Captain James Cook Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Captain James Cook - Research Paper Example According to the "Captain James Cook" findings, born in 1728 and killed at the age of 50 during his third voyage to the island of Hawaii, Cook is a symbol of bravery and is a part of the heritage in those countries to which he discovered the ways of contact. He was not the one who intended to rule everywhere he went, either by hook or crook; rather, he left a legacy of wisdom and knowledge. He traveled in the vast Pacific ocean, developing routes for trade and to explore a new world and new people. His mapping was full of skill and exact up to the extent no one of those times could reach. The greatest contribution from him that was never done is that he noticed and recorded the geographical features of the places he visited (Beales 2006). Cook contributed to the world in many ways. He used astrology and its effects on oceans and making of tides for his own purposes of sailing. In the year 1776, he was assigned his first voyage to record the transit of Venus across the Pacific Ocean. He arrived at Tahiti in the year of 1769, where he observed the transitional period of Venus and completed his first task. Then he sailed towards the south to the coast of Australia and used his powerful mapping techniques to draw the coastline of New Zealand prior to his voyage. He was as good in describing the entire voyage and the places as in mapping. Thus, he recorded the culture and skin of the people living in certain areas along with the geographical features of the land. It is from his experience that chronograph is now used worldwide.... Cook definitely exerted extreme influence upon perceiving and understanding the modern world. His contributions towards geography, astronomy, mapping and navigation are a mild stone for explorers of all times. He played his part in discovering all those parts of the world which constitute a total of about one-third of it. His navigation skills were so perfect that even in the 20th century his maps were used as a guidance tool. Also his charts of coastlines were used to understand the geography of the places which can be of extreme help in order to study anthropology of a certain area. Several design and tactics used by the people of other places were introduced to the rest of the world, like tattoos from New Zealand that came into favor after Cook had set foot on the island. Also, it is from his experience that chronograph is now used worldwide as a device for measuring the speed with respect to distance. During his second voyage, he was about to reach the Antarctica from the south, but he has to provide his crew with new supply, therefore, he moved towards Tahiti again. But this journey opened queries regarding the end of the world or more land masses in the Pacific Ocean (James Cook 2011). Indeed, all of his voyages were a great contribution in knowledge of localities. He discovered many small islands; his contribution in calculating the longitude of an area helped a lot to the navigators of all times. It is because he was a good navigator and he measured the distance between two point areas and the lunar distance too, he became able to gather such techniques for finding the longitude. His most promising accomplishment was of circumnavigating the world, which was never done before. On the

Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Critical Analysis - Essay Example This report compares two journal articles highlighting competitor analysis, identifying the varying approaches to competitor analysis and key findings as to best practice for strategic management through competitor monitoring and assessment. Identifying potential opportunities and threats associated with competitor activities is the fundamental purpose of competitor analysis in order to determine whether the business can maintain a competitive advantage and how best to go about doing this. Bergen & Peteraf (2002) describe the importance of competitor analysis as being a positive motivator to increase managerial awareness of external threats and risks, essentially creating a leader who does not take a rather myopic approach to business strategy. The authors suggests that once the competitor has been identified, it is a primary goal to define the market in which the business thrives and determine whether competitors have an edge in finance, product or marketing and look for avenues by which to close this edge through positive business changes. Through this method of competitor analysis, the business understands the overall relevance of competitive activities and prevents the company from being blindsided by surprise moves in similar market environments. The authors propose a detailed, two step framework in competitor analysis in which the most important element is recognizing the level of threat stemming from each competitive entity. For instance, indirect competition is measured along with potential competition and direct competition (Bergen & Peteraf). By identifying competition in this fashion, business leadership creates a company profile based on the level of threat that each competitor maintains in any given business situation. This profile is then compared to long-term company strategy to determine which, if any, internal or external company resources should be allocated to

Partnership in Health and Social Care

