Thursday, October 31, 2019

Strategic objectives for a business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic objectives for a business - Essay Example Its mission is offering excellent hair services and beauty products, to its customers. Its values include respect, leadership, integrity, diversity, and accountability. The paper will look at the business objectives in relation to the four pillars of balanced scorecard including the financial pillar, customer pillar, internal operations pillar, and employees’ pillar. One of the key objectives as far as the financial pillar is concerned is coming up with an effective internal control environment. Such an environment would prevent financial crimes such as fraud or embezzlement of the business’ financial resources. The second key objective is ensuring stability in revenue and profitability. This is important as far as growing the shareholder wealth. For example, ensuring profitability stability contributes to the stability of the shares’ prices, which is in the best interest of the shareholders. The third key strategic objective is maximizing the shareholder wealth. This would happen, for example, by a business operating at optimum level would maximize the shareholder wealth. One of the key strategic objectives as far as customer pillar is concerned is enhancing customer satisfaction. Since the business is offering both services and products, customer satisfaction is extremely important. It helps in ensuring that the customers make repeat visits in the business, which helps in growing the market share. A key metric for this objective is the number of absenteeism within a given period. The second key strategic objective is offering high quality services and products to the customers. The customers expect value for money when they purchase the beauty products (Chia-Chen, 2006). The hair services should be excellent, which would translate into increased customer satisfaction. An effective metric for this objective is the number of repeat customers per a given period. The third strategic

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Spanish Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Spanish - Essay Example En la otra mano, la migraccion es como un descanso durante el dia. Esta musica combiinada con la magnifica fotografia de Vittorio Storaro crea una gran escena de cuando los immigrantes entran por la luz. Lo mismo occurre para la danza illustrada en la pelicula. Una gran escena para explicar como la musica y el baile crean semtimientos en los caracteres cuando Laura y Elena bailan con el mismo hombre durante una cancion. Para mi esta escena es la sumatoria de toda la pelicula. El hombre esta supuesto a representar los sentimientos de Mario y como su corazon miente com ambas mujeres, La musica cambia un poco cuando las mujeras bailan con el hombre. El uso de colores en la pelicula tambien esta represntado en las sentimientos de los caracteres. El trasfondo durante los diferentes bailes illustran el sentir de la escena. Un punto de vista interesante cuando examine la pelicula por segunda vez, es que Elena siempre se viste de rojo. El color rojo puede significar muchas cosas. Y pienso que significa el amor mutuo entre Mario y Elena y tambien pienso que su amor era

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Analysing The United States Presidential Election Of 1916 Politics Essay

Analysing The United States Presidential Election Of 1916 Politics Essay An election, to most, is a vote taken to determine who and what party will hold office for the government in question for a set term. Though this is accurate, an election is also a reflection of not only the government and the people to which that government supports, but in fact the entire world at that time. The year of 1916 was one of optimism, opposition, nativism, womens rights, allies, central powers, trenches, progressivism, isolationism and a great deal of nationalism. The Great War had started two years prior and a small amount of other serious conflicts such as Easter Rising, the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks and the Mexican Revolution had begun to take place as well. The incumbent to the presidency had appointed his first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis, and the US had invaded Cuba for the third time due to the corruption of the Menocal regime. 1916 also presented many achievements in a variety of subjects: the rise of Charlie Chaplin; the first succes sful blood transfusion; the invention of the light switch; the creation of the Boy Scouts; the beginning of Boeing Aviation; approval by more states of womens suffrage; Coca-Colas introduction to the market of the current coke formula; the founding of the San Diego Zoo; the presentation of Albert Einsteins Theory of General Relativity, and the cancellation of the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Although such details may seem insignificant, no time ever lived in should be forgotten or secluded from that of the rest. Primary issues, political parties, nominations, elections and results do well to reflect this great time in history and its impact on the US as a nation but just as well should we remember the world as it was. The most predominant factor affecting the world at that time was WWI, or as