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What is the optimal tree with one node only? What is the associated error?

Question A

  1. The tvshows data set from AI:FCA-1 (exercise 7.3) is shown below:

Assume that we are reporting errors based on the absolute error value (basically, each error counts as 1). Gove very brief answers to the following questions:

  1. What is the optimal tree with one node only? What is the associated error?
  2. What is the optimal tree with a depth of 2 (i.e. a root node with leaves as children)? What is the associated error? Which instances end up at each leaf?
  3. What is the smallest tree that classifies correctly all training instances? How will it classify a new instance described as (Comedy = true, Doctors = true, Lawyers = true, Guns = true) and another one as (Comedy = false, Doctors = false, Lawyers = true, Guns = true)? Which of the two test instances allow us to say that the tree is able to generalize?
  4. If you were building the tree using the information gain as a splitting criterion, what would be the root?

 

Describe, analyse, and evaluate the opportunities for pastoral care in your church’s practice of public worship.

Theology and Practice of Pastoral Care
Assessment 2019-20
Case Study (1000 words) due 16th December 2019
Select one of the two case studies below and apply Carrie Doehring’s model of pastoral care to it.
a. Grace is a seventeen-year old girl. She is normally a keen participant in church activities, including the choir, worship services, and youth camp. She helps with the church’s mid-week Bible Club for primary school children. The pastor often praises her as a shining example to other youth in the church. A bubbly personality, she gradually becomes sullen and withdrawn. Nobody can establish what is wrong. Eventually, Grace tells the church’s head of youth ministries that she is pregnant.
She is distressed, fearful, and angry. Her local GP has confirmed that Grace is pregnant, but there has been no discussion about what to do next. She is afraid to tell her parents, who are prominent members in the church, very strict, and hold out high hopes of her going to university, and achieving great things in life.
The eighteen-year old boy responsible for making her pregnant is reluctant to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood. He is pressuring Grace to have an abortion. She is concerned that if she tells the pastor and her parents about her situation she they will judge and condemn her as promiscuous.
OR
b. Benjamin is an elderly man in his late seventies. He came to England from the Caribbean in the early 1960s. A long serving member of his church it seems as though everything in his church is changing. A new leadership team seems determined to introduce a contemporary style of worship. Many of his friends have died or returned to the Caribbean. He feels lonely and isolated. Benjamin has worked hard all his adult life, asking nothing of anybody, paying his taxes, and giving a tithe to the church, but now he is frail and suffers from acute problems with his legs that make it hard to walk. He sometimes gets confused. A gang of three youths: Asian, White, and Mixed Race assaulted Benjamin and robbed him, when he made a recent trip to the local corner shop to buy some milk. They punched Benjamin in the face and kicked him while he lay on the ground. He is struggling to understand the changes taking place in the world around him and in his own life as he ages.
Now, he rarely ventures outside of his flat. He is angry and fearful at the same time. The police arrested three youths based on his description, but he could not remember what his assailants looked like, when he attended an identity parade to, potentially, identify his assailants. It seems to him that God and his local church have abandoned him.
Essay (3000 words) due 6th January 2020
Essay 1
State your understanding of the theology and practice of pastoral care in dialogue with two of the contemporary pastoral theologians. You must choose two theologians from the list below:
 Stephanie Crumpton
 Carrie Doehring
 Paul Goodliff
 Emmanuel Lartey
 David Lyall
 Barbara McClure
 Neil Pembroke
 Eugene Peterson
 Stephen Pattison
 James Poling
 Andrew Purves
 Anthony Reddie
 Derek Tidball
 Margaret Whipp
Or
Essay 2
Describe, analyse, and evaluate the opportunities for pastoral care in your church’s practice of public worship.

What is Collaboration and why is it important ?

Week 3: Collaborative Strategies with other Professions

What is Collaboration and why is it important ? Collaboration fosters open communication and shared decision making to achieve quality patient outcomes. It is a working practice where individuals work together to achieve a common goal. In the healthcare industry it is vital for collaboration amongst healthcare disciplines and professionals. It effectively identifies strengths within the roles that can enhance a patient’s care on a holistic level. It is the cornerstone of success.

