Night of the tempest

It was approaching midnight on a warm winter night, rare in medieval England, with the moon halfway on its journey towards fullness.   Rarer still was the tempest, an approaching storm that brought howling winds, crackling light bolts and ear piercing thunder to the winter night sky.   Isadore had never seen a thunder storm in the winter.   She had only heard tell of it once, the year before her birth 23 years ago.   Each bolt of lightning combined with the moonlight that peeked through the winter clouds to reveal strange shadows lurking everywhere in the darkness around every corner, behind each tree, jumping suddenly from under each large rock. Isadore was approaching her uncle’s home, a large, frightening and imposing structure in appearance with high arches, several towers and a ghastly allure.   She wanted nothing more than to be snug, warm and comfortable under the covers of a nice, soft bed.   Despite its outward appearance, Isadore had heard that inside, the house was actually quite warm, inviting and comfortable.   It was not the dà ©cor, but the atmosphere inside and surrounding the outside of the house that brought bewilderment and fear. Once a house of horrors, the air of past events within its walls had never gone away but hung ominously in the air like an omen of future misgivings.   They lingered inside like the fearsome shadows she now perceived outside.   During its 120 years of existence, the house had been the scene of grotesque tortures, hideous punishments and cruel, mysterious deaths.   Now, as Isadore approached the house, a chill in her soul, she had to wonder, â€Å"Was this rare, strange winter thunderstorm the foreboding of impending disaster and doom?† As Isadore approached the gated house in her coach, she could not help but wonder what the storm might signal, if anything.   Each bolt of lightning highlighted the cathedral arches and high towers of the house, and as her coach drew nearer to the gloomy exterior of the house, the tempest grew stronger, the winds howled more intensely and the air grew thicker with an atmosphere of horror and fear.   Could the inside atmosphere be any more frightening than the cold, exterior atmosphere of the winter night. Despite the strange warmth of the winter night, the sense surrounding the abode was still cold, as if the cold exited the doors of the house and poured out into the surrounding countryside.   Even in the distance, Isadore could see that the â€Å"approaching† storm was no where in the distance.   It hung over the house like a cloud of evil.   Indeed, the storm seemed to be forming there, and continued to grow in intensity over the house as Isadore's coach drew closer to the gates. Upon its arrival at the front gate, the coachman announced, â€Å"We have arrived My Lady.†Ã‚   He got down, opened the door and assisted her out of her coach.   She had no sooner stepped onto the ground when a bolt of lightning came from out of nowhere, struck a barren winter tree some few paces away and brought it tumbling towards the ground.   Now startled and quite concerned, the incident sent a chill throughout Isadore's soul, but not as much of a chill as what she saw next.   A few moments after the tree struck the ground, the door of the abode opened and there, standing in the opening was†¦a man; a frightening, hideous being. As this man stood in the archway, Isadore stared in horror.   He spoke and fortunately, his voice was as pleasant as his appearance was hideous.   It was almost mesmerizing.   Then, as the wind howled with increasing vociferousness, he approached the gate to open it.   Once he was near her, he asked for and received Isadore's bags and assisted her through the gates and into the manor. Much to her relief, the inside decor was a appealing as she had heard, but the atmosphere was anything but.   It was as if the atmosphere had stories to tell, strange and wonderful, yet frightening and macabre. When the door closed behind her, it slammed hard enough that its knocker actually sounded as if someone was at the door.   The man, merely a servant, asked Isadore to wait in the parlor while he fetched the master.   â€Å"I will take your bags to your room, My Lady, if that meets with your approval, and fetch the master.† â€Å"Thank you, that suits me fine.†Ã‚   Then he left.   Only an instant after he left, Isadore thought she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye.   When she looked up, she saw the hem of a dress disappearing through the crack of a closing door.   Perhaps that is what it was, for as she stood there watching, the crack remained and the door never closed. Less than five minutes later, her uncle, the master, arrived, a young, handsome man perhaps in his early 30s, and greeted Isadore warmly.   After a few moments of introductions and pleasantries, Isadore asked about the woman in the dress. Looking puzzled, the Master remarked, â€Å"The woman in the dress?   I don't understand.   We are quite alone, just you, me and the servant you saw.   Otherwise, the house is empty†¦except perhaps†¦.†Ã‚   He stopped there and said nothing more, so Isadore asked, â€Å"Except perhaps what?† â€Å"Oh, nothing.   I†¦I guess I was about to say except perhaps the howling wind outside.   It's no concern.   My servant will take you to your chamber.† â€Å"Dear sir, I wonder†¦I don't mean anything by this, but would you mind accompanying me yourself?   Your servant sends chills up my spine.   I'm sure he is a nice enough person.   His voice is absolutely mesmerizing, but otherwise, he is quite frightening.† The master laughed and said, â€Å"Oh yes, I guess I understand.   I've heard that comment before.   Just give me a moment or two and I will accommodate you.   Tomorrow others like you will arrive and there will be more servants as well.   If you see anything in the meantime it’s†¦it’s just your imagination playing tricks on you.† Isadore thought to herself, â€Å"What a strange comment.   Why would he make such a comment?   I was already frightened enough while outside.   Was there something to fear within as well?†   

