Literary Terms Analysis With Examples Essays - Literature, Fiction

Literary Terms Analysis With Examples Literary Terms Analysis with Examples 1) Allusion: An allusion describes a famous literary figure or historical event. In an allusion, the author of a literary work refers to a well-known episode from a book or occasion. Thus, the two things most often alluded to in literature (the two greatest known literary works) deal with Shakespeare's plays and the New Testament. Examples: In modern-day literature, George Orwell alludes to the Evil Empire, in his book, Animal Farm. Orwell was a visionary-only years later would the world come to see that the Iron Curtain Stalin had created formed an Evil Empire which spawned half of Europe, some of Asia, much of Latin America, and some parts of Africa. In Animal Farm, Orwell exposes the reasons why communism does not work-explaining that in a totalitarian state with a dictator and several puppets, or a group of dictators, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And so, in his unpopular satirical allusion to the Soviet Union (which was the goal of his book) Orwell explained what would only be seen by the public a decade later. In The Unvanquished, Faulkner refers to homemade Jordan,-as the blacks believe that when they cross the river they will crossing the river Jordan and getting into the Promised Land, while all that they are crossing is a simple river and they will still be in the same state they are in. The allusion Faulkner makes is to the bible, where the people cross the River Jordan to get into the Promised Land. 2) Ambiguity explains a situation in which the effect produced by literary work makes the reader aware of different interpretations. It uses words or phrases with multiple meanings to achieve a state where the reader sees a vague idea-which he can take to mean different things. Example: In The Chocolate War, Cormier says that for no reason at all, he [Jerry] thought of Gregory Bailey. In this passage, Cormier does not explain what Jerry was thinking, and leaves it up to reader to try and underst and why Jerry would think of person that Brother Leon was constantly picking on. Only later in the book does the reader realize that Jerry too would be in the same position that Gregory was in in Brother Leon's classroom. 3) The antagonist is the bad guy who creates a conflict in a literary work with the good guy. However, the bad guy, does not have to be a person-it can be an event, such as war, or an idea, such as not having any self worth. The conflict created gives the story interest. Example: In Hamlet, King Claudius is the antagonist. At first, he kills King Hamlet through treachery, taking the King's throne and wife. Throughout the rest of the book, he is a poor ruler, who does not have any remorse for his previous actions (not being able to watch a play that shows exactly what he had done), and tries to kill his stepson. In the process, Claudius destroys the Danish royal family and its rule over Denmark. Thus, Claudius, being the driving force which ruins a country and famil y is the antagonist in Shakespeare's Hamlet. 4) Diction describes the word choice in a novel. Formal or informal language, general or specific words, abstract or concrete words all have an effect on how the writer sounds. Example: In The Unvanquished, at the beginning of the book, Philadelphy says to Loosh, her husband, Hush your mouth, nigger! after Loosh alluded to the fact that the Yankees were winning the Civil War to Bayard and Ringo. Here, a wife refers to her husband with derogatory language. In this instance, Faulkner chose to use this word to better establish the point that Philadelphy does not agree with Loosh's militant ways. 5) Dramatic Irony refers to when the audience of a literary work knows or perceives something that the character in the work does not know. This is most often seen in plays and creates a scene of humor or tragedy that the audience knew was going to happen-although the character had no idea of the situation s/he was being led in to. Example: In Shakes peare's Hamlet, nearing the end

How to Find the Best Lab Essay Sample

How to Find the Best Lab Essay SampleWriting a lab essay sample can be very difficult, but if you know how to go about it, it can become easier. You need to know what to look for and you also need to have the best writer skills possible. It will help to start with an essay sample that is extremely easy.The first thing you should do when looking for a lab essay sample is to make sure the topic is one that can be answered in a short sentence or two. For example, if the essay is about research papers, the topic should be very simple to understand. The fewer words you use the better it will be for you to write your own essay.An essay which is not good to read will not give you much confidence to write one either. It's fine to write a lot of words, but if they are too many it will get in the way of you thinking and this is the last thing you want. You also want to make sure the topic you choose is interesting enough to read as well.If the topic is difficult to understand, then it will tak e you longer to find the information you need. Also, if you are going to take the time to write an essay you will have a better chance of doing it right. So, make sure that the essay sample you choose has easy language that you can understand and is something that will be easy to read. It's also very important that you know what to look for in terms of grammar.One thing that you can do to help you learn how to write a lab essay is to find someone who knows a lot about writing, ask them to write you an essay and then see how it turns out. Then take what you learn from their writing skills and apply it to your own essay. If the essay looks good to you, then you will have a better chance of doing it right. Remember, don't copy their essays word for word!You also need to know the format that you want to use for your essay before you go to look for an essay sample. You should look for a sample which has been turned into a booklet by the school where you are going to take the test. This i s the perfect example, because it will help you figure out how to use the guidebook in your essay.You should also try to look for a good essay guide before you actually begin the assignment. That way you can know that you are getting the best information. If you don't get this information, then you might run into trouble. And if you don't get the guidance you need from the guidebook, then you might find yourself struggling to write your own essay.No matter what type of essay you are writing, make sure that you have taken the time to look for an essay sample that will give you the help you need. Look at as many different examples as you can so that you can see how the writing is done. And make sure that you have the best information for your essay, it's not always necessary to find a good writer to do the work for you.

