Spry Plc - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 16 Words: 4767 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? 1.0 Introduction Spry Plc. as a large listed company, the directors identify that there are some large projects which have great chances for success if the company has enough of funds to take over it. The estimated finance needed for the projects is approximately  £200 millions; the company has to search for outside sources in order to reinvested profits in existing undertaking. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Spry Plc" essay for you Create order There are some subjects to be reported on this piece of work is either debt or equity to be issue on the stock exchange to raise funds, discover the differing sources of finance available in current markets and their relevant information, and how it may effect the cost of capital of the company after recognizing the impact on risk of the new finance. The following also included the nature of the capital markets and the theories of the efficient market hypothesis. This report will be divided into three main structures to cover all elements, which is first The Capital Markets surrounding Spry Plc. and EMH, Source of Finance and Long Term Financing Decision to Spry Plc., and last part is The Cost of Capital and the Capital Structure of Spry Plc. 2.0 The Capital Markets surrounding Spry Plc. and EMH 2.1 Capital Markets ‘In its broadest sense capital can be defined as accumulated wealth that is available to create future wealth. It is wealth that is engaged in a reproductive process. The capital markets are meeting places where those who require additional capital seek out others who wish to invest their excess. (Andrew M. Chisholm 2002: pg. 1) The Capital Markets is basically a financial relationship created by public, institutions, and governments with more funds (known as funds supplier or funds investor) transfer those funds to public, institutions, or governments who have a shortage of funds (known as funds demanders or funds borrowers) to make transactions. Apparently, the importance of capital markets is actually to promote economic efficiency by investing funds from those who do not have immediately productive use for it to those who do. For an organization it needs to be listed to trades its securities, thus, Spry Plc. as one of the listed companies are allowable and should ra ise funds from the capital markets. 2.1.1 The structure of Capital Markets Generally capital markets are divided into primary and secondary markets, where the main function of primary market is to issues new securities of equity and debt funding for funds demanders. The secondary market is where the outstanding securities are resold. The potential investors must first engage in the primary market place before they engage in the secondary market. These are the markets where Spry plc. will be involved in the future when the decision is made. 2.2 The Efficient Market In an efficient market, investor would want to obtain securities as cheaply as possible and seller will try to obtain the highest price they can for their securities. In this case, investors want to maximize their payback but the companies are looking finance as cheaply as possible. Therefore, securities are fairly priced by reflecting all available information in an efficient market. There are three forms of efficiency: * Allocation Efficiency : Ability of the market to allocate scarce resources to those companies which able to leads to these scarce resources being used most productively. * Operational Efficiency : Refers to the operations of the market, the costs of transaction determined competitively, reducing barriers to trade and trading rapidly. * Pricing Efficiency : Also known as Informationally Efficient, in a pricing- efficient market, shares price are fully reflect based on instantaneously all relevant available information. 2.2.1 Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) This hypothesis is actually derived from the Pricing/ Informationally Efficiency which can be define as, share prices are fully and fairly reflect by the all relevant available information. It means that the prices of securities are always equaled based on the ‘good news or ‘bad news for the shares. There are three levels of market efficiency which categorized by E.F. Fama: * Weak form of Efficiency : The hypothesis states that the share prices fully reflect included past history share price movements and patterns. But some of the traders believe that the future share prices might be predicted by using technical analysis to analyzing historical data. * Semi-Strong Form of Efficiency : The hypothesis states that the share prices not only historic patterns but also all publicly available information about the shares. If this hypothesis is true, then the share prices will be rapidly incorporated when new information becomes public. * Strong Form of Efficiency : Th e hypothesis states that the share prices not only reflect by the historical patterns and current relevant available information but also all possible information included inside available information. This meant that the markets respond so rapidly that not even the inside traders who have the most valuable information could profit from their activities. When Spry Plc. involves in the markets, they are actually facing risk that they might got loss as markets cannot be extremely efficient or wholly inefficient in the real world, share price will follow a so called â€Å"random walk† (for further explanation please refer to Appendix 1), a theory created by Louis Bachelier. This means that the only thing that can change the share prices is a new piece of information occurs, as discuss before share prices will accurately reflect on all relevant available information. But the future information is unknowable; it might be a good or bad news for a particular share. Therefore, as share prices reflect so quickly on new information, no one could predict the share price by only considering current or historical information. Spry plc. has to understand that the financial market is actually mixture of both efficient and inefficient, sometimes it will returns fairly while some other times it may generate more than average returns too. (David Blake (2000) Financial Market Analysis. Second Edition. United Kingdom: John Wiley Sons, Ltd, pg.389-405.) 3.0 Source of Finance and Long Term Financing Decision to Spry plc. For many business or companies, most are funded through a mixture of equity (share) capital or debt capital. Apparently, the concern of how and where to get funds to starting up, develop or expansion can be a key for the success of the business. It is so important, so, Spry Plc. must understand that which of the source of finance available to the business are the most appropriate or in relation to the needs of the business. From directors dec ision, the discussion will be more into debt and equity (share) finance. 3.1 Option of choosing Equity Finance Equity capital or known as share capital is actually an ownership capital, provider of the shares is the shareholders from those who are part-owners of the company. Shares counted in units, are the investment in a limited company, either it to be a public or private limited company. They are numbers of advantages if company chooses equity financing, like no repayment required for the capital which invested by the shareholders, no agreement for a fixed payment of dividend and the payments are determined by the Board of Directors. Equity financing able to decreases the gearing level of company, and pay zero dividend when profits are low or nil. These advantage all gone if considering on debt financing side. 3.1.1 Ordinary Shares Ordinary shares are the most common shares available in the United Kingdom (UK). The owner of ordinary shares has the voting privileges, and to share profits (dividends) of the company. This share can be defined as the riskiest share as the profits of company can differ wildly in years, therefore, in good years the ordinary shareholders may receive substantial dividend but in bad years they may receive nothing. (For example please refer to Ryanair Holdings Plc, Appendix 2) In additional on that, these shareholders have the lowest ranking in the capital structure means that other investment (example: Bond) must be paid out first before them. Ordinary shares can be said the most expensive to serve because the shareholders requires higher returns to compensate the high risk. Spry Plc. has a choice of two ways to issuing the shares; one is New Issue of shares. Normally, it can issue by offer for sale as the company sells the new shares to a financial institution or an issuing house then they will sell the shares to the public. Or, not issued to the public but arrangements are made to sell large ‘block of units of shares to small number of investors like for example to insurance companies, this type of issuing named as Placing. Another way of that is Right Issue of shares, raising funds by selling shares to existing shareholders to subscribe to new shares in ratio to their current holdings. The existing shareholders are offered to buy at a discounted price which means lower than the market price, they has the rights to sell if the shareholders not exercising the rights. 3.2 Option of choosing Debt Finance Debt capital is a non-ownership capital providers by a bank or investor who buy bonds issued by the company, or by trade suppliers who offer terms of credit. It has lower risk as they are the first and must to be paid no matter the company make profits or not, as compensate to the lower risk, the interest paid is cheaper than shares dividends and involved just a single payment at maturity on a fixed rate. The advantages of choosing debt financing are the interest payment is tax deductible, and free from dilution of the control of the existing shareholders. It is cheaper and also a straight forward contract between the lenders and borrowers, the issuing cost is lower compared to issuing of new shares. Normally debt holders do not have voting rights. These advantages do not exist on equity financing. Mainly, debt finance is broken down into two categories which are Term Loan and Bonds. 3.2.1 Term Loan Term Loan or Long-Term loan is a loan offer by a financial institution (Bank) to a business or company, and having more than one year initial maturity. Mostly this loan is made to finance capital needs, often for permanent work like purchasing equipment or machinery. In a term loan agreements normally will specify payment dates in monthly, quarterly, semiannual or annual loan payments. Over the life of the loan, the interest and the principles are fully repaid according to the agreement states. There are also restrictive covenants in the agreements that limit the borrower in order to protect the interest of the lender. Like constraint on Subsequent Borrowings and the Usage of the Loan Proceeds, also working and fixed assets restrictions, in this case because of the liquidity of a company maintain on a certain level and some fixed assets cannot be sold. 3.2.2 Bond â€Å"A corporate Bond is a certificate indicating that a corporation has borrowed a certain amount of money from an institution or an individual and promises to repay it in the future under clearly defined terms.† (Principles of Managerial Finance, pg495) This simply means a form of loan stock where an individual or company gives a written acknowledgement of the debt where the payment of interest and the repayment of the provision are stated. Face value in bond feature is the principal sum owed by the firmed. Coupon Rate is the contractual rate of interest, and Redemption Date is the date the firm must payback and last but not least is Call Feature, where the company reserves the right to retire the bond earlier before the maturity date at a premium. There are there types of unsecured bonds, which are debentures, subordinated debentures, and income bonds. While the secured bonds included mortgage bonds, collateral bonds, and equipment trust certificates. Other contempora ry types of Bonds are zero coupon bonds, junk bonds, floating rate bonds, extendable notes, and putable bonds. (Lawrence J. Gitman (1994) Principles of Managerial Finance. Seventh Edition. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, pg 488-603.) 4.0 The Cost of Capital and the Capital Structure of Spry Plc. After discovered the sources of finance and also long term finance to Spry Plc, this part is actually discussing about the impact based on the decision making. Cost of Capital is a long term financing decision-making that will affecting the capital structure of the company, in any companies the capital structures must be a combination of both equity and debt capital. Different sources has different cost, overall cost can be measure by using Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The results must at least has fair return or most likely greater to the contributors. 4.1 Importance of the Cost of Capital A progressive management will always put most of the concern on the cost of capital and the fluctuation of the capital market when doing any financing decision in order to achieve economical or optimal capital structure. This move is so important because it is a significant factor that will impact directly to firms capital structure. Cost of capital can be used to deciding which method of financing are the most suitable for the company; a good financial officer will be able to identify normal dividend rates and the rate of interest on loans in times. Also, when a company requires additional finance like Spry Plc. is facing now, the first concern in choosing is which where bears the minimum of the cost of capital, at the same time considering the relating control and avoiding risk as well. Cost of capital is actually evaluating the performance of the financial of the top management. (Free MBA.in (2008) Importance of Cost of Capital in Decision Making .