Reading comprehension Essay

|Types of Reading | |Maija MacLeod | |[pic] | |In this Page: | |Overview | |Intensive Reading | |Extensive Reading | |Intensive and Extensive Reading Together | |Scanning | |Skimming | |Scanning and Skimming Together | |References | |[pic] | |Overview: | |Several types of reading may occur in a language classroom. One way in which these may be categorized ,| |as suggested by Brown (1989) can be outlined as follows: | | A. Oral | | B. Silent | | I. Intensive | | a. linguistic | | b. content | | II. Extensive | | a. skimming | | b. scanning | | c. global | |The first distinction that can be made is whether the reading is oral or silent. This web page will not| |deal with oral reading, only silent reading. | |Within the category of silent reading, one encounters intensive and extensive reading. Intensive | |reading is used to teach or practice specific reading strategies or skills. The text is treated as an | |end in itself. Extensive reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantities of material,| |directly and fluently. It is treated as a means to an end. It may include reading reading simply for | |pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material. This later type of text, more | |academic, may involve two specific types of reading, scanning for key details or skimming for the | |essential meaning. A relatively quick and efficient read, either on its own or after scanning or | |skimming, will give a global or general meaning. | |This web page then will first examine intensive reading. The second part will deal with extensive | |reading, with a focus on how it results in a general or global meaning. The fourth part gives a short | |comment on how intensive and extensive reading may operate in the same class. The fourth part examines | |scanning and the fifth, scanning. A final sixth part comments on how scanning and skimming may be used | |in the same reading. | | | |[pic] | |Intensive Reading | |In this section: | |What it is | |How it looks | |-Characteristics | |-Materials | |-Skills developed | |-Activities | |-Assessment | |When it is used | |Role of the teacher | |Advantages | |Disadvantages | |Questions sometimes asked | | | |What it is | |Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading â€Å"calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, | |and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, | |rhetorical relationships, and the like. † He draws an analogy to intensive reading as a â€Å"zoom lens† | |strategy . | |Long and Richards (1987) say it is a â€Å"detailed in-class† analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary | |and grammar points, in a short passage. † | |Intensive Reading, sometimes called â€Å"Narrow Reading†, may involve students reading selections by the| |same author or several texts about the same topic. When this occurs, content and grammatical structures| |repeat themselves and students get many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text. The | |success of â€Å"Narrow Reading† on improving reading comprehension is based on the premise that the more | |familiar the reader is with the text, either due to the subject matter or having read other works by | |the same author, the more comprehension is promoted. | |How it looks | | Characteristics: | |usually classroom based | |reader is intensely involved in looking inside the text | |students focus on linguistic or semantic details of a reading | |students focus on surface structure details such as grammar and discourse markers | |students identify key  vocabulary | |students may draw pictures to aid them (such as in problem solving) | |texts are read carefully and thoroughly, again and again | |aim is to build more language knowledge rather than simply practice the skill of reading | |seen more commonly than extensive reading in classrooms | | Materials: | |usually very short texts – not more than 500 words in length | |chosen for level of difficulty and usually, by the teacher | |chosen to provide the types of reading and skills that the teacher wants to cover in the course | | Skills developed: | |rapid reading practice | |interpreting text by using: | | -word attack skills | | | | -text attack skills | | -non-text information | |Activities: | |Intensive reading exercises may include: | |looking at main ideas versus details | |understanding what is implied versus stated | |making inferences | |looking at the order of information and how it effects the message | |identifying words that connect one idea to another | |identifying words that indicate change from one section to another | | | | Munby (1979) suggests four categories of questions that may be used in intensive reading. These | |include: | |Plain Sense – to understand the factual, exact surface meanings in the text | |Implications – to make inferences and become sensitive to emotional tone and figurative language | |Relationships of thought – between sentences or paragraphs | |. Projective – requiring the integration of information from the text to one’s own background information| |Note that questions may fall into more than one category. | |. | |Assessment: | |Assessment of intensive reading will take the form of reading tests and quizzes. | |The most common systems of questioning are multiple-choice and free-response. | |Mackay (1968) , in his book Reading in a Second Language, reminds teachers that the most important | |objective in the reading class should NOT be the testing of the student to see if they have | |understood. Teachers should, instead, be spending most of the time training the student to understand | |what they read. | |When it is used | |when the objective of reading is to achieve full understanding of: | | – logical argument | | – rhetorical pattern of text | | – emotional, symbolic or social attitudes and purposes of the author | | – linguistic means to an end | | for study of content material that are difficult |.

