further states, memory retrieval is an important fragment of the therapeutic process. As a therapist, an essential assign when working with the client, would be having them acknowledge the abuse that has happened to them and be able to retrieve the full memory to move in the healing process. Courtois (1999) notes how memory deficits are quite characteristic of trauma response and are utilized in the interest of defense and protection. This is an essential point for the clinician to understand in working on trauma resolution in general and memory retrieval in particular. The strengths perspective acknowledges the client as the expert, which allows the memory retrieval to be a lot easier, and to be more accurate from the client.It is crucial that clinicians be educated when working with individuals who have a history of childhood sexual abuse. Stearn (1988) states, to diagnostically assess and treat clients in the mo st effective manner, social workers need to discover how each sexual abused clients views himself or herself, significant others, and the cosmos (p.466). Jennings (1994) examines ways of using a broad spectrum of creative approaches, such as art, play, dance, music and drama, and combinations of those, to work with people who have been traumatized by experiences of sexual abuse (p.471). Lucinda stated, In my opinion, the best therapeutic modality that would work best with clients who have a history of childhood sexual abuse is using the strengths perspective. The client is the expert on his or her own experience because only they know how they felt and what actually occurred during those moments. Bell (2003) believesthe strengths perspective involves turning away from rational, empirical models that order and codify reality, toward a constructivist view, which holds that the identification of human problems reflects not objective reality, but the perspective of the one doing the loo king. With this constructivist understanding, three assumptions emerge from the strengths perspective. First, clients have personal and environmental strengths and are more credibly to act on those strengths when they are affirmed and supported. Second, the strengths perspective views the client as the expert on his or her own experience. Third, the roles of the social workers shift from expert and methadon to collaborator who respects and fosters the strengths of the client (p.513).Lucinda stated, I feel that being empathetic, understanding, and compassionate are important in working with these clients. According to Calof (1993) listening to their stories and helping them look the truth of their experiences has enabled many to turn their lives around (p.45).Family therapy is also important. Acknowledging the important and loving family members and their role in the victims life can help. With their love and support, the abused can work with the family to form treatment plans and other means of support.As social workers, we have to not only listen to what our clients are saying but also bring their body language as well as anything else they give us as clues. They are children who have been violated and are reluctant to speak because in their minds they did something wrong. We have to work collaboratively with the non-offending family (if that is obvious), schools, doctors, and other professionals so that we can get a full picture of the childs symptoms, behaviors, and problems. Once we establish there has been abuse and from whom, we must learn the abuser if that has not already been done. Only then will we be able to work with the child towards a state of healing. Healing cannot happen when someone is still being abused. However literature does state most do not disclose what has happened until they are adults. Sometimes, it is not possible to remove the abuser if vigour is said about the abuse. As social workers, we would have to take every incident a s it comes and deal with it as soon as possible. Unfortunately and sadly, most sexual abusers get off with a slap in the hand while the children they abuse suffer for the rest of their lives.Essential Task for TherapistsAn essential task for the therapist is providing a safe environment. Ensuring that a victim of sexual abuse feels comfortable in their setting is a pertinent factor in providing treatment. Also, maybe the sex of the therapist will matter. If the victim is female and was sexually abuse by a male, she may only feel comfortable speaking with another female. Lana stated, The women in my placement have expressed many times their fears and anxieties when in groups with men after sexual assaults that they faced both as children and adults.As therapist we should not only be treating for sexual abuse, we should also be doing more about prevention and education to all young children. It should not take old age for a person to disclose that they were abused as child without h aving the ability to address the abuse. They should not have to go through the feelings that it was their fault or the one to blame. Laura stated, I think it is very important for children to understand that it is often an adult that they know who becomes an abuser. Schools teach stranger-danger, and to fear the stranger, when often the threat comes from an individual close to or seen by the child. Children need to be aware that there are monsters who can appear as nice people, who are not only strangers, and the only way to make something bad go away they have to talk. Some ways to do this is by using examples of what is appropriate from different people is the best way to get things across. Also, using child-like language is very important as well. Using characters from TV and books can be used as examples of love and family as long as the child can relate and understand in a certain way.A therapist of someone who has a history of sexual abuse would need to patient and empathetic , while urging the individual to share their story. The individual has likely lived many years of hiding the abuse and trying to act like it never happened, while trying to live a normal life. This is not possible, as the horrible history will present itself in varying disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder and create upset in their life. The therapist must create an era of trust and safety in which the individual can feel comfortable and able to speak about their past. I think the therapist needs to ease into the revelations in order to help the individual to feel more comfortable with each small piece, followed by safety and reassurance, another may follow, allowing the individual to reveal their past. This is really the ideal, and the therapist will need to be able to help the person overcome the varying disorders and other issues in their life.

