Sad - Online Grading System Essay Example for Free

Sad Online Grading System Essay Currently these are the problems that usually occurs in distributing the students’ report cards. What is the extent of the problems faced by the student in terms of the following? a) Accessibility of the student’s grades. b) Accuracy of the student’s grades given by their teachers. c) Disputes or discrepancies of the students with their grades. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY In order to provide excellent distribution of student’s grades, Trinity Christian School needs to develop an online grading system with an easy to use interface for teachers, and also the students to see their grades. a) To be able to create a system that allows the students all-access to their grades at any given point of time and date. b) To provide a system that updates the data of the grades in real time if not then on a specific time. c) To create a system that notifies the teacher that his/her students has problems/disputes to their grades. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The following below are the users that would benefit greatly on the system: To the Students Students would benefit in using the Online Grading System for involving themselves to partake justifying their grades. Students can also use this system to access or view their grades if ever they took an early vacation and aren’t able to get their report cards. And most importantly is that the student will enhance their sense of responsibility. To the Teachers Teachers will benefit this system in regards to lessening the time distributing report cards to parents/ guardians. To the Parents/Guardians There are some cases that a student would lie about their grades and won’t show the report cards to their parents, this system  will make that situation impossible since the parents or the guardians will have access to the student’s grades and they would know if the student is lying or not. To the Researchers That the researchers would be able to create a fully functional system that would implement the lessons and theories that the researchers have learned. It would give the researchers an idea on how the information technology professionals do their works. To the Future Researchers That this Feasibility study would serve as guidelines. And give an idea to the future researchers in what are the basic needs of an online grading system. DEFINITION OF TERMS Terms here are conceptually and operationally defined for better understanding. Administrator a person who manages a computer system.  Information Technology It defines an industry that uses computers, networking, software programming, and other equipment and processes to store, process, retrieve, transmit, and protect information. Internet a vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide. The Internet includes commercial, educational, governmental, and other networks, all of which use the same set of communications protocols. LAN local area network (LAN) consists of two or more computers connected together in a building or home using software and hardware. A LAN is contrasted to a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, which covers a large geographic area. Network Is a collection of computers and devices interconnected by communications channels that facilitate communications among users and allows users to share resources. Online connected to, served by, or available through a system and especially a computer or telecommunications system. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS Trinity Christian School is one of the outstanding private schools in Bacolod City which is located at Villa Angela Subdivision, Phase 3, Bacolod City,  Philippines, 6100. They create, teach and provide high education standards that caters to the needs of their students, and also engraves the spirit of Christianity to their students, faculty and staff. Trinity Christian Schools offers a continuum of learning from nursery up to high school. Trinity Christian School believes in the importance of building a strong foundation in the learning experience of the student, and in building the values of self-discipline, diligence, and respect for self and others along with the students intellectual development. The study is only implemented for Trinity Christian School and can be networked through the internet by the administrator. The researchers are not liable to the changes of the grades made by the teacher.

History Of Lg Electronics Global Company

History Of Lg Electronics Global Company INTRODUCTION In 1947, LG was born as the Lak Hui Chemical Industrial Co. by Mr. In-hwoi Koo for manufacturing cosmetic creams. After that, the company produced radios, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners as Goldstar Co. (currently LG Electronics) in 1958. The LG group was a merger of 2 Korean companies, Lucky and Goldstar; the current LG brand name was acronym from the name of these companies. With more than 82.000 employees and 110 subsidiaries and marketing units all over the world  [1]  , LG Electronics Inc. (LGE) was a successful company of Korean electronics that got the revenues of more than $43 billion  [2]  . Its products involve 4 strategic business units: Mobile communications, Digital appliance, Digital display, and Digital media such as CDMA handsets, DVD players, air conditioners, micro ovens, consumer electronics, and so on. In this report, we are going to discuss the key strengths of the Korean electronics industry during their formative years and how firms leverage these advantages to enter developed country markets. After that, the report mentions particularly about the strategic growths of LG Electronics to approach the emerging markets; and we are going to find out the commonalities across its strategies in the BRIC countries. Finally, the report will be ended with the points of learning that can be distilled from its success in emerging market and if these advantages help firms to compete in developed country or not. PART II Case Question 1 What were the key strengths of Korean electronics industry during the formative years? How did firms leverage these advantages to enter developed-country markets? During the formative years, almost Korea electronics is an Original Equipment Manufacturer such as Goldstar, Samsung, and Zenith; which received orders from global companies. This should bring them a lot of experiences on customer demand, the characteristic of markets, the customized products of some countries. The combination between innovate and education policy encouraged more students for technical education, the low-cost skills of Korean employees, the access of effective technology across all firms, the strongly development of technology in all country. Korea electronics companies can learn quickly knowledge, technologies, skills from Europe, US, Japan because government allows these foreign firms become joint venture with domestic firms. For example: LG Hitachi, Deawoo GE, Samsung Sanyo, so on. Besides that, government also focused on most sectors of Electronic industry of country, so they supported so much to develop this industry. Foreign investment was supported to develop the intermediate parts and component industry, while prohibiting foreign investment in companies producing finished goods. Korean firm with letters of credit for exports automatically received access to preferential loans. Export companies were exempted from various indirect taxes and received tax breaks for depreciation and tariff payments; they also had access to duty-free imports of capital goods. Government helped to encourage firm creating their local RD. With the developing and investment of technology, some firms stared to export their products by their own logo, not as OEM anymore like LG and Samsung. Because they were OEM of some global markets, so they already had the reference of consumers and global standards. After that, with many supporting of government, they had their manpower supplying with skills and abilities from university. Government has the tax breaks for depreciation and tariff payments for exporting companies. And the RD department had enough experience to recognize the market and give the best solution for company. As the Glodstar product lines, LGE established a central RD to develop and manufacture color TV (CTVs), VCRs and computers. PART III Case Question 2 Were there any distinct patterns in terms of the companys approach to emerging markets? Trace the commonalities across its strategies in the BRIC countries. Brazil Brazil is a country in South America wide more than 8.5 million km2, rich in mineral resources, population 190 million people with diverse cultures. Brazil is the leading economy in Latin America, ranking 10th in the world. Brazil chooses the path of economic model: fast growth with the advantage that fast economy flourishes, the growth rate in average income is very high. Besides that, government has some regulations to promote investors such as preferential tax rates, land subsidies in country, especially in some underdeveloped rainforest region. With these advantages, LG began attacking the Brazilian market in the mid-1990s. But during that time, Brazil also faced a lot of difficulties. Because their economic model is fast growth, so it also makes unequal economic, political; social increasingly fierce; the quality of life is not considered. At the late 1990s, almost global companies had to exit the market because of very high import tariffs, significant competition from the gray goods market, very low brand awareness. Inflation rate increased with high speed, local currency became unstable, exchange rates started to plummet with increasing levels of uncertainty. LG decided to make a long-term strategy, and also expanded their brand name in India. They had 2 factories in Manaus and Taubate to produce their products, this strategy made Brazil as a regional manufacturing hub to serve South