The Impact of Declining Nokia Market

PRESTIGE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH SESSION 2012-2014 Minor Research Project Synopsis â€Å"THE IMPACT OF DECLINING NOKIA MARKET † CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1. 1 Literature Review 1. 2 Objective Of The Study 2. Research Methodology 2. 1 The Study 2. 2 Sample 2. 3 Tools For Data Collection 2. 4 Tools For Data Analysis 2. References 3. Questionnaire Introduction Nokia has come a long way to evolve from a paper mill founded in 1865 to a world renowned mobile phone manufacturer and one of the most powerful brands in the world. In 1992 Nokia appointed Jorma Ollila as the new CEO and concentrated its focus on telecommunications.Throughout the 1990’s Nokia was known as a relentless innovator and a pioneer that made the world’s first satellite call among many other groundbreaking milestones. In 1998 Nokia became the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer with a turnover of 31 billion dollars. Nokia is still the most influential company to the Finnish n ational economy, but Nokia’s effect is far from what it was in the early years of the 21st century when Nokia accounted for almost half of the economic growth in Finland and produced as much as five percent of Finland’s annual Gross Domestic Product.In 2006, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo replaced Jorma Ollila as the CEO, but was not able to reverse the decline of Nokia’s market share especially in the high end segment, where competitors like Apple, Blackberry,HTC, Samsung, and phones using Google’s Android operating system captured market share from Nokia at an alarmingly increasing rate. At the end of year 2010 Android was already the most widespread smart phone operating system in the world and Nokia’s market share in the smart phone segment had declined from 38 to 31 percent in one year (Sokala).Literature Review The purpose of this literature review is to discuss relevant writings on how to improve marketing strategies from the branding perspective. Fir st, important terms such as brand equity and the concept of consumer-based brand equity are discussed. Secondly, the brand management process is discussed from a strategic viewpoint with the help of terms like brand revitalization and integrated marketing activity. The next part of the literature review concentrates on analyzing the marketing environment.Finally, the last section summarizes important conclusions on how the literature review relates to the company being observed, Nokia During 2012, the telecom infrastructure market saw slight growth in capital expenditures in Euro terms by global mobile operators, mainly attributable to operators in Japan, Asia Pacific and North America but it was off-set by declines in Europe, China and India, it added. Objective Of The Study The thesis has three distinct research objectives. First of all I will try to find out what is the aspired brand identity and brand image Nokia is trying to convey with its smart phone marketing.To achieve this I will conduct interviews with people who are responsible for Nokia’s brand management and marketing. The second research objective of my thesis is to find out what is the consumers’ brand perception of Nokia at the moment. To answer this question I will conduct a comprehensive smart phone brand perception survey to collect data from Finland and the United States. The last research objective of the thesis is improving Nokia’s current marketing strategies for its smart phones from a branding perspective in the countries subject to research.By comparing the results of the customer surveys with the company interviews, I can detect where the aspired brand identity of Nokia does not meet the brand perceptions of the consumers. By utilizing the existing knowledge and literature on the topic, I should be able to come up with ways to improve Nokia’s smart phone marketing in the two distinct geographical regions. Research Methodology The Study This Bachelorâ€⠄¢s Thesis is a case study with a conceptual research design since it consists of a defined research problem, clear research objectives, and exact research questions that lead to conclusions on a real-life phenomenon.The thesis includes empirical as well as descriptive elements. There are several contexts to the research, because the aim is to improve Nokia’s existing marketing strategies in different regions based on potentially differing brand perceptions prevalent in these areas. Data Collection Methods Interview Qualitative research and analysis methods were used to assess the depth interview (Appendix 1) conducted on the fourth of February, 2011, with Mr. Pekka Somerto, the Vice President of Nokia’s Brand and Marketing Portfolio Management. The interview was conducted at Nokia’s headquarters in Keilaniemi and it lasted for approximately an hour.The interview consisted of thirteen questions and the purpose was to find out about the brand identity Nokia tries to create with their marketing. The questions asked were chosen based on the literature discussed in the literature review, and with the overall goal of improving Nokia’s marketing strategies for smart phones from the branding perspective. The results of the interview not only helped in reaching the research objective, but they also provided useful ideas and additional questions for the consumer survey. Survey To find out consumers’ brand perceptions of Nokia, quantitative research and analysis methods were utilized.An online consumer survey (Appendix 2) was created with the Qualtrics-software and distributed to approximately 400 people in Finland and the United States through e-mail and social media networks. Data Analysis The data analysis of the survey results started with a general analysis of the averages and apparent trends. It was followed by the identification of significant regional differences between the responses with the help of cross tabulations. QUESTIO NNAIRE Smart Phone Brand Perception Survey REFERENCES Arnould, Eric, Linda Price, and George Zinkhan. Consumers. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin,2004.Print. Barrett, Larry. â€Å"Palm, Nokia Smartphone Users Most Likely to Switch: Survey. † Enterprise Mobile Today. Internet. com, 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. . Best Global Brands Ranking for 2010. Interbrand, n. d. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. . Business Source Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . Christodoulides, George, and Leslie De Chernatony. â€Å"Consumer-based brand equity conceptualization and measurement. † International Journal of Market Research 52. 1 (2010): 43-66. EBSCO Business Source Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. . Drobis, David R. â€Å"Integrated Marketing Communications Redefined. † Journal of Integrated The Impact of Declining Nokia Market PRESTIGE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH SESSION 2012-2014 Minor Research Project Synopsis â€Å"THE IMPACT OF DECLINING NOKIA MARKET † CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1. 1 Literature Review 1. 2 Objective Of The Study 2. Research Methodology 2. 1 The Study 2. 2 Sample 2. 3 Tools For Data Collection 2. 4 Tools For Data Analysis 2. References 3. Questionnaire Introduction Nokia has come a long way to evolve from a paper mill founded in 1865 to a world renowned mobile phone manufacturer and one of the most powerful brands in the world. In 1992 Nokia appointed Jorma Ollila as the new CEO and concentrated its focus on telecommunications.Throughout the 1990’s Nokia was known as a relentless innovator and a pioneer that made the world’s first satellite call among many other groundbreaking milestones. In 1998 Nokia became the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer with a turnover of 31 billion dollars. Nokia is still the most influential company to the Finnish n ational economy, but Nokia’s effect is far from what it was in the early years of the 21st century when Nokia accounted for almost half of the economic growth in Finland and produced as much as five percent of Finland’s annual Gross Domestic Product.In 2006, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo replaced Jorma Ollila as the CEO, but was not able to reverse the decline of Nokia’s market share especially in the high end segment, where competitors like Apple, Blackberry,HTC, Samsung, and phones using Google’s Android operating system captured market share from Nokia at an alarmingly increasing rate. At the end of year 2010 Android was already the most widespread smart phone operating system in the world and Nokia’s market share in the smart phone segment had declined from 38 to 31 percent in one year (Sokala).Literature Review The purpose of this literature review is to discuss relevant writings on how to improve marketing strategies from the branding perspective. Fir st, important terms such as brand equity and the concept of consumer-based brand equity are discussed. Secondly, the brand management process is discussed from a strategic viewpoint with the help of terms like brand revitalization and integrated marketing activity. The next part of the literature review concentrates on analyzing the marketing environment.Finally, the last section summarizes important conclusions on how the literature review relates to the company being observed, Nokia During 2012, the telecom infrastructure market saw slight growth in capital expenditures in Euro terms by global mobile operators, mainly attributable to operators in Japan, Asia Pacific and North America but it was off-set by declines in Europe, China and India, it added. Objective Of The Study The thesis has three distinct research objectives. First of all I will try to find out what is the aspired brand identity and brand image Nokia is trying to convey with its smart phone marketing.To achieve this I will conduct interviews with people who are responsible for Nokia’s brand management and marketing. The second research objective of my thesis is to find out what is the consumers’ brand perception of Nokia at the moment. To answer this question I will conduct a comprehensive smart phone brand perception survey to collect data from Finland and the United States. The last research objective of the thesis is improving Nokia’s current marketing strategies for its smart phones from a branding perspective in the countries subject to research.By comparing the results of the customer surveys with the company interviews, I can detect where the aspired brand identity of Nokia does not meet the brand perceptions of the consumers. By utilizing the existing knowledge and literature on the topic, I should be able to come up with ways to improve Nokia’s smart phone marketing in the two distinct geographical regions. Research Methodology The Study This Bachelorâ€⠄¢s Thesis is a case study with a conceptual research design since it consists of a defined research problem, clear research objectives, and exact research questions that lead to conclusions on a real-life phenomenon.The thesis includes empirical as well as descriptive elements. There are several contexts to the research, because the aim is to improve Nokia’s existing marketing strategies in different regions based on potentially differing brand perceptions prevalent in these areas. Data Collection Methods Interview Qualitative research and analysis methods were used to assess the depth interview (Appendix 1) conducted on the fourth of February, 2011, with Mr. Pekka Somerto, the Vice President of Nokia’s Brand and Marketing Portfolio Management. The interview was conducted at Nokia’s headquarters in Keilaniemi and it lasted for approximately an hour.The interview consisted of thirteen questions and the purpose was to find out about the brand identity Nokia tries to create with their marketing. The questions asked were chosen based on the literature discussed in the literature review, and with the overall goal of improving Nokia’s marketing strategies for smart phones from the branding perspective. The results of the interview not only helped in reaching the research objective, but they also provided useful ideas and additional questions for the consumer survey. Survey To find out consumers’ brand perceptions of Nokia, quantitative research and analysis methods were utilized.An online consumer survey (Appendix 2) was created with the Qualtrics-software and distributed to approximately 400 people in Finland and the United States through e-mail and social media networks. Data Analysis The data analysis of the survey results started with a general analysis of the averages and apparent trends. It was followed by the identification of significant regional differences between the responses with the help of cross tabulations. QUESTIO NNAIRE Smart Phone Brand Perception Survey REFERENCES Arnould, Eric, Linda Price, and George Zinkhan. Consumers. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin,2004.Print. Barrett, Larry. â€Å"Palm, Nokia Smartphone Users Most Likely to Switch: Survey. † Enterprise Mobile Today. Internet. com, 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. . Best Global Brands Ranking for 2010. Interbrand, n. d. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. . Business Source Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . Christodoulides, George, and Leslie De Chernatony. â€Å"Consumer-based brand equity conceptualization and measurement. † International Journal of Market Research 52. 1 (2010): 43-66. EBSCO Business Source Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. . Drobis, David R. â€Å"Integrated Marketing Communications Redefined. † Journal of Integrated