Popular Religion And Popular Culture Religion Essay

Popular faith And Popular Culture Religion EssayPopular sacred belief and popular close in the late twentieth and proto(prenominal) twenty- prototypical centuries erect alike be understood by the way in which individuals and groups belonging to the mainstream religion take on their faith. Expressions of popular religion can often be at considerable variance from what is officially supposed to be deemed as sacred. In this respect, popular religion absorbs many attributes of human experience that might be looked down on by purveyors of traditional religion. Amongst various aspects of American life, contemporary popular religion can be best identified in regards of Hollywood films, pop music, popular literature, comic rule takes, and the cyberspace.The evolution of Hollywood films involving religious themes has been rooted largely in the biblical epic. As a popular genre during the 1950s and 1960s, key typefaces of these epic religious films intromit The Robe (1953), The T en Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), pansy of Kings(1961), and The Greatest Story ever Told (1965) among separates. These films usually had huge cinematic scale, massive production budgets and box-office celebrities such as Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Max Von Sydow, Charlton Heston, Deborah Kerr, and Yul Brynner.In the late 1960s and betimes 1970s, thither were numerous horror films with religious themes, most notably Rosemarys Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976). In Rosemarys Baby, a young, innocent Manhattan housewife is deceived by a coven of witches into giving bring on a bun in the oven to the eponymous child who is actually the son of Satan. The Exorcist was a horror film that mess hallt with a young girls demonic possession and her pie-eyed mothers desperate attempts to preservation her daughter through an exorcism by two Catholic priests. Serving as the pinnacle of the demon child movies of the era, The Omen is the story of a wealthy diplomats family unknowingly adopting a child who is actually the Antichrist foretold in the Book of Revelation. Representing an interesting blend of story elements from both Rosemarys Baby and The Exorcist, The Omen spawned several sequels as substantially as a re direct.There are a peachy variety of savior movies that have made their way to the silver screen. In 1961, MGMs reverse of King of Kings (a remake of Cecil B. DeMilles 1927 film of the same title) was the first attempt by a major film studio to produce a religious epic in which the Christ Event was its main focus. That movie was followed years later other cinematic renditions of Jesus such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the musical theater Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Last come-on of Christ (1988), The making love of the Christ (2004), and most recently The Color of the Cross (2006). By illustration, Martin Scorseses The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) portrays the last days of Jesus Christ as he is tempted b y Satan by glimpses of what life might have been like had Jesus not been crucified including marrying and making love with Mary Magdalene. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis 1960 novel of the same hear, the movies main point is that Jesus, while free from human sin, might have still been vulnerable to all manners of temptation that humans face, including doubt, fearful reluctance, lustful yearning, and regret. By confronting and ultimately conquering all of humanitys weaknesses, Jesus struggled to do Gods volition while never surrendering to earthly temptations. At the films end, Christ finally rejects all temptations and the film concludes with the crucifixion. As can be imagined, this film generated a considerable deal of contr everyplacesy due to its subject matter.The warmheartedness of the Christ (2004) is a film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. According to Gibson, the films primary source material is derived from the Christs passion taradiddles base in the fou r synoptic Gospels despite taking creative liberties of incorporating quotes and images from both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. While deliberately mirroring traditional representations of the Passion in visual art, the film recounts depiction of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, particularly the arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion of Jesus. In spite of criticism regarding the original violence, historical inaccuracy, and perceived anti-Semitic references, the overwhelming success of the studios marketing campaign amongst Catholics and evangelical Christians helped the film set numerous box-office records simultaneously. Having earned roughly $400 trillion, The Passion of the Christ holds the record for the most pre-release ticket sales and the highest-grossing R-rated film in U.S. history as head as the highest-grossing religious film world great. Further more, because the films dialogue is wholly spoken in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew with English subt itles, The Passion of the Christ is also the highest grossing non-English language film to date.While many religious films since the 1950s were typically base on Christian stories, other films have been based in other religious traditions. For instance, The Message (Mohammed The Messenger of God) (1976) based upon Islamic history and stirred great controversy upon its release. The film depicts the historic moment when the prophet Mohammed receives the Word from Allah during the 7th century A.D. in the Middle East still dominated by polytheism. laterward this fateful event, Mohammed begins sending his messengers to proclaim the basic teachings and tenets of Islam throughout the Middle East. The films production was complicated by the fact that, according to the teachings of the Quran, neither any likenesses can be shown of the prophet Mohammed and his extended family nor the image and voice of God ever be depicted in any medium. To overcome this challenge, the lead role of Mohamme d was as an heedless protagonist while the fount of Mohammeds uncle served as a replacement for Mohammed who alternately uttered lines and listened off-screen to a voice the audience never heard to avoid the heterodoxy of depicting images of either Allah or Mohammed.Filmmakers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen have wrestled with issues of Judaic film representations. Two of the Coen brothers films, Barton Fink (1991) and The Big Lebowski (1998), are especially noteworthy for their diverse abundance of overtly albeit offbeat Jewish characters. The Coens brothers have been accused of depicting anti-Jewish ethnic stereotypes in their numerous films such as Bernie the Shmatte, a cravenly duplicitous hustler, in their third sport film, Millers Crossing (1990). However, their film A Serious Man (2009) is a remarkably provocative and poignant portrayal of Jewish American experience during the 1960s culled from their childishness memories of growing up in St. Louis Park, a suburban Jewish comm unity south of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Drawing heavily from the cultural tradition of Ashkenazic Judaism, the film centers on the Job-like master key and private plights of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor undergoing a crisis of faith. Struggling to make brain of his ruined life, Gopnik desperately seeking metaphysical advice and spiritual focus from cardinal rabbis to become a person of substance. Ultimately the film grapples with theological issues pertaining to the human suffering in ways that strive to reconcile the spiritual and the absurd.Popular Religion and Popular MusicThe emergence of popular music is one of Americas greatest cultural achievements and since the mid-20th century has had several inspired practitioners whose lives and recordings in the music industry that helped wake the American society by defining a new outlook where the sacred and the secular coexisted within the mainstream. For example, Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee as one of cardi nal children belonging to Rev. C. L. Franklin, a famous Baptist minister, and Barbara Siggers Franklin, a singer and pianist. Franklins parents had a troubled relationship and separated for the final time when Aretha was six, leaving her and her siblings to be raised by their paternal grandmother, Rachel Franklin. During her childhood, the home was fixednessly visited by many of her fathers famous friends including Clara Ward, Sam Cooke, and Mahalia Jackson. In the presence of such gospel music legends, Franklins talents both as a self-taught piano prodigy and a gifted singer with an extra mine run vocal range became apparent by the time she entered her teens. As noted in her autobiography, Franklin verbalise that her