America and US markets. LG also let Brazilian government know that they are a credibility partner in term of national growth by join with government to combat the problem of the rampant smuggling of gray market goods. Everybody knows that Brazil is a country passionate about soccer, Brazilian live for football. So LG had one strategy to reach millions of football fans sponsored a football club in Sao Paulo that most popular among the top clubs in the country  [3]  . By providing official uniforms with the LG logo for Sao Paulo club, LG get the instant brand recognition and fixed image in consumer. India LG began in 1993 as a form of joint venture with a consumer products company named Bestavision. They chose the Goldstar line of products to distribute in India. Since the government allowed foreign companies set up their own firms without local partnership, and the business of LG and Bestavision failed, LG decided to launch LGE India Ltd. (LGEIL) in 1997 with their own wholly owned subsidiaries in India. There were many challenges that LG had to overcome like: low brand awareness about LG brand name; LG was one of the last MNCs entered in India; high import duty of government; price sensitiveness of the Indian consumer and competitors. Following the global strategy, LG still entered and focused on the rural market. Because there are a lot of competition from local and global players in urban market; big population of rural market but also large untapped; etc. There is 1 year for them to set up manufacturing operations in Greater Noida to manufacture televisions, washing machine, etc. to over some the high import rate cost. At the first time, LG created an RD teams by local employees to customizing its products lines to meet local needs. It helped LG distribute their existing products and also customizing the new unique characteristic of products that matched the consumers expectations. This is an important resolution for LG to achieve both objectives: marketing and produce. LG had differentiated its product using technology and health care system like golden eye technology of CTVS, health air system for air conditionals, so on. They focus on emphasizing good-quality products, with prime technology and network. For customized products, they did not cut prices in manufacture existing product lines, but they decided to built new version with less material cost and also catch the needs of consumers. They kept the engineered quality of the appliances and focused on value engineering and design to manufacture at the lower cost. Such as microwave ovens with cooking menu including 77 kinds of Indian dishes  [4]  , television is displayed by 10 regional languages, washing machine with sari cycle, and so on. It helped LGEIL have all levels of consumers, especially low-class consumers, because company served exactly the need of them high quality but not expensive products. The price range of the products of LG India is quite reasonable and affordable so as to make it easier for every class of people to go for it thereby increasing the consumer level. For example, the price of Sampoorna reduces from 9000 to 5050. This shows R D team has worked very well and complete their tasks, it helps the production of LG reasonable based on deep understanding of Indias cultural and linguistic diversity. LG Company invested and created the distribution network encompassing with 65 Remote Area Offices, 60 central area offices, near to 4.000 access points in all areas, and they also had their online channel lgezbuy.com to provide information of products, comparison of prices and qualities across geographic, accept the individuals buyers. These regional distribution networks helped LG E to penetrate the B, C and D markets faster and wider. http://htmlimg3.scribdassets.com/6q46i2mohe5bi0w/images/14-631b49b1d4/000.png As same activity in Brazil, LG started sponsoring to catch more customers. LG became the largest single sponsor of cricket in the world, although they came from a country where cricket was not played. It immediately attacked to millions of cricket fans in this country and prelude to the success of the cricket-game TV set lines. LG also brought their products to 4 capitals of Indian cricket team for endorsing. Another strategy for other field of India, LGEIL promoted their products by Indians leading film stars. This is considered the largest film producer in the world by number of films produced annually and the number of tickets sold at cinemas, it has its owned name Bollywood to describe the effective to local consumers. After that, LG had another long-term strategy in trying to care about the social welfares in India initiatives. It created a friendly look to the company, people knew that company really did not just trading on their own country, but also cares for their lives. They subsidized the primary school education and books for children, built a village school. While most of employees of company in India were local people, they provided medical clinics for the health care strategy to employees as well as the local community. Also there were some basic levels, but LG shown that their corporation social responsible done well. As mentioned above, LGEIL put local employees staffed as the main labor force in their manufacturing. With the local employees, company could get great resource of engineering and design skills. LG Indias purposing is satisfying the needs of its consumers not only in the domestic market but all across the globe. Company is trying to make India as their training hub for global strategy. The company had begun rotating some of these managers into positions in third countries in the middles east and Africa. This is one of advantages of LG to acquire a leading position by providing fast and innovative techniques on their products. They always create new products with the best technology possible. Russia LG first entered Russia for the purpose to sale products; they imported goods manufactured from other countries and sale in Russia. Not the same as Brazil and India, LG operated themselves in and around the city of Moscow, and they just focused on Goldstar brand. LG set up an RD center and regional office in St. Petersburg for their first strategy. Till Russian engineers were known for their ability and skills in technology, company looked for talent employees to support their global employees. LG promoted their reputation by opening LG brand shops, retail channels with LG brand portfolio, culture marketing events such as LG festivals, cooking events, and so on. 1998, Russia was affected by the severe economic crisis; it made Russia faced the debt moratorium problem. This was the time LG shown their long-term strategy and loyal attitude to all Russian local and government. The more they pushed the mode of operation to dominate the market dropped; they enhance the image with consumers through the sponsorship of events, more carefully to the requirements for each market. These activities created a foundation for their premium strategy and image to local. In 2005, government allowed company to use the Narodnaya Marka logo for their products. This is an important event for LG officially recognized as a national brand, the successful of foreign company of their localization strategy. China In this market, LG first reason for entering china is lower-cost production, and they spent a lot of time to understand the local market conditions and assessing the feasibility to be successful. Since LG Electronics established its local subsidiary in Huizhou in 1992, the LG Groups 12 subsidiaries have come to manage some 34 local companies, including 22 manufacturers. LG Electronics took the top position in the Chinese domestic market in the area of TV export, CD-Rom drivers, washing machine, and air conditioners during that time because of their advantages of technological prowess and the marketability of their products. In china, they used the new strategy as a bipolar strategy a strategy offer high value-added digital home appliances to the high income earners living in the coastal areas, and low-priced household electronically appliances to general households living in the interior. China is a great resource for operating a business. With many advantages such as low labor cost, low material cost, government regulations, geographic proximity to Korea market, 16 corporate entities of LG were built in the country which focused on manufacture Plasma TV, white goods, and important research, development in 2006. LG expanded their brand to set up a manufacturing network to serve countries such as Russia and US. As 98% off employees were local Chinese and RD center, this is a smart strategy of LG in case of localization in China. For their promoting image, LG initiated an I love china campaign and passed out free sanitary masks to local citizens during the SARS crisis in China. This activity really effected to customers while others competitors tried to rundown their business. LG also well done with their Corporation Social Responsibility by launching schools, offering scholarships to economically disadvantaged students, sponsoring a touting cultural festival that would bring traditional Chinese cultural experiences to small towns and villages, founding a hospital program to provide surgical treatment to children with cleft palates. Common strategy across BRIC At the first time, LG Electronics always put up their local manufacturer and RD team with local employees to understand the need and characteristic of each market. They depend on these researches and created some specification for local. Such as in India, most of consumers require on cheap price of products, but still have the same quality of international; LGEIL decided to produce the television with a smaller screen size and scaled-down sound system. They did not forget to serve the high-end products to all markets. This is really the big success of their RD activities. They are supporting global strategy by looking