Las Ferreterias de Mexico

Good management- Most of the Employees value rewards of different nature and they are therefore motivated by positive rewards. Employees are known to put less effort to those activities or tasks that are not well rewarded and hence in order to motivate them in their work, a good scheme for rewarding them is important. These rewards are different in nature and include compensation, awards, off duties and many others. Mr. Gonzalez came up with the idea of implementing compensation plan as a way of improving performance of the employees in the company.His intention was to include managers, buyers and salesmen in this new compensation incentive. However, the consultancy firm found this to be difficult since it was challenging to measure the performance of the salesmen and buyers. The consultancy firm therefore advised Mr. Gonzalez to use the plan for managers of the companies only without including other staffs. The success of any plan or policy depends so much on the involvement of peop le who will be affected by that plan in its development.Employees will always support implementation of a plan they were involved in its development. For instance, considering their views before the development of the scheme will make them to own the plan and therefore support it when it comes to the implementation of the plan. This means that for the success of the new compensation plan, Mr. Gonzalez had to make sure that he involved all the parties who will be affected by the new plan. In the development of the new compensation schemes, Mr.Gonzalez sought the services of the consultancy firm who worked together with the human resource and finance department representatives. The involvement of these two departments was important in order take care of financial and human resource considerations during the plan implementation. However, the plan did not involve other staffs who were to be affected by the plan. This include managers from other departments such as store managers and sal es manager who were the beneficially of the new plan.This could make it difficulty for the company to implement the plan since there may be tradeoffs between the performance of the whole team and that of individual managers (Gerhart et al, 2009). During the development of the plan, it was necessary to take and consider the views of other managers and not just human resource and finance managers. This would have made the plan makers to consider all the issues like bonus pool allocation, performance measures to be used and other important issues that may affect theimplementation of the plan. This would have ensured issues like how the bonus will be allocated among the managers. The plan allocated 70% of the bonus to the store managers and the rest to corporate staffs and regional managers. Though, store managers perform a crucial role in sales, other department managers may not be comfortable with the way the bonus is allocated. The allocation of the bonus could have been agreed by al l departmental managers before the implementation of the new plan.BONUS POOL ALLOCATIONAccording to the new compensation plan, the bonus pool would be allocated among store managers depending on the bonus units they have earned. A 5% earning in ROI would earn a store manager one unit of bonus. Any additional percentage earning in ROI would earn an additional bonus unit. This formula will continue to apply as the percentage in ROI earning increases. The allocation will also put into consideration those store managers who have been in their position for a period less than a year.The allocation of bonus among regional managers would be different where the formula used will consider the bonus unit that has been earned by stores in the managers’ region divided by all total unit bonus that have been earned by all stores in the company. Finally according to the new compensation plan, bonus pool for the corporate staff would be divided by the CEO, depending on the ROI earnings of the corporation in that year. The formula used in the compensation plan is very clear and simple hence understandable by all managers. A good bonus plan should be simple and clear to the parties who are affected by that plan.This would make it simple for those party affected by the plan to implement it. Clarity of the compensation plan means that the plan has little or no ambiguity and uncertainty about the standards that will be used to measure the performance of the beneficiaries. This means that the superiors are not in a position to show any favourism or bias when measuring the performance of their subordinates. In this company, the formula applied is based on the allocation of bonus pool among the store managers according to the unit bonus they have earned relative to the ROI earning.The formula is simple and managers can easily understand it and work hard to increase their ROI earning in order for them to increase their bonus units. Again, the formula is fixed and it may not be p ossible for those people who will be assessing the performance of the managers to show any bias or favouritism. This will ensure the efficiency of the compensation plan. This also applies to the formula used to calculate bonus for regional managers and corporate staffs. A good reward system should produce some impacts to the corporation.The system used should be aimed to improve the performance of the organisation after its implementation. Managers and other staffs ought to be motivated to work hard by the reward system as they strive to earn the promised bonus. Their increased performance will be reflected in the increased performance of the whole company. In addition, a good reward system ought to be timely where employees are rewarded immediately without any delay. This will motivate workers to work even harder in the next period thus improving the performance of the corporation in the long term.THE PRINCIPLLE OF CONTROLLABILITYAccording to the controllability principle, all empl oyees ought to be held accountable only for those variables that are within their control (Giraud et al, 2008). Employees ought not to be penalized when things fail because of bad luck as well as not being rewarded when things succeed because of good luck. Thus managers should be held accountable for the outcomes of the variables they control. At managerial level, many factors that affect the performance of an organisation are only partially controlled. However, managers are usually in a position to make decisions that may make the uncontrollable factors affect result in a positive way.The advantage