it was called back then, The Great War. The war had started two years prior to this election and had caused so much turmoil within Europe that the American people where simply dodging the inevitable. The Great War was merely an arms race of one alliance against the other. The first alliance was called the Triple Entente, also called Allies, which consisted, at that time, of Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia, Romania and Greece. The second alliance was called the Triple alliance, also called Central Powers, and consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria and the entire Ottoman Empire. The conflicting alliances disturbed the American peoples through ethnicity, trade and moral dilemmas. German-Americans as well as the other Central Power country-related Americans had only begun to experience alienation because of the war, but the effect as well as their ties to home beca me a problem in future government involvement. Also, the Americans were supplying both sides. Ford Motor Company, for instance, was supplying the Germans with automobile parts. This, as well as moral conflicts from hearsay about the war, such as the sinking of the RMS LUSITANIA, had much of the United States in conflict. Still, much of the U.S was absolutely adamant towards its isolationist stance on the war. Unfortunately the Great War was not the only problem present in the world in that year. In fact, such conflicts as the Easter Rising in Ireland and the Mexican Revolution also had an impact on many Americans just as easily. Easter Rising was, at the time, the biggest rebellion effort against the British rule over Ireland that had occurred since the rebellion of 1798. To some, it may seem that it was also the spark of what the IRA would later become as well as over 90 years of bloodshed between the IRA and the British. Though most of the attention of the U.S. was centered on the Great War, the uprising in Ireland was most certainly not a missed subject during this time, and most certainly not ignored by the majority of Irish Americans. The Mexican Revolution, however, had a more direct impact on the American people due to its proximity to the U.S. A revolution by a man named Francisco Madero led to attempts by Pancho Villa to reclaim lands lost to the US years before. Pancho Villa the n invaded New Mexico killing 12 U.S soldiers and instigated retaliation from the United States government as wished. Though an invasion, Pancho Villas efforts, however, were merely used for tricking the US into intervening in the revolution by way of invasion themselves as a way of insuring that Villas preferred candidate would emerge victorious. Even more than our involvement, were two questions; how to protect the economic interests we had in Mexico during Tafts administration, and, even more largely, how was this an act of neutrality. Much of the US was uncertain, by this point, of Wilsons capability of dealing with foreign affairs, which had a significant effect on the election as well. The year of 1916 was also an election year. The two primary parties were the Republicans and the Democrats. Minor parties, consisted of the Prohibitionists, Socialists, Socialist Labor Party and the Progressives. The Republicans of this time were seeking more protection on individual rights, restriction in foreign affairs involvement, increases in industry, protection of free enterprise, good education and the right of states to determine womens suffrage. The Democrats, however, were endorsing Wilsons former achievements as the incumbent; military preparedness, a world association of nations to maintain peace after the war in Europe had ended, Pan-American unity, a ban on child labor, womens suffrage, and prison reform. Third parties, for the most part, remained more exclusive on which subjects they found most interesting. The Prohibitionists still kept their focus on the banning of alcohol; its main goal being temperance. The Progressives as well as the Socialists remained determine d on excessive government change and inspiration for radical movements to support the people. Lastly, the Socialist Labor party had kept its views most evidently towards labor modifications. Most parties were in agreement on who would represent what. The Democrats without opposition renominated Wilson and invited Thomas R. Marshall to be his running mate at the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri from June 14th to June 16th. The Prohibitionist party held their convention in St. Paul, Minnesota from June 19th to June 21st and nominated James Franklin Hanly as president and Ira Landrith as his running mate. The Socialist Labor Party nominated Arthur Reimer as president and Caleb Harrison as his running mate in their convention in New York City, New York on April 29th to May 3rd. The Progressives were the same in accordance to their nomination of former president Theodore Roosevelt, but Roosevelt turned down his nomination, thus removing the party from the race and pulling former progressives in all directions. Roosevelt endorsed the Republican Partys nominated member quickly thereafter. The Republicans had many candidates in question, but the most promine nt was a conservative Senator named Elihu Root from New York, and a liberal Senator named John W. Weeks from Massachusetts. The