[Online] Available From: https://www.freemba.in/articlesread.php?artcode=343stcode=10substcode=22) 4.2 Optimal Capital Structure and the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) Capital structure refers to the combination of different types of capital which a company uses to finance its activities. While a ‘good of capital structure of a company can be defined as which a low overall has cost of capital, means that also has a low overall rate of return that has to be paid to finances providers. Capital structure also known as capital gearing can be categorized into high gearing and low gearing. Where high gearing means the proportion of debt capital is higher relative to the equity capital, and low gearing refers to the proportion of debt capital is lower than equity capital. Spry Plc. should find the optimum capital structure, which is a combination of debt and equity finance that has the minimum cost of financing, to reduce the WACC. Lawrence J. Gitman (1994: pg.474) states: ‘Optimal capital structure has strongly related to the WACC, in this area it can be explain by using a graphic view of companys equity, debt and WACC functions along wi th a modified form of the zero growth valuation model. The zero growth valuation model can be used to define the companys value as its after-tax earning before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its WACC. Assuming that EBIT is constant, the value of the company is maximized by minimizing the WACC. The optimal structure is therefore the one that minimizes the WACC. Graphically, although both debt and equity costs rise with increasing financial leverage, the lower cost of debt causes the WACC to decline and then rise with increasing financial leverage. As a result, the companys WACC exhibits a U shape having a minimum value, which defines the optimum capital structure-the one that maximizes the owners wealth. Many people are wonder in the real world is there an optimum capital structure? Actually there is two main views are debating on this issue which is Traditional View and the Modigliani and Millers View (MM). Where the traditional view states that when a company involves debt c apital into its structure, the overall cost of capital drops. This is because the cost of debt is cheaper than cost of equity, but beyond a certain level the ordinary shareholders will requires higher return to compensate the extra risk that they are facing to. For further explanation and graphs please refers to Appendix 3. While the MM states two theories, one MM Model 1958 with taxation which said that the total value of the company or the WACC will nit change when the gearing level changes, this is because the way income is depends on the future operating generated by assets, so it makes no difference to the total value of the firm. Next theory is MM with taxation 1963, said that the cost of capital will decrease with increased in debt capital, this is because the interest paid are tax deductible. Thus, tax relief on debt interest is an extra advantage for shareholders. For further explanation and graphs please refers to Appendix 4. Lastly, there is one thing that the director should understand that the testing on these theories are complicated in practice and as such the optimal level of is an unsolved issue, but we can try to minimize the WACC as much as possible by balancing all the theories stated above. 5.0 Conclusion In conclusion, there is no specific ways or solution to guarantee maximum profits gain by the analysis or planning of the sources of financing, cost of capital or even capital structure. As Ball (1994), pg. 33 stated that ‘The answer is both yes and no. On the one hand, the research provides insights into stock price behaviour that were previously unimaginable. On the other hand, the theory of efficient markets (like all theories) is an imperfect and limited way of viewing stock markets, as research has come to show. Well, each company like Spry Plc. has its uniqueness with its own structure and development; cost of financing is just one of the ways to gain money besides debt and equity finance. A good financial planning must to consider other factors to find the most appropriate option such as the ability of company to generate cash flow, the duration of borrowing, the current gearing level, any restrictive covenants, and so on. 6.0 Appendix Appendix 1 Random Walk Theory A Random Walk Down Wall Street, written by Burton Malkiel in 1973, has become a classic in investment literature. Random walk theory jibes with the semi-strong efficient hypothesis in its assertion that it is impossible to outperform the market on a consistent basis. Malkiel puts both technical analysis and fundamental analysis to the test and reasons that both are largely a waste of time. In fact, he goes to great lengths to show that there is no proof to suggest that either can consistently outperform the market. Any success outperforming the market with technical analysis or fundamental analysis can be attributed to lady luck. If enough people try, some are bound to outperform the market, but most are still likely to underperform. Newpont Mining Corp. (NEM) random movement chart from Stockcharts.com The basic random walk premise is that price movements are totally random. Judging from the chart, the price movements of Newmont Mining (NEM)[NEM] over this 5-month period would appear to be quite random. Prices have no memory, therefore past and present prices cannot be used to predict future prices (as implied in technical analysis). Prices move at random and adjust to new information as it comes available. The adjustment to this new information is so fast that it is impossible to profit from it. Furthermore, news and events are also random and trying to predict these (fundamental analysis) is also a lesson in futility. Malkiel maintains that a buy and hold strategy is best and individuals should not attempt to time (or beat) the market. Attempts based on technical, fundamental or any other analysis are futile. Admittedly, he does have a point. Statistics have shown that the majority of equity mutual funds fail to outperform the market, as measured by the SP 500. Investors can easily buy index-based securities with very low transactions costs. (https://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:overview:random_walk_theory) Appendix 2 The Ryanair and Marconi share price chart and explanation Ryanair share price Data source: Yahoo Finance The Ryanair share price fell so dramatically in mid-January 2004 because the company announced that its profits for the current financial year would probably be worse than they had previously expected. Marconi corporation plc suffered a similar fate in terms of its share price which suddenly collapsed following announcements of serious financial problems within the group. Take a look at how their share price has since recovered: Marconi share price Data source: Yahoo Finance Dont forget that the stock market is actually just a second hand share market so even though no company ever wants its share price to collapse in the ways that we have just seen, these share price catastrophes do not directly affect the business. However, with such a depressed share price, companies might find it vey difficult to raise additional finance or reassure existing creditors that they are a worthwhile risk. If you look at the share price pages in newspapers such as the Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian and so on, the prices you will see there are mainly ordinary share prices. The importance of share prices to a business is that it gives an indication of the value placed on the company by the market for example if a company has 10 million shares and the current price is 500p each, then the value of the company its market capitalisation is  £50 million. If the share price plummets to 200p the company would only be worth  £20 mi llion. In such cases, companies become possible targets for takeovers. (https://www.bized.co.uk/learn/accounting/financial/sources/ordshares.htm) Appendix 3 WACC and traditional view of capital structure and cost of capital There are different ideas with regards to the impact of capital structure change on valuation and cost of capital. *The debt to equity ratio (B/S) influences V and WACC. Increase in V causes decrease in WACC and vice versa. In the range 0 to CS, as debt B increases, WACC falls, despite rising debt carries with it risk of residual income, shown in the increasing cost of equity, k. However, when the debt increase beyond CS, the continue increase effects of k now starts to offset the effects of a falling S/V, resulting a rise in WACC. This highlights an essential condition for shareowners profiting from capital structure optimisation, i.e. the firms ability to borrow on terms not available or attractive to individuals. Thus a target ratio of debt to equity finances is an important resource allocation for many firms. WACC stands for (market value) weighted average cost of capital, which can be express as equiv alent to the valuation ratio Q/V Q/V = (S/V)k + (B/V)i = WACC, where Q=division of expected earnings; S=equity capital; B=debt; V=market value; k=expected return of equity S; i=interest rate on debt B. This concept of WACC is that cost of each component of the firms capital structure is weighted relative to the overall market value, V. With this concept, finance managers by maximising overall market value, they will invariably minimise the weighted average cost of capital, creating a favourable financial position for investment in the future. Increase in V - decrease in Q/V - decrease in WACC (Odd Ball (2009) Discuss the impact of taxation on company capital structure decisions. Weblog. [Online] Available From: https://rg328.blogspot.com/2009/05/discuss-impact-of-taxation-on-company.html) Appendix 4 Modigliani Miller (MM Propositions I II) Capital Structure of Corporations If you read the chapter on Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), you know that the best capital structure for a corporation is when the WACC is minimized. This is partly derived from two famous Nobel prize winners, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller who developed the MM Propositions I and II. MM Proposition I MM Proposition I states that the value of a firm does NOT depend on its capital structure. For example, think of 2 firms that have the same business operations, and same kind of assets. Thus, the left side of their Balance Sheets look exactly the same. The only thing different between the 2 firms is the right side of the balance sheet, i.e the liabilities and how they finance their business activities. https://www.financescholar.com/m-m-proposition1a.jpg https://www.financescholar.com/m-m-proposition1b.jpg In the first diagram, stocks make up 70% of the capital structure while bonds (debt) make up for 30%. In the second diagram, it is the exact opposite. This is the case because the assets of both capital structures are the exactly same. MM Proposition 1 therefore says how the debt and equity is structured in a corporation is irrelevant. The value of the firm is determined by Real Assets and not its capital structure. MM Proposition II MM Proposition II states that the value of the firm depends on three things: 1) Required rate of return on the firms assets (Ra) 2) Cost of debt of the firm (Rd) 3) Debt/Equity ratio of the firm (D/E) If you recall the tutorial on Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), the formula for WACC is: WACC = [Rd x D/V x (1-5)] + [Re x E/V] The WACC formula can be manipulated and written in another form: Ra = (E/V) x Re + (D/V) x Rd The above formula can also be rewritten as: Re = Ra + (Ra Rd) x (D/E) This formula #3 is what MM Proposition II is all about. Analysis of MM Proposition II Graph The above graph tells us that the Required Rate of Return on the firm (Re) is a linear straight line with a slope of (Ra Rd) Why is Re linear curved and upwards sloping? This is because as a company borrows more debt (and increases its Debt/Equity ratio), the risk of bankruptcy is even more higher. Since adding more debt is risky, the shareholders demand a higher rate of return (Re) from the firms business operations. This is why Re is upwards sloping: As Debt/Equity Ratio Increases - Re will Increase (upwards sloping). Notice that the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) in the graph is a straight line with NO slope. It therefore does not have any relationship with the Debt/Equity ratio. This is the basic identity of MM Proposition I and II, that the capital structure of the firm does not affect its total value. WACC therefore remains the same even if the company borrows more debt (and increases its Debt/Equity ratio) (FinanceScholar.com (no date) Modiglian i Miller (MM Propositions I II) Capital Structure of Corporations. [Online] Available From: https://www.financescholar.com/modigliani-miller-propositions.html) 7.0 References Andrew M. Chisholm (2002) An Introduction to Capital Markets: Products, Strategies, Participants. United Kingdom: John Wiley Sons, Ltd David Blake (2000) Financial Market Analysis. Second Edition. United Kingdom: John Wiley Sons, Ltd Eddie McLaney (2009) Business Finance: Theory and the Practice. Eighth Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education Ltd Lawrence J. Gitman (1994) Principles of Managerial Finance. Seventh Edition. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers Biz/ed (2009) Sources of Finance. [Online] Available From: https://www.bized.co.uk/learn/accounting/financial/sources/index.htm FinanceScholar.com (no date) Modigliani Miller (MM Propositions I II) Capital Structure of Corporations. [Online] Available From: https://www.financescholar.com/modigliani-miller-propositions.html Free MBA.in (2008) Importance of Cost of Capital in Decision Making .[Online] Available From: https://www.freemba.in/articlesread.php?artcode=343stcode=10substcode=22 Free MBA. in (2008) Mode of Measuring Cost of Capital. [Online] Available From: https://www.freemba.in/articlesread.php?artcode=345stcode=10substcode=22 James Woepking (2007) International Capital Markets and Their Importance. The University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development. [Online] Available From: https://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/ebook2/contents/part3-II.shtml Odd Ball (2009) Discuss the impact of taxation on company capital structure decisions. Weblog. [Online] Available From: https://rg328.blogspot.com/2009/05/discuss-impact-of-taxation-on-company.html Reem Heakal (2009) What is Market Efficiency? Investopedia. [Online] Available From: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/02/101502.asp?viewed=1 Richard Loth (2009) Evaluating A Companys Capital Structure. Investopedia.[Online] Available From: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/06/capitalstructure.asp?viewed=1 StockCharts.com- Chart School (2009) Random Walk Theory. [Online] Available From: ht tps://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:overview:random_walk_theory Wikipedia (2009) Capital Market. [Online] Available From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Markets Wikipedia (2009) Capital Structure. [Online] Available From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_structure Wikipedia (2009) Financial Market Efficiency. [Online] Available From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_market_efficiency