early gospel singing was patterned after Albertina Walker. Although early motherhood nearly derailed Franklins gospel career, once she decided to return to singing professionally as a pop musician rather than a gospel artist. When she signed a contract with Atlantic Records and began working with legendary RB producer Jerry Wexler to bear a more gospel element into Franklins evolving musical sound. By the end of the 1960s, Franklins designation as the reining Queen of Soul was clearly established. Although most of her albums were best sellers during this era, the release of Amazing Grace (1972) eventually interchange over two million copies in the United States and has been hailed as the best-selling gospel album of all time. mug a triumphant return to her gospel roots, the songs on Amazing Grace were recorded live at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California alongside her father as well as gospel legend and family friend Rev. James Cleveland with backing vocals by the Southern California residential district Choir in January 1972.In the late 1970s, Bob Dylan became a born-again Christian and released two albums of Christian gospel music Slow Train overture (1979) and Saved (1980). When working on Slow Train Coming wi th Jerry Wexler, the veteran RB producer, Dylan had started to evangelize to him during the recording. Wexler replied Bob, youre dealing with a sixty-two-year old Jewish atheist. Lets just make an album. The album won Dylan a Grammy pureness as Best Male Vocalist for the song Gotta Serve Somebody. When touring from the fall of 1979 through the spring of 1980, Dylan would not playfulness any of his older, secular works. Realizing that there was considerably vocal backlash to his embrace of Christianity by some of his fans and fellow musicians, Dylan frequently delivered declarations of his faith from the stage.Another iconic augur in the realm of popular music that underwent deep religious conversion was the country music legend Johnny Cash.Rediscovering his Christian faith in the early 1970s, Cash recalled taking an altar call at Rev. Jimmy Rodgers Snows Evangel Temple, a small church in Nashville, TN because, unlike many larger churches, he said that the rector and congregation treated like just a regular parishioner and not a celebrity. His friendship with famed Christian minister truncheon Graham led to the production of The Gospel Road, a film about the life of Jesus, that Cash both co-wrote and narrated. The decade saw his religious conviction deepening, and he made many evangelical appearances on Billy Graham Crusades around the world. In 1986, Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Sauls conversion into the Apostle Paul. In 1990, Cash also recorded Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament.Matisyahu is an American Hasidic Jewish reggae musician far-famed blending traditional Jewish themes within reggae, alternative rock, electronica, and hip hop-skip sounds. Matisyahu was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania as Matthew Paul Miller on June 30, 1979. His family eventually relocated to White Plains, New York where he was raised as a Reconstructionist Jew. While Matisyahu was an ardent music lover, he attended Hebrew aim at Bet Am Shalom, a synagogue located in White Plains. At the age of sixteen, Matisyahu participated in a semester-long immersion program at the Alexander Muss High School in Hod Hasharon, Israel that allowed him deeper exploration of his Jewish heritage. This overall experience affected his feelings towards Judaism so greatly that he eventually take Orthodox Jewish lifestyle by becoming a Baal Teshuva by 2001. Initially he found his way to the Carlebach Shul on the West Side of Manhattan. Matisyahu accordingly found his way to Chabad of Washington Square. From 2001 until 2007, Matisyahu was affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. Shortly after his embrace of hasidism, Matisyahu began studying Torah at Hadar Hatorah, a yeshiva for returnees to Judaism As one example of his devotion, he bequeath not per build in concert on Friday nights in faithful observance of the Jewish Sabbath. He later recounted such diverse influences as Phish, Bob Marley and the Wailers, God Street Wine and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach among his musical inspirations.There is a proliferation of musical genres that represent a variety of religious backgrounds from Stryper (a Christian heavy metal circumstances) to Creed (a Christian alternative / hard rock band) to the Kominas (a Punjabi taqwacore-Islamic hardcore punk rock-group) to A Tribe Called pastime (an African American hip-hop group predominantly unruffled of Sunni Muslim converts). In the 1980s,Stryper was a Christian heavy metal band from Orange County, California, USA. The name Stryper derives from Isaiah 535 (KJV)But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. The scriptural reference is also part of Strypers logo on most of their releases. (They also incorporate stripes into most of their outfits and their logo.) Once the band embraced the name of Stryper, drummer Robert Sweet created a acronym which is Salvation Through Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement, and Righteousness. non only did Stryper enjoy great mainstream success during the last mentioned half of the 1980s, they are pioneers in the mainstream popularization of Christian metal music and even achieved a Grammy Award nomination. Stryper eventually broke up in 1992, which also marked the waning popularity of heavy metal as a musical genre.In the late mid-nineties and early 2000s, Creed was a popular, multi-platinum selling American alternative / post-grunge rock band from Tallahassee, Florida often identified as a Christian rock band. The band was never signed to a contemporary Christian music label, did not perform in Christian music venues and never got any widespread regular play on Christian radio, Creeds first three albums focused on themes of Christian faith and spirituality. Themes within their song titles such as Higher, My Sacrifice, Whats This Life For, My witness Prison, With Arms unspecific Open, and One Last Breath the bands lyrics allude to Christian theology although they frequently refuted the Christian label.Similar to the Christian rock movement, The Kominas (whose name nub bastards in Punjabi) are a Taqwacore punk band hailing from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The Muslim punk trio consisting of Basim Usmani, Shahjehan Khan, and Adam Brierly rock out with songs titles of Dishoom, Baby or Sharia right in the USA. One of the Kominas best known songs, Rumi was a Homo, a protest song against homophobia within the American Muslim community, was featured in Skidmore Colleges Music Against abomination concert. Written mainly by Usmani, the bands lyrics are clever, sometimes thought-provoking commentaries on racial profiling, foreign policy, and religious faith. The Kominas critically acclaimed debut album, Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay, was released in March 2008.As a fusion of punk, metal, and Bhangra folk music The band uses the term Boll ywood Muslim punk in order to describe their sound. The music and imagery typically draws from anti-colonial movements, Moghul art, American related to Islam, such as Moorish Science Temple, Five Percenters (an offshoot of the Nation of Islam), and Desi culture, Punjabi folklore, Sufi saints from Punjab, Hinduism, and Bollywood cinema.Formed in the late 1980s, A Tribe Called Quest was an African American hip hop group consisting of rapper/producer Q-Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, formerly Jonathan Davis), rapper Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad that explored Sunni Islam. They released fin albums in ten years, the first three of which were both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. By 1996, lead rapper Q-Tip underwent a deepy religious awakening and, upon spiritual guidance from his friend, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, soon converted to Islam. While on tour, Q-Tips friend introduced him to a talented young producer from Detroit named Jay Dee (also k nown as J Dilla). Immediately taking the freshman under his wing, Q-tip and the rest of Tribe agreed to form a production unit with Jay Dee. The group named their production company The Ummah (meaning community, nation, or brotherhood in Arabic) because Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad were god-fearing Muslims. In addition to producing A Tribe Called Quests final two studio albums, the Ummah served as a music production collective that provided backing tracks for a wide array of RB and hip hop artists. Although the group officially disbanded in 1998 and Jay Dee death in 2006of a blood disease, their innovative blend of hip hop and jazz has left an indelible imprint upon hip hop music.Popular Religion in