Partnership in Health and Social Care LO3 3.1 Evaluate possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and organisations. In all partnerships working for users of services, professionals and organisations, outcomes are positive and negative. Positive outcomes: Partnership can result to situation where in committed employees will deliver improved services to the services users which will consequently improve their wellbeing. Positive outcomes are to improve services, empowerment, autonomy and informed decision making.   For a positive partnership working, the service users will achieve the benefits of the partnership philosophies. Empowerment in health and social care means to authorize or enable the staff, the caretakers and the people who are being taken care of. This ensure that everyone has the freedom to make their own choices depending on what works best for them. Good partnership relationship between various health and social care organisations will promote empowerment and independence in service users. Respect, we are sure that the patients and staff doesnt lose their individuality and are given the proper attention required by them. Independence ensure that everyone has the independence to choose whatever they feel best suits for them. They are allowed to take decisions hence helping the management to come up with a plan which suits every individual. Negative outcomes for service users such as abuse, neglect, anger, miscommunication. Communication is the key while collaborating and it is the way to deal with services users. It is important to use the right communication skills when working in partnership with other organisations. Positive outcomes for professionals it will lead to a well-coordinated services provision. The positive working partnership between professionals has an impact on the organizations as all care professionals working together belong to different organizations, therefore the effective partnership creates an integrated service, allow staff to have a common approach, the same vision, shared provision and coherent working practices. 3.2   Analyse the potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services. Working in collaboration with other organizations is not an easy venture because it comes with different challenges. The potential barriers to working partnership in health and social care services can be noticed at different levels. For example, where in the organisation there is a culture of top-down management style rather than an open collaborative inter-professional with a focus on person centred approach. There is also a lack of competence, knowledge and skills between workers (unqualified social workers accomplishing the task of a qualified social worker) and lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities. Power imbalances exist between the professions with each believing that working partnership will diminish their profession in some way or that they are more important than other therefore should be in charge or not want to share information to other. Different practices and policies leading to different priorities, attitudes and values, lack of training among partners on important issues. Funding can also be a barrier for working partnership. An organisation may have more funding than other and believe that merging with other can impact on the way its budget is spent. The role of voluntary organizations and service users is often unclear. They feel like their need is taken into consideration and are not seen as partners. Barriers in working partnership are very common in health and social leading to tragic consequences and exposing more and more vulnerable people to abuse and neglect. 3.3 Devices strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services. Different practices and policies leading to different priorities, attitudes and values, lack of training among partners on important issues. Funding can also be a barrier for working partnership. An organisation may have more funding than other and believe that merging with other can impact on the way its budget is spent. The role of voluntary organizations and service users is often unclear. They feel like their need is taken into consideration and are not seen as partners. Barriers in working partnership are very common in health and social leading to tragic consequences and exposing more and more vulnerable people to abuse and neglect. Empowerment. As health and social care professional empowering the service is very essential to us. He makes the service users feel respected, involved in his care and a better partner in the working partnership process. Put the service user at the centre of what we do. Training is essential because it increases knowledge, define roles and responsibilities and unified working strategies. Following of different legislations covering the health and social care services.

Where Are You Going, Where have you been? Essay -- essays research pap

Connie’s Decision   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nobody really knows what the future holds. We all live day by day wondering what God’s will is for our lives. Yet we carry on and make decisions that may or may not shape what our lives turn out to be. In Joyce Carol Oates’s â€Å"Where are you going, Where have you been?,† we meet Connie, a fifteen year old beautiful girl. Connie like most teenagers is a little boy crazy and at times rebellious. She and some girlfriends would get together and go to a local drive-in restaurant where older kids would hang out. (153) One night at this drive-in a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible caught Connie’s eye. (154) Connie had never seen him before. He made the sly statement of â€Å"Gonna get you, baby,† and she just ignored him and walked on. (154) Little did Connie know he was speaking the truth. In a very short period of time Connie was about to make the biggest decision of her life, literally.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Connie was at home alone one day sitting in her room listening to music. Her mother, father and sister were out to a barbeque. An unfamiliar car pulled up in the driveway and Connie at first was worried about how she looked. This was the least of her troubles. When Connie got to the front door she was faced with two men. The driver whom we come to know as Arnold Friend and the passenger whose name was Ellie Oscar. Arnold comes off at first as kind of strange yet nice. He asks Connie, â€Å"You wanta come for a ride?† (...

