Supreme court US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Supreme court US - Essay Example The Supreme court is: political in nature; at the same time, not constrained by politics; and finally, a signpost pointing toward the U.S.s political future. The Supreme Court by its very nature is political. For example, on the issue of abortion, Roe v. Wade was an important case, which was supported by the courts, thereby allowing for women to have abortions legally in the U.S. Now, abortion is also, by itself, a very politically charged topic. Womens rights advocates usually clash with right-to-lifers in their views concerning abortion unless the mothers life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. â€Å"In more than three decades since its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, the Supreme Court has weighed in on the issue another two-dozen times† (â€Å"Supreme Court’s Evolving Rulings on Abortion,† 2010, p. 1). Now, what makes the Supreme Court so remarkable is that it has control over these very types of situations. It can have a lasting effect on peoples lives for years by just one decision decided upon by a small handful of people. In the case of Roe v. Wade, many people are against the Supreme Court decision because they are trying to restrict the rights of women. Many people do not want women to be independent. Roe v. Wade â€Å"†¦is the historic Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas interpretation of abortion†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision,† 2010, p. 1). â€Å"The Supreme Court held that the "right to privacy," assured the freedom of a person to abort†¦Ã¢â‚¬  except in certain circumstances (â€Å"Supreme Court Decisions on Abortion,† 2008, p. 1). The same thing was true of black people. For years, women and blacks were discriminated against because they were considered second-class citizens. However, blacks got some modicum of equality with Brown v. The Board of Education, when segregation in schools was

Deontological ethics Essay Example for Free

Deontological ethics Essay Attempting to explain the differences and similarities of virtue theory, utilitarianism and deontological is basically from my own understanding of each. I am having much difficulty reading the materials as well as sitting at this computer for any length of time. I believe my reading visual is deteriorating at a rapid pace because of the straining to my eyes. Virtue ethics focuses on a person’s character and morals. This person will always try to do what is right because he was taught at an early age and by someone he loves and wants to always please by doing the right thing, regardless of the consequences. Utilitarianism focuses on the consequences of your actions. What I mean by that is that if you steal something and not get caught, there are no consequences. No one knows that you stole and therefore you do not have to answer to anyone but yourself. Deontology focuses on the outcome of the act whether right or wrong. The person steals food from a grocery store because his children are hungry and he does not have the money to buy food. Although it is his responsibility to feed his children, stealing is clearly wrong. The consequences did not matter at that particular time; he did what he felt he had to do. Recently there was an incident on my route where a woman called in to my job and conveyed to my superior that I was talking about Jesus on the bus and she was offended. I was called in and reprimanded and told not to speak about religion on the bus. My response to her was, is that right? Quite a few of my regular passengers know that I am a minister and talk to me regularly about the Bible, Jesus and the Christian faith. Based on the virtue ethics, I was taught to speak the word of God in season and out of season, when it is time or easy and when it is not a good time or hard. This is my first and most important job and regardless of the consequences, I will continue to preach the word and pray for anyone who desires to hear it. I will always try to please Jesus in whatever I do.

The Other Side of Big Business :: essays research papers

The Other Side of Big Business In America in the 1880s, big business began to flourish due to the likes of J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. They established this by being very successful businessman themselves, and doing what they had to do to be successful, such as cut corners, whether it be in the likes of sanitation and working conditions, or pay lower wages because of the resources provided. Naturally, some sacrifices needed to be made in order to achieve this goal. But in the long run, I believe that it was well more then worth it. Many historians and big business critics argue that they did this in selfish and corrupt ways that only hurt America. I am going to argue that what was done was necessary for the prosperity of this nation, and that this was the best alternative. Before the 1880s, all of America was mainly independent upon themselves for the resources they needed to survive. Our economy was based on farming and livestock. Then along came the idea of big business. The changes that took place after the civil war involved more then just a change of technique and productivity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the nations major sectors, like banking, oil refining, railroads, and steel, were controlled by a small number of larger corporations. This rise was also accompanied by an increase in the number of millionaires. At the beginning of the Civil War, there were only 400 millionaires in the United States. By 1892, the number had risen to 4,047.1 The emergence of the modern corporation was accompanied by many positive developments. Between 1890 and 1929, the average urban worker put in one less day of work a week and brought home three times as much in pay. The proportion of families confined to the drudgery of farm life declined by half . By 1929, nine out of ten Americans had electricity and indoor plumbing, four-fifths had automobiles, two-thirds had radios, and nearly half refrigerators and phonographs. At the same time, infant mortality fell by two-thirds, and life expectancy increased by twenty years.2 There were many differences between smaller businesses before the 1870s and the larger ones after. The most obvious, involved the corporation's larger size and capitalization. The typical business establishment before the 1870s was financed by a single person or by several people bound together in a partnership. As a result, most businesses represented the wealth of only a few individuals.

