The Twilight Saga 3: Eclipse Chapter 5. IMPRINT

â€Å"ARE YOU OKAY, JAKE? CHARLIE SAID YOU WERE HAVING a hard time. . . . Isn't it getting any better?† His warm hand curled around mine. â€Å"‘S not so bad,† he said, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. He walked slowly back to the driftwood bench, staring at the rainbow-colored pebbles, and pulling me along at his side. I sat back down on our tree, but he sat on the wet, rocky ground rather than next to me. I wondered if it was so that he could hide his face more easily. He kept my hand. I started babbling to fillthe silence. â€Å"It's been so long since I was here. I've probably missed a ton of things. How are Sam and Emily? And Embry? Did Quil -?† I broke off mid-sentence, remembering that Jacob's friend Quil had been a sensitive subject. â€Å"Ah, Quil,† Jacob sighed. So then it must have happened – Quil must have joined the pack. â€Å"I'm sorry,† I mumbled. To my surprise, Jacob snorted. â€Å"Don't say that to him.† â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Quil's not looking for pity. Just the opposite – he's jazzed. Totally thrilled.† This made no sense to me. All the other wolves had been so depressed at the idea of their friend sharing their fate. â€Å"Huh?† Jacob tilted his head back to look at me. He smiled and rolled his eyes. â€Å"Quil thinks it's the coolest thing that's ever happened to him. Part of it is finally knowing what's going on. And he's excited to have his friends back – to be part of the ‘in crowd.'† Jacob snorted again. â€Å"Shouldn't be surprised, I guess. It's so Quil.† â€Å"He likes it?† â€Å"Honestly . . . most of them do,† Jacob admitted slowly. â€Å"There are definitely good sides to this – the speed, the freedom, the strength . . . the sense of – of family. . . . Sam and I are the only ones who ever felt really bitter. And Sam got past that a long time ago. So I'm the crybaby now.† Jacob laughed at himself. There were so many things I wanted to know. â€Å"Why are you and Sam different? What happened to Sam anyway? What's his problem?† The questions tumbled out without room to answer them, and Jacob laughed again. â€Å"That's a long story.† â€Å"I told you a long story. Besides, I'm not in any hurry to get back,† I said, and then I grimaced as I thought of the trouble I would be in. He looked up at me swiftly, hearing the double edge in my words. â€Å"Will he be mad at you?† â€Å"Yes,† I admitted. â€Å"He really hates it when I do things he considers . . . risky.† â€Å"Like hanging out with werewolves.† â€Å"Yeah.† Jacob shrugged. â€Å"So don't go back. I'll sleep on the couch.† â€Å"That's a great idea,† I grumbled. â€Å"Because then he would come looking for me.† Jacob stiffened, and then smiled bleakly. â€Å"Would he?† â€Å"If he was afraid I was hurt or something – probably.† â€Å"My idea's sounding better all the time.† â€Å"Please, Jake. That really bugs me.† â€Å"What does?† â€Å"That you two are so ready to kill each other!† I complained. â€Å"It makes me crazy. Why can't you both just be civilized?† â€Å"Is he ready to kill me?† Jacob asked with a grim smile, unconcerned by my anger. â€Å"Not like you seem to be!† I realized I was yelling. â€Å"At least he can be a grown-up about this. He knows that hurting you would hurt me – and so he never would. You don't seem to care about that at all!† â€Å"Yeah, right,† Jacob muttered. â€Å"I'm sure he's quite the pacifist.† â€Å"Ugh!† I ripped my hand out of his and shoved his head away. Then I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them. I glared out toward the horizon, fuming. Jacob was quiet for a few minutes. Finally, he got up off the ground and sat beside me, putting his arm around my shoulders. I shook it off. â€Å"Sorry,† he said quietly. â€Å"I'll try to behave myself.† I didn't answer. â€Å"Do you still want to hear about Sam?† he offered. I shrugged. â€Å"Like I said, it's a long story. And very . . . strange. There're so many strange things about this new life. I haven't had time to tell you the half of it. And this thing with Sam – well, I don't know if I'll even be able to explain it right.† His words pricked my curiosity in spite of my irritation. â€Å"I'm listening,† I said stiffly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the side of his face pull up in a smile. â€Å"Sam had it so much harder than the rest of us. Because he was the first, and he was alone, and he didn't have anyone to tell him what was happening. Sam's grandfather died before he was born, and his father has never been around. There was no one there to recognize the signs. The first time it happened – the first time he phased – he thought he'd gone insane. It took him two weeks to calm down enough to change back. â€Å"This was before you came to Forks, so you wouldn't remember. Sam's mother and Leah Clearwater had the forest rangers searching for him, the police. People thought there had been an accident or something. . . .† â€Å"Leah?† I asked, surprised. Leah was Harry's daughter. Hearing her name sent an automatic surge of pity through me. Harry Clearwater, Charlie's life-long friend, had died of a heart attack this past spring. His voice changed, became heavier. â€Å"Yeah. Leah and Sam were high school sweethearts. They started dating when she was just a freshman. She was frantic when he disappeared.† â€Å"But he and Emily -â€Å" â€Å"I'll get to that – it's part of the story,† he said. He inhaled slowly, and then exhaled in a gust. I supposed it was silly for me to imagine that Sam had never loved anyone before Emily. Most people fall in and out of love many times in their lives. It was just that I'd seen Sam with Emily, and I couldn't imagine him with someone else. The way he looked at her . . . well, it reminded me of a look I'd seen sometimes in Edward's eyes – when he was looking at me. â€Å"Sam came back,† Jacob said, â€Å"but he wouldn't talk to anyone about where he'd been. Rumors flew – that he was up to no good, mostly. And then Sam happened to run in to Quil's grandfather one afternoon when Old Quil Ateara came to visit Mrs. Uley. Sam shook his hand. Old Quil just about had a stroke.† Jacob paused to laugh. â€Å"Why?† Jacob put his hand on my cheek and pulled my face around to look at him – he was leaning toward me, his face was just a few inches away. His palm burned my skin, like he had a fever. â€Å"Oh, right,† I said. It was uncomfortable, having my face so close to his with his hand hot against my skin. â€Å"Sam was running a temperature.† Jacob laughed again. â€Å"Sam's hand felt like he'd left it sitting on a hot stovetop.† He was so close, I could feel his warm breath. I reached up casually, to take his hand away and free my face, but wound my fingers through his so that I wouldn't hurt his feelings. He smiled and leaned back, undeceived by my attempt at nonchalance. â€Å"So Mr. Ateara went straight to the other elders,† Jacob went on. â€Å"They were the only ones left who still knew, who remembered. Mr. Ateara, Billy, and Harry had actually seen their grandfathers make the change. When Old Quil told them, they met with Sam secretly and explained. â€Å"It was easier when he understood – when he wasn't alone anymore. They knew he wouldn't be the only one affected by the Cullens' return† – he pronounced the name with unconscious bitterness – â€Å"but no one else was old enough. So Sam waited for the rest of us to join him. . . .† â€Å"The Cullens had no idea,† I said in a whisper. â€Å"They didn't think that werewolves still existed here. They didn't know that coming here would change you.† â€Å"It doesn't change the fact that it did.† â€Å"Remind me not to get on your bad side.† â€Å"You think I should be as forgiving as you are? We can't all be saints and martyrs.† â€Å"Grow up, Jacob.† â€Å"I wish I could,† he murmured quietly. I stared at him, trying to make sense of his response. â€Å"What?† Jacob chuckled. â€Å"One of those many strange things I mentioned.† â€Å"You . . . can't . . . grow up?† I said blankly. â€Å"You're what? Not . . . aging? Is that a joke?† â€Å"Nope.† He popped his lips on the P. I felt blood flood my face. Tears – tears of rage – filled my eyes. My teeth mashed together with an audible grinding sound. â€Å"Bella? What did I say?† I was on my feet again, my hands balled up into fists, my whole frame shaking. â€Å"You. Are. Not. Aging,† I growled through my teeth. Jacob tugged my arm gently, trying to make me sit. â€Å"None of us are. What's wrong with you?† â€Å"Am I the only one who has to get old? I get older every stinking day!† I nearly shrieked, throwing my hands in the air. Some little part of me recognized that I was throwing a Charlie-esque fit, but that rational part was greatly overshadowed by the irrational part. â€Å"Damn it! What kind of world is this? Where's the justice?† â€Å"Take it easy, Bella.† â€Å"Shut up, Jacob. Just shut up! This is so unfair!† â€Å"Did you seriously just stamp your foot? I thought girls only did that on TV.† I growled unimpressively. â€Å"It's not as bad as you seem to think it is. Sit down and I'll explain.† â€Å"I'll stand.† He rolled his eyes. â€Å"Okay. Whatever you want. But listen, I will get older . . . someday.† â€Å"Explain.† He patted the tree. I glowered for a second, but then sat; my temper had burned out as suddenly as it had flared and I'd calmed down enough to realize that I was making a fool of myself. â€Å"When we get enough control to quit . . . ,† Jacob said. â€Å"When we stop phasing for a solid length of time, we age again. It's not easy.† He shook his head, abruptly doubtful. â€Å"It's gonna take a really long time to learn that kind of restraint, I think. Even Sam's not there yet. ‘Course it doesn't help that there's a huge coven of vampires right down the road. We can't even think about quitting when the tribe needs protectors. But you shouldn't get all bent out of shape about it, anyway, because I'm already older than you, physically at least.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† â€Å"Look at me, Bells. Do I look sixteen?† I glanced up and down his mammoth frame, trying to be unbiased. â€Å"Not exactly, I guess.† â€Å"Not at all. Because we reach full growth inside of a few months when the werewolf gene gets triggered. It's one hell of a growth spurt.† He made a face. â€Å"Physically, I'm probably twenty-five or something. So there's no need for you to freak out about being too old for me for at least another seven years.† Twenty-five or something. The idea messed with my head. But I remembered that growth spurt – I remembered watching him shoot up and fill out right before my eyes. I remembered how he would look different from one day to the next. . . . I shook my head, feeling dizzy. â€Å"So, did you want to hear about Sam, or did you want to scream at me some more for things that are out of my control?† I took a deep breath. â€Å"Sorry. Age is a touchy subject for me. That hit a nerve.† Jacob's eyes tightened, and he looked as if he were trying to decide how to word something. Since I didn't want to talk about the truly touchy stuff – my plans for the future, or treaties that might be broken by said plans, I prompted him. â€Å"So once Sam understood what was going on, once he had Billy and Harry and Mr. Ateara, you said it wasn't so hard anymore. And, like you also said, there are the cool parts. . . .† I hesitated briefly. â€Å"Why does Sam hate them so much? Why does he wish I would hate them?† Jacob sighed. â€Å"This is the really weird part.† â€Å"I'm a pro at weird.† â€Å"Yeah, I know.† He grinned before he continued. â€Å"So, you're right. Sam knew what was going on, and everything was almost okay. In most ways, his life was back to, well, not normal. But better.† Then Jacob's expression tightened, like something painful was coming. â€Å"Sam couldn't tell Leah. We aren't supposed to tell anyone who doesn't have to know. And it wasn't really safe for him to be around her – but he cheated, just like I did with you. Leah was furious that he wouldn't tell her what was going on – where he'd been, where he went at night, why he was always so exhausted – but they were working it out. They were trying. They really loved each other.† â€Å"Did she find out? Is that what happened?