Collaboration provides every team member with equal opportunities to participate and communicate their ideas. http//www.nutcache.com (May 28,2019)

Professional Nurses can use specific strategies to promote collaboration with other healthcare disciplines and professionals that can lead to successful outcomes and improve patient care.

1: Communicate: The Nurse is usually the first to engage in a dialogue with the patient.  Assessment and Evaluation, obtaining History and Physical. Needs are identified problems are detected, thus the beginning of a Nursing Care Plan. The Nurse must first collaborate with the patient and inform them of the need for other disciplines involvement in their care.

2: Coordinate: Coordination with other disciplines is necessary to meet patient’s needs. This can be through Social services, Physical/Occupational Therapy, Home Health aide,  Pharmacy, other family members and sometimes community assistance can be vital. The Nurse must now have a discussion (communicate) with the multidisciplinary team.

3: Delegate Responsibilities: Each disciplines/professionals plays an important role in the quality of care or information they  provide, with delegation of responsibilities, each role is utilized to the fullest. A mixture of thinkers, problem solvers and communication skills along with experience and innovated ideas can now exchange information through Case Conferences, Emails, Telephone Calls and Video Conferencing.

4: Accountability: Each professional team member is held accountable for the information they provide, Deadlines for care must be met, schedules for patient visit/care must be kept. This is crucial as it reflects on the care that will be given. Patient participation is key to executing care plans and accomplishing goals.

Mutual trust and Respect: As professionals we all have our idiosyncrasies  but in order to build a successful work environment Nurses must communicate expectations, establish goals and foster cohesiveness between team members. Specific collaboration strategies utilizes multiple health care workers from different professional backgrounds to deliver the highest quality of care. (WHO, 2010)

What is the influence of culture in consumer behaviour in relation to beauty and personal care products?

Assessment task details and instructions
You are required to compile a portfolio report that demonstrates your theoretical and practical
understanding of the broader influences on consumer behaviour in relation to consumption of
beauty and personal care products. You can examine consumer behaviour in the broad
category of beauty and personal care products or, alternatively, you can restrict the product
categories examined (e.g. make up products only).
Your portfolio report should demonstrate your knowledge and understanding on the following
topics:
a. The concepts of Decision Making Unit and Buyer Persona and their relevance for analysing
consumer behaviour in offline and/ or online contexts for beauty and personal care products (10
marks).
b. The Decision making models and their use in understanding consumer behaviour in this context
of consumption (10 marks).
c. The influence of reference groups, lifestyle, consumer identity and paid influencers on
consumer behaviour in the consumption of personal care and beauty products (in both online
and offline contexts) (40 marks).
d. The influence of culture in consumer behaviour in relation to beauty and personal care products
(20 marks).
e. What would be practical recommendations (two/max three ideally) for a company (from one of
the examples previously given in the portfolio) that would like to enter this sector in a country of
your choice? These should be based on your previous analysis and justified accordingly (10
marks).
f. Portfolio presentation and referencing (10 marks).
Your assignment should have a portfolio report format. As such, it should be seen as an ongoing
project. You should be collecting, selecting, collating and working on the contents over the six
weeks of the module. The portfolio should include a range of diverse materials such as pictures,
tables, forum discussions (anonymised) in support of your analysis. The word count is 5,000
words (excluding figures, charts, appendices, list of references). Any work beyond the 5,000
word limit will not be considered for marking .
Appendices should be no longer than 3 A4 single sided. The editorial requirements are: font
Arial 12 and one and a half line spacing.
EXAMPLE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
This is just an example of how likely the document must look like… I have attached the file as a link
http://www.filedropper.com/portfolioexample
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
These are a few details about how and what to do in an assignment
http://www.filedropper.com/studentfullslidesl7onlineofflineconsumerbehaviourportfolionov2019-1
LECTURE NOTES TO REFER AND INCLUDE IN ASSIGNMENT
http://www.filedropper.com/oocblecture2bb
http://www.filedropper.com/oocblecture4consumeridentityandself-conceptbb
http://www.filedropper.com/w1-oocbintroduction-dmu-bp
http://www.filedropper.com/w2-oocbsocialfamilyconsumption
http://www.filedropper.com/w3-oocbcultureandconsumerbehaviour1
http://www.filedropper.com/w4-oocbdecisionmakingmodels2
http://www.filedropper.com/w5-oocbconsumptiontheories
http://www.filedropper.com/w6-oocbmarketresearch