Human Nature †Are Humans Naturally Good or Evil? Essay

What is thought of as immoral to one person can be seen as ethical to another, and vice versa. This is due to the difference in the way humans perceive things, which is part of the intricacy of mankind. â€Å"During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man. † (Hobbes) Hobbes states that Humans are naturally evil and need a powerful government to control them. Is it true? Rousseau thinks otherwise. â€Å"In reasoning on the principles he (Thomas Hobbes) lays down, he ought to have said that the state of nature, being that in which the care for our own preservation is the least prejudicial to that of others, was consequently the best calculated to promote peace, and the most suitable for mankind? man in the state of nature is both strong and dependent involves two contrary suppositions. Man is weak when he is dependent, and is his own master before he comes to be strong. † (Rousseau) The issue of good and evil is brought up in â€Å"Lord of the Flies† by William Golding, when innocent boys find themselves on a deserted island attempting to create a society similar to ours. What circumstances occur to them? How do past influences affect them? Are their actions good or evil? The actions of the boys were not a matter of being good or evil, but were actions for survival. A person’s environment does not draw him towards good or evil, nor is he or she born with it inside. Humans have instincts that are not affairs of good and evil, but of survival. By natural instinct, humans will do what is best for them especially for their survival. Animals, much like people, kill when in need. For instance, if they feel they are cornered, they would attack. If they need food, they will kill to eat. In â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, Ralph was being hunted by Jack’s tribe, and in a desperate attempt in his defense, thrusts his spear through a crack at the inspecting savages. Ralph attacked someone of his own kind for his own survival. It can be believed that man is the derivative of others animals, and as such, they have certain instincts that were instilled from birth. The boys later began to simulate the behavior of animals. â€Å"At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. † (Golding 153) William Golding’s description of this scene leads a reader to believe that these boys acquired animal like qualities. Do you know of any human who tears with teeth and claws? The boys mistake Simon for their beast and result in ruthlessly killing him. In their state of mind of savagery and hunting, they saw themselves in danger of this â€Å"beast† and their first instinct was to kill anything in sight that had the possibility of being it. Humans, like animals, have a natural instinct to protect themselves in case of danger, like attacking when cornered. Instincts are inherited, but indistinct characteristics such as good or evil are not. The significance of moral values do not apply to actions in situations for survival. Instincts are not about being moral or immoral, because the issue of being good and evil is undefined. Whether an action or situation is good or bad depends on who it is and how it is being perceived. This makes this issue uncertain due to the way it is viewed from person to person. Since the way it is seen will differ, man cannot be exclusively evil or exclusively good. Consider the following example: A dog constantly jumps on the window of a door in an attempt to get the attention of the family inside. He is doing this in hopes to be let back inside the house. Someone inside the house could view this as being evil, which would be different from the view of an animal lover. They would not consider this evil and would claim that the dog had not caused physical harm and just didn’t know any better. The dog doesn’t believe that it is evil because he is only obeying environmental charge. He’s been inside before and knows that it is much nicer than outside, and wants the attention that is inside. The dog has tried to jump on the door before, and had received the attention of someone who thus let him in. This leads the dog to believe that what he is doing is the â€Å"right† thing to do. After all, he just wants in, right? So the dog is evil because someone inside says he is, but then he is not evil because he doesn’t think he is. The opinions on what is evil and what isn’t disagree with each other because of how it was perceived by each side. In â€Å"Lord of the Flies† there is a situation that deals with Piggy’s glasses, which is the key to fire on the island. The glasses were stolen in the middle of the night that leads to a fight in the dark among the boys. The fact that the glasses were stolen, and they were Piggy’s only aid for sight, can be seen as evil, but what about Jack’s side? Jack acts upon his devoir to light a fire in order to cook the pig he killed with his tribe to fully enjoy their prize. Ralph and Samneric engage in a fight with whosoever they can touch first, without an attempt to reason. Which is evil in this situation? Humans are simply complex animals that respond to complex impulse, and their behaviors are influenced or are a product of everything that they learn starting from the day of their birth to the day of their death. Society sets a mold for the â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† conditions that humans are learning from day to day. The role of society in being good or evil is that it acts as this guideline for that long lived dream of acceptance. It’s where what’s good gets you in, and what’s evil is what will make you repulsive. The ideas of power and the abuse of that power are not learned from the environment. The environment is used as a resource to abuse that power. Jack manipulates the boys into joining his tribe and sets up his territory on the island. He threatens people to join his tribe, and hunts those that refuse to. Jack’s tactics are an example of how he abuses power by using the environment and how he sets the society guidelines of acceptance. A society could not exist where people are brought up to know what they define as right or wrong, and could stick to that without problem. â€Å"We decide things. But they don’t get done. † (Golding 79) On the island, the civilized rules of having drinking water, shelters, and having a spot for a lavatory are not followed. The boys were brought up having rules like these, but they did not stick to them due to the problem that they didn’t have a strong enough authority figure to instill them. Society acts as this necessary component to life, and if it’s not there then it needs to be made. The creation of society begins with people who have the power to set the rules of acceptance, and they are the ones who establish what is good and what is evil. Society may manipulate others into believing what is good and evil, but those that manipulate society create that belief. In conclusion, Hobbes and Rousseau are both, in a sense, right and wrong. Hobbes said that human nature is evil and need to be controlled while Rousseau said human nature is good and need to govern themselves. It’s not that humans are innately good or evil, it’s their natural instinct that drives them to do immoral or ethical deeds based upon what society leads them to believe. People cannot exclusively be good or evil because the state of good and evil is undefined. People are born with an instinct that drives them to do what is necessary in extreme measures. This instinct overtakes any other preceding thought and becomes the need for survival. In Lord of the Flies, it wasn’t whether or not the inhabitants were evil or good, it was their human reaction and instinct in the case of survival. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York, NY: Putnam Group, 1954. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Ed. J C A. Gaskin. Oxford, NY: Oxford UP, 1998. Rousseau, Jean Jacques. The Social Contract and the First and Second Discourses. Ed. Susan Dunn. Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou P, 2002.

Business notes: Creative problem solving

Business notes: Creative problem solving 1 Unit 1 – Creative problem solving 1.1 Introduction A business leader is expected to identify problems, implement solutions and find business opportunities. To do so, they must learn to plan, analyse situations, identify and solve problems (or potential problems), make decisions, and set realistic and attainable goals for the business/unit. These are the fundamental thinking/creative requirements for leadership, and these set direction to a successful future. Without this critical competence, you will have to rely on others to do your thinking for you, or you will simply have to learn to nurture your creative thinking skills which will help you on your journey towards successful business. Creative thinking forms part of this continuous problem solving process, and is the fundamental basis for facilitating in the development of solutions, new initiatives, products or services. In an entrepreneurial context, the end result of this process should be directly linked to a feasible opportunity in the market environment. Quote – What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us. – William Morrow The creative problem solving process consists of the following four steps: ‘ Problem analysis ‘ Solution analysis ‘ Decision analysis ‘ Solution implementation 1.2 The process The creative problem solving process consists of an important core process, namely the idea generation process see figure 1. This is an important step, especially if you need to come up with creative ideas for products, services, and processes, to solve a consumer problem. The idea generation process consists of the following four steps: ‘ Step 1 – Generating ideas ‘ Step 2 – Developing ideas into a concept ‘ Step 3 – Converting a concept into a tangible or intangible product ‘ Step 4 – Finally protecting the tangible or intangible product Figure 1 – The process of creative thinking (idea generation) Initially you need to understand the problem and find the root cause of the problem. Many techniques are available to find the causes of problems, you can use the 5 Why technique in this case, if you are familiar with it. The more advanced courses will describe how to use the major problem identification techniques, but this course will focus on the idea generation process. 1.3 Where to start In the entrepreneurial phase, the best way to start the idea generation process is when you are required to come up with a new product or service, to identify a potential consumer problem. Initially, focus on identifying problems in the area of your expertise (your knowledge base). If you have no knowledge of the problem, the product development stage could be a challenge for you. You will learn in the next section that not all problems are opportunities, and entrepreneurs should be careful as to how they approach this stage, when generating ideas in trying to identify a new product or service. 1.4 Problem versus opportunity In most cases, the idea-generation phase in the creative problem solving process is neglected. Individuals normally identify a problem or an opportunity (which may seem like an opportunity, but is actually just an idea), and then develop a new product in line with the new assumed idea or opportunity. It is therefore important to distinguish between an idea and an opportunity. Resources may be wasted if a mere idea is incorrectly perceived as an opportunity. Any opportunity is initially problem based (e.g. a coffee shop in a destination where there is a lack thereof, this creates several problem situations and potentially feasible opportunities for the entrepreneur). The creative thinking (idea generation process) involved, is the means to solving these problems, and bring forth solutions to the market problems, which create further opportunities. 1.4.1 Difference between problem and opportunity There is, however, a critical difference between a problem and opportunity. Consider the following: ‘ Is it an idea or an opportunity to develop a high speed train between two major cities which are not far from each other? Some may say it is a great idea, but when you need to pay R200 a day to make use of it, it is simply not an opportunity. Only a few people would make use of the service, resulting in a negative impact on the market. ‘ If it is possible to transport people between the two cities for a lower cost, say R10, it would possibly be a more feasible opportunity. Here is a good example of an opportunity – Around the turn of the twentieth century, a shoe manufacturer sent a representative to Africa, to open up a market in the undeveloped area in that continent. After exploring the culture for a month, the rep sent a telegram to the home office shouting, ‘Disaster! Disaster! These people do not wear shoes. Bring me home immediately!’ A short time later, another shoe company sent their agent to Africa for the same purpose. A month later his home office also received a telegram: ‘Opportunity! Opportunity! These people do not wear shoes! Triple production immediately!’ Quote – Every situation contains the potential for disastrous problems or unprecedented success. The event is what we perceive it to be. Unknown Now the question arises: How do I distinguish between an idea and an opportunity? Looking at above examples, every problem is not an opportunity, and it really depends at how you are looking at the problem. If you see a viable opportunity in a problem then you are looking at the problem with a different perception than most people (the glass is half full or half empty). From a business perspective all opportunities are not necessarily a viable opportunity, the market determines the available opportunities. Without the knowledge to interpret the market conditions, you could miss it totally in terms of your opportunity analysis. Table 1 shows the different industries in South Africa, the level of entrepreneurial activity, and how the same opportunity differs in each of these market areas. 1.4.2 The global entrepreneurship monitor The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ‘ specifically identified the entrepreneurial activity in the various industries of South Africa. It can be generalized to state that an industry with a high level of entrepreneurial activity, gives away more business opportunities (e.g. manufacturing, retail, hotel, restaurant and business services), while one with a lower level will indicate far less opportunities (e.g. agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing, finance, insurance, real estate and health, education and social services). If we analyse just one ‘high-opportunity’ industry, for instance manufacturing, it may be an opportunity today to manufacture a final product, and export it to an international market. A ‘low-opportunity’ industry, for instance insurance (especially in the market entry phase), may be negative as having an extremely high crime rate and insurance companies have to pay out claims at an alarming rate. It is also evident that low-opportunity industries may create feasible opportunities. An entrepreneur should therefore be wary of following a fad, (latest trend) and exploiting assumed opportunities in a ‘popular’ industry. Percentage of Entrepreneurs ISIC Category Start-ups New Firms Total Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing 1,3 2,6 1,6 Mining, construction 9,7 5,0 4,1 Manufacturing 14,3 19,1 13,8 Transport, communications, utilities 9,8 0,7 8,0 Wholesale, motor vehicle sales, repairs 6,0 6,5 6,3 Retail, hotel, restaurant 40,8 47,7 43,5 Finance, insurance, real estate 0,3 5,2 1,4 Business services 10,1 7,9 9,4 Health, education, social services 2,6 0,7 2,3 Consumer services 11,0 3,5 9,7 Source: Driver. Wood, Segal Herrington, 2001 Table 1 – The percentage of entrepreneurs in the different industries in South-Africa 1.4.3 What is an opportunity? What exactly is an opportunity and how does an entrepreneur exploit a feasible opportunity? According to Hesrich Peters (2002), an opportunity is the process whereby the entrepreneur assesses whether a certain product, service or process, will yield the necessary earnings based on the resource inputs that are required to manufacture and market it. ‘ The nature of opportunities needs to be assessed – thus, what leads to the existence of an opportunity? The following factors may result in an opportunity: ‘ General and specific problems faced by consumers ‘ Market shifts ‘ Government regulations ‘ Competition There are two equally important criteria in the assessment of an opportunity. Firstly, the size of the market – will the number of customers reward the input and energy required, to create and deliver the product? Secondly, the length in terms of the frame of the opportunity (window of opportunity). For example, is the demand for this product only a short fashionable phenomenon or is it based on sustainable business, or how long will it take before someone else (a competitor), to grab the opportunity? These two aspects should also link directly to the personal skills and competence of the entrepreneur. For example, entrepreneurs with no skills or interest in information technology will not necessarily achieve their personal goals. They should rather venture into an opportunity which suits their experience and personality. 1.4.4 Transform opportunity into a business Table 2 shows how the development of a business plan links to the identification and evaluation of opportunities, the determination of the resources required and the eventual management of the enterprise. All of these factors play a significant role in the correct assessment of the business opportunity. This means that the business plan must explain in sufficient detail how the business will exploit the situation, to transform the opportunity, into solving a problem for the consumer, which generates extraordinary profits for the people involved. ‘ Identify and evaluate the opportunity Develop the business plan Determine the resources needed Manage the enterprise Creation and length of opportunity Real and perceived value of opportunity Risk and returns of opportunity Opportunity versus skills and goals Competitive situation Title page Table of contents Executive summary Description of business Description of industry Marketing plan Financial plan Production plan Organisational plan Operational plan Summary Appendices Existing resources of the entrepreneur Resource gap and available supplies Access to needed resources Management style Key variables for success Identification of problems and potential problems Implementation of control systems Source: Hisrich, R.D. Peters, M.P. 2002: 40. Entrepreneurship. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Table 2 – Link between Opportunity and business plan 1.5 Instruction Exit and resume to your current page.