Compare Two Research Articles: Philosophical, Ethical, And Methodological

Introduction This paper will compare the major characteristics of two research articles – which are different in philosophical and methodological approaches but are both related to the service of school social workers – and attempt to show the differences and similarities in ontology, epistemology, ethics, methodology and the methods of both pieces of research. The first research piece is a paper called â€Å"Managing school social work records† published in 2012 in which Garrett examines the results of a survey on the record keeping practices of 73 school social workers. This sample of school social workers belonged to the School Social Workers’ Association of America (SSWAA). Based on the quantitative research and survey method, the researcher explored three relevant issues for school social workers, these were: practical issues, ethical issues and legal mandates. The purpose of Garrett’s research was to increase the school social workers practice of record keeping, improve their decision making skills, and to help them choose suitable information to include in workers’ records. Garrett’s article found that about 50% of all social workers were unfamiliar with record keeping policy and most of the respondents had a poor understanding about what they should record. It also found that they struggled to find appropriate ways to achieve goals or to overcome bad situations. The results of this research were then used to give the recommendation that school social workers needed more aid in their daily record keeping. It was explained that professional organizations have to train the social workers by offering workshops or classes that will teach them what information should be included or excluded, and the ethical and the legal policies that or importance to this recording. The second research article that will be used for this essay is called â€Å"Empowering school social work practices for positive youth development,† which is qualitative research carried out by To in 2006 in Hong Kong, China. To’s study investigates the way in which school social workers engage with 3 major dimensions of empowerment: the personal dimension; the school and community dimensions; and lastly, the institutional dimension. The sample used in To’s research consisted of 15 social workers, 10 of which were female and 5 being male. All of these had wide service experience in the schools and most of them had Master’s degrees. The purpose of this study was to explore the way in which school social workers dealt with different situations and how they influenced youth development by using diverse strategies with the students, and within the school, community and the relevant sectors of education. This was largely with the view of encouraging students t o participate in volunteer works. The findings of To’s research indicated that, in the school setting, the research participants played an active role in achieving empowerment. The relevant results provided insightful information for all other social workers who contribute services in the schools. Philosophical During undertaking social research, it is important to consider matters of both philosophical approaches, such as ontology and epistemology, and different research paradigms. These can affect the research technique and direction as it is launched from design through to its conclusion (Flowers, 2009). Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) draw attention to the fact that different paradigms â€Å"encourage researchers to study phenomena in different ways.† The two chosen pieces of research are related with different research paradigms – one of which is related with positivist and the other with interpretivist. Positivist is based on â€Å"values of reason, truth and validity and there is a focus purely on facts, gathered through direct observation and experiences and measured empirically using quantitative methods, surveys and experiments and statistical analysis† (Flowers, 2009). In addition to this, this paradigm is aligned with deductive or theory testing. However, in the case of interpretive it is argued that individuals and groups have an important role within situations that are based on their individual experience and expectations (Flowers, 2009). Interpretive consider that there is no single reality but that there are multiple realities. This paradigm is more aligned with inductive or theory building.OntologyBlaikie (1993) defined ontology as â€Å"the science or study of being† and adopts this definition f or social science, explaining that what exist is either an objective single reality (objectivism) or it is not single reality, only a subjective reality (subjectivism). The ontological approaches behind the two researches seem entirely different. With regard to Garrett’s focus on statistical data, it can be considered that Garrett believes that there is an objective reality that allows for measurement. Ontological objective result means that it does not depend on the researcher. This is because the research only described numerical results which were received from the sample of respondents who completed the survey. This language is defined as representative of the reality. On the other hand, To’s study, which used qualitative research, can be seen to focus on a subjective reality where the researcher interpreted narrative data that was derived from a semi-structured interview.EpistemologyEpistemology is â€Å"the theory or science of the method or ground of knowledge† and explains that what exists â€Å"may be known†, what â€Å"can be known† and what criteria must be satisfied in order to be described as â€Å"knowledge† (Flowers, 2009). In addition to this, Chia (2002) describes epi stemology as â€Å"how and what it is possible to know†, while Hatch & Cunliffe (2006) characterise epistemology as â€Å"knowing how you can know†. Flowers (2009) discusses that, as with ontology, both objective epistemology and subjective epistemology views can exist. Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008) describe the way in which a world can exist in view of an objective epistemology, as long as this is apparent and theory neutral; while, with a view of a subjective epistemology, no existence is possible to the apparent world beyond our subjective observations and interpretations. The two articles display a difference in their epistemological approaches. In the quantitative study, the researcher only described the results in relation to a paradigm of positivism; however, the role of the researcher is not important in influencing the data of the research. On the other hand, regarding to interpretivist epistemology, the researcher gives a weight role which influences the research and the understanding of the situations from the researcher’s point of view. Ethical Issue Ethics is one of the essential aspects in many sciences, especially in social sciences. May (2011) defines ethics as â€Å"concerned with the attempt to formulate codes and principles of moral behaviour.† All social researchers should pay attention to the social research ethics. Punch (2005) believes that all social researches should include ethical issues because social researchers deal with societies and people’s daily lives; fundamentally, all data derives from people. Therefore, it is not easy to avoid ethical issues in both qualitative and quantitative approaches, especially qualitative approaches. Punch (2005) also highlights the way in which the qualitative method approach is more likely to study ethical issues as qualitative research focuses on the more sensitive issues in peoples’ lives. To’s study (2006) asked questions about the personal lives of the respondents; for this reason he used a numerical code instead of actual names to give them independence and to make them feel more comfortable. However, To did mention the name of students who played roles in the social workers’ stories. Therefore, it can be argued that, on the one hand, that To mentioned a student’s name to try and show the school social worker’s achievements, in order to have positive effect on other social workers and encourage them to do the same. On the other hand, however, this could produce ethical issues for the researcher and the school social workers because they mentioned other people’s real names, when they could have used codes or false names. In the case of Garrett’s study, which used Survey Monkey as method for collecting data, he does not mention anything ethically relevant to the respondent. However, this website has some ethical issues; for ex ample, regarding to questions design, the respondents should answer all questions before the survey can be submitted which means there is no right to avoid answering some questions (Buchanan and Hvizdak, 2009). During the period of research, it is important for the researchers to make ethical decisions and consider what is to benefit the respondents or their research process. Furthermore, they have to assess themselves by asking a number of ethical questions (May, 2011). The articles of this essay are about school social work, so all behaviours and relevant ethics are necessary for the researchers and social workers to consider. Methodological Both articles have contrasting methodological approaches which are representative of their philosophical positions (ontology, epistemology). This part will attempt to compare both research methods – one of which is a quantitative method approach and the other is a qualitative method approach – and highlights the differences of the samples, data collections, data analysis and research findings. The two chosen pieces of research use different methods for data collection: one used Survey Monkey and the other used a semi-structured interview. The Quantitative research survey method is defined by Burton (2012) as â€Å"a techniques that uses a wide range quantitative research provides valuable figures based on a large number of population that can be incredibly useful and reliable because statistic and numeric data give certain validity to the research.† A Semi-structured interview is one of the types of interviews whereby the participants have more freedom and allows them to answer questions on their own terms, although it is still arranged and questions are specified (May, 1997). However, the strategy of choosing the samples for both methods is different. Regarding the question of the samples, there are great differences that can be seen. In Garrett’s study the sample composed a small list of members of the School Social Workers’ Association of America (SSWAA). They derived this list from 24 respondents from the United States of America and Canada, who were acceptable to represent the SSWAA. The researcher divided the list into even and odd members and randomly chose one of them to survey. Then the selected group participated in the survey after receiving an email that invited them to participate and explained the purpose of the survey. In total, 245 workers were invited to participate in the survey. Some of the emails were undeliverable and some other members were not completed which meant only 73 respondents completed the survey. This number is about 30% of the