Smoking Gun Report Essay Example for Free

Smoking Gun Report Essay Your assignment is to analyze each of these memos and write a 700-800 word report showing how one is a good example of professional writing while the other is an example of poor professional writing. You will evaluate the memos in light of the situation, the style and the organization. Style, Organization, and Effective Communication Choices in style and organization have a great influence on the way a document is received and how successfully it fulfills its intended purpose. The consequences of the authors decisions in these matters can be a matter of life and death. This is shown very clearly in the two smoking gun documents you will be examining for this assignment. The first memo is from D. F. Hallman, the manager of plant performance for Babcock and Wilson. The second memo is from R. M. Boisjoly at Morton Thiokol. Both of these memos have become famous as smoking guns since they played a major role in pointing out problems that were ignored and that eventually led to catastrophic consequences. Questions to Ask †¢What is rhetorical situation in each instance? Research the Challenger disaster and the Three Mile Island incident. †¢What do you know about the author of each of these memos? Google them so you have some idea of their credentials. †¢Examine the main ideas of each document. Begin by looking at the subject line to determine how well it reflects the purpose of the memo. Look at the introductory paragraph. Try to find a stated thesis and underline it. Where does it occur in the memo? In the beginning, the middle, or the end? How easy was it to find this main idea? If you had to search hard to find it, what does that indicate? †¢Look at how the document is organized. Does it follow the logical pattern of introduction, body, conclusion? Is it coherent? Is it unified? Does the author use transitions or other methods to lead the reader from one point to the next? Does the writer indicate the importance of the memo? How? †¢Now look at the writers syle and purpose. Is the memo written to inform or persuade? Considering the importance of the subject, which mode should the writer use? Does the writer use any persuasive language or persuasive techniques in the memo? If so, point them out. Does the language move the reader to action? Does it show the importance of the topic and the consequences of ignoring the problem? Does the author use any key words or phrases to add to the persuasive effect? †¢Look at the authors voice. Is the author detached and uncaring or is he engaging and personal? How does he engage the reader? Is his tone accusatory or friendly or impersonal? †¢Word choice is important in persuasive writing. Examine each document for words that the writer uses to show the importance of the subject. Preparing the Report Part I-Introduction †¢Mention the kairos of each situation: who, what, when, where, why, how †¢Be brief and to the point †¢Give some biographical information on each of the authors †¢Be brief and to the point. At the end of the introduction, present the purpose of your report Part II-Evaluation of Memo #1 (it doesnt matter which memo you start with) †¢Examine the way the memo is set up including the subject line, the purpose, the layout and design introductory paragraph, the thesis statement and show how all of these elements contribute to the overall effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the final product. †¢Examine the way the document is organized including the introductory paragraph, the thesis statement, the body paragraphs, the conclusion. Is the document unified and coherent? Does the author arrange his ideas to show the importance of the subject matter? Show how all of these elements contribute to the overall effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the final product. †¢Analyze the writers style and purpose. Show how the author uses persuasive techniques to move the reader to action. How does the style contribute to whether or not the authors purpose has come through clearly in the memo. †¢Evaluate the authors voice to see if he actually engages the reader. If he fails to do this, do you think it is on purpose? †¢Look at the choice of words. Pick out any figurative language. Does the author use second person and active voice? How does word choice influence the overall effectiveness of the document? Part III-Evaluation of Memo #2 †¢Examine the way the memo is set up including the subject line, the purpose, the layout and design introductory paragraph, the thesis statement and show how all of these elements contribute to the overall effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the final product. †¢Examine the way the document is organized including the introductory paragraph, the thesis statement, the body paragraphs, the conclusion. Is the document unified and coherent? Does the author arrange his ideas to show the importance of the subject matter? Show how all of these elements contribute to the overall effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the final product. †¢Analyze the writers style and purpose. Show how the author uses persuasive techniques to move the reader to action. How does the style contribute to whether or not the authors purpose has come through clearly in the memo? †¢Evaluate the authors voice to see if he actually engages the reader. If he fails to do this, do you think it is on purpose? Look at the choice of words. Pick out any figurative language. Does the author use second person and active voice? How does word choice influence the overall effectiveness of the document? Part IV-Your opinion and contrast. By this time, it should be pretty obvious to you which memo is an example of good professional writing and which one is an example of poor professional writing. In this section you will draw conclusions from what you have written in parts II and III and will tell which memo is the most effective and why. You will do a little contrast in this section.