What Is a Good SAT Score A Bad SAT Score An Excellent SAT Score

What Is a Good SAT Score A Bad SAT Score An Excellent SAT Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What is a good SAT score? You took the SAT, got your scores back, and now want to know how you did. Or maybe you want to know what score to aim for next time. In this guide, we discuss how to figure out how your SAT scores stack up against those of all the other test takers. We’ll then help you determine what a good SAT score for you is based on the colleges you are interested in. Finally, we provide the SAT score ranges of 41 popular schools and discuss what to do if your score turns out to be lower than you expected. What's a Good SAT Score, Compared to the Entire Country? The SAT score range is 400-1600 for your total score, and 200-800 for each of your two section scores. One section score is Math, while the other is a combined Reading and Writing score called Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW). As you would expect, the higher your score, the better you did compared to all the other test takers. But is there a certain SAT score cutoff that marks a "good" score? To determine what makes for good SAT scores relative to everyone else, you need to know exactly how SAT scoring works. Your total score out of 1600 (as well as your two section scores out of 800) corresponds to a percentile ranking. Your SAT percentile tells you what percentage of students you scored better than. So if you got a 60th percentile score, you’ve scored better than 60% of all test takers! The mean, or average, SAT composite score is 1068. Note that the test is deliberately designed so that the mean score hovers around 1000 on the 1600-point scale- about 500 per section. The average score for Math is 531, and the average score for EBRW is 536. SAT scores follow a normal distribution. This means that student performance tends to cluster around the middle of the scale (1000 is the halfway point between the minimum score of 400 and the maximum score of 1600). Far fewer test takers score toward the higher and lower ends of the scale. Here’s an abbreviated SAT score chart with percentiles for 2018 SAT composite scores so you can check out the score distribution for yourself: SAT Composite Score (Out of 1600) Percentile 1600 99+ 1550 99+ 1500 99 1450 97 1400 94 1350 91 1300 87 1250 81 1200 74 1150 67 1100 58 1050 49 1000 39 950 31 900 23 850 15 800 10 750 5 700 2 650 1 600 and below -1 As you can see from the percentiles and corresponding scores, more students score toward the middle of the scale than at the top or bottom. For example, a score jump from 1000 to 1100 (100 points) moves you from the 39th to the 58th percentile- so you’ve moved up past nearly an entire fifth of test takers! But moving 100 points from 1250 to 1350 only brings you up 10%, from the 81st to the 91st percentile. Finally, moving from 1450 to 1550, a 100-point margin near the top of the scale, nets you only about 2%! In terms of what makes for good SAT scores based on this chart, you already know that 1070 is about average, so anything above that would be an above-average score. A 1250 places you in the 81st percentile, that is, in the top fifth of test takers, which is very good. A 1350 puts you in the top 9%, making it a strong score. A 1400 is in the 94th percentile, the top 6% of all test takers. And any score 1500+ puts you in the coveted top 1%! By contrast, anything lower than a 1070 is a below-average score. For example, a 950, which is in the 31st percentile, places you in the bottom third of test takers. And a 900, which is in the 23rd percentile, places you in the bottom fourth. Not so great comparatively. Here’s a chart showing the SAT score percentiles for both the Math and EBRW sections. The distributions are pretty similar, but there are some slight differences. For example, fewer people do really, really well on EBRW than on Math. You can tell this is the case because a 750 is a 99th percentile score for EBRW, meaning you're in the top 1% of test takers. But that same score is in the 96th percentile for Math, placing you only in the top 4%. SAT Score (Out of 800) Math Percentile EBRW Percentile 800 99+ 99+ 750 96 99 700 92 94 650 85 86 600 75 72 550 61 56 500 40 38 450 25 22 400 13 9 350 4 2 300 1 1- 250 and below -1 1- Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: Bonus: Want to get a perfect SAT score? Read our famous guide on how to score a perfect 1600 on the SAT. You'll learn top strategies from the country's leading expert on the SAT, Allen Cheng, a Harvard grad and perfect scorer. No matter your level, you'll find useful advice here - this strategy guide has been read by over 500,000 people. Read the 1600 SAT guide today and start improving your score. What's a Good SAT Score for You? So far, we’ve discussed how your SAT score and corresponding percentile ranking shows how you compare with other test takers. But how well you did compared with everyone else isn’t the most important thing for you. What is more important is what makes a good SAT score for you personally, based on the schools you are interested in. A 1280 is an 84th percentile score, meaning you scored better than 84% of test takers. Thus, a 1280 would be a solid score for schools such as the University of Cincinnati (average SAT score: 1233), ASU (average: 1232), and Temple University (average: 1221). However, it would be a very low score for highly selective institutions, such as MIT, Caltech, Duke, the University of Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. Of course, not everyone is trying to get into super selective schools. A score of 1040 (just below the 1070 average) is solid for less selective colleges such as Indiana University Northwest (average SAT score: 1015) and CSU Stanislaus (average: 1005). To sum up, a good SAT score is a score that makes you competitive for the schools you want to attend. It’s also worth noting that the higher your test scores are, the more likely colleges offering merit scholarships are to give one to you. For the purposes of this guide, we’re going to focus primarily on figuring out the score you need for admission (not scholarships), but it’s something to keep in mind. For more information, check out our guide to scholarships based on SAT/ACT scores. Another thing to consider is that a high test score can help you get admitted to certain schools if you have a lower GPA than what their typical admits have. (However, this won’t help you so much at highly selective institutions- they expect students to have high marks across the board!) Does this puppy have competitive scores for your heart? How to Find Your SAT Goal Score: 5-Step Guide In this section, we’ll walk you through how to figure out what makes a good SAT score for you based on the schools you're applying to. Our quick five-step process only requires a worksheet (linked below), a writing utensil, and an internet-browsing device! Step 1: Download This Worksheet First, you’ll need to download our worksheet so you can fill it out with information for your schools of interest. Click here to download it, or click the image below. Step 2: Fill in the Schools You're Applying To Next, fill in all the schools you want to apply to in the leftmost column. If you don't know what schools you're aiming for yet, feel free to use ones that have been suggested to you by parents, friends, teacher, or counselors. However, I recommend taking the time to do some research into schools you might want to attend first so that you have a realistic SAT goal score. The more your list reflects the schools you actually end up applying to, the more accurate your target score will be. Step 3: For Each School, Google "[School Name] PrepScholar SAT" For example, if I'm interested in the University of Alabama, I'd do the following search: Click on the link to our SAT Scores and GPA page (or our Admission Requirements page- they’ll both have the information you need) and scroll down to the 25th and 75th percentile composite SAT scores. The 25th/75th percentile range describes the scores of the middle 50% of all students admitted to a particular school. For the University of Alabama, you'll find that the 25th percentile SAT score is 1050; this means that 25% of admitted students have a score of 1050 on the SAT. That would be a below-average score for admitted students to Alabama. The 75th percentile SAT score for Alabama is 1280. That means that students with that score did better than 75% of all other admits. In other words, scoring at 1280 or above puts you in the top quarter of admits, giving you a very competitive score for admission! If you score at or above the 75th percentile for any school, you'll have an excellent chance of getting in (assuming your other credentials