† He shook his head. â€Å"No, that wasn't the problem. Her cousin, Emily Young, came down from the Makah reservation to visit her one weekend.† I gasped. â€Å"Emily is Leah's cousin?† â€Å"Second cousins. They're close, though. They were like sisters when they were kids.† â€Å"That's . . . horrible. How could Sam . . . ?† I trailed off, shaking my head. â€Å"Don't judge him just yet. Did anyone ever tell you . . . Have you ever heard of imprinting?† â€Å"Imprinting?† I repeated the unfamiliar word. â€Å"No. What's that mean?† â€Å"It's one of those bizarre things we have to deal with. It doesn't happen to everyone. In fact, it's the rare exception, not the rule. Sam had heard all the stories by then, the stories we all used to think were legends. He'd heard of imprinting, but he never dreamed . . .† â€Å"What is it?† I prodded. Jacob's eyes strayed to the ocean. â€Å"Sam did love Leah. But when he saw Emily, that didn't matter anymore. Sometimes . . . we don't exactly know why . . . we find our mates that way.† His eyes flashed back to me, his face reddening. â€Å"I mean . . . our soul mates.† â€Å"What way? Love at first sight?† I snickered. Jacob wasn't smiling. His dark eyes were critical of my reaction. â€Å"It's a little bit more powerful than that. More absolute.† â€Å"Sorry,† I muttered. â€Å"You're serious, aren't you?† â€Å"Yeah, I am.† â€Å"Love at first sight? But more powerful?† My voice still sounded dubious, and he could hear that. â€Å"It's not easy to explain. It doesn't matter, anyway.† He shrugged indifferently. â€Å"You wanted to know what happened to Sam to make him hate the vampires for changing him, to make him hate himself. And that's what happened. He broke Leah's heart. He went back on every promise he'd ever made her. Every day he has to see the accusation in her eyes, and know that she's right.† He stopped talking abruptly, as if he'd said something he hadn't meant to. â€Å"How did Emily deal with this? If she was so close to Leah . . . ?† Sam and Emily were utterly right together, two puzzle pieces, shaped for each other exactly. Still . . . how had Emily gotten past the fact that he'd belonged to someone else? Her sister, almost. â€Å"She was real angry, in the beginning. But it's hard to resist that level of commitment and adoration.† Jacob sighed. â€Å"And then, Sam could tell her everything. There are no rules that can bind you when you find your other half. You know how she got hurt?† â€Å"Yeah.† The story in Forks was that she was mauled by a bear, but I was in on the secret. Werewolves are unstable, Edward had said. The people near them get hurt. â€Å"Well, weirdly enough, that was sort of how they resolved things. Sam was so horrified, so sickened by himself, so full of hate for what he'd done. . . . He would have thrown himself under a bus if it would have made her feel better. He might have anyway, just to escape what he'd done. He was shattered. . . . Then, somehow, she was the one comforting him, and after that. . . .† Jacob didn't finish his thought, and I sensed the story had gotten too personal to share. â€Å"Poor Emily,† I whispered. â€Å"Poor Sam. Poor Leah. . . .† â€Å"Yeah, Leah got the worst end of the stick,† he agreed. â€Å"She puts on a brave face. She's going to be a bridesmaid.† I gazed away, toward the jagged rocks that rose from the ocean like stubby broken-off fingers on the south rim of the harbor, while I tried to make sense of it all. I could feel his eyes on my face, waiting for me to say something. â€Å"Did it happen to you?† I finally asked, still looking away. â€Å"This love-at-first-sight thing?† â€Å"No,† he answered briskly. â€Å"Sam and Jared are the only ones.† â€Å"Hmm,† I said, trying to sound only politely interested. I was relieved, and I tried to explain my reaction to myself. I decided I was just glad he didn't claim there was some mystical, wolfy connection between the two of us. Our relationship was confusing enough as it was. I didn't need any more of the supernatural than I already had to deal with. He was quiet, too, and the silence felt a little awkward. My intuition told me that I didn't want to hear what he was thinking. â€Å"How did that work out for Jared?† I asked to break the silence. â€Å"No drama there. It was just a girl he'd sat next to in school every day for a year and never looked at twice. And then, after he changed, he saw her again and never looked away. Kim was thrilled. She'd had a huge crush on him. She'd had his last name tacked on to the end of hers all over in her diary.† He laughed mockingly. I frowned. â€Å"Did Jared tell you that? He shouldn't have.† Jacob bit his lip. â€Å"I guess I shouldn't laugh. It was funny, though.† â€Å"Some soul mate.† He sighed. â€Å"Jared didn't tell us anything on purpose. I already told you this part, remember?† â€Å"Oh, yeah. You can hear each other's thoughts, but only when you're wolves, right?† â€Å"Right. Just like your bloodsucker.† He glowered. â€Å"Edward,† I corrected. â€Å"Sure, sure. That's how come I know so much about how Sam felt. It's not like he would have told us all that if he'd had a choice. Actually, that's something we all hate.† The bitterness was abruptly harsh in his voice. â€Å"It's awful. No privacy, no secrets. Everything you're ashamed of, laid out for everyone to see.† He shuddered. â€Å"It sounds horrible,† I whispered. â€Å"It is sometimes helpful when we need to coordinate,† he said grudgingly. â€Å"Once in a blue moon, when some bloodsucker crosses into our territory. Laurent was fun. And if the Cullens hadn't gotten in our way last Saturday . . . ugh!† he groaned. â€Å"We could have had her!† His fists clenched into angry balls. I flinched. As much as I worried about Jasper or Emmett getting hurt, it was nothing like the panic I felt at the idea of Jacob going up against Victoria. Emmett and Jasper were the closest thing to indestructible I could imagine. Jacob was still warm, still comparatively human. Mortal. I thought of Jacob facing Victoria, her brilliant hair blowing around her oddly feline face . . . and shuddered. Jacob looked up at me with a curious expression. â€Å"But isn't it like that for you all the time? Having him in your head?† â€Å"Oh, no. Edward's never in my head. He only wishes.† Jacob's expression became confused. â€Å"He can't hear me,† I explained, my voice a tiny bit smug from old habit. â€Å"I'm the only one like that, for him. We don't know why he can't.† â€Å"Weird,† Jacob said. â€Å"Yeah.† The smugness faded. â€Å"It probably means there's something wrong with my brain,† I admitted. â€Å"I already knew there was something wrong with your brain,† Jacob muttered. â€Å"Thanks.† The sun broke through the clouds suddenly, a surprise I hadn't been expecting, and I had to narrow my eyes against the glare off the water. Everything changed color – the waves turned from gray to blue, the trees from dull olive to brilliant jade, and the rainbow-hued pebbles glittered like jewels. We squinted for a moment, letting our eyes adjust. There were no sounds besides the hollow roar of the waves that echoed from every side of the sheltered harbor, the soft grinding of the stones against each other under the water's movement, and the cry of gulls high overhead. It was very peaceful. Jacob settled closer to me, so that he was leaning against my arm. He was so warm. After a minute of this, I shrugged out of my rain jacket. He made a little sound of contentment in the back of his throat, and rested his cheek on the top of my head. I could feel the sun heat my skin – thought it was not quite as warm as Jacob – and I wondered idly how long it would take me to burn. Absentmindedly, I twisted my right hand to the side, and watched the sunlight glitter subtly off the scar James had left there. â€Å"What are you thinking about?† he murmured. â€Å"The sun.† â€Å"Mmm. It's nice.† â€Å"What are you thinking about?† I asked. He chuckled to himself. â€Å"I was remembering that moronic movie you took me to. And Mike Newton puking all over everything.† I laughed, too, surprised by how time had changed the memory. It used to be one of stress, of confusion. So much had changed that night. . . . And now I could laugh. It was the last night Jacob and I had had before he'd learned the truth about his heritage. The last human memory. An oddly pleasant memory now. â€Å"I miss that,† Jacob said. â€Å"The way it used to be so easy . . . uncomplicated. I'm glad I've got a good memory.† He sighed. He felt the sudden tension in my body as his words triggered a memory of my own. â€Å"What is it?† he asked. â€Å"About that good memory of yours . . .† I pulled away from him so that I could read his face. At the moment, it was confused. â€Å"Do you mind telling me what you were doing Monday morning? You were thinking something that bothered Edward.† Bothered wasn't quite the word for it, but I wanted an answer, so I thought it was best not to start out too severely. Jacob's face brightened with understanding, and he laughed. â€Å"I was just thinking about you. Didn't like that much, did he?† â€Å"Me? What about me?† Jacob laughed, with a harder edge this time. â€Å"I was remembering the way you looked that night Sam found you – I've seen it in his head, and it's like I was there; that memory has always haunted Sam, you know. And then I remembered how you looked the first time you came to my place. I bet you don't even realize what a mess you were then, Bella. It was weeks before you started to look human again. And I remembered how you always used to have your arms wrapped around yourself, trying to hold yourself together. . . .† Jacob winced, and then shook his head. â€Å"It's hard for me to remember how sad you were, and it wasn't my fault. So I figured it would be harder for him. And I thought he ought to get a look at what he'd done.† I smacked his shoulder. It hurt my hand. â€Å"Jacob Black, don't you ever do that again! Promise me you won't.† â€Å"No way. I haven't had that much fun in months.† â€Å"So help me, Jake -â€Å" â€Å"Oh, get a grip, Bella. When am I ever going to see him again? Don't worry about it.† I got to my feet, and he caught my hand as I started to walk away. I tried to tug free. â€Å"I'm leaving, Jacob.† â€Å"No, don't go yet,† he protested, his hand tightening around mine. â€Å"I'm sorry. And . . . okay, I won't do it again. Promise.† I sighed. â€Å"Thanks, Jake.† â€Å"Come on, we'll go back to my house,† he said eagerly. â€Å"Actually, I think I really do need to go. Angela Weber is expecting me, and I know Alice is worried. I don't want to upset her too much.† â€Å"But you just got here!† â€Å"It feels that way,† I agreed. I glared up at the sun, somehow already directly overhead. How had the time passed so quickly? His eyebrows pulled down over his eyes. â€Å"I don't know when I'll see you again,† he said in a hurt voice. â€Å"I'll come back the next time he's away,† I promised impulsively. â€Å"Away?† Jacob rolled his eyes. â€Å"That's a nice way to describe what he's doing. Disgusting parasites.† â€Å"If you can't be nice, I won't come back at all!† I threatened, trying to pull my hand free. He refused to let go. â€Å"Aw, don't be mad,† he said, grinning. â€Å"Knee-jerk reaction.† â€Å"If I'm going to try to come back again, you're going to have to get something straight, okay?† He waited. â€Å"See,† I explained. â€Å"I don't care who's a vampire and who's a werewolf. That's irrelevant. You are Jacob, and he is Edward, and I am Bella. And nothing else matters.† His eyes narrowed slightly. â€Å"But I am a werewolf,† he said unwillingly. â€Å"And he is a vampire,† he added with obvious revulsion. â€Å"And I'm a Virgo!† I shouted, exasperated. He raised his eyebrows, measuring my expression with curious eyes. Finally, he shrugged. â€Å"If you can really see it that way . . .† â€Å"I can. I do.† â€Å"Okay. Just Bella and Jacob. None of those freaky Virgos here.† He smiled at me, the warm, familiar smile that I had missed so much. I felt the answering smile spread across my face. â€Å"I've really missed you, Jake,† I admitted impulsively. â€Å"Me, too,† his smile widened. His eyes were happy and clear, free for once of the angry bitterness. â€Å"More than you know. Will you come back soon?† â€Å"As soon as I can,† I promised.