The Evolution of Decency †Government Essay

The Evolution of Decency – Government Essay Free Online Research Papers The Evolution of Decency Government Essay Most people will tell you people that receive the death penalty deserve it. I wouldnt disagree. The death they caused was certainly cruel, possibly unusual, but were not an eye for an eye society anymore, thanks to the evolving standards of the American people. If someone strikes someone, do they deserve to be struck? Of course they do. But you dont get to strike them. When you commit murder, you do essentially give up your rights, and your life. You’re sent to jail for the rest of it. Does anyone you know have the goal of getting into jail? I doubt it; its not exactly much of a life. In Furman vs. Georgia the Supreme Court found that not only did accidental murder not constitute the death penalty, but that it would be cruel and unusual to apply the death penalty in such a case. I would simply consider this somewhat of a precedent in what constitutes the death penalty. It takes a fairly serious crime/murder/death/whatever to get the death penalty. Before I continue, I notice that what these Supreme Court cases seem to say is that the death penalty itself is not cruel and unusual punishment, but that if the crime doesnt deserve the death penalty that its cruel and unusual punishment. I tend to think that since they ultimately ruled that the electric chair and gas chambers were cruel and unusual punishment, that this means the idea that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment is at the very least, open to a good debate. I also believe there is not an un-cruel or unusual way of killing someone. It strikes me that keeping someone on death row for years, a nd then strapping them down before an audience including their own family, and the victim’s family, and then administering injections causing their breathing and heart to stop, is kind of unusual, and perhaps cruel. Also, theres a lot happening in the debate on the death penalty right now. Recently a U.S. Supreme Court justice temporarily blocked an execution. Even more recently, a man was suppose to be executed, but they were required to have an anesthesiologist put them to sleep to alleviate any pain that would be involved with the execution. Everyone who was authorized to give it refused to do so, and the execution was put on hold indefinitely. Now the argument comes before the court on whether or not lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. There are also rare cases where the dose doesn’t actually kill the person that is supposed to be executed, and he somehow lives. I think it would be pretty cruel and unusual to then make him go through it again. Most st ates, from what I understand, wont. Gregg vs. Georgia is relatively simple. There was a man who was convicted of armed robbery and murder. The court decided three things. A. it is cruel and unusual punishment for someone to be executed for armed robbery, so that charge didn’t even stand. Not just that it was not deserving of the death penalty, but like I said; it would be cruel and unusual to give it to him for that charge. B. the murder charge constituted the death penalty, and C. it would not be cruel or unusual for him to receive the death penalty for murder. To me, it sounds like an awful lot of debating going on. While it is a clearly established precedent that you have to murder someone to receive the death penalty, it then again, depends on the nature of the murder. So, we still have the debate on whether or not its cruel or unusual to give someone the death penalty for certain kinds of murder. Again though, there are some internal debates. What kind of death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, and what is not? Is the death penalty itself cruel and unusual punishment? And more specifically, is lethal injection cruel or unusual? The death penalty has always been unfair to African Americans. The jury system tends to be unfair. African Coker vs. Georgia is a hard case for me to understand. However, it sounds to me like the prisoner had a death wish. He was in jail for conviction of murder; he breaks out, rapes a woman, and steals her car. It sounds to me like he thought he had nothing to lose, although, I dont know why he wasnt already on death row for murder. He might have been, but I didn’t see any clear evidence in the case saying so. Georgia tried to give him the death penalty for raping the woman. The court ruled that it was grossly disproportionate to the crime. I would agree, and I would say it is apparent that there is something gross about Georgia’s apparent over zealous love for the death penalty. So they ruled that it would be cruel and/or unusual punishment to give him the death penalty given that he didnt take the womans life. Now if any two of these cases tie together, it would be this one, and Gregg vs. Georgia. Rape did not constitute the death penalty, and neither did armed robbery. Stanford vs. Kentucky I disagree with. Basically they ruled that you can execute a juvenile offender, and that it is necessary to look at societys evolving standards of decency. I disagree with that. If the Supreme Court is going to look at the evolving standards of the nation, who is to say what we would allow next? First, you can convict a juvenile offender. What’s next? If the justices keep it up, it will not be too long before NAMBLA is able to get away with their â€Å"rape and escape† tactics. Roper vs. Simmons directly ties to Stanford vs. Kentucky, because this guy was sentenced to death at 17, and once again involved in societys evolving standards of decency. I’m not entirely opposed to national opinion; in fact I think it’s healthy as a nation to have evolving standards. I do believe however that there should be a standard on how far we should evolve. Abraham and many other known Biblical persons were known to have multiple wives. It was the norm, and it was accepted by society. Did that make it right? Of course it doesn’t make it right. Here is an interesting tidbit. â€Å"On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the government argued that allowing a state court to overturn a Supreme Court decision by looking at evolving standards would be dangerous, because state courts could just as easily decide that executions prohibited by the Supreme Court (such as the execution of the mentally ill in Atkins v. Virginia) were now permissible due to a change in the beliefs of the American people.