are on point for the school). So that’s a good SAT score for that school. If you're at the 25th percentile, however, you'll need to have a particularly strong application to boost your odds of getting in. For each school on your list, Google the PrepScholar SAT score information and write down the 25th and 75th percentile scores in the appropriate row for that school on your goal score sheet. Step 4: Calculate Your Final SAT Target Score To calculate your target SAT goal score, look at the 75th percentile column. Find the highest SAT score in that column; that’s your SAT score goal. By scoring at the 75th percentile level for the most competitive school on your list, you’ll be competitive at all the schools you're applying to. So that is a good SAT score for you! Another advantage of choosing a high goal score is that if you end up falling 10-50 points short, it’s not a huge deal because you’ll still be competitive for most of your schools. You might be thinking, "Hey, wait! Why did I fill out that entire sheet if I was just going to pick the highest 75th percentile score?" Well, the advantage of filling out this information is that you now have it handy as a reference. You’ll be able to compare your own SAT score with the 25th-75th percentile ranges of all your schools of interest as soon as you get your scores back. Step 5: Make Your Goal Known As a last step, I suggest that you do two things with your target SAT score: #1: Share it with your parents. This can turn into a helpful conversation about your personal goals and how you want to achieve your target SAT score. Plus, your parents can help hold you accountable throughout the test-prep process! #2: Tape it to your wall. This will keep your goal score front and center in your mind, encouraging you to stay motivated to keep up with your SAT study schedule. Puppies are also a great motivator. Good SAT Scores for Popular Schools To help you determine your goal score, we're giving you an SAT score chart with the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for 2018 for 41 popular schools. I’ve also provided the current US News ranking and acceptance rate to give you an idea of how selective each school is. All schools are arranged in order of ranking. For an even longer list, check out our collection of good SAT scores for 101 popular schools. School 25th Percentile SAT Score 75th Percentile SAT Score US News Ranking Acceptance Rate Princeton 1430 1570 1 6% Harvard 1460 1590 2 5% Columbia 1450 1580 3 6% MIT 1490 1570 3 7% U of Chicago 1480 1580 3 9% Yale 1420 1590 3 7% Stanford 1390 1540 7 5% Duke 1390 1580 8 10% Penn 1420 1560 8 9% Johns Hopkins 1460 1580 10 12% Northwestern 1420 1560 10 9% Caltech 1530 1590 12 8% Dartmouth 1430 1560 12 10% Brown 1405 1570 14 9% Cornell 1390 1550 16 13% Rice 1490 1580 16 16% Notre Dame 1370 1520 18 19% UCLA 1240 1490 19 16% WUSTL 1470 1570 19 16% Emory 1350 1520 21 22% Georgetown 1350 1520 22 16% UC Berkeley 1330 1530 22 17% USC 1300 1500 22 16% Carnegie Mellon 1430 1560 25 22% U of Michigan 1330 1500 27 27% NYU 1290 1490 30 28% UC Santa Barbara 1270 1500 30 33% Georgia Tech 1090 1520 35 23% U of Florida 1240 1410 35 42% Boston College 1320 1490 38 32% Boston U 1300 1480 42 25% Tulane 1330 1490 44 21% UT Austin 1160 1390 49 36% Penn State 1160 1340 59 50% U of Washington 1190 1420 59 46% George Washington 1280 1440 63 41% BYU 1210 1410 66 52% Clemson 1220 1390 66 47% American 1180 1350 78 29% Baylor 1190 1360 78 39% Indiana University 1140 1350 89 76% What If My SAT Score Is Too Low? 3 Strategies What if your SAT score ends up being lower than your goal score? What should you do? In this situation, you have a few options to consider. We’ll go over them here and help you figure out which one is best for you. Strategy 1: Retake the SAT If you have the time to do additional preparation for the SAT and retake it, this is probably your most straightforward strategy. However, keep in mind that if you really want a better SAT score, you’ll need to invest a lot of time into prep and really work on shoring up your weaknesses. These are the estimated time estimates for different total score improvements (not per section) on the SAT: 0-30 point improvement: 10 hours 30-70 point improvement: 20 hours 70-130 point improvement: 40 hours 130-200 point improvement: 80 hours 200-330 point improvement: 150 hours + Strategy 2: Don’t Worry About It If you were just under your goal score (think within 50 points), you might not actually need to do anything if that slightly lower score is still competitive. For example, if you were aiming for a 1560 for your most selective school, Dartmouth, but got a 1530, you’d definitely still be in the competitive range for that school. Depending on how soon you’ll be applying to college, it might make more sense to use the time and energy you'd spend preparing for and retaking the test on other parts of your application. If you were more than 50 points short of your SAT goal score, consider Strategy 1 or 3. Strategy 3: Adjust Your List of Schools If you're 50+ points short of your goal score and don’t have time to retake the test, you might need to make some adjustments in your list of schools. While you definitely should still apply to your dream schools as reach schools, it's wise to pad out your list of match and safety schools to be in like with the lower scores. For instance, maybe you were going for 1510 but got 1410 instead. With your goal score, you had NYU (middle 50%: 1290-1490) as one of your match schools. But with an actual score of 1410, this school is now more of a reach (its 75th percentile is more than 50 points higher than your score). You also had Lehigh University (middle 50%: 1270-1430) as a safety school, but with your current score, it’s better as a match school. Finally, you might consider adding some additional safety schools that align better with your 1410 score, such as American University (middle 50%: 1180-1350) and Penn State (middle 50%: 1160-1340). Read our guide to learn more about choosing appropriate safety, match, and reach schools. Thankfully, all puppies are safety puppies. Review: What Is a Good SAT Score for You? So what are good SAT scores? Your total SAT score out of 1600 corresponds to a percentile ranking that compares you to everyone else who took the test. The current mean, or average, SAT score is 1068. What is a good SAT score for you, though? The answer to this question depends on what schools you want to attend. In this article, we described a five-step process to figure out good SAT scores for you based on the middle 50% of scores for the colleges you're applying to. We also listed SAT score ranges for 41 popular schools. Finally, we provided some advice on what to do if you don't hit your goal score. You can retake the test, do nothing (if you were pretty close to your goal score), or adjust your list of schools based on what kinds of SAT scores they're looking for. All in all, what is a good SAT score? The most important thing to remember is that good SAT scores are specific to you. You won’t necessarily need the same scores as your friends or peers, so don't feel the need to compare your goals with those of other people. What ultimately matters is that your SAT score is high enough to get you into the college of your dreams! What's Next? Trying to figure out a good SAT score for the Math, Reading, and Writing sections? Or are you wondering what makes a good SAT score for super selective institutions? We can help! If you got a low SAT score, we have a low score guide! We can also help you figure out whether or not you should retake the SAT. Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The Top 5 William Shakespeare Plays

