Criminal Investigations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Criminal Investigations - Research Paper Example From the research it is clear that for local people who are born and reside in Abu Dhabi, the criminal clearance always involves a check for any criminal records within the UAE. For foreigners who intend to work in Abu Dhabi, the security clearance involves a check for criminal records within the UAE as well as their country of origin. This is always important for most firms as well as government employees who want to be careful in terms recruiting people with a clean criminal record. Most government departments that have jobs that are sensitive want to know that they are employing people who don’t have the high potential of being criminals. Private organizations also ask for this security clearance when they feel that the position they want to fill is a sensitive position that needs to be filled by a person which can be trusted. This paper declares that the Criminal Investigation Department also acts s the manager for the repository of the data and information for the criminal records. The Criminal Investigation Department keeps all the data records about all criminal records and criminal investigations. This data reserve for criminal records helps in a number of ways with regard to curbing crime. First, it helps with the criminal investigations. The data kept by the Criminal Investigation Department in Abu Dhabi is always important in criminal investigations because they act as the basis of criminal investigations. They also provide with a database for security clearances as described above.

Argument Essay Essay Example for Free

Argument Essay Essay As students we all have been challenged to do our best. Throughout our lives we have been labeled with our grades; in high school, the ones with low grades were left alone in misery, while the ones with higher grades were praised as the leaders of this horse race. Then, the question that comes into mind is: is it right to categorize students, does grading contribute to educationa? It is assumed and stated in the philosophy of the current educational system that grading encourages learning and without it students would not study. That is far from being true and also expresses another flaw of our education system. The system is based on fear: the basic motive for students to study is fear of low grades. Furthermore, because the grades are the main criteria for passing courses, students do not study: they just develop methods of cheating. Thus, without learning the subject, they keep passing. Since grades received in exams are more important than learning the subject matter, all students have to do to pass their courses is memorize how a specific problem is solved. Without knowing why such a method is used, students cannot apply their ability to solve the problem to daily life. However, they pass exams without learning why, how or what of the matter. Another disadvantage of grading is that grades of a student are not updated. That means the grades of a student for the first year of school will still be valid in the last year, whether his knowledge about the subject has improved or deteriorated. Considering all the factors that affect a student’s exams and marks, even a small incident may have a great impact in the long run. Apart from these problems, which can be virtually solved by optimizing and improving the grading system, the most important defect of the system cannot be repaired without changing the whole system. The grading system causes inequalities, superior-inferior relations, classifications and even conflicts. It may be maintained that societies of the modern world are structured on these basic principles, but the fact that something exists does not justify it. Moreover, the people grown up in such an education system will not be able to see the other side of the walls, or will be afraid even to take a glimpse. To sum up, grading students is not a good practice and should be abolished. It is clear that education, especially education during childhood, has a great effect on one’s life. And if you bring the children up in conditions of conflict and competition, they will look for conflicts in the future too.