Can you identify direction & form that future research could take?

Social Psychology Poster Guidelines

Presenting a poster is not just a matter of preparing visually attractive materials; neither is just a laboratory report in large type on one sheet of paper. The poster format requires a different approach. The basic rule is to provide a short, clear description of what you did, why you did it, and what you found. You should condense complicated descriptions into a few short sentences and be bold in your style. You should aim to use references that are directly relevant to your study and make sure reviews of the literature focus on the matter at hand. In a poster should aim to convey sufficient information in all the sections but avoid extensive and unnecessary detail regarding participants, apparatus, or details of procedure.  Advice on correct formatting to use can be found in the BPS Style Guide in the ‘Poster Presentation’ folder in the UniHub social psy module

For some further advice and about content see pages p.106-110 of

Szuchman, L.T. (2013) Writing with style:  APA made easy (6th edition, 2013) E-book

For a self-assessment checklist see the document in the ‘poster presentation’ folder on the module page.

Marksheet4poster (checklist of poster content).docx

Format and Content of the Abstract

Length should be between 200-300 words and must be presented in a structured format using the following 5 headings set-out on the left hand side with their contents to the right.

Objectives:       State the primary objective of the paper and the major quantitative research questions / hypotheses tested (if appropriate).

Design:              Describe the design of the study and the rationale for the procedures adopted.

Methods:          State the selection and number of participants, materials employed, and the procedures followed.

Results:             State the analytic strategies employed and the main results of the study.  Numerical data may be included but should be kept to a minimum.

Conclusions:   State the conclusions that can be drawn from the study, including theoretical, methodological, or applied/policy implications as appropriate.

Content & structure of the Introduction

The introduction should aim for a logical progression building up to an account of your study. The temptation to write, “all-you-know” about the topic should be resisted, instead, explain the study’s rationale and include a review of directly relevant research / theory that relates to the present study. State clearly the research questions / hypotheses. Like all sections of the poster, the introduction requires editing and re-drafting. Careful proofreading is necessary to spot factual errors of name(s), date or theory, grammar, syntax and spelling. When judging the level of content, keep in mind the audience of the poster, their levels of knowledge and expertise. Do not be tempted to alter the point size of the text in order to cram more detail into the poster (for example don’t write in 12-point text when it should be in minimum 16-point).

Content & structure of the Method section

For the relevant sub-headings for the type poster you are presenting (qualitative or quantitative), refer to the marksheet4posters document in the module’s poster folder on UniHub. It is possible to combine sections (e.g. materials and procedure) under one heading if it improves the flow, reduces the word count and prevents repetition. Lists should be used only sparingly and with proper attention to detail (refer to the relevant chapter on Lists in the BPS Style Guide). For further ideas on how to use headings creatively, refer to papers published in The British Journal of Social Psychology.

Results † / Analysis ‡ ( Heading applies if study is: † quantitative, ‡ qualitative)

Aim to strike a balance between describing, summarizing and interpreting your data as the analysis unfolds. For example, with statistical summaries (M, sd, F, t, r, df, p and the like) you should add or embed them within text that connects them with the research question or hypothesis.  With a thematic analysis, present clear summaries of the themes, report their connections and illustrate with carefully chosen quotes.  Where appropriate use informative, properly formatted tables, graphs and thematic maps. Once again, refer to articles published to BPS / APA standards to get an insight in how to write and present material for this section. You will also find examples of how to report statistics to an APA / BPS standard in your stats books and online.