Apportionment Essay

Methods of apportionment are mathematical techniques used to allocate resources such as police officers in a certain city or congressional seats. These techniques are quite complicated and are based on several variables depending on which method one is choosing to use. Two of the most famous methods for solving apportionment problems are known as The Hamilton Method and The Huntington-Hill Principle. In this paper we will start by discussion the Hamilton Method by pretending that 10 different states are to be assigned 100 congressional seats by using apportionment. The Hamilton Method of Apportionment The Hamilton Method is a â€Å"common sense† method that Alexander Hamilton used to apportion the very first United States congress. With that being said, one could pretend that they have to divide or apportion 100 congressional seats among 10 states of the Union. To do this using The Hamilton Method the population for each of the 10 states would have to be known. Then the population for all 10 states would need to be totaled. Once this total is received, then the total population will need to be divided into each individual states population. For example, state 1 has a population of 1500 and state 2 has a population of 2000 for a population total of 3500 (Pirnot, n.d.). 1500/3500 = 0.42857143 (state 1) 2000/3500 = 0.57142857 (state 2) Next the decimal places in the numbers above will need to be moved two places to the right and round to the nearest hundred if necessary. This should give the answers 42.86 for state 1 and 57.14 for state 2. These numbers are known as your Hamilton numbers. Now in The Hamilton Method the numbers before the  decimal are known as the Integers and they represent how many seats each state gets, and the decimal numbers are known as the fractional numbers determine who will get the remaining seats, if there are any. The remaining seats are given to the states that have the largest fractional numbers first and work their way down. Therefore, assuming there are a 100 seats to be apportioned, then 42 seats will go to state one and 57 seats will go to state 2. However, we must remember that there are 100 seats to apportion. 42+57 = 99, therefore there is 1 remaining seat to be apportioned. Since state 1 has a fractional part of .86 and state 2 has a fractional part of 14, state 1 receives th e extra seat because it has the larger fractional number (Pirnot, n.d.). Now let us get back to the original problem of 10 states apportioning 100 seats. Seeing how this is a rather large problem with large numbers one might want to use a calculator or spread sheet to determine how many seats are assigned to each start. By using a spread sheet one can see that the seats are assigned as followed: Population Hamilton Assign Additional State Insert Below % Representation Numbers Integer Part Fractional Part Members Manually The question now becomes, are these seats all apportioned fairly? To find out we need to know the â€Å"Average Constituency† of each state.† The Average Constituency measures the fairness of an apportionment (Pirnot, n.d. pg. 534).† To find the Average Constituency one would take the population of a state and divide it by the assigned seats, and the compare them to determine fairness. Giving an example from the calculations above, one can see that state 1 has a population of 15475 and state 2 has a population of 35644. State 1 has 3 assigned seats and state 2 has 7 (Pirnot, n.d.). 15457/3 = 5158 Constituents 35644/7 = 5092 Constituents In comparison, just by looking at the number of constituent verses the number of seats; one would assume that the states are not really represented fairly, because state one has more constituents and fewer representatives than state 2. Below is the average constituency of all 10 states in the given problem above (Pirnot, n.d.). Having these numbers to compare helps us get a better understanding of how poorly some state can be represented. One would like to think that having the same amount of constituents in each state would be the sure-fire answer to solving that problem, but according to (Pirnot, n.d., pg. 535), â€Å"it is usually not possible to achieve this ideal when making and actual apportionment.† Therefore we should at least try to make average constituencies as equal as possible. One can actually measure this by using what is called â€Å"Absolute Unfairness† (Pirnot, n.d.). Absolute Unfairness Absolute Unfairness is defined as being â€Å"the difference in average constituencies† (Pirnot, n.d). To find the absolute unfairness of two of the states given above, we should use this simple formula. (average constituencies of state A) – (average constituencies of state B) = Now to use this formula to see if any of the states in our problem has any absolute unfairness, we will pick states 3 and 2 to use as a comparison. (state 3) 5486 – (state 2) 5092 = 394 Absolute Unfairness One can now see that the absolute unfairness of constituencies between states 3 & 2 is 394. Therefore, according to absolute unfairness these two states are not equally represented. The constituencies would have to have been the same in both states in order for the states to be equally represented, and this is rarely the case. With that being said, absolute unfairness is not what one would want to use to measure the unfairness of two apportionments, because it really show the imbalance of an apportionment of two states. In other words, absolute unfairness might give some people the wrong conclusion about the imbalance. Meaning, just because there is a large absolute unfairness doe not predict a greater imbalance. In all actuality, the sized of the state needs to be taken into consideration as well, when measuring unfairness. For example, in a state with a larger amount of voters like Texas, if a politician loses by 100,000 to 1,500,000 votes, it is considered a close race, in a small town election where the votes tally as 100 to 30 then the difference is considered to be quite large. This is why it is important to measure the â€Å"relative unfairness† (Pirnot, n.d). Relative Unfairness â€Å"Relative unfairness considers the size of constituencies in a calculating absolute unfairness (Pirnot, n.d. pg. 356).† To calculate the relative unfairness of apportioned seats between two states one would use this formula. absolute unfairness of apportionment / smaller average constituency of the two states = So, using the two states were given to figure out the absolute unfairness we can say that 0.08 is the relative unfairness of the two states. 394 (absolute unfairness) / 5092 (state 2) = 0.07737628  (rounded to the nearest hundred) = 0.08 relative unfairness To get a comparison we will use two other states. State 1 has 5158 average constituencies, and state 4 has 5196 for a total of 38 absolute unfairness. Remember to subtract the state with the smallest amount of constituencies from the larger state’s constituencies to get the absolute unfairness. To find the relative unfairness, take the absolute unfairness and divide it by the state with the lowest constituency number which was state 1. 38/5158 = 0.007367197  (rounded to the nearest hundred) = 0.007 relative unfairness The relative unfairness of states 1 and 4 is 0.007. Therefore in comparison with states 2 and 3’s larger relative unfairness of 0.08, it tells us that there is more of an unfair apportionment for states 2 and 3 than the states of 1 and 4. In other words, when comparing relative unfairness the larger number in comparison means it’s apportioned more unfairly. However, due to the fact that all of these calculations were based on The Hamilton Method all of the information could possibly change if there were a sudden population change due to growth. This is called a population paradox (Pirnot, n.d.). Population Paradox A population paradox occurs when one state grows in population faster than the other, and the state with the faster growth loses a seat or representative to the other state (Pirnot, n.d.). For example, state 6 has a population of 85663 and state 8 has a population of 84311 for a total population of 169974. Now we want to assign these two states 100 seats of congress using The Hamilton Method. First take the total population and divide by 100 seats to get our standard divisor (Pirnot, n.d.). 