The Brewing Process of Beer :: Brewery Alcohol Beer Essays

The Brewing Process of Beer The first and most important step in brewing is cleanliness. "Brewing is ninety percent janitorial," said Frederick Bowman, founder of Portland Brewing. (Bowman) The first step in the actual brewing process is malting. Malting is what is done to the barley to prepare it for brewing. The steps of the malting process release the starches that are contained in the barley, while minimizing haze and off-flavors. Grain is allowed to soak in 60Â ° F. water to increase the moisture content of the grain to about 40-45%. The grain is usually spread out on the floor of the germination room, or some other container. These grains are kept at a temperature of about 60Â ° F. The germination is complete when the sprout has grown to about 3/4 the length of the grain and the hard part of the grain, or the shell, has turned soft. The goal for germination is for the starches within the grain to break down into shorter lengths. At this shorter length stage, the grain is called green malt. Kilning is t he next stage after the grains have sprouted. Kilning is the process of drying the grain in the kiln where the temperature is slowly raised during the 30-35 hour period. After kilning, the result is finished malt, with soluble starches and developed enzymes. These grains each have a different and distinct flavor depending on how long they are cooked in the kiln. (Porter) After the malting, the grain is ready for milling. Milling is the cracking, and crushing of the grain. This procedure is controlled carefully so as to break the grain while keeping the husk as large and as intact as possible. Milling allows the grain to absorb the water it will be mixed with later as the water will extract sugars from the malt. The malt will now be mixed with warm water in the mash tun. This vessel holds the grain and water mixture for a period of time. Two important things will take place in this step. One is to break down proteins to the more soluble and usable amino acids, providing food for the yeast and foam for a nice head on the beer. The second thing is to break down the starch to simple sugars so yeast can convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. (Porter) Mash filtration consists of filtering the converted mash by gravity or pressure in a lauter tub or mash filter to separate the insoluble matter in the malt from the soluble sugars and nitrogen compounds.