of this method is that managers can be held accountable for the areas they are intended to influence. This will direct all the effort of the managers to the areas that can improve the performance of the organistion (profit centre). For instance, the compensation plan employed by Mr. Gonzalez will hold managers accountable for their profit centre.The main profit centre of the corporation are the stores thus basing the compensation plan of the managers on performance of this area will ensure that, managers effort are directed to the profit centre. Managers will also be more responsible since they will be accountable for all the factors they are controlling in the stores. However managers should also be rewarded for those factors they do not control and yet affect the outcome of their division outcome.BONUS DECISION ON CORPORATE PROFITThe new compensation plan is based on the ROI earnings at the end of financial year. The allocation of bonus among corporate staffs is based directly on the ROI earning of the corporate while among the managers it is indirectly based on ROI earnings. This means the bonus compensation plan may have impact on the corporate profit as it becomes expenses to the company.Increased ROI does not necessarily translate to increased profit and therefore basing bonus compensation on ROI may reduce the profit of the company due to increased expenses. The payment of all bonuses may be too expensive to the corporation thus reducing the profit of the organisation. However, this does not mean that the increased performance of the managers would not increase the profit of the corporation.QUESTION TWO CHALLENGES OF USING ROI Though the use of ROI to measure the performance of different division has a many advantages, it also has many disadvantages (Rachlin, 1997). Using this method to measure the performance of managers in the corporation may pose a number of challenges to Mr. Gonzales. According to Hoffman and Rogelberg (1998), the method may be referred to as a discretionary system since it does not include all the staffs of the corporation. The plan only covers the managers and does not cover other players in profit generation such as salesmen and buyers.This means that the plan will not motivate all the workers together since it only covers some of them and not all of them. This will be difficult for all the employees to be unite d in order to achieve a common goal of improving performance of the organisation. Increasing ROI earnings can only occurs when all the employees of the organisation combine their effort together to achieve a certain level of ROI earnings. This is not possible when all the staffs are not rewarded fairly for their effort.ROI performance measures show the ratio of the profit in relation to the investment used to generate it. This measure at times may be problematic for instance when it comes to the determination of the investments that were used to generate a given level of profit. It is difficult to measure the amount of fixed asset that was used to generate a given level of profit. Mr. Gonzalez may find it difficult to relate the profit generated in a given store with fixed assets that were used to generate that profit. This because fixed assets will be used in more than one financial year.The use of ROI earnings to measure the performance of managers may lead to sub optimization whe re managers concentrate only on the ROI earnings of their division without necessary working to improve the performance of the whole corporation. Improving the ROI of a certain division is usually a short term goal which may not increase the performance of the organisation in the long term. Managers and other staffs may work very hard only for the purpose of earning the bonuses in the new compensation plan without necessary aiming to improve the performance of the company.The measure of earning on investments may also include those factors that are not controlled by the managers. This may include liabilities and assets that are not controlled by division managers and yet they affect the profit of a given store. Division managers usually control receivables and payments within that division and they should only be accountable for that. Holding division managers accountable for factors they do not control may be unfair to them. Thus Mr. Gonzalez ought to look for a method of measuring performance that will be fairer to all the managers.The use of ROI method may also create unhealthy competition among the store managers. Bonus pool is allocated among store managers according to the percentage of ROI they have earned in their stores. The managers can therefore do anything possible to increase their ROI so that they can increase their bonus. This may involve manipulating their revenue and expenses in order to report high profit figures at the end of financial period. This behaviour will create unnecessary short term pressure among the managers which can be avoided using a different method of measuring the performance of the managers (Eva & Mika, 2010).This may have a negative impact to the long term performance of the company. Each division may also work more independent without co-working with other divisions since different divisions will be operating like rivals which may also not improve the long term performance of the company. It is also difficult to know whe ther the increase in sale in a certain store is as result of the new compensation plan (Sammer, 2006). It may take sometime before Mr. Gonzalez knows whether the implemented plan is successful.This is because there are other factors that are not controlled by the manager that may result in increased ROI earning. The use of the ROI method compare all managers on the same platform without considering differences in areas like their division, their region and many other differences. For instances, managers in different departments carry out different operations that have different expenses and revenues. These differences will also affect their department profitability and thus their earnings in ROI.Different regions also have different rate of sales and although efforts put by manager in that region matters, regional differences will also affect the outcome of those regions. The use of ROI to measure the profitability of the manager does not put into consideration factors like regional differences which will affect the outcome of a certain region. Thus rewarding managers using ROI earnings which do not consider such factors will be unfair to some managers who may come from those regions that are not favourable.