The Top 5 William Shakespeare Plays The idea of picking the top five plays by William Shakespeare is sure to spark a quarrel among literary critics and theatergoers. Though many consider Hamlet the Bards best work, others prefer King Lear or The Winters Tale. Tastes vary, but there is some critical consensus about which plays have the most enduring literary value. Hamlet Considered by many literary critics to be Shakespeare’s greatest play, this deeply moving story follows Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as he grieves for his father and avenges his death. Possibly based on Shakespeare’s personal experience of losing his own son, Hamnet, in 1596, this tragedy manages to explore the complex psychology of its young hero hundreds of years before the emergence of psychology as a concept. For this alone, Hamlet deserves the number one spot. Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare is perhaps most famous for Romeo and Juliet, the classic story of two â€Å"star-crossed lovers.† This play has seeped into the consciousness of popular culture: if we describe someone as romantic, we might describe him as â€Å"a Romeo,† and the balcony scene is possibly the world’s most iconic (and quoted) dramatic text. The tragic love story unfolds against the backdrop of the Montague-Capulet feud- a subplot that provides several memorable action scenes. Shakespeare gets straight down to business at the start of the play and stages a fight between the Montagues and the Capulets serving men. The key reason for Romeo and Juliet’s popularity is its timeless themes; anyone of any age today can relate to a story about two people from very different backgrounds falling head-over-heels in love. Macbeth Macbeth- a short, punchy, intense piece of drama that charts the rise and fall of Macbeth from soldier to king to tyrant- features some of Shakespeares finest writing. Although all of the characters are well-drawn and the plot is perfectly formulated, it is Lady Macbeth who steals the show. She is one of Shakespeares most enduring villains, and it is her intense ambition that drives the play. This crime drama is so popular with audiences that it has inspired over 10 film adaptations. Julius Caesar Beloved by many, this play focuses on Roman senator Marcus Brutus and his involvement in the assassination of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. Those who have not read the play are often surprised to learn that Caesar only appears in a handful of scenes. Instead, the tragedy centers on Brutus conflicting morals and his psychological turmoil as he weaves a conspiracy that will transform history. Critic Harold Bloom has said that the play could have been called The Tragedy of Marcus Brutus. Much Ado About Nothing Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy. The play mixes humor and tragedy and is one of the Bard’s most interesting texts from a stylistic point of view. The key to the play’s popularity rests on the turbulent love-hate relationship between Benedick and Beatrice. Throughout the play, the two are locked in a battle of wits- and although we know they really love each other, they just can’t admit it to themselves. Some critics consider Much Ado About Nothing a comedy of manners because it pokes fun at aristocratic behavior and language.

Beckett's prose Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Beckett's prose - Term Paper Example Considering the times, it makes sense that much of Samuel Beckett’s works—his plays, poetry, and novels—focus on the theme of madness. This reaches back very early in Beckett’s career, even in his first novel, Murphy, published in 1938. It explains why many consider Beckett an existentialist, although as Ackerley and Gontarski state, Beckett’s views are far removed from Sartre’s existentialism (501). Much of Beckett’s works, especially his plays written after the war, have existential themes, although it is incorrect to pigeonhole him as an existentialist. It seems that as Beckett progressed in his career, he became both more existential and minimalist. Beckett is often mislabeled as an existentialist because of his connection with Theatre of the Absurd as described by Martin Esslin (n.p.), who coined the phrase and used Beckett and Waiting for Godot as his main examples. Plays in the Theatre of the Absurd genre have been strongly influenced by existentialism. Esslin saw them as the fulfillment of the existential thinker Albert Camus’ concept of â€Å"the absurd.† By placing Beckett’s plays within the genre and connecting them with Camus, Beckett was subsequently wrongly closely associated with the existentialists. It cannot be denied, however, that Beckett’s works, even his earlier ones like Murphy, have existential themes. Esslin describes these themes as â€Å"the sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition† and the â€Å"sense of the senselessness of life, of the inevitable devaluation of ideals, purity, and purpose† (n.p.). Beckett’s works, including Murphy, can be placed squarely within this tradition of writing. Murphy is Beckett’s second work of prose, and his first novel. Unlike most of his works, which were composed in French, it was written in his

Traditional Health Care (Culture Care) Practices Research Paper

Traditional Health Care (Culture Care) Practices - Research Paper Example Figures from the 2009 World Religious survey shows that 50.4% of Nigeria's population are Muslims, 48.2% are Christian (15% Protestant, 13.7% Catholic, and 19.6% other Christian), and followers of other religions are 1.4% (BBC News, 2007). These figures notwithstanding, it is evident that Nigerian, Muslims or Christians, have widespread belief in traditional African religious practices (BBC News, 2007). In fact, this belief system has a bearing on the way health and illness is perceived and treated in Nigeria. The richness and variety of Nigeria diet is well known. Different spices and herbs are used in the preparation of soups and sauces and this dominated by meat and/or fish. The use of spices and herbs in food is believed to prevent illnesses such as malaria. With a dysfunctional educational system, only 68% of the population is literate with the rate for men (75.7%) is higher than that for women (60.6%). A country ravaged by poverty and corruption, it has a very low gross domesti c product (GDP); however, it is considered a lower middle income country by the World Bank (World Bank, 2011). The low literacy rate and the very low GDP affect people’s perception of illness and access to medical facilities, respectively. The Nigerian society, like the rest of Africa and in most developing countries has a male-centered and male dominated culture (U.S. Department of State, 2009). This affects the way women are treated and regarded. Most often sick women such as widows and those without children are accused of witchcraft and molested. Definition and Traditional beliefs of Health and Illness in Nigeria Nigerians regards health as multidimensional and not merely the absence of disease. Health is regarded as the attainment of physical, mental, emotional and social well being (WHO, 2005). This definition, which concord with the World Health Organization’s definition, is not a trademark of Nigerian philosophy of good health but the traditional belief of most ancient civilizations. Illness, on the other hand is disharmony either in the physical, mental, emotional and social state of an individual. Thus it is common among Nigerian to view immoral and erratic behavior as a disease. Furthermore, traditional medicine in Nigeria attributes illnesses to spiritual imbalance. Such imbalance could be self-inflicted or the handiwork of the enemies. Thus illnesses, according to traditional medicine in Nigeria, have their origin in the spiritual world Traditional Methods of Maintaining, Protecting and Restoration of Health in Nigeria The traditional method of maintaining, protecting and restoring health in Nigeria is linked with the African Traditional Religion (ATR). This method is the sum total of practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and/or mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises applied singularly or in combination to maintain well-being, as well as to diagnose, prevent an d eliminate of physical, mental, or societal imbalance, and rely exclusively on practical experience and observation handed down from generation to generation, whether verbally or in writing (WHO, 2005). The knowledge and practices form part of ATR. As mentioned above, traditionally, Nigerians linked all

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example d). Pepsi, the drinkable liquid is generally contained in a bottle and it has only two components. The main ingredients of Pepsi are carbonated water, sugar, emulsions, citric acid, additives, and flavourings; and glass, silica, and aluminium are the major raw materials used for bottles (Bhagat et al, n.d.). In the supply chain of Pepsi, the product passes through five different phases before reaching it in the hands of ultimate consumers. Firstly, the required raw materials are collected from the supplier and it is transferred to the plant. In the plant, the processing of raw materials takes place and the finished products are sent to wholesale distributors’ warehouses. The wholesaler distributes Pepsi to retailers on order placements; distribution vehicles play an important role in this phase. Ultimately, the product reaches the hands of original consumers and the whole process is regarded as the supply chain operations. Since this product largely employs water resources for the production, it adversely affects the environment. This negative feature in turn notably impinges on Pepsi’s supply chain management as it is a major societal issue. Similarly, large number of links in supply chain makes the product expensive to customers.