partys bosses on the other hand saw that a balance between the two would be more substantial for both ends of the party and result in a once again unified party. It was then, that Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes was brought into the race without previous interest and won on the third ballot, with former vice president Charles W. Fairbanks as his vice presidential nominee. The Socialists, due to Eugene V. Debs decline to the ticket, did not hold a formal convention. A referendum of the partys members nominated Allan L. Benson, an anti-war activist, for president and George Ross Kirkpatrick as his running mate in hopes of a better chance at the presidency. Due to popularity, precedent, and the incumbent himself, the two primary parties that ran against each other were the Democrats and Republicans. President Wilson, running on the Democratic ticket, came into the 1916 contest with a list of domestic accomplishments, but the race was dominated by foreign affairs and the ongoing world war in Europe. The Democratic Party itself was running most of the campaign on the slogan He Kept Us out of War. Ironically enough, Wilson did not like the slogan due to his doubtfulness in his capability to keep the US out of conflicts with such an uncertain future. Hughes, on the other hand, did not have the advantage of being the incumbent and used his efforts to suppress Wilsons attempt to plead neutrality, as well as his views on labor laws that suppressed businesses and profit. On one hand, the Republican party held militarists, who criticized Wilsons weak foreign policies with Mexico and Germany, but also pro-Germans or pacifists, who simply denounce d Wilsons policies for fear they might lead to war. Hughes was not exact on either approach, but was diligent in his attempt to defeat Wilson. Though both Wilson and Hughes had a mostly similar outlook on the war, Hughes efforts seemed to have been skewed mostly by his own party. Theodore Roosevelt, who had split the party in the previous election, was now giving his endorsements to the Republican Party. Even though he was resentful for his lack of nomination in the party, he felt it was best to support them in order to oppose his most hated Wilson. Roosevelt held many speeches in an effort to support Hughes, but ended up leading a pro-war campaign that did nothing less than upset the majority of the US population and its absolute view on isolationism as well as alienating others. Nearing the end of the election, there was a minor issue in California pertaining to Hughes was slight of both Senator Hiram Johnson and the California Labor Unions. In spite of this, however, most of the American public believed that Hughes was most certainly going to win the election anyway. Results in November, as well, made the election one of the closest in history. Hughes took an early lead in the eastern and mid-western states but Wilson persevered and found himself in the lead with the western and southern votes. Wilson took 30 states for 277 electoral votes, while Hughes won 18 states and 254 electoral votes. Although still narrow, Wilson had also won the popular vote, taking 49% of the popular vote to Hughes 46%. The remaining five percent went to the third parties, leaving a 4% split between the Prohibitionists and Socialists. Voter turnout reached a high of 62%, and would not be matched for another 24 years until Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for a third term in 1940. Also, the 11 states that had already approved womens suffrage played a great role in the election, as all but one state voted for Wilson. If Hughes had carried California and its 13 electoral votes, he would have won the election. This made the incident in California seem to be the cause which may have very well cost him the election. In account of the election, we also see differences and similarities between past and present elections that allow us to compare and contrast our histories. Vice President Thomas Marshall was the first vice president elected to a second term since John C. Calhoun in the election of 1828. Woodrow Wilson was the only person other than James Knox Polk to win a presidential election but not win his home and birth state. His popular vote margin of 3.1% was also the smallest percentage margin in history for a victorious sitting President until the 2004 election, in which George W. Bush produced a margin of 2.4%. Wilson is also the only president in U.S. history to win re-election with fewer electoral votes than in his first election. However, Wilson is not the only President to win re-election with a lower percentage of the electoral vote in his second election than in his first election. The other president was James Madison, who although had a lower percentage, did have a lower electoral vote total. The election in general also has a distinct relevance to the 2004 election. Wilson, like Bush, was the incumbent president running for a second term whose only previous experience in a political office was as his home states governor. Though one ran on a strong war record and the other on keeping out of the war, Wilson and Bush had both run on their previous presidencys involvement in war. Both were keen on their domestic involvement, however Bush wanted less taxes and Wilson wished for a new graduated federal income tax. Though different, there is most evidently a distinct connection between this election and others that has and will remain most important to our nations history. Mark Twain stated the importance of ones past quite well, History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Written By: Carlynn Ferguson Resources: Hicks, J.D. (1941). The American nation; a history of the united states from 1865 to the present. Cambridge, MA, U.S.A: The Riverside Press. Richardson, D.B. (n.d.). CB Presidential Research Services, . (2009). Allan benson. Retrieved from http://www.presidentsusa.net/albenson.html Mount, S. (2007, February 20). Electoral vote 1916 election. Retrieved from http://www.usconstitution.net/ev_1916.html Woodrow Wilson. (2009). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644766/Woodrow-Wilson Election of 1916. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h888.html United states presidential election, 1916. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.viswiki.com/en/United_States_presidential_election,_1916 United states presidential election, 1916. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1916 Peters, G. (1999). The American presidency project. Retrieved from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29591 Electoral college 1916. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.knowledgerush.com/wiki_image/b/bd/ElectoralCollege1916-Large.png Miller, D. (2005). 1916 timeline. Retrieved from http://din-timelines.com/1916_timeline.shtml Legacy america. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.legacyamericana.com/servlet/the-Presidential-Candidates-cln-Charles-E.-Hughes/Categories charles evans hughes. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Charles_Evans_Hughes (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/1483/1518969/DIVI508.jpg (n.d.). Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Prohibition+Party (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/exhibits/elections/images/1916_antiWilsonToon56962.jpg (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.corbisimages.com/images/U42650INP.jpg?size=67uid=31107087-C729-48D8-AE0E-F24913B92735 Art Antiques Online Auction, Initials. (2003, January). Retrieved from http://www.aspireauctions.com/auction13/details/1650.html Last Finegold-Sachs., D.C. (2005). Dcs political report. Retrieved from http://www.dcpoliticalreport.com/members/1988/pres16.htm (n.d.). Retrieved from http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2008/09/24/pages/2698/PoliticalCartoon6.jpg Woolley, J, Peters, G. (1999). The American presidency project. Retrieved from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1916 Mia : early american marxism : socialist party of america history page. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/eam/spa/socialistparty.html Smyth, M. (2004, October 22). 2004 as the bizzaro election of 1916. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=MVS2004102201 Wilson re-elected in 1916 an the wwi. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCNfvC_8324 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.citizendium.org/images/thumb/4/4a/1916vote.jpg/550px-1916vote.jpg

Friday, October 25, 2019

Sigmund Freud Essay -- essays research papers fc

Freud didn't exactly invent the idea of the conscious versus unconscious mind, but he certainly was responsible for making it popular. The conscious mind is what you are aware of at any particular moment, your present perceptions, memories, thoughts, fantasies, feelings, etc. Working closely with the conscious mind is what Freud called the preconscious, what we might today call "available memory:" anything that can easily be made conscious, the memories you are not at the moment thinking about but can readily bring to mind. Now no one has a problem with these two layers of mind. But Freud suggested that these are the smallest parts. The largest part by far is the unconscious. It includes all the things that are not easily available to awareness, including many things that have their origins there, such as our drives or instincts, and things that are put there because we can't bear to look at them, such as the memories and emotions associated with trauma. According to Freud, the unconscious is the source of our motivations, whether they be simple desires for food or sex, neurotic compulsions, or the motives of an artist or scientist. And yet, we are often driven to deny or resist becoming conscious of these motives, and they are often available to us only in disguised form. Freudian psychological reality begins with the world, full of objects. Among them is a very special object, the organism. The organism is special in that it acts to survive and reproduce, and it is guided toward those ends by its needs such as hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex. A part -- a very important part -- of the organism is the nervous system, which has as one its characteristics a sensitivity to the organism's needs. At birth, that nervous system is little more than that of any other animal, an "it" or id. The nervous system, as id, translates the organism's needs into motivational forces. Freud also called them wishes. This translation from need to wish is called the primary