Contemporary Media's Representation of Philosophies, Ideologies, and PowerPoint Presentation

Contemporary Media's Representation of Philosophies, Ideologies, and Theories - PowerPoint Presentation Example With the help of Jim Gordon, Batman and the District Attorney Harvey Dent set out to eliminate the criminal infrastructure that is operating out of the streets. Despite a strong partnership between the two, they find themselves fighting against a reign of chaos that has been unleashed by a rising mastermind in the criminal world, who is known amongst the terrorized people as ‘The Joker’. From the very beginning, the joker succeeds in showing to the world, a horrifying version of evil where all morality is shredded to dust and replaced with lawlessness and hatred. Others associated with the criminals have long been gone, but the name of the Joker remains in the minds of the people especially due to the ambiguity and glamour with which his evil comes with. One could not rely on virtually anything he said and he relishes at the ease with which he gets people including Dent to break rules. He enjoys destroying the people and civic society simply for the sake of witnessing evil. What is good and truth? Why do good guys need to play by the rules when others don’t? these are some of the questions that beg for an answer from this movie, which set it apart as something that has a deeper impact on the viewer than regular action movies. If one were to ask about the ideal way to select and watch a movie, then the Dark Knight would come to be the first option. Many a times, we question the fact that yes, a movie can be quite entertaining, but what message did it help convey to us? The Dark knight has pulled off the trick by attempting to answer major issues connected to morality and has at the same time made every effort to entertain the viewer. The movie has tried to provide answers to three varying answers to our concerns over what is good and the way people should live in a society. The first way of living is according to the path chosen by the Joker i.e., a world sans rules, where all that matters is power and where society is

Faux Fur for Real Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Faux Fur for Real - Article Example Fashion directors and designers have been increasingly surprised with the ongoing trend of high end sales of faux fur products. Major online sites and retail stores inclusive of the high end designer brands as well as the mass market retailers have been showcasing huge stocks of materials and garments which look like cheetah, beaver or mink. However, the surprising points which the article depicts are that the materials coming from Japan and Europe are extremely high in terms of quality and sustainability. Moreover they offer greater variety in terms of designs and textures and at the same time come at a lower price than real fur. In other words, the article speaks about the emerging trend towards consumption of faux fur over real fur over the years both by the general public as well as the celebrities. Objective of article The objective of the article is to put forth the various attributes of faux fur which has made it immensely popular among consumers. Some of the products which ha ve helped to have an edge over real products are that they allow greater flexibility and resistance towards tough conditions and hazards. Additionally, they are also available at much lower prices in comparison to the products which are made of real fur. ... The target market comprises of both the males and females in society belonging the group mentioned in this context. Globalization has knit the entire world into a single unit which has caused considerable intermingling of the western and the eastern cultures of the world. Thus the influence of the western cultures on the Asian nations has been very prominent and inevitable. With the economic development and improvement of nations, the youth have been increasingly attracted towards stylish products, commodities and accessories. The general consumption of fashionable dresses and products has seen a rise over the years. Thus it is imperative that the use of fur products and accessories would be high in most nations. However, greater demand of the product would be felt from nations having cooler temperatures. Thus the target markets would comprise of the youth belonging to those nations having cold and mild temperatures rather than the tropical countries. Considering both the fashion tre nds as well as the environmental conditions faux fur would be increasingly demanded more in the western countries which demands greater protection on cold temperatures and also showcases the latest fashion trends in the world. Designers and manufacturers must be updated about the latest consumer trends in the sector which the article does successfully. The article provides a very clear depiction about the changing consumption trends of fur products and the emerging changes taking place over the years. The retailers, manufacturers and designers would be benefitted greatly from the trend which the article seeks to put forth. Marketing Concepts The article depicts a marketing strategy

Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Business - Assignment Example According to the study conducted by FAI Consulting Services (2009), â€Å"the company has employed cross-functional teams around the world to plan, design, and manage facilities†. This multinational company is equipped with a highly professional staff that is capable of sharing the needed detailed information across borders and transcends time elements. The other strengths of DHL are as follows: (1) a global network which spans 220 countries; (2) owns 60,000 vehicles and 250 aircrafts for transport services; (3) highly professional management and staff composed of 160,000 employees worldwide; and (4) uniquely positioned to offer a one stop shop transport service and logistics needs. Their success stems from offering high quality products and retaining the most professional league of personnel who are all committed to making DHL the one brand in the global express and logistics market. Go to http://www.fita.org which is the Federation of International Trade Associations. Click on "Really Useful Links for International Trade." Follow five of those links and explain how they would help an American manufacturer that wanted to "go global.† The link contains 30 sublinks which explain in detain various categories which assist an American manufacturer wanting to â€Å"go global†. One link, the business directories and trade information contain data on country-specific and industry specific directories, among others. American manufacturers targeting different markets can initially identify global companies they can do business with. Cultural issues is another link which is critical for globalization. The link provide tips, cultural awareness and training, on-line cross cultural communication training, guide to international business culture, customs, and etiquette, among others. The element of culture is relevant for any organization planning to go global because the culture of the country it plans to do business with should be considered to ensure an

Proposal & Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Proposal & Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example major aspect consisting of the effects of the potentially more economical and eco-friendly cars, including hybrid supercars, hybrid everyday cars, and electrical cars. Week 8: Find and visit any local manufacturers of new generation cars where I will ask questions about the relevant details regarding the environmental friendliness of the cars. Annotate the bibliography. This book is very essential for my research on the new generation of cars purposefully because it is the seventh report that the National Research Council has carried with the aim of creating more partnerships for the new generation of cars. Prospects indicate that the book composes of concrete data based on the progress of automobile programs and gives the reader more than just insights into the subject. As such, it will facilitate my research given that it has corporative research findings and developmental programs from the largest manufacturers of cars such as Ford Motor Company and General Motors. This review offers greater knowledge into the concepts behind the ongoing hybridization of the automobile world. In its preview, the book considers the essence of providing readers and researchers a base for advent knowledge on where these manufacturers of hybrid cars get their financial support. Additionally, the book offers an interdisciplinary nature of hybrid electric cars, which fall under the category of the new generation cars. With a wide range of findings and observations made and documented by very competent researchers from the National Research Council, this book offers a structural composition of the measures the users of the new generation of cars have to consider when using them. With that respect, this book is essential for this research, as it will provide a basis for understanding the level of eco-friendliness offered by these new generations of cars. Perhaps unwittingly, the tagline of this book makes it understandable that the new generation of cars requires to be not only