Analysing Structure Of Stories Literature Essay

Analysing Structure Of Stories Literature Essay This chapter focuses on the structure of stories in different mediums. Storytelling and the development of media have alternately influenced each another, and each new medium has established a new kind of storytelling. A story is more than actions and events. The sequence of actions and events according to a meaning creates a specific kind of structure. A storys structure is not the meaning of a fixed order but more the rules and the ways of combinations of events that creates a meaning. Therefore, understanding a storys structure is important in the narrative development process. Transmedia storytelling The structure of each medium allows for a different performance and affects how the meanings of stories are created and shared. Performativity need not be solely on the stage. Auslander stated that we live in a mediatized world, and that performance has spread across media, infecting the other media with performative spontaneity from both performers and audiences (Auslander, 1994). The stories we have heard, seen and read in a single medium have not lacked impact, but incorporating several media offers a whole new experience as Jenkins mentioned about transmedia. Transmedia is a term coined by Henry Jenkins to describe how stories can be told across media in such a way as to take advantage of what each medium do best. As Jenkins stated, Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. (Jenkins, 2007) With transmedia experiences, where it is basically impossible for someone to have expertise in every medium, we may actually see a strengthening in the individual media as authors and artists focus on their expertise and return to specializing and mastering their medium of choice (Davidson, 2008). This means that the choice of media is not by content of the story but more by the expertise. Although the term transmedia emerged in the 21st century, the characteristics of transmedia can be identified in the wayang tradition. Mrà ¡zek stated that the media or the arts are more like artistic techniques than materials, or more like musical instruments than sound waves. He stated that the media in wayang narration, dialogue, puppets and puppet movement and their particular ways of working and functioning are creations of an artistic tradition, rather than universal, pre-existing categories (Mrà ¡zek, 2005). Puppet movement and puppet compositions, narration, dialogue, and music are combined and used to build the whole of the performance. Narration and dialogue appear to be in a class apart because they both use verbal language; but the case is not as simple. During both of them, the puppets are on the screen, and both the narration and the dialogue closely interact with the images. In the case of the dialogue, this is immediately obvious: it is the characters, acted by pu ppets on the screen that are represented speaking; the voice and the words are fused with them. In the case of narration, the interaction with the visual image is also close; the narration describes the scene and the characters and their actions, and is always closely juxtaposed to the visual images. Dialogue and narration are never quite purely verbal media they are connected to the visual images and constantly interact with them. However, if we want to see the separation between the media more clearly, we can look at the structuring of the performance in time. There is a very clear separation into three kinds of moments that what could be called: Narration moments Dialogue moments Puppet-movement moments During the puppet-movement moment the opening of the audience is represented in the medium of puppet movement, and there is no dialogue and no narration; then the dalang or the puppeteer narrates (the puppets are immobile, arranged into pictorial composition), and then comes the dialogue, during which the dalang only moves the hands of the puppets. The moments are represented by periods of music. In each of the moments, one medium comes to the fore, even though it is not necessarily in any pure form, that is, the other media may play a minor function. The media themselves are rarely clearly separate, but the different moments (in each one medium predominates) are (Mrà ¡zek, 2005). In this study, the web is used as a medium to revive traditional storytelling with puppets. Virtual worlds cannot substitute the rich experience of performing with real puppets and a face-to-face audience. But instead this study wants to ponder the potentials of the web and its design for this field. This study is also inspired from statements from Brenda Laurel. The performative nature of the web, one type of hypertext and hypermedia on computers, has led Brenda Laurel to look at computers as theater. For Laurel, computers have the capacity to represent action in which humans could participate (Laurel, 1993, p. 1). The readers are performers within the hypertextual narrative, shaping the actions and outcomes by the choice they make. A part of this study also focuses on the structure and process of narrative in hypermedia, in particular the web, and explores the potential application to support telling stories. Hypermedia refers to dynamic multimedia objects that have hypertextual aspects. As Landow and Delany stated, hypermedia is a multimedia extension of hypertext that is more complex and interactive, integrating visual and auditory experiences as well as text and links to give more contextual synthesis of the information explored (Delany Landow, 1994). For example, a web page with java scripting and interactive graphics, videos and sounds is a hypermedia object (Davidson, 2008). A characteristic of hypermedia is non-linearity structure, which allows us to navigate through an information space using associative linking. This leads to idea of intertextuality as we describe in the next section. Intertextuality Intertextuality refers to the numerous