Inequality in British Schools Essay

The educational system is one of the most influential institutions in society as it provides young people with a vast amount of knowledge, attitudes and skills. These are acquired formally through set lessons or informally through the ‘hidden curriculum’ which provides the unofficial and unplanned consequences of school experience. Social Inequality is one of the major preoccupations of sociology. The relationship between inequality and education has been studied for many years. Although it seems obvious that educational success is simply down to an individual’s capabilities and motivation, sociological research shows that the inequalities in social class, gender and race and ethnicity have had a huge influence in the differential achievement within British schooling. The development of the educational system in Britain was first put in place to secure equal educational opportunities for all young people, however despite these efforts, sociological evidence states that not all children with the same ability achieve the same success. Some sociologists, such as Charles Murray have contended with the idea that genetic intellectual potential determines an individual’s performance in school. This idea is rejected by the conflict theorist’s as they believe social class to be one of the main factors that determine whether a child is successful at school or not, as there are major differences between the levels of achievement of those that are part of the working social class and those apart of the middle class. (Macionis. J, Plummer.K, 2008) One of the main explanations for this is material deprivation. Working class families are financially in a worse position than those of the middle class and therefore are not able to make the most of their educational opportunities. As they are living in poorer housing conditions they may not have the space at home to be able to complete their schoolwork with full concentration. The lack of financial funds means that many families will not be able to provide their children with the necessities needed to fully develop within education, for example a household computer, sports equipment, or even money for school trips. It may be financially difficult for parents on a low income to support their children in higher education as well. Although student grants have been put in place, many children avoid higher education as they worry about the debt or travel costs. It also more likely for those from a working class  background to be managing education with a part time job, such as paper rounds or shop work, this can cause conflict between the amount of time available for work and the amount of time spent on studying. (Browne. K, 2005) Research suggests that it is not only factors outside of the school that can effect achievement; there are also factors inside the school that have an impact on a child’s educational experiences. Teachers have been known to take into account things such as a child’s standard of behaviour, dress, speech and their social class and background and this reflects how teachers treat particular individuals within the classroom. Teachers are often part of the middle class and the children that share the same values and standards are likely to be seen as ‘brighter’ than those with working class values. The working class have a different focus on their values, attitudes and their lifestyle in soc iety. This often works as a barrier to the success of the working class. The blame for underachievement is often focused in the direction of the family and community. These material and cultural conditions put working class children at a disadvantage when it comes to achievement in schools. Many of these factors, which have no relation to biological potential, have contributed to the educational class divide in Britain. Sociologist Robert.K.Merton was credited for the term ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ which focuses on a teacher’s attitude towards a pupil, for example if a pupil is labelled as bright and is encouraged and praised by the teacher, the child will feel self-confident and will strive for success. On the other hand if the teacher labels a pupil as ‘un co-operative’ or from a ‘poor’ background, this can cause low self-esteem and the pupil will be likely to fail to achieve much success. The Neo Marxist’s perspective on class stratification in Britain claims that schools create a ‘false class consciousness’ so it seems that they promote equal opportunities for all, but they really reproduce a capitalist division of labour, preparing young people for class-determined careers in the labour market. Willis (1977) accepts the Marxist’s view on education being closely linked to the needs of the capitalist’s system; however he does not agree with the idea of there being a direct link between education and the economy. (Macionis. J, Plummer.K, 2008) His study found that â€Å"poorer children often grow up in environments where people see little hope of upward social mobility and rebel against the system rather than trying to  conform with in. In such an environment adults often discourage rather than encourage success at school.† (Macionis. J, Plummer.K, 2008) Social class is not the only inequality in Britain’s schooling. So ciologists have also found a link between gender and academic success. Until the late 1980’s there was high concern about the underachievement of girls. Societies had been structured to consider schooling more important for males than for females. Although the gap in gender inequality has narrowed in Britain, many women still study traditionally feminine subjects, such as literature whilst men are more likely to study subjects that are seen to be more masculine like engineering. (Macionis. J, Plummer.K, 2008) Sue Sharpe in a 1976 survey called ‘just like a girl’ discovered that the priorities of young girls were ‘love, marriage, husbands, children and then jobs and careers, more or less in that order’. When she repeated her research in 1994, she found that the order had changed to ‘having a job, career and being able to support themselves before having a family.’ (Browne. K, 2005) Weiner (1995) has argued that teachers have more forcefully challenged stereotypes since the 1980’s and sexist images have been removed from learning materials, which could be the reason for the changes in girl’s attitudes towards their own education. The increase in incentives for girls to gain qu alifications has been due to a number of reasons, one of them being the women’s movement that managed to achieve a great deal of success in challenging traditional stereotypes for women’s roles in society. Many women now look past traditional roles, such as housewives and mothers and are motivated to gain independence and to do well in their careers. Women on average work hard during their time at school and are more motivated to do well. They put more effort into their presentation as they give up more time to do their school work. (Browne. K, 2005) It is clear that there have been major changes in the gender perception of girls in Britain’s schools and the inequalities between males and females has become less and less. Although certain traditional gender perceptions exist through subject choice, females now have more equal opportunities to gain knowledge within the classroom and achieve success. However in modern day society the tables have now turned and there has been a sudden ‘moral panic’ over the underachievement of boys. (Weiner, Arnot and David 1997) Swann (1992) found that boys dominated class discussion by often acting inappropriately and interrupting, whereas girls  are known to have a more laid back attitude within the classroom and are praised for their abilities to listen and co-operate, which leads to the teacher having a more positive view to girls within the class, helping to produce the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ of girls greater achievement levels. (Holborn.M and Langley.P, 2002) Mitsos and Browne accept that boys are under-achieving and suggest that it is because men are culturally encouraged to appear macho and tough in society and these types of behaviours take place within the classroom and distract from learning. They also believe that the decline in manual work may result in the working class boys losing motivation as it is getting harder and harder to find jobs. Although these reasons seem valid, sociologists believe that more research has to be done within this area. (Holborn.M and Langley.P, 2002) More recent studies on education and gender have come away from the simple ‘differential achievement’ and now take into account a lot more processes within schools. The active role of the pupil is seen to create gender relationships and the way in which children form ideas on identities is seen to have a bigger impact. We have discussed social class and gender inequalities within Britain’s schools; however we are still to look into ethni city and race and the effects this has on differential achievement within schools. Many children from ethnic minority backgrounds tend to not do as well as other members of the population when it comes to education. Similar to the working class issues as majority of ethnic minority groups are part of the working class they face a series of disadvantages in social conditions, such as poor housing conditions and higher rates of unemployment within their home, which can cause a disadvantage in the chances of success. (Macionis. J, Plummer.K, 2008) Ethnic minorities are also at a disadvantage in school as they often suffer from isolation or racism from other pupils or are even discriminated against from teachers. Although, all schools in Britain are now legally obliged to have an anti-racist policy and teachers are now trained in equality legislation, research in secondary schools has shown conflict between white teachers and African Caribbean pupils. Stereotypes of African Caribbean young males have caused teachers to have more positive expectations of other ethnic mi nority groups, more than others. This explains the high level of black exclusions from schools and also explains why most permanent exclusions are down to disobedience of some sort, for  example pupils refusing to conform to school rules or being verbally abusive to teachers. The Labelling of certain pupils can cause them to comply with what is expected of them, for example disruptive behaviour and therefore leads to major effects on achievement. Phoenix (2001) conducted numerous studies identifying racism in schools; some suggest teachers discriminate against black and South Asian students, treating them in stereotypical ways. (Holborn.M and Langley.P, 2002) Racism can cause ethnic minorities to feel in some ways rejected from society and therefore racism within schools can cause young people to feel rejected from school as well, which can lead to prevention of achievement as individuals are not able to work to their full potential as they are not happy and comfortable in the school environment. Not all sociologists agree with the inequalities of ethnic minorities in schools. Taylor (1981) argues that the emphasis on faults in the education system should be treated with some degree of caution. Teachers do not necessarily behave in ways that reflect negative stereotypes of ethnic minority groups according to Taylor and that many teachers consider ethnic equality within schools to be of a high level of importance. (Holborn.M and Langley.P, 2002) There is enough evidence to link differential achievement with inequalities within Britain’s schools. Social class and ethnic inequalities effect the education and success of some pupils to some extent. Although, there have been developments and improvements on equality in society as a whole including educational institutions, there is still a long way to go before all individuals can be provided with equal opportunities of success. There are still clear class divisions within Britain’s schools as the working class are constantly at a disadvantage which prevents them from achieving to their full potential. Ethnic minority groups have very similar issues that need to be addressed in order for equal opportunities to evolve. However, there have been drastic changes in gender equality in schools and females and males are now being treated equally within the classroom. These changes have occurred within the whole of society as traditional gender stereotypes have been broken. These changes have had positive results as females now strive to achieve success. Referencing Browne, K., 2005. An introduction to sociology. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Polity Press Holborn, M., Langley, P., 2002. Sociology Themes and Perspectives. Fulham: Collins Macionis, J.J., Plummer, K., 2008. Sociology. 4th ed. Essex: Pearson Moore, S., Aiken, D., Chapman, S., 2006. Sociology A2. 2nd ed. Fulham: Collins Girls and Education (online) Available at: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/girls_education.htm Assessed on 07/06/2012