Effects of Public and Private Monopolies on Consumer

Effects of Public and Private Monopolies on Consumer Public and private monopolies what are the positive and negative effects on the consumer An economy comprises of a large collection of firms and consumers that operate on the basis of market mechanisms known as supply and demand. These are used by firms to determine the level of production, the output required to meet consumption, the price as well as the consumption level. From a microeconomic point of view, markets that exist within the economy are governed by these mechanisms but in actuality this is not the case. Inconsistencies do occur in markets due to competition and firms within the markets tendency to earn more profits. Power to over produce and earn more profits comes from successful firms that attain equilibrium in the market or through mergers and acquisitions. As a result of horizontal integration (in which two or more firms join hands to produce in one industry) and vertical integration (firm develops market dominance by integrating indifferent stages of production) a market tends to develop monopolies(Tutor2u.com 2004). In such a market firms aim to generate higher profitability by increasing market share and by exploiting economies of scale. Competition in the market therefore is reduced as the result of firms growing through internal expansion. This kind of tactics according to economists harms the interests of the industry as well as the consumers which eventually lead to economic instability. To curb this, the government often adopt regulations to prevent monopolies from having an advantage over the existing or new firms and exploiting the consumers interests. Why monopolies are discouraged is because their tendencies to earn higher profits at the cost of allocate efficiency (Tutor2u.com2004). A monopolist would set the price of the product or service high to exploit the consumers needs and wants without satisfying incompletely. Consumer sovereignty thus is replaced by producer sovereignty (Tutor2u.com 2004). This turnaround from consumer sovereignty to producer sovereignty stems from the basic economic principles of economic welfare. Welfare refers to the best use of scarce resources in an economy. This means that welfare is about maximization of resources with optimum outcome(referred to as economic efficiency). Maximization means the firm needs to achieve: a. allocate efficiency resources being allocated to the activities where they are most valued; and b. productive efficiency resources being used in the most effective way possible (Coopers Lybrand 1996). Welfare economy is based on the free market concept with the assumptions that certain conditions are fulfilled. These conditions include large number of producers and consumers; it does not take into account of income distribution or equity considerations; there is perfect competition; and economic efficiency is achieved. Monopolies are also based on the economic models of competitive market and principles which include demand curves (D), supply curves (S), average cost curves (AC), marginal cost curves (MC) and marginal revenue curves(MR) (Coopers Lybrand 1996). Term definitions Demand curve refers to the demand by the consumers and the price they are willing or able to pay for the products. This is in turn governed by the budget constraints, relative prices, preferences and income. What the consumer is willing to pay and what is the actual price are different and the difference between the two is called consumer surplus. Supply curve illustrates the volume the producers are willing to supply at a given price. There is a difference between the actual price and the price at which the producer is willing to supply the products. Thesis known as producer surplus. Marginal cost refers to the cost for producing each additional unit of output. Marginal revenue curve show the total revenue earned by producers through a change in price and output demanded (Coopers Lybrand1996). Given the above constraints and principles, the researcher illustrates the condition of competitive market through the following model and leads the readers to the condition for monopolies. In a perfectly competitive market it is assumed that there are a large number of informed buyers and sellers. The producers are the price takers while the market price is governed by the supply and demand mechanisms. It is further assumed that should any seller tries to raise the price the consumer would switch to another supplier and hence the condition of the profit maximizing firm is such that it would attempt to increase output to attain equilibrium through marginal cost and market price. This would allow the producer to earn maximum profit, incur constant average cost and no fixed cost. This condition is denoted by AC=MC (as shown in the figure). In the above diagram one observes that the consumer surplus is the consumer’s ability to pay more indicated by the shaded area while there is no producer surplus. This means welfare maximization has been achieved. Even when the price is increased from P to P1 the output level would fall from O to O1, the consumer may not be willing to buy the product even if he/she has the money to do so. Alternatively, if the price is decreased from P to P2, below the MC then the level output would rise because the consumer is willing to buy more of the product at a lesser price. Hence, under perfect competition: the price is equal to the marginal costs Producers earn a normal profit (zero producer surplus); and economic welfare is maximised, so the outcome is economically efficient (Coopers Lybrand 1996). However, in the real world market condition and competition is far from perfect and this model of perfect competition is often marred by other kinds of unfair competition including m onopolies. In the classic case of the monopoly there is only one producer who is the price setter and the consumer is the price taker. The producer would maximize profit by setting the level of MR = MC and a price that the consumer will bear. In the following figure one observes that when the producer produce low level of output the MC is below the MR. What this tactic does is that it lets the producer to control the profit by increasing output while the price is set by the demand curve. Hence in a monopoly there is: - a lower level of output (O compared with O1); A higher price (P compared with P1); Profits in excess of those required to earn a reasonable return (ABDE is monopoly profit or producer surplus); and a reduction in economic welfare; the loss of consumer surplus -resulting from higher prices is ABCE, which is more than the benefit tithe producers in terms of higher profits (ABDE); this net loss, represented by the triangle BCD, is called dead-weight loss (Coopers Lybrand 1996). With this background monopoly can be defined as: A monopoly is a large, single supplier that dominates an industry(Cleaver 2002). A single producer dominates the market by setting the price and gains high profits through producer surplus at the cost of consumer surplus. A monopoly therefore compromises the economic welfare. A monopoly can further be categorized as private or public monopolies. Private monopolies can make huge profits by charging higher prices than a compet itive firm could demand for this reason they tend to be either outlawed in market societies or taken over byte state. Public monopolies are common, intending to provide public services (e.g. postal services transport, etc.) at low cost. The lack of competition for such giants, however, whether privately or publicly owned, tends to breed inefficiency: there is no incentive to serve the public well, since consumers have no other choice of producer to buy from. (Cleaver 2002). Problem Statement Given the above brief explanation of monopolies and the consumer’s position in the competitive market, one understands that economic theory form the basis