The market position of Nivea for men in UK Essay

The market position of Nivea for men in UK - Essay Example (Euromonitor, 2010) Bargaining power of suppliers (Low): Nivea has a high bargaining power with respect to its suppliers because of its diverse portfolio and generating economies of scale (Beiersdorf AG , 2010). Bargaining power of buyers (High): Customers of men grooming products have high bargaining powers due to low switching costs, price sensitivity to grooming products etc (Kay, 2006). Threat of Substitutes (Medium): Nivea for men has a high threat of substitutes from general grooming products, natural products such as olive oil etc. (Heijden, 2005) SWOT Analysis for Nivea For Men In order to fully understand the competitive advantages and vulnerabilities of Nivea, (Beiersdorf AG, 2011)we conduct the following SWOT analysis for Nivea for men: The Boston Group Matrix The overall market growth of the men’s grooming market is 3% (2009-2014 CAGR) (Euromonitor, 2010) and the relative market share of Beiersdorf (Nivea for Men) is low. Market share of Beiersdorf AG is 5.3% (2011 ) as compared to 32% of P&G (Euromonitor, 2010). With a low market growth and low market share, Nivea for Men falls into the Dogs enterprise position, which indicates that Business is a cash trap (BRS Inc). The best thing that Nivea for Men can do is to focus on short term, avoid risky investments and look into niche segments. Where do we want to be? (Strategy Formulation) This stage of marketing strategies planning describes the objectives and aims of Nivea’s marketing plans, the strategy formulation for its brands’ growth and identification of â€Å"the business we’re in†. Before defining the objectives of Nivea’s marketing strategies, we must recollect the competitive advantages that Nivea for men... This research describes the Situation analysis or Market Audit for Nivea in the men’s grooming market in UK considering both External and Internal perspectives. Nivea currently holds the #2 spot in men’s grooming category for the UK market. The ‘Nivea-for-men’ case-study details the challenges that Nivea for men is having in the men’s grooming market in UK. Upon extensive analysis of the market and competition, it is evident that Nivea-for-men even though is a leading and important brand for both Beiersdorf and overall market, it’s sales still lag behind the flagships products of P&G and Unilever. The growth opportunity that is seen for Nivea for Men is the growing skin care segment with a CAGR (2004-2011) of 17.8%. Owing to the iconic branding of Nivea in skin-care products, Beiersdorf possess a competitive advantage in penetrating and increasing the skin-care market for men. In order to do so, they should segment their consumers on attribute s of age and shopping behavior. Target segments identified for Nivea for men are Adult adopters, midlife adopters, senior adopters, and midlife experimenters. The various attack strategies that Nivea for men can use are products bunding, progressive promotions and pricing. The various defence strategies that should be implemented by Beiersdorf are flanking defense and position defence. With proper risk management in place with respect to the implementation and control of marketing plan, it is bound that market share of Nivea for men will increase in the UK market.

Fundamentals of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Fundamentals of Finance - Essay Example Photos: Interior view of one of the master bedrooms showing a spacious area within the room. The outside view of the property showing a cultivated front yard suited with garbage cans and showing spacious distance from one property block to the next. The arrangement of the apartments allows a personal parking lot to the front and a walk through pavement connecting from the main residential interstate roads. Weblink: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41518172.html# Purchasing Price: ?59,500 The annual cash flows expected from the investment target is ?850 per calendar month as the area has competitive rental market given that area is spacious and secluded from industrial zones, hence fore, investors in this area are driven by the market valuation of the properties as well as the location which raises the expected valuation of the property to be higher than the market price. The market price of the same property along the Greater Manchester area is set at ?650 with regards to the proximity of properties and roads, shopping malls, security of the area, and demand and supply of rental properties along the same area. However the expected rental amount from this particular property is ?850 as the property is new, all its features are functional and the seclusion from the industrial areas makes the property higher valued than its market competition counterparts. Therefore, for Mr. Priddin to invest in this property, his annual cash flows are calculated as Annual Cash Flows Expected Investment Target: ?850 Per Calendar Month (PCM) = (?850 x 12) = ?10,200 The rationale of providing rental service for ?850 per month is because; after investigating the rental prices for 2 bedroom flats and apartments around the Little Lever Bolton within the Greater Manchester area, it is found out those property rentals per calendar month range from ?150-700 with regards to conditions and luxury facilities. With regards to the presence of communal gardens and the easy access to ground floor apartments, the prices for these properties are kept higher than the market price at either the threshold of ?700 PCM or above at ?1000. With Mr. Priddin expecting a 6% return on investment, the future value of the property is calculated as Perpetuity = (Rental Price x Months in a year)/r Therefore, If Mr. Priddin is to purchase this property at ?59,500 his annual returns would be Perpetuity = (850*12 months)/r = 10,200/0.06 = ?170,000 Hence fore, the present value of the future cash flows of ?170,000 is higher than the current selling price of ?59,500 and is therefore a good investment for Mr. Priddin to invest in. A) If as a landlord Mr. Priddin would like to keep this property and rent it forever raising the rent at the rate of 4%, is it advisable for Mr. Priddin to purchase this property? Then Using P = Co*(1+g)/r-g his return on investment would be calculated with regards to the purchase price of the property C0 divided by the difference between the return on in vestment and expected less the rate of rent increase per year. P = C1/r-g P = 59500/6% - 4% P = ?2,975,000 With respect to the present value of the future cash flows of ?2,975,000 the purchase price of the property is lower and therefore the property is still worth buying. The difference between the present value of the property and the future cash f

Art Appreciation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Art Appreciation - Essay Example This will also include regard granted to prominent artists and illustrate their contribution in the field (Beigel 3). Self portrait as part of art work bears a perfectly self-explanatory title by just looking at the structure which depicts its name (Beigel 3). The portrait on discussion and which will be appreciated is an excellent art work with a picture of Piper (Beigel 3). In the portrait, Piper is drawn with the artist revealing her noise being broader, lips fuller than they are in reality (Beigel 3). The portrait of Piper also demonstrates a voluminous luxuriant afro hair similar to the actual hair cover of Piper (Beigel 3). On the same portrait, there is minimal showoff attack on the racial stereotyping (Beigel 5). This is to despite the ironic theme of the drawing. The portrait cannot be treated as just a mere plain work of art but as a tool for searching responses to racism (Beigel 5). In appreciation, the portrait also reveals the sense of emotional works which is directly revealed on the female face. To begin with, the title of the art is self explanatory relating to what the name exactly says. The facial presentation of the drawing shows a direct gazing which seems to be symbolic of how her art confronts society in everyday life (Beigel 5). Piper is the only figure the artwork. The entire portrait only reveals the face, hair up to the shoulders. The portrait posture faces the viewer as the body is grounded at the surface of the portrait (Beigel 8). With her face rough and massive, there is no addition distinct expression on the face of the drawing (Beigel 8). In addition to this, the use of the lines on the drawing is exposed of being heavy, dark and thick. The contours are designed to openly reveal the face to be a woman due to its shape and features added (Beigel 8). Moreover, the texture displayed in the portrait by the artist is totally uneven

Paper Towel Experiement Essay Example for Free

Paper Towel Experiement Essay My wife and I go through an enormous amount of paper products. We discuss often which brand works best for the price. Typically, we buy the brand Bounty for our paper towel selection. There is no particular reason why we buy this brand but it seems to be the one we get home with. After reviewing some other literature in regards to the paper towel experiment, I found some different results. According to Consumer Reports (2009), Brawny was the most absorbent of all of the 21 brands that they tested. They found that Brawny held 2  ½ ounces more per square foot on average than the other brands tested. However another consumer, Chelle from Yahoo’s Contributor Network, found that Bounty was the most absorbent paper towel. She tested Scott, Brawny, and Bounty. (2010) Twelve year old Samantha also performed an experiment on paper towels testing four brands: Bounty, Sparkle, Scott, and Western Family. Her hypothesis was that Bounty would be the most absorbent but after her experiment reported that Sparkle absorbing 50 ml of water on average. (2001) Mrs. McKee’s class from Arizona also did a paper towel experiment. They tested their school’s paper towel, Brawny, Bounty, Viva, Scott, and a generic brand. The results from their experiment showed that on average Viva was found to be the most absorbent. (2012) After looking at other research and preforming my literature review, I decided to test four paper towels: Bounty, Brawny, Viva, and Kroger Brand. I decided that I would use 200 ml of water and place each brand of the folded paper towel in the water five different times. I plan to squeeze the water into a beaker and measure how much water was absorbed. I would then take the average to find out which brand of paper towels was more abso rbent. Problem: What paper towel is the most absorbent and leads to the most cost effective? Materials: 1 Glass container labeled with ml to 750 ml 1 small beaker labeled with ml to 150 ml 1 stop watch 1 baby bottle (I only had one glass container with ml labeled) labeled with ml to 260 ml Paper Towels: Bounty, Brawny, Viva, and Kroger Generic Brand (4 brands X 5 sheets) Water 1 Funnel Pen and Paper Prices on the paper towels were how much I paid per roll, but with further investigation I found that the price per square foot was different. Independent Variables: Brand of Paper Towel, price per square foot Dependent Variable: Amount of Water Absorbed, Vivi sheets were much smaller than the other sheets and two sheets were used and cut to the same size as the other sheets – price is still based on per square foot for each paper towel Constants: Amount of water used in each trial, paper towel size, time exposed to the water, type of fluid (water used) I will make sure to use the timer to submerge the paper towels for the same amount of time. I will use the same measuring instruments for each experiment. Hypothesis: Because Bounty’s roll of paper towel cost the most, Bounty will absorb the most milliliters of water per square foot. I came up with this hypothesis because I wanted to show my wife how we could save money by continuing to buy the name brand paper towel. Data Collection Process: Each paper towel was folded four times to create a small square. Each paper towel was emerged into 200 ml of water and left for 20 seconds. Each paper towel was removed from the water allowing drip time of 5 seconds and then the remainder of the water was squeezed to a beaker. The left over water was poured into a baby bottle for measurement in milliliters. At first I was going to use the amount of water that I could squeeze out of the paper towel, but then I realized that some was still left over in the paper towel. To reduce the threats to internal validity, I then decided to subtract the amount of water left over from 200 ml to get an accurate reading of how much water was actually absorbed. Conclusion: Results from my experiment indicate that per square foot, Viva paper towels are the most absorbent. In addition, since Viva’s price per square foot was 4 cents, it would also be the most cost effective. Viva paper towels absorbed on average 8 more milliliters than Bounty and Brawny and 13.4 milliliters more than the generic Kroger brand. At first glance, Bounty looked like the most expensive paper towel with Viva 2nd. However, when you look at price per square foot, the price of Viva and Bounty are the same. Brawny is actually the most expensive per square foot. With this being said, my experiment refuted my hypothesis that Bounty was the most absorbent because it cost the most. Bounty was not the most cost effective because it did not absorb the most and the price per square foot was the same as Viva. Price per square foot indicated that Brawny was in fact the most expensive and it still was not the most absorbent. It is imperative when doing an experiment that the experiment is done with several trials and that the procedure are completed in the same manner. This adds to the validity and reliability of the experiment. To replicate this experiment, you must have the above materials. Choose at least 4 paper towel brands. Fold each paper towel (five trials per towel) four times. Submerge each paper towel individually into 200 milliliters of water for 20 seconds. Remove the paper towel, allowing it to drip for 5 seconds.  Measure how much water is remaining and subtract that number from 200 to see how much water the paper towel absorbed. Record this and continue the step for each of the remaining paper towels. It is recommended to do at least 5 trials per brand of paper towel. When others perform the same experiment, it validates the results from my experiment. References Chelle. (2010)Which Brand of Paper Towels is the Most Absorbent? Retrieved on October 27, 2012 from http://voices.yahoo.com/which-brand-paper-towels-most-absorbent-5714586.html?