for talent local employees, meaning they localize with a purpose for global market. And with local operation, they can save much of manufactured products such as materials, employees, etc. Second thing for their global strategy is they always established their brand name on rural market, where avoid the competition of those large corporations around the world. This is one unique strategy of LG because they focus on lower-class consumers and appropriate way to satisfy consumers in cheap prices but still benefit. The population of rural areas is always greater many times than urban areas. In 2007, LG Electronics reached the $2 billion marks in revenues in India; this is a good result for their strategy. By recruiting the local employees, LG E knew well about the characteristic of their consumers and this is an advantage to attack them. The company is always looking for talent employees to train them as a global standard. LG E did sponsors to the passionate of the country, such as cricket game in India, football in Brazil. Otherwise, they had good corporation social responsibility that shown local and government their loyalty. All strategies of LG E in BRIC countries are long-term commitment; this make LG has a different position compare with other operations. LG still tries to overcome all the barriers if they believe that a market is really profitable. PART IV Case Question 3 What are critical points of learning that can be distilled from its success in emerging market? How these advantages are leveraged to compete in developed countries? Are there advantages transferable? By some successful experiences of LG in BRIC countries, LG brought to people the strategy to run well an operation in emerging market. Some of their success experiences are do sponsorship, event to create an image to customers; they always had their RD team to customization their product to satisfy the markets based on localization. They still kept the global standard on their product lines and put it into new products for each market. By this way, their brand name will have the image of globalization and also get benefit for customized products. And LG focused on rural market and they know that major population of BRIC countries is poor, so they give what the customers want low price. In case of operate in developed country, LG can also use this strategy to attack their customers, but its harder. Because in developed countries, there are many sponsorship and activities daily, if their marketing strategy is not unique, LG can get many difficult to compete with others like Sony, Phil lip, etc. Foreign businesses always focus on 2 things: outsourcing and marketing when enter a country. LG really did 2 things above in BRIC countries because they built their own factories, using local people, manufacture products on their factory in each country. They produce their customized products and sale them. But maybe this strategy will not work in developed country, because of the highly cost rates. The purpose for building their outsourcing is reducing the cost, but in developed country, the cost for these activities is very expensive. There will be better for them if they just do marketing and sale activities in developed country. Other thing is their distribution network. They expanded their brand name by a lot of retail channel, offices to most areas of each country. They also can save the cost for import, export, transfer, and quickly accessible to consumers. This will be the prepare strategy before LG enter a developed country. PART V References Career LG. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 24, 2010, from LG Electronics Inc.: http://www.lg.com/global/about-lg/careers/faq.jsp Corporate infomation. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2010, from LG Electronics Inc.: http://www.lg.com/africa_en/about-lg/corporate-info/global-sports-sponsorship/sao-paulo-football-club.jsp Grand Finale Of LGS MALLIKA E Kitchen 2010. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2010, from Food and Nightlife: http://www.foodandnightlife.com/content/grand-finale-of-lg-s-mallika-e-kitchen-2010 LG Record sales and products. (2010, 1 28). Retrieved 11 19, 2010, from Consumer Lifestyle News: http://www.cln-online.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=511:lgprofitscatid=40:industryItemid=135 LOUIS VUITTON IN INDIA Table of Contents Louis Vuitton Background Introduction 24 Case Question 1 Why do people buy luxury goods? 25 Case Question 2 Louis Vuitton is a high-end product. India is a low-income economy. Can this dichotomy be reconciled? 28 Case Question 3 What are the external factors kindering the purchase of luxury goods in a country like India? 30 Case Question 4 Why do luxury goods marketers form retail clusters? 33 Case Question 5 Why do certain luxury brands look for store locations in luxury hotels? 35 Case Question 6 How does a luxury mall work for luxury goods marketers? 37 Conclusion 39 References 40 PART I INTRODUCTION Louis Vuitton, a French fashion house officially founded in 1854, is the worlds leading of high-end fashion brand in international fashion industry. The well-known label is LV monogram which is featured on most products ranging from luxury trunks to leather goods is also as a way to deter counterfeiters. Founder of LV first launched a small leather shop in 1821 with the original products specialized in crafting fine leather luggage ware. But since recognized the demand among prestigious travelers who wanted premium steamer bags, flat cases, and weekend bags, the namesake designer, Louis Vuitton, gradually grew into a brand that offered deluxe travel goods. Back then, as successfully in establishing LV initial reputation, LV expanded the assortment to include carry-on-bags, toiletry cases, small trunks, jewelry boxes, and eventually luxury watches. Today, over one hundred and fifty year brand Louis Vuitton has been spread throughout Europe as the fashion icon of the most exquisite sy mbol. In this particular case study, we are going to discuss the reason why people purchase luxury goods, especially is LV; and how the dichotomy between a high-end product and a low-income economy to be reconciled. Then, the report will be continued with the external factors that hindering the purchase of luxury goods in India, culture typically. After that, mentioned more in international marketing, we are going to find out the reason why luxury goods marketers form retail clusters, why certain luxury goods look for store locations in luxury hotel. And finally, the report will be ended with the way of a luxury mall work for luxury goods marketers. PART II Case Question 1 Why do people buy luxury goods? Nowadays, when the world becomes globalization, there are no more barriers in the integration process of every country. Therefore, people are entitled to purchase and use global products made by international companies. Not the same as consumer goods or necessity goods, luxury goods are cyclical and correlate with GDP in specific regions, often exaggerating the up- and down-swings; in boom times, consumers demand tends to grow faster than the growth of economies (as measured by GDP)  [5]  . More precisely, luxury goods are goods for which demand is not related to income. Basically, there are three main factors that lead people by luxury goods. Especially in todays consumer-driven economy, people spend proportionately less on basic necessities and more on things based upon emotion and desire. Firstly, they buy luxury good because of its superior functionality and quality. Most of them were old because of hard working time period, so they were wealthy enough that willing to pay premium for products that had enduring value. They usually conducted extensive pre-purchase research, then making logical decisions rather than emotional or impulsive. This action highlighted the messages of product quality. And that message were information-intensive appealed to them. Consisting of connoisseurs, this category was the largest. Secondly, they are people who perceive luxury products as a reward. They saw these products as status symbols which make the personal statement that they had arrived. Highly driven, they were motivated by a desire to be successful, eager to showcase their success to others. They also were keen on appearing lavish or hedonistic. They wanted to make seemingly smart decisions that demonstrated the importance of their purchase while not leaving them open to social criticism of any kind. Thirdly, this is the smallest and consisted of younger consumers, with a higher proportion of males than the other categories. They saw luxury products as a means of self-indulgence. They enjoyed luxury products for their feel-good factor. They were emotional in their purchase decisions and were not concerned with product longevity or its enduring value. Particularly, in India, people who buy luxury goods fall into the second category. As we know, maharajahs are the most wealthy and powerful in India in the late 19th century. They are the one who prefer everything luxury to showcase their positions as great king. It was the ongoing orders from Indian royal families, among other wealthy customers, that had helps Louis Vuitton survive the Great Depression of the 1920s  [6]  .After that, although the changes in 1971, these maharajahs lost their traditional hold in post-independent India and their riches with the abolition of annual financial grants from federal government, many of them became entrepreneurs; but accidentally, the new generation of customers for LV was formed in India including start-up owners of myriad new businesses, professional CEOs in their thirties and early forties, non-resident Indian, small and medium retailers, big-brand franchisees, Bollywood actors and closet spenders. This new generation of customers coul d be the third category of who purchase luxury goods. They are new and not too many of them are really rich, but they still purchase LV as