Ethical Concerns Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical Concerns - Essay Example A patient had been confined in a private room in this health institution for almost one month due to chronic illness with diverse complications. Due to her long stay and numerous laboratory, diagnostic and therapeutic examinations, her statement of account reached a staggering amount which could not be immediately covered by the funds of the patient and her family. She had been accompanied by her daughter who helps by providing physical, emotional and financial support. However, due to the critical condition that her mother experiences, their account was classified as â€Å"red tag†. Patients with red tags are immediately referred to the Customer Relations Department who monitors their status and closely coordinates with the Accounting and Cashier Department for settlement and collection purposes. Once a patient has been classified as â€Å"red tag†, any procedure (therapeutic, diagnostic, laboratory, etc.) need to be immediately settled prior to the administration of the procedure, regardless of the necessity and the kind of the procedure to be undertaken. The rationale for this is to prevent further increases in the amount due to the hospital which might not be collected nor paid. The patient regularly needs any of the abovementioned procedures to monitor her health progress and to identify and assess whether present medications need to be adjusted (increase or decrease in dosage and frequency of administration). However, since this patient was already classified as â€Å"red tag†, and since the daughter still needs to look for alternative sources of funds to settle the staggering amount, the required regular procedures could not be undertaken. In this regard, being a hospital with medical and ethical responsibilities to their patients, does their red tag policy contradict conformity to ethical standards? Based on the underlying definition of ethics, one should examine the rules that govern human action and