potential sample (Garrett, 2012). On the other hand, the samples of To’s research participants were derived from 13 various organizations of welfare in H ong Kong. There were different genders involved, 10 female and 5 male, with an average age between 30-39 years old; only 3 of the participants were in their twenties and 1 was in their forties. On average they had about 7 years’ experience as school social workers, while most of sample had a Master’s degrees (To, 2006). With respect to data collection, during the period of March to June 2005, To’s research (2006) was carried out and the method for data collection was one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Each interview was divided into parts and each part was 1.5 hour. In To’s research the first part of the interview targeted the micro- and meso-sphere services of school social work, meanwhile the second part of the interview targeted the macro-sphere. Furthermore there were some questions about participant’s own stories and their services which were offered in their daily practices. However, in Garrett’s study the quantitative research was undertaken in February of 2009 using Survey Monkey, which is one of the most common websites used for creating surveys. The questionnaire consisted 25 short-answer questions that focused on â€Å"the types of records kept, what was included, decision-making practices, use of the records, challenges, storage, disposal of closed recor ds, access to records, and district policies† (Garrett, 2012). However, the research had one qualitative question which was an open question that focused on the most challenging aspect of keeping records (Garrett, 2012). In the case of data analysis of Garrett’s research (2012), all 25 quantitative questions were analysed after downloaded into MINITAB 15. On the other hand, in the case of the qualitative question, this was analysed after being transcribed into word processing documents where it was defined and themes were â€Å"coded, counted and summarized† (Garrett, 2012). In spite of To’s Hong Kong’s research, the researcher processed the data analysis, step-by-step after transcribing the narratives. At the beginning of this process, To read the transcripts twice to find â€Å"meaningful units†, and then converted these units to codes and began an improvement level of data analysis. Next, To found that various stages of meaning were produced and arranged these as sub-themes. Finally, the researched sorted out similar sub-themes to the main themes of his study. Relevant with the findings of To’s research, it was mentioned that together, the narratives showed a comprehensive understanding of the multidimensional empowering practices of social workers in schools. To believed that these results would help other practitioners to deal with issues of empowerment. However, in Garrett’s study the more significant findings are that more than half of the participants could not successfully record assessment information and more than 75% of participants could not make decisions about closing a case. Therefore, the results of Garrett’s study should be organized with caution because there was a small size of respondents in relation to all the members of the SSWAA. In conclusion, this essay has tried to compare two social research articles which had similar topics but completely different philosophical, ethical and methodological perspectives. One of these studies used a quantitative research approach and the other a qualitative. Each study was they carried out in different places, America and China respectively, and in different period times. Garrett’s 2012 article focuses on the positivism paradigm, which tried to find out about the knowledge gap about practices of record keeping by school social workers. The data in Garrett’s study was collected using Survey Monkey, and the numerical data was analysed. To’s 2006 research was based on a different reality and tried to investigate the role of school social workers in influence youth development and encouraging students to volunteer. The study used a semi-structured interview to collect data. The results showed that they had a live role in achieving empowerment. It can be s een, therefore, that it is significant for all social researchers to concern their philosophical, ethical and methodological positions when undertaking research. References Blaikie, N. (1993) Approaches to social enquiry polity press, Cambridge uk. Buchanan, A. & Hvizdak, E. (2009) â€Å"Online survey tools: ethical and methodological concerns of human research ethics committees†, in Journal of empirical research on human research ethics: an international journal, 4: 37-48. Chia, R. (2002) â€Å"The production of management knowledge: philosophical underpinnings of research design†, in Essential skills for management research, sage, London: 1-18. Eriksson, P. & Kovalainen, A. (2008) Qualitative methods in business research, Sage. Flowers, P. (2009) â€Å"Research philosophies–importance and relevance† in Economic record, 3. Garrett, K. (2012) â€Å"Managing school social work records†, in Children & schools, 34: 239-248. Hatch, M. J. & Cunliffe, A. (2006) Organization theory, Oxford university press: Buckingham. May, T. (1997) Social research: issues, methods and process, Open university press: Buckingham. May, T. (2011) Social research: issues, methods and research, Mcgraw-Hill International. Punch, K. F. (2005) Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches, Sage. To, S. M. (2006), â€Å"Empowering school social work practices for positive youth development: hong kong experience†, in Adolescence, 42: 555-567.