the feel good factor. Hence, they are very essential in long-term strategic development in Indian market. PART III Case Question 2 Louis Vuitton is a high-end product. India is a low-income economy. Can this dichotomy be reconciled? India, throughout history, has been a land of extremes and known for the indulgence of its opulent classes  [7]  . Typically, there are more than 600 maharajahs existed that time. They are truly powerful and wealthy enough to be considered as great king. As a positive result, most of global brands were looking India as a market with long-term potential whereby there are high demands of luxury goods from Indian royal families, so does Louis Vuitton. Until now, almost luxury brands are still survived in Indian market despite of global economic crisis. Clearly evidences are the Indian market has increased a significant percent of consumption this year when customers are more interested in walking into the outlets and, importantly, buying rather than just looking. Besides that, India is known as a low-income economy, but there are really have several wealthy people who are superior to the average population. Since Louis Vuitton made an important observation that the rich in India were flying to London, Dubai, Singapore, New York, and Paris to shop because there were noting available in India for them to buy  [8]  , the company has articulated the clear long-term goals in India that is open store in every Indian city so that the wealthy class can buy the needed items right in their home country. The World Wealth Report 2005-06, published by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, put the number of dollar millionaires in India at 83,000 in 2005. The report also said that India recorded the worlds second fastest growth in the number of HNW individuals, 19.3 per cent in 2005  [9]  . Thus, we can easily realize the potential market of Indian consumers purchasing power. Currently, due to the capitalist mind set and growing young population, India offers to luxury brands favorable advantages such as more wealthy people, increasing awareness, increasing consumerism, and greater supply of luxury goods. Firstly, luxury product companies strategizing their entry into India were primarily targeting high-net-worth individuals because they are those with a million dollars or more in liquid financial assets. They are the largest category of spending on luxury goods as the number of them as well as their demand increased. Secondly, India young generation is now travelling abroad more than before, thus, the foreigner brand awareness is also increasing. The more they go out of the country, the more they exposure with international brands, especially luxury brands. Then, the demand of these kinds of global brands is increased in India but domestic market can not satisfy their demand. That is the reason helps luxury goods generally and Louis Vuitton particularly still existed and developed gradually in this market. Thirdly, there are also an increased numbers in consumption of non-essential items. The world is getting globalization day by day; the demand of human is not only the needs but also the wants, so that their life becomes more convenient and sophisticated. They dont afraid of giving a large amount of money to spend on a luxury product that it is worth for and satisfied their wants. Of course, there is no more guilt feeling associated with spending on luxury nowadays. Finally, together with the boom of expanding global, luxury brands opened more and more outlets in as many countries as possible, including India. Generally, in the world of opposition, this dichotomy entirely can be reconciled. PART IV Case Question 3 What are the external factors hindering the purchase of luxury goods in a country like India? Depend on several conditions of each country; the factors that are hindering the purchase of luxury goods are various. In this particular case study, we are finding out the external factors in Indian market. Advertising platform: Nowadays, Advertising is a service to the community  [10]  . It is usually revealled the latest fashions and the new popular novelties on the market. Therefore, the effect of adverting to the community is essential. Advertising has the power of persuade and influence consumer. Advertising has short-term power (conveying new information, building awareness, enhancing credibility, etc.) and long-term power (conveying brand image, attaching emotional values to the brand, building positive reputation, etc.)  [11]  . Actually, there is lack of advertising platform in Indian market. No famous magazines or newspapers are found in India at tha

Costa Rica Essays -- Descriptive Essay About A Place

Costa Rica Costa Rica has a culture and landscape, along with other intriguing aspects, that would make almost anyone want to visit there. I had always wanted to go out of the country, so my friend Doug and I decided that Costa Rica was the place to be. This Spanish speaking paradise lies between Mexico and South America. The entire country is practically surrounded by water with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Needless to say, there was a lot more in Costa Rica than a beautiful view. To make sure everything would be taken care of we enlisted the services of a travel agent. She setup a week long vacation at a resort for $680(Flight and Room). A four-hour drive from Knoxville to Atlanta and a five-hour flight on Allegro Air brought us to our destination. We arrived in Costa Rica late in the afternoon at a tiny airstrip in the rural town of Liberia. A bus picked us up from the airport and took us to the resort which was two-hours away. We could have rented a car but the bus was included with the resort. As soon as we got into town I could tell that the culture of this country was going to be extremely different from what I was used to. The culture of Costa Rica was like none I had ever seen. Their national motto is "Pura Vida" which means "Pure Life," and these people take this to heart. Everyone I met was so laid back and relaxed that Doug and I fit right in. For example, the people at the resort were so friendly that the bartender Edgardo and I became good friends. He would teach me some Spanish and I would tell him about where I lived. Another thing about the culture is that almost everyone can speak some English, but it is still difficult to communicate. I was surprised how much Spani... ...the week the owner knew us by name. Even the resort had reasonably priced food, and I am convinced that our resort made the best cheeseburger on the face of the planet ($3). The El Tamarindo was the largest place to stay, but there were a variety of hotels to choose from, including a "Best Western." Costa Rica had a magic that could be found almost nowhere else in the world. While I was there I met so many people and had many experiences that I will never forget. At the end of the week it was hard to say good-bye. While waiting for the bus all the people from the resort came to see us off, even the owner of the "El Delphin" came to say good-bye. That is why Costa Rica will always have a place in my heart. With the culture and good humor of the locals, and the beautiful landscape, I can almost guarantee that anyone who visits Costa Rica will never want to leave.

A Worn Path :: essays research papers

A Worn Path   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Detail of an elderly Negro woman’s journey from deep in the country to town, the while on mission of love. Phoenix Jackson, an elderly Negro women who is frail, old and has many handicaps, she lived during trying times and because of her race, faced many challenges while growing up, Eudora Welty brings the story, â€Å"A Worn Path†, to life through the use of the character Phoenix Jackson and symbols.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While overcoming challenges her character is born. The story is based on an elderly Negro women’s journey into town for medicine for her grandson. Along the way she encounters physical challenges, obstacles and danger. She climbs hills, crosses streams, crawls under barbed-wire fences; she faces dangers while out in the wilderness and a hunter who threatens her life with a gun. This happens on a single trip to town. Phoenix is quite remarkable woman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 Phoenix’s ability to make the journey and overcome these challenges shows her strong determination, dedication, devotion and the will power to endure hardship to finish her task. These weekly journeys had become a virtual ritual. Vande Kieft states â€Å"Miss Eudora Welty often takes ritual action very seriously-especially the most simple and primitive rituals of home, or private rituals which comes from repeated performances of an action of love†, Old Phoenix’s down the worn Path. (70).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The conflicts were put in the story to show us the inner feelings of Phoenix. She was able to endure hardships and yet stays focused on the task at hand. This tells us while she was growing up she over came many obstacles. Kreyling says, â€Å"usually Welty reserved for her black characters the functions of this vital, sure and faithful, ways of living of which modern man has either lost or denied. Phoenix Jackson represents the condition of the human race before â€Å"enfeebling† layers of civilization anesthetized it. Although primitive, Phoenix is centered in and directed toward the value of life, the path worn by habit of hope. She possesses that vitality without which, faith would not be possible†. (24). 3 Using nothing more than details of an old Negro woman’s journey to city to get medicine for her grandson, but gives us a sense of human fortitude that is almost unbearable in its’ sad intensity. (Turner, Harding 262). Using symbols brings color and fullness to the character in the story. This sets the time, place and shows hardships that developed her character.