Student views on individual and group work Essay

Student views on individual and group work - Essay Example The study is based on international educational experiences of learners studying abroad; their opinions on the individual work and group work especially in the cultural diverse learning institutions also discussed. A comparison approach is used to define the different impacts of individual or group work in different settings internationally. Students from different backgrounds from the UK and abroad give their opinions on the importance of group and individual work. The students interviewed come from various countries namely: Poland, Kenya, Australia, China, and France. Previous research Students noted frustration with joy riders in group work especially in open-ended evaluation piece (Shumow, 2001, p. 35). Despite this, small group work in problem based learning was rated the best in promoting learning. The negative attitude towards group work among students developed from those learners who did not participate sufficiently to their collaborative groups (Skinner, 2010.). According t o this study, another issue raised involved students who did not seem attuned to the educational value of listening to what other group members had to contribute during sharing and discussion. The students were or pretended to be unaware that group members or their findings could be used as resources. This research also revealed that students were anxious about the sit-in classroom examinations; it appeared as if they needed more direct guidance. The recommendations given in this study included integrating the problem based learning throughout the semester to better the results of the students. This could be achieved through letting students solve problems as homework and individual assignments. Another way to achieve this is through using four problems as a unifying platform for each quarter of the course. Class discussions, tutor presentations and media shown in class could then be attached in the problem. A third possible way is to alternate group work with individual work during the course. And a last way is to let each group work on a different problem; the groups then present their answers in class while the class assesses the group’s work (Shumow, 2001, p. 36). The problem of joy riders could be solved through collecting notes and checking them in each class session to ensure that all students are participating in group work(Joughin, 2009).Nevertheless, this problem is bothersome and really challenging to handle since more resources are used in supervision. Moreover, joy riding suggests that the students could be unreliable workers in the potential market. According to Townsend, Long, & Trainor, 2011, group supervision and peer learning in social work field can be beneficial in other contexts such as professional, social, cultural, economic and political frameworks locally and internationally. Townsend, Long, & Trainor, 2011 studied teaching, learning and supervisory relationships that support group work and group assessment especially in field w ork. They had a lot of relevance in the Australian contexts. Group learning is vulnerable to group dynamics whereby different personalities and individual needs may affect the learning experience (Arfield, 2013). Furthermore, more dominant individuals in the group may inhibit on the ability of passive individuals to meet their own personal goals. Group work in learning requires the group members to be accountable and to minimise the group size (Light, Cox, & Calkins, 2009).

W200 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

W200 - Essay Example Because, the brothers were drunk the brothers do not think they should be held liable for causing the bodily harm to Carol. Even though Andrew and Bob are trying to pass off that they would have never committed this crime if they had not been drunk. The two of them still knew what they were doing despite being drunk. The crime against a person is that they were attempting to abuse, and scare Carol, but Carol ended up injured. When Carol ended up injured there was a criminal act committed. The criminal act was negligence on behalf of Andrew and Bob, but it was still a criminal act. Andrew and Bob can both be prosecuted on charges of criminal negligence. Because, Andrew and Bob were drunk they were negligent and caused harm to carol. If Andrew and Bob would not have been so childish to move the latter then Carol would not have fallen. Just because Andrew and Bob were drunk does not give them an excuse to shake the latter, and to move it off of the wall. This is the only reason Carol fe ll from the latter. Neither of the brothers made an attempt to catch Carol as she fell backward from the latter. So, Carol was seriously injured with a fractured skull. If Andrew, or Bob would have attempted to catch Carol as she fell from the latter, Andrew and Bob might not be facing criminal charges. However, neither brother attempted to catch Carol, so both Andrew and Bob will be brought up on criminal charges of negligently causing bodily harm to someone. The charge is negligently because they were not in their right states of mind. If Andrew and Bob had not been drinking, Andrew and Bob would not have moved the latter away from the wall, or at least attempted to catch Carol as she fell from the latter. B.) The criminal liability the brothers will face for the attack on Dennis is that they attacked a police officer. When a citizen attacks a police officer it is a criminal offense. Police officers are protected from the average citizen harming the police officer. When the two br others attacked Dennis the two brothers infringed upon the protections offered to police officers. Dennis can criminally charge the two brothers for an offense against a police officer. Andrew and Bob are also resisting arrest by kicking and cutting Dennis. If Andrew and Bob would have surrendered to the police officer then Andrew and Bob would not be in so much trouble. But Andrew and Bob were resisting the attempts of Dennis to arrest the brothers the brothers assaulted Dennis by kicking, and cutting him. The brothers then proceeded to run. When the brothers ran the officer could charge the brothers with resisting arrest. Then the brothers were also charged with the criminal offense of assaulting a police officer. This is of course on top of the charges for the criminal negligence on the assault of Carol. Now the brothers face more charges than they did prior to the officer coming to the home. Now the brothers have to consider what to do when they are arrested and brought up on mo re charges than the original charges. This could add more time on to the sentence Andrew and Bob faced for the criminal negligence in the attack on Carol. When Andrew and Bob negligently assaulted Carol the police allowed them to return home on bail. Then the police came back to arrest Andrew and Bob, but Andrew and Bob did not want to get arrested. If they would have just allowed themselves to be taken down to the