Structure of the Discussion section

In the discussion you are aiming to produce not only an overall summary of your study’s findings but an interpretation and discussion of them as well. To what extent are the research questions / hypotheses answered or supported with the current data? Relate the implications to material reviewed in the introduction. Additionally, where applicable, can you offer an explanation(s) for unexpected findings? Are there any flaws or strengths in the method that might have affected your data? Can you identify direction & form that future research could take? What conclusions can be drawn? Do the conclusions follow from your preceding arguments?

References

Should be correctly formatted both within the text and in the reference section at the end. Refer to the BPS Style Guide for assistance.

Display Design Factors of Your Poster

It is essential that your display materials be both clear and visible from a distance (1-2 metres). The poster should be as neat and visually pleasing as possible and the creative use of colours in lettering, background and figures can add considerably to poster appeal. It should be easy to identify the poster and the authors by including a heading on the poster. It is recommended that:

the title be in 3 cm letters or larger;

The authors in 1.5 cm letters;

Normal text sizes of 12 to 14 points would be too small to be read at 2 metres. Use, instead, a minimum of 16 point for text and larger (e.g. 20 point) for sub-headings and even larger for main headings (e.g 24 point)

Use a clear typeface for headings and body text. Typefaces such as comic-sans MS should be avoided.

Graphs, figures and tables should be clearly and properly labeled. They should be large enough to be read from 1-2 metres on the full-size poster.

Setting-Up Powerpoint for an A0 poster

The file you submit to UniHub must be in a final ‘ready to print’ state on A0 size paper in a Landscape orientation (NOT Portrait)

A Poster of the correct size can be set-up and saved as a single powerpoint file

Open PowerPoint

Menu :  File > Page Setup…

From the slides sized for list choose custom

Type in the exact size required for A0 printed-paper in Landscape orientation

Height: 84.1 cm

Width: 118.9 cm

Set the orientation of the slides to Landscape (this is essential)

Click OK

Save the file as a PowerPoint presentation to your disk.

If you can’t get this to work then download the file A0_Landscape_poster_template.pptx from the “poster presentation” folder.

The rest is down to you. Prepare your finished sections in Word and copy / paste the sections into the poster slide.  Arrange text and graphics as necessary & don’t forget to save your work. In Powerpoint, the zoom control is useful to l make the slide bigger or smaller for the screen you are using.

Further guidance on how to prepare & format your poster can be found by searching the web.

How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?

 

Submission Deadline Marks and Feedback
Before 10am on:

 

20 working days after deadline (L4, 5 and 7)
15 working days after deadline (L6)
10 working days after deadline (block delivery)

 

 

 

Unit title & code EU Law (LAW008-2)
Assignment number and title Assessment 1
Assessment type Coursework
Weighting of assessment 40%
Size or length of assessment On completion of this unit you should be able to:

·         Differentiate between the European Union legal aspects and the UK legal aspects of any given set of facts, with a breadth of knowledge across the entire spectrum of EU Law.

 

·         Identify and analyse relevant EU legal sources and apply these to a given set of facts to produce correct conclusions and advice.

 

Unit learning outcomes EU Law (LAW008-2)

 

 

What am I required to do in this assignment?
 

For this assessment, you are required to submit a 3,000-word case study on the following scenario, in the form of a legal memorandum.

The case study concerns the phenomena of direct effect, indirect effect and state liability, and will test your ability to use these doctrines – unique to EU law – to resolve a given hypothetical problem scenario. This exercise will test your abilities to apply law to fact, and to solve problems. It will require you to analyse a hypothetical problem and to research the legal issues, which it gives rise to and finally to prepare a report for your client offering them legal advice based on the application of the law to the scenario.

Scenario:

Gabrielle and Pierre, both French nationals but UK permanent residents, have been living in the UK for quite a long time and have recently expanded their family, by welcoming their first son, Mathias, in the spring 2018. Both Pierre and Gabrielle work for the NHS in London, but they frequently travel to the Yorkshire Dales to spend their holidays there.