Popular LiteratureIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins novel Left Behind A Novel of the Earths Last Days officially launched a best-selling fictional series of 18 Christian-themed thrillers. It was narrative form to a specific apocalyptic reading of the B ible, particularly the Book of Revelation. This novel has received largely favorable reactions from the late Jerry Falwell and other leading figures in the evangelical Christian community who generally approved of how the authors represented the millennial / apocalyptic themes within Christian theology in a worldly language that was also commercially viable within the entertainment industry. The interpretation of Revelation, as presented in the Left Behind series, also encourages a largely individualistic approach to eschatology and salvation that eschews any responsibility for performing good deeds or evangelizing. Regardless of such criticism, the overall sales for Left Behind series has surpassed 65 million copies and has also inspired several movies, graphic novels, CDs, a video game and a Left Behind series for teenagers.Similarly, author Dan Browns best-selling novels also include historical themes and Christianity as recurring motifs, and as a result, have generated controv ersy. Browns first novel, Angels Demons (2000) is bestselling mystery-thriller novel focused on fictional Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdons quest to uncover the mysteries of the Illuminati and to unravel a plot to destroy Vatican City by detonating antimatter. The book portrays a historical conflict between the Illuminati and the Roman Catholic Church as a debate between science and religion. Browns subsequent novel, The Da Vinci Code (2003) also examines ancient history, conspiracy theories of secret societies, religious symbolism, and classic architecture. Combining the detective, thriller, and conspiracy fiction genres, The Da Vinci Code provoked popular interest in speculation concerning the historic roots of Christianity. Despite being flatly denounced by many Christian denominations as a dishonest attack on the Roman Catholic Church rife with historical and scientific inaccuracy, The Da Vinci Code is a worldwide bestseller that had sold roughly 80 million copies that has been translated into 44 languages.Popular Religion in Comic BooksThere are numerous examples of popular religion being apply in the world of comic books and graphic novels. For instance, the DC Vertigo Comic book series Preacher chronicled the fictional exploits of Jesse Custer, a small town pastor in Annville, Texas who is experiencing an extraordinary crisis of faith. After Genesis, a creature described as the supernatural spawn of the inexplicable coupling between an angel and a demon, incidentally takes possession of him, Custer becomes a hybrid human-divine being that potentially wields enough power to ultimately rival even God. Inhabited by this spiritual force composed of both pure goodness and pure evil, the comic book portrays the title character of the comic book arguably becomes the most powerful being in existence. Tragically, this realization results in a disaster that turns his church to rubble and killed his entire congregation. Spurred by his highly devel oped sense of morality and a strong sense of purpose, the comic book illustrates Custers paranormal adventures as he treks across the United States in a quest to find God for himself both figuratively and literally. pursuance a trend within American comic books during the 1960s and 1970s very much akin to the Death of God theological movement, Preacher alludes to a God that has abandoned creation and thus has left humanity to its own devices for better or worse. During its publication from 1995 to 2000, Preacher was a controversial comic book series renowned by some and reviled by others for both its dark and frequently violent humor as well as its unabashed manipulation of religious and supernatural themes.Since the 1970s, there have been several characters that accentuate various dimensions of spiritual practices prevalent throughout the African diaspora. A particularly notable example of an African American supernatural superhero named Brother Voodoo who appeared in a variety o f comic books published by Marvel Comics during the 1970s. Returning to his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti after more than a decade of education and practice as a psychologist in the United States, Jericho Drumm assumes the alter ego of Brother Voodoo possesses numerous powerful and incomprehensible powers such as easily entering into a trance-like state in which his skin becomes impervious to burning and other forms of pain as well as being able to control flame and lower life forms these are all power that the comic book creators attribute to the characters mastery of mystical rituals derived from the loa, the spirit-gods of Haitian vodou. As an attempt to introduce a character with a very unique ethnic, cultural, and religious background, Brother Voodoo was later followed by other figures in the Marvel pantheon of characters such as the female Captain Marvel whose alter ego, Monica Rambeau, hailed from the Creole religiosity of contemporary New Orleans or the character of Storm ( aka Ororo Monroe) from the X-Men series whose backstory harkens to being an East African hailed as a demi-goddess because of her mutant ability to control the weather. While these are certainly not the first or only comic book characters of African descent to be introduced, these creations were attempts to merge issues of race and religion in interesting ways.Moving in a considerable different vein, the central figure in DC Vertigo Comics series Hellblazer is a character named John Constantine who pursues a mysterious life as a streetwise detective who frequently crosses the supernatural boundaries between heaven and hell in order to confronting various dangers of an occult nature in the ordinary world. As a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, hedonistic cynic arguably working for the greater good, Constantine usually triumphs through guile, deceit and misdirection. At the end of his exploits, he typically makes more enemies in the process of resolving a particular conflict than the oppone nts he originally intends to defeat. Even though depicted as a duplicitous individual, the narrative shows Constantine to be a well-connected person who is supremely adept at making friends and has a wide array of otherworldly contacts and nefarious allies at his disposal. Consequently, the overarching narrative reveals Constantine to be a compassionate and occasionally heroic figure struggling to overcome the influence of heaven and hell upon an otherwise unsuspecting humanity. In other words, the protagonist of Hellblazer serves as a fictional incarnation of the humanist anti-hero as a trickster of sorts. As such, this book is highly indicative of a trend in mainstream comic books that has been quite popular amongst comic book creators and fans alike wherein the mortal characters such as Constantine are imbued with an agnostic spiritual worldview over and above a sense of moral ambiguity as they unapologetically grapple with seemingly insurmountable hazards both mundane and arcane . On the whole, while there is no dearth of evidence of popular religion at work in comic books and graphic novels, there is presently a shortage dearth of schoolman research and discussion on the matter.Popular Religion and the InternetOne of the most exceptional transformations in the emergence of popular religion in the latter half of the twentieth century has been the burgeoning presence of religion appearing on the Internet. From the mid-1990s to present, an exponential number of churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have a firm foothold within cyberspace. Towards this end, there are numerous websites such as Streaming Faith.com and Beliefnet.com connect innumerable Christian communities nationally and internationally via the Internet with the increasing prospect of connecting with other religious groups in a virtual fashion. Since the inception and widespread use of the Internet in the 1990s, online Christian resources have tended to dominate religious themed content to date. This has been of particular splendour given the presumption that most Internet users hailed from North America or Western Europe, regions deemed predominantly Christian. This assumed dominance has shifted due to the increasing level of Internet access and literacy by populations in the developing nations of the global South, most notably in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Even though it is highly unlikely that the worlds religions ever will be fully and equally represented in cyberspace, the democratic impulse of the World Wide Web will cause the demographics to begin reflecting the religious form among a growing array of internet users worldwide. Moreover, for those members of faith communities that are relatively small and geographically isolated from a traditional house of worship, the World Wide Web provides these practitioners an alternate means of interaction and connection. By virtue of having Internet access, adherents of such faith traditions can receive update inf ormation about their religion, hold up latest spiritual resources, and engage in communications with other faithful believers. There are a variety of religious websites such as Torah sack up (www.torah.net), Allaahuakbar Net (www.allaahuakbar.net), Gospel Communications Network (www.gospel.com), Gateways to Buddhism (www.dharmanet.org) and The Witches Voice (www.witchvox.org) are religious oriented news and networking web resources that serve as lively examples of popular religion. detect also Celebrity Culture Electronic Church Internet Literature Contemporary Lived Religion Pluralism Popular Religion and Popular Culture entries Radio spiritualty Contemporary Trends Television Visual Culture entries.Juan Floyd-Thomas