implicit references in each text to other texts. No text is written completely isolated from other texts and can stand entirely by itself. Hyperlinks in hypertexts and hypermedia documents emphasize such intertextuality in a way that is impossible in printed texts: they can lead directly from the hyperlinked terms, phrases or images to other contexts in which the same terms, phrases or images are meaningful, whether inside or outside the given hypermedia work itself (Delany Landow, 1994). Intertextuality can also be understood as the process of drawing on ones experience with multiple texts and making connections between these various texts and the present text being experienced (Davidson, 2008). Long and Strine illustrated how the process of experiencing a text necessitates that the audience brings an intertextuality to bear in order to understand the text being experienced (Long Strine, 1989). When we read a book, we bring our intertextual experiences of all the other books we have read to play with the current text itself, and from this playfulness, we assemble a deeper meaning of the text(s) involved. The appreciation of traditional textual objects, such as novels and films, is dependent to a certain measure on the decoding of intertextual references to other media in these texts. Thus, the pleasure of consuming these texts can be seen to be contingent to a certain extent on the users ability to identify and decode these allusions. This intertextual element also exists in new media, especially since media content is increasingly brought to the consumer through different channels simultaneously. Intertextuality can be found in wayang tradition also. For example, a character is used not only in one story; he or she can appear in different stories with different meanings and actions. A story is a part of another story or a story is a biography of an actor from another story. For this study, we want to use this characteristic in the system to provide a suggestion to children when they want to combine or connect stories. A theme of a story or actors in a story will be proceeded to bring out suggestions. With this kind of suggestion, the process of story-building is expected becomes simplified. Structure of a story Stories impose a structure on the events that we narrate so that listeners (including the storyteller) can understand them, and thereby gain some particular perspective on the events (Polanyi, 1989). A schema of narrative composed of four characteristics: setting, character, theme and plot (Davidson, 2008). Event schemas or scripts are knowledge structures which even very young children use to organize their general knowledge about events. Scripts also guide childrens comprehension and their recalling of stories about familiar events (Hudson, 1988). A storys structure as a topic of education fosters the ability to detect a meaning by reading. Models for developing good stories have been proposed for thousands of years. Around 2300 years ago Aristotle wrote his treatise called Poetics, in which he focused on tragedies, or serious drama. Many aspects of poetics are useful for authoring multimedia stories as well; the most important being the plot. According to Butcher, Aristotle said that [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] for by plot I here mean the arrangement of the incidents [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] But most important of all is the structure of the incidents [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed.; and every story must have a beginning, middle and end (Aristotle, 2008; Lee, 2001). In the next section, a structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film, focusing on Gustav Freytags analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama is discussed. The discussion continues by analyzing the geometric structure variations of stories. Freytags Pyramid Freytags Pyramid (see Figure 3.1) is a way to analyze a plot that consists of five elements in an ascending and descending manner, introduction (exposition, inciting moment) rising action climax falling action denouement (catastrophe, resolution) (Freytag, 1900). In the introduction, the plot, characters, and complications are introduced. This leads to the rising action, or the events that lead to the climax of the plot. At the point of highest dramatic tension, or at a major turning point in the plot, the audience finds the climax. This decisive moment in the narrative is when the rising action is reversed to falling action. The falling action, then, is made up of the events that follow the climax and lead to the denouement. The final outcome, result, or unraveling of the main dramatic complication is called the denouement. The denouement may involve a reversal in the protagonists fortunes, usually as the result of a discovery (recognition of something of great importance previo usly unknown) by the protagonist. Figure 3.1. Frytags dramatic pyramid Frytags dramatic pyramid can be used to analyze the dramatic structure of wayang performance. Wayang performance in general has three acts: Pathet Nem, Pathet Sanga, and Pathet Manyura. The performance usually starts at 9.00 pm and will be end at 4.00 am. The following part describes the structure of a wayang performance in detail: Act One (Pathet Nem) Pathet nem is symbolizing childhood, performed from 9 pm until midnight, and consists of 6 scenes: Jejeran Raja: symbolizes that the baby begins to be accepted and nurtured by his mother. Paseban Jawi: symbolizes a child who is already getting to know the real world. Jaranan: symbolize the immature nature of children. Perang Ampyak: symbolizes a child who has begun to mature. Sabrangan: symbolizes a child who has grown but his character is still dominated by emotions. Perang Gagal: symbolizes a person who does not yet have a definite purpose in life. Act Two (Pathet Sanga) Pathet sanga is symbolizing adulthood, performed at midnight until 2.00 am, and