169976/100 = 1699.74 (standard divisor) Now divide each state by 1699.74 to get your Hamilton Number. 85663/1699.74 = 50.4 (state 6) 84311/1699.74 = 49.6 (state 8) Hamilton Numbers Lower Quota (Integer) Fractional Part Assigned Seats state 6: 50.6 50 0.4 50 state 8: 49.6 49 0.6 50 = 100 seats (Notice that the total for the integer or lower quota is 99, so therefore there was one extra seat to assign and it went to the state with the highest fractional part which was state 8.) Now if we increase state 6’s population by 1000 and state 8’s population by 100 you will get a population paradox. To find out how this happens you will need to make the same calculations by using The Hamilton Methods, except you will need to increase the population of both states to get the new totals, integers, fractional parts, and assigned seats (Pirnot, n.d.). (state 6) 85663 + 1000 = 86663 (new population) (state 8) 84311 + 100 = 84411 (new population) 86663 + 84411 = 171074 (total population) 171074/100 = 1710.74 (standard divisor) 86663/ 1710.74 = 50.66 (Hamilton number) 84411 / 1710.74 = 49.34 (Hamilton number) Notice that the fractional part has changed for the two states Hamilton numbers. Therefore since state 6 now has the larger fractional part due to the population change it will take the extra seat from state 8 for a total of 100 seats. State 6 will have 51 and state 8 will have 49. To find out which state received the greatest amount of growth we simply divide the growth by the original population (Pirnot, n.d.). 1000/85663 = 1.16% (state 6) and 100/84311 (state 8) = 1.19% One can now see that this is a population paradox that occurs when using The Hamilton Method, because the state that had the most growth in population lost a seat to the state with the least of amount of growth due to how the fractional part of the Hamilton numbers changed. However, a population paradox is not the only paradox associated with The Hamilton Method. The Alabama Paradox has also shown its ugly face when using The Hamilton Method of apportionment (Pirnot, n.d.). Alabama Paradox In 1870, after the census, the Alabama paradox surfaced. This occurred when a house of 270 members increased to 280 members of the House of Representatives causing Rhode Island to lose one of its 2 seats. Later on after the census a man by the name of C.W. Seaton calculated the  apportionments for all House sizes that ranged from 275 to 350 members. According to (ua.edu, n.d.), â€Å"He then wrote a letter to Congress pointing out that if the House of Representatives had 299 seats, Alabama would get 8 seats but if the House of Representatives had 300 seats, Alabama would only get 7 seats.† This became known as the Alabama paradox. It is simply when the total number of seats to be apportioned increases, and in turn causes a state to lose a seat. There is a method called the Huntington-Hill Principle that helps avoid the Alabama paradox. This method only apportions the new seats when the House of Representatives increases in size. This is what avoids the Alabama paradox. To ap ply the Huntington-Hill Principle we would use this simple algebraic formula below for each of the states for comparison that are in question of gaining the extra seat (Pirnot, n.d.). (population of y)^2 / y * (y + 1) Let us say that Y has a population of 400 and let Y equal 5, and let’s say that X has a population of 300 and let X equal 2. Now let us see which one of these gets the extra seat. (400)^2 / 5 * (5 + 1) and (300)^2 / 2 * (2 + 1) 160,000 / 5 * 6 = 90,000 / 2 * 3 = = 160,000 / 30 = 90,000 / 6 = 5333.33 = 15,000 By using the Huntington-Hill Principle method of apportionment we can now compare the two states to see which one will get the extra seat. Notice that state X with the Huntington -Hill number of 15,000 is great than that of state Y, therefore state X should get the extra seat. With this being said, if I were to use apportionment as my way of assigning seats to the House of Representatives, I would definitely choose to use The Huntington-Hill Principle method of apportionment (Pirnot, n.d.). Apportionment is a great way to achieve fair representation as long as we are not using the Hamilton Method. The Hamilton Method has the possibility of cause three types of paradoxes: the Alabama paradox, the population paradox, and the new states paradox. Even though the Hamilton Method does not violate the quota rule, avoiding these paradoxes are more important when  trying to give equal representation to each state of the Union. There are other apportionment methods that are equally as great as The Huntington-Hill Principle, such as Webster’s method (Pirnot, n.d.). Webster’s Method of apportionment What really sets Webster’s method apart from Huntington-Hill is that Webster uses modified divisor instead of a standard divisor to calculate what is called a modified quota or Integer. A modified divisor is a divisor that is smaller than the standard divisor. A modified quota is a quota that is larger than the standard quota. One would basically pick a number smaller than the standard divisor and work their way down until they end up with one that will give them and modified quota. Once that quota or Integer is found then it will need to be rounded either up or down depending on the number (the standard way of rounding) to determine who will get the allotted seats. Webster’s method is actually exactly like Huntington-Hill except for the rounding part, and it was the apportionment method used until it was replaced by Huntington-Hill (Pirnot, n.d.) Conclusion Apportionment methods are a great way to equally divide certain numbers of substances among varying numbers, as long as one stays away from the Hamilton Method. Sure the Hamilton Method is quite simple to use, but causes many problems such as paradoxes. The Alabama paradox, the population paradox, and the new state paradox are among the ones that the Hamilton Method can cause. This causes states to lose seats due to new Representatives, new population growth and even a new border or state joining the Union. Thankfully there were some people out there that were smart enough to come up with new methods of apportionment that eliminated the issues of the paradoxes, such as the Huntington-Hill method and Webster’s method. Both of these methods are the best apportionment methods out there to help make sure that states are represented equally by congress. , and considering the fact that I live in a very poor, poverty stricken state, I want to make sure that our state gets the best re presentation possible, so that maybe our representatives will be able to listen to all of their constituents and do something to help boost our economy, increase employment rates, and bring people out of poverty. References Apportionment Paradoxes. Alabama Paradox. Retreived from http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103/apportionment/paradoxs.htm#Illustrating the Alabama Paradox Pirnot, T. Mathematics All Around, Fourth Addition. Apportionment. Retrieved from http://media.pearsoncmg.com/aw/aw_pirnot_mathallaround_4/ebook/pma04_flash_main.html?chapter=null&page=531&anchory=null&pstart=null&pend=null