Plot Summary: Volpone, by Ben Jonson Essay

Ben Johnson was an Elizabethan English poet, dramatist and actor. A peer of William Shakespeare, Johnson was born in 1572 and died 65 years later. He was a man of extraordinary literary talents and despite the fact that he didn’t go to university he was acknowledged as one of the most learned men of his day. He was friends with many of the other well known Elizabethan writers like Bacon, Shakespeare and Donne; in fact, Shakespeare even acted in the 1616 production of Johnson’s play ‘Every Man in His Humour’. Johnson is best known for his poems and satirical plays, of which the 1606 ‘Volpone’ is considered to be one of his best examples; it is a comedy/satire about avarice and lust The play takes place over 24 hours in seventeenth-century Venice, and opens at the home of a nobleman from the city – Volpone (the ‘fox’). Seemingly, this nobleman is actually a con artist who has gained his impressive wealth through deception and other dishonest ways. As the play starts, Volpone is with his servant Mosca entering the shrine where Volpone keeps all his wealth and treasures. The reader learns that Volpone is about to deceive yet more people as he tries to trick his alleged friends – Voltore (the ‘vulture’), Corbaccio (the ‘raven’) and Corvino (the ‘crow’) – into believing that each is Volpone’s heir and that he is actually on his deathbed. What these three men do not know is that Volpone is in perfect health and feigning his illness to receive expensive â€Å"get well† gifts from these fortune hunters. Mosca, Volpone’s â€Å"parasite† tells each of the men individually that they are heir to Volpone’s fortune so that they will return with yet more gifts. Voltore, who is a lawyer by trade, offers the ‘dying’ man a gift an expensive platter, the old gentleman. Corbaccio is talked into disinheriting his son Bonario by Volpone and Mosca in favour of Volpone; Corbaccio thinking that Volpone is dying is not concerned about this. This leaves the third man – Corvino, a penny-pinching merchant with a beautiful young wife, Celia, whom he guards closely; however despite him being such a jealous husband his greed lead him to proffer Celia to Volpone to take to his bed and to be a comfort to him as he lies dying. When Volpone attempts to force himself on Corvino’s young wife, he is interrupted by the appearance of Corbaccio’s son, Bonario. Celia and Bonario, but the three fortune hunters (scared of Volpone losing his wealth which they each think will soon be theirs take out counter-charges against the young couple of adultery and fornication. Volpone loves the chaos that he has caused and so decides to make more sport for himself by staging his own death and leaving everything to Mosca, just so that he is able to witness the mayhem that will occur. Mosca, however, as he prepares for a large and expensive ‘funeral’ for his ‘late’ employer, has less and less to do with Volpone. Mosca also is suddenly elevated from his lowly position to a man of wealth, an eligible bachelor As Volpone watches the changes in his old servant, he decides to ‘come clean’ and expose his own guilt as well as that of everyone else in the matter servant. When the truth is learned, the judges take away all of Volpone’s wealth and give it to charity; the lawyer Voltore is barred from court, all of Corbaccio’s fortune is given to his son, Corvino is paraded through Venice and derided, Celia is returned to her family taking with her three times the amount of dowry that she took to her husband and Mosca is sentenced to a life in the galleys for masquerading as a man of substance.