process. The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which can be understood as a demand to take care of needs immediately. Just picture the hungry infant, screaming itself blue. It doesn't "know" what it wants in any adult sense; it just knows that it wants it and it wants it now. The infant, in the Freudian view, is pure, or ... ... and represents the resurgence of the sex drive in adolescence, and the more specific focusing of pleasure in sexual intercourse. Freud felt that masturbation, oral sex, homosexuality, and many other things we find acceptable in adulthood today, were immature. This is a true stage theory, meaning that Freudians believe that we all go through these stages, in this order, and pretty close to these ages. Some of Freud's ideas are clearly tied to his culture and era. Other ideas are not easily testable. Some may even be a matter of Freud's own personality and experiences. But Freud was an excellent observer of the human condition, and enough of what he said has relevance today that he will be a part of personality textbooks for years to come. Even when theorists come up with dramatically different ideas about how we work, they compare their ideas with Freud's. BIBLIOGRAPHY McCary, J L. Psychology of Personality. New York 1956. Blum G S. A study of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Psychosexual Development NY 1949 Brill A. Freud's contribution to psychiatric. NY 1944 Reuben Fine. A critical re-evaluation of his theories NY 1962 P. Rieff. Freud The mind of the moralist NY 1959

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Benefits & Compensation in Small Businesses

This paper is based on the benefits and compensation in small businesses as this is one of the important factors the small businesses have to consider and likewise have to struggle to compete for top quality employees with big businesses. It is very important for any business to hire good and hardworking employees and for this; they have to plan out proper strategies. Moreover, it is not just important to hire diligent employees but the business also has to make strategies as to how to retain them especially in the case of the small businesses because the competition is very high and it is essential for them to retain them.Organizational culture The culture followed by an organization highlights its personality. Culture basically comprises of the assumptions, the values and norms the business has, its financial position and about its members and their behaviors. Whenever a new member is added to an organization, they don’t take much time to study and learn about the type of cu lture being followed, however every company has its different culture and although new employees may take time to adjust but they soon get to know about it and work accordingly.There are always some things that are quite obvious for others to understand what type of culture a business has adopted. The way the interior of an organization such as the setting and the furniture being used, what the people working in an organization wear and how and what they talk about tells about the culture of an organization. This is one of the factor that is considered as important by the employees and so the business must set a kind of culture that is easy and favorable for the employees to adjust and is basically the task of the HR department to make the employees feel comfortable.Can HR system make a difference to the creation of such culture? The human resources are required by all the organizations in order to compete in the extremely aggressive world today. This reason defines the purpose of t he HR system extremely necessary, increases efficiency and also enables the company to achieve a competitive advantage over its competitors. HR also helps to identify how and in what ways an individual attributes to affect is organizational effectiveness. The key purpose of HR strategy is to guide the process by which organizations develop and position organizational and human capital to augment their competitiveness.Nowadays, HR is used as a model that reflects an era of strategic management. It emphasizes on the knowledge-based competition. Therefore, these systems are designed in a way to develop and support ideas of intellectual capital and knowledge management that propel strategy formation. (Pynes, 2004). Problematic areas of Human Resource development activities One of the major problems being faced by the HR department is because of the diversified workforce at an organization. Many people feel uncomfortable to working with people of a different age, sex, or culture.Despite the fact that employing people from different groups is good but it can lead to a clot of conflicts. The management has to manage a diversified workforce effectively or it can effect employee satisfaction and productivity negatively and the employees who recognize themselves as valued members of their organization are more diligent, concerned, and innovative and this tends them to work harder. Another problem can be the economic unrest prevailing. People from diversified groups would be having different definition of ambition.The outcome of ambition is mostly unpredictable, some ambitions begun in selflessness end in rancor; others begun in selfishness end in large-heartedness. It can at times be uncontrollable as well