consists of 3 scenes. In this act, the hero is thinking about problems, and subversive clown figures enter and dispense wisdom and ribald humor. Bambangan: symbolizes a person who has begun to obtain knowledge. Perang Kembang: symbolizes a growing adult. Jejer Sintren: symbolizes a person who has set a goal in his life. Act Three (Pathet Manyura) Pathet manyura is symbolizing seniority, performed from 2.00 am until 4.00 am, and consists of 3 scenes. This act contains resolution of conflict/problem with many battles. Jejer Manyura: symbolizes a person who already knows the purpose of his life and is close to achieving his dreams. Perang Brubuh: symbolizes a person who has reached his life goal. Tancep Kayon: symbolizes a person who has died. In this study, it is of interest to look at the process of performance of the wayang story rather than at the dramatic structure of wayang stories. The story of wayang is performed in a linear process, always starts from act one, continues with act two and ends with act three. But there is still a possibility to change the storys sequence for some stories. In wayang there are four types of play or Lakon: Standard play (Lakon Pakem) is played strictly following rules from the book. Improvisation play (Carangan) is played following the rules with improvisation. Contemporary play (Sempalan) is played completely out-of-the-book. Biography play (Lakon Banjaran) is played covering a biography of a certain figure. Wayang stories besides having the linear structure also have a non-linear structure, e.g., a contemporary play. This situation gives us an opportunity to perform wayang stories in a medium that supports non-linear structures, e.g., the web. Before the exploration of story structures which are appropriate with the authoring tool is proceeded, the variation of story structures will be discussed in the next section. Geometric design structures of stories Every story has a structure that can be visualized as a process. Linear stories have linear processes; non-linear stories have non-linear processes. Ten geometric structure variations from Samsel and Wimberly is explored in this section: sequential, branching, conditional branching (branching with barriers, branching with forced paths, bottlenecking, branching with optional scenes), exploratorium, parallel streaming, worlds, and multilinear (Samsel Wimberly, 1998). Sequential (Linear) Sequential structure is the basic building block of both interactive and linear media projects as shown Figure 3.2. User navigation follows a strictly defined procedural path one after another. The user cannot jump from node A to node C, for example, without having first traveled across node B. Figure 3.2. Sequential structure Sequential with Cul-de-Sacs Sometimes a linear sequence of nodes can diverge into isolated nonlinear deviations offer the user the choice to step off the procedural path into areas that in no way fulfill the critical objective of the piece. Such digressions are called cul-de-sacs usually puzzles, games, or sidebars that explore the themes of the work, but in no way affect the outcome of the story or objective of the work. The interesting thing about a cul-de-sac is that its entrance is also its exit, as shown in Figure 3.3. This applies to interactive cul-de-sacs as well and is especially important for the software designer who is trying to help us tell an interactive narrative. An interactive corporate training title, for example, might have a node that demonstrates a crucial concept. Several key words or phrases within that node may be hot. Clicking on one of the words might send the user to another node that shows that word, along with its definition. This sidebar or footnote has no impact on the training lesson itself. It is only there to enhance the users understanding of the key words and phrases contained in the material. Once the user has finished reading the definition, he or she has only one option to return to the lesson. Figure 3.3. Sequential structure with cul-de-sac (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.25) Many childrens edutainment CD-ROMs, such as Mindscapes The Animals! use sequential storytelling techniques e.g., a trip to the zoo and link them to archived data (Samsel Wimberly, 1998). A child can travel through the story and click on an object within a scene. This action will transport the child to a cul-de-sac a self-contained node of information such as a video clip of a lion, a photograph of a pelican, an audio clip of a monkey, or a text description of a polar bear. Once the information has been delivered and digested by the child, it can either replay the information or return to the main body of the zoo story. The cul-de-sac simply enhances the user experience. Branching In an interactive program, branching offers the most rudimentary course of extending how users navigate throughout the program. In a typical branching structure, the user is presented with several choices or options upon arriving at certain predesignated Forks in the road. Based on which path the user chooses, the program follows a new node of content. Figure 3.4. Traditional branching structure Branching structures are popular because they easily demonstrate the fundamental concept of interactive theory user choice. Namely, when confronted with a path decision, the user must choose one from several options A, B, or C in order to proceed to the corresponding node, as shown in Figure 3.4. The danger of branching structures is that they can spiral out of control very quickly. Author Neal Stephenson refers to this type of structure as the tree of death, where the story line keeps forking until there ends up being an unmanageable number of outcomes (see Figure 3.5). Figure 3.5. Extended branching structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.26) Conditional Branching: Branching with Barriers A subset of branching is conditional branching, which requires the user to abide by the rules