Compare Plath and Larkin Essay

Compare and contrast the ways in which death is portrayed in Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’ and ‘Ambulances’ and Sylvia plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Death and Co’ The poems i am going to analyse are: †¢Lady Lazarus †¢Death and Co †¢Ambulances †¢Days It is understatement to say that both Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin have immense depth and subsidiary meanings to their poems, both writers expertly structure their poems and used varied techniques to convey their themes of death and instil their messages to their readers. Plath goes about it an autobiographical manner and parades death as a theatrical show leaving the audience in shock and awe however Larkin presents death in a rather trivial manner in comparison to Plath. He juxtaposes the everyday street scene with horrific. He uses the ambulance as a momentary that death is every present and our lives ultimately lead to the journey of death. The oxymoron Lady Lazarus is significant to the poem. Lazarus, originally a man who is raised from the dead by Jesus is feminised and turned into Lady Lazarus. Plath summarises what she feels; â€Å"the terrible gift of being reborn†. The alliterative form of address â€Å"Lady Lazarus† liberates herself from the irrevocable influence of the male figure portrays her idea of feminine superiority over men and how women should excel over men in whatever they do however Larkin’s title â€Å"Ambulances† is a noun that is commonly associated with the negative imagery relating to accidents,hospitals ,blood, injuries and most importantly death. Both writers use lexical techniques to convey their outlook and opinion on the theme of death; some of which consists of rhyme, rhetorical devices and their choice of vocab. Rhyme is used in the first stanza as Plath declares â€Å"I have done it again/One year in every ten† she emphasises to the equal repartition of her near-death experiences and holds connotations of her suicide attempts, â€Å"one year in every ten† and one being premeditated at this stage. Plath speaks in hyperboles to emphasize her suicidal intention and her need to control her death and become a â€Å"walking miracle†. The pre modifier â€Å"walking† illustrates the fact that despite her many near death experiences she is still alive and ready as ever to attempt another suicide experience. The uoyant noun â€Å"miracle† that Plath describes herself as, demonstrates to the reader just how romantically Plath thinks of death to be and how her ending her own life is a seemingly phenomenal way of dying. In comparison to this, Larkin contrasts his lexical techniques in oppose to Plath, he begins with the first stanza being a dramatic, alliterative opener. The vehicles are â€Å"Closed like confessionals† and are â€Å"giving back none of the glances they absorb†; like a corpse. The alliterative statement â€Å"closed like confessionals â€Å"illustrates the Roman Catholic idea of confessing sins to a priest in a â€Å"closed† box. This also outlines the poems religious nature and demonstrates to us the religious idea of death which connotes it of being like a â€Å"closed† off box – a coffin. This also depicts the closed off nature of death and how once a person dies everything, they are sealed off from the world, an end to everything. Larkin uses enjambment to emphasize the disconnection between people and death throughout the poem. In the first two lines, the lack of punctuation ironically causes the reader to stop at the end of each line. This symbolises the separation between the ambulance, and the city it is travelling through, as well as the â€Å"glances† the ambulance takes in. In the fourth stanza, Larkin uses enjambment in five out of the six lines, demonstrating the isolation of death throughout society. Specifically in the last three lines and into the last stanza, Larkin reveals that what unites one another across the years, at last falls apart there (in the ambulance and at the hospital), while connecting all four of those lines. Vocabulary is also an element used by Plath to depict death; her language register is bold and informal. The vocabulary and rhythms make out the conversational speeches within the poem and make them out to be colloquial and everyday spoken, the frequently end-stopped lines, the repetitions which have the effect of mockingly counteracting the violence of the meaning, all establish the deliberately dismissive note of death which Plath strives to achieve.. At times the tone is hysterically strident and demanding: â€Å"unwrap me hand and foot— The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees. Iambic pentameter is also used in Lady Lazarus because it mimics the rhythm of conversational speech and makes it closer to spontaneous speech. This also highlights Lady Lazarus aural quality as it is meant to be read aloud which emphasizes it rhetorical intensity and perhaps the power that Lady Lazarus has gained throughout the poem â€Å" I am your opus I am your valuable The pure gold baby† The spontaneous structure of the poem emphasises the emotional and physcological disintegration of Lady Lazarus and how she speaks spontaneously out of pain that she is feeling form her suicidal attempts On the contrary, Larkin also used five groups of six lines of poetry (sestet) of iambic trimeter and roughly–there are some irregularities, a, with the first and last lines of each sestet rhyming, and the middle rhyming â€Å"a–b-a-b† like a ballad. The second stanza, only the first and last lines have been ended with punctuation leaving everything in the middle flowing. The â€Å"women in the shops† are detached from the â€Å"Wild white face† inside the ambulance. The third stanza all ends with punctuation, excluding the first line. This one exception is very isolated within the stanza as it is the only line left to flow. The flow emphasizes that the â€Å"solving emptiness† is not an obvious encounter which we face every day. The â€Å"solving emptiness†, a description of death, â€Å"lies just under all we do,† not exposed. Moreover, Plath employs and uses unique language features to express her emotion; â€Å"soon, soon the flesh/the grave cave†¦ † repetition is used to emphasise her point across to the audience, she also repeats â€Å"soon† twice to comfort the audience as well as herself; this also correlates to Plath’s idea of death and how it is a welcoming experience not to be terrified by, something that makes her feel â€Å"at home†. To the readers and audience itself it is something disorientating and a lonely discomforting concept, but to Plath and her persona Lazarus, it is something they embrace with open arms and are anticipating it â€Å"soon†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ However, Larkin goes about his language features differently; so much so that Larkin hardly uses devices such as repetition, exclamation , but rather settles for an indirect approach to his language, the only apparent use of language feature is the distinctive italic fronted text â€Å"poor soul† ,this highlights and emphasises the point Larkin wishes to make and also is his idea od the reaction given to the audience and the reader. This again relates to Larkin’s idea of death and his opinion being in total contrast to Plath. For Larkin, death is a dreadful thing, a cold, merciless, selfish thing and when death strikes it only can be described for the prey of death as â€Å"poor† which Larkin does, to have pity on those death has taken. †Soul† has In Lady Lazarus the audience are the spectators watching the performer show off her daring acts in order to prepare her to die. She in other words entertains the audience by producing her own death in a rather erotic manner. The audience is shown the grim reality of death through the pre-modifier ‘peanut-crunching’. This illustrates to the reader just how engrossed the audience is in watching Lady Lazarus attempt her suicide and are absorbed in the strangeness of her death and robotically carry on ‘crunching’ on their peanuts oblivious to just how dismal the death of Lady Lazarus is . Showmanship is portrayed through the use of first person â€Å"I† throughout the whole poem and the audience seems to develop a â€Å"charge† from the gothic striptease Lady Lazarus puts on for them or perhaps a charge the audience have to pay for watching. Using the metaphor â€Å"charge† gives connotations of the audience wanting a show, watching â€Å"Lady Lazarus† unwrap herself ,restored to life â€Å"The big strip tease† indicating sexual connotations of the audience being largely male and receiving some sort of sexual fulfilment from this. Plath also portrays her rather freakish desire for death by questioning the audience directly â€Å"O my enemy/ do I terrify? † The vocative â€Å"O† along with the possessive pronoun â€Å"my† directly challenges the audience as if the audience are somewhat responsible for the suicidal state that Plath is now in, intimidating them as she challenges them. The â€Å"O my† could also be taken as a form of loving address to her lover. If put next to ‘enemy’ it reflects her feelings about death as if it I something to long and lust for however death is all something that is utterly terrifying at the same time as it is a mystery to all of us. It also adds a sense of awkwardness throughout the poem as the reader begins to wonder about death and what appears in the afterlife. The audience also feels partly responsible for Plath’s terrible state and are also blamed for causing her death in such a manner. The rhetorical question â€Å"do I terrify† not only involves the audience directly, but also threatens the audience rather mockingly as if the answer to the question should be nothing but a yes. The verb â€Å"terrify† portrays Plath’s dual state, just like the Nazis she will not hesitate to inflict pain upon herself in order for her to die yet just like the Jewish race she fades beneath a strong force as she begins to doubt whether she is capable of ending her life. This again increasingly adds to awkward uncomfortable nature as audience beings to wonder what kind of miserable state she will be left in when she dies. However the audience in â€Å"Ambulances† are the people (mainly middle class) that are around where the death has taken place. They are the â€Å"children strewn on steps† and â€Å"women coming from the shops†. Here the normality of life trivialises the horror of death as ordinary people carry on living their life. They are watching horrifically as the body comes in. The audience here is rather sympathetic and empathise with the person that has just died. â€Å"Poor soul/they whisper at their own distress†. Using the verb â€Å" â€Å"whisper† Larkin wishes to portray how the audience not only whispers out of remorse, pity and respect for the person that has just died but also whisper because they feel a sense of relief and thankfulness that the person that has just expired was not themselves or their loved one. Here Larkin shows us the selfish nature of man and how man despite everything shall always care about them; in essence leaving everybody walking on their own. Through this Larkin shows us how death is, death shall leave every person unaccompanied and everyone shall be no one. Death is selfish and when the appointed time, death shall not wait and indeed â€Å"All streets in time are visited†. The visitor being death personified through the use of a vehicle, the Ambulance. The ambulance here is death. And Larkin portrays the randomness of death and how unexpected it can be by the use of the preposition â€Å"in† and the noun â€Å"time†. Here Larkin reminds the reader than death is inevitable and is always there, a god like figure. Larkin also presents the idea that the audience, the â€Å"onlookers† forgot about death yet are reminded when a death appears around their life and the â€Å"fastened doors recede†. The audience are perhaps morbidly fascinated by death as it appears strange to them but then the audience then begins to realise the â€Å"emptiness/That lies under all we do† and for a moment the audience understands that life has only one certainty; death. The title of the poem Death & Co title is an etymological, lexical technique in itself and is employed by the writer to change the perception of the reader, for the reader to be open minded and to grasp the writers idea. The â€Å"co† referred to in the title refers to a business which begins to establish the ironic and mocking mood of the poem,. Death is often viewed with incongruity, something that coldly takes away life yet offers comfort to those who are in pain or believe in an afterlife. This again links to the idea of death being a business because the persona asserts that â€Å"there are two† referring to the two individuals that make up the entity called â€Å"Death and co†. To the persona it is â€Å"perfectly natural† that there are two people because a business must be compromised of at least two people. In Death & Co the persona asserts that, â€Å"there are two,† personifying death the two individuals who make up the entity called Death & Co. She comments that it is natural that there would be two, as most companies are made up of at least two people. The individual â€Å"exhibits // birthmarks,† and the speaker proclaims that they are â€Å"his trademark. † This claim subsumes the title of the poem, metaphorically revealing the business which is â€Å"Death & Co. By doing this the ide of death is bought closer to the persona as it now becomes a threat that is visible and is standing before the narrator. † Sibilance is used to describe the trademark â€Å"the scald scar of water†. The effect of the assonance is that it creates harsh violent sound and emphasises the cruel and punitive nature of the partners in Death & Co. Larkin however does not use his metaphoric objectified technique in the title but rather from within the poem itself. In the second stanza Larkin uses the â€Å"priest† and the â€Å"doctor† as symbols of different sentiments and values of â€Å"death†. The priest being a man of religion and the doctor symbolic to a man of science who both serves in â€Å"solving that question†; two people obsessed with the mystery of death appears after the question has been solved. The â€Å"priest† coat is black which represents death and he helps the person from moving from this life to the next. The â€Å"Doctor† coat is white which represents life as the doctor tries to revive the person. This again has connotations of conflict between science and religion Plath begins by using repetition of numbers â€Å"two of course there are two†. She is reasserting that death has come in two living forms before her. One of them looking grotesque, â€Å"whose eyes are lidded† and the other is attractive having â€Å"long and plausive† hair yet dangerous . She does this to juxtapose the idea of life and death, the fact that two mortal creatures are bring about her lifeless state. The two figures create a sense of fear within her as she finds it difficult to name the two. â€Å"he tells me how badly/He tells me how sweet†. The repetition of Second person pronouns and the juxtaposition of her divergent feelings towards death emphasises how at times death appears inviting and perhaps more easier alternative to life difficulties yet the sheer fact of suicide perhaps restrains her form ending her life as the fear of the unknown in the afterlife haunts her . Which perhaps emphasizes her fearful yet unrecognisable feelings towards death. She fears death and the reader can see that Plaths posseses a frightened predatory victimised outlook on death so she cannot find a specific name to address them as or perhaps there is no personal attachment to death as death is metaphorically recognised as a business, it performs it function and then leaves. On the other hand Larkin uses the same rhetorical feature of repetition but in a rather different manner. Days are repeated three times in the first stanza and this repetition forces the reader to think about the meaning of the word â€Å"days† which is the futility of existence ,the inevitable truth that all life must end in death. The reader is compelled to think about what would happen after the days has ended. Larkin gives day a spatial dimension as he describes days as â€Å"Days are where we live†. This raises about how time is measured the nature of it and its artificiality. Days are not a place,not a â€Å"where† but a when and it is in this paradox that leads to the blank response to the second question. †Where can we live but days†. From this question the answerer is now question themselves as they come to realise the inevitable truth behind days ,there is a lack of choice to the answer and the answerer realises that on the other side of dyas is the night which holds high connotations of death and the afterlife something which clearly fright and perhaps intrigues the answerer Once a person no longer has any days left to live in,the only other place that a person can occupy will be a place in his grave The use of a voice or persona is clearly present in both poem’s although again both poets use this craft differently to suit their own methods of portraying death. Larkin does not clearly portray the identity of the voice or the voices the reader perceives in â€Å"Days† however what we do know is that there is a clear distinction bewtween the voice that asks the questions and the voice that answers the questions. The questions that questioner asks are literally simple,naive and appear to be that of a child asking questions rather simple questions. Of course the underlying meaning which lies behing these unpretentious questins is the metaphor of death in the background. The second voice appears to be different and fluctuates throughout the development of the poem. This voice appears to be the answerer to the questions that are asked and answers the question in a rather straightforward manner . The answer to the first question: â€Å"Days are where we live† denotes a matter of fact, mollifying tone as the simple question is answered by an equally simple although equally worrying answer. At first the voice appears to be kindly positive reassuring the childish questioner that days â€Å"are to be happy in† which again holds connotations of death. It tells the questioner and the reader also that the inevitability of death is true so we should live our lives while we have it and enjoy and â€Å"be happy† within it. In the second stanza the answerer adopts a worldly macabre tone almost mocking and cruel as it dryly observes that the only place people can inhibit apaprt from days is death. the questioner is trying to find a simple answer and uses the filler â€Å"ah† to contemplate on what happens after days,the question become a lot of bigger then it initially seemed and the answerer realises there is no simplistic way to answer it and so the â€Å"preist† and â€Å"doctor† are suppousedly the only people that hold the answers to the question However Plath uses two male persona in her poem to portray death and reveal the double or schizophrenic nature of death. The use of male persona’s was chosen deliberately to emphasise the painful awareness of man’s seemingly innate Judas quality just as death can be cruel and snipe away happiness at the last moment.