Racism and Stereotypes Essay

â€Å"Sport provides a particularly public display of relations of dominance and subordination†¦. The point of sport is to display publicly the processes of challenge and struggle between two sides alleged to begin in equal terms but determined to produce and sustain relations of dominance vis-a-vis one another. Moreover, sport as a meritocracy based on skill quietly reaffirms our national common sense; individuals who work hard and possess the right stuff will always prevail. Turned on its head, this lesson becomes even more insidious: those who are at the top must have risen to the top through fair means and thus deserve their position. In contrast, those not at the top do not possess the requisite talent for such privilege. Even the runner-up is a loser†(Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). Sport provides an objective measure to evaluate the performance of a player and/or a team. There are countless statistics for athletes in every sport, which are evaluated on a daily basis. Statistics show how well an athlete performs and how good of an player they truly are. As an athlete, talent is all that should matter and be looked at when making a judgment of whether they are good or not, unfortunately this does not always hold true today. Stereotyping, racism, sexism and all those negative aspects of life, which were thought to have diminished over the years, are still prominent and portrayed through the media to this day. Stereotyping is the process of imposing characteristics on people based on their perceived group membership (Harrison, 2001). Based on stereotypical beliefs, we make social assumptions and make judgments on our knowledge of the perceived traits of those that fit into social categories. Viewing groups in terms of stereotypes is the brain’s way of filling in missing information about individuals we know little about by superimposing perceived traits of the group to which they belong. This is an efficient adaptation of the human mind to allow us to get out of â€Å"getting to know† everyone we encounter. Humans have neither the cognitive capacity, time, nor the desire to process all of the information available to us. We therefore use our cognitive space as efficiently as possible by categorizing and compressing information in an attempt to store more (Rose & Christina, 2006). When stereotypes are based on a wealth of accumulated social and factual knowledge and are not used to make trait assumptions about individual group members, they are generally accurate and pose few problems. It is when stereotypes are based on false, misleading, or limited information that they become problematic. While most stereotyping, even the problematic variety, can be considered harmless it holds potential for quick activation if circumstances and situations present themselves (Harrison Jr. , 2001). Sport and physical activity provide an abundant ground for the development, utilization, and prolongation of stereotypes. Racial stereotypes regarding the abilities of African Americans and Europeans are very much prominent in the realm of sport and physical activity. These stereotypes have been fueled historically by theories developed to explain the perceived performance differences between African Americans and European Americans. Many years of theorizing and hypothesizing about the natural physical abilities of African American athletes have shaped the thinking of entire populations. These seemingly scientific theories and hypotheses have formed the origin of today’s African American athlete stereotype (Armstrong, 2011). The former United Nations’ Secretary General, Kofi Annan was quoted saying â€Å"sport is a universal language that can bring people together, no matter what their origin, background, religious beliefs or economic status† (United Nations, 2005) but this was not always the case. Major barriers have been conquered over the years to bring equality to this nation and validate the former Secretary General’s above statement. One of the biggest issues that was dealt with was racism. This is a topic many like to tiptoe around and believe is nonexistent in American, the so-called melting pot of the world. Ethnic groups are equal if not more dominant in professional sports today in their participation in sport but the same cannot be said for the coverage of the events that they participate in. Research shows that there are still priming racial stereotypes made by sport announcers (Westerfield, Johnson, Hallian). â€Å"African American athletes, once excluded from participating in professional and intercollegiate sports because of institutionalized discrimination, now participate in many sports at a rate that equals or greatly exceeds their representation in the population. This is especially true in the case of intercollegiate and professional football and basketball† (Center for the Study of Sport in Society, 2001). As equality became more evident in sport, especially football and basketball, so did the media coverage of these sports. The development of technologies, such as the television or Internet, allows people all over the world to watch a growing increase in the popularity of sport. Over the years sports coverage has given a larger viewing population to the networks and the sporting entities have used that coverage to increase their revenue. Even though both equality for the minority player and the media were growing at the same time they were not growing together. It was true that blacks were getting more rights to play but they were not being broadcasted out to a larger audience by the media. For years African Americans and the African American community have been underrepresented in television coverage. When African Americans did appear they were often pigeonholed into demeaning, stereotype ridden portrayals, showing them as â€Å"bestial, brutish, buffoonish, comical, criminal, dependant of government entitlements or support, ignorant, lazy, menacing, oversexed, and prone to out-of wedlock births† (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). The question of bias in sports coverage is neither new nor limited to race. To date, several research projects have uncovered bias across race, gender, and ethnicity (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). The presence of bias has not been limited by venue either. Research has found bias across a wide range of sporting events ranging from professional and intercollegiate sports in the United States to international events such as the Olympics. Research has also demonstrated that bias can take many forms, from what is heard from the spoken commentary on-air to what is seen from the game coverage (Wulfemeyer & Rada, 2005). One form of racial bias that researchers have consistently uncovered is the brawn versus brains descriptions directed toward the players. It would seem as though complimenting an athlete for his or her athletic ability and physical attributes would seem positive and encouraging to a player but that is not always the case. Sometimes these seemingly positive comments have an underlying bias that is revealed by the commentary’s views of the players. This image that is made by the media that African Americans are naturally athletic and are blessed with God given talent can portray the negative creation and perception of the lazy athlete who does not have to work hard or at all at his/her craft. Many times it was also portrayed that blacks were more animalistic and farther away from being civilized than the rest of the population as well. These stereotypical expressions were put into the open in 1989 when Jimmy Snyder, an on-air personality for CBS Sports, openly told the public that the success of African American athletes was the result of selective and effective breeding on the part of the slave owners. Announcers negate not just physical and intellectual ability; intellect and character were also commented on, further negating the African American athlete. These stereotypes are not just targeted towards African Americans; they apply and are present for all races. Examples of these stereotypes are things such as blacks don’t feel pain, have no