Translation and Technology Essay Example for Free

Translation and Technology Essay Contents List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Definition of Terms Machine translation Human-aided machine translation Machine-aided human translation Human translation The localization industry Conclusion 2 Translation Studies and Translation Technology Translation theory Academic and professional groups in translation Linguistic theories in machine translation systems Translation studies The translation process Conclusion 3 Machine. Translation Systems Major historical developments Architectures Hybrid and interactive  machine translation systems Online machine translation systems Commercial machine translation systems Reasons for using machine translation systems Conclusion vii ix xii xiv xvi 1 6 8 11 13 14 19 20 22 22 26 30 36 43 55 57 58 66 84 85 87 89 91 viii Contents. 4 Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources Workbenches Translation support tools and resources Localization tools Commercial computer-aided translation tools Standards for data interchange Conclusion 5 Evaluating Translation Tools Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Stakeholders Evaluation methods General frameworks for evaluating translation tools Conclusion 6 Recent Developments and Future Directions Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Translation systems with speech technology. Translation systems for minority languages Translation on the web Machine translation systems and the semantic web The localization industry Conclusion 7 Translation Types Revisited Relationships between topics and translation types Machine translation systems Computer-aided translation tools Conclusion Appendices References Index 93 93 106 113 117 119 128 129 129 131 133 135 139 151 152 152 156 157 162 164 166 170 171 172 173 191 193 195 197 204 218 List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Figures 1. 1 1. 2 1. 3 1. 4 1. 5 2. 1 2. 2 2. 3 2. 4 2. 5 2. 6 2. 7 2. 8 2. 9 2. 10 2. 11 2. 12 2. 13 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 3. 4 3. 5 3. 6 3. 7 3. 8 3. 9. Classification of translation types Machine translation model Machine translation system based on usage Human-aided machine translation model Machine-aided human translation model Chronology of translation theories Translation process model Example of sentence representations Holmes’ schema of translation studies. A schema of  applied translation studies A model of the translation process including pre- and post-editing tasks Example of an English SL text and its pre-edited version Unedited and post-edited Spanish machine translation output Example of natural and controlled languages Example of original English text and its AECMA simplified English version Example of natural English, simplified English and simplified Arabic texts Example of an English controlled language text and its translations Illustration of the translation process using a machine translation system. Chronology of machine translation development Example of structural representations Machine translation architectures Direct translation model Interlingua model Interlingua multilingual machine translation system model Transfer model Transfer using tree-to-tree parsing Transfer multilingual machine translation system model ix 7 9 10 12 13 23 29 31 37 42 43 44 46 48 50 51 53 54 58 68 68 70 72 72 74 75 76 x List of Figures, Tables and Boxes 3. 10 3. 11 3. 12 3. 13 4. 1 4. 2 4. 3 4. 4 4. 5 4. 6 4. 7 4. 8 4. 9 4. 10 4. 11 4. 12 4. 13 4. 14 4. 15 4. 16 4. 17 4. 18 4. 19 4. 20 4. 21 4. 22 5. 1 5. 2 5. 3 5. 4 5. 5 6. 1 6. 2. Statistical-based model Probabilities workflow in the statistical-based approach Example-based model Translations by online machine translation systems Example of HTML code in a web page Example of the web page without HTML code Example of a translation workflow using a translation memory system Example of an English source text Pre-translation 1 Database model in translation memory systems Reference model in translation memory systems. Flowchart to illustrate how to build a parallel corpus Example of a text header in a corpus Example of part-of-speech tagging Example of a concordance for the word ‘round’ Types of tool used in a localization project Example of the translation process using a machine translation system, a translation database and a terminology database Example of TMX  data-sharing Example of a header in TMX. Example of a body in TMX Example of a header in TBX Example of a body in TBX Example of XLIFF in the localization process Example of a header in XLIFF Example of a body in XLIFF Example of an alternate translation element in XLIFF Example of a glass-box evaluation Example of a black-box evaluation Example of an evaluation process Standardization projects for evaluating machine translation systems EAGLES general evaluation framework Future-use model of translation technology. Speech technology in translation 78 80 81 87 99 99 102 102 103 103 104 109 110 111 112 114 117 120 121 122 124 125 126 127 127 127 138 139 141 142 145 154 158 Tables 1. 1 3. 1 An example of a table for describing translation types Example of a word entry in KAMI 8 67 List of Figures, Tables and Boxes xi 3. 2 3. 3 3. 4 4. 1 4. 2 4. 3 4. 4 4. 5 4. 6 4. 7 4. 8 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 7. 6 7. 7 7. 8 7. 9 7. 10 7. 11 7. 12 7. 13 7. 14 7. 15 7. 16 7. 17 7. 18 7. 19 7. 20. Imitation in the example-based approach Semantic similarity in the example-based approach Classification of commercial machine translation systems Example of perfect matching Examples of fuzzy matching Higher and lower threshold percentages for fuzzy matching Examples of matching suggestions for ‘bow’ Example of segments Example of translation units Example of English-French translation units from a database. Classification of commercial computer-aided translation tools Degree of automation Human intervention Integrated tools Application of theory Application of theory in machine translation systems Source-language texts Target-language texts Stages of the translation process Types of text Language dependency Types of source language Data interchange standards in translation Translation groups. and data interchange standards Levels of evaluation Methods of evaluation Features in a machine translation system Language coverage in machine translation systems Texts and computer-aided translation tools Language dependency in computer-aided translation tools Number of languages in computer-aided translation tools 82 82 88 95 96 97 98 100 101 102 118 174 175 175 176 177 178 180 181 182 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 193 194 194 195 Boxes 1. 1 5. 1 A translator at work FEMTI evaluation framework 14 147 Series Editors’ Preface Recent years have witnessed momentous changes in the study of Modern Languages, globally as well as nationally. On the one hand, the rapid growth of English as a universal lingua franca has rendered the command of other languages a less compelling commodity. On the other hand, the demand for intercultural mediators including translators and interpreters has grown as a result of many recent social, political and economic developments; these include legislative changes, the emergence of supranational organisations, the ease of travel, telecommunications, commercial pressures raising awareness of local needs, migration and employment mobility, and a heightened awareness of linguistic and human rights. Today, linguistically oriented students wishing to pursue a career in which they are able to further their interest in languages and cultures would be more inclined to choose vocationally relevant courses in which translation and interpreting play an important part rather than traditional Modern Language degrees. Thus the possibilities for professional work in translation and interpreting have been extended, particularly as a result of developments in technology, whether as facilitating the translation process or as a means of dissemination and broadening access to communications in a range of media. The role of translation is, for example, becoming increasingly important in the context of modern media such as television and cinema, whether for documentary or entertainment purposes. And the technological possibilities for providing interpreting services, whether to the police officer on the beat or to the businessperson on a different continent, have extended the previously physically confined nature of mediating the spoken word. Not only do these new vistas open up opportunities for the professional linguist, they also point to expanding areas of research in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Practice and theory are of mutual benefit, especially in the case of a relatively young discipline such as Translation Studies. As a result, the first aim of this series, written primarily for the MA and advanced undergraduate student, is to highlight contemporary issues and concerns in order to provide informed, theoretically based, accounts of developments in translation and interpretation. The second aim is to provide ready access for students interested in the study and pursuit of Modern Languages to xii Series Editors’ Preface xiii vocational issues which are of relevance to the contemporary world of translating and interpreting. The final aim is to offer informed updates to practising professionals on recent developments in the field impacting on their discipline. Linguistic, Culture and Translation Studies University of Surrey Guildford UK GUNILLA ANDERMAN MARGARET ROGERS Acknowledgements I am indebted to three individuals for their contributions. This book would have taken more time to complete if it had not been for Chooi Tsien Yeo who researched background information for me. Words cannot express my gratitude to Stephen Moore, in between translation deadlines, for putting his experiences as a professional translator into writing. I am extremely indebted to Paul Marriott for his comments and suggestions, particularly on helping to visualize a new way to depict the multidimensional classification of translation types in Chapter 7. I would like to acknowledge especially the Duke University Libraries and Institute of Statistics and Decision Science at Duke University in providing me with the environment and research facilities where most of this book was written. Also my thanks to the National University of Singapore Libraries, George Edward Library at the University of Surrey, and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo for their help. I would also like to acknowledge the following authors, publishers and organizations for allowing the use of copyright material in this book: John Hutchins, Harold Somers and Elsevier (Academic Press Ltd) for the classification of translation types in Chapter 1; Eugene Nida and the Linguistic Society of America for the translation process in Chapter 2; John Smart and Smart Communications, Inc. for the controlled and simplified English samples in Chapter 2; Francis Bond and Takefumi Yamazaki for the KAMI Malay–English dictionary entry in Chapter 3; Paolo Dongilli and Johann Gamper for the building of a parallel corpus in Chapter 4; Tony Jewtushenko and Peter Reynolds of OASIS for XLIFF in Chapter 4; Enrique de Argaez at Internet World Stats for the statistical figure on the Internet population in Chapter 6; Michael Carl, Reinhard Schaler, Andy Way, Springer Science and Business Media, and Kluwer Academic Publishers for the model of the future use of translation technology in Chapter 6. To Antonio Ribeiro, Tessadit Lagab, Margaret Rogers and Chooi Tsien Yeo, my most sincere thanks for translating from English into Portuguese, French, German and Chinese respectively. I am solely responsible for any translation errors that occurred. A special thank you goes to Elsie Lee, Shaun Yeo, Angeliki Petrits, Mirko Plitt and Ken Seng Tan for answering some of my queries. xiv Acknowledgements xv  To Caroline, Elizabeth, Gillian and Lyndsay, thank you for helping out with keying in corrections on the earlier drafts. Lastly, to my ‘sifu’ and friend Peter Newmark, a big thank-you for all the translation discussions we had during our coffee–biscuit sessions years ago. If it had not been for the series editors, Gunilla Anderman and Margaret Rogers, this book would not have been written. I am forever grateful to both of them for their feedback and comments. Thanks to Jill Lake of Palgrave Macmillan for her patience and understanding due to my ‘country-hopping’ from Southeast Asia to North America during the writing of this book. Waterloo, Canada CHIEW KIN QUAH List of Abbreviations. ACRoTERMITE AECMA AIA ALPAC ALPS ALT-J/C ALT-J/E ALT-J/M AMTA ASCC ASD ATA BASIC BLEU BSO CAT CAT2 CESTA CFE CIA CICC CRATER CTE CULT DARPA DBMT DIPLOMAT DLT DTS EAGLES EARS EDIG Terminology of Telecommunications European Association of Aerospace Industries Aerospace Industries Association of America Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee Automatic Language Processing System Automatic Language Translator Japanese to Chinese Automatic Language. Translator Japanese to English Automatic Language Translator Japanese to Malay Association of Machine Translation in the Americas Automatic Spelling Checker Checker AeroSpace and Defence American Translators Association British American Scientific International, Commercial Bilingual Evaluation Understudy Buro voor Systeemontwikkeling Computer-Aided Translation Constructors, Atoms and Translators Campagne d’Evaluation de Systemes de Traduction Automatique Caterpillar Fundamental English Central Intelligence Agency Center of International Cooperation for Computerization Corpus Resources and Terminology Extraction Caterpillar. Technical English Chinese University Language Translator Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Dialogue-based Machine Translation Distributed Intelligent Processing of Language for Operational Machine Aided Translation Distributed Language Translation Descriptive Translation Studies Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards Effective, Affordable Reusable Speech-to-Text European Defence Industries Group xvi List of Abbreviations xvii. ELDA ELRA ENGSPAN ENIAC EURODICAUTUM EUROSPACE EUROTRA EVALDA EWG FAHQT/FAHQMT FEMTI GENETER GETA HAMT HICATS HT HTML IAMT IATE INTERSECT ISI ISLE ISO JEIDA JEITA JICST-E KAMI KANT KGB LDC LISA LMT LTC LTRAC MAHT MANTRA MARTIF Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency European Language Resources Association English Spanish Machine Translation System Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer European. Terminology Database Aerospace  and Defence Industries Association of Europe European Translation Infrastructure d’EVALuation a ELDA Evaluation Working Group Fully Automatic High Quality (Machine) Translation A Framework for the Evaluation of Machine Translation in ISLE Generic Model for Terminology Groupe d’Etude pour la Traduction Automatique Human-Aided/Assisted Machine Translation Hitachi Computer Aided Translation System Human Translation HyperText Markup Language International Association of Machine Translation Inter-Agency Terminology Exchange International Sample of English Contrastive. Texts International Statistical Institute International Standards for Language Engineering International Organization for Standardization Japan Electronic Industry Development Association Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association Japan Information Center of Science and Technology Kamus Melayu-Inggeris (Malay-English Dictionary) Knowledge-based Accurate Translation Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti Linguistic Data Consortium Localisation Industry and Standards Association Logic-based Machine Translation Language Technology Centre Language Translation Resources Automatic Console Machine-Aided/Assisted Human Translation Machine Assisted Translation Machine Readable Terminology Interchange Format xviii List of Abbreviations. MASTOR MAT METAL METU MLIR MT NAATI NIST OASIS OCP OCR OLIF OS OSCAR PaTrans PAHO PDA PESA RDF RFC SALT SGML SPANAM SUSY SYSTRAN TAP TAUM TBX TEMAA TGT-1 THETOS TMF TMX TOLL TONGUES TS TTS Multilingual Automatic Speech-to-Speech Translator Machine-Aided/Assisted Translation