Scholarships for African American Students

Paying for college can be a challenge for many students. While financial aid can alleviate some of the burden, many students may need some extra support. (For more advice on how to navigate the financial aid process, check out FAFSA, CSS Profile, IDOC, Oh My: A Guide to Financial Aid .) Scholarships can help you out. These monetary awards assist students with paying for postsecondary education. Some are need-based, meaning students must demonstrate that they have a financial need for help paying for college. Others are merit-based, meaning they are given based on students’ achievements. To learn more about the different types of scholarships available, read What You Need to Know for a Successful Scholarship Season . While there are many scholarships available to which nearly anyone can apply if they are planning on attending an institution of higher education, some are geared towards students with particular interests or certain minority populations. In this post, we will look at scholarships for African American students. The below scholarships are specifically targeted to African American students. Some of them have a financial need component, but most are merit-based. Click on the links provided to learn more about particular scholarships, including deadlines and other application details, and keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive. Estimating your chance of getting into a college is not easy in today’s competitive environment. Thankfully, with our state-of-the-art software and data, we can analyze your academic and extracurricular profile and estimate your chances. Our profile analysis tool can also help you identify the improvement you need to make to enter your dream school. Some individual colleges offer scholarships for students of specific minorities who attend their schools. Be sure to investigate whether they are available at the colleges on your lists and how to apply for them. Some African American fraternities and sororities may offer scholarships for members of their organizations. Talk to your group and leaders to find out more. If you are in a club or organization for African American students, speak the organization’s leader or adviser for advice on applying for scholarships. He or she may have ideas or know of organizations that provide awards to specific minorities. Be sure to also check out the website of the organizations in which you’re involved for scholarship opportunities. Finally, speak to a teacher or guidance counselor. He or she may have ideas of other resources for finding scholarships. To learn about how to apply for scholarships and resources to help in your scholarship search, read some of ’s posts below: Looking for help with your college applications? Check out our College Application Guidance Program. When you sign up for our program, we carefully   pair you with the perfect admissions specialist based on your current academic and extracurricular profile and the schools in which you’re interested. Your personal specialist will help you with branding, essays, and interviews, and provide you with support and guidance in all other aspects of the application process. Learn more about the program here .

Literature Review of relationship marketing Essay

Literature Review of relationship marketing - Essay Example The emphasis on relationships as opposed to transaction based exchanges is very likely to redefine the domain of marketing (J.N. Sheth, 1988). Indeed, the emergence of a relationship marketing school of thought is imminent given the growing interest of marketing scholars in the relational paradigm. Relationship marketing is in the Advertising, Marketing, & Sales subject. Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers is defined as Relationship Marketing. Customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts is maintained in a sales database, and a service representative who is also called an account executive is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfil their needs and maintain the relationship (Business Dictionary, 2007). Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that evolved from direct response marketing; it places emphasis on building longer-term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. Relationship marketing involves an understanding of customers' needs and wants through their lifecycle and providing a range of products or services accordingly. Often, though, it is used interchangeably with terms such as customer loyalty, database marketing, predictive modelling, data warehousing, one-to-one marketing, relationship selling, retention, mass customization, customer intimacy or customer bonding. The term relationship marketing was popularised in the 1980s when the focus of marketers started to switch from customer acquisition to customer retention. The concept was strongly influenced by reengineering theory, which was gaining currency at the same time: organisations undergoing reengineering became structured according to complete tasks and processes rather than functions, i.e. cross-functional teams should be responsible for a whole process, from beginning to end, rather than having the work go from one separate functional department to another. Traditional marketing is said to use the functional department approach, which is now deemed too limited to provide a usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships. In today's sophisticated consumer environment, an alternative model where the focus is on customers and relationships rather than markets and products is now required. As with each new shift in the focus of marketing, there are advocates and critics of the relationship focus in marketing. However, in the same way as (Kotler, A Generic Concept of Marketing, 1972) observed about other shifts in marketing, it is believed that the emergence of a relationship focus will provide a "refreshed and expanded self concept" to marketing. This optimism stems from at least four observations: (i) relationship marketing has caught the fancy of scholars in many parts of the world, including North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, as is evident from the participation in some of the recent conferences held on this subject (Parvatiyar, 1994); (ii) its scope is wide enough to cover the entire spectrum of marketing's sub disciplines, including channels,

How to Succeed in the Business World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