Current and future strategies

Current and future strategies1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PurposeThe purpose of this report is to understand and analyse the current and future strategies of side by side(p) in terms of its food trade in the United Kingdom. This report besides considers the tactics to reach potential markets and expand into bleaker market segments.ApproachIn ensnare to conduct a comprehensive study of the companion, the factors taken into account are an internal and international analysis, the generic strategies employ by engageing(a) and a extreme understanding of the 4 Ps, PLC, BGM and Ansoffs Matrix has been through with(p) in correlation with the future and currents strategies.Findings beside is the second largest clothing retail merchant in the UK operating through with(predicate) cholecalciferol next retail stock certificates within UK and Eire with over two million active customers. conterminous aims to provide broad(prenominal) fiber and beautifully designed wares to their custo mers. From the internal and external analysis of the market strategy of Next, results conclude that next has been a mid market retailer for nearly two decades. It has fulfild huge amount of winner in the internet and online obtain milieu and piddle been able to cope to with the recent recession within UK and globally.LimitationsNext has suffered gross gross sales in the last year imputable to the recession in the UK and has been moving from a low price retailer to a design and lumber product provider. In achieving this aim of providing high select and designed products it has suffered loss in the UK in sales and growth. It also needs to be aware of the risks of increasing their shop sizes, as the farm animal space to sales growth ratio is truly poor. New out of town stores has not been abundant triumph and has hardly added additional costs.2. INTRODUCTIONThe save way to come over the successes the elaboration has experienced in the past few years in terms of grow th of sales and profits is to see what opportunities lay on the horizon. The product Department of Next Plc has performed a series of internal and external s advises throughout the troupe in indian lodge to identify these opportunities.This report contains an analysis performed on the structure, culture, and the small and macro environment of side by side(p) PLC. The outcomes are presented in the form of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and terrors) analysis of the company. A PEST analysis focuses on the environment that the company now is in (Political, Economic, accessible and Technological) and a scan based on the Five Forces Model of Michael Porter. Furthermore, there is the presentation of sashay map model, which analysis the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) and product brio cycle, capital of Massachusetts Group Matrix, Ansoffs Matrix of next. An executive summary has been constructed to provide the company vision and a sense of steerage with the help of data gathered by the commercializeing Department. The supra mentioned activities are performed In order to discuss and evaluate the current market strategy of following PLC and to recommend an appropriate strategy for the near future to expedite further growth.2.1 MISSION ANALYSISNEXT is a retailer of clothing, footwear, accessories and hearth products. Next clothing are designed by in-house design team to offer consistency of style, quality and value for money with a contemporary sort edge. The company operates through five reportable argumentation segments namely Next retail, Next directory, Ventura, Next sourcing and other. NEXT PLC aim to provide Exciting, Beautifully designed, Excellent quality clothing and home ware that reflects the aspirations and agency of our customers (Nextplc, 2009) and keep providing quality products for their target markets. In lay-mans terms, a mission statement describes what blood the firm is in (Thompson and Martin, 2005). Objecti ves describe the kind of results the business sector seeks to achieve while the strategies simplify the way to achieve the desired objectives.Market can be defined as location where the buying and selling of merchandise takes typeset and marketing can be defined as the process of identifying a target market and developing appropriate strategies for product development, pricing, promotion and scattering (Burns, 2002). NEXT also aims to respond to the particular needs of their customers through the package of measures, which they believe support all customers including those with additional needs. NEXT PLC operates through 500 NEXT retail stores within UK and Eire, Next directory, a direct catalogue and transactional website with over two million active customers and NEXT franchise which includes around 170 stores worldwide. Online shopping was get ind in 1999 and was first in home shopping in the UK. Like other retailers, NEXT has also suffered sales decline due to the recession exactly aim to carefully manage costs, whilst maintaining and retaining the talent and skills to ensure a irrefutable stain within market and emerge stronger than before. NEXT PLC also believes in the enormousness of maintaining healthy relationship with communities in which they operate and also work with charities to ensure their part in public welfare. NEXT is slured firmly in the middle mainstream fashion market, targeting 25-45 year olds (upper, middle and lower middle class consumers) who are fashion followers. Easey (2009) maintained that fashion marketing is the application of a range of techniques and a business philosophy that centres upon the customer and potential customer clothing and clothing-related products and services in order to meet the long-term goals of the transcription. In recent years NEXT has been criticised mature-nigh their marketing methods and has not been seen as a retail business with up to date marketing strategy. The word strategy is used f requently and loosely, and is often no more than management jargon. There is obviously a deeper and more practical meaning to it. Strategy is more or little how an organization sets about getting to where it wants to get it is about setting, pursuing and achieving its mission and objectives (Thompson and Martin, 2005). Knowles (1996) maintains that applying the concept of strategy to an organization implies that the organizations managers try to allocate resources, establish policies and procedures, assign responsibilities and give in direction to the organization. Strategic planning is a slender discipline and a process designed to fully utilize the collective expertise of the decision makers through a facilitated process which results in a strategic plan. In the following paragraphs, current in depth marketing strategy of NEXT PLC will be thoroughly discussed.3.SITUATIONAL ANALYSISAs discussed earlier, success of an makeup in todays competitive world depends on to a large ex tent on strategy formulation and implementation. An analysis of the internal and external environments provides a learn in towards building and developing current and future strategies. Situational analysis is a planning step which helps us examines the current situation of our organization and its external environment so that we can identify and agree on major issues which affect how we plan for the future. SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate a firms strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or business venture. Strengths and weaknesses are considered to be internal factors of the organisation while opportunities and threats are considered to be external factors as opportunities or threats lie in the external environment. This analysis is called as SWOT analysis (Stahl and Grisby, 1997). In order for a firm to air out SWOT analysis it needs careful and critical examination of these various internal and external factors which are often unequalled to an organisation depending on the type of business. After a SWOT analysis has been performed the managers are able to formulate a strategic plan which comprises of objectives and subsequent strategies. Next invariably seeks to give the price, value and quality products and services, the upper hand when turning towards customers. Next aims to provide an inclusive high level of service to all customers, whether they shop in high street, shopping centre or retail park stores, the Next Directory, or online through our website. This can also be seen in the way the company sees the immensity of its personnel in relation to its customers. NEXT PLC needs to look into the future for improving the customer care by streamlining activities. It also wants to continue the same success pathway it has had in the last 5 years which is demonstrated by (Verdict, 2009). 