Mechanical Translation and Analysis of Language Middle East Technical University MultiLingual Information Retrieval Machine. Translation National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd. National Institute of Standards and Technology Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards Oxford Concordance Programme Optical Character Recognition Open Lexicon Interchange Format Operating System Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use Patent  Translation Pan-American Health Organization Personal Digital Assistant Portuguese-English Sentence Alignment Resource Description Framework Request for Comments Standards-based Access to Lexicographical Terminological Multilingual Resources Standard Generalised Markup. Language Spanish American Machine Translation System Saarbrucker UbersetzungsSYstem System Translation Think-Aloud Protocols Traduction automatique a l’Universite de Montreal TermBase eXchange Testbed Study of Evaluation Methodologies: Authoring Aids Text-into-Gesture Translator Text into Sign Language Automatic Translator for Polish Terminological Markup Framework Translation Memory eXchange Thai On-Line Library Act II Audio Voice Translation Guide Systems Translation Studies Theoretical Translation Studies List of Abbreviations xix WebDIPLOMAT WebOnt WWW W3C XLIFF XLT XML Web Distributed Intelligent Processing of Language for Operational Machine Aided Translation Web Ontology World Wide Web WWW Consortium XML Localisation Interchange File Format XML Representation of Lexicons and Terminologies Extensible or Extensive Markup Language This page intentionally left blank Introduction For over half a century, the demand for a variety of translations by different groups of end-users has enabled many types of translation tools to be developed. This is reflected in the systems that will be discussed in this book, ranging from machine translation systems, computer-aided translation tools and translation resources. The majority of books and articles on translation technology focusing on the development of these systems and tools have been written from the point of view of researchers and developers. More recent publications written with translators in mind have focused on the use of particular tools. This book is intended as an introduction to translation technology for students of translation. It can also be useful to professional translators and those interested in knowing about translation technology. A different approach is taken in that descriptions of particular tools are not provided, and the development of different machine translation and computer-aided translation tools and their uses are discussed. Programming details and mathematical equations are not considered, except in the discussion of the statistical approach to machine translation where minimal essential formulae are included. Descriptions are given to allow readers to further investigate specific approaches or issues that might interest them, using references cited throughout the book. It is also important to note that no particular approach or design is deemed to be better than any other. Each and every one has their strengths and weaknesses. In many cases, readers will find that examples of systems and tools are given but this does not suggest that they are the best; they are simply examples to illustrate the points made. 1 2 Translation and Technology While researching this book, I discovered that the majority of publications from the literature on translation technology are about the development of machine translation systems, primarily involving experimental systems developed or being developed at a number of universities and large commercial corporations across the globe. The book will show that many of these systems never achieved their commercial potential and remained as experimental tools, while some others served as tools for other natural-language processing applications. By contrast, not much literature seems to be available on computeraided tools such as translation memory systems. As we shall see in this book, most computer-aided translation tools are developed by commercial companies and, as a result, progress reports on these tools are rarely published in the public domain. Furthermore, to cater to different needs and demands, a tool like a translation memory system comes in many versions from the most basic to the most advanced. Insights into the use of these tools can be found in translator magazines and occasionally also posted on the World Wide Web (WWW). The evaluation of translation tools falls into a field that is wellresearched. Again we will see that most of the literature focuses on the evaluation of machine translation systems. Furthermore, the extensive use of translation tools and translation processes involved in the localization industry tend to be discussed separately, giving the impression that they are not related to translation. These two areas are, however, directly relevant to translation technology. Hence they are also included in this book. Essentially, the book contains what is felt should be included in order to provide an overview of translation technology. In order to keep the book at the given length, the topics have been carefully selected with some described in greater detail than others. In some chapters, an abbreviated historical background has been deemed necessary in order to provide a better understanding of the topics discussed, especially in the description of the development of machine translation systems and their evaluation. However, in all cases, references have been provided which readers may choose to pursue at a later time. Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of every chapter (Chapters 1 to 6). The first chapter discusses the definitions of terms referring to the use of computers in translation activities. Some of the terms can be confusing to anyone who is unfamiliar with translation tools. In some cases, the same translation tools are given different names depending on what they are used for; in other cases, a tool may be differently classified depending on the perspective of those who have developed that tool. Introduction 3 The aim in this chapter is therefore to clarify these terminological and related matters. An alternative perspective to the four basic translation types – fully automated high-quality machine translation, human-aided machine translation, machine-aided human translation, and human translation – first proposed by Hutchins and Somers (1992) is introduced to reflect current developments in translation technology. This will be explored in more detail in the final chapter where the four translation types are reviewed in relation to topics described in the book. The second chapter discusses technology within the larger framework of Translation Studies as a discipline, focusing on the relationship between the engineering of translation technology, on the one hand, and Translation Studies including translation theory, on the other hand. The relationship between academic and professional groups involved in translation is also examined. This in turn leads to a discussion of the involvement of a particular approach in linguistic theories – known as ‘formalisms’ in natural-language processing – especially in the design of machine translation systems. A different perspective on the translation process involving pre- and post-editing tasks using a special variety of language called ‘controlled language’ is also presented. This translation process is described using the translation model proposed by Jakobson (1959/2000), a translation model that differs significantly from the one proposed by Nida (1969). The third chapter gives detailed descriptions of different machine translation system designs also known as ‘architectures’. The development of machine translation over several decades, its capabilities and the different types of machine translation systems, past and present, are also included. Both experimental and commercial systems are discussed, although the focus is on the experimental systems. Even though machine translation has been well-documented elsewhere, a discussion is deemed to be important for this book. It is felt that modern-day professional translators should be informed about machine translation systems because there is every reason to believe, as we shall discover in Chapter 6, that future trends in translation technology are moving towards integrated systems where at least one translation tool is combined with another, as is already the case in the integration of machine translation with translation memory. The fourth chapter describes the architectures and uses of several computer-aided translation tools, such as translation memory systems, as well as resources such as parallel corpora. Unlike machine translation systems, which are largely developed by universities, most computeraided translation tools are developed by commercial companies. Thus, 4 Translation and Technology information about such tools is harder to obtain. This chapter will also show that computer-aided translation tools are becoming more advanced and using different operating systems, and so ‘standards for data interchange’ have been created. Three different standards are described. Currently available commercial translation tools are also discussed. In addition, this chapter presents an overview of other commercially available tools such as those used in the localization industry. The fifth chapter touches on the evaluation of translation technology. The discussion focuses on different groups of stakeholders from research sponsors to end-users. Also included in the discussion are the different methods of evaluation: human, machine, and a combination of human and machine as evaluator. The choice of method used depends on who the evaluation is for and its purpose. It also depends on whether an entire tool or only some components are evaluated. Also described in this chapter is the general framework of evaluation offered by various research groups in the USA and Europe. The literature on evaluation concentrates on the evaluation of machine translation systems either during the developmental stage or after the process of development is completed. Less information is available on the evaluation of computeraided translation tools. What is available is found mainly in translation journals, magazines and newsletters. The sixth chapter presents some recent developments and shows the direction in which translation technology is heading, in particular regarding the future of machine translation systems that are now incorporating speech technology features. The integration of speech technology and traditional machine translation systems allows translation not only between texts or between stretches of speech, but also between text and speech. This integration is proving to be useful in many specific situations around the globe especially in international relations and trade. This chapter also looks at research projects in countries that are involved in the development of translation tools for minority languages and discusses the problems encountered in developing machine translation systems for languages that are less well-known and not widely spoken. Another form of technology called the ‘Semantic Web’ that has the potential to improve the performance of certain machine translation systems is also described. Included in this chapter, too, are issues such as linguistic dominance and translation demands on the WWW that are already shaping parts of the translation industry. The book concludes by presenting an expanded version of the four basic classifications of translation types as suggested by Hutchins and Somers (1992) and introduced in Chapter 1. It is concluded that the Introduction 5 one-dimensional linear continuum originally proposed is no longer able to accurately reflect current developments in translation technology. Translation tools today come in different versions and types depending on the purposes for which they are built. Some are multifunctional while others remain monofunctional. An alternative way must therefore be found to depict the complexities and multidimensional relationships between the four translation types and the topics discussed in this book. It is not possible to put every single subject discussed here into one diagram or figure, and so, in order to gain a better understanding of how the issues are related to one another, they are divided into groups. Topics or issues in each group have a common theme that links them together, and are presented in a series of tables. However, it is important to bear in mind that not all topics can be presented neatly and easily even in this way. This clearly shows the complexity and multidimensionality of translation activities in the modern technological world. At the end of the book, several Appendices provide information on the various Internet sites for many different translation tools and translation support tools such as monolingual, bilingual, trilingual and multilingual dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri and encyclopaedia. Only a selected few are listed here, and as a result the lists are not exhaustive. It is also important to note that some Internet sites may not be permanent; at the time of the writing, every effort has been made to ensure that all sites are accessible. 1 Definition of Terms In translation technology, terms commonly used to describe translation tools are as follows: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ machine translation (MT); machine-aided/assisted human translation (MAHT); human-aided/assisted machine translation (HAMT); computer-aided/assisted translation (CAT); machine-aided/assisted translation (MAT); fully automatic high-quality (machine) translation (FAHQT/FAHQMT). Distinctions between some of these terms are not always clear. For example, computer-aided translation (CAT) is often the term used in Translation Studies (TS) and the localization industry (see the second part of this chapter), while the software community which develops this type of tool prefers to call it ‘machine-aided translation’ (MAT). As the more familiar term among professional translators and in the field of Translation Studies, ‘computer-aided translation’ is used throughout the book to represent both computer-aided translation and machine-aided translation tools, and the term ‘aided’ is chosen instead of ‘assisted’, as also in ‘human-aided machine translation’ and ‘machine-aided human translation’. Figure 1. 1 distinguishes four types of translation relating human and machine involvement in a classification along a linear continuum introduced by Hutchins and Somers (1992: 148). This classification, now more than a decade old, will become harder to sustain as more tools become multifunctional, as we shall see in Chapters 3, 4 and 6. Nevertheless, the concept in Figure 1. 1 remains useful as a point of reference for classifying translation in relation to technology. 6 Definition of Terms 7 MT CAT Machine Fully automated high quality (machine) translation (FAHQT/ FAHQMT) Human-aided machine translation (HAMT) Machine-aided human translation (MAHT) Human Human translation (HT) MT = machine translation; CAT = computer-aided translation Figure 1. 1 Source: Classification of translation types Hutchins and Somers (1992): 148. The initial goal of machine translation was to build a fully automatic high-quality machine translation that did not require any human intervention. At a 1952 conference, however, Bar-Hillel reported that building a fully automatic translation system was unrealistic and years later still remained convinced that a fully automatic high-quality machine translation system was essentially unattainable (Bar-Hillel 1960/2003: 45). Instead, what has emerged in its place is machine translation, placed between FAHQT and HAMT on the continuum of Figure 1. 1. The main aim of machine translation is still to generate translation automatically, but it is no longer required that the output quality is high, rather that it is fit-for-purpose (see Chapters 2 and 3). As for human-aided machine translation and machine-aided human translation, the boundary between these two areas is especially unclear.