How to Succeed in the Business World - Essay Example ays and means that are usually taken care of whilst managing a business are aplenty and it is only up to the top management within a company that the same can be handled in a several different methods. They are the ones to decide as to what is the real manner in which the firm’s operations would be handled as well as who will head the respective departments, lead the business strategic units and act as legal and media representatives of the said business. The business, as marketers say, exists to satisfy its target audience through fulfilling a need courtesy its products and/or services or a combination of the both, the same being true in case of a retail outlet which sells gasoline to local consumers, thus giving in petrol plus extra services in the form of window cleaning, fuel gauge checks and so on and so forth. (Kennedy, 2003) With the advent of the middle management growing in stature, the need has been to categorize it separately. Now the middle management of yesteryears is known as the ‘knowledge organization’ which plays the role of the ‘brain’ within the organization. (Kaye, 2003) The mind or brain is the unit within the human body that rationalizes each and every decision in the wake of past evidences and future predictions, not to forget what is happening in the present. Thus the same role is duly played by the knowledge organization, i.e., the middle management quite professionally. A business thus has to keep track of the top management and its decisions as well as the middle power cadre too. It is with the combined efforts of the two that the business can exist smoothly and thus benefit not only its own future long term growth but also help the customer and/or stakeholders by fulfilling their needs and desires. A business does not come into its own overnight. It takes a lot of research, planning and proper execution to take it where the marketers, the business professionals and the stakeholders want it to proceed and end up as something

Operations Management group work assignment Essay

Operations Management group work assignment - Essay Example Each group should have an item for producing and a leader who coordinate the production process. The over and underproduction problem could be addressed by understanding the actual number of items required in the market on a daily basis. It means that prior production students should investigate the number of orders that they should meet per day so as to avoid the problem of wastage or to run out of stock. Students could solve the problem of missing necessary ingredients in their products by having a kitchen recipe that guides them on how to manufacture each item (Slack, Brandon-jones & Johnston, 2014). Various considerations should be made to ensure sustainability on proposed changes. The first consideration is that students should embrace technology when producing the cupcakes and other items. Technology could help to produce high-quality items and promptly meet large market demand. Further, process mapping should be considered to ensure sustainability. Process mapping may help to manage the production process and ensure the needs of customers are met. It may also help to reduce flaws and resource wastage (Connor & Dovers,

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 20

Reflection - Essay Example Writing has helped me discover myself about my high points from a self-evaluated point of view. I strongly rely on spoken vocabulary. I write what I can say aloud making my writing direct and easily understood by others. Right from grade1 days I was told reading a lot builds our vocabulary and the greatest speakers in the world are equally chronic readers. At a personal point of view, my reading habit has greatly helped create the writer in me since it not only nurtures my grammar but also gives me a diversified approach to different situations. In addition, I constantly listen to my writing as if it were spoken aloud. This gives rhythm to my writing. Truth is highly compromised especially where the consequences that come with telling the truth are adverse making it subjective and objective and hence will now be propaganda and not factual. As a writer, I do not subscribe to such beliefs among people since I believe a writers duty is to tell the truth no matter how gross the circumstance is or whoever forms part of the story. I have a memory strong on recognition. I am not outstanding on recall but when someone or something triggers a memory, I retrieve it all a fresh with a new enticing version of it. I regard this rather advantageous as opposed to photographic memory, which impedes the imaginative process, which is why I am glad I do not have one. For a writer I suspect that recognition is more important than recall since when a memory of an individual is buried, all types of interesting links are formed in your mind. No machine is a hundred percent efficient, and as humans our efficiency is relatively lower than that hence I greatly embrace my weaknesses as I strive to work on them. Reluctance to edit is a major hiccup I face. When I am done with my writing, my mind drifts to something else and thus not unless I am willing I end up not editing the work. I have a phobia about fiction. When it comes to creating

Social intervention to children with autism Essay

Social intervention to children with autism - Essay Example The teaching process requires interventions that address the repetitive behaviours, skill development, and play activities that promote communication and social interactions. Several authors have discussed different intervention models that are discussed in the sections below. Rita Jordan-Behavioural and Communication Intervention TEACCH Programme The programme is community-based and targets children and adults with autism and communication disabilities. TEACCH aims at developing communication skills among autistic children and help them work and play independently of adults (Jordan, Jones & Murray, 1998). The development of communication skills is based on their understanding capability and their ability to express themselves. The programme teaches several ways of communication, such as the use of photographs and pictures, symbols and words, and objects of reference. The programmes assist children with autism in their childhood and provide them with support in their adulthood. The t rainers focus on the strengths and interests displayed by the students and also address the emerging skills. Part of the training involves interacting and engaging in learning activities with normally developing children (Jordan, Jones & Murray, 1998). This interaction and reverse integration helps autistic children adjust to mainstream classes for normally developing children. ... Students begin by learning functional skills and good work habits that enable them to function with little intervention provided they are within the TEACCH structure (Jordan, Jones & Murray, 1998). This is the most widely used approach for teaching autistic children. Visual information, predictability and structure help the children understand what they are supposed to do, where and when it should be done, and the order of doing the activity. Parents are also involved in the programme, and their work is to promote a feeling of competence and well-being among the children. They work as co-therapists and participate in home activities when TEACCH instructors make home visits (Jordan, Jones & Murray, 1998). Parents also provide home training for goals such as independent play, increasing communication, and toilet training. They are provided with parent support information that helps them learn strategies of effective training. The TEACCH programme has advantages such as supporting autis tic adults in the employment sector. There are employment support models that include individual placements, a dispersed enclave and a mobile crew model (Jordan, Jones & Murray, 1998). Therapists provide long-term support services to individuals and employers. Students in the TEACCH programmes attend mainstream or special schools or remain at home with their parents, and therapists make home visits and provide advice to the teaching staff. The visual learning activities help the student and adults perform most activities with little support from parents or trainers. This has helped adults receiving support participate in community activities with minimum assistance from supervisors. The main disadvantage of the programme is the lack of

Establishing Stakeholder Orientation Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Establishing Stakeholder Orientation - Coursework Example The development of the world has made individuals realize that business has a role that extend beyond economic wealth creation. Businesses possess a social role since they create externalities in the environment. For instance, proper enumeration of employees compensate for the cost that workers incur in working for the company. Organizations participate in stakeholder orientation for their own benefit and for the sake of stakeholders’ satisfaction (Maurer, 2007). In this sense, the stakeholders feel that the organizations take care of their needs. Stakeholder orientation seeks to establish sustainable economic development by working with the employees, local community, shareholders, and the larger society (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2013). This has a significant impact on honesty and fairness since corporate entities manifest as partners in societal development. When organizations emphasize on the satisfaction of their stakeholders, the larger society is highly likely to respect the profit making intention of businesses. In addition, it promotes information sharing, which makes the business’s activities and intentions clear. This enhances accountability as each party enjoys the incentive to practice

Internal project management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Internal project management - Coursework Example This research seeks to explore and look into ways of shaping an effective method of managing projects inside IB - Wirth so that it can perform better and produce optimal results; and if necessary, to fill in gaps which exist and offer suggestions for improvement. The underlying motivation for choosing this topic is the fact that project management is a domain that has been gaining more and more importance today. Such value has been triggered by shifting economic conditions like globalization, the escalating competitive spirit among business enterprises, technological advances and growing customer demands and requirements - all these have led to businesses carrying out projects to attain maximum value in their products and yield better production results. In this discourse, it is hoped that the positive features of project management will be magnified, clarified and given the needed stress with the anticipation that such features will assist in the enhancement of Wirth's business practices, provide ways that would improve the engineering office' current dealings with its customers thereby giving more satisfaction and develop to the fullest the company's overall bottom line. Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction Case Company Background 5 Research Objectives 5 Significance of the Study 6 Outline of the Dissertation 6 Chapter 2 - Literature Review Definitions 7 Risk Management and its Role 8 Role of Managers 10 Effective Project Management/ Strategies 12 PM Framework 15 PM Application/Issues 16 Chapter 3 - Methodology Research Design/Strategy 17 Method of Data Collection 18 Validity and Reliability 20 Appendices 22 Bibliography 30 Chapter 1 Introduction Whether in times of economic troubles and stagnation or during periods of financial viability, it is always imperative for business organizations to "tighten their belts" and focus on rational and pragmatic objectives. Essentially, business firms must aspire for economic efficiency as their crucial goal and make such objective compelling and well-founded. To grasp this goal, all minor divisions of a business organization must therefore be cost-effective. In this treatise, these minor divisions are seen as "projects." To achieve harmony and synchronization in these projects, internal project management is necessary. Project management has surfaced as a forceful discipline carried out by well trained, professionals as business firms have come to realize that they cannot be a viable enterprise if they cannot manage their projects. However, many organizations are still limiting the application of project management to the tactical level since it is critical to for the business' continued existence to make certain that products are efficiently crafted, developed and delivered to internal and external customers. Likewise, knowledgeable organizations have long recognized the fact that project management

The Impact of Pre-Cooling as an Intervention Strategy to Minimize Cardiovascular system Essay Example for Free