for comprehending the structure of real markets, it does not actually present a realistic picture. A framework such as the above would guide the policy-makers in regulating the monopolists and establishing pricing policies but would it maximize consumer economic welfare? What are the effects on other firms? What impact do they have on the policies and the business environment? More importantly, how the differences between public and private monopolies affect these consumers? These are some of the aspects that the researcher aims to investigate in the following sections using the above framework as a guide. Methodology To illustrate the above problem statement the researcher adopts the qualitative method to carry out the research. This entails the use of secondary resources as well as primary resources. In the next section the researcher reviews secondary literature including magazines, newspapers, websites and educational institution material. To enforce the concept of public and private monopolies the researcher also takes into account of primary resources such as journal articles, books and official publications. The purpose of combining primary and secondary resources is to ensure that the researcher has based the analysis on both the theoretical and real life situation. To illustrate true life situation the researcher has also adopted the case study method. Case studies of Royal Mail and Microsoft have been included to represent public and private monopolies respectively. The cases would help the researcher and readers to understand why monopolies behave the way they do, and how they affect consumers as well as industry to which the firms belong. By combining both the qualitative and case studies the researcher aims to analyse and come to conclusive views of how monopolies operate, its negative and positive effects on consumers and what impact do they have on the business environment. Discussion Public monopolies In an economy there are public as well as private firms. The public and private nature of firms keeps a balance of private and public consumption. The rationale is that some goods and services are required by the public but they are not willing to pay for its welfare maximization. These goods and services are demanded by the people but nobody is willing to pay the price for its supplies. For this reason the government takes upon itself to create firms, either through deregulation or setting up independently, with the purpose to provide these public goods and services to the public. With the high demand in todays global market for higher efficiency and effective allocation of resources, many economies are opting for privatization of firms. Many consider privatization as more efficient even for public sector organizations. In the majority of countries, public utilities like electricity, gas, water and postal services remain in the control of the government. However, it must be noted that most of these utilities providing companies are running at a loss and cost of the government as there are only few people who are willing to pay for the goods and services provided. According to Edwin West (1982)Once in operation it is very difficult to stop individuals tuning into obtain its benefits free of charge. This creates the now familiar â€Å"free rider† dilemma, in which nobody will produce the good because nobody is willing to pay sufficiently to cover the costs. Since there is no value or profit involved, the government becomes the undisputed provider and therefore attains the role of the monopolist. In a public monopoly from an economic point of view there is only one seller in the market. Whatever profit, if any, acquired through the operation of the public monopoly belongs to the seller, in which case it is the government or the state. Public organization is owned by the government and often requires a lot of resources for its operations. Investments from taxes and the government budget provide for the required funding to operate these public entities. It may or may not operate for profit and hence a fixed profit is not expected from government owned firm. The public sector organization becomes the undisputed seller in the industry because it runs through state subsidy and can afford to operate at a lesser or zero price. For private enterprise to compete with this structure is highly difficult especially at an operating loss. This is illustrated as follows: In a state owned scenario the competitive market price is set at MC of dissemination and ED becomes the supply curve (S). Since this price is so low there is high demand for it. In some cases such as the Royal Mail there is a constant demand or outcome which does not get affected whether the price is low or high as postal services are required by the public regardless. However, as the producer is operating at a low price that means the cost of dissemination is high and the producer is operating at a loss. The overall result is welfare loss due to the fact that the producer surplus is less than the consumer surplus which equates to producer low surplus. In the following diagram one observe that the area ABDE is the consumer surplus which is basically a loss while the area ACDE is the producer surplus which is negated by the consumer loss. The net welfare BCD is less than the loss incurred on the consumer. Even when the government subsides and allocates more resources it would generate sub-optimal resource efficiency and thereby low social welfare. Government owned organizations such as the Royal Mail often require injection of investments by increasing the subsidies with the hope to increase the social benefit and welfare of the consumer. However, the external benefits may increase for a certain period only and relapse in the long run (see figure 6.3) (Coopers Lybrand1996). This has been the case of Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. The history of Royal Mail can be traced to the period of provocation in1979 in the UK. Most of the UK enterprises had been public enterprises and the government had taken extensive steps to privatize these enterprises with the view to reduce states expenditure and to shift the burden cost to the private sector. As a result 7.2 present of the public owned enterprise reduced to 2 present (Cook 2005). Despite the size of the program some of the government organizations remain within the domain of public sector. During the 1980s under the Labour Government this process reversed and as a result most of the industries became nationalized including the steel, automotive, shipbuilding, aircraft and postal industries. Most of the policy makers favoured the public owned enterprise due to several reasons. Firstly, it accounted for a larger share of the national total output and employment share. Most of these organizations are large and required a large number of workers to support its infrastructure. Since the Labour Government favoured labour intensive organizations, through public ownership it ensured job security for the majority of the population (Cook 2005). Secondly public monopolies such as the mail, airline or the steel industry have been essential services for the country that only the government can subsidize and finance. The massive infrastructure required for their operations made them unattractive to investors. For example the education system, legal framework as well as defence system. These were essential to the public but no single investor would be interested in investing huge funds with bleak future of running at aloes. Only the government with its access to huge funding was willing to invest in such public enterprises. Thirdly, organizations belonging to the public sector may enjoy the monopolist status yet not become regulated due to the government’s backing. As a result the resources allocated for its operations secured public welfare. Fourthly, public sector organizations worked in the interests of the consumer regardless of