3.1 INTERNAL ANALYSISInternal factors are those factors which influence the strengths and weaknesses of an o rganisation. These strengths are internal to the organisation, its strategies and its position in relation with their competitors (Mercer, 1999). Given below is an internal analysis of Next plc. 3.1.1 StructureIn terms of structure, Next plc operate on a centralize system. Their target market is 25-45 year olds (Next, 2009). The company logo next in lower case signifies a different approach, more trendy.There are3 main impart of distribution used by next to ensure their products reach the desired customersNext has around 500 stores in the UK which acts as its main point of sale. (Next plc, 2009).Next directory which is an online web portal which allows customers to buy products through the web site. There are almost 2 million active next directory customers (Verdict, 2009).Around 170 international stores make up the third contain of distribution.3.1.2CultureJackson and Shaw (2009) define culture as the attitudes, values, standards and behaviours of a group that are often defined b y nationality. jibe to Vignali et al, (2008) culture is made up of both abstract elements such as values and ethics, and material components such as cars and foods, which allow us to describe, evaluate and fall apart cultures.Approximately 30% of the clothing bought in the UK is from MS, Arcadia and Next (Jackson and Shaw, 2009). They further state that during 2006 Next lost their market dominance. This means the culture affects consumer behaviour to a great deal. How of all time Next plc, was one of the first to develop and adopt an internet based shopping branch as a high street retailer (Next plc, 2009). Next operates on a role culture concept with which they have a principal board committee which includes the audit committee, remuneration committee and a nomination committee which work on their own in the company (Next plc, 2009).3.1.2.1Cultural WebStories These are the past events and what people talked about inside and outside the company (Mindtool, 2009).Rituals Routines The daily behaviour and actions of people that signal acceptable behaviour (Mindtool, 2009).Symbols These are the visual representations of the company (Mindtool, 2009).Organizational Structure This includes both the structure defined by the organization chart, and the unwritten lines of power and influence (Mindtool, 2009).Control Systems The ways that the organization is controlled (Mindtool, 2009).Power Structures The pockets of real power in the company (Mindtool, 2009).3.1.3 evaluate Chain core competenciesValue chain is a framework for identifying where value is added and costs are incurred within a company. It embraces the key functions and activities within a company or organisation such as NEXT (Thompson and Martin, 2005). Core competencies NEXT make use of an Internet based home shopping and has also established a good firebrand posture with individual style, beautiful design, excellent quality and affordable price (Next, 2009). NEXT stores are specious and they also mak e use of standalone lime stores.3.2 international ANALYSISThe external factors may be threats to one organisation while offering opportunities to another such as technological change, legislation, socio-cultural changes, etc. It can also include changes in the market place or competitive position (Mercer, 1999).3.2.1 Forces Influencing the MarketPorters five storms is a model that helps marketers to analyse the competitive environment by identifying five major forces that continually impacts on organisations. These forces areBargaining power of suppliers Bargaining power of consumersThreat of entry into the market by tonic entrantsThreat of substitutes into the marketLevel of competitive rivalry amongst existing firms (Porter, 1980 cited by Jackson and Shaw, 2009) The dicker power of our suppliers is very low and the prime problem exists in achieving the quality we ask from our suppliers. Most suppliers only deliver into this market, yet can also change to other markets (professi onal clothing) that are less profitable and the level of competition is great. With the handiness of many suppliers, this force acts positively but can affect the quality aspect of NEXT brand name if suppliers are changed on regular basis. For the consumer bargaining power, there is not much leverage from their account their money spent on clothing per person is not substantial enough when compared with, our total sales and their total spending budget (Next annual report, 2008). As, per person spending power is not huge it does not provide customers any bargaining power. NEXT can also consider this force as positive but needs to be aware of the customer demands in order to maintain this positive temper of the force. The threat of new entrants is rather low, yet, as verbalize before, the German ESPRIT company is trying to enter the market. This is an exemption, because ESPRIT has a lot of resources that make this possible as well as a lot of experience. In words of product differ entiation they are in the league of Levis and others (Verdict, 2009). These brands have extra benefits Image and superior quality. This force acts as a positive force, as the threat of new entrants is low for NEXT plc but caution needs to be taken in order to maintain this force as positive. The products that can reduce our sales in the form of substitute products or services are not there, however a threat of Internet portals and other forms of home shopping does exist. This is not a severe threat for the company as it already is active in this channel of selling. The discount retailing of A-brands e.g. Levis in outlets through parallel imports can be a problem. New internet portals and other home shopping forms are the only form of substitution threat to NEXT, but as they have been achieving a huge amount of success with NEXT directory and Ventura (Nextplc, 2009), this force does prove to be positive for them. There is some rivalry in the ranks of the market, for there are declini ng sales due to a decreasing market. In order to attain customer base, companies have increased their discounts and that leads to the destruction of the market. The main cause for this is the fact that people do not want to pay the full price amount of the products and companies have to answer with lower profit margins. NEXT is the second largest clothing retailer in UK but has also suffered a lessening in sales. While most of its competitors struggled from the declining market Next manage to increase its market share and during the present recession they maintain their stand in the market (scribd, 2009)3.2.2 Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST) analysis either organisations operate in market places that are affected by forces outside their control ( Jackson and Shaw, 2009, pp 300).Factors considered within the macro environment affect not only the company but all the other members of its micro environment, namely its suppliers, consumers, etc ( Easey, 1995). An an alysis of the external factors that influence the firm is known as the PEST analysis i.e. Political, Economic, Social and Technological.Political Politics will affect both the producer and the consumer in various ways (Bohdanowicz and Clamp, 1994). A stable political surrounding is the basis for long-term decisions. The United Kingdom, as a Member State of the European Union, fulfils this prerequisite. The government has to act within a definite political framework to achieve the conditions of the European Union and this guarantees NEXT PLC a higher scope of economic actions.Another advantage of the European Union is the open transfer of goods. This makes it easier for NEXT to sell their products in the different European countries. There are no trade barriers that aggravate sales and it also provides as a means of direct form of participation within the unknown markets (Hines and Bruce, 2001).Economic Vignali et. al, (2008), express that economic trends are extremely