The Impact of Pre-Cooling as an Intervention Strategy to Minimize Cardiovascular system Essay The aim of this report was to investigate whether the utilization of pre-cooling (cooling vest) prior to a 10, 000m road-race run within a hot and humid environment, would result in improved performance. The report also aimed to examine any performance-related effects, and their underlying physiological mechanisms. Fourteen (n=14) well-trained adult runners participated in two 10,000m-time trials, spaced 72 hours apart. Ambient conditions of both the control and experimental conditions were T= 32.5 Â °C, rel. humidity= 65% and T= 32.8’C, rel. humidity= 63% respectively. Procedure consisted of a 30 minute warm up (20 minutes steady state running at RPE 13, 10 minutes individualized stretching activity). During the warm up, the control condition required participants to wear a normal tee shirt, with the experimental condition requiring participants to wear a commercially available gel-based cooling vest. Conclusion of the 30 min warm up saw the tee shirt or ice- vest replaced with the race singlet, before commencing the 10, 000 m time trial. Time, pre and post body mass, heart rate, skin temperature and core temperature were all variables measured and recorded. Participants were able to complete the 10,000m road-run in less time following the pre-cooling condition, suggesting that pre-cooling as an intervention strategy improved endurance performance. Results indicate this occurrence was due to significantly lower starting core and skin temperatures, reduced starting heart rate as well as an overall lower sweat rate. These factors allowed for a greater capacity of heat storage, minimizing thermoregulatory and cardiovascular strain and therefore allowing the body to operate at a higher level of performance before reaching critical limiting temperature. Results Figure 1 displays the difference between time trials obtained in both the control and pre-cooling conditions. The pre-cool time trial was significantly shorter than the control time trial (p0.05). The difference between baseline and post body mass (BM) were recorded to calculate sweat rate (L/hr.). Figure 2 displays the difference in sweat rate between the control and pre-cool conditions. Control sweat rate was significantly higher then sweat rate recorded for the pre-cool condition. The above graph (Figure 3) depicts the mean heart rates and standard deviations for both control and pre-cool conditions. HR was recorded and displayed over three phases of the time trial (start, mid and end). Statistical analysis determined that there was a significant difference in HR between the three phases of the time trial (p0.05). Statistical significance also occurred between control start HR and pre-cool start HR, with control start HR 5.10% greater than pre-cool start HR. Skin temperature was also recorded and statistically analysed. Figure 4 displays the mean and standard deviations for skin temperature (Tsk) over three phases of the time trial for both the control and pre-cool conditions. Significant differences between both control and pre-cool conditions were found (p0.05). Significant statistical differences were also discovered between each of the phases of the time trial (p0.0167). Figure 5 depicts mean and standard deviations for core temperature (Tc). Significant statistical difference occurred between the three different stages of the time trial (p0.05). When compared separately, significant differences were found between all stages of the time trial (start vs. mid, start vs. end, mid vs. end) (p0.0167). Discussion The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pre-cooling through the utilization of a cooling vest would augment endurance performance undertaken in the heat. Findings obtained from the study indicate that pre-cooling did improve performance, as the pre-cooling condition time trials were significantly shorter than the control condition (p0.05). This ability to perform at a higher intensity, decreasing time taken to complete the 10,000m run can be explained by the physiological mechanisms behind pre-cooling. The ability to exercise under hot and humid conditions is significantly impaired (Nielsen, Hales, Strange, Christensen, Warberg Saltin, 1993) when ambient temperature exceeds skin temperature. Reduced heat loss that would normally occur through convection and radiation, results in an increase in body temperature (Marino Booth, 1998). By lowering pre-performance body temperature, the body’s ability to capacitate metabolic heat production is increased (Siegel Laursen, 2012), therefore increasing the time to reach critical limiting temperature, at which exercise performance deteriorates or can no longer be maintained (Marino et al. 1998). Sweat rate was lower following pre-cooling compared to the control condition. A number of studies have also obtained similar results, finding greater heat storage capacities and subsequent sweat rates as a result of precooling (Olschewski Bruck, 1988)(Lee Haymes, 1995)(White, Davis Wilson, 2003). This can be explained by the greater heat storage, that is stimulated by precooling, delaying the onset of heat dissipation and subsequent sweat threshold (White et al. 2003). Furthermore, by minimizing sweat rate, the flow of blood to the skin surface is also reduced. This allows more blood to be distributed to the active muscles, reducing cardiovascular strain (White et al, 2003). Another physiological mechanism stimulated through pre-cooling, that aids in reducing cardiovascular strain is heart rate (HR)(Kay, Taaffe Marino, 1999). Recorded data over both conditions showed an increase in HR from the start to the end of the time trial. However, the only significant difference between control and precooling was found between the starting HR recordings. The precooling start HR was 5.10% lower than the control start HR (p0.0167). This significant difference was not maintained throughout mid and end recordings, with both the control and precooling end HR reaching approximately 191 bpm. Kay et al. (1999) found similar results, with HR slightly reduced following precooling within the first 20 minutes of exercise, however this difference was not maintained at 25 and 30 minutes of exercise. A review of relevant literature by Marino (2002) also indicated a lower HR during the start of exercise that was not seen throughout the rest of the exercise bout. These findings can be explained by greater central blood volume, a result of reduced body temperature and therefore no need to distribute blood flow to skin to lose heat. A greater central blood volume produces an increase in stroke volume, ultimately reducing HR and cardiovascular strain (Marino, 2002). Skin temperature results were also recorded over three phases of the time trial. Similar to HR, a significant difference between control and precooling start skin temperature recordings were found (p0.0167), but diminished throughout the remaining two phases of the time trial. Through the use of precooling and consequent lower skin temperature recordings, blood flow was not required at the skin, centrally withholding blood volume and assisting in reducing cardiac strain (Drust, Cable Reilly, 2000). The final variable assessed in this study was core temperature. According to Neilsen et al. (1993), high core temperature is the most important factor leading to exhaustion and impaired performance during exercise under hot and humid conditions. This may be due to brain and core body temperature having a corresponding relationship. Therefore, an increase in core temperature may result in an increase in brain temperature, resulting in central fatigue and affecting motor performance (Nybo, 2012). Core temperature results showed similarities to the findings for HR and skin temperature. Statistical significant differences were found between each phase that core temperature was recorded (p0.05)(start, mid and end time trial), showing a gradual rise from the start of the time trial to the end. A comparison of means via a T-test between start core temperature (control) and start core temperature (precool) showed a significant difference (p0.0167), which was not seen between samples during m id and end time trial. The findings from this study indicate and present the benefits precooling has on improving endurance performance in hot and humid environments. A number of studies and reviews studying precooling as an intervention strategy (Kay et al. 1993)(Marino, 2002)(Marino et al. 1998) have all shown the positive physiological mechanisms that arise from precooling. Time trials were significantly shorter in time following precooling, showing an improvement in performance. The significantly lower heart rate, skin temperature and core temperature stimulated by precooling at the start of the time trial, all contribute to a greater capacity for metabolic production. This greater capacity provides precooled subjects with the ability to work at a higher intensity for longer, before critical limiting temperature is reached, ultimately improving endurance performance.

Business-to-Business Messages Essay Example for Free

Business-to-Business Messages Essay Communication is the process; through which sender conveys their messages to receiver. The communication can be in form of words, gestures, voice intonations and other symbols or signs. The communication process cannot be possible without any medium. In the communication process senders and receivers both are the parties involved. Apart from this communication process also needs the technology, tools and Channels. All the element of the communication process should be in the proper sequence for effective and appropriate communication Process. If any part of communication process is distorted or broken, the sender and receiver will not have a common understanding of the message (Daft, 2004). The communication model includes some element in this sequence such as an environment of communication, a sender, message, technology (Channels), noises (the psychological, social and structural barriers), a receiver and the feedback of receiver. The communication model has the channel through which the message is transmitted. There are two types of the channels: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication refers to the oral or written means transmitting meaning through words. Non-verbal communication doesnt use words and involves gestures. In current time, there are many technological channels for communication such as electronic mail, intranets, instant messaging, fax, telephone and other forms of computer mediated communication channels (Mcshane, VonGlinow Sharma, 2006). Business to business communication process includes the communication between two business entities, in which the one business entity perform the role of a sender and other one perform the role of a receiver. In other words, Business to Business Communication describes the communication between businesses such as between a manufacturer and a whole seller or between a whole seller and a retailer. All other element of Business to Business communication process is dependent on the environment and the purpose of the communication. Business to Business communication process would effective. If the environment of Business to Business is appropriate and propose of communication is also strong and effective (Guffey Almonte, 2009). Business to Business Messages Business to Business communication process is an internal process to develop relationship with the other business organizations, vendors, suppliers etc. In this competitive landscape, the Business to Business communication process is necessary for customer loyalty to protect against the competitor, employee motivation, brand protection or creation the awareness among the customer (Business-to-Business Communication, n. d. ). Business to Business Message of William Brother Corporation  The William Brother Corporation is an American company. The company is known for its quality metal doors. The company recently launched the new products lightweight gypsum ceiling access panel, portable fire extinguisher stands, roof hatches and floor hatches. The company communicates with their whole sellers and retailer to create the awareness about the product features, quality and the price. The company also informs about policies, terms and promotional strategizes of the new products. Subsequent to the discussion of the companys message now, I will analyze the message as follows: Purpose: The purpose of this message of the company is to create the awareness about the new launched products of the company between the whole sellers and retailers. The company provides the all technical information about the new product. Sender: Here, the sender is the company management team. Receiver: Here, receivers are the whole sellers and retailer of the company. Environment: The environment of this communication process is the internal and external environment. Technology: In this messaging, the technology used is written communication, oral communication and internet technology. Noise: In this message, noise can be formed by the traffic of internet and other website, which can directly affect the delivery of message. In addition to this, as it is a written and oral message, the noise factors can be lack of apprehension of language and information by the whole sellers and retailers (Mcshane, VonGlinow Sharma, 2006). Feedback: The Feedback of the whole sellers and retailers is that they understand about the new product features and they agree on the company policies and terms. They will help the company for promotion of the new launched product. The method of the technology used is the appropriate of the company. The oral and written communication would create the easy understanding about the product and the internet is best way to convey the message of the company. The message should the appropriate, because the message provides the all information about the product and the company goal. Business to Business Message of KFC Corporation KFC Corporation based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the worlds most popular chicken restaurant chain. There are many stores of KFC that operate in the world. For managing the all stores of company, the company communicates with their different stores management team through the messaging by the email and internet technology (KFC Corporation, 2010). In this message of the company, they had communicated, that company makes the some quality standards and policies for their food, which should maintain by the all stores of the company. These policies and the quality standards help to maintain the trust among the customers. Subsequent to the discussion of the companys message now I will analyze the message as follows: Purpose: Here, the purpose of this message of the company is to create awareness about the policies and quality standards and should maintain these quality standard to the management of the stores which are situated in all over the world. Sender: The sender is the company management. Receiver: The receiver is the stores management of the company. Environment: Here, the environment of this employed communication process is external environment. Technology: In message, the technology used is written communication and the internet technology by the company. Noise: In the messaging, noise can be formed as the message failure through the internet. In the written message the noise can be formed as the lack of apprehension of language by the management of company stores (Mcshane, VonGlinow Sharma, 2006). Feedback: The feedback of the receiver is that they will be maintain the quality standard of the food product and adopt the company policies. The company used technology, the written communication and the internet technology to create the awareness about their policies and the quality standards among their stores management. This would very effective for the company. Business to Business Message of Honda Motor Company Honda Motor Company is one of the largest automobile companies in the world. There has the big product line of the company in the world market. Honda Civic car is one of the popular products of the company. In the recently there has a technical problem generated in the Honda civic cars fuel pump. For the solution of this problem the company takes some actions. The company has sent the message to their authorized dealers to solve this problem by approaching the customers, who has the Honda civic (Honda Motor Corporation, 2010). Subsequent to the discussion of the companys message now we will analyze the message as follows: Purpose: Here the purpose of the message of company is to create awareness among the dealers about the product problem and to solve that technical problem of the customers product. Sender: The Sender is the technical department of the company. Receiver: The authorized dealers of the company. Environment: Here the environment of the communication is the external environment. Technology: The Company communicates with the written messages and the internet technology. Noise: In the messaging, noise can be formed as the message failure through internet and noise can formed as written message delay. Feedback: The feedback from the dealer was that they will solve this problem of the product as soon as. The technology of the message is the good. Both the medium of the message is the efficient and reach at the right time. Message purpose is the appropriate and easily understandable by the dealers.