† I agree. It is dangerous. So, they overturned the decision in Stanford vs. Kentucky and ruled that it was unconstitutional and cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a minor to death. Couldn’t we just solve all of these problems, and abolish the death penalty? We have societys ever changing and evolving standards of decency, which means precedent (which is important in courts) is subject to change. There’s the argument of the burden of the tax payer. It costs the government plenty of money to perform an execution, too. Is there any real way to kill someone that is not cruel or unusual? Should the government sanction it? Perform it? While were talking about societys evolving standards of decency, if thats any measure of where the death penalty is; I would say it is on its way out. Hanging was ruled unconstitutional. So were the gas chambers. So was the electric chair. All because of societys evolving standards of decency. Proponents of the death penalty hang on to lethal injection. On the moral issue, which is the equivalent of society’s evolving standards of decency,† it’s important to know that those evolving standards look back on hanging and such things as dark moments in our country. While most of society doesnt hold that view about lethal injection, nothing says they wont at some point, and in fact, I believe if more Americans knew more of the details; it would be hard to argue that lethal injection isnt cruel and unusual. Certainly, we have flaws in the system. It is cruel and unusual to minors; it is cruel and unusual to the mentally ill. All previous forms of the death penalty have been declared cruel and unusual. We cant have a system with flaws, or prejudice, or thats disproportionately unfair. So, let’s avoid the debate, work out the flaws, and end it. Research Papers on The Evolution of Decency - Government EssayCapital PunishmentThe Fifth HorsemanArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)The Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationPETSTEL analysis of IndiaPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayBringing Democracy to Africa

10 Tips for Getting a Staff Writing Job

10 Tips for Getting a Staff Writing Job 10 Tips for Getting a Staff Writing Job 10 Tips for Getting a Staff Writing Job By Mark Nichol Chances are that your job involves some writing, but perhaps demonstrating that skill doesn’t constitute enough of your workload, or it’s not the type of writing you’d like to do. Or perhaps you’re still in college, or have a job that doesn’t involve writing any more complicated than signing your time sheet. Regardless of your situation, at least some of the following tips will help lead you toward the writing job you want. 1. Develop a portfolio of college or continuing-education writing projects that resemble the work you would like to do professionally, and distribute it, or samples from it, to people who work at a company or in a profession that interests you. 2. Blog about your passions, on your own blog or someone else’s. Again, emulate the kind of writing you want to get paid to do. 3. Find people who do what you want to do for a living and volunteer to do some writing for them to supplement, not to pass off as, their own assignments. 4. Submit articles to a local publication or to a website for a nonprofit organization with a mission or an area of interest that appeals to you. If they can’t pay you, offer to write for them anyway (at first). 5. Obtain an internship in a professional field you’d like to be part of, and persist in asking people you report to for writing assignments until they comply just to get you out of their office. Make yourself indispensable so that when a writing position is created or becomes vacant, managers will think of you. 6. Get an entry-level job in a company or organization that sells or does something you like, and act like an intern. And, just as an intern should, become the person known for stepping up and solving problems so that your name comes up when a writing-job vacancy appears. 7. To help you develop your skills, study the publications you desire to contribute to or familiarize yourself with the types of documents you wish to write. 8. At informational interviews, ask what people in the interviewees’ positions look for when they assign or accept content, and refer them to your blog or another online source of samples of your writing and ask if they can spare some time later for a brief critique. 9. Volunteer for a group or organization that supports or otherwise is integral to the profession you want to work in. Offer to be a chapter secretary or outreach coordinator or webmaster/website content manager all jobs that require writing. 10. Start out as a freelance writer (search this site for those keywords for information and advice), and ask your clients to let you know about job openings at their company or elsewhere in the industry. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Grammar Test 1Do you "orient" yourself, or "orientate" yourself?Educational vs. Educative

IT Shoes Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