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Influence of Listening Comprehension over Speaking Skills (Literature Review) free essay sample

On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write (Rivers, 1981; Weaver, 1972). The importance of listening and speaking cannot be underestimated; it is imperative that they not be treated lightly in second and foreign language curricula. However, listening and speaking are well recognized as critical dimensions in language learning, they remain the least understood processes. As a focus of instruction, listening continues to be underrated in many programs, and some of the recommended methods and techniques, as well as some of the published materials, continue to be based on outdated models of language learning and teaching. Students exposed to comprehensible input have better listening comprehension Since listening comprehension is the ability to understand quickly what an individual hears. Listening was originally seen as passive process, in which our ears receive information to digest the message. Now we recognize listening as an active process in which the learner has to comprehend what heard, so that listeners are as active when listening as speakers are when speaking. â€Å"The principal objective of the listening comprehension is to make learners able to understand, and respond appropriately to the language when they are exposed† Teacher’s handbook: contextualized language instruction (Judith L. Shrum, 2000:13, 14, 15) the author infers in the fact that the goal for listening comprehension is the learner to understand the language forms. Humans acquire language in only one way by understanding messages or by receiving â€Å"comprehensible input†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. The theory of Stephen Krashen supports greatly our research questions. The theory described that learners have to be exposed to language form they can understand and/or they are familiar to; otherwise, if learners do not comprehend what hear it will not help to improve their ability to decode the mess age. The theory infers on the fact that language has to be adapted to the level of the learners to give them a opportunity to respond and start interacting with the language. That is, input has to be neither difficult to understand nor too easy. Krashen explained that a learner has to be exposed to the immediate next level. Krashen stated â€Å"comprehensible input relies on the actual language forms being incomprehensible, not the total message†. This is called â€Å"incomprehensible input† which refers to the fact that a learner tries to guess the meaning of a whole phrase by relating al words in a sentence. Krashen claims that language acquisition occurs through understanding messages or, in other words, by receiving comprehensible input. In other words, according to Krashen’s view skills as listening or reading play the major role in the learning process, and, in contrast, the development of productive skills depends on the amount and type or input received. Listening is an important activity. Second language learners acquire a new language by hearing it in context where the meaning of sentences is made by guessing. Speaking is the result of the acquisition process through listening improvement. There are two specific approaches for listening acquisition. The first is called â€Å"intensive listening† considered as the material used in classrooms for the learners to hear some language forms, this is more practical for practicing a specific language form or structure. In contrast, the second approach, â€Å"extensive listening†, exposes the students to a real language directly; this gives the opportunity to hear so many different voices, so many different styles. It also helps to get used to the natural speed of the spoken language. There are two distinct kind of processes are involved in listening comprehension, which are referred to as ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ processing† English Language Skills, (Mary Finocchiaro, 1966: 50-65). The author of this book states that there are two forms to acquire listening comprehension. The first, Bottom-up refers to the fact of receiving information about the meaning of a message, so comprehension begins when the message is received, in other words, thi s is an inductive approach by figuring out what the message is. An example of this process is found when analyzing a group of words said together and split them word by word as â€Å"abookofmine†, so the learner has to listen carefully and then comprehend each word said. On the contrary, Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message. Background is the basis for this approach, and it may take different forms as previous knowledge, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge store in long term memory. For example, if an adult is seated in a classroom and children around him, an observer can assume that the adult is reading a story for the children. If this gets closer to listen what is happening this will confirm what he thought according to his previous knowledge. Listening comprehension takes place at the beginning stage when learning a new language. And, it can have different purposes, but the main one is to communicate efficiently in the second language. Learners speaking skills are the result of listening comprehension Speaking skills and the art of communications is a productive skill. Good speaking skills are the act of generating words that can be understood by listeners. A good speaker is clear and informative. To understand the nature of listening processes, it is important to consider the characteristics of speaking skills and problems learners may encounter. In comparison with writing skills, speaking skills have very different from writing, what you write can be erased and corrected, but what you speak although it can be immediately corrected the mistake was done anyways. â€Å"Speaking skill needs a strong input, and some ideas. Moreover, it requires psychological order of expression as well. All these things are necessary to give the speaker a confidence to express what he is going to communicate†. Teaching Oral English (Donn Byrne, 1976: 19, 20, 21). The most relevant purpose of communication is to convince the listeners of the point of view of the speaker. So the speaker should himself very much clear about his views point. No ambiguity of any kind and on any point should be there in his mind. He should be well-versed with the magnetic impact of the wording and its meaning. He should select appropriate words keeping in view the ability of the listeners. Furthermore, he can make his speech more effective with suitable illustration, proverbs and quotations. Truthfulness should be the axel of his speech. For the solid and for reaching impact he should avoid emotionalism as far as he can. Realities on ground have their own emotional aspect. He should keep his speech restricted to the ground realities. In 1985 Merril Swain developed the comprehensible output theory; â€Å"the word ‘output’ was used to indicate the outcome, or product, of the language acquisition process. Output was synonymous with ‘what the learner has learned’†. Speaking (Martin Bygale, 1987: 145-146). The output theory claims that the act of producing language (speaking) constitutes, under certain circumstances, part of the process of second language learning. This theory states that learners acquire language when they attempt to transmit a message but fail and have to try again. Moreover, this theory is divided in three steps; the first is when the learner faces to what this wants to say and what he is able to say, so here he notices what do not know or only knows a part of the language, then, the second steps lays in the fact when learner says something wrong and someone else corrects it, or give some feedback to the proper use of the language. And, finally, the third steps talks about that the learner use the language in his output, and this enables him to control and internalize some linguistic knowledge. An authentic oral communication in based in an authentic context The purpose of all language is to communicate people exchanging thoughts from one person to another. To communicate there must be one person to put something â€Å"out†, and another person must take something â€Å"in†. a language consists of four main skills, two for output and two for input. In other words, there are two skills for spoken communication and two for written communication. People learn their mother tongue, first learning to speak it and then writing it. Speaking is considered as real language and writing is just a representation. Moreover, within speaking skill we may find accuracy and fluency as the skills to develop while learning a language. â€Å"Primary focus is on the exchange of information (the transactional function of conversation), and those in which the primary purpose is to establish social relations† English Language Skills (Mary Finocchiaro, 1966: 67-68). The author infers about the importance of communication when exchanging information. Oral communication is well defined as a two way process between listener and speaker, involving the productive skill of speaking, and the receptive skill of understanding, comprehension. To understand better the process for good spoken language, we may say that it starts in the receptive skill of listening comprehension, then it becomes in productive skill when speaking. In deep, the ability to understand needs to be considerably more extensive than the ability to speak. So, every learning process should not be oriented to accelerate speaking, but first the focus must be listening comprehension because speaking will depend greatly on what the learner understands. â€Å"They (learners) have actually to learn to listen, just as they have to speak† Mary Finocchiaro Since oral communication has been defined as two-way process involving speakers and listeners, its explanation about how listening helps speaking is explained this way by Paulette Dale in his book Speech Communication (2006: 78, 79, 80). â€Å"A language is learned by listening someone else speaks. And the learner tries to repeat, although could not make it right at first time; but if the learner keeps trying, this will be able to speak fluently at the end of the process†. As explained above, the author agrees with others experts about giving more emphasis to listening skills when learning a new language for learners may develop speaking skills. Listening comprehension becomes in a priority when learning to speak a new language. A learner can use his vocabulary and express some ideas, but when listening to reply this may not be able to do it. That is why learners must be prepared to comprehend words which are a part of the speaker vocabulary. In order to handle a conversation, a learner must be competent in listening comprehension than speaking, specifically when talking to native person of that language. Attempting to speak before listening comprehension is acquired may cause problems in speaking, the most outstanding issue lays on the fact that the learner will not develop the speaking properly and will have troubles either with accuracy, or fluency, even both. Beside, learner may get frustrated if his speaking is not good or feels that have some obstacles, and this will not improve the skill, instead this may be a detractor in his learning process. Comprehensible input is very important in the language acquisition process. it builds a listening comprehension through listening materials that have to be selected after a research to adequate it to learners level, an immediate level for them to start developing new vocabulary and language forms. Listening comprehension of a foreign language has to be developed as a single skill, and that development of linguistic competence is facilitated when training in oral production is not attempted until considerably fluency in listening comprehension has been developed. The language acquisition process can be made less extensive and more productive by working first in enhancing listening comprehension rather than speaking skills. UNIVERSITY OF EL SALVADOR DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE SEMINAR I LITERATURE REVIEW