its inefficient status or costly structure. They were accountable to the electorate and not to a group of shareholders alone making them exclusive for a large group of consumers (Cook 2005).As a result of the deregulation, the UK government had been able to secure quite a few public monopolies. It has been observed that most public monopolies are redundant and donor serve the purpose of the consumer as efficiently as the government perceive. Compared with the benefits they provide to the consumers, public monopolies are not as efficient in delivering what they promise to the consumers. Due to the slow innovation and dynamic nature of these enterprises, the result is that they do not change with the consumer need. Poor quality is inherent in the kind of service they provide due to mismanagement and lack of training in the organizations. Other factors that lead to poor quality include incompetence, irresponsibility and the lack of accountability to specific authority (Saves 2000). Since there is no competition in the industry to give public monopolies wake up call and motivating them to innovate to serve the consumer welfare the public enterprises continue to provide services that may not serve the welfare of the consumer fully. For example the need for postal service in this day and age of technological development has decreased significantly (even though parcel services are still required). Public sector enterprises tend to lead to inefficiency due to the vast management and personnel structure. According to E. S. Saves (2000)government performance are reflected in these public enterprises in terms of inefficiency, overstaffing and low productivity. These organizations tend to employ twice as many employees per customer so that the resources become a waste which could easily be allocated to another entity where they are required. Although the government regularly inject investments for appropriating incentives through pay and rewards yet the distributed amount is so less to the individual worker that they remain unsatisfied working at the public organization leading to low productivity and inefficiency. Secondly, one of the biggest complains is that the publicly owned organizations do not have a choice in the products and services they get due to the lack of variety and choice. Due to the monopolistic behaviour, public enterprises tend to lack innovation to diversify resources or products to attract the consumers. As a result the consumers are forced to purchase products that they may not prefer, thereby stifling consumer preference. Thirdly, it has been observed that most public monopolies require huge investment funds at the cost of the taxpayers and the government. Indirectly, the consumer is forced to pay a price for services or products that they may or may not want to utilize. Fourthly, the public monopolists are not accountable to any one in particular but to a body of electorate that may be influenced by political entities. Hence, if there is a Labour government then the public enterprise would get more subsidies to increase its performance and thereby serve the public welfare more. However, on the other hand if there is a Conservative government then the enterprises would get fewer subsidies, decreasing its resources and efficiency. As a result there are fewer benefits to the public despite the high price they pay through taxation and allocated cost. Public policy in the past has been concentrating on the privatization of enterprise due to several reasons. Saves (2000) notes Some state enterprises are not expected to break even or make money, but many are. Nevertheless, loss-making and debt-ridden government enterprises tend to be the rule rather than the exception even among the for-profit group, and this is the principal impetus behind the worldwide movement to privatize such entities. The underlying reason for this state of affairs is the lack of true financial accountability. That is, government agencies and GOEs are rarely subject to binding budget constraints; they can usually muster enough political pressure to extract more subsidies. Furthermore, public enterprises have less inclination towards improvements despite the high level of investments. According to Akira Nishimori and Hikaru Ogawa (2002) First, suppression of the monopoly rents and improvements in allocate efficiency: admitting private firms into a market brings about increased output and lower prices. Second, a higher level of productive efficiency in the public sector; cost reducing incentives will emerge in the public sectors service production when it faces private competitors. They describe the public monopoly situation as follows. A two-stage optimization situation for a public firm is taken as an example. The cost reduction choice of investment is the first stage and the quantity supplied to the consumer is the second stage. When the monopoly equilibrium is achieved, maximization diminishes with the increase in investment in the short term. In the long run therefore the public welfare is decreased as the price continues to increase yet welfare maximization is decreased with high costs. (Nishimori and Ogawa 2002). Not only this but the authors also are of the opinion that in a public monopoly private firms that attempt to enter the industry would remain unsuccessful because public firms undertake cost reduction investment in the face of emerging private competition. When a private firm enters the market, there is a decrease in the consumer welfare. For this reason they propose that in order to prevent decrease in the cost reducing incentive of public firm, subsidization policies such arid subsidies may be effective. (Nishimori and Ogawa 2002). Neoclassical economists are of the view that efficiency is inherent in competitive environment. Unlike public monopolies which do not breed competition, privatization thrives in competitive markets as it attracts more investments. Nigel M. Healey (1993) writes The allocate and X-efficiency gains from increasing competition are illustrated by a movement from north to south; that is, from monopoly towards more competitive markets. By combining the capital market and competition arguments, and accepting the notion that private capital markets are beneficial for economic performance, it appears that the largest efficiency gains can be expected where there is an ownership change which leads to both more competition and more reliance on private capital markets. Public monopolies therefore are not open to competition which is the reason why they tend to decrease inefficiency as competition rises. In the UK firms like National Freight Corporation, British Telecom and Royal Mail all tend to have decreasing market share when they are faced with private competition. Royal Mail is the classic case of monopoly which has been dominating the postal industry in the UK for decades. According to a market report by Postcomm (2003) the postal industry is dominated by business mail. Twenty eight present of Royal Mails financial income is derived from its top 50 customers while 59 present of its mail volume comprise of commercial mail including utility bills, financial statements, invoices and government mail. The rest 29 present is made up of marketing material. On the other hand private postal services comprise of only 11percent of the market. With 15 years licence Royal Mail has been the dominant postal service provider within the UK for all types of postage and parcel services. The Postal Services 2000 however revised this public monopoly and introduced competition in the market by allowing other companies to compete with Royal Mail. Despite this fact Royal Mail still remains the undisputed king in the postal industry creating barriers to competition. It has an advantage over its competitors because of its universal access to geographical location as well as collects and delivers mail on each working day (Postcomm Report 2003). But more