Role model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Role model - Essay Example He became well-known for his non-violent resistance to reach his political and social goals to win independence for India. His belief of nonviolence influenced other civil rights movement leaders, such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi’s influence can still be found through peace organizations that have been created throughout the world. His personal world view is still having a huge impact on today’s modern world. Mahatma Gandhis belief of nonviolence, which he called satyagraha, has often been mistranslated as "passive resistance," but it literally means "holding to the truth† (Gersom, 1992). Nonviolence does not mean just being passive instead of aggressive, but also means to ‘gain freedom peacefully’. Gandhi’s teachings can be correctly applied into the lives of people today in all walks of life. Gandhi’s teachings can become powerful only when every person is using them. "Nonviolence is the greatest force humanity has been endowed with," Gandhi wrote to the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1926 (Dear, 2006). Gandhi’s beliefs about nonviolence are that it can be used as a weapon itself when trying to win peace. Using nonviolence instead of violence is not always an easy path. Sometimes people become too angry and cannot control their violent actions or words. However, nonviolence can offer an amazing power to fight with, as opposed to the weapons of t he enemies, which are far weaker than nonviolence. Part of Gandhi’s teachings was that violence is always more suitable than cowardice. Gandhi first used satyagraha in September 1906 with a gathering of three thousand Indians. Gandhi stated that they needed to protest calmly and without anger; they needed to suffer with the consequences of their protest instead of turning to violence. In the end, however, the British government arrested the protestors (Duvall, 2006). This act of Gandhi and his

Social desirability effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social desirability effect - Essay Example Field study is one of the methods employed by researchers in studying human behavior. Field studies are undertaken in a natural setting rather in a structured environment (Kitayama & Cohen, 2010, p. 220). It involves a naturalistic observation wherein researchers discreetly observe behaviors that occur in a natural setting. Field study also entails observation of individual’s reactions to stimuli or events designed by researchers in the natural setting (Kitayama & Cohen, 2010, p. 220). This particular method of study is interesting as it offers an in-depth detail of a social phenomenon. However, the results derived from these studies fail to provide objectivity as it relies on the researcher’s judgment. The means to improve such method become an interesting area of study. Field study can serve as an insightful means of defining group behaviors. Wimmer and Dominick (2010) stressed that field studies possess an advantage of being nonreactive. Reactivity refers to the effe cts of the subject’s awareness of being observed or measured on her or his behavior. The objectivity of studies often suffers from subject’s awareness of being observed (p. 225). Sevilla, Ochave, Punsalan, Regala, and Uriarte (1992) reiterated that there are variables in social psychology that cannot be explored through experimentation (p. 154). Thus, field study offers insights into these phenomena. It presents a great breadth and depth of understanding unattainable by quantitative researches (Shepard, 2004, p. 50). Shepard (2004) stressed that findings in a particular situation may not be applicable to other situations. In addition, most field studies fail to employ standardized measuring devices. Researchers rely on subjective interpretation and judgment. The researcher’s judgment is vulnerable to biases and blind spots (p. 50).