During the 2018 Christmas break, they decided to spend a few days in a hotel, ‘The Lovely Dales Inn’, located in the heart of Yorkshire Dales. Since Gabrielle and Pierre were travelling with their son Mathias, they booked a family room and were given a cot bed. One evening, the family decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant called ‘The hungry duck’: once seated at their table, Pierre and Gabrielle were told that all the highchairs were already in use and that the restaurant had no nappy change. Being very upset about these issues, the couple decided to leave the restaurant without having dinner first. However, given that they had already placed the order, the manager of the restaurant charged them the 50% of the cost the food they ordered but did not eat.

Once back at their hotel, Pierre and Gabrielle had a chat with the hotel manager and learned of the existence of a EU legislation protecting families against disparate treatment. According to the (fictitious) directive 2017/34, retail and catering businesses are in fact required to have and provide the ‘essential equipment to host families with children, and avoid any discrimination against them’. The deadline for the transposition of (fictitious) directive 2017/34 was the 30th November 2018: the UK has yet to implement this directive. Nevertheless, according to Statutory Provision No. 70/1990, retail and catering businesses are required to have at least one highchair to be provided to customers when needed.

Gabrielle and Pierre strongly believe that the both the lack of a nappy change unit and the availability of only a few highchairs represent two violations of the EU directive. Therefore, once back in London in January 2019, they reach your legal firm and ask your advice as to what rights they might have under EU Law and whether they can rely on any provision of EU law to bring an action before a UK court or tribunal. Furthermore, they ask you whether the circumstance that they are not British nationals but only French nationals could prevent them from being entitled to bring an action before a UK court or tribunal relying on EU provisions.

Write a legal memorandum setting out the advice to Gabrielle and Pierre.

Note on academic integrity: in all assessments, you are expected to adhere strictly to the principles of academic integrity. All written assignments are submitted electronically and checked for originality through Turnitin. In addition, should any doubt arise as to whether the written work submitted for assessment is your own work, you will be called by the unit coordinator for the purpose of a viva voce examination on the assignment.

 

What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)
In order to pass the assessment, you will need to:

1.       Identify at least some of the legal issues arising from the scenario and apply the relevant EU provisions and principles in order to provide basic but correct legal advice, and

2.       Present your advice in clear and grammatically correct manner; reference all of your sources in accordance with good academic practice.

 

How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?
We will be filling this section in together in class on 31/10/2019 make sure you have downloaded/printed out the Assignment Brief and bring it to the session with you.

 

How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?
The case study concerns the phenomena of direct effect, indirect effect and state liability, and will test your ability to use these doctrines – unique to EU law – to resolve a given hypothetical problem scenario. This exercise aims to test your abilities to apply law to fact, and to solve problems.

In your scheduled sessions, you will familiarise with all substantive aspects of the law of the EU which are relevant to the present case study and you will learn how EU Law principles and norms can be used to resolve practical cases. In addition, you will learn how to adopt a critical approach when analyzing current EU law issues. Critical analysis will be encouraged both during lectures, with discussion points testing your ability to link EU principles together and applying them in practice, and seminars/workshops, during which you will have the opportunity to actively participate in the learning process by presenting legal arguments on a real or fictional set of facts in a concise, logical and well-structured manner.

 

 

How will my assignment be marked?
 

Your assignment will be marked according to the threshold expectations and the criteria in the table below.

 

You can use them to evaluate your own work and consider your grade before you submit.