importantly Royal Mail has exemption from VAT, customs privileges and parking and traffic privileges which delineate it from competitors. The company serves in uneconomic and diverse areas which tend to increase its preference among consumers. Though this cost the government but nevertheless it has set a pattern and process of delivery to diversified destination which increases its competitive edge over other potential mail companies (Postcomm Report 2003). As studied theoretically above, Royal Mail proves to be financially inefficient due to its failure to meet financial target. Despite its increase in revenue due to increase in volume sales and price Royal Mail nevertheless does not earn as much as it is required to reach equilibrium. Instead it concentrates on making profits on business accounts; prepared items etc. and lose out on stamped items. As a result the Postcomm authority has increased restrictions on Royal Mail(Postcomm Report 2003). In such a case of public monopoly, one observes that Royal Mail would continue to incur costs of investments and injections for the upkeep of the enterprise. The organization despite restrictions and strict policies has not been able to meet its performance target. But more importantly Royal Mail behaves in the same manner as in the cost dissemination model that the researcher discussed earlier. Despite high prices Royal Mail is operating at a loss due to a variety of reasons including inefficiency, lack of innovation, loss and compromising consumer welfare with its limited services. Private monopolies As opposed to public there are private monopolies which are adopted by private enterprises. Private monopolies deal with the supply side of economics. According to Charles Geist (2000) private monopolies tend to dominate the market as effectively as public monopolies due to the incentives in the form of tax cuts, economic stimulation and increase in the demand of goods and services. As a result, a private monopolist raises the prices of goods and services higher than the market price with the intention to earn higher profits. In the following illustration of private monopoly there is only one producer who influences the price. The producer sets MC=AC and setting the production low where MR=MC. This way there is low level of production which in turn creates high demand. The price set would that that the market will bear and hence the consumer becomes the price taker. In the following figure one see that low output at O would enable the producer to increase the price of the goods to meet the demand B. Since MC is below MR the producer enjoys a high level of profit with low level of output. If he increases his output to O then he/she would lose out on the price set by the market mechanisms supply-demand. As a result the monopolist profits ABDE despite the high demand ABCE. The area BCD is the dead-weight loss which the market will bear as a result of the monopoly (Coopers and Lybrand 1996). Thus, in private monopolies do not actually serve the purpose of satisfying the consumer welfare because it involves: - a lower level of output (O compared with O1); A higher price (P compared with P1); Profits in excess of those required to earn a reasonable return (ABDE is monopoly profit or producer surplus); and a reduction in economic welfare; the loss of consumer surplus -resulting from higher prices is ABCE, which is more than the benefit tithe producers in terms of higher profits (ABDE); this net loss, represented by the triangle BCD, is called dead-weight loss.(Coopers and Lybrand 1996) Sometimes the government such as those under the Reagan’s administration induce private monopolies through privatization policies to get the country out of economic recession. However, according to Bauer et al (1995) The impact of a regulatory system depends upon its influence on managerial behaviour. In the United States, where private monopoly suppliers of electricity, gas and water have existed for many years, the regulatory system has led to confusion, litigation and commercial disaster. The regulations control, inter alia, the level of service, environmental considerations, and pricing, much as in Britain. â€Å"As a result private monopolies tend to affect the consumers and do not really satisfy their needs. Not only has this but it been observed that private monopolies run on the basis of rate of returns on private capital. According to Healey(1993) where a ceiling on the rate of return on capital exists, the incentive for management to control costs is reduced, and an incentive exists to extend the capital base through more investment—the so-called Avert-Johnson effect. This effect compromises the consumer welfare and undermines the enterprise objectives of serving the public. Privatization and the promotion of private monopolies therefore are costly as they need regulatory bodies to monitor them. Yet despite this fact policy makers are of the opinion that to increase firms ‘efficiency, privatization is the most feasible process. As a result private monopoly develops. Horton and Ridge (1972) writes about private monopoly as follows: Private monopoly is also more subject to erosion than governmental monopoly. Competition will make itself felt in one way or another whenever the monopoly price is far above the competitive price. There cent stock-market hearings offer a dramatic example. The commission charged on large purchases and sales is clearly exorbitant. As a result, firms executing such orders have been able to get the business only by agreeing to give up part, often a large part, of their commissions to other firms designated by the customers clearly an indirect form of price-cutting. In addition, a third market has developed in which large traders deal directly, bypassing the organized exchanges. A less dramatic but more pervasive example is competition among firms to provide free services to customers in the form of investment information and advice, attractive lounges with tickers, and so on. Erosion of this sort tends to undermine the management of private organizations and eventually lead to inefficiency which has been the objective of the government for inducing it in the first place. According to Hay and Morris (1991) whenever business activities are monopolistic in nature it involves engineering factors. Engineering here refers to the engineering of management processes and operation of social and economic factors within the enterprise. When the monopolist serve the market at a lower unit cost than other competing firms are unable to match the price or the resources upon which the monopolist is operating. As a result the monopolist creates barriers to entries and drive out competition in the industry. Incentives to efficiency under monopoly prove to be weak as it is cheaper for the market to have two suppliers who are also competitors rather than a single producer. Button the other hand for a monopolist, instead of increasing goods quantity and decrease the price, it would be more profitable to use the same resources to produce related products. One example is the case of Microsoft which has used its technology base to create products that are interconnected and at a high price. As a result the consumer is forced to purchase these products because it is convenient for them to use Microsoft products without having technology clashes (Hay and Morris 1991). Not only this but private monopolies largely lie within the domain of the private sector in which the authority and the accountability lies with the shareholders they serve. The government and policy makers only have authority to the extent of governing it through regulations. The monopolists tend to exist for their own profitability and efficiency as long as its resources are allocated for maximization. Ultimately, it is the market and the consumer which is affected. Private monopolies for example tend to drive competition out of the market due to large consumer ba