IT Shoes Business Plan - PowerPoint Presentation Example The present research has identified that IT Shoes business is as well popularly known for supplying high quality materials which is used to manufacture high quality shoes. The company’s shoes sizes ranges from 5 to 10. The IT Shoes company long term plan is to become the world leader in the supply of ladies shoes. The company current popularity and increased sales and profitability is to a great extent brought about by its reputation in offering convenient means of selling its shoes to local customers. Therefore, to become the world leaders in the contemporary multifaceted global market, the company ought to have an effective business plan which incorporates views and options of all players. Moreover, based on the available financial statistics, the business requires some external financial assistance to facilitate its long term development plan. Moreover, the level of the company market competition is relatively low compared to other global markets. The subsequent essay there fore offers and effective IT shoes business. The IT Shoes business intends to be the world leaders in ladies shoes. The company also intends to develop a good reputation in providing convenient means of selling goods through all marketing means including online marketing. Moreover, to effectively compete in modern market, the organisation ought to develop a good reputation for reliable delivery in local and international market. The organisation as well has a vision of becoming overall shoes dealers in European market. Products The company long term plan is to be in a position of providing convenient, trustworthy, and safe means of selling its products in local and global markets. A part from its current variety, the IT Shoes Company also plans to increase its variety by including other several emerging types of shoes. In the next five years, the IT Shoes Company is therefore planning to increase the variety of fashionable shoes, widen the variety of its shoes styles and colours, in crease the quality of shoes which is used to manufactures shoes, as well as selling half size shoes (Reuters 26). Expected Annual Sales and Profit for the year Sales $ 500,000 Expenses $ 450000 Profit $ 50000 Form of Payment IT Shoes business is planning to avail all forms of payment including EFTPOS and cash. The aim of this plan is to enable the company’s customers to purchase their products in large quantity at any time. On the other hand, the company is planning to ensure that, it fully abides by the existing regulations in their plans to introduce new payment mechanisms. At present, the IT Shoes Company relies on several forms of payments including cheques, money orders, master cards and visa. Key Partners The main aims of the involvement of partners in the business plan is to enable the company reduce its operation cost and increased the general profitability. Being the main targeted market areas, IT Shoes company key partners are night clubs and bars. Night clubs and b ars help the IT Shoes business to effectively market its products to its potential customers. On the other hand, vending machine providers are also the major partners of the company. In its plan, IT Shoes plans to distribute readymade products to its products to new markets areas. Value Proposition and Customer Relationship At present, the IT Shoes Company has successfully identified the existing value addiction gap in shoes industry. In its operations and marketing strategy, the IT Shoes Co

Ways to improve the value of employees work contribution Essay

Ways to improve the value of employees work contribution - Essay Example The firm that is analyzed in the paper is the Upper Room Soup Kitchen as one of the long serving soup kitchens in Prince Edward Island in Canada serving to the need of the needy and hungry people in the area. During a two weeks voluntary work in the soup kitchen, as a management student I realized that the value the employees added to operations of the business and towards meeting the goals of the Soup Kitchen in serving the needs of the hungry in Prince Edward Island were constrained. This is despite the fact that most of the employees in the Soup kitchen were volunteers even though there was other long term paid employees. Notably, the food donation system was in disarray with the records of food donations received not properly managed. In addition, though there were quite a considerable amount of food donations received in a week, at times the soup kitchen would record shortages in key foods required, while have excesses of some other. Some of these foods that were not usually use d stayed in the storage for too long and when they went bad, they would be discarded. This brought a point that indeed not only were employees’ contribution for effective running up of the place low, but also was the food donation and recording system lacking. After learning about SSM method which is a means through which problems can be holistically resolved, the researcher thought of Upper Room Soup Kitchen’s problems and decided to develop solutions based on this SSM model that would help the manager of the soup kitchen ensure smoother running. The expressed problem situation With the above problem situation, phone interviews were conducted with five soup kitchen employees from various departments and the manger of the soup kitchen to get a grasp on the problem. The Upper Room soup Kitchen whose goal is to meet some food needs of the hungry people in Prince Edward Island through provision of low fat high nutrition healthy meals to this population is faced not only w ith low employee contribution in meeting its goals but also inefficiencies in the management of its food donation system. Markos and Sridevi (2010:91) indeed asserts that for value of employee contribution in an organization to be improved, the employees’ activities and goals need be aligned the organizations goals. Though the employees in the soup kitchen perform their daily duties well, a sense of laxity in the organization has made inefficient several systems that are core to the organization meeting its goals. For instance, the employees in charge of communicating the food needs of the organization to various stakeholders in order to align the food needs of the soup kitchen to those that are received have experienced some problems in that some of