The First Transcontinental Railroad :: American History

The First Transcontinental Railroad missing works cited â€Å"May God continue the unity of our country as this railroad unites the two great oceans of the world† (Mayer 213). This famous quotation was engraved on the gold spike that connected the two fragments of the first transcontinental railroad. It describes the significance of the railway to the rapidly growing United States. The transcontinental railroad was of tremendous importance to the development of the Union because it opened the western frontier to increased settlement and represented the growing integration of the country. It stimulated trade between east and west, and transformed the dormant frontier into an essential component of the Union. A very different situation existed before the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The western region of the United States was almost completely separated from the east. Travel between the two regions was agonizingly long and difficult, and transportation of goods was costly and inefficient. There were three main routes that could be taken to travel from the east to the west. The first was an expensive four-month sea voyage around the tip of Cape Horn. The second route was the particularly challenging horseback journey through the malaria-infested swamps of the Isthmus of Panama. The final option was to travel across the US mainland by wagon, which a strenuous and lengthy expedition. The settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute, the acquisition of Mexican territory, the discovery of gold in California, and the spirit of manifest destiny were various motives that inspired people to undergo the journey across America. Many people soon believed that a transcontinental railroad would be enormously beneficial to the country. The bitter feelings between the North and South resulting from divergent economies, life styles, and opinions on the divisive issue of slavery needed to be resolved before attention could be concentrated on the transcontinental railroad. By 1860, the North and South had developed two very different economies. The primarily agricultural South relied on its chief crop, cotton, which accounted for a good deal of US exports. To produce cotton in such large amounts, the South depended on the plantation system, and thus on slavery. The North however, was an industrial giant and had no desire for slave labor. The South avoided industrialization and imported nearly all manufactured goods. Therefore, they vehemently opposed high tariffs.

Development of the Bond Market in Bangladesh Essay

It is a privilege to be here this morning at this pioneering event, and I would like to congratulate the Bangladesh Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission for hosting the first-ever international workshop on the development of bond market in Bangladesh. Bond markets link issuers having long-term financing needs with investors willing to place funds in long-term, interest-bearing securitiBangladeshes. has both the issuers and the investors in place but it still has not been able to link them effectively through a bond market. The positive effect of developing a domestic bond market on the economy is well-known. On the one hand, bond markets are essential for a country to enter a sustained phase of development driven by market-based capital allocation and increased avenues for raising debt capital. On the other hand, the central position occupied by domestic bond markets in markedly increasing the resilience of a country’s financial system and insulating it against external shocks, contagion and reduction of access to international capital markets is established. Capital markets are essentially about matching the needs of investors with those that need capital for development. Bangladesh has no shortage of both such parties, a young and dynamic population that increasingly wants, and is able to, make provision for lifetime events, to save for children’s education, for the possibility of ill health and ultimately for old age and retirement. On the other side of the equation, Bangladesh has a pressing need for investment resources to bolster its stretched infrastructure resources, to build more power stations, bridges, ports and gas-pipelines to empower the people in the development of enterprise and the creation of jobs. Debt markets are an extremely effective mechanism for matching the long term needs of savers with those of entrepreneurs. Term capital is a precious commodity and it has been a frustration to see the process of long term savings, such as provident funds and life insurance contracts, being invested in short term instruments such as bank deposits, a process we call ‘reverse term transformation’ but we could equally call it â€Å"reverse alchemy† in which the gold of term capital is turned into the lead of short term iabilities. As a development institution it is our goal to establish sustainable capacity. As Bangladesh has led the world in its development of the microfinance industry, you have impressed us all with your ability to mobilize funds for productive purposes at the community level in the villages. What we need to see now is a similar degree of success at the institutional level in terms of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and other uses of long ter m funds. At the World Bank, we would like to help you in this endeavor; it is much more useful that Taka funds are mobilized to fund projects whose sole revenue source will be in Taka. I am sure that it is a shared ambition of us all that Bangladesh should play a larger role in mobilizing its own capital resources and reducing the dependency upon donor institutions such as ourselves. We at the World Bank would like to work with you to this end, so that we can move on from providing infrastructure finance for sustainable development to a higher level of developing a sustainable, national, infrastructure financing capacity. Bond markets in most countries are built on the same basic elements: a number of issuers with long-term financing needs, investors with a need to place savings or other liquid funds in interest-bearing securities, intermediaries that bring together investors and issuers, and an infrastructure that provides a conducive environment for securities transactions, ensures legal title to securities and settlement of transactions, and provides price discovery information. The regulatory regime provides the basic framework for bond markets and, indeed, for capital markets in general. Efficient bond markets are characterized by a competitive market structure, low transaction costs, low levels of fragmentation, a robust and safe market infrastructure, and a high level of heterogeneity among market participants. It is my hope that this Workshop will debate and discuss the various initiatives that are necessary to develop the intermediaries, infrastructure and the regulatory regime so that a vibrant bond market becomes a reality in Bangladesh soon. An important element of a domestic bond market is the government bond market. Development of a government bond market provides a number of important benefits if the pre-requisites to a sound development are in place. At the macroeconomic policy level, a government securities market provides an avenue for domestic funding of budget deficits and avoid a build-up of foreign currency-denominated debt. A government securities market can also strengthen the transmission and implementation of monetary policy, including the achievement of monetary targets or inflation objectives, and can enable the use of market-based indirect monetary policy instruments. The existence of such a market not only can enable authorities to smooth consumption and investment expenditures in response to shocks, but if coupled with sound debt management, can also help governments reduce their exposure to interest rate risk – a situation that is looming large in the National Savings Certificates market, currency, and other financial risks. Finally, a shift toward market-oriented funding of government budget deficits will reduce debt-service costs over the medium to long term through development of a deep and liquid market for government securities. The prerequisites for establishing an efficient government domestic currency securities market include a credible and stable government; sound fiscal and monetary policies; effective legal, tax, and regulatory infrastructure; smooth and secure settlement arrangements; and a liberalized financial system with competing intermediaries. Since pension and life insurance reform helps in the development of government securities market, starting the process of pension and insurance reform now might be prudent because of the time it takes to feel the positive impact of such reforms on the capital market. While some of these prerequisites have already been met, I hope that this Workshop will discuss the initiatives, their prioritization and the time horizon for their implementation, which will be necessary for putting the rest in place. Before ending, I would like to table a few suggestions for consideration in the Workshop. These are: 1. Creating a bond market in Bangladesh will be a long process, and the hard work of many architects, artisans and craftsmen will be required in the construction. I am optimistic that the foundations are now in place and this seminar is going to be one of many uilding blocks that will help create the market framework. This framework must be solid if a bond market is to gain investors’ confidence and hence allow public and private sectors to raise capital for the much needed investments in Bangladesh. 