morals, are not team players have animal instincts, etc. Caucasian players can’t jump, they are hickish, and they are too loud or to opinionated and are very naive to everyday life. People of Asian decent are always good at math, cant drive well and are very strict with their children. Native Americans are lazy and sometimes alcoholics, and only live off the casinos. Hispanics are not patriotic, they all drive trucks; they are all-good at yard work and like to have a lot of children. All of these are examples of stereotypes that are out in society today and the list could continue to go on and on. These stereotypes that are portrayed by the media have prominent effect of the sports that athletes choose to participate in, in many cases it probably even effect what position they play. Since media has become such a big part of today’s society and is incorporated into our everyday lives young athletes watch sports on television and listen to what is being said about certain athletes and are likely to base what they want to do on the sport that they best fit into. For example if you are black you best fit in playing either basketball or football, if you are white you best fit in playing baseball or swimming, if you are of some sort of Hispanic decent you should play soccer or maybe even baseball. Even though racism is suppose to be a topic that was squashed long ago it still lives very much through stereotyping and is successfully denying full integration throughout the spectrum of sport. These same stereotypes that are made by the media towards the male roles of sport also apply to females as well. Even though woman around the world now participate in sport they are still not held to the same standard as males. â€Å"When female athletes transgress gender norms and boundaries, even in a â€Å"Post-Title IX† moment, they are still held to antiquated societal standards of emphasized femininity and feminine appearance by the mainstream news media† (Waches, Messner, Dworkin, Cooky, 2010). A great examples of this taking place is the Don Imus controversy in 2007 when he made stereotypical, sexist and offensive comments about the Rutgers University woman’s basketball team. Sexism is the belief or attitude that women are inferior to men, the application of masculine stereotypes to women or the hatred of one gender or sex (Griffin, 1992). â€Å"In collegiate sports, sexism can manifest itself in several ways including inequitable funding dedicated to women’s sports, media coverage of women’s sporting events, women’s college coaching salaries, views on elite female athletes and prejudice and discrimination against lesbians† (Whiteside & Hardin, 2009). Sexist views on female athletes originated in the 1920s, from medical establishment concerns about the masculinizing effects of sport participation on women. From a contemporary standpoint, football, men’s basketball and most male college sports draw more interest and revenue than women’s college sports. This reality provides the foundation for beliefs about female athletic inferiority (Griffin, 1992). Sexism appears most often in women’s basketball, in part, because the game draws the most attention among women’s college sports and because women’s basketball is more similar to a men’s sport than any other college sport. In addition, women’s basketball is not one of the socially approved feminine sports like tennis or golf. Traditionally, prissy sports like tennis, golf and gymnastics are viewed as more feminine and these sports are, coincidentally, inundated with White women. Black women have customarily participated in basketball and track, which have long been considered as masculine sports. Sport controversies can alienate and oppress Black female student-athletes who already confront isolation, media criticism, prejudice and stereotypes. Neglecting race and gender controversies in sport can impact athletic department’s brand name recognition, alumni donations, corporate sponsorships and game attendance. More important, race and gender controversies also can negatively affect minority and female student-athletes’ recruitment, student-athletes’ social development and social justice for all student-athletes. â€Å"Inquires should uncover sociocultural implications that can be used to craft recommendations in instances when race, gender, and sport adversely intersect† (Waches, Messner, Dworkin, Cooky, 2010). It is said that racism is something of the pass and in today’s society it is non-existence but according to Gill (2011) there is a modern type of racism called new racism. New racism is based on the widespread belief that racism no longer exists and civil rights legislation created an equal playing field. New racism includes feeling a way of life is threatened by others and different cultures are assumed to be incompatible. The traits that truly distinguish new racism from historical racism are: racial ambiguity, blaming Blacks for their problems, and the use of the media to facilitate racism. Racial ambiguity refers to putting forth a non-prejudiced explanation for what might be considered as a prejudiced statement. For instance, when Don Imus was asked to explain his comments about the comment he had made about the woman’s Rutger team he stated that his comments were intended to be a joke. Present in new racism, unlike historical racism, is the belief that the problems Blacks experience are not a result of social disadvantage, but rather a result of some predisposed deviance in Black culture (Gill, 2011). It is evident that racism, sexism, prejudice, stereotyping and a lack of equality are still very much present it sport today. Even with all the equality acts and laws that have been passed the playing field has yet to be leveled amongst different races, ethnic groups, and genders. Even though many sports have been intermingled there are still many sports that are dominated by one specific minority and that is not how it should be. The media needs stop putting emphasis and specific aspects of certain people’s life because in doing this they are generalizing a group. Through generalization the media is implying that a certain group of people are all the same and thus should all be expected to act the same way. This brings a very negative aspect to sport. Since sport is such a big part of American culture I believe that the media should really begin to change their ways and stay as unbiased as possible to allow the viewing population to make their own judgments and opinions on people based on their talent, not on what generalized group they have been placed in. References Armstrong L., Ketra (2011). ‘Lifting the Veils and Illuminating the Shadows’: Furthering the Explorations of Race and Ethnicity in Sport Management. Journal of Sport Management 25, 95-106. Gill Jr, L. Emmett (2011). The Rutgers Woman’s Basketball & Don Imus Controversey (RUINUS): White Privlages, New Racism, and the Implications for College Sport Management. Journal of Sport Management 25, 118-130. Griffin, Pat (1992). Changing the Game: Homophobia, Sexism, and Lesbians in Sport. QUEST 4, 251-265. Harrison Jr, Louis (2001). Understanding the Influences of Stereotypes: Implications for the African American in Sport and Physical Activity. QUEST 53, 97-114. Rose, J. Debra, Christina, W. Robert (2006). A multilevel Approach to the Study of Motor Control and Learning (2nd ed). University of North Carolina-Greensboro: Pearson. Wachs L. Faye, Messner Michael, Dworkin L. Sheri, Cooky Cheryl (2010). It’s Not About the Game: Don Imus, Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Media. Sociology of Sport Journal 27, 139-159. Westerfield R. Carl, Johnson L. Darrell, Hallinan J. Christopher. Picturing Success: Photographs and Stereotyping in Men’s Collegiate Basketball. Journal of Sport Behavior 22:1. Whiteside E. Erin, Hardin Marie (2009). The Power of â€Å"Small Stories:† Narratives and Notions of Gender Equality in Conversations About Sport. Sociology of Sport Journal 26, 255-278. Wulfemeyer K. Tim, Rada A. James (2005). Color Coded: Racial Descriptors in Television Coverage of Intercollegiate Sports. Journal o Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49, 65-85.