The Strategy Formulation Framework Tourism Essay

The Strategy Formulation Framework Tourism Essay 2.0 Introduction Chapter 2 will introduce the users about the Methodology used in conducting the research and analysis of the strategies used by Saba Restaurant. The type of methodology used in the conducting this research is The Strategy-Formulation Framework. The purposes of introducing this methodology to the user are to provide the information by which the validity of the research will be ultimately judged. This is to ensure that the team that carries out the research will be able to provide the users with clear and precise descriptions of how the research and analysis was done, and the rationale for the specific key points chosen. In such this will allow the users of the report to carry out similar strategy formulation method to evaluate whether the results are reproducible, and also allow the users to judge whether the results and conclusions are relevant, reliable and valid in the sense that the result will reflect the business natures and it industries. 2.1 Vision and Mission Statement First and foremost for the first part of the Chapter 2, the users will be introduced about the formulation and the evaluation of a companys vision and mission statement. To enable an organization to formulate and implement good alternative strategies, a clear vision and mission statements are needed. This part will be focusing on the concepts and tools needed to evaluate and formulate a good business vision and mission statement. In order to give users a better understanding on vision and mission statement of a business, it is important to focus on the business when it is first started. Vision and mission statements are the resulting written documents which mirrors the basic ideas of the sets of belief about a business. It is crucial for the owner or manager to revise the founding set of beliefs as the business starting to grow. Those new ideas will then be reflected in the revised vision and mission statement. Synergies are said to be achieved when the managers and employees work together to formulate the vision and mission statements for an organization. As a result of such work, the output gained in the form of resultant documents can reflect the personal visions that managers and employees have in their hearts and minds about their own futures. In the end, such shared vision will create commonality of interest within the organization that will motivate both the employees and management to achieve the organizational goal as one. 2.1.1 Vision Statement Evaluation In order to formulate a good vision statement, it is important to involve all the managers and executives in an organization to come out with a common agreed vision that will strives to achieve in the long-term organizational goals. Basically, most of the organizations nowadays have both a vision and mission statement but in order for an organization to operate in long run, the vision statement should be established first and followed by the establishment of the mission statement of an organization. A clear vision statement should be able to answer the question of What do we want to become? Thus, the said vision will able to provide the organisation the foundation for developing a comprehensive mission statement in which that enables an organization to operate effectively and efficiently in the short-run. A vision statement basically is evaluated based on the following characteristics: Should be short and clear, preferably in one sentence; and Should involve as many managers or executives as possible when developing the vision statement. All in all, it is very important to have a clear vision statement before an organization set up its mission statement in order to have a clear view of an organizations long term business operation and to always strive for the vision to achieve desired future position of the company. 2.1.2 Mission Statement Evaluation In order to formulate an effective mission statement, the mission statement should always be broad in scope. The term broad in scope highlight the relationship between specificity and generality of the mission statement. Due to the fact that an overly specificity statement would most likely limit the potential of creative growth for the organization; while an overly generality statement which includes various strategy alternatives could lead to dysfunctional in an organization. Thus, an effective mission statement should be able to answer the question What is our business? As a mission statement reveals an organizations effort in become what they want to be and whom they wish to serve their products and services. A good mission statement will enable the management of an organization in the formulation and consideration of a range of possible alternative objectives and strategies without excessively limiting the management creativity. Besides that, an effective mission statement needs to be reconciliatory so that the organization is able to reconcile the differences effectively among the organizations diverse stakeholders and appeal these differences to them. Nonetheless, a good mission statement should be able to assist organization in identifying the relative attention that it needs to dedicate to meeting the claims and obligations to various stakeholders. The harmony relationship between the specificity and generality of mission statement is usually difficult to achieve, but it is well worth the effort. The following characteristics are what an effective mission statement should have: Broad in scope; do not include monetary amount, numbers percentages, ratios, or objectives Less than 250 words in length Inspiring Identify the utility of a firms products Reveal that the firm is both socially and environmentally responsible Reconciliatory Enduring Include the nine mission statement components Nevertheless, as mission statement is often the