Team Process And Team Development - 1201 Words

Team Process and Team Development Submitted by Your name Course title Instructor name Date of submission University name Team Development Process in Selected Organization A team can be defined as two or more freely interacting individuals who share collective norms and have a common identity (Kreitner, Kinicki, Cole, 2007). The team process is an important factor which helps the team to attain success. The team process plays three critical roles which are: converts the team’s charter and work plan into actions, influences individuals and team behaviors and helps to reveal the intent behind behaviors (Wong, 2010). Therefore team process is an activity when team is performing tasks to attain the team goals. For example in†¦show more content†¦The team process happens in all the stages of team development and helps the team members to complete their tasks in an effective way (Engleberg Wynn, 2012) Five Stages of Team Development The team development takes place in five stages. Bruce Tuckman had conducted research on various teams and given the five stages of team development. The team process can be observed in all the five stages of team development. The five stages of Tuckman are: 1. Forming: The forming stage of development is a period of orientation and getting acquainted. Members break the ice and test one another for friendship possibilities and task orientation. Uncertainty is high during this stage, and members usually accept whatever power or authority is offered by either formal or informal leaders. During this initial stage, members are concerned about such things as â€Å"What is expected of me?† â€Å"What behavior is acceptable?† â€Å"Will I fit in?† During the forming stage, the team leader should provide time for members to get acquainted with one another and encourage them to engage in informal social discussions (Engleberg Wynn, 2012). 2. Storming: During the storming stage, individual personalities emerge. People become more assertive in clarifying their roles and what is expected of them. This stage is marked by conflict and disagreement. People may disagree over their perceptions of the team’s goals or how to achieve them. Members may jockey for position, and