What Impacts Did The 2005 Aichi Expo Help Nagoya, And Help Japan Play A Leading Role Globally Essay Example

What Impacts Did The 2005 Aichi Expo Help Nagoya, And Help Japan Play A Leading Role Globally Essay History was in the making on this historical date March 25, 2005 for Japan and the city Nagoya until the pen stops writing on September 25, 2005. This was the new beginning for Japan and its fourth-biggest city Nagoya, which sits between the other two major cities in Japan, Tokyo and Osaka. 1 The main focus here is that, is the history going to be full of negativity or full of positives by the end of September of 2005. The new beginning and start for Nagoya is suppose to put itself on the map and for the rest of the world to know what a fantastic city it is to live in. Did the new beginning come with a price tag or was it a green light from the start? What were the conflicts and the controversial problems before the 2005 Aichi Expo began? What were the results and the impacts of the Aichi Expo and did it help Japan play a leading role globally? The 2005 Aichi expo had many obstacles to over come before the event can take place in Nagoya on March 25, 2006. There where many critics, environmentalist, and residential problems and issue that needed to be resolved and thought out before major construction of the area get started underway. The 2005 Aichi committee needed to deal with the on-going debate with resident and environmentalist and trying to convince them that by hosting the Aichi Expo event on March 25, 2005. The event would bring good things to the city such as an increase in income, technology and state of the art architecture around the city. 2 Rather than brining in any negative aspects and hazards to the resident that could harm them or the environment. For that reason, the beneficiary of this major event would be the people of Nagoya. We will write a custom essay sample on What Impacts Did The 2005 Aichi Expo Help Nagoya, And Help Japan Play A Leading Role Globally specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on What Impacts Did The 2005 Aichi Expo Help Nagoya, And Help Japan Play A Leading Role Globally specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on What Impacts Did The 2005 Aichi Expo Help Nagoya, And Help Japan Play A Leading Role Globally specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Despite with all the positive features and outcome there were still unpleased people. Critics and environmentalists preferred to have a much cleaner environment to be in, rather to have more pollution in the area. By hosting the Aichi Expo it brings a lot of concerns to the people and negative environmental issues that need to be resolved. Environmentalist are concerns with the lost of habitat, an increase of pollution and the lost of traditional way of living in the area. Everything is dramatically going to change into a modernization way of living in Japan where robots and machines do the physical and manual labor where it is required, while the citizen sit back and relax. 4 One of the environmentalist concerns is the lost of the Isahaya Wetlands and with the proximity of the Fujimae Wetlands close in the area it would cause a stoppage of migratory birds. The area records an astonishing number of 12,000 birds a day for a stopover in the spring. The birds are at risk of losing one of their most important feeding and resting place, where they migrate from Siberia have a stopover and go to Australia. Another major negative environment concerns is that Nagoya one of the biggest city and with a big city it comes with a waste disposable problem and the cost of staging the exhibition 2005. Thus, leads to a large amount of pollution and waste being emitted and dumped into the air and streams killing habitants in the area. On top of that the governor Reiji Suzuki is encouraging a progression of inefficient, environmentally destructive public work projects, that is supposedly to prime the local economy. 6 With all the projects that are projected to finish for the 2005 Aichi Expo it would cost an estimated Y350bn (Dollars 3. bn). 7 One significant lost to the Nagoya area is the Setos Kaisho Forest, enclosed in the area lies some of the most biologically rich regions and home to numerous endangered species, such as insects, birds and plants. The vicinity in the surrounding area would be destroyed to make room for the Expos pavilion. A major highway that would disturb the species in the area and disrupt the watershed and pollute the mountain streams because of the highway is being built and cut through the middle of the forest. As a result, local traffic and tourist going to the event causes air pollution which kills the forest and prohibit species to live in the area. 8 Despite all the negativities that come with hosting the 2005 Aichi Expo, it also comes with quality features and positive outcome for Nagoya and Japan. It generates and increases the amount of revenue, the amount of tourist and that is estimated to reach about 15 million people but that number can exceed that threshold and for that reason it will expose Nagoya to the world. By exposing Nagoya, it helps the city and Japan in the economic aspect. For many years now Nagoya has been in the shadow of Osaka due the proximity of the two cities and Osaka is the one getting the lucrative investments by investor because Osaka is considered to be the entrepreneurial and industrial of Japan. 10 But that is all going to change because Nagoya is putting out a strong effort and a significant change to the fourth largest city in Japan. The exhibitions chief producer Shohei Fukui grantees the change and that Osaka will not only be the city that has a global focal point. For that being said and done, Nagoya has built many infrastructure, and an advance technology on transportation and facility on how to sustain a cleanse environment. 11 The expo majors theme is called Natures Wisdom. With the theme name Nature Wisdom, that is exactly what the exhibition committee plan on carrying out. With the new technology advancement they would have to destroy parts of nature to accomplish this goal. But as well, the committee has to acknowledge the concerns about environmental issue, technological and cultural concerns about local and global development. The advancement technology that Japan has in store for the future way of living is unbelievable. The advancement technology includes transportation, top notch facility to make the environment a cleaner place and for future plans on how to live a sufficient life without much pollution. 13 The new transportation system install would be a big improvement for the residents to travel from place to another. Some new installment includes the Multimode Transportation System (IMTS) vehicle, the fuel cell hybrid bus (FCHV), and the Linimo. With the Multimode Transportation System (IMTS), it is an independent operation system like a normal bus, high speed, the capacity of passenger is 50 and its convenience of not having to transfer multiple vehicles. Has a glass structure cabin giving it a panoramic field of vision and is field with clean compresses natural gas. The fuel cell hybrid bus (FCHV) runs on motors powered high-pressure hydrogen supplied fuel cells and a nickel metal hydride secondary battery. The beauty of this hybrid bus is that its highly energy efficient and it doesnt emit carbon dioxide which is unsafe for the ozone layer not like gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles. The hybrid bus has a high running efficiency rate by recovering energy during deceleration and it also can adjust to the running conditions. The bonus to this fuel cell hybrid bus is that it runs smoothly and very quiet so it would not disturb the resident from unwanted noises. For the Linimo vehicle its based on railway and shuttle buses that have the conveniences of that transport visitors from the parking areas to the exhibition sites.

Free Essays on International Business

ADCP International Marketing/Special Studies 1. a. Customers are the focal point of all marketing activities. Organizations have to define products not as what they make or produce but as what they do to satisfy customers. Marketing Barbie dolls would require a marketer to consider the socioculture of its consumers. Sociocultural forces are the influences in a society and its culture that bring about change in attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles. There are three issues that need to be addressed in decided who will purchase a Barbie doll in international markets. First, there are constant changes in population demographic characteristics-age, gender, race, and ethnicity. The U. S. has entered into another baby boom, with 76 million Americans aged 18 or younger. Other nations may have this same occurrence and this information would help in directing attention to those areas that have a high representation of children wanting a Barbie doll. Another population trend is the increasing multicultural nature of U .S. society. The number of immigrants into the United States has steadily risen during the last thirty years, thus, the emergence of cultures emulating the U.S. Another thing to consider would be the modification of marketing practices to reach ethnically diverse customers to eliminate language barriers. Second, cultural values need to be addressed so that marketers can try to monitor changes in consumers’ needs for Barbie dolls and its products (clothes, accessories, etc.) in the near future. For instance, Barbie dolls were very popular when I was younger (not that I played with them, I had a sister) and today, they are not because of increased competition of other toy and doll makers. Video games have also become very popular in favor of toys. b. When marketing beer internationally, a marketer may have to consider the political/legal environment of the country they are trying to solicit. Some politic... Free Essays on International Business Free Essays on International Business The term Globalization was first coined in the 1980’s. However, the definition of globalization varies in cultural, economical, environmental, political and social studies. According to Williamson, globalization in economical studies refers to an increasing integration of the global economy through factor and product markets by way of direct investment, financial flow and trade greatly aided by the deregulation of markets as well as the liberation of capital movement and trade (Williamson 1998,1). It is a driving force that is expected to affect the countries well being in terms of trade, employment and income as well as the values of dollar in relative to other currencies and so on. Based on a study on the globalization’s rankings in the world, New Zealand is currently rank at number 23. (Graham, Crocombe. Michael, Enright and Michael, Porter 1991,12) In the following paragraphs, there will be an explanation how the globalization affects the New Zealand’s trade with other countries, especially for multinational company’s competition in international trade, employment opportunities for New Zealanders and some reasons which are beneficial and harmful to New Zealand as a whole as well as some policies that should be taken into consideration by other businesses and the government in order to benefit from it. According to the definition of globalization above, it also is simply to understand that globalization refers to the shift a more integrated and interdependent world economy. Globalization has two main components: the globalization of markets and the globalization of production (Charles, Hill 2003,6). The globalization of markets means each the merging of distinct and separate national markets into one huge global marketplace. Each country can sell its products internationally by falling trade barriers. It provides a chance for local companies to compete in international trade by offering qualified goods and services. Wh... Free Essays on International Business ADCP International Marketing/Special Studies 1. a. Customers are the focal point of all marketing activities. Organizations have to define products not as what they make or produce but as what they do to satisfy customers. Marketing Barbie dolls would require a marketer to consider the socioculture of its consumers. Sociocultural forces are the influences in a society and its culture that bring about change in attitudes, beliefs, norms, customs, and lifestyles. There are three issues that need to be addressed in decided who will purchase a Barbie doll in international markets. First, there are constant changes in population demographic characteristics-age, gender, race, and ethnicity. The U. S. has entered into another baby boom, with 76 million Americans aged 18 or younger. Other nations may have this same occurrence and this information would help in directing attention to those areas that have a high representation of children wanting a Barbie doll. Another population trend is the increasing multicultural nature of U .S. society. The number of immigrants into the United States has steadily risen during the last thirty years, thus, the emergence of cultures emulating the U.S. Another thing to consider would be the modification of marketing practices to reach ethnically diverse customers to eliminate language barriers. Second, cultural values need to be addressed so that marketers can try to monitor changes in consumers’ needs for Barbie dolls and its products (clothes, accessories, etc.) in the near future. For instance, Barbie dolls were very popular when I was younger (not that I played with them, I had a sister) and today, they are not because of increased competition of other toy and doll makers. Video games have also become very popular in favor of toys. b. When marketing beer internationally, a marketer may have to consider the political/legal environment of the country they are trying to solicit. Some politic...