most visible and public part of the strategic-management process, it is important that it also includes the nine components which made up of the following: Customers Who are the firms customers? Product/Services What are the firms major products and services? Markets Where does the firm compete (geographically)? Technology Is the firm technologically current? Survival, growth profitability Is the firm committed to growth and financial soundness? Philosophy What are the basic beliefs, values, aspirations and ethical priorities of the firm? Self-concept What is the firms distinctive competence or major competitive advantage? Public image Is the firm responsive to social, community, and environmental concern? Employees Are employees treated as valuable assets of the firm? In conclusion, an effective business mission statement must be able to reflect the judgments about the future growth directions and strategies that are able to achieve an organizations long-term goals and objectives. Besides that, an effective mission statement should provide useful criteria for selecting among alternative strategies and act as a basis for decision making over various strategic option. Thus enable the organization to determine the best alternative strategies to strive for and what type of decisions to be made in order to achieve the organizations goal and objectives. As such, the mission statement should be updated often to stay relevant. 2.2 Strategy-Formulation Framework Chapter 2 Part 2 will be discussing about the Strategy Formulation Framework in details to enable users to understand the nature of the framework and also to understand each stages of strategy formulation framework. Strategic management analysis plays an important role in an organization as it largely involves  managers, executives or strategists in making critical alternative decisions based on objectives information. Users will able to understand the important concepts that help managers, executives or strategist in formulating, evaluating and deciding which alternatives is the best course of action. Factors that will determine the decision of the management in generating alternative strategies are the External Environment Forces and the Internal Environment Forces. Both the External and Internal Environments Forces have strong relationship within organizations, as these forces are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) that the organizations currently have and will be anticipating in the near future. Firstly any changes the External Environment Forces will affect the consumer demand for both industrial and consumer products and services. Nevertheless, the external forces also directly affect both suppliers and distributors. Any changes made in the external force will ultimately alter an organizations effort on the opportunities and threats anticipation. Organizations will able to develop clear mission, develop long-term strategies and develop policies to achieve annual objectives and organizational goals through identifying and evaluating both external opportunities and threats. The external environments forces include the following factors that will be used to evaluate and gather information on organizations opportunities and threats: Key External Forces Demographic Forces Factors comprises of the demographic forces are usually the population demographic such as age, gender race distributions, marriage divorce rates, immigration rate, education systems, education levels, distribution of income wealth, and other factors that will affect the populations demographic Economic Forces These forces mainly consist of factors such as inflation rate, GDP growth rate, unemployment rates, import or export conditions and other factors that will generally affect the economics of the world. Political/Legal Forces Factors which needed to be consider in this forces are the government stability relations with other countries, government spending and taxation policies, industrial policies, laws and regulations on employments, environment protection, foreign trade, duties and tariffs, and other factors that may affect these type of forces. Socio-cultural Forces Socio-cultural forces mainly consists the factors of the social class structure and mobility, the attitudes towards lifestyle trends, work places, consumerism and environmentalism, and other factors in which might affect these type of forces. Technology Forces Factors such as the new discoveries or development in the industry, speed of technological transfer, obsolescence rates within own or related industry, government polices and spending on research, technology changes and others should be considered. Global Forces Global forces mainly consists of factors arises from all other external forces that are in relation to global contexts. Physical Forces Factors that focus on the physical existences and locations of an organization in a specific area will affect its market capabilities. Industry Forces Industry forces mainly comprises of the competitive forces of an organization with all its competitors in the industry. Factors such as the bargaining power of customers suppliers, threat of new competitors substitute products or services and rivalry among existing competitors. Secondly, the Internal Environment Forces will be the organizations Strengths and Weaknesses in the functional areas of business. No organization is equally strong or weak in all areas. Objectives and strategies are established with the purpose of capitalizing the organizations internal strength to overcome the weaknesses. An organization strengths and weaknesses can be seen and evaluated from its effort in marketing, finance, accounting, management, management information system, production or operation and its research development efforts. The internal environment forces include the following factors which will be used to evaluate and gather information on organizations strengths and weaknesses: Key Internal Forces Resources