2. To ease the process, the Government bonds must come first. To increase the attractiveness of these bonds and to ensure their soundness, Banglades h Bank will need to continue its initiatives to develop the secondary market, lower transaction costs and improve upon the market infrastructure to support secondary market liquidity. The Bangladesh Bank has already achieved a great deal to this end in a very short time. It was not so long ago that government debt market trading was effectively zero; now we see a disciplined, organized market taking shape with maturities in traded securities out to ten years. We congratulate the Governor and his team for their achievements in this field and are proud if we have been able to play some small part in support of the Government and the Bangladesh Bank in this success. 3. Banks are invariably amongst the major users of long term debt markets in order to raise long-term subordinate debt to supplement their capital bases. Many regulators now actively encourage the issuance of debt by banks in the local currency market as a step towards the discipline of â€Å"market monitoring† envisaged in the Basel II capital adequacy regime. It is probably the case that the state of the banking system in Bangladesh makes this a medium-term project, however, we have already been presently surprised by the progress we have seen in several fields in terms of banking sector reform and debt market development. A prior requirement to facilitate issuance of fixed income capital instruments is the adoption of international accounting standards, and more effective enforcement of Bangladesh Bank’s supervisory standards. The increased use of credit rating agencies has often accompanied this development, but this can add value only to the extent that the opinion of the rating agencies is valued by the market. We have noted with interest the nascent development of a debt rating capacity in Bangladesh and hope to see this sector rise to international standards. . One other extremely important role that debt markets can play is in the development of the housing finance market, an area of activity where the ordinary citizens need to have access to long-term loans to fulfill their dream of owning their own property. While capital markets can not bring down the price of real estate in Bangladesh, efficient capital markets can make housing more affordable, and more attainable, through extending t he maturity of loans and lowering monthly repayment terms. 5. Not only will a bond market require good financial foundations, but long-term investment institutions will also need to be developed with demand for longer maturity assets. The insurance and pension markets are currently not fully developed in Bangladesh. These markets should be reformed as they are the natural buyers of long-term securities. We understand that the Ministry of Commerce is now in the process of disseminating much awaited investment guidelines which will allow insurance companies to offer more competitive products to their clients by allowing them to invest more productively, and securely, in the capital markets. Reform and development of the pension sector, combined with a new approach to the NSS, should be next on the agenda. 6. The World Bank is already working with the Government and Bangladesh Bank on some of these key issues, and we shall be ready to work further with them within the limits of our own comparative advantage. We have been extremely pleased to see the coordinated approach of the Bangladesh Bank, Ministry of Finance, the SEC and the National Board of Revenue to work with IPDC to bring the first securitization transaction to market in Bangladesh. This has been one solid step towards mobilizing finance for entrepreneurs and has confounded those skeptics who thought that securitization is â€Å"too sophisticated† for Bangladesh. Perhaps those skeptics would benefit from seeing the collected talent and enthusiasm for development gathered here in this room today. We would very much like to hope that the next securitization will be another transaction close to our heart, that of the securitization of a portion of the toll revenues of the Jamuna Bridge. The IPDC loan securitization was a long time in the making and the Jamuna Bridge securitization appears to be following the same path. This is a transaction which all experts agree would have a major positive impact not only on capital market development in Bangladesh, but also in mobilizing taka finance for other strategic infrastructure developments such as the proposed Padma Bridge. We can only hope that the Jamuna Bridge securitization will enjoy the same long term success. To facilitate this process, it would be useful to have designated counterparts from the Government and Bangladesh Bank. Such a crucial market as a domestic bond market needs excellent domestic regulation and supervision if investors and borrowers are not to be disappointed or worse. It cannot be created by outsiders. Along with you all, I am eagerly looking forward to the technical sessions, which have been very well-organized. In conclusion, I would urge the participants to discuss the issues at length and provide some specific recommendations for the Government, Bangladesh Bank, the SEC, and indeed all the stakeholders, which can be implemented immediately. This could pave the path for a well-functioning bond market that can change the existing bank-oriented financial system to a multilayered system, where capital markets can complement bank financing. I wish the workshop and its participants all success.

Prepare a Report

How to Write a Project Report 1. Why is the report important? If you wish to secure a good mark for your project, it is absolutely essential that you write a good report. It is the report which is marked, not the program or anything else you might have constructed during the project period. No matter how significant your achievements, if you do not write up your work, and write it up well, you will obtain a poor mark. It is essential to understand that the report will be read and marked by a number of examiners (normally 2 – 4), only one of whom – your supervisor – will have any familiarity with the work which the report describes.Examiners are not mind-readers, and cannot give credit for work which you have done but not included in the report. 2. What are the examiners looking for? Each project report is marked initially by two examiners, one of whom is the supervisor. Each examiner fills in an online  mark form, giving marks for various aspects of the report and an overall mark. Studying the mark sheet will give you a good idea of what aspects of the report are important. The notes to examiners which accompany the mark sheet use the terms â€Å"perfect†, â€Å"quite good†, â€Å"abysmal† and so on to describe the attributes of a particular numerical mark (e. . 5 is â€Å"satisfactory†). There is a separate document which goes into great detail about what precisely â€Å"satisfactory† means in particular contexts, but I'm not sure that these definitions are widely used: most examiners believe that they have an accurate and objective understanding of what is â€Å"satisfactory†. Note that supervisors might specify on the mark sheet that a particular aspect of the project is to be assessed – for example, a review of the project area – even if that area is not covered in the project report.Decisions on what is to be assessed are the supervisor's responsibility, but you should be aware of the standard headings, think carefully about what you present (or do not present) under each, and discuss and agree it with your supervisor. Remember that your report is an academic dissertation, not a popular article or commercial proposal. For example, rather than describing only a series of events and a final product, try to establish criteria, present arguments, derive principles, pose and answer questions, measure success, analyse alternatives nd so on. Where a project has been undertaken with industrial support, the significance of that support for the project, and the relevance of the project to the supporting industry, should be discussed. 3. The mechanics of writing The problem you have to solve is this: to transfer your own experiences of doing the project, and the knowledge you have gained, from your brain onto paper in a coherent, logical and correct form. There are several ways of achieving this. Different authors have different techniques.My own method, which I thin k is quite common among technical authors, is to write as quickly as I can, without regard for coherency, structure or order, until I have written down (or rather, typed in) all the points I can think of. If my brain is running faster than my fingers and a thought pops into my head which belongs in another part of the document, I skip to the end of the page and insert a few words there to remind me to expand that point later, then resume where I was. The aim is to transfer as much relevant material from brain to paper as quickly as possible. This method has been called the â€Å"brain dump†.It is practised, I think, by some writers of fiction as well as by technical authors. After three hours of â€Å"brain dumping† I might have four or five pages of disorganized text. I then spend perhaps six hours putting the text into order and tightening up the prose, after which I might have three pages of good-quality prose. This method of writing is an iterative process, with pe riods of â€Å"brain dumping† alternating with periods of tidying-up. At the rate of three pages of polished text every nine hours, a typical 60-page PR3 project report will take you about four weeks to complete, working full-time.You must allow time to prepare the appendices (e. g. program listings) and illustrations. Good-quality illustrations, in particular, take a long time to prepare. You should therefore allow at least  six weeks  to write the report. If you kept a note-book during the project period, you will find the writing-up process much easier. 