Essay on Educational technology

Essay on Educational technology Essay on Educational technology Essay on Educational technologyMy personal educational technology vision statement helps me to follow the established standards in education. I realize that it is very important to integrate technology in the process of learning, creating positive change and promoting positive outcomes in the learning experiences of my students, paying due attention to the best teaching strategies, the National Technology Plan and National Educational Technology Standards. Due to my personal educational technology vision statement I will be able to follow with the established curriculum standards.Besides, my personal educational technology vision statement reflects my personal experience of using technology in the classroom. I believe that all educators should use technology to strengthen their own experiences and achieve positive outcomes. If educators have knowledge regarding the implementation of technology in education, they will be able to develop the proper teaching strategies aimed at improvin g student achievement.I will continue to integrate technology into the classroom. I believe that technology can help not only to assess student learning experience for the valid and meaningful change, but also it helps to enhance motivation of students. Today I demonstrate my personal interest in application of some new form of educational technology in the classroom. I believe that all students, teachers and administrators should highly value the benefits of using technology in education. As educational technology helps to improve motivation, educators should integrate the proper leadership skills, which will help to make the proper changes in the established standards, assessment and curriculum.Thus, my personal educational technology vision statement contributes to my personal growth and provides massive opportunities for personal development. I realize that educational technology will be helpful in my future professional career development.

Law Constitutional & Administrative Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law Constitutional & Administrative Law - Essay Example Executive prerogative is therefore important as through it the state can achieve self-preservation, it also shows the trust that the people have on the Crown or the executive to implement and rule on their behalf. In the United Kingdom and most nations under the commonwealth, the Crown, prime ministers and cabinets, governor-generals or persons on whom executive prerogative powers may be bestowed, may exercise prerogative powers. Examples of prerogative powers exercised by the Crown or its representatives in England include the powers over wars, the prerogative of mercy and the power to call for independent public inquiries. Others may include recognizing states or acquiring and ceding territories. However, at times the exercise of the prerogative powers by the Crown or its representatives through the executive may come under strict scrutiny by members of the public or the citizens. In the United Kingdom and other nations following the common law system, prerogative powers may be exe rcised by the Crown either by herself or through the prime minister and his cabinet and may be subject to scrutiny or oversight by either the parliament or the judiciary. Parliamentary Oversight of Executive Prerogative Powers The role of the legislature to oversee and question the exercise of prerogative executive powers is one of the important tenets of governance present in countries that appreciate the supremacy of parliament. Through statutes enacted by the parliament, the legislature can abolish a specific statute. For example, the Canadian 1689 Bill of Rights removed some of the Crowns executive orders that were deemed contentious. Parliament can also displace executive prerogative powers by withdrawing a prerogative previously bestowed on the crown and enacting it in the form of a statute while the prerogative power is withdrawn from the crown. Accordingly, when a statute encroaches into roles that had previously been exercised by the crown, it can be said to have supplanted the role of the executive in exercising the prerogative role of the executive, This was held in A.G v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Ltd1 and Lord Advocate v Dumbarton D.C 2. This is where the learned judges stated that where the statute overlaps the role previously carried out by the prerogative power, the power will be held in abeyance and the executive must abide by the provisions of the statute in question (Hogg and Monahan 2000, p.17). Parliament may play its oversight roles in regulating the exercise of prerogative powers by the executive through a number of methods. These may include through parliamentary debates, divisions, questions asked in parliament, select committees and the interpellation method. Voting which is an important prerequisite for any democracy is also effective especially when the opposition can gather enough members to put the government in check. Parliamentary questions are an important mode of getting information from the government in that oral questions may enable the legislators to have a probe on the policies being implemented by the government. Written questions also help in allowing the members of parliament to get detailed responses from the executive.

Literature Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 7

Literature Review - Essay Example In the study, the theorists demonstrated the correlation between what residents in Chapel Hill, North Carolina considered as the most important election issue, and what the national and local news media reported as important (McCombs, Shaw & Weaver, 2013). Through the comparison of the salience issues in the news with the perceptions of the public, the researchers determined the extent to which media determines public opinion. Walter Lippmann first published this theory in the Public Opinion. In this publication, Lippmann developed the connection between the mind of people and worldly events. Later in 1963, Bernard Cohen showed that though the media was not powerful in influencing people on how to think, it played a crucial role in providing the public with issues. This idea led to the development of the agenda setting theory by Shaw and McCombs (McCombs, Shaw & Weaver, 2013). The agenda setting theory is based on two important assumptions. The first assumption is that the media and press do not reflect reality. The theory considers the two entities to shape and filter reality. The second assumption is that media concentration on subjects and issues leads the public to consider these issues as important (Dearing & Rogers, 1996). The most imperative aspect of the theory is the period of the agenda setting function of mass communication. It is vital to note that different media have different potentials to set the agenda. The agenda setting theory is dependent on the cognitive abilities of audiences and users of mass media. This means that agenda setting takes place through a cognitive method called accessibility. The higher the frequencies of news outlets focus on an issue, the higher the probability of the issue to become accessible to audiences. When audiences and user of the news media are asked the most important issue or problem facing them, they are likely to answer according to their

Architect Antonio Gaudi Essay Example for Free

Architect Antonio Gaudi Essay The work of Antonio Gaudi can be seen as visionary. Ahead of his time in many respects, it becomes clear when viewing his work that he influenced many of the great revolutionary artists of the early 21st century. The significance of his life-works as an artist and particularly as an architect reveals extraordinary contributions to the thought processes of the ‘Modernists’. Looking at some two of his architectural pieces, we can discover an entirely new meaning to architecture altogether. Antonio Gaudi displays many of the fantasy elements indicative of the Surrealist movement, although his work was categorised as Art Nouveau. His progression from Art Nouveau to near-Surrealist work can be seen in comparing the reasonably modest Palau Guell (1886-1890) to Casa Battlo (1906-1908). Palau Guell is a grand scale expression of extravagance which still has many of the attributes of Classicism. It is beautiful and decadent with every aspect of glamour and frivolity related to the Art Nouveau period. Gaudi, I feel has restrained his imagination in the sense that he has not indulged in the same fantasy world we see in his later works. The Palau Guell is almost a modern incantation of the ancient Greek and Roman Colloseums. Casa Battlo represents a rather unusual perspective of the artistic movement itself. The Casa Battlo in its design resembles more of a candy-castle than a functional building. The exterior of the building is scattered with ceramic designs that Gaudi had plastered into the facade. At face value this gives the viewer a sense of the ‘other world’, a place where children go in their dreams. This was in fact, in my opinion, the beginning of the Surrealist manifesto. Completely out of keeping with the original idea of architecture, Gaudi creates a building that not only performs a function but contributes to the aesthetic value of the surroundings into which it is placed. The roof of the Casa Battlo is covered in what appears to be scales, almost aquatic in its construction, but at the same time not intrusive. At this stage it is difficult to ascertain in ones own mind whether you like it or hate it. The balconies extending from the large bay-windows are also intricately carved and resemble to a degree, alien-like heads with large gaping eyes. The vision of Art Nouveau as outrageously decorative, embellished and facetious is clearly visible in this particular piece of Gaudi’s work. The exploration of the fantasy world gives it an uncanny feel of something out of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel and can make you fell uneasy. In the strict sense of the word ‘influence’, I can be certain that I see the predecessor to the Surrealist movement in Gaudi’s work. The idea of dreams rather than reality begins to emerge in his later work which is passionately infused with richly decorative mosaics and other ceramic artefacts. If one takes into account the impression Art Nouveau wanted to make, I think Gaudi surpassed it with the kind of architectural eloquence worthy of being called a ‘visionary’. Art Nouveau’s mantra of snubbing Classical rigidity was flouted by Gaudi and his contemporaries and led to the influence of architectural movements such as Bauhaus and sculptural artistic endeavours such as Tatlin, Dali and Leger. The previous attempts at breaking from traditional art as explored by the Impressionists served to fuel a more fertile mind in terms of the architecture of Gaudi. In Gaudi’s work we see the expression of the mind in tactile form. Looking at the features built around Guell Park, evidences of the movement into the exploration of colour in architecture is also visible. The water fountains are embellished with mosaic fish and other aquatic-like creatures that by some people’s standards would be described as ‘kitsch’. However, for me this fantasy world does exactly what it was intended to do: create a feeling of euphoria and joy. It is not functional beyond the aesthetic. Gaudi is ahead of his time.