 

  3rd Class – 40-49% Lower 2nd – 50-59% Upper 2nd – 60-69% 1st Class – 70%+
1 Identification of some legal issues arising from the scenario and of some relevant EU Law provisions and principles. Identification of a few legal issues arising from the scenario and of the relevant EU Law provisions and principles. Detailed identification of most of the legal issues arising from the scenario and of the relevant EU Law provisions and principles. Accurate identification of all the legal issues arising from the scenario and of the relevant EU norms and principles.
2 Limited reference to the key authorities. No evidence of engagement with academic commentary. Evidence of having read and understood some of the most relevant case-law. No evidence of meaningful engagement with academic commentary. Evidence of having read and understood most of the leading cases, and some academic commentary where relevant. Evidence of advanced understanding of the leading cases and a broad range of academic commentary.
3 Application of EU Law to the fact to provide basic but overall correct advice on the legal issue(s) identified. Application of all the relevant EU law provisions and principles to the facts to provide correct and clear legal advice on the issues identified. Application of EU law provisions and principles to the facts to provide correct, well-reasoned and clear legal advice. Excellent analysis and fully reasoned application of the law to the facts, to produce legal advice of almost professional quality.
4 Basic but grammatically correct written presentation. Limitations may result from spelling and expression errors, poor structure and/or inadequate referencing. Grammatically correct and clear written presentation. Logically structured. Limitations may result from spelling and expression errors. Adequate referencing, even if not consistently OSCOLA-compliant. Good written and presentational style, including appropriate referencing in accordance with OSCOLA. Excellent written and presentational style, including appropriate referencing in compliance with OSCOLA.

 

Explain how the specific artifacts or completed work or both in your portfolio represent you as a learner and a healthcare professional.

1. Create a professional mission statement (suggested length of 1 paragraph) that includes the following:

• a representation of your career goals, your aspirations, and how you want to move forward with your career

• an overview of where you would like to focus your time and energies within the profession

a. Reflect on how your professional mission statement will help guide you throughout your nursing career.

2. Complete a professional summary (suggested length of 3–4 pages) that includes the following:

a. Explain how the specific artifacts or completed work or both in your portfolio represent you as a learner and a healthcare professional.

b. Discuss how the specific artifacts in your portfolio represent your professional strengths.

c. Discuss challenges you encountered during the progression of your program.

i. Explain how you overcame these challenges.

d. Explain how your coursework helped you meet each of the nine nursing program outcomes.

Note: Refer to the attachment “Nursing Conceptual Model.”

e. Analyze how you fulfilled the following roles during your program:

• scientist

• detective

• manager of the healing environment

f. Discuss how you have grown professionally since the beginning of your program.

B. Complete the following within the section “Quality and Safety”:

1. Reflect (suggested length of 1 page) on your professional definition of quality and safety developed in Professional Roles and Values, including any necessary changes to your definition.

a. Discuss how the program assisted you in developing your professional definition.

b. Identify the artifacts in your portfolio that support your definition.

i. Explain how these artifacts support your definition from part B1.

Note: The artifacts should be attached within the portfolio.

2. Discuss the importance of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) certificate for your future role as a professional nurse.

C. Complete the following within the section “Evidence-Based Practice”:

1. Reflect (suggested length of 1 page) on your professional definition of evidence-based practice developed in Professional Roles and Values, including any necessary changes to your definition.

a. Discuss how the program assisted you in developing your professional definition.

b. Identify the artifacts in your portfolio that support your definition.

i. Explain how these artifacts support your definition from part C1.

Note: The artifacts should be attached within the portfolio.

2. Reflect (suggested length of 1 page) on your understanding of evidence-based practice and applied nursing research by doing the following:

a. Discuss how you are able to evaluate current primary research and apply the concepts to your nursing practice, considering the following:

• relevancy and believability of data

• differences between quality improvement and research (places and uses of each)

• differences between primary and secondary research and resources and the implications of each in clinical practice

b. Explain how your experience in the program helped you achieve excellence in evidence-based practice.

D. Complete the following within the section “Applied Leadership”:

1. Reflect (suggested length of 1 page) on your professional definition of applied leadership you developed in Professional Roles and Values, including any necessary changes to your definition.

a. Discuss how the program assisted you in developing your professional definition.

b. Identify the artifacts in your portfolio that support your definition.

i. Explain how these artifacts support the definition from part D1.