Eisenhower Administration essays

Eisenhower Administration essays What role did the Eisenhower administration play in Civil Rights? During the 1950s race relations in the United States began to explode and the domestic tranquility caused years of injustice for African Americans. Eisenhower, the current president, entered office committed to Civil Rights in principle, and he pushed the issue in areas of federal authority. During Eisenhowers early years of office the public services in Washington were desegregated. But, beyond these two ideas of the Presidents philosophy inhibited vigorous action in enforcing the principle of Civil Rights. The first was his preference for state or local action over federal involvement, and second his doubt that laws could change racial attitudes. One famous case during this time Brown vs. Board of Education. Chief Justice Earl Warren handed down the doctrine that separate but equal in schools has no place. A year later the Court directed a full start toward compliance with Warrens doctrine. Eisenhower refused to take any part in leading white southerners toward complianc e. He felt the Courts decision set back progress at least fifteen years. Despite the fact Eisenhower wanted no part in desegregating schools, he did push for blacks the right to vote. He passed the first Civil Rights law passed since the Reconstruction. But, the irony of the situation showed that still in 1959 the Civil Rights Act still had not added a single southern black to voting rolls. Another incident that occurred during Eisenhowers Civil Rights role was the desegregation in Little Rocks Central High School. The principal called the National Guard in to prevent nine black students from entering after the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Eisenhower ordered paratroopers to protect the students and placed the National Guard on federal service the entire school year. ...