4. How to write well Many students appear not to realize how difficult it is to write well. Any type of writing (except perhaps advertising copy) is difficult, but technical writing is particularly hard. There are many books which address the subject of good technical writing.By far the best among those which I have seen is  Scientists Must Write  by Robert Barrass (1982). Though published over twenty years ago, thi s superb little book is still in print. There are several copies in the J. B. Morrell library, but since it costs only ? 11. 19 (from the  Internet Bookshop), you would be well advised to buy a copy and to read it from cover to cover. 4. 1. Precision You must strive first to be absolutely precise. When you write, it is not sufficient that  you  know what you mean; neither is it sufficient that your writing admits of the meaning which you intend: it must admit of no other meaning.What you write must not be capable of misinterpretation. Take exceptional care to choose the right word for the occasion. Do not, for example, write â€Å"optimum† if you mean â€Å"good†. â€Å"Approximate† means â€Å"close†, so â€Å"very approximate† means â€Å"very close† – which is not what many people seem to think it means. 4. 2. Vigour Precision in writing is mainly a matter of taking sufficient care. Good writing is not only precise, however, it is  vigorous, and that is much harder to achieve. It helps if you have read widely, especially novels. Here are some hints which might help you to write forcefully and vigorously.Prefer short sentences to long sentences. Prefer short words to long words, provided that the short word has the meaning you need. Terseness is a great virtue in technical writing. (But don't go too far; remember Horace's observation: â€Å"Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio†. ) Avoid circumlocutions. â€Å"In almost all sectors of the computing marketplace† can be replaced in most contexts by â€Å"almost everywhere†. The question of whether to use the passive voice in technical writing is a thorny one. Most older writers still write â€Å"a program was written †¦ † rather than â€Å"I wrote a program †¦ ‘. Many of your examiners might share this preference for, or prejudice in favour of, the passive voice, but this style is passing out of favour in all techn ical writing, and I advise you not to use it. Whatever you do, do not use the â€Å"royal we† (â€Å"we wrote a program† when you mean â€Å"I wrote a program†). There is general agreement that Latin phrases are best avoided in technical writing (but the occasional Latin quotation might lend a spurious air of erudition! ) Nevertheless, many careful writers have their own favourite Latin phrases which find occasional use.The best rule is that a Latin phrase is acceptable if it abbreviates a circumlocutionary English phrase. Mutatis mutandis, for example, one of my own favourites, is permissible in place of â€Å"making the appropriate changes†, since any English gloss seems to be ugly and unwieldy. â€Å"I. e. † (note the roman font and punctuation) is often useful in place of â€Å"in other words† or â€Å"that is†, and is widely understood. Quite often, however, â€Å"X, i. e. ,  Y† can be replaced by â€Å"Y†, becaus e the writer realized while writing  X  that  Y  said the same, only better. â€Å"E. g. ‘ is overused and best used sparingly; prefer â€Å"for instance† or â€Å"for example†. 4. 3. Spelling and grammar You must take exceptional care to spell correctly. Poor spelling is a distraction to the proficient reader. In most cases there is very little excuse nowadays for spelling errors; there are many excellent spell-checker programs which make a good job of finding the errors for you, and excellent (paper) dictionaries which will tell you what the correct spelling is. Be especially careful with words whose common misspelling is a correct spelling of a different word, in particular the following pairs: lead/led; loose/lose; affect/effect.It is dangerous to allow the spell-checker to â€Å"correct† a misspelling by itself; many such hilarious â€Å"corrections† have been reported, for example recently in  New Scientist. Believe the spell-checke r. Very many people, for example, on finding that the spell-checker questions â€Å"idiosyncracy† [sic], say to themselves â€Å"it must be missing from the dictionary file†, and leave the word alone. It is – for a good reason. If you have a medical condition which makes it difficult for you to spell correctly, make sure that your supervisor knows about it, so that it can be taken into account by the examiners.If poor spelling is a distraction which impedes understanding, poor grammar is more so. There are so many potential grammatical solecisms that it would be inappropriate to attempt to list them here. Read Fowler's  Modern English Usage  for guidance. This book has been revised several times since its first publication in 1926. The most recent (1998) edition is probably the best to use, not because its recommendations are more permissive or up-to-date, but because it draws attention to traps which it would not have occurred to Fowler in 1926 that anyone could fall into.The original 1926 edition is famous for its vigorous, fiery language, which has been successively watered down in later revisions. Take care with apostrophes. Historically, the apostrophe denoted the omission of one or more letters: don't = do not, John's book = John his book. For this reason, careful writers of British English restrict the possessive use of the apostrophe to animate possessors. You may write â€Å"John's book† but not â€Å"the program's function†, since (so the argument goes) one cannot write â€Å"the program his function†: you must write â€Å"the function of the program† instead.This rule is being steadily eroded under American influence, and will probably soon be obsolete. I mention the â€Å"animate possessor† rule in order to illustrate and to explain a very common blunder. Never  use an apostrophe with a possessive pronoun. â€Å"It's† means â€Å"it is† (the letter that's omitted is an â₠¬Å"i†),  not  Ã¢â‚¬Å"it his†, which is plain silly. One never sees spurious apostrophes in his, hers, ours, yours, theirs; so why does one so often see â€Å"it's† in place of â€Å"its†, which is the correct possessive pronoun?The brain of the experienced reader, on seeing â€Å"it's†, performs a lexical-level macro-expansion, replacing â€Å"it's† by â€Å"it is†. This then fails to make syntactic sense in the context, necessitating a backtracking and re-parsing operation, and conscious expenditure of effort. It really does slow down, and consequently annoy, the reader. This crass and ignorant blunder probably does more to distract and to impede the reader of students' reports than any other grammatical solecism. Summary: â€Å"it's† = â€Å"it is† (needed rarely, if at all, in formal writing). â€Å"Its† is the pronoun (This is my program.Its purpose is to †¦ .) You almost certainly mean â€Å"its†. Even if you yourself do not place a strong emphasis on good spelling and good grammar, most of your examiners do, some fanatically. Most examiners will be irritated by poor spelling and poor grammar. It is always worth doing whatever you can, short of bribery, to put your examiner in a good mood. Write well and spell well, for this reason if for no other! 4. 4. Typography When I prepared my own final-year project report, I wrote it with pen and ink and handed the manuscript to the departmental secretary who typed it for me on an IBM typewriter.Modern practice is different, and now you yourself are responsible for producing a computer-typeset report. This means that you must be familiar both with the formal requirements set out in the Students' Handbook (restricting the number of pages, type size, width of margins, and so on) and with the rudiments of typography. You will not be penalized severely, if at all, if you violate typographical conventions, but good typography creates a subliminal impression akin to that of good proportion in a painting, and is desirable for that reason. Since it is a matter of simply learning and following the rules, you should try to do so.You should learn at least enough (for example) to know the difference between the hyphen, minus, en-dash and em-dash, and when to use each of them. The best and most famous typographical reference book is  Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford  by Horace Hart, known colloquially and universally as â€Å"Hart's Rules†. It is a small book which you should probably read from cover to cover, but you may skip the section on Russian orthography if your report contains no Russian words. This book, like Fowler, has been revised continually since its first publication (in 1904, though it was in use within the O. U. P. ince 1893). The latest edition is dated 1983. It is still in print, almost a century after its first publication, and at ? 8. 79 (from the  Interne t Bookshop), well worth buying. 4. 5. Illustrations Your report should generally contain illustrations (figures or diagrams), but they must be relevant. Ask yourself if the illustration helps the reader to understand the text. If the text is readily comprehensible without the illustration, delete the illustration. If it is not, it is usually better to make the text clearer than to add a diagram. All illustrations should be prepared by an appropriate program, such as  pic,  xfig  or  grap.They should not be hand-drawn. The only common exception to this rule is circuit diagrams: given the current state of the art in schematic-entry packages, a hand-drawn circuit diagram is usually preferable to a computer-drawn one. If possible, include figures close to the text which refers to them, rather than all together in an appendix. Circuit diagrams are, again, a possible exception to this rule. It is normal to list tables and figures at the beginning of the report, after the table of contents. 5. Structure Saepe stilum vertas. – Horace 5. 