important for the business and that they depend to a great extent on the governments politics. Investments in Europe for NEXT PLC are very interesting. The British currency nowadays is exceedingly strong (ex., 2009). This is due to the independence of the British pound to the Euro and has several effects. First, foreign investments for NEXT are relatively inexpensive, and second, it is costly for outside firms to establish in the United Kingdom. The effects of exchange rates also need to be monitored closely. The devaluation of the superior in 1992 led to a rise in the cost of imports to UK while making manufactured items more competitive. However, many countries are reluctant to engage in trade because of these reasons. In the face of a truly difficult trading environment it is a case of survival of the fittest. Being good is not good enough, retailers have to be exceptional and stand out from the crowd. (Verdict 2008). Chief executive of Next states The outlook for the consumer economy remain s challenging and as we have said before, the first half will be particularly tough (Wilson, 2009) Social Changes in lifestyle and opinions influence the demand and the way of selling products (Vignali et. al, 2008, pp. 364). Key disgrace (2009) estimates that in the year 2036 more than 64.9 million people will be living there. This statement would mean two possibilities. This means a lot of new customers for NEXT PLC but the age of the population is increasing.On the other hand, the social structure has changed dramatically. The progress in medical service and the self-awareness of living leads to increasing life expectancy. Following development of sex education and rising numbers of career women, the birth rate has dropped. These reasons are responsible for declining figures in the NEXT 20 to 40 year old target group.Bohdanowicz and Clamp, (1994) analyse that young people no longer feel the pressure to be married or have children, and so many are living a single life or are coh abiting.Technological As in all areas of industry new engineering is making great inroads to improve quality of life and increase speed and quality of manufacture (Easey, 1995).The age of Internet and the reception of new media reveal a lot of potential opportunities for NEXT to boost profit. Some companies in the United States already offer online-orders where the customer can exactly define his wishes and measurements, and send it to the place of production. 48 hours later he receives his package. Using this method the companies can react instantly to changes in behaviors. Social networking site facebook also provides as a means of information and education and also helps in advertising for NEXT PLC (Facebook, 2009). Some new entrants in UK market such as Zara use latest engine room body scanners and follows fast fashion which is contrasting to NEXT.4. SWOT Strength1. Performance in recent years. (Verdict, 2009)2. Next Directory sales. (Verdict, 2009)3. Good promotion.4. Powerful design philosophy. Weakness1. Overpriced. (Verdict, 2009)2. receipts margin declined than previous years. (Verdict, 2009) 3. No celebrity brand ambassador. (Verdict, 2009)4. More formal wear than average. Little underwear.(Verdict, 2009)Opportunities1. Optimize store space. (Verdict, 2009)2. Consolidate internet marketing and buying. (Verdict, 2009)3. enlargement into new markets. (Verdict, 2009)Threats1. Marks and Spencers biggest competition. (Verdict, 2009)2. Arcadia and Primark trying to overtake. (Verdict, 2009)3. Target market reduced.5. GENERIC STRATEGIESAccording to Kotler 2004, strategy is the roadmap for achieving the envisaged goals. The strategic decision made by a commercial organisation is concerned with establishing the basis upon which it intends to compete, develop and sustain a competitive advantage and outperform competitors.Porter defined strategy as creation of a unique and valuable position involving different set of activities.Strategy can be formulated int o 3 generic types Overall cost leadership here(predicate) a business aims at delivering its products at the lowest prices in the market and win a large market share. Such businesses require being good at engineering, purchasing, manufacturing and distribution. A disadvantage of this strategy is that some other company will eventually emerge with still lower costs. Brands may be able to achieve cost leadership at category level if they have sufficient market share (Jackson and Shaw, 2009).Focus-Here a firm concentrates on one or more narrow market segments. It first identifies such a segment and then pursues either cost leadership or differentiation in them.Differentiation-Here a business aims at achieving superior performance in an important customer area valued by a large chunk of the market. It could extend to be the service leader, the quality leader, the style leader or technology leader. Differentiation of one company from another is extremely important due to the ever chang ing customer demands (Oelkars, 2004).It is also considered as strategy based upon being different from the competition through a range of factors such as design, style, image, trend, product quality etc (Jackson and Shaw, 2009).NEXT prides in offering consistency of style, quality and value for money with a contemporary fashion edge for their target market. NEXT marketing departments have been taking a differentiation approach which has helped them achieve superiority above their competitors. NEXT has differentiated their products from their competitors on the basis of above qualities such as style, design, quality and value for money. However, in this ever changing fashion industry nothing can be permanent. On the basis of porters five forces discussed above NEXT have all the forces in their favour but there are few issues which they need to consider in keeping these forces on the positive side. NEXT needs to be aware of the risks of changing suppliers in case of conflict as new su ppliers may provide good products with change in quality which can easily damage the brand name. Due to global recession, textile firms in Mauritius that supply Europes biggest high-street stores are looking forward to tough 2009. With 10% decrease in sales, these stores fight among themselves to achieve better prices, which results in middle market stores to suffer like NEXT (Scribd, 2009). Only a small amount of internet portals threat has emerged for NEXT but their Directory has been a success and continues to do so (Verdict, 2009). 6. MIX MAP MODEL6.1 MARKETING 4 PSThe marketing mix consists of 4 Ps that are product, price, promotion and place. Product and Price are the product related elements where, price can also be consider as an element of its own. The other two are parts of the delivery system which is about delivering the physical product and the sales message (Mercer, 1999). ProductWhat business offers customers to cope with their needs e.g. Quality. According to the mi ssion statement of NEXT, their focus is providing high quality and beautifully designed product for their customers. For this reason maintaining and improving their quality and design of their products is very important for NEXT (nextplc, 2009).Price Amount customers are ready to pay for products e.g. discounts. NEXT has been one of the known retailers to provide huge discounts on festive occasions, with discounts upto 70% on many products. It also provides peculiar(prenominal) discounts for taller and plus-size customers (next, 2009). Being a mid-market retailer, in order to maintain its competitiveness it is very important for NEXT to provide special discounts schemes and offers during the festive seasons. NEXT also relies on linked selling, one of the biggest areas of sales. For example, it recommends fashion accessories to customers buying clothing online (next, 2009). Place involves getting the product to the customers e.g. warehouse. Location of retail stores and shops has al ways been considered as the prime method to increase sales and growth. NEXT has always been one of the high street retail stores. It also has many different store types, eg flagship sores, factory outlets (nextplc, 2009). For this reason it is really important to have different location for customers to choose from.Promotion It includes ways that encourage customers to buy a product e.g. magazines (Oelkers, 2004). NEXT hugely promotes a great deal of its products through magazines e.g Vogue and also produce great deal of discounts in store and on online shopping. It recently plans to introduce extra 16 billion pounds in advertising its products and online sales records 530 million pounds (Mintel, 2009). 