The Influence of Arabic Vowel signs on the Accuracy and Speed of Essay

The Influence of Arabic Vowel signs on the Accuracy and Speed of Reading - Essay Example be a deep orthography if the script is unvowelized (Abu-Rabia, 2000; Abu-Rabia & Siegel, 2003; Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2006; Mahfoudhi et al., 2011; Mohamed, Elbert, & Landerl, 2011). Skilled readers are used to deducing unviable short vowels; however, beginning readers are presented to vowelized scripts as they are still developing their literacy (Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2006; Hussien, 2014; Mahfoudhi et al., 2011; Taibah & Haynes, 2011). The current study investigated the influence of vowelized and unvowelized types. It is well-known that reading acquisition is a developmental process that requires be teaching and improving throughout school grades in simultaneous, gradual, and continuous way. This process depends on many factors among them the nature of the orthography and teaching methods. Most the art of reading principles and propositions are established from Latin orthographies research, mostly from English studies while little is to known about Semitic orthographies (e.g. Hebrew and Arabic). When comparing the existent reading literature, Hebrew studies outnumber Arabic studies; in fact, the majority of Arabic studies are done in Hebrew country (Israel) by Arab Israeli. In the Israeli educational system, children are introduced with unvowelized scripts in third grade (Sharon,) while in most Arab countries; vowelized scripts are introduced to children in primary schools. Partially vowelized and unvowelized texts are subject to introduce in elementary and secondary school. It is the 7th grad e in Saudi educational system the context of the study. Therefore, the decision of whether to introduce unvowelized textbooks or not and what is the suitable educational stage, is an important issue that needs to be a research-based decision. Therefore, this study will investigate whether Saudi 4th graders are ready for introduction with unvowelized scripts or not by testing their reading ability (accuracy and speed) to a list of unvowelized words which they already exposed to from

The Minimum Wage Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Minimum Wage Law - Essay Example This underwent a gradual but consistent decline, and by the year 2006, the minimum hourly wage could barely procure 2 gallons of gasoline. The minimum wage is not uniform across the states, and some of the states have mandated much higher minimum wages. For example, Washington obliges employers to pay $8.55 per hour. A major issue relates to the fact the minimum wage, in real dollar terms; fell by 22%, in the period 1973 to 2007. During this time the profits of the corporate sector increased by more than 50%, which significantly increased the gap between the rich and poor. In the year 2007, it was envisaged that the proposed federal minimum wage increase would prove beneficial to a large number of American workers. Approximately, 5.6 million workers are likely to be direct beneficiaries, with a 41% enhancement in pay. In addition, around 7.4 million workers are expected to derive an indirect benefit. All said and done, such benefit will be provided to some 13 million workers. The chi ef beneficiaries of this increase in minimum wages will be adults, who constitute 79% of this group. Of these beneficiaries, women constitute 59%. This increase in minimum wage serves to benefit individuals as well as families. It is important to note that women constitute half of the minimum wage earners. Consequently, the economic gender gap is reduced substantially, due to increase in the minimum wage. Moreover, 1.2 million of these workers are single parents and most of these people are women.... Of these beneficiaries, women constitute 59%. This increase in minimum wage serves to benefit individuals as well as families. It is important to note that women constitute half of the minimum wage earners. Consequently, the economic gender gap is reduced substantially, due to increase in the minimum wage. Moreover, 1.2 million of these workers are single parents and most of these people are women.5 It is indispensable to increase the minimum wage, in order to restore its value. However, the federal minimum wage does not take inflation into account. As a result, the value of the minimum wage decreases with increasing inflation. In this situation, it is necessary for Congress to enhance the minimum wage suitably. Thus, we find that the federal minimum wage is a mere 31% of the average hourly wage. 6 The burgeoning US economy makes it very difficult for the minimum wage earners to survive. This can be attributed to the continuous increase in goods and services. Unlike other workers, wh o are provided compensation for inflation, the minimum wage earners do not experience any increase in their wages. This inequitable situation has persisted for a decade. Another issue that cripples the minimum wage earner is the increase in wage inequality, due to the decrease in the real value of minimum wages, consequent to an increase in inflation. 7 An increase in the federal minimum wage does not result in an increase in unemployment. This had been conclusively established in a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, for the period 1996 to 1997. Furthermore, several contemporary studies have clearly shown that the market had