1. Top-level structure At the top level, a typical report is organized in the following way. 1.Abstract. (This is a couple of paragraphs – no more – which summarizes the content of the report. It must be comprehensible to someone who has not read the rest of the report. ) 2. Introduction. (The scope of the project, setting the scene for the remainder of the report. ) 3. Previous work. (One or more review chapters, describing the research you did at the beginning of the project period. ) 4. Several chapters describing what you have done, focusing on the novel aspects of your own work. 5. Further work. (A chapter describing possible ways in which your work could be continued or developed. Be imaginative but realistic. ) 6.Conclusions. (This is similar to the abstract. The difference is that you should assume here that the reader of the conclusions has read the rest of the report. ) 7. References and appendice s. 5. 2. References References must be relevant. A typical PR3 project report might contain about one page of pertinent references, if the initial research period was well spent. Do not include references which you have not read, no matter how relevant you think they might be. If you refer to standard material which is covered by a large number of text-books, choose one or two really good ones and cite those, rather than a long list of mediocre texts.There are many styles for citing references. Although strict standards (e. g. British Standards) for citing references exist, my advice is not to bother with them; instead, find a reputable journal in the library and copy its style. Alternatively, copy the example below. It's important to be consistent, complete and unambiguous; beyond that, it doesn't matter much what you do. Example citation style: Citations in text:Mander, in â€Å"Notes on a system specification method† [Mander 1983], gives the following †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ as des cribed by Briggs [1983a] †¦Thimbleby's guidelines [Thimbleby 1983] suggest that †¦ Different methodologies have been examined [Tully 1983]. Several recent publications in this field [Wand 1980d, ACM 1971] have been very influential. List of references at end of report: References| ACM 1971. | Association for Computing Machinery,  Second symposium on problems in the optimisation of data communication systems, ACM (1971). | Briggs 1983a. | J. S. Briggs, â€Å"The design of AIR and its use in Ada separate compilation†, in  SERC workshop on Ada software tools interfaces, ed. P. J. Wallis, University of Bath (1983). Downes 1982. | V. A. Downes, S. J. Goldsack,  Programming embedded systems with Ada, Prentice-Hall (1982). | Mander 1983. | K. C. Mander,  Notes on a system specification method, York Computer Science report no. 61, University of York (1983). | Thimbleby 1983. | H. W. Thimbleby, â€Å"Guidelines for `manipulative' text editing†,  Behaviour an d Information Technology,  2, 127 – 161 (1983). | | If you adopt this style, when you cite a reference, you need not repeat the author's name or authors' names (â€Å"Jones and Sanderson [Jones & Sanderson 1999] have shown †¦ †).Write instead: â€Å"Jones and Sanderson [1999] have shown †¦ †, and list the reference as â€Å"Jones & Sanderson 1999†. Alternatively, a system of numbered references, such as the default format produced by the Unix  refer  tool in conjunction with  troff, is acceptable. I myself much prefer numbered citation styles, which I find much less obtrusive and easier on the eye; e. g. â€Å"Jones and Sanderson? have shown †¦ † or â€Å"Jones and Sanderson [1] have shown †¦ †. These forms, which are allowed by the regulations in the Handbook, seem to be the two dominant citation styles in academic journals.You may wish to refer to electronic sources, particularly material found on the World-Wide Web. It is not enough to put â€Å"found on WWW† in place of a citation. The web page â€Å"Bibliographic Formats for Citing Electronic Information† gives advice on citing on-line sources. If possible, avoid citing unpublished literature. It is however acceptable to cite university reports, such as this Department's YCS series, and PhD theses (although getting hold of the latter can be almost impossible). â€Å"References† are always cited in the text. Other works you've made use of but not cited should be listed in a section called â€Å"Bibliography†.Note that â€Å"et al. † requires a period after the abbreviation â€Å"al. † (for â€Å"alia†). It means â€Å"and others†, and may be used only to refer to people, typically in lists of references. It is the animate form of â€Å"etc. †, which also requires a period. 5. 3. Lower-level structure Structure is a recursive concept. A well-structured report has its top-level sections well ordered, and it is easy to get this right; but each section must in itself be well ordered, and that is more difficult. Most paper documents, and many on-line documents, are read linearly from beginning to end.This is certainly true of an examiner reading a project report. Consequently, the writer of a well-structured document avoids forward references wherever possible. Try to avoid writing â€Å"†¦ as we shall see in chapter 10, †¦ †, especially if the material in chapter 10 is essential to an understanding of the text at the point where the reference occurs. Occasionally such references are unavoidable, but more often than not they are a sign that the text needs to be re-ordered. In the old days, re-ordering text entailed â€Å"cutting and pasting† with real scissors and real paste.Nowadays, the word-processor has made these operations so easy that there is no excuse for slovenly structure. Take your time, and keep rearranging words or phras es within sentences, sentences within paragraphs, paragraphs within sections and sections within the whole report until you have got it right. Aim for a logical progression from beginning to end, with each sentence building on the previous ones. If the chapters are numbered 1, 2, 3, †¦ , then the sections within (say) chapter 1 will be numbered 1. 1, 1. 2, †¦ . It is permissible to sub-divide a section: the sub-sections within section 1. 1 will be numbered 1. . 1, 1. 1. 2, †¦ . Do not however nest sub-sections to more than four levels: sub-sub-section 1. 2. 3. 4 is acceptable, but 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 is not. It is quite possible, with care, to write even a large and complex book without using more than three levels. Footnotes are a nuisance to the reader. They interrupt the linear flow of text and necessitate a mental stack-pushing and stack-popping which demand conscious effort. There are rare occasions when footnotes are acceptable, but they are so rare that it is best to avoid them altogether. To remove a footnote, first try putting it in-line, surrounded by parentheses.It is likely that the poor structure which was disguised by the footnote apparatus will then become apparent, and can be improved by cutting and pasting. 6. The role of artefacts in projects Deep down, all students seem to believe that their project is â€Å"to write a program† (or, â€Å"to build a circuit†). They believe that they will be judged by how much their program does. They are amazed when their supervisor is unconcerned about the inclusion or non-inclusion of a listing in the report. They fear that they will be penalized if their program is small-scale or if they do not make grandiose claims for its power and functionality.This leads to reports heavy with code and assertions about code, but light on reasoning. Students omit the reasoning because they are short of time and think the code more important, and thereby they lose credit they could have had. It lea ds also to the omission of testing. Hence there are assertions about the extent of implementation, but no evidence (in the form of records of testing) to back them up. In summary, credit for the implementation is not the whole story; you should not feel under pressure to make claims that you cannot support.Your reports should clearly separate specification, design, implementation and testing. â€Å"The program does  X† should more honestly be â€Å"I wanted the program to do  X; I designed it to do nearly-X; I implemented it to do most-of-X; my testing shows that it did some-of-X  (and here is the evidence of that)†. Taking this advice into account can much improve your mark. 7. You and your supervisor Writing is a solitary pursuit. Whereas your supervisor will guide you through the early stages of your project work, you must write the report on your own.It is a University assessment, and the rules on plagiarism and collusion (do consult the Students' Handbook! ) , and the conventions which restrict the amount of help a supervisor can give, apply. Nevertheless, most supervisors will be happy to read and to comment on drafts of sections of your project report before you hand it in, if you give them enough time to do so. It's also a good idea to ask your supervisor to suggest some high-quality past projects in a similar field to yours, and to look them up in the departmental library.This will give you an idea of what is required. 8. Summary 1. Good writing is difficult, but it is worth taking the trouble to write well. 2. Leonard was trying to form his style on Ruskin: he understood him to be the greatest master of English prose. He read forward steadily, occasionally making a few notes. â€Å"Let us consider a little each of these characters in succession, and first (for of the shafts enough has been said already), what is very peculiar to this church – its luminousness. † Was there anything to be learnt from this fine sentence? Could he adapt it to the needs of daily life? Could he introduce it, with modifications, when he next wrote a letter to his brother, the lay reader? For example: â€Å"Let us consider a little each of these characters in succession, and first (for of the absence of ventilation enough has been said already), what is very peculiar to this flat – its obscurity. † Something told him that the modifications would not do; and that something, had he known it, was the spirit of English Prose. â€Å"My flat is dark as well as stuffy. † Those were the words for him.