This key internal factor mainly focuses on the organizations internal resources such as materials or other assets that are used to produce economical benefits for the organization. Examples of such factors are the financial resources, human resources, physical resources and other resources that may affect an organizations operation. Capabilities Capability is the ability of an organization to initiate and perform its daily operation. It concern about the ability of an organization to utilize the resources and transform them into future benefits, and to create competitiveness edge over its competitors. Core Competencies Core Competency is reflected as a unique ability that an organization has which cannot be easily imitated that give an organization one or more competitive advantages, in creating and delivering value to its customers in its industry. Then again, the Strategy-Formulation Framework is regarded as important strategy-formulation techniques which are integrated into a three-stage decision-making framework. The tools used in this framework are applicable to all organizations type and able to help strategists formulate, evaluate and select strategies. Stage I: The Input Stage External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) Internal Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix Stage II: The Matching Stage Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) Matrix Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix Internal-External (IE) Matrix Grand Strategy Matrix Stage III: The Decision Stage Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) Table 1 As show in Table 1, Stage 1 of the formulation framework consists of the EFE Matrix, the IFE Matrix and the Competitive Profile Matrix. Being the Input Stage, Stage 1 act as the basic input to summarize the information needed to formulate strategies. This information is largely dependent on the Key External and Internal Forces that managements or strategists have identified and evaluated. Stage 2 which is the Matching Stage, focuses on generating feasible alternative strategies by using the key external and internal factors that have been summarized in Stage 1. Tools in Stage 2 include the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Matrix, the Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix, the Boston Consultation Group (BCG) Matrix, the Internal-External (IE) Matrix and lastly the Grand Strategy Matrix. Results from Stage 1 and 2 are then be used in Stage 3 to indicate which alternative strategies are the best for the organization in its current state and to achieve long term objectives. Stage 3 also known as the Decision Stage involves a single analytical technique that is designed to determine the relative attractiveness of feasible alternative strategies or actions. Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) uses input information from Stage 1 to objectively evaluate feasible alternative strategies identified in Stage 2. As QSPM will reveals the relative attractiveness of alternative strategies and thus provide an objective basis for selecting specific strategies. Details on all nine techniques of strategy formulation framework will be further discussed in the following part starting from Chapter 2 part 3. 2.3 Stage 1: The Input Stage Stage 1 of the formulation framework consists of the EFE Matrix, the IFE Matrix, and the Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM). As the Input Stage, these three tools basically are the summary of basic input information needed to formulate strategies. The information derived from these three matrixes will provide the basic input information for the Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the framework. 2.3.1 External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix In stage 1, users will be focusing on identifying an organizations internal and external environment factors by using The External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix. EFE Matrix also known as the Industry Analysis focuses on summarizing and evaluating an organizations external environment which covers the industrys economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological, and competitive information. These external environment forces will ultimately affect an organization in making decision on choosing feasible strategies alternatives to meet its long term goal. Table 2 is the example of EFE Matrix. The rest of the page is left blank as intended Key External Factors Weight Rating Weight Score Opportunities 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Threats 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Total 1.00 Table 2 Steps in developing EFE Matrix List a total of 16 to 24 key external factors consist of both opportunities and threats that affect an organizations industry which are identified in Chapter 3 External Environment. Information picked should be as specific or objectives as possible, using percentages, ratios and comparative numbers. Assign each factor with a weight that ranges from 0.0 (not important) to 1.0 (very important). Usually opportunities receive higher weights than threats, but if threats are severe or threatening, then it should be given higher weights. The sum of all weights assigned to the factors must equal to 1.0 Assign a rating between 1 and 4 for each key external factor. This is to indicate how an organizations current strategies will effectively respond to these external factors, where 4 = superior response, 3 = above average response, 2 = average response and 1 = poor response. Multiply each factors weight by its rating to determine a weighted score. Sum the weighted score for each variable to determine the total weighted score for chosen organization. Factors includes in EFE Matrix should always be as objective as possible, where factors should be stated in quantitative terms to the extent, rather than being just vague terms. No matter how many numbers of key opportunities and threats included in an EFE Matrix, the maximum or highest possible total weighted score for an organization will always be 4.0 and the minimum or lowest possible total weighted score is 1.0 and an average score of 2.5. Rating above average rating of 2.5 indicates that the organization is taking the advantage of existing opportunity and minimizes the potential threats; rating below 2.5 indicates that an organization is not effectively taking advantage on the external opportunities and also trying to avoid the threat they are facing. As conclusion, the EFE is used to summarize and evaluate the key external opportunities and threats that are beyond the control of the organization. 