and some people may not be able handle ambition serving it as a grief to others. It also leads to jealousy. Other than that, people might opt any way to achieve their goals and these might be unlawful as well. (Evans, 2003). Role and function of HR department To defin e human resources in the simplest words we can say that they are the â€Å"resources for humans† within the workplace.The task of the HR department is to meet the needs of the employees and it also serves as a connection between all the people who are involved. The HR system of an organization comes into existence depending on the company size. The Human Resource Department can be formed just by appointing Personnel who can manage a small workforce, In case of a small company but in the case where a larger, complex organization is concerned that employs hundreds of people with many departments and divisions, the task becomes more demanding. Employee Compensation BenefitsThis includes the remuneration and bonuses such as paid leaves, sick leaves and insurance policies, etc and it is Human Resources Department that is in charge to develop and to manage the benefits compensation system for the staff that serves as an inducement to guarantee the recruitment. Their goal does not j ust finish after recruitment but they also have to work on retaining employees and make them continue working for the company. After recruiting an employee, the Benefits Coordinator of the business must meet the selected candidates one-on-one or in small group settings and explain their benefits package.(Brockbank & Ulrich, 2005). Employee Relations These might include age and gender, race discrimination, etc. and it is mandatory for the HR Department to make sure a fair treatment of employees. Employees should know that they are safe and they can approach someone in case they are unfairly treated by anyone. The HR Department acts as an negotiator and works to establish cooperation between the legal entities, regulatory agencies, supervisors and employees to properly tackle and determine the issue is persisting.Policy Formulation Every company whatever its size is has a set of rules and policies. This is essential so that proper regulation can be maintained at the work place. These policies also help the managers to hire individuals and evaluate the performance of an employee currently working for the firm. Maslow’s model Abraham Maslow was the one who proposed the hierarchy of needs model. The model consisted of the five basic needs that every employee requires from the organization in order to sustain well.The most imperative need is the physiological need of an employee that includes the basic needs without which he cannot survive such as food, water, clothing and shelter. Next comes the safety needs of an employee, that are also essential to make him perform well in an organization and this is followed by the need of belongingness. As man is a social animal, he always needs family and friends, etc. Third is the self-esteem needs that can be explained by admiration as a person always needs recognition from others for encouragement.The last is the need of self-actualization i. e. enhancing ones capabilities. However, some factors also put restrictions to this model and one of them is the differences in thinking levels of the employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds. Rewards and Benefits Rewards and benefits are major set of HRM activities. The business should provide their employees rewards and benefits like pay, fringe, etc. The most common rewards they can give to the employees are worker’s compensation, social security and unemployment insurance.By focusing the employee’s performance it provides benefits to its employees, which are considered by the staff members, executives and managers of the company. Conclusion The leaders are the ones who should encourage their juniors to suggest ideas that could lead to creativity and innovation. The employees should be rewarded, supported and proper amalgamation should be provided for the processes. Fund learning should be encouraged. This can be done by prioritizing it into budgets and work plans and to make it accessible to the employees or it would be of no use.Trust and respect should be placed on all the levels of the organization. Free communication and personalization should be allowed. Constant training or at least monthly or yearly training programs should be held for all the staff to keep on learning new things. The return on investment should be taken care of. The employees should know how much they are contributing to the company. These are some more factors that could help UN to retain their current employees. (Anderson & Anderson, n. d. ). Reference Anderson, D. & Anderson, L. (n. d. ). A.Awake at the Wheel: Moving beyond Change Management to Conscious Change Leadership. March 9th, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www. changeleadersroadmap. com/freeresources/P1D. 7. 17. aspx Brockbank, W. & Ulrich, D. (2005). The HR Value Proposition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Evans, C. (2003). Managing for Knowledge – HR's Strategic Role. 1st Edn. Butterworth- Heinemann. Pynes, J. E. (2004). Human Resources Management for P ublic and Nonprofit Organizations. (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series). 2nd Edn. Jossey-Bass.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Mask Work in Drama Essay