Website Attributes On Customer Satisfaction In E-Commerce

Website Attributes On Customer Satisfaction In E-Commerce Effects Of Website Attributes On Customer Satisfaction In E-Commerce Introduction The Internet is no longer a niche technology it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isnt surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to searching and buying product. Introduction To E-Commerce The rise of the WWW gives birth to new phenomena in our daily lives, one of which is e-commerce. The internet has played a fundamental and key part to promote selling products and services online which makes life convenient for the audience, which in an inter-connected world, is well, the whole world. E-Commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet. E-commerce system seeks to add more revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with partners and clients and to improve the systems efficiency. E-commerce has given rise to the concept of absolutely online shops selling products and services, proficiently catalogued and available for the convenience of customer. There are several websites that stockpile everything from books, electronic appliances lifestyle items, collectibles etc. The level of e-commerce use can be measured by using an e-commerce capability indicator. E-commerce capability indicator by Molla and Licker: No e-commerce indicates a company without e-mail or an Internet connection. Connected e-commerce represents a company that has an Internet connection and e-mail. Informational e-commerce indicates a company using a Web site to publish basic information about the company and its products/services in a static manner. Interactive e-commerce refers to the ability of users to search the companys product catalogue, make queries, and enter orders. Transactional e-commerce allows online selling and purchasing of products or services including online payment and customer service. E-business applications can be divided into three categories. First is an internal business system in which customer relationship management (CRM), Enterprise resource planning (ERP), and Human Resource management (HRM) type of systems are involved. Second is enterprise communication and collaboration such as content management system (CMS), business process management (BPM) and web conferencing etc. Third is e-commerce that includes Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and Business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce. Online shopping comes under this category on which this study is conducted. Several e-commerce service providers are available on web that provides professional personalized web designing services that suit their clients needs. Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following: Online Shopping (Web Shop) Online Banking Online Marketing CRM etc Online Shopping Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the Internet. An online shop, e-shop, e-store, internet shop, web shop, web store, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services over the web. Online shopping is a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. The term web shop also refers to a place of business where web development, web hosting and other types of web related activities take place (Web refers to the World Wide Web and shop has a idiomatic meaning used to describe the place). Service Quality The level of service received on a website. Dependent on reliability, responsiveness and availability of staff and the web site service. Service quality is comprised of five dimensions. These are: Tangibles as the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and written materials (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006). Reliability is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Assurance describes as the employees knowledge and courtesy and their ability to inspire trust and confidence. Responsiveness termed as the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Empathy is defined as the individualized attention given to customers.   Service Quality Dimensions In E-Commerce Systems Lets examine how customers judge the five dimensions of service quality in perspective of e-commerce systems. Tangibles refer to the physical appearance of an e-commerce website, its structure, layout, theme etc and referred as â€Å"website structure†. Reliability represented as â€Å"website adequacy† which provides the relevant and needed information provided by an e-commerce system when customer clicked or requested for. Assurance termed as â€Å"website security† refers as the trustworthy service provider that could include a well reputable website, reliable payments methods etc. Responsiveness is the prompt and relevant response to the specific request of users described by â€Å"website response†. Empathy knows internal customers as individual; understanding individual needs and concerns such as by providing recommendations that matches the customers needs which is termed as â€Å"website customization† in world of web. Service Quality Framework (SERVQUAL) SERVQUAL was originally measured on 10 aspects of service quality which are reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding or knowing the customer and tangibles. By the early nineties the authors had refined the model to the useful acronym RATER. Reliability Assurance Tangibles Empathy, and Responsiveness SERVQUAL has its disbeliever and is considered overly complex, subjective and statistically unreliable. The simplified RATER model however is a simple and useful model for qualitatively exploring and assessing customers service experiences and has been used widely by service delivery organizations. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Customer satisfaction levels can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are most likely to be loyal and to make repeated orders and to use a wide range of services offered by a business. The basic definition of customer satisfaction says that Customer satisfaction is a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product or service. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products or services. Customer Satisfaction Based On Perceived Service Quality Of E-Commerce Systems The overall satisfaction of e-commerce customers can be attained by providing the level of service quality that customers perceive in that system. The five dimensions of service quality are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The website structure of an e-commerce websites is all about the tangibility dimension. The reliability dimension in this study is measured by the attribute called website adequacy. The website response variable indicates the responsiveness dimension. Website security as another attribute of an e-commerce system refers to the assurance dimension and the empathy dimension described by the website customization The overall customer satisfaction is based on the five service quality dimensions representing various service attributes. These five dimensions are tangibility, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. The detailed model used in this study is presented in figure A. The website design elements are characterized into five different types which are supposed to influence the five service quality dimensions. This study hypothesizes that some website attributes that are based on service quality dimensions has an impact on an online customer satisfaction. In other words, customers satisfaction level will increase if the e-commerce system provides a higher level of service quality through different website attributes. Increased Trend Of Online Surfing And Shopping In Pakistan The trend of an online surfing is increasing rapidly due to the increased benefits by the use of e-commerce business environment. People visit e-commerce web sites not only for buying but for several other reasons and the smart retailer just should not only focus on boosting online browse-to-buy conversion rates, but should also try to grab the attention of an online visitors who came in for review so as they could become a customer later. Many people feel it comfortable to review the products through an extensive knowledge provided over the internet before actually buying a particular product. For this purpose, e-commerce website provides an interface to the buyers to write their reviews and share their after-purchase experiences. Thus, the e-commerce systems reduce the time and efforts required for the first step of information search in consumer decision making process. That is, by just few clicks a consumer can have a concise analysis for what matches his/her needs. There are some factors emerged as a results of the changes in lifestyle and habits of consumer which has promoted the trend of online searching and shopping in Pakistan. Some of these factors are lack of time, need of convenience and easy access to the desired object. Moreover, e-commerce websites facilitates the visitor in many ways to boost up online browse-to-buy conversion rate. Whenever a new customer lands on an e-commerce website, he/she must be having many questions in their minds regarding the products and services. A well-framed ecommerce site has an enquiry page for their customers. This gives the chance to the visitor to post an enquiry with the website. Main aim of this page is to gather all relevant and necessary information from the customers so that they can be given response in an apt manner. Within the past decade, e-commerce has matured and grown exponentially. The result shows that now there are many types of e-commerce payment methods available online. If a customers credit is bad and customer cannot afford a merchant account, there are alternative methods of payments on e-commerce websites which can help the customer. The e-commerce systems give customers controlled access to the data they need. In other words, through an e-commerce systems company is not only managing the relationship with its customers, but giving the customers the tools to manage their relationship with the company. Thesis Structure This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the problem about which the research was carried out and in general about the trends of online shopping in Pakistan. Chapter 2 is about the literature review and the theoretical background is developed. In Chapter 3, researcher describes the research method adopted including sources of information and data collection procedure is discussed. In chapter 4, the empirical data collected through questionnaire is analyzed and results are concluded on the basis of a survey. In Chapter 5, Conclusions are drawn and necessary recommendations are suggested. Statement Of The Problem â€Å"Effects of website attributes on customer satisfaction in e-commerce.† The main purpose of this research is to find out the different attributes which encourage consumers to visit, search and shop on a particular website. Objective The purposes of this study are as follows: To identify the most important website element of e-commerce with respect to the customer satisfaction. To examine what is important to the customer regarding website attributes in e-commerce with perspective of website builders. Possible Research Findings The research will also provide the following significances. Help the organization to better understand what customers expect in e-commerce and how those expectations impact customer attitude. The study will examine what the customer views as major attributes of website in e-commerce. Able to investigate the major customer attitudes associated with website structure in e-commerce. The study will indicate the link between the website attributes and the customer attitudes. Hypotheses H1 Website structure has a significant association with customer satisfaction. h3 Website adequacy has a significant association with customer satisfaction. h3 Website security has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H4 Website response has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H5 Website customization has a significant association with customer satisfaction. Introduction To E-Commerce The propagation of WWW has originated few facts in our daily lives, one of which is e-commerce. A transaction between two or more participants through an electronic medium is defines as e-commerce (Kalacota and Whinston 1997). As an e-commerce is rapidly raising field, therefore for accomplishing success in this market, a top quality information system is necessary (Margherio, Henry, Cooke and Montes 1998). An e-commerce system is designed by selectively integrating many technical (e.g. search system) or managerial (e.g. the level of information related to product) design elements (Lohse and Spiller 1998). It is still very difficult, if not impossible; to make use of all the design factors presently available for the e-commerce system although many design factors have been suggested to improve the overall quality of e-commerce system (Selz and Schubert 1997, Lohse et al. 1998). This is because of the recent arrival of new design factors resulted by an increase in the interest of Internet (Selz et al.) The main goal of this paper is to explore important design elements that have significant influence on the customer satisfaction regarding the performance of e-commerce systems. In this paper, the study presents a conceptual model of e-commerce websites that includes concrete design elements, perceived level of website quality and the customer satisfaction (Kim and Lee 2002). There is remarkable potential for e-commerce in developing countries. Online shopping makes it easy to find things, merchants and best offerings and thus economical in terms of time and effort offerings (Balasubramanian, 1997). According to the Malone, Yates and Benjamin (1989), communicating a same piece of information through communication networks results in decreased cost and improved speed. There is tremendous potential for e-commerce in developing countries because the use of an e-commerce can potentially reduce transaction costs. As per Malone et al. (1989) observation, the search costs such as cost of identifying a market (from where to buy a product) and /or a product or service are likely to reduce with the use of e-commerce systems and can be defined as potential e-commerce cost savings. From an organizations perspective, e-commerce systems provide the organization with the better market reach and an ability to provide their customer a customized service that suits their individual needs and preferences. For example the exchange between â€Å"richness† and â€Å"reach† can be minimized by e-commerce (Evans and Wurster 2000). Richness refers to the quality and quantity of information in terms of accuracy, relevance, customization, etc. and reach measures the number of people who can be got in touch with that information. Service Quality Dimensions The overall customer satisfaction can be measured by the level of service quality of an e-commerce system that customer perceives. Some researchers (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988) stated that consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is as an ancestor of service quality. Conversely, modern evidence recommends that it is an outcome of service quality (Woodside, Frey and Daly 1989; Cronin and Taylor 1992). Service quality attributes are the most important factors for the success of an e-commerce systems For example Liu and Arnett (2000) found that organizations that involve in e-commerce can only ensure the success of their system by keenly looking for the ways to improve their service quality. The customers decision whether to continue using a particular e-commerce system is based on the perceived quality of service (Bhattacherjee, 2001) as the service quality impacts the overall satisfaction of a customer. Tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy are the five dimensions of service quality. (Parasurama, Zeithaml and Berry 1985, 1991; Pit, Watson and kavan 1995). The tool that is being used in this study to measure the dimensions of service quality is SERVQUAL. This instrument has been proved valid and reliable and hence used in various domains. (Brown Churchill and Peter 1993; Fisk, Brown and Bitner 1993; Parasuraman et al. 1993). On the basis of previous researches, service quality despite being a main interesting field in services marketing for the past two decades (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra 2000); electronic service quality is still in its early stages in research area. Riel, Liljander and Jurriens (2001) concluded that there has been no theoretical conceptualization emerged for customer evaluation of electronic services that could have been accepted generally. Cox and Dale (2001) has supported this conception by the fact that most out of the dominant research on service quality cannot even be valid to e-business environment. By the year 2002, the existing studies on the determinants of electronic service quality were based on measuring B2C interactions (Gilbert, 2000; Barnes and Vidgens 2000, 2001 and 2002) and few exploratory researches on website quality and e-service quality by Zeithaml et al. (2000). In early stages of service quality research, researchers were required to find out what is service quality from customers perspective (Sasser, Olsen and Wyckoff 1979; Lehtinen and Lehtinen 1982; Gronroos, 1982). It was normally approved that the judgment of service quality came from comparisons between what customers feel a service provider should offer (expectations) and the actual service performance of the company (perceptions) (Zeithaml et al. 2000). This view was reinforced by Zeithaml et al.; Parasuraman et al. (1985) in their study of service quality in different service industries with which they discussed the concept of service quality as a function of expectations-perception gap. Parasuraman et al. (1985) identified the 10 dimensions that customer uses in their assessment of service quality. These 10 service quality dimensions then shaped the source for the development of a scale (SERVQUAL) to measure service quality in direct service interactions. Research extended in other context and as a result refined the scale and reduced it to 5 dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles) Since the SERVQUAL scale has been widely used to measure service quality in many studies across a range of settings (IS Departments; Airlines; Universities; Ocean Freight Shipping; Professional Services; Health Providers; International Markets; Purchasing; Advertising; Banking; E-commerce). (Burgess). Initially the concept of services were created to capture the nature of service encounters (Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree and Bitner 2000) which may not be sufficient to capture the characteristics of customer interactions with self-service technologies such as e-services (Dabholkar, Thorpe and Rentz 1996). Later on, many approaches have been proposed to study online service. (Gilbert, 2000; Gronroos, Heinonen, Isoniemi and Lindholm 2000; Parasuraman and Grewel 2000; Kaynama and Black 2000; Zeithaml et al. 2000) proposed the use of existing service theory as a first type. The second type utilizes generated new categories for self-service technologies such as e-services (Szymanski and Hise 2000; Riel et al. 2001; Wang and Tang 2001; Ruyter, Wetzels and Kleijnen 2001). Third type develops information systems and web quality theory (Barnes et al. 2000, 2001 and 2002; Aladwani and Palvia 2001). These researches have centered on customer interactions with a variety of self-service technologies such as automated call centre technology, ATMs and Web sites and touch screen technologies. A redefined SERVQUAL instrument to measure the service expectations and perceptions of customers of Internet businesses was used by Gilbert (2000) in which he concluded that to measure online service quality, the altered SERVQUAL scale was a practical instrument. The features that are useful, accurate, relevant and comprehensive information reflect the reliability of quality information (Bailey and Pearson 1983). Bailey et al. also identified that website reliability depends on to what level the information provided on the website about the product or service is true, precise and also depend to what level a customer can rely on a particular website that it provides enough amount of information available regarding each product. (Luedi, 1997) stated that website personalization based on the ability of website to deliver individualized interface for a specific user which generated dynamically as per users needs. This may involve making purchase recommendations and /or providing the list of other relevant products that matchs the customer needs. This can be extracted through the previous data available regarding an individual user such as buying behavior, cart items and the current session contents. Providing customized services is the best way to create a loyal customer and make repeat visits on a website (Luedi, 1997). The concern over security continues to plague the online world. Variables like perceived security, reputation were included in this study to examine the customer attitude towards buying process (Lightner, 2003). Even though the understanding of credit card transactions perceived secure like a waiters and waitresses, still security is the top concern of people who shop online (Salisbury, Pearson, Pearson and Miller 2001; Luo, 2002; Wilson and Abel 2002). Likewise security is the reason why people do not shop online (Luo, 2002). The research variable of Security reflects trust in the online system and the variable reputation reflects trust in the specific vendor. Discovering whether vendors receive repeat business reflects the overall buying attitude of consumers. Overall customer satisfaction at online shopping measures which attributes helps the website meets expectations. Website Elements The first phase of consumer decision making process that is the information search starts the minute customers look at the interface of e-commerce website and ends until they decide whether to place the purchase order or not (Schmid, 1995). The role of website structure remains important during the phase of information search process such as site maps, navigation, content settings and layout of website etc. The content, structure and website elements should be portrayed explicitly on the e-commerce interface. Website structure that includes the presentation of design elements determines how the information is actually displayed on the screen to acquire the customer attention (Morris and Hinrich 1996). Convenient website structure defined as to what extent a customer feels that the e-commerce website is user friendly, simple and instinctive. (Chung and Shin 2008) Website adequacy describes the quality and quantity of the information provided in the e-commerce system. Content based on usefulness and comprehensiveness involves the type and scope of information to be included in the system (Morris et al. 1996; Kim 1997). After the collection of appropriate information regarding the identified products or services, the contents must be placed in a well organized manner so that the customer can understand the interface easily (Gronroos, 1982; Rosenfeld and Morville 1998). A well-defined and properly placed content is a feature of website which indicates the ability to made information easily available to visitors (Chung et al. 2008). When adequate and reliable information has been properly dispersed across different web pages within the structure of the e-commerce website, an efficient interaction system must be provided to enable the customer to switch between different pages easily (Kim and Yoo 2000, Park and Kim 2000). (Ballantine, 2005) has found the impact of interactivity and product related information on customer satisfaction in an online trade setting. He argued in his study that the amount of product-related information affected consumer satisfaction of online shopping. An important design element that relates to the interaction system includes the involvement of website response and website customization ability. Website Customization is referred as the extent to which an e-commerce website can identify a customer and then modify the choice of products and shopping experience for that customer (Srinivasan, Anderson and Ponnavolu 2002). (Coupey, 2001) in their research argued that the improved accessibility of information on internet is likely to result in informed customers. And educated customers are able to make better quality decisions and will then experience more satisfaction with the visits and purchases they make. The connection between all of the five individual variables describes the basic architecture of web pages (Steinmetz and Nahrsted 1995). The overall satisfaction of e-commerce customers can be attained by providing the level of service quality that customers perceive in that system. Satisfied customers have more potential to spread positive word-of-mouth (Gremler and Brown 1999), and they avail further services (Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman 1996). The five dimensions of service quality are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1991; Pit et al. 1995). Attributes related to the website structure such as physical appearance of e-commerce websites are represented by tangibility dimension. For example, the tangibility measures the appeal of the website design of e-commerce system presents to their customers. The ability of the website to provide the dependable, accurate service is represented by reliability dimension. (Pit et al.1995). For example, the reliability dimension measures how often an e-commerce system provides useful and comprehensive information regarding the relevant products or services. The responsiveness dimension indicates how prepared the website is to promptly response the customer with the clicked option. (Parasuraman et al. 1991). For example, the responsiveness dimension measures how often an ecommerce system voluntarily provides services that are important to its customers such as less loading time. Or it can be measured by how often a website provides accurate and rich information after a user clicked a particular product. The trust and confidence encouraged in the customer by the information provided on e-commerce system refers to the assurance dimension (Parasuraman et al. 1991). For example, the assurance dimension can be measured by extent to which a website is able to give a secure feeling to an online buyer. The empathy dimension described as the individual attention to the customer that is being provided by the dynamic e-commerce website (Pit et al. 1995). For example this dimension measures how often an ecommerce system voluntarily offers recommendations that match to its customers needs in order to provide the individual customers benefit. In summary, the overall quality of an e-commerce system can be measured by the service quality level perceived by its customers and ultimately leads to the customer satisfaction (Kim et al. 2002). (Parasuraman et al. 1988, 1991) in study on SERVQUAL found that the interactive elements of e-commerce systems are e-business features that help in building relationships with customer and are fall into five main sets that are tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. Due to the consistency of research findings stated in literature, it become easy to propose that the five main determinants of e-commerce include website structure, website adequacy, website security, website response and website customization (Horn, Feinberg and Salvendy 2005). In an e-business structure, the customer interaction with the business is through the e-commerce website. Therefore, several original SERVQUAL items were modified to focus on e-commerce website. The definition of an empathy dimension was extended to include personalization or customization, which is the concept of web gurus as they believe the emotional connection between customer and web business (Peppers et al. 1999). The overall appearance and structure of e-commerce website shows its tangibility. The performance of promised services and adequacy of information explains the reliability of an e-commerce website. Responsiveness is the ability of e-commerce system to help and provide prompt response to the website user. The individualized attention and customized service provided by the e-commerce system to an individual customer is described as empathy. Security is the trust on an e-commerce system in protecting personal and financial information (Horn et al. 2005). The major factors that impact the customer attitude are the five main attributes of e-commerce system. The model in Figure 1 describes how these attributes of e-commerce system work together to achieve customer satisfaction. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction of customer is defined as an emotional response to a specific consumption experience (Swan and Oliver 1989). It is determined by to what extent a consumer perceives that the service fulfills his/her needs, wants or desires. Satisfaction is a â€Å"state† inconsistent in that a consumer can be â€Å"very dissatisfied† or â€Å"very satisfied† (Tse, Nicosia and Wilton 1990). Survey Sources Of Data Collection: According to experts, the best approach and way of building an e-commerce site is by using services of website development providers. A professional team of web developers would take care and work for the e-commerce designing project and give regular feedback about the proceedings therefore for conducting this research, professionals from web development area was selected from five different firms. A survey was conducted by going to the software organizations that are involved in business of web development. Out of the five selected firms, few were chosen from the list of organizations registered on PASHA website and few were preferred on the authentic source of information about the adequate web development experience of these firms. The respondents were web developers, web architects and project managers. Questionnaire The instrument co