Holden and Depression

Holden and Depression Free Online Research Papers Depression, one of the world’s most prevalent psychological problems, affects nearly everyone through either personal experience or through depression in a family member or friend. Each year, over 17 million Americans experience a period of clinical depression. In a teenager’s life, they must confront peer pressure problems at school, problems at home, the deaths of loved ones, alcohol abuse, etc.; another cause of depression is said to be smoking, a habit Holden is addicted to. â€Å"Teens who smoked were at an increased risk of depression at a 73% higher rate than other teens.† (Goodman and Capitman, 2005) Depression interferes with regular functioning, and frequently causes problems with work, social, and family adjustment. It causes pain and suffering, not only to those who have the disorder, but also to those who love and care for them. Depression has the ability to destroy family life as well as the life of the depressed person. A person suffering from depression usually exhibits a very low mood, which pervades all aspects of life, and an inability to experience pleasure in activities that formerly were enjoyed. They may ruminate over thoughts of worthlessness, guilt, regret, helplessness, and hopelessness. Symptoms of depression in teenagers do not directly correspond to those of major depression, but are extremely similar. Teenagers suffering from this condition often display frequent sadness and guilt, extreme sensitivity to rejection or failure, difficulty with relationships, poor performance in school, poor concentration, efforts to run away from home, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol or drug abuse. Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year-old New York City teenager in the 1950s, displays many of the symptoms of teen depression. Holden’s current clinical presentation appears to represent an acute exacerbation of a chronic psychotic disturbance which had its onset when his younger brother, Allie, died from leukemia. The Caulfield family has not yet openly discussed the event of Allie’s death, thus penetrating the threshold of pain that Holden can bear. Holden exposes a deep void in his soul that yearns for the return of his lost sibling. His condition was worsened when attending Elkton Hills where one of his peers, James Castle, was harassed and bullied, resulting in his suicide. Holden comments, â€Å"†¦ there was old James Castle laying there right on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him.† (Salinger, 170) However, despite Holden’s imprudent actions and vulgar dialogue , he experiences ephemeral periods of despondency and sorrow. His personality is that of an improvident individual who seeks pleasure and contentment; however, his plans are easily altered by his ever-changing disposition, due to hovering feelings of sorrow and guilt. Holden does not have the ability to harmonize with numerous factors in society. He is particularly critical of change in himself, his family, and his surroundings. More often than not, the changes that Holden has experienced impede his daily routine. For instance, Allie’s death injured him psychologically; the changing orientation of the streets injured him bodily. Holden combines his anti-change mindset with sensitivity to rejection, thus causing him to engage in a brutal quarrel with his roommate, Stradlater, regarding one of Holden’s former acquaintances, Jane Gallagher. He beleaguers Stradlater with questions to ask Jane; Holden wishes that Jane has not changed from what he remembers from his childhood. â€Å"All I said was, ‘Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.’† (Salinger, 35) Throughout the plotline, Holden shows that he is in need for intimate relationships with other individuals. One of Holden’s most prominent problems is that he considers all adults as phonies; he visualizes childhood as the ideal state of being. To illustrate, throughout Holden’s childhood, it has become obvious that he has idolized his older brother, D.B.; however, now that he is a writer for Hollywood, Holden considers him a phony. â€Å"He used to be just a regular writer, when he was home. Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.† (Salinger, 2) While residing at Pencey Prep, prior to becoming expelled, Holden remarks that he has greater respect for Robert Ackley, a teenager who has repulsive hygiene, than for his roommate, Stradlater, a sloven who hides his unsanitary ways. Holden can relate to Robert, primarily because he does not care about w hat others think of him; he does not want to be someone that he is pretending to be. Although Holden possesses great aptitude, he never applies himself to his own work, thus resulting in his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a college preparatory school. Of the five subjects Holden is enrolled, he admits to earn failing marks in four. From a conversation with Mr. Antolini, the reader learns that Holden acts in a quixotic manner; he cannot focus on a topic for an extended period of time. â€Å"‘That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.’† The concept of Holden’s desire to flee from his home is eminent when he introduces his plan to his companion, Sally Hayes. â€Å"‘Here’s my idea. How would you like to get the hell out of here? Here’s my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks. What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see.’† (Salinger, 132) Holden fantasizes a world where he can easily leave all his troubles behind in New York, and begin another life in Massachusetts, without encountering any additional struggles. After having his idea repudiated by Sally, he seeks his utopia on his own. â€Å"I decided I’d never go home again †¦ I’d start hitchhiking my way West. What I’d do, I figured, I’d go down to Holland Tunnel and burn a ride, and then I’d burn another one, and another one, and in a few days I’d be s omewhere out west where it was very pretty and sunny and how I’d get a job.† (Salinger, 198) Throughout Holden’s forty-eight hour journey, he abuses his freedom and accumulated wealth by going to the numerous bars found in New York. On several occasions, Holden becomes inebriated from the consumption of alcoholic beverages. â€Å"‘Where are you? Who’s with you?’ ‘Nobody. Me, myself, and I.’ Boy was I drunk! I was even still holding onto my guts.† (Salinger, 151) Treatment options for adolescents with clinical depression include supportive care from a medical provider, psychotherapy, and antidepressant medications. Family members also often participate in the treatment of depression. Family therapy may be helpful if family conflict is contributing to the depression. However, many parents, like Holden’s, are tempted to send their child to a â€Å"boot camp,† â€Å"wilderness program,† or â€Å"emotional growth school.† These programs often use non-medical staff, confrontational therapies, and harsh punishments. There is no scientific evidence to support such programs; in fact, there is a growing body of research suggesting they can harm sensitive teenagers with depression. In addition to family care and nourishment, medications may be considered in the treatment of depression. For instance, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), an antidepressant, may be used to treat depression; however, some medications carry warnings that note that it may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions. In Holden’s case, medication is not needed. He simply needs loving, caring, family and friends. Of the diverse people in Holden’s life, there are only a few who comprehend his true inner being. Holden’s younger sister, Phoebe, aided him through his period of clinical depression. She is one who understands Holden’s problem and tries to support him through his times of need; she acts as Holden’s true confidant. When Holden is in the company of Phoebe, he experiences feelings of joy, warmth, and rebirth. â€Å"I just felt good, for a change.† (Salinger, 165) Phoebe insists on following Holden, when he considers making his hegira in order to flee his troubles; Holden rejects her offer. Phoebe responds by crying, which assists Holden to face his problems. It allowed him to realize that if he left home, he would not be the only depressed and lonesome person in the world. As a result, he stays at home. Im not going anywhere. I changed my mind.† (Salinger, 207) Another sympathizer is Mr. Antolini, Holden’s favorite teacher at Elkton Hills. Holden respects Mr. Antolini for picking up the body of James Castle after he had jumped out of the window. However, when Holden is staying at Mr. Antolini’s house, he awakens to find Mr. Antolini’s hand stroking his head. Holden immediately begins to dress and leave the Antolini residence, assuming that Mr. Antolini was making a sexual approach. Afterwards, Holden is overcome by feelings of guilt regarding his abrupt behavior. I thought how he hadnt minded it when Id called him up so late, and how hed told me to come right over if I felt like it. And how he went to all that trouble giving me that advice about finding out the size of your mind and all, and how he was the only guy thatd even gone near that boy James Castle I told you about when he was dead.† (Salinger, 195) Overall, Holden Caulfield is an agreeable and reputable child, with an unprincipled beginning in life. His parents should learn to be comforting and caring towards Holden. Holden is lacking a major portion of infatuation, affection, tenderness, etc. that most children receive. Holden made the correct decision to hinder his decisions to leave his home. If he continues to make intelligent decisions that will benefit his future, he will be on the road to recovery. Research Papers on Holden and DepressionArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Personal Experience with Teen PregnancyCapital PunishmentThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Incorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductThree Concepts of Psychodynamic

How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals

How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule! How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule! How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule!