The Effects Of Poverty On Education Education Essay

The Effects Of Poverty On Education Education Essay In the United States of America, there is great emphasis placed on equal rights for all. Further, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares Education to be a human right (Dhillon, 2011). Yet, in this great country, the poor still do not receive an equal education, an education that could raise kids out of poverty (Dhillon, 2011). Instead, impoverished children are often brought down by a classist system. The role of poverty in the U.S. Poverty is the strongest indicator of a child going to prison (Anders, 2011). Three times the amount of money goes in the prison system than in the schools (Anders, 2011). State governments benefit when people provide for their families with illegal labor rather than turning to welfare, plus the benefit of free labor from prisons (Anders, 2011). Social mobility through education is for the most part a myth; it only holds true in only some communities (Anders, 2011). One would think that the more compassionate and preventative method of providing a quality education would be the more preferable route. Compared to other industrialized countries, the United States of America is quite negligent of its poor. From 1999-2009, the child poverty rate has increased 19.6% (Armstrong, 2009). Every day, 2,500 children are born into poverty in the United States, giving the country one of the highest rates of poverty among industrialized countries (Anders, 2011). The U.S. also allocates fewer resources to social welfare programs, such as public employment services and modest support guaranteed for all children (child allowance, child care, and paid parental leave) than other Western countries, despite the high value placed on being able to work ones way out of poverty (Anders, 2011). Policy makers mistake work with self sufficiency, and feel that work is all that is needed to be able to live off of welfare programs (Anders, 2011). It is impossible to become independent of welfare at minimum wage, which is well below living wage; two full time, minimum wage workers cannot afford the average cost of a one bedroom apartment, and when food, transportation, and health care is added to the needs of the impoverished the debt becomes too much (Anders, 2011). Oftentimes, basic needs such as health care and a good diet are sacrificed by the poor because they cannot get assistance. Poverty and neurobiology. Food is essential to life. A full stomach and a clear mind are essential for learning (Armstrong, 2009). With the increase in child poverty, there has also been an alarming increase in food challenged children (Armstrong, 2009). Malnutrition can lead to vitamin deficiencies, particularly in B vitamins and iron, and in the long term can lead to neurological effects (Armstrong, 2009). Other maladies with possible neurological effects that are more common to low-income children include lead poisoning and asthma (Armstrong, 2009). In general, the brains of impoverished children develop differently (Armstrong, 2009). Many functions of the brain, such as language development and executive functioning (e.g. the ability to plan, remember details, and pay attention) develop much more slowly in low income children compared to their wealthier peers (Armstrong, 2009). By the age of nine or ten, the differences in the brain scans of poor kids, compared to wealthier kids, are almost equivalent to the damage of a stroke (Armstrong, 2009). Poverty effects the childs achievement when he or she is assessed in their first year of school and continues to affect children once they leave poverty; the effects of poverty may be lasting (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Because the background of poverty affects the neurobiology of children, it raises the question of whether anything can be done to help these children. The role of the school. The schools do occasionally try to do something to help impoverished children. Schools sometimes have early, intensive, sustained, intervention programs that also provide good nutrition and health care (Armstrong, 2009). However, with the growth in the child poverty rate, the education system struggles to provide the programs low-income children need to succeed (Armstrong, 2009). These programs are often cut when the economy is down (Armstrong, 2009). Poor schools, such as those in rural areas, have low per-pupil expenditures (Fusarelli Militello, 2012). So, many schools do not have it in their budget to pay for such extensive programs for such a large proportion of their students in the first place. Poor schools also cannot afford good teachers. The students with the most need often have the least experienced teachers (Armstrong, 2009). Schools with high rates of minority students, impoverished students, and English language learners are more likely to hire beginning teachers (Armstrong, 2009). These teachers then move to more affluent schools as they gain experience because the schools dont have the money to retain them (Armstrong, 2009; Fusarelli Militello, 2012). These students are 77% more likely to get out of field teachers (Armstrong, 2009). These schools need to offer incentives such as targeted salary increases, bonuses, housing incentives, tuition assistance, and tax credits (Armstrong, 2009). They also hire non-traditional teaching candidates, such as retired military professionals and high-achieving college students (Armstrong, 2009). Poor schools also have less difficult curricula, higher student to teacher ratios, and receive less funding (Armstrong, 2009). Thus, n ot only are schools lacking in the extra programs that impoverished kids need to catch up with wealthier peers, but they are also hiring less qualified people to teach low-income children, giving children with a low socioeconomic status an unequal education. The role of the parent. If schools cannot make up for the difference in achievement between the poor and the rich, then perhaps the parents can. This assumption is one many policy makers and teachers have (Bower Griffin, 2011). Lack of parental involvement is associated with low student achievement and engagement (Bower Griffin, 2011). Parental involvement seems to be at the root of the achievement gap (Bower Griffin, 2011). Parental involvement is especially low for students of color and low-income households (Bower Griffin, 2011). Schools define parental involvement as volunteering in the school, communicating with teachers, assisting with homework, and attending school events and conferences (Bower Griffin, 2011). Correlational studies show that parental involvement leads to increased social competence and social networks, which leads to resources such as tutoring, enrichment opportunities, and curriculum extensions (Bower Griffin, 2011). By the traditional, white, middle-clas s definition of parental involvement, schools benefit by gaining resources. However, parenting in poverty is exceptionally difficult (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Work schedules, difficulties with transportation, and difficulties with childcare prevent parents from coming to school events and conferences (Bower Griffin, 2011). Informal conversations and unscheduled meetings often work better for parents of low SES, but this is often see as obtrusive (Bower Griffin, 2011). Schools are warned against defining specific behaviors as parental involvement because it can disenfranchise families and make them feel like their efforts are going unrecognized (Bower Griffin, 2011). Low income families are ostracized by white middle class families who see their lack of traditional involvement as a lack of caring about their kids (Bower Griffin, 2011). Not all parents have the time and money the schools definition of parental involvement requires (Bower Griffin, 2011). Parents of poor and minority students, on the other hand, see the schools role as providing academic edu cation and their role as providing moral education; they define parental involvement as providing nurturance, instilling moral and cultural values, and talking with their children (Bower Griffin, 2011). Just because parents are not involved by the white, middle-class definition, does not mean they are not involved in their childrens lives. It is not necessarily the schools definition of parental involvement that determines the success of a child. A study by Kiernan and Mensah (2011) tested the effects of parenting, resources, and poverty on the achievement levels of children in elementary school in a longitudinal study. A parenting index was created using aspects that can help a child thrive despite the disadvantages of poverty: cognitive stimulation, promotion of play and learning, security and warmth in relationships, sensitivity towards the child, physical nurturance, boundaries and standards of behavior, and positive discipline (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). The top third scored 70% in good levels of achievement, the middle scored 51%, and the bottom scored 31% (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Children were ranked from least number of risk factors to impede achievement to most and then put into quintiles; the first had 69% good achievement, the second had 64% good achievement, the third had 53% good achievement, the fourth had 4 2% good achievement, and the fifth, with the highest number of indicators, had 24% good achievement (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Risk factors include income, mothers education, employment, housing, quality of the neighborhood, mothers age at birth, family structure, the number of children in the household, birth order, ethnic origin, and language spoken in the home (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). When tested for poverty, 60% of children who had not lived in poverty reached good levels of achievement compared to 40% in episodic poverty and 26% in persistent poverty (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Kiernan and Mensah (2011) looked for interactions, and found that 44% of children who did not experience poverty had high parenting scores, compared to 11% of children in persistent poverty who had high parenting scores. Meanwhile, 66% of children in persistent poverty had low parenting scores (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Similarly, 60% of children with the highest levels of family resources had high parenting sco res, while only 9% or children with low family resources had high parenting scores. Further, 69% of children with the lowest family resources had low parenting scores (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Achievement scores for those in the lowest level of poverty with the lowest level of parenting were 19%, while it was 58% for the highest level of parenting (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). For those who had not experienced poverty and had high levels of parenting, their achievement levels were 73% (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Poverty has about a 50% effect on achievement and parenting has a 40% effect on parenting within the study (Kiernan Mensah, 2011). Kiernan and Mensah show that although that poverty negatively affects a