How do you know whether or not the intelligence community (IC) is successful?

`Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:

Select 1 of the 2 following tasks to complete. Please indicate the task you have chosen in your post.

Task A

Select a significant real-world intelligence or information-sharing event that occurred in the past.

Thoroughly describe that event.
Determine whether or not the event was positive or negative in relation to homeland security (HLS), and explain why.
What was successful or unsuccessful from an intelligence perspective?
What were the lessons learned from the outcome of the event?
Task B

Intelligence and information sharing are an essential component within the Department of Homeland Security’s Prevention Directorate. How do you know whether or not the intelligence community (IC) is successful? Can success be based on the number of potential terrorist attacks prevented through intelligence and information sharing?

There are many different criteria that can be used as metrics to assist in determining whether or not the IC is successful. Select 1 criterion, or develop your own mechanism that can be used as an evaluation tool to assess the success of the IC, and complete the following:

Describe the mechanism.
Explain how it can be or is used to evaluate the IC’s role in homeland security (HLS).
Why is this important to the overall security of the nation?

Write one paragraph about the conflict at play in the story. What are the two things in conflict? Was the conflict resolved?

Paper 5—Language/Tone

O’Connell

“The Lie,”  “Young Goodman Brown,” “Sonny’s Blues, ” Something Amazing,” “A Fable for the Living,” “Rocking Horse Winner,” “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” or “Big Me”

(Do for only one of the stories and not one you have previously written about)

  1. As you did for Paper 1, you should write one paragraph summarizing the story (do not give analysis–just tell what happens) and stating its central idea. Follow this with a paragraph proving the central idea.
  2. The third paragraph should talk about the protagonist and his/her main traits. Also discuss the antagonist’s role in the story. Relate the character discussion back to the central idea.
  3. Write one paragraph about the conflict at play in the story. What are the two things in conflict? Was the conflict resolved? Relate this back to the central idea.
  4. Write one paragraph stating the point of view and how the story would be changed if the point of view were different. How does this point of view emphasize the central idea?
  5. Write one paragraph about the setting and how it helps to illustrate the central idea.
  6. Write one paragraph about the different language elements used in the story. Give at least 4 examples. These could include: simile, metaphor, symbolism, dialogue/dialect, syntax, allegory and irony. Relate this back to central idea.
  7. Write one paragraph about the story’s tone (mood). Tell if the tone shifts in the story (often this happens near the end.). Relate back to central idea.

Do you think that Costco and other companies like it will continue to grow? Why or why not?

In 1983, a Price Club employee, James Sinegal, and Jeffrey Brotman, a lawyer from an old Seattle retailing family opened Costco, the first wholesale distribution center in Seattle. Ten years later, Costco merged with Price Club, owned by Sol Price and his son Robert, to become PriceCostco. The company became the first to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years. After Price left the company in 1994, the organization formally changed its name to Costco in 1997. As of July 2016, Costco had 705 warehouses in nine countries staffed by 117,000 employees. The formula for success obviously worked because the company has flourished into a worldwide brand with a total of over $116 billion in sales in 2016.

Although Costco shoppers pay an annual membership fee, it has been reported that around 90 percent of their members renew their memberships each year. With a large membership base and a philosophy of keeping prices down and passing savings along to members, the company continues to flourish and outsells its nearest competitor Sam’s Club. Today, besides food and household items, Costco facilities provide a variety of services. In addition to providing quality goods at the lowest prices possible, the organization strives to take care of its employees, operate efficiently in an environmentally responsible manner, source merchandise in a sustainable manner, and support the communities where its employees and members work and live.

What do you personally know about Costco and how does this impact your perspective of the company as a current or potential customer?

From a customer perspective, why do you think some companies like Costco have survived and flourished when competitors have not done as well?

Do you think that Costco and other companies like it will continue to grow? Why or why not?

Do you feel Costco and others like it provide good or simply adequate customer service? Are we as customers willing to accept lower service for convenience and lower prices? Why or why not?