2.3.2 Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) Other than External Factors Evaluation (EFE) Matrix, Stage 1 also includes the Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) that is used to identify an organizations major competitors and its particular strengths and weaknesses in relation to a sample organizations strategic position. Similar to EFE Matrix, the weights and total weighted scores in CPM have the same meaning and purposes. Illustration of Table 3 will further allow users to understand the calculation and evaluation of a CPM. Company A Company B Company C Critical Success Factors Weight Rating (1-4) Score Rating (1-4) Score Rating (1-4) Score Advertising Product Quality Price Competitive Management Financial Position Customer Loyalty Global Expansion Market Share Total 1.00 Table 3 Critical Success Factors in the CPM include both the internal and external forces issues that make up the factors in the EFE Matrix and IFE Matrix, and thus the ratings for the factors are referred to strengths and weaknesses, whereby 4 =major strength, 3 = minor strength, 2 = minor weakness, and 1 = major weakness. However, these critical success factors are not grouped into opportunities and threats as the ones in the EFE Matrix. The rating and total weighted scores for rival firms can be used to compare the competitive performance to the sample firm. The results from the comparative analysis will provide important internal strategic information. However, users have to aware that they should avoid assigning the same rating to firms included in the CPM analysis. Nonetheless, users should also be reminded that the rating in a CPM are not aiming to arrive at a single number, but rather to integrate and evaluate information that aids in decision making. In conclusion, the CPM is used to identify a firms major competitors and its particular strengths and weaknesses in relation to a sample firms strategic position. The rating results from CPM should be used to aid an organization in decision making. 2.3.3 Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix Last technique used in Stage 1 will be the Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix. Users will be focusing on constructing IFE to summarize and evaluate on the internal strategic management or the major strengths and weaknesses in the functional area of an organization. When developing IFE Matrix, users are required to use their intuitive judgments. Below is an example of IFE Matrix which is illustrated in Table 4. Key Internal Factors Weight Rating Weight Score Strengths 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Weaknesses 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Total 1.00 Table 4 Steps in developing IFE Matrix List a total of 16 to 24 key internal factors consists of both strengths and weaknesses which are identified in Chapter 3s Internal Environment. Information picked should be as specific or objectives as possible, using percentages, ratios and comparative numbers. Assign each factor with a weight that ranges from 0.0 (not important) to 1.0 (very important). The sum of all weights assigned to the factors must equal to 1.0. Factors being strengths or weaknesses that have the greatest impact on organizational performance should be given the highest weights. Assign a rating of 1 to 4 to each key internal factor. Rating 1 = major weakness, 2 = minor weakness, 3 = minor strengths and 4 = major strengths. Beware that only weaknesses will receive rating 1 to 2; and strength will receive rating 3 to 4. Multiply each factors weight by its rating to determine a weighted score. Sum the weighted score for each variable to determine the total weighted score for chosen organization. Just like EFE Matrix, factors includes in IFE Matrix should always be as objective as possible, where factors should be stated in quantitative terms to the extent, rather than being just vague terms. No matter how many numbers of key internal strengths and weaknesses that are included in an IFE Matrix, the total weighted score can range from a low of 1.0 to a high of 4.0 and an average score of 2.5. Rating above average rating of 2.5 indicates that the organization is internally strong, while rating below 2.5 indicates the organization is internally weak. It is important to user that while developing IFE Matrix, try not to have the financial ratio analysis as key internal factors to be more than 30 percent of the total factors. This is because financial ratios are generally the result of many other factors and thus this may create confusion and disorient the organization in which strategies to be considered based on the financial ratios analysis. In conclusion, the IFE Matrix is used as a technique to summarize and evaluate the key internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, also to act as a basis for identifying and evaluating the relationship among the key internal factors. By the end of Stage 1, users will now able to understand the use of the three techniques or tools (EFE Matrix, CPM and IFE Matrix) to summarize and evaluating both key internal and external factors of the organizations and its industries. Next part of the Chapter 2 will be focusing on the Stage 2 of the Strategy Formulation Framework which is the Matching Stage.