of a predetermined condition along the branch in order to proceed through the program. Often, these conditions are puzzles or other obstacles that are slapped down in the middle of the application. The user is forced to solve the puzzle before he or she can continue (see Figure 3.6). Figure 3.6. Branching with barriers structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.27) Conditional Branching: Branching with Forced Paths Conditional branching often limits user choice in other ways. While appearing on the surface to offer many choices and options, the program will often continue regardless of the users actual choice. In essence, the program offers the illusion of choice without actually allowing the user to alter the program in any way. The validity of interactivity is strictly limited by the choices offered by the writer. Figure 3.7. Branching with forced path structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.28) A branching structure as seen in Figure 3.7 using forced paths or critical paths offers the end-user more options and/or more paths to choose from, but only one solution advances the story. Conditional Branching: Bottlenecking Another type of condition placed on branching structures (especially when the structure is used in an interactive narrative) manifests itself as bottlenecking. Bottlenecking is when various branching nodes are brought back into the spine of the story in order to rein everything in. This is a crucial structural procedure when you consider the exponential possibilities created by traditional branching structure (see Figure 3.8). Figure 3.8. Branching with bottlenecking structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.29) When the various story nodes are folded back so that they converge into a single story spine, the interactive narrative becomes more manageable. This type of design structure has been implemented in a number of popular media games and interactive movies over the past several years, including Origins popular Wing Commander series (Samsel Wimberly, 1998). Conditional Branching: Branching with Optional Scenes Sometimes the user gets to choose between alternative scenes that spin out from and return to the primary spine of the application whether that spine is a story (as in an interactive narrative) or an objective (as in an informational multimedia application such as a training title). Alternative scenes are commonly found in education and training programs, where it is necessary to demonstrate numerous concepts (see Figure 3.9). Figure 3.9. Branching with optional scenes structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.29) Exploratorium Exploratorium is empowering structures that allow the user to pause during the program to explore a world within a world. Many interactive storybook titles utilize exploratoriums from the humorous Living Books titles, Arthurs Birthday and Just Grandma and Me to Disneys Pocahontas Animated Storybook to simulated environments such as Imergy/Simon and Schusters Star Trek Captains Chair (Samsel Wimberly, 1998). The exploratorium structure can be seen in Figure 3.10. Figure 3.10. Exploratorium structure. Letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are hot spots or entertainment click-ons imbedded into program (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.32). Parallel Streaming Parallel streaming describes many states or paths that exist simultaneously at various levels within the same application. In an interactive narrative, this type of structure allows the writer to create a single linear story, while allowing the user to switch between perspectives, paths, or states. The user can then experience the same series of events from multiple points of view (see Figure 3.11). Figure 3.11. Parallel streaming structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.33) Worlds When two or more environments are interconnected by a common thread be it a theme, goal, mission, or story we have the basis for a world structure. Add to that world series of predefined events or tasks that the user trigger/accomplish in order to move the story or mission forward and you have a design structure that works very well with interactive media programs (Samsel Wimberly, 1998). In a world experience, exploring the surrounding is just as important (and fun) as completing the story or achieving an objective. This poses a unique set of problems for the writer. Figure 3.12. World structure. Notice that the world is in the shape of funnel (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.36) The player is free to roam through an enchanting environment in search of clues to the story. The act of exploration is just as important as the act of discovering the narrative. Each activity has equal merit. The player advances the story by triggering certain author-defined events. Exploring all the worlds, uncovering all the clues, and interacting with all the triggers leads the player to the end of the game (see Figure 3.12). Another way to look at a world structure would be an overhead view, as if looking down into the center of a funnel or cone. The plot points or tasks that user must accomplish are represented by the eight outer nodes. The eight inner nodes in the carousel represent the next set of tasks (see Figure 3.13). Figure 3.13. Carousel entry into a world structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.37) Multilinear or Hypermedia Another type of design structure, known as multilinear (see Figure 3.14), either encompasses every type of user path imaginable or no path at all. The World Wide Web, hypertext fiction, MUDs (multi-user domains), MOOs (Multi-user object-oriented environments), and many simulations are good examples. Multilinear structure demands a different kind of involvement from its user than do puzzles, branching games, or linear narratives. That is because it is the users themselves who must traverse their own unique paths through an