Our mask work in drama was an experience that I very much enjoyed very much. It also made me a better drama student because I increased my body movement far more as my face could not be seen. It has also shown me that with a mask on you can go for it with your body movement but you should go for it just as much with out a mask on. Fragments This part of the portfolio is where I say what Fragments of Mask work I learnt and enjoyed. Key word Fragments: Fragments of movement we mainly made up our self’s but always had to keep them ritualistic and precise. The movement we were taught in certain lessons were from a ritual and had to be Ritualistic and precise so every move was important. Examples of fragments I learnt in the lessons regarding Mask work: I remember the first lesson that we did mask work I was so unsure weather I would like it or not. What we did was sat in a circle Miss Grenene did movements that we had to copy in a ritualistic style. Then she made up copy the ritual routine with sounds so eventually we were all doing the same movements and sounds making us a chorus. Then she made us carry on the ritual adding sounds and movements on to it as we go. Miss was also playing the drum, which made it sound like an ancient ritual war drum. I felt unsure while doing this but however my emotions became more confident as the class ritual got better and better. The feelings I had were that I had to keep together with the group like a chorus should. Real life sounds and memories of sounds and movements were used in that ritual to carry on to making our own ritual. Like clapping whistling stomping all kinds of sounds and movements. All these ideas ran through my h ead and I was thinking this is good so why not add this, this and this to the piece. This was the starting point for our work as next we had to do a ritual in masks, which really does complete the ritual. I had to team up with Ross, Jack, Lisa and Joe to perform a Ritual of travelling from a neutral calm place to a hot place, to a cold place and then a funny place. I discovered on this first performance with a mask that because my face was covered up I had to express my character with my body and even more so as I didn’t have speech. We all had to huddle together as well to look like a chorus. Sadly I felt nervous on that performance as everyone was moving at different times and I could not keep up so it went badly. For the movements I thought I should look freezing and act it and look hot and act it for the others I did the same basis for the ritual. I understand that a ritual is to be a serious occasion and you should act serious and focused while acting out a ritual like for example in a funeral or wedding. Which brings me onto my next piece which was when me Jack, Lauren, Keeli, and Michelle were acting out a wedding. The manor of this performance had to be serious and precise which it was. We did slow clear-cut movements that flowed and were symbolic to a wedding. This was a good piece when we performed it however the white cloth got caught in Keelis hair and we all ended up laughing. When we performing it I saw weddings on t-v and in real life and saw how formal they were, so I decided to draw my performance from that. I played the vicar and with the mask on I felt that Ginny was gone and the Vicar of the wedding was there. I felt calm and good about this performance as it was done well but we all laughed which emphasized even more the need t be serious in a ritual. Not one of my fragments up until now has made me happy with Mask Work. Not because I don’t like because I always couldn’t do my role correctly in movement or voice. Now I was put in a group for my moch exam and I was brilliant and confident from the word go I had no problem expressing my self and loved it. I feel that i f I did it once I can do it again maybe it was the pressure of the exam that made me do well, however I am far more confident with mask work after that. Response: My emotional response to mask work is to approach it in a willing way. I felt like I had failed whenever I didn’t give a good performance, which was most of the time, which hindered y confidence. I felt down like I did not know what I was doing wrong for a long time this made me frustrated with the work. This made me more determined though because I love drama so much I was not going to be perturbed by improvements that could and were in the end made. Also while we were trying new things I felt happy or sad or angry and this was related to the movements. I found that moving a lot made me happy and I could do that a lot if I was down. My Intellectual response to the work was to always be prepared and try everything and improve. I always wanted to intellectually give a good input to work and get a good out put from it. Ideas were always flowing into my head to put into a drama piece, but sadly I didn’t know when to stop. The movements that we explored were always ritualis tic and expressive according to the character or ritual we were playing in. In our moch exam I was so pleased with the response I gave to the work, which were magical ideas, and ritualistic movements, which got a good response, back this made me pleased. I always felt