The Gospel of Mark :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sermon Hold on, Help is on the way! Text: Mark 6:45-52 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, â€Å"Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.† Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:45-52 Title: Hold on! Help is on the way Thesis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jesus immediately made his disciples get into the boat to set off for Bethsaida before dispersing the crowd. Mark’s Gospel gives us no meaning to the sense of urgency to why Jesus compels the disciples to pull up the anchor and leave. He dispatches them along with the crowd and goes up the mountainside to pray alone. Distances from their master, the disciples undergo an ordeal, struggling against the wind. The storm does not endanger their lives but they find themselves trapped in the middle of the lake, fighting against the wind after rowing in a constant strain. Jesus looking from land can see this battle-taking place hour after hour as evening turns into the early morning hour. One must assume Jesus supernaturally sees the struggle in the darkness and comes to rejoin them *walking on the sea. As I examined the text, I realized that there is no condition too chaotic that God cannot change, no calamity that cannot be transformed into hope, no dilemma that cannot be solved. The word teaches that the God we serve specializes in being a divine deliverer for His people as in the mythos of Israel and his disciples. Similarly, I believe that God can deliver His people in this contemporary age if only we trust, persevere, pray, and have faith in Him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Regardless of the barriers, regardless of the antagonistic attitude and reluctance to assist us as African Americans, we are not going to let go or give up but continue to press our way and hold on to God’s blessed assurance.

Billy Budd Sailor Essay

Billy Budd, Sailor, a novel by Herman Melville, at first sight, seems like it is nothing else but the story of a sailor who is executed after being wrongly accused of mutiny. But when one examines the story deeply one finds that the story has a different meaning and that Billy Budd resembles Christ in many ways. Billy Budd as a Christ figure According to the author’s description, Billy Budd, the main protagonist, like Christ was handsome, pure and as innocent as a child in a world full of evil men. He had the same physical features of Christ. Like Christ, he had blue eyes and a symmetrical figure. The resemblance is evident in the first chapter when Captain Graveling, after the crew stopped fighting as soon as Billy joined them, says that Billy neither preached nor said anything to the crew. There was a kind of virtuousness in him that reached out to people. (Melville, 1924) The author here alludes to Christ who was also virtuous and healed all those who came into contact with him. The symbolism is more evident in the end chapters, especially in the scenes of the death of Billy Budd. For instance, Captain Vere cries, â€Å"Struck dead by an angel of God! † (Melville, 1924) after Billy strikes Claggart, and then says, â€Å"Yet the angel must hang†, (Melville, 1924) when he realizes that Billy has to die. Billy, before he dies, says, â€Å"God bless Captain Vere†. (Melville, 1924) All this reminds us of Christ. Christ like Billy in the novel forgave all those who were responsible for his death. The resemblance is all the more evident in the last chapter when Billy is executed. Here the author describes how Billy’s shipmates worship the gallows from which Billy was hung. Christ’s followers too worshipped the Cross. The setting and all the events that take place have a striking resemblance to the events that took place when Christ was executed. In conclusion it can be said that Billy Budd in the novel is not an ordinary sailor but a Christ-like figure, a symbol of Christ with characteristics of Christ. Just as Christ was a victim of an antagonistic society and had to sacrifice his life, Billy Budd too was an innocent victim of society and had to sacrifice his life. References Melville, Herman (1924), Billy Budd, Sailor, The University of Chicago Press, 1962.

Kim’s TimeLine Essay

There was a time when textbooks, a chalkboard, a set of encyclopedias, and a map of the world were considered teaching aids; boy how times have changed.   Today all we have to do is flip on a computer, and the world comes to us in a matter of seconds.   In today’s modern world teachers have access to an almost infinite amount of information.   There are so many websites out there that cater strictly to educators, and their students. For example, one website that seems to be getting a lot of attention from teachers and their students, is one that a teacher created herself; her name is Kim.   I will explore her website, along with other teaching aid websites, and see how they rate against hers.   First of all let’s start with a basic outline of my research paper, and in what manner we are going to address the following questions: Explain the method of Kim’s TimeLine? Give a critique of Kim’s ideas, and how they relate to the TimeLine? List the advantages of Kim’s Time Line, from a student’s point of view? List the disadvantages of Kim’s TimeLine, from a student’s point of view. Introduce other teaching aid websites, along with journal articles, and how they measure up to Kim’s TimeLine? Give an objective conclusion of the researched material?   The purpose of this research paper is to focus on these six questions. Explain the method of Kim’s TimeLine?   Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When you click onto Kim’s TimeLine, a picture of a chalkboard, and an idiom: Kim’s Korner for Teacher Talk, along with a yellow sun, pops onto your computer screen.   Then in large black letters the following slogan grabs your attention: IDEAS FOR TEACHING THE WRITING PROCESS.   Kim then introduces five steps of her writing process: Prewriting, Writing, Revising, Editing, Proofreading, and Publishing.   The webpage also includes General Ideas For Teaching the Writing Process, such as: Writing Process Timeline, The Writing Process, Implementing the Writing Process, Sample Listing of Specific Writing Strategies (for each step), Ten Ways to Emphasize the Writing Process.   (Writing Process 2006) Give a Critique of Kim’s Ideas and How They Relate to the TimeLine?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To be honest with you, I really enjoyed browsing over Kim’s TimeLine website, and     found it to be non-threatening.   The information was laid out in an extremely simplistic manner, and I could actually picture students, along with their instructors, using and benefiting from the information that this teaching aid provides. List the Advantages of Kim’s TimeLine, From a Students Point of View?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As I already mentioned, the TimeLine is incredibly easy to operate.   If you view the TimeLine through a student’s eyes, you will appreciate how the website makes you feel totally comfortable, and non-intimidated, in regards to the information that the TimeLine is trying to convey to you as a student. Before I began this research paper, I have to admit that I was filled with a certain amount of anxiety, and stress; I wondered if I’d do a satisfactory job.   But then to my delight, I noticed that Kim’s TimeLine had a section that dealt with apprehension, and worry.   Her coping strategies with writing anxiety goes as follows: Focus your energy by rehearsing the task in your head. Consciously stop the non-productive comments running through your head by replacing them with productive ones. If you have some â€Å"rituals† for writing success, use them. (Kim’s TimeLine 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So stepping into a student’s shoes, I put her coping tactics to the test; and guess what?   They actually worked.   I honestly thought that the TimeLine, like the majority of website based teachers’ aids was going to be extremely hard to understand.   Either that, or it was going to be some archaic method of teaching.   Without sounding like some cheesy infomercial, I’m glad that I was wrong, and would strongly recommend the TimeLine to both students, and their teachers. List the Disadvantages of Kim’s TimeLine, From a Students Point of View?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once again I put my feet into a student’s shoes, and tried especially hard to find the tiniest amount of a blemish with Kim’s web-sight, but was unsuccessful in my efforts.   The only flaw I could find, didn’t involve the content of her TimeLine, but instead, how long her website address is: address: http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/general/timeline.html Introduce Other Teaching Aid Websites, Along With Journal Articles, And How They Measure Up To Kim’s TimeLine?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As this assignment mentions in its instructions, the internet provides you with so much information that you must develop a discriminating taste when it comes to the value of a website.   I totally concur with this assertion, and acknowledge that there is an endless amount of   facts and figures over the internet.   But how does this relate to Kim’s TimeLine?   Well in accordance to the assignment’s instructions I have chosen five teachers’ aids websites, and will evaluate them.   I will also distinguish how these websites measure up to Kim’s TimeLine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first website is called â€Å"Free TeachingAids.com.†Ã‚   I found this website to be formless and vague, kind of like a big budget movie with a plot that goes nowhere.   (freeteachingaids.com 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second website was simply titled, â€Å"Teachers’ Aids†.   This website was similar to Kim’s TimeLine.   It was non-intimidating, and from a student’s perspective, they will appreciate the fact that it is straightforward, and to the point.   But nevertheless, as far as a writing tool goes, I would still have to put Kim’s TimeLine above this one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The third website I chose was Java Applets for Teaching of AstroPhysics.   Demonstrating the contrast between Kim’s TimeLine, and this website, would be like comparing apples and oranges; they’re entirely diverse.   Astrophysics is not my cup of tea, however, if it was, I would urge those who plan a career in this field to definitely click onto this website.   It has an easy to follow table of contents, along with an uncomplicated simple to follow outline.   Key words are highlighted, and accompanied with a unproblematic definition.   (JK’s Applets for Teaching Astrophysics 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fourth website is called â€Å"Classic Teaching Resources†, and deals with mnemonics, and other little tricks of the trade to help you as a student, memorize course material.   It focuses on: grammar, music, dates and other numbers, and association and other subjects.   The site was started by David Parsons, he articulates: â€Å"As a former teacher of Latin, Greek and Classical Civilization for nearly 25 years I have accumulated much teaching material to share, and also know what I would have liked readily available.   This site is a small contribution to the teaching of classical subjects.†Ã‚   (Classic Latin Greek Teaching Aids 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fifth, and last website I will compare to Kim’s TimeLine is termed Parliament : Teachers’ centre.   Like the first website, â€Å"Free TeachingAids.com†, I found it to be unclear, and for lack of a better term, some what indistinct.   It offers an index of topics, so that you can select a subject that is to your liking; but that’s about it.   It was designed to educate would be British citizens in attaining their British citizenship credentials.   (Teaching Citizenship Resource Centre and British Citizenship Teaching Aids 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Teaching aids aren’t only getting noticed on the internet, they’re also getting acknowledgment in the mass media, such as magazine articles.   In an influential article, written by Greifner, she reports: â€Å"To help teachers discuss the most current events.   Weekly Reader is also launching electronic Classroom News Breaks this fall.   The e-mailed lesson plans will offer age-appropriate information, reproducible pages, and the web links about significant world news within 24 hours of the event’s occurrence.†Ã‚   (Education week 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another article gives teachers’ an internet â€Å"Book Study† guide: Gary Paulsen: webenglishteacher.com/paulsen.html This rich resource has lesson plans and activities for all ages.   Plans include an integrated unit and a PowerPoint guide for creating a survival kit. Teacher Cyber guide – Hatchet sdco-k12.ca.us/score/hatch/hatchettg.htm This lesson plan contains language arts content standards, student activities and web resources for a study of the book. Hatchet, mce.k12tn.net/survival/hatchet/hatchet.htm A well-organized resource divided by book chapter.   Each chapter category has online (and printable) questions for your book study, activities that tie into the chapter themes, writing lessons and vocabulary activities.   (Teaching Prek-8 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The web isn’t the only electronic medium that today’s teachers are using in the classroom.   Video games have made it into our scholarly institutions, as this article declares: Video games teach deductive reasoning, memory, strategies, and often, content area knowledge.   Teachers like Bill Mackenty, a computer specialist at the Edgartown School on Martha’s Vineyard, give praise to Playstation.   It states that with teacher involvement and guidance, video games can be a powerful classroom learning tool.   (Instructor 2006) Objective Conclusion of the Researched Material   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this thesis I have presented you with both facts, and opinions.   In order for me to remain free of any bias, I must end this research paper by equally supporting, and expressing the disadvantages of Kim’s Timeline, and teaching aids like it.   To sum things up I concur that Kim’s TimeLine, and websites like hers are needed in today’s schools; however, like the instructions of this assignment states, â€Å"There is so much information over the internet, that you must develop a discriminating taste, when it comes to the value of a website.† References Greifner.   L.   (2006.   September 27)   .   Weekly Reader Gets New Look.   Education Week  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  26 Mitchell.   K.   (2006.   September )   .   Getting to the Heart of a Story.   Teaching PreK-8   66-66. Instructor.   (2006).   Playing To Learn.   Instructor   116.   22-22 Classic Teaching Resources.   (October 25, 2006).   Classic Latin Greek Teaching Aids.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved October 25, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.parsonsd.co.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   uk/teaching-aids.php Free TeachingAids.com.   (October 25, 2006).   Educators Progress Service, Inc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved October 25, 2006 from the World Wide Web:http://www.freeteaching   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   aids. Com Java Applets for Teaching of AstroPhysics.   (October 25, 2006).   JK’s Applets for   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Teaching Astrophysics.   Retrieved October 25, 2006 from the World Wide Web:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://astro.u-strasbg.fr~koppen/apindex.html Kim’s Korner for Teacher Talk.   (October 25, 2006).   Writing Process.   Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   October 25, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   /handouts/gl_anxiety.html Parliament : Teachers’ centre.   (October 25, 2006).   Teaching Citizenship Resource   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Centre and British Citizenship Teaching Aids.   Retrieved October 25, 2006 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the World Wide Web: http://www.explore.parliament.uk/parliament.aspx?id=17 Teacher’s Aids.   (October 25, 2006).   MFL 195: Teachers’ Aids.   Retrieved October 25,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2006 from the World Wide Web: http://facweb.furman.edu/~pecoy/mf195/aides.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   html