6.2PRODUCT LIFE CYCLEAccording to Jackson and Shaw 2009, as with all types of product, fashion follows cycles and products follow the Product Life Cycle. In a broader sense, no product can go on selling forever. Once a product has been introduced into the market and current by consu mers, it goes through a phase of growth, maturity and decline until it becomes obsolete.Stages of a product life cycleDesign Development Stage This stage is undertaken leading of the product launch. Design development costs create negative profitability as the sales at this stage are zero (Jackson and Shaw, 2009). trigger Introduction is a period of slow sales growth as the product is introduced in the market. Profits are non existent at this stage because of the heavy expenses done for the product introduction (Kotler, 2004). Growth This is a period of rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement. Maturity This is the period of slowdown in the sales growth because the product has achieved acceptance by most potential buyers. Profits decline or stabilize.Decline Sales show a downward ball up and profits erode.Although the PLC is an accepted underpinning of all marketing theory and practice, Jackson and Shaw 2009, cite the major problem for the fashion marketer to gra pple with is the fact that the actual position of a fashion product on the cycle at any point in time is hard to define accurately. Hence an accurate mathematical model of the PLC is impossible.PLC is an important issue for NEXT as it provides growth for the company and has highest operating profit margin amongst its competitors (Verdict, 2009). It also has a increase in store size by 50% from 2004-2008 (Verdict, 2009). Therefore Next is positioned in growth stage of PLC with signs of improvement. 6.3BOSTON GROUP MATRIXAs a visual tool for managing portfolios, the Boston Consultancy Group has developed a matrix known as BGM. The BGM offers a very useful map of the organisations products strength or weakness (Mercer, 1999). A regular BGM is given below.The matrix is in a iv box quadrant layout. The horizontal axis is expressed as the market share of the business compared to that of the market leader, whilst the vertical axis shows the average annual growths rate of the market that the business is operating in. The four quadrants are called stars, question marks, cash cows and dogs, which explain how the business stands relative to the market leader. Stars are market leaders in high growth markets. They are generally expensive in terms of promotional intake (Jackson and Shaw 2009). Generally businesses start off in the quadrant of question marks. Cash cows operate in a market where the growth rate is less than 10 percent. Dogs are a decline stage where a small share of limited and stagnant market.Growth of NEXT has been an important issue for the company with a higher amount of concentration going towards increasing store size. Since 1997 the average store size has increase from 3500 sq. feet to 10,500 sq. feet (Verdict, 2009). In their mission statement Next aims to provide excellent quality and design for its customers and target younger market. Next chief executive admits 2009 being a tough year for NEXT. (nextplc, 2009). NEXT appears to be existing in be tween the dogs and question mark stage and needs to concentrate to achieve position to the other end of the BCG Matrix.6.4 ANSOFFS MATRIXAnsoffs Matrix provides four different growth strategies by considering ways to grow via existing products and new products, and in existing markets and new markets.As seen in the diagram above The Market Penetration strategy seeks to achieve growth with existing products in the current market segment, aiming to increase market share. Market Development strategy seeks to achieve growth by targeting existing products to new market segments. The Product Development strategy develops new products targeted to its existing market and the Diversification strategy helps the firm to diversify into new businesses by developing new products in new markets.With increasing number of new retailers entering the market NEXT has achieved a great level of success in maintaining their market share and has also grown their business in new products such as directory a nd online shopping (Verdict, 2009). NEXT has always been an innovative retailer, as it was the first retailer to introduce internet shopping in 1999 (nextplc, 2009). Since then it has introduced many new products and Next Directory has been a great success. 7. RECOMMENDATIONOn the above data analysis it is proven that NEXT has been one of the successful retailers in UK. It has grown immensely in the last decade both in regionally and internationally. Being the first clothing retailer to introduced online shopping it has improved

Birth of a Nation Essay -- essays research papers

On March 3, 1915 the movie The Birth of a Nation was released at the Liberty Theatre in New York City. This film was financed, filmed, and released by the Epoch Producing Corporation of D.W. Griffith and Harry T. Aitken. It was one of the first films to ever use deep-focus shots, night photography, and to be explicitly controversial with the derogative view of cuttings. Throughout the movie, the film justified the need of the KKK in order to keep social harmony among society after the Civil War. In the beginning, the Cameron family was visualized as loving family and the slaves were depicted as sensible and content beings during the slave period. The chaos and madness started after the civil war during the Reconstruction period. Blacks were then pictured as animalistic savages that were oppressing the rights of the white people in the community and threatened their livelihood. So, African Americans could only be placed into two categories in this movie. They were either the close servant or the renegade whose objective was to intimidate and terrorize white people. The black slaves are shown as noble beings that defended their masters against other black people. However, the black people in congress are shown as arrogant and ignorant with no manners.This sort of subtly suggest that blacks proper role is to tend to the pop and that they lack the sense and morals to be given them the same equality as a white person. If blacks were on the same le...

Pikionis Architect (Spanish) :: Spanish Language Essays

1- BIOGRAFIA1887Nace en El Pireo. Hijo de Petros Pikionis y Maria Syriotis.1908 Se grada en la Universidad Tecnica Nacional, con el ttulo de Ingieniero Civil. En Munich, estudia dibujo a mano alzada y escultura.Cezanne lo conduce a Paris.1909/Vive en Pars1912Vuelve a Grecia. Pinta y completa su educacin en Arquitectura.Realiza dibujos de la Arquitectura popular de Aegina.1921Construye su primera casa, intentando implementar as ideas que ha formulado en ese tiempo. Casa F.Moraitis, en tzitzifies, Neo Faliro (posteriormente demolida).1925Construye su segunda casa. Casa Karamanos, en la calle Irakleiou 1 (posteriormente demolida).1929Pasa tres meses en el estudio sobre el terreno de la Arquitectura popular en Chios, con el proposito de producir un ensayo en francs sobre la Arquitectura urbana de la isla.1932Obra Escuela Primaria de Pefkakia, el Licabetto.1935Despus de este momento, ocurre un cambio en sus conceptos estticos piensa en las maneras de combinar un espritu universal con uno nacional.Todos sus proyectos arquitectnicos estarn basados en este concepto.ObrasEscuela Experimental de Tesalnica. Bloque de Apartamentos en la calle Heyden.1935/Publica el peridico El tercer ojo, con Hatzikyriakaos-Ghikas.1941Nacimiento de su quinta hija, Agni, la menor.1943Es elegido como Profesor token(a) de la Universidad Tcnica nacional.1949Participa, junto a estudiantes de la Universidad, en un viaje educativo por Egipto.ObrasCasa y Estudio space-reflection symmetry la escultora F.Efthymiadou (calle Grypari 10, Patisia).1950/Participa, junto a estudiantes de la Universidad, en un viaje educativo por Constantinopla, Paris, Italia y Alemania.1957Aixioni dibujos para un modelo de asentamiento griego de casas.Obras Hotel Xenia Delfos.Residencia C. Potamianos, Filothei.Tratamiento del paisaje de rea arqueologica alrededor de la Acrpolis y de las colinas de Philopappus. Pabelln del Turista, en San Demetrius Loumbardiaris.1958Se retira, desps de haber eseado durante treint a y cinco aos en la Universidad Tcnica Nacional.1961Es elegido, por unanimidad, miembro de la Academia de Bella Artes de Munich. ObrasCasa A. Garis, Psychiko.Supervisin de planos y de la Construccin del Jardin de Juegos para nios, Filothei.1966 Pasa ocho meses en Estados Unidos, debido al estado de salud de su esposa.Reside en Boston y visita Nueva York.1968Muere en Atenas, 28 de Agosto.2- TEORIA Y PENSAMIENTOLa arquitectura de Pikionis esta determinada por el lugar y la historia. Pikionis entiende la arquitectura como la modificacin de la naturaleza que el hombre produce al asentarse en esta, no pretende naturalizar las formas de la arquitectura sino una vinculacin entre la arquitectura, pasado y paisaje.-PASADO E HISTORIA frente a la ideologa del movimiento moderno dominante de su poca, Pikionis fue un arquitecto innovador que fue capaz de relacionar historia y tradicin y ponerlas en valor en su poca.