The Ecological Impact of the Destruction of Wetlands Research Paper

The Ecological Impact of the Destruction of Wetlands - Research Paper Example Wetlands crop up in places ranging from elevated altitude heap ranges (seeps), throughout to mid-catchment places (mainly marshes), via estuaries at the shoreline. A number of wetlands are continually drenched, but others provisionally dry up. The marshland type present centers mainly on the soil types, precipitation, typical weather and topography. Wetlands are significant to the present biodiversity, and the guarding of wetlands is necessary. Before investigating the consequences of wetlands loss, it is significant to give a description of wetlands and offer the idea of what they are, the locations of wetlands, and the grounds for their importance. With the exemption of Antarctica, these water bodies can be established nearly ubiquitously and are commonly located in the structures of bogs and fens. Even though, wetlands could vary extensively as a consequence of environmental, climactic, and geological differences, commonly speaking, wetlands are termed as domains where infiltratio n with water is the overriding feature formative of the scenery of soil progress and the kinds of life form communities existing inside and also on its exterior. Wetlands are habitats to many earthly and amphibious creatures. They are frequently key locales during propagation seasons as representative genus from transversely the food chain being composed in the soil and swampy land. Several disparities of plant existence survive merely in wetlands and numerous varieties of itinerant birds reproduce and relax in these prolific areas. In wetlands, minute shellfish, and additional marine life flourish and are consumed by land-dwelling animals. Overall, wetlands act as a mini ecological unit and devoid of such areas; numbers of countless genus would be in danger. The wetlands loss poses risks to wildlife in addition to human existence both in stipulations of defense of landscape and an extensive economic sense. Even though endeavors to discontinue the speedy wetlands loss have been a co mparatively current development, it is imperative that efforts carry on or, troubles already encountered could be augmented worse. In any debate concerning the loss of wetlands it ought to be affirmed that a chain effect is going to frequently exist. The spoil or loss of a single feature of wetlands does not merely have a consequence on that scrupulous issue, but possesses more comprehensive penalties that have immense and habitually devastating outcome on human and animal existences in addition to the entire ecosystem. Until lately, there were numerous motivation for wetland drainage, chiefly for industrialized and undeveloped purposes. Widespread actions for instance dredging, building, the conception of levees and dams, in addition to basic chemical pollution have promoted to an enormous diminish in the quantity of wetlands. In the period of 1600s, more than 220 million wetlands acres are contemplated to have subsisted in the subordinate 48 states. Ever since, wide-ranging losses have cropped up, and more than half the innovative wetlands have been exhausted and rehabilitated to other applications. In the last 50 years, anticipated 60, 000 wetlands acres of wetlands were lost. This destruction, predominantly ever since the 1950s has by now outcome in augmented flooding and problems of drainage in addition to the additional unsurprising effects on inhabitant wildlife existences. Besides the human aspects affecting the destruction of wetlands,

Luxottica's internationalisatoin and globalisation strategy Essay

Luxottica's internationalisatoin and globalisation strategy - Essay Example The researcher of the paper will examine the elements of the gradualist approach used by the company in its globalisation strategy. It will examine the competitive strengths of Luxottica. This will be followed by a critical view of the distribution strategy used by the company to capture the markets in the various countries it operates within. Corporate strategy refers to the long term, company wide plans instituted and implemented by top level management. Luxottica began in 1961 as a small obscure Italian optical manufacturer. It was originally set up to provide spectacles for the local markets and this was the main strategy employed in the first first decade of operations. Within this time period, the strategy was focused on establishment of the brand in Italy. This means that the owners just sought to provide for the local customer base in the home country. Within the first decade, the company grew sufficient competency and skills in the manufacture of spectacles. Whilst the compe tencies increased, the brand became admirable overseas. In 1971, the company made major contacts outside Italy and began to export. This strategy was simply based on the production for a larger customer base who dwelt outside Italy. The corporate vision was still local in nature. The only variation was the increase in demand caused by the introduction of new customers outside the borders of Italy. In the early 1970s, the plan was simply to manufacture and sell to wholesalers in foreign countries. The wholesalers in these foreign companies had to find ways of selling the Luxottica products. Luxottica remained Italian in outlook. In the 1980s, the focus changed. Luxottica decided to pursue an international corporate strategy. In this drive, they quit the strategy of just producing for wholesalers. They rather sought to produce the spectacles and get some control in the sales and distribution of the product in foreign markets. This led to the growth in international distribution networ ks and channels. In the 1990s, the Luxottica went public. It floated shares on the New York Stock Exchange and later the Milan Stock Exchange. This led to a solid capital base which provided the funding to expand and capture a larger market share in foreign countries. The strategy again changed in the mid-1990s where the company focused on the acquisition of new brands in the spectacles industry. This complemented the expansion of the distribution channel which led to the acquisition of more retail outlets in USA, Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World. International Marketing Strategy In 2007, there were over Luxottica centers around the world. This was made up of over 6,400 outlets globally. Luxottica's international strategy brings the firm a sales of over $6.4 billion each year. This is quite large and can be credited to the marketing strategy that it has developed over the past years. The international marketing strategy used by Luxottica is similar to what Professor Piercy wil l call 'the process of going to the market' (Piercy 13). It involves three steps: value definition, value creation and value deliver to customers (Piercy 14). In this process, the company's top level management examines international demands and expectations. This normally involves the critical examination of marketing trends and other financial indicators