How To Improve Your Keyword Research With Ann Smarty From Internet Marketing Ninjas [AMP 024] - CoSchedule Blog

How To Improve Your Keyword Research With Ann Smarty From Internet Marketing Ninjas [AMP 024] Blog Keyword research: Is it dead, or is it still a helpful strategy when developing your content? The answer is that it’s still a vital part of many marketers’ strategies! If you know how to use keyword research and SEO properly, you know they’re not going anywhere! Today’s guest is Ann Smarty, the brand and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She is also the founder of MyBlogU.com. She’ll be sharing advice on finding core terms, find good keywords, structure your content, and a whole lot more. This episode is jam-packed with valuable information, so take the time to listen. A bit about Ann and what she does at Internet Marketing Ninjas and with her other projects. What Ann thinks about the misnomer that keyword research is dead and why she believes keyword research is so beneficial for content marketing. Where to start if you are new to keyword research: finding the right core terms and focusing on keywords that have high demand and low competition. What keyword intent is and why it’s important for a marketer to understand it. Ann talks about the difference between informational intent, transactional intent, commercial intent, and navigational intent. Where to put keywords within the content: Does keyword frequency and specific placement matter? Ann shares her best recommendation. An explanation of keyword strings and how they play a role in search engine optimization. Ann’s best piece of advice for someone brand new to keyword research. Links: Ann on LinkedIn Internet Marketing Ninjas MyBlogU MyBlogGuest Google Keyword Planner Serpstat The Ultimate Content Marketer’s Guide to Keyword Research If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Ann: â€Å"Keyword research is evolving and it will be there for many years to come.† â€Å"Brainstorm with your team and write down which terms describe your business best.† â€Å"Don’t try to optimize everything. Focus on creating in-depth content.†How To Improve Your Keyword Research With Ann Smarty From Internet Marketing Ninjas [AMP 024]Transcript Nathan: Keyword research is dead, right? Or not. It turns out some marketers just misunderstand how to use keywords effectively within their content. At least that’s what you’ll learn from Ann Smarty. She’s the Community and Brand Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas and the founder of MyBlogU.com. And as Ann knows, neither keyword research nor SEO are going anywhere. What should you do now? You can listen to Ann share some super practical advice on this episode of the Actionable Marketing Podcast. You’re about to learn how to find your core terms, research valuable keywords, estimate your competition, understand your searcher’s intent, structure your content, organize everything and a whole lot more. I’m Nathan from and I am super pumped about this jam packed episode. Let’s hear what Ann has to share. Hey Ann, thanks a lot for being on the podcast today. Ann: Thanks for having me. Nathan: I’m super glad to be having you. I know that we’ve been following a lot of the content that you’re creating, so you are a great mind to be talking to about SEO in general. With that, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about yourself and what you do. Ann: Absolutely. Right now, I’m Brand and Community Manager at Internet Marketing Ninja, that’s the company based in New York, United States. I’ve been into search marketing for probably 10 years now. I’ve lost count and I came from Ukraine, which is where I started, which is where I got known and which is where I got invited to the United States to pursue my career here. I have a few side personal projects as well. My oldest project is MyBlogGuest, I guess many people know that one. I also have my Viral Content B and MyBlogU right now, those are platforms for bloggers to promote their content, to come up with content ideas, to help each other, that kind of stuff. I specialize in marketing tools, I know lots of them, I do a lot of blogging. I’m pretty well versed with keyword research, content brainstorming and stuff like that. Nathan: I think that’s a great transition to what we want to talk about today with the topic of keyword research and especially for content marketing. To begin this conversation, sometimes I hear that folks say keyword research is dead. I’d really love to hear your perspective on this. What’s your take on keyword research being dead or dying? Ann: The short answer, it’s not. I know where this rumor is coming from because search engines got so much advanced, they do not need so much mathematics right now to understand what people are searching, so that’s why people think that they do not rely on keywords as much as they used to. Which is partially true but keyword research is more evolving than dying. It’s much less about exact keyword strings and much more about in depth content, concepts mentioning all those entities and stuff. It’s evolving, becoming more natural because it’s adapting to mobile searching where people just say what they to find instead of typing those keywords. It’s evolving but it’s still there and it probably will be there for a lot of years to come because it helps people to understand demand, they help people, they help us to understand what people are interested in, they help in brainstorming, they help structure your content. It’s definitely alive and thriving. Nathan: Maybe just to dig a little bit deeper into some of those benefits, I was wondering if you could explain why keyword research is so important for content marketing? Ann: First of all, keywords are words, terms that people type or say into the search engine to find whatever they are looking for. That means the more popular their keyword is, the more we know about the demand of that particular audience. If they tend to type ‘Vegetarian restaurants in Atlanta,’ that tells us that probably there are many vegetarians that cannot find a good restaurant in that particular area. That shows the demand and that shows how we can cater to that demand. That’s the first step for us to analyze what people are interested in in your industry. Secondly, keyword research helps in brainstorming content. If you want to dig deeper into what people are looking for, you can write content about that type of thing, answering those questions, so people can search and find your article. It’s very useful analytics and competitive advantage too. Nathan: Ann, we know that keyword research is not dead, it’s really important to connect with your audience searching for stuff that you’re writing about. I was wondering if you could explain where should someone start who’s new to keyword research? Ann: The first step is to understand what is your core terms. That’s where we start any keyword research that we use. The core term is probably what you yourself should definitely find yourself because you’re in that industry, you know what you’re doing, you know what type of business you’re owning. It’s the word that we are going to expand with all those other little words to go with. For example, if I’m in the restaurant business again, my keyword is not the restaurant because I don’t want to rank for restaurant in the Google Search, first it’s impossible. Secondly, it’s probably useless because people are not looking for just restaurant. They are looking for restaurant in your area, they’re looking for vegetarian restaurants, they are looking for more specific things. That core term is really your first thing you want to rank in Google. Again, if I’m in the restaurant business, I want to rank to for restaurants in Atlanta because that’s where I want people to find me. Or if I’m creating a content course, I want to rank for content marketing course in Google for people to find me, that’s my core term I want to rank in. That’s up to you which your core term is. Nathan: It makes a lot of sense. Ranking for something like restaurant doesn’t really help you out. People could be searching for a definition or something like that. I want to explore the idea of core terms just a little bit more. How can a marketer find those core terms? Ann: First just regular brainstorming probably with your team, you sit down, you just write down which terms describe your business best. If you are really new to the industry, which is of course also an option, you go to things like glossaries, you just search those words on Google and find thesaurus or other generic things that you don’t know about the industry and you find those terms that describe whatever you’re doing. You find maybe synonyms to your obvious terms that you know, there is also a good tool that Google provides, it’s changing all the time. I’m still using it but it’s not that as easy as it used to be, but still it’s a good one, Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool. You type your word there, it will show you not just that word but also related terms, terms that people tend to be interested in when they are searching for your words. You create a list. Don’t do too many, 10 core terms is a great list to start with. Nathan: Another thing about keyword planning and keyword research is valuable keywords, this is something you’ve written about. I was wondering if you could define what you mean by valuable keywords. How can a marketer find those valuable keywords? Ann: Let’s go back to that restaurant example of ours. It’s an easy example that’s why I keep going back to it. Restaurant is not your term, it’s a generic term that people could type but you will not really benefit from ranking there. Let’s say your core term is restaurant in Atlanta. That’s the word you ideally want to rank for in top five, probably top three in Google. But it’s an obvious one and probably it’s very tough to rank for because it has that huge competition that will be very hard to beat and it will take years to get there. It’s a good word but it’s probably not that valuable for you. The idea of keyword research is find those terms that not only have high demand but they also have low competition, those gold things that you want to be on top of Google and it will not take you as much time to rank for your really obvious core term. Nathan: Something there you just mentioned was competition. I was wondering if you could explain for me how you estimate competition for keywords? Ann: First of all using the tools. The tool that I just mentioned, Google Keyword Planner has that built in, they would show you the competition, it’s either low, medium or high. Beware that it’s the competition in Google AdWords. Those are probably not necessarily the competition in Google search that will be the same. For example, again, if you want to check restaurant, it might not have a huge competition Google AdWords because no one want to pay money to rank there but it’s really huge competition in generic Google search. Take that in mind but do use the data. Another tool that I’m using is Serpstat, they also show the completion and the tool lets you filter or sort results by competition. For example you can check the filters and only see low competitive results. But again, it’s also based on commercial data. Those advertises that pay money to rank in Google. Once you have your list of core terms and other terms that you want to rank for, make sure to search them in Google and see some signs of lower competitive terms. I’ll first describe the signs of high competitive terms. If you see many homepages ranking on top 10 in Google, that’s probably a competitive term because homepages are the most powerful pages of websites. If they dominate top 10 in Google, that means a lot of websites