ready to try but had varied emotions through out mostly of focus and confusion to the drama piece. Development: Fragments were connected and developed as we learned more and put our increasing mask work techniques together into a ritual piece. Like our sounds like drumming or humming were connected to movements. For example a scream sound+ hands trying to pull your hair out could = an insane person in ritual. Another example could be a person with clawed hands above their head + a long grunt could = a person in a ritual who is angry. Mask + Movement = A soundless piece of drama where only the body can interpret the ritual using serious prà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½cis and ritualistic movement. Also you must always have your head forward and facing the audience. Then you should have your shoulders back and have clear ritualistic movements and if there is sound use it so it’s clear and relevant also loud or quite depending on the mood. Mask +Movement+ Sound= A Ritual with expressive movement and sounds were effective adding atmosphere depending on the ritual piece. Mask+ Movement+ Sound+ Music= For example a piece of mask work like Oedipus which was the play we did and turned into a ritual. Fro sound we used words from the play like death, marriage, hanging, the grouching of the eyes. Then we linked these to ritualistic movements like people dieing and the grouching of the eyes. We used the music when there was a lot of tension at a high peak of the ritual. The chorus did movements all together this looked very effective and I liked the way they all moved at different level but still looked like a chorus in a ritual. Evaluation: The moch exam we did was based on a play called Oedipus and which we had to extract 10 words and turn it into a ritual with movement and music. Our 10 words were: Death, Marriage, Hanging, Grouching, Suffering, Hurl me, Madness, stabbing daggers, pain, and loved ones. The chorus which was Niki, Chris, Kirsty, Joe and Michelle used slow movements and long drowning words which made the ritual sound like a world of despair. I was the narrator and I said about the Marriage, death and hanging and the gouging of the eyes in the beginning. This was very effective and then at the end I came on screaming madness. Then the madness the chorus came out and stabbed me to death then I said the madness is done like I was closing the ritual. I must say I loved the way every ones movements were so precise and ritualistic. This so effective and the sounds we used symbolized the movements we did which made it look really good. I liked it because it flowed well and the sounds were loud and expressive. If I had to change something about the ritual it would be the fact that we could have moved more in time and also that the music could have been used more to show tension. Also the clothes were good too Red symbolising blood and black is the madness of killing. The other groups were so good as well I learnt that from them practise makes perfect. They were so realistic in voice and movement. Especially Sheryl and Daniel in voice. The choruses in all the groups could have moved better though. From this the thing I have learned that everyone must work on is their movements. The audiences were so good they gave us a lot of claps and support to spur us on.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

William Byrd essays

William Byrd essays William Byrd was the foremost English composer during the Renaissance Era. He was born in Lincolnshire in 1543, and died in 1632. As a student of Thomas Tallis, he was exposed to music of the Chapel Royal and the best of the English tradition. In 1563 he was appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral, and by 1572 joined Tallis a gentleman of the Chapel Royal where he shared organist duties with Tallis. In 1575, Tallis and Byrd jointly published Cantiones Sacrae, 34 motets dedicated to Elizabeth I. He composed music for underground catholic circles for years. He composed for every branch of music; Consort, Sacred, Keyboard music. As an organist and a performer, he wrote many compositions for instruments, many of which were popular pieces played during his time and today. He was the first Englishman to write madrigals. Also, his superbly constructed key board works marked the beginning of the Baroque organ and harpsichord style. Byrd is famous for writing extraordinary masses, motets, ma drigals, vocal and solo songs, and for chamber music composed for strings without voice. He was considered the foremost composer of keyboard music in all of Europe during the Renaissance Era. Byrd greatly contributed to the Roma rite, by the three Masses and the two books of Gradualia, published over fifteen years. He wrote many of Anglican church music for the Chapel Royal, including such masterpieces as the ten-voice Great Service and anthemes such as Sing joyfully. Also, he devoted his life to compose music for the Roman liturgy. He published his three famous settings of the Mass Ordinary between 1592 and 1595, and followed them in 1605 and 1607 with his two books of Gradualia, an elaborate year-long musical cycle. During Renaissance era, Byrd wrote many compositions for various parts of music, and contributed greatly in affecting and shaping much of later English music. ...