child, positive parenting practices can help counteract the effects of poverty. The role of the educator. Oftentimes, parents become an excuse not to teach impoverished children. Educators and policy makers absolve themselves of improving the problem with a blame-the-victim mentality by believing all parents of low income kids are lazy, addicted to substances, and dont care about their kids, and especially not their education (Armstrong, 2009). Teachers believe that parents will not become involved in the classroom, even though they refuse to try new methods (Bower Griffin, 2011). Often, the curriculum is not targeted to the children, even though children are most responsive to relevant materials and high stakes testing only exacerbates the problem (Anders, 2011). Instead of finding alternative methods to teach, schools see the child as deficit (Anders, 2011). There are definitely practices out there if teachers would only look. Teachers often do not relate to their students. Teachers primarily consist of white middle class women (Anders, 2011; Armstrong, 2009). Differences between middle and lower class include hidden social rules and communication, interactions, and expectations (Armstrong, 2009). There is a difference in symptoms of generational and situational poverty (Armstrong, 2009). Behaviors and the mindset related to poverty often affect learning (Armstrong, 2009). Identifying the students resources and strengths is proven to increase effectiveness of teaching (Armstrong, 2009). The best practice for educators working with impoverished students is that they should educate themselves on the effects of class and poverty and design curriculum relevant to poor students, drawing on the experiences and intelligences of the students (Armstrong, 2009). Teacher education programs tend to leave out critical conversations about how educators and education research relies primarily on white middle class educat ion (Anders, 2011). So, teachers tend to feel uncomfortable with their minority students (Anders, 2011). Finally, educators should be aware of their own biases and how they affect their interactions and expectations of students (Armstrong, 2009). This is good educational practice, but sadly it is not necessarily common educational practice. The standards of education are set to the white middle-class. Public schools want children to live by the behavioral standards set by the white middle class, including self regulation, memorization, social flexibility, compliance, and respect to authority (Anders, 2011). However, as stated above, children in poverty behave differently. Teachers know each pupil less on an individual basis and rely more on stereotypes (Anders, 2011). Knowing an individual child makes a behavior seem less disruptive and disrespectful and reveals the behavior as understandable and manageable (Anders, 2011) Based on differences, such as behavior, between the poor and the rich, students are academically sorted by socioeconomic status rather than ability based on stereotypes (Armstrong, 2009). However, merely educating oneself on the differences between students could help prevent this. Differences in behavioral standards between social classes lead to low income students being disciplined more in school. Zero tolerance policies, though they do not increase school wide academic achievement scores and in some cases lower them, contributes to school push out and school leaving (Anders, 2011). Students who jeopardize the schools achievement scores on top of having a disciplinary record are more likely to get pushed into the resource room or out of school altogether (Anders, 2011). No Child Left Behind leaves teachers with less time to focus on students because they have to focus more on curriculum and tests (Anders, 2011). In low-track classrooms, teachers rely on authoritarian compliance and give fewer opportunities for active learning (Anders, 2011). These teachers are compared to correctional officers when remembered by prisoners (Anders, 2011). Routines, compliance demands, condemnation, and targeting trained students for academic failure and dropping out (Anders, 2011). It raises the question as to whether or not the educational system, and society at large, wants kids to fail in life. The role of high-stakes tests. The educational system continuously places poor students on a lower track, and potentially forces them out of school, in order to protect their standing on high-stakes tests. Standardized tests test knowledge and skill sets that are more likely to be present in children of upper classes, yet these tests have become more important (Armstrong, 2009). A more prominent example is that the SAT has a persistent, but unintended, statistical bias in the verbal section that negatively affects African American students (Armstrong, 2009). The test has been recreated many times and it cannot relieve itself of bias, and the racial and class biases are very strong (Armstrong, 2009). Some postsecondary institutions base a large portion of their entry on the SAT without any other standardized test (Armstrong, 2009). This could impede impoverished students from getting into those institutions (Armstrong, 2009). Campbells Law, created in 1975, says that if a quantitative social indicator is used in decision making, the more subject it is to pressure and the more likely it will be to distort and corrupt what it was intended to monitor (Dutro Selland, 2012). Since No Child Left Behind, Campbells Law has lead to narrowing curriculum, reorganizing classroom time for tested subjects, reallocating funds for tested subjects (math and English) and students near the cut score, and to persuade teachers to teach in ineffective ways (Dutro Selland, 2012). High stakes testing only shows part of what a child knows. Too much focus on high stakes testing leads to cheating the system, a loss in quality of education, and increased dropout rates (Dutro Selland, 2012). Teachers must focus more on math and English and less on other subjects (Dutro Selland, 2012). They must drill students, especially poor students, on content and form (Dutro Selland, 2012). The form of the test though can often undermine important aspects of content students should know; for exampl e, the writing assessment over simplifies genre and the purpose and process of writing (Dutro Selland, 2012). High stakes tests certainly have their downfalls. Standardized testing is not all bad. Since No Child Left Behind, Schools must be held accountable for the education of their students; they must show this through adequate yearly progress (Booher-Jeening U.S. Department of Education, 2011). All students must be tested (Booher-Jennings U.S Department of Education, 2011). Unfortunately, in many schools there is no extensive help unless a child is in special education in many schools, which may explain why many poor students are pushed down to special education (Booher-Jennings U.S Department of Education, 2011). Further, Response to Intervention, a program that gives struggling children the extra help they need, rather than waiting for them to fail, is starting to be implemented across the nation (Fuchs, Litty, Hatch, 2011). Perhaps, things will change with the implementation of Response to Intervention. An important aspect is how high-stakes tests make children feel about themselves. High stakes tests place children in binary power relations of proficient or non-proficient (Dutro Selland, 2012). Non-proficient children can be locked into a pattern of powerlessness; once a person ascribes to a role or a competence, it is hard to see it another way (Dutro Selland, 2012). A third of the 4th graders knew where they were on the assessment, but didnt know why (Dutro Selland, 2012). They were certain about their reading competence, either for positive or negative (Dutro Selland, 2012). Dutro and Selland (2012) describe one child who despite having recently had a major success in reading, felt like she was a poor reader due to achievement tests. Students should not have to feel belittled by standardized tests, especially when they do work hard to make progress. Conclusion Children should not be put in the middle of a power struggle between the lower and upper classes. Three times the amount of money goes into the prisons than in schools, even though a proper education could easily reduce the amount of criminals because people wouldnt have to turn to crime to make money (Anders, 2011). Unlike in other industrialized countries, the United States does not give low income children the social welfare programs needed to the extent to equalize the opportunities to achieve. Families are left to struggle on their own to come up with resources such as housing, food, and health care. Many children of low income families academically develop at much slower rates due to lack of proper nutrition. Families also have a difficult time with housing and this provides discontinuity with curriculum and routines. Despite these difficulties, schools expect parents to make up for extensive schooling that they do not offer; poor schools have less money, less educational resou rces, and less qualified teachers than other schools. Parents do not have the time or money, and often times the education, to be extra involved and believe that it is the schools job to educate their children. Parents believe their job is to be the moral support for their child and the schools job is to be the academic support. A study by Kiernan and Mensah (2011) supports the parents belief that positive parenting can help a child to succeed, despite poverty. Unfortunately, the schools solution to offering extensive help to impoverished students is too often to push them to a lower track in school or forcing them out of school all together. Educators are primarily white, middle class women who do not relate to their students. If they did research on poverty, they could help prevent this all together. That way, students would not be discouraged and would not feel like failures for the rest of their lives. An increase in putting students in special education and forcing them to leav e school has increased due to high-stakes tests. While high stakes tests hold schools, teachers, and students more accountable, they also have lead to schools cheating the program and this is one really unfortunate result. Standardized tests tend to favor the white middle-class, meaning that poor students are at a disadvantage. Children who do poorly on the tests feel bad about themselves, even if they are making strides in the classroom. Even when they are not told how they did, they have a feeling how well they did on the test and are fairly accurate. It is important to keep in mind that poor children can succeed despite their disadvantages and more importantly despite all stereotypes. The poor in America are receiving unequal education thanks to stereotypes, funding, and high-stakes tests. While it is true that low income children may be disadvantaged from environmental stressors and are more likely to be delayed as a result of their environment and poor nutrition, with extensive programs and better nutrition more achievement can be gained. Equal education for the poor, and prevention of crime through better education, is attainable.