want to be there, it’s probably not that easy to be among them. Look for terms that have the variety of searchers out, sometimes it’s the homepage, sometimes you see a nautical ranking there. Those are terms that will not be that hard to beat. Another thing to check is huge sites. If you see huge players ranking on top 10, like Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, all those searches are really, really hard to outrank because those are very powerful domains. They can be different in different industries, you probably know the biggest corporate players in your industry so look out for them. If they dominate top 10, it will be hard to be among them if you’re a small business for example. My biggest and most useful advice is just search Google for those terms you want to rank for and look for those signs, see how difficult it might be to be there on top with them. Nathan: I want to explore just another facet. I think another really big part of keywords research is understanding intent. I was wondering if you could explain just a little bit about what is keyword intent and why it might be important for a marketer to understand? Ann: Keyword intent represents what a person who types those words in Google is willing to do, the action, the action they are going to take. Some people search Google to find information. This is informational intent, they really want to find articles to understand more about the concept. They are not really going to go any further and buy or spend money at this point of time. This is informational intent. There is another type of keyword intent, it’s called transactional. That’s really when a person wants to buy something. That’s a very commercial intent and that’s when you will see a lot of Google Ads on top because advertisers are ready to pay money to be there. And there is also the third type of keyword intent that’s called navigational. That’s when a searcher wants to find a company, they know which brand they’re searching for. For example if I type Valentine’s Day gift Amazon, I probably want to find those valentines gift ideas on Amazon. I’m not really much interested in any other domains that can be there. That’s called navigational keyword intent. Some people also distinguish the fourth type of keyword intent that’s called commercial. That’s something in the middle between information and transactional. Some people search for valentine gift ideas, that means they want to read more about that, get inspired, brainstorm. When they find something really worthy, when they feel inspired, they’re also willing to buy. That’s both informational and transactional intent. If you are lucky or if you do a good job at creating content and inspire people, you may end up with a sale as well. Nathan: Another part of this is just making sure that everything’s organized behind the scenes with all of the different sorts of keywords intents and different core terms that we have. I was wondering if you could explain for us how do you organize your keywords. Ann: Keywords can be overwhelming when you start researching or looking using all those tools I mentioned. You will see that you have list and list, dozens of keywords. If you export to Excel, you will end up with hundreds of them. Without proper organization, you will probably be lost and the keyword research process will not be useful for you as much. Start organizing those keywords with the very first tool you’re using. It is the first step, not just collecting list by list and then doing something with it, no. Start right now and start with the first type. The most obvious one, organize by intent. If you see some keywords that you think are informational, put them in a different spreadsheet or different column and assign a content team to take care of those. If you see keywords with transactional intent, that’s something to probably give to your sales people or whoever is managing your product listings for them to understand which products to put on top, which products needs to have some more content descriptions, maybe reviews, how to put those products that people are mostly interested in on them, on top, give them some priority. If that’s commercial intent, keywords with commercial intent can be both sold great content but make sure to mention those products in that content as well. The navigational intent is for your reputation management team probably. Make sure from reading those keywords lists, you already know what to do, which action and which team is going to take care of those. From there you can go to organize by action, some keywords can become new content so you assign action, create new content, the other keywords maybe better for your already existing content so you will reoptimize your old content and URL, what you’re doing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is also another way to organize those keywords is by content tab. You are going to create frequently asked question section or there could be a blog post or that could be an in depth guide on ebook, for example or it could be glossaries, product reviews, all those types of content that you are going to create, put those ideas next to those keywords right when you’re going through them. That’s a good start for organizing those keyword research ideas that you have. Nathan: I was wondering, let’s just say we have a bunch of ideas, we know what we’re going to execute, let’s say we’re actually creating the content, I’m wondering if you could share where we put keywords within our content? Ann: It’s a funny question it used to be different in the past when people had those notion of keyword frequency within the article. You knew that you had to mention this keyword x amount of times and Google will understand this article is about this keyword. It’s the oldest SEO tactic under the sun and people still get confused because they still think it’s a valid one. These days, we don’t recommend doing any keyword frequency or percentage in text, it just makes the content sound funny. What I prefer is putting those keywords in important parts of the article. It could be the title, the actual main name of the article and the page that you have. Make sure that you mention your keyword there. The most prominent part of the article of any web page is its title. First, it’s what people see in search results when they search. If you’re doing a good job, people search for Atlanta restaurant, you will see those keywords bold in search results there in title and that’s why people click. It’s the most important part of the page to put your keyword into. Probably mention that somewhere on top of the article so that people will see that that’s what they want to see, understand that, hey, this keyword is mentioned so I’m staying on this page and then I’m reading through the site, it’s a good way to decrease the bounce rate of the page and get people through into that content is to mention those keywords in the first two paragraphs, I would say. Another good place is the top headings, those sub sections of the webpage. For example if I was writing about, I don’t know, again, if I have a list of Atlanta restaurants, I have subheadings about vegetarian restaurants, steak restaurants, Indian restaurants, Mexican restaurants, all those top headings make sure not just say vegetarian restaurants but use your main keyword, vegetarian restaurants in Atlanta. Don’t forget to use the whole keyword on those top headings where you list those restaurants further. Those top headings is really important. Also, the URL of the page. The actual URL is also a good place to put those keywords into. Make sure your content does sound natural, so don’t go all crazy about putting those keywords as often as possible. Find those prominent places that search engines and your readers will see on the spot, so they will understand, hey this is the page I was looking for. Nathan: I think that’s a really great breakdown Ann. Thank you for that. One other part that’s really important for keyword is understanding keyword strings and I was wondering if you could explain what keyword strings are and how they might play a role with search engine optimization? Ann: Keyword string is the exact way a keyword is placed in search. It’s the exact query. It also causes lots of confusion. For example, what should I rank for, Atlanta restaurant or restaurant in Atlanta? Those are two different keyword strings and we want to make sure that both of them make it to your page. It’s not as important as it used to be, and the past Google relied very heavily on those keyword strings. If you rank for Atlanta restaurant, you were nowhere to be found for the restaurants in Atlanta. These days, Google understand that much better. If you’re on top on Google for one phrase, you will be somewhere in the same position for another things as well because Google knows that’s the same way people just put in the search box. Make sure you understand those related keyword strings and you mention them somewhere in the article but don’t create different pages for each of them. That was a very popular tactic back in the days, creating separate page for Atlanta restaurant in the singular, separate page for Atlanta restaurants, plural, separate page for restaurants in Atlanta, we had all those different pages targeting each keyword string. These days it’s not about that. Create one in depth page targeting all of them and mentioning all the related concepts, entities, synonyms, everything that make the article rich and the content of the page rich. That’s why I mentioned that in the article don’t try to optimize for everything but focus on creating in depth and right content that includes all the concepts, all of the entities, all the synonyms and that’s how Google understands that this is a content worth of ranking high. Nathan: I think all of this has been really great advice. I have just one more piece to ask you about this. Let’s say that someone is brand new to this, what would be your best advice for someone new to keyword research? Where do they even begin? Ann: Begin with your head, first of all. No one will be as good as you in telling what your site is about. I mean it. You somehow ended up in that industry, you somehow ended up in that Niche, you somehow found it. Start with how you would be looking for what you’re doing, how you would search for that. Create the list of three or five words that you yourself are using to find something and then just branch out, find synonyms, related terms using tools like Serpstat, Hrap, STM Rush, again Google Keyword Planner. Play with those tools for a week before you understand what are your valuable terms and search for everything that you find on Google. One more thing here, make sure that you disable those personalized results because you would see your own private results and they will mess up with what you’re searching, so disable that. Search for every, every keyword that you are looking to include in your website and optimize full. Nathan: Ann, I think that’s really great advice, I want to say thanks a lot for being on the podcast, for sharing your advice on keyword research even optimizing our content using keyword strings. This was great. Thank you so much! Ann: Thank you for having me. Thanks a lot. Nathan: A little over a year ago, our blog manager Ben joined the team here at . Ben came to with a ton of SEO knowledge and when he implemented the best practices Ann covered in this episode, we grew our organic search traffic by literally hundreds of thousands of views that helped us boost our traffic dramatically which in turn helped us generate bigger results. Thanks Ann for sharing all of your advice on keyword research and thanks to you too for checking out this episode of the Actionable Marketing Podcast.