environment. The writer sets the boundaries and rules of interactivity, but the users must chart their own course through the material. Hypermedia structures, in much the same way as the World Wide Web or a hypertext fiction title, allow the user to become an interactor a facilitator of the story. While surfing the web, the user decides which homepage to start from and selects which links to follow through the electronic universe. User action determines a pathway through the material. Similarly, hypertext fictions are about the journey as much as they are about the narrative that waits to be pieced together. Figure 3.14. Multilinear and hypermedia structure (Samsel Wimberly, 1998, p.39) Relevance to the research One of the lessons that has been learned from this section is that the sequence of events and actions is important in a story. This sequence leads the reader to follow a dramatic flow of the story. There are causal connections between the events or ideas in the story and these connections tend to be related to the main elements of the story. Through these comprehension processes, readers develop an understanding that extends beyond words and sentences, to reach comprehension of paragraphs and extended text. This knowledge forced the researcher to design a space for children to learn and to practice in building a storys sequence in order to support them their narrative development. A good plot and dramatic story structure of a story will keep the readers curiosity and their emotional engagement. When a user accomplished a task by using a computer, she/he followed a certain sequence process which is offered by the system. The actions and events of the system and user build a kind of story. It is needed to keep the user attention and their engagement with the system in order to reach their goals. Therefore, the researcher found that the knowledge of the storys structure and the dramatic flow can be used to design interaction between user and system. Summary This chapter introduced a conceptual thinking of transmedia storytelling from Jenkins which described how stories can be told across media in such a way so as to take advantage of what each medium does best. The stories we have heard, seen and read in a single medium have not lacked impact, but incorporating several media offers a whole new experience. A schema of narrative composed of four characteristic: setting, character, theme and plot. The four characteristics are the building blocks of narrative. Event schemas or scripts are knowledge structures which even very young children use to organize their general knowledge about events. This chapter has explained the dramatic structure from Freytag and explored ten geometric-structured variations of stories from Samsel and Wimberly: sequential, branching, conditional branching (branching with barriers, branching with forced paths, bottlenecking, branching with optional scenes), exploratorium, parallel streaming, worlds, and multilinear. In wayang tradition, multiple non-linear structures can be found within wayang stories. The audience can follow its own combinations of presented and remembered additional stories according to their own experiences and knowledge. This study focuses on analyzing whether the same character in different stories can enable a similar multiple storylines as well. The concept of intertextuality in this context will be used to provide suggestions for children to help them to build multiple storylines by character.

Beowulf The Hero :: essays research papers

In Beowulf, the protagonist Beowulf is shown as a hero with extrodinary strength. This is not what makes him a hero. By definition, a hero is a man of exceptional quality. However this term does not do Beowulf justice. His self-imposed purpose in life is to help others, and eventually sacrifices his own life in doing so. Beowulf’s battle with the dragon serves as a critique of the notion that Beowulf is a hero. The Dragon section displays many of Beowulf’s heoric characteristics. Beowulf establishes himself as a hero by fighting the dragon, exemplifing strength and courage when fighting the dragon, and sacrificing himself so that others can live. Beowulf’s fight against the dragon shows Beowulf as a hero. Although Beowulf had previously defeated two other foes, he stands fast and fights his most formidable foe yet, the dragon. Dragons were notoriously difficult to kill, and the poem states that it was a great man, who could kill a dragon, even if it meant losing one's life. While others cower away Beowulf fights the dragon. Beowulf defeats the dragon but loses his life in the same instance. Like the classical hero Beowulf loses his special status in death. Beowulf sought no compensation for his services; the mere satisfaction of helping others was pay enough. Like his two previous battles Beowulf fights for those who could not fight for themselves. While fighting the Dragon Beowulf shows feats of strength and courage that define him as a hero. The classical hero displays a special quality that separates him from the rest of Moss 2 society. In Beowulf, Beowulf shows extraordinary courage and strength that gives him special status. This notion is shown, when Beowulf fights Grendel and Grendel’s mother, but it is especially noticeable when he fights the dragon. When Beowulf fought Grendel others had the courage to attempt to fight him. The same is true with Grendel’s mother. When Beowulf goes to fight the Dragon, the other warriors cower away into the woods. Beowulf shows his courage by fighting the Dragon. Even when Beowulf is fighting the Dragon and realizes that his sword can do no damage he continues to fight. After Beowulf is on the verge of death he shows a combination of courage and strength by delivering the death blow to the Dragon, and not just laying down to die. Beowulf’s strength is shown when he is able to actually do battle with the Dragon; any normal man would have fallen to the dragon immediately.

American Connector Company Analysis Essay

Quality and efficiency is the key to American Connector Company (ACC) success. ACC has lost market share to DJC over the recent years, which will be exacerbated if DJC opens a production facility in the United States. DJC has gained much knowledge from its Kawasaki plant and is going to enter the US market with factories that will be efficient. ACC is in trouble and needs to drastically change the way they do business if they want to survive. Looking and emulating DJC is the first step American Connector needs to follow. American Connector can regain market share and survive by focusing on quality and efficiency. ACC needs to do the following to ensure success before DJC enters the US market:1)Redesigning their factory layout for a more streamlined operation. 2)Purchase new equipment that is in better shape and more efficient. Institute a good maintenance program to ensure the equipment runs properly. 3)Work with the consumer to create a good simplistic design. 4)Continue to keep employees happy to make sure they remain at the company and ACC retains this intellectual property. 5)Implement a Quality Control Division. ACC cannot rely on identifying defective parts only after production. They need to implement quality control throughout the process, which will reduce costs and increase efficiency and profitability. Industry Background Japan and the United States have had a different mentality and work ethic over the past centuries but it has become especially apparent over the last 30 years. The United States relies on money, technological sophistication and reputation/name recognition. Japan has been able to get ahead with hard work, innovations, and technological advances. To the dislike of many American companies, Japan has taken technologies created by US companies and reverse engineered and improved on them until they were the dominant company in the industry. A good example is shown with the DJC  Corporation in Japan. They took ideas, concepts and technology from American companies and made them even more efficient and successful. The electrical connector industry is large. These connectors do everything from attach wires to wires, wires to outlets, attach wires, components or chips to PC boards, or attach PC boards to other boards. These connectors have two main parts: a plastic housing and metal socket pins or terminals. The applications range from military and aerospace to computers to telecommunications to automobiles. There are thousands of standard connector product lines. The pricing of the connector depends on its level of technology and industry use. In the 1970’s there was a large boom in the United States and companies took advantage of it. Demand slowed in the 1980’s leading to many suppliers for a reduced need leading to consumers being able to demand their prices. The miniaturization of circuitry and technological advances led to the need for new connectors and manufacturing techniques. The demands of the consumer were highly specific. This allowed other competitors to enter the US market. Lessons LearnedA. DJC at the Kawasaki Plant1) Efficiency – DJC continued to review and adjust their production facilities to find the most efficient way to operate. This focus on efficiency has created a cost efficient way of producing wire connectors that cannot be rivaled. It will take other companies years to match the efficiency of the Japanese production facilities. The Just-In-Time delivery of resources and demand on their raw material suppliers to have almost daily deliveries of supplies, DJC reduced the need for large warehouses saving money. The use of tape rolls of connectors was a design that the consumer liked and found easy for use at their production facilities. The design of their product packaging led to a more efficient way to palletize and containerize their products for shipment to distributors. While DJC maintains about two months of finished goods, the design of the packaging reduces the room it requires in the warehouse. 2) Quality – Japan’s streamlined operations has allowed it to add quality assurance to their production process. Through this high quality and lack of flawed parts they have gained a good reputation, which was something that was normally reserved for American companies. The continuous inspections, replacement or worn parts and the high level of maintenance of the equipment allowed the factory to run smoothly. The focus on fixing problems before they happened has led to fewer problems encountered on the production line. 3) Links to Customers – DJC maintained a close link with its customer and took the customer input to adjust the connectors to meet customer needs. This allowed DJC to be proactive and stay ahead of changing trends within the computer industry. The simplified designs they created required fewer raw materials increasing efficiency and reducing costs. 4) Trade Secrets – DJC reverse engineered many of its early connectors from designs from other companies. This sped up the design process and allowed them to quickly enter the market. They did not want the same thing to happen to them so they had contracts written up with suppliers and created an internal design division that did their work in house. This allowed DJC to keep their innovative ideas to themselves, maintaining their advantage over the competition. 5) Plant Layout – DJC focused on the best way to produce connectors. Their plant layout and simplified design process allowed for an efficient operation, utilizing the factory space to its fullest. The process was set up in the most logical and efficient manner allowing for an increase in quality and reduction in personnel. The new Japanese plants were highly automated but DJC focused on â€Å"pre-automation† to ensure the plant runs smoothly. All people that work within the factory understand their role and are properly trained, materials are centrally located, quality and goals were clearly laid out and continuous improvements are sought. The limited number of products that DJC produces for their consumer allows them to schedule long production runs. 6) Goal Setting – The management was involved in all aspects of decision-making. They understood the importance of the having an overall goal that is understood by all divisions. They created the overall goal and allowed the managers of the different divisions to create their own goals that conformed to the focus of the company. Employees on the line knew the goal of the company and what management expected and solved many of the problems at the lowest level. B. American Connector at Sunnydale1) Operating Problems – The American Connector facilities especially in California are experiencing increases in costs and deterioration in quality. The performance in the plant is leading to the consumer losing confidence in ACC. This will lead the consumer to other options like DJC with a better reputation. 2) Investments – Complacency allowed ACC to believe there was no foreign competition in the US. They did not invest time or money into upgrading their facilities, quality, or capacity. The equipment within the facility is becoming outdated and is not being replaced. 3) Efficiency – The production facility is not run efficiently. There five production areas in the plant. Different areas run at different speeds leaving stockpiles of parts. This leads to inefficiency and an increase in facility space required to hold all of the parts awaiting further assembly. The facility is not fully automated which leads to slower assembly on small runs, which are assembled by hand. The packaging of the connectors is inefficient with the wide range of package designs awkward for storage and shipment. The awkward packaging does not lend itself to proper palletization or containerization taking up extra room in the warehouse. It is hard to adjust production lines with the forecast being done three months in advance. With a difficulty among customers of predicting the success of their products, it is hard for ACC to get ahead or adjust quickly to changing demands. If a different producer is more adaptive they will  steal the sales. 4) Quality – ACC quality has slipped at the Sunnyvale plant. There is a high rate of defective parts. While most of the defective parts do not make it to the customer, the waste of time and supplies costs ACC money. RecommendationsAmerican Connector Company has two options: 1) stay with the status quo; or 2) learn from the success of DJC and change their approach to head off DJC’s competition in the US market. Really there is only one option for American Connector. Whether ACC believes it or not DJC will enter the US market. They need to change their mindset and do what is best for the company. With the way the US connector market has played out, it is open for international companies to enter the market. ACC must change their mindset and stop being complacent. The lack of rivalry did has not spurred ACC to be innovative and create new ideas but allowed them to stay with the status quo missing the surge from their competitors. Complacency has led to outdated equipment and an inefficient plant operation. By taking the lessons that DJC learned at their Kawasaki plant, ACC can increase efficiency. If ACC streamlines their plant operations, buys new equipment, works with their customers to create a simpler product design, and makes more transportation friendly packaging they can have a more efficient operation. ACC has a couple of advantages over DJC that they need to cash in on. First, they are already in the US market. ACC is already established in America and can avoid many of the barriers to entry i.e. tariffs, taxes and initial financial layout that international companies will experience. ACC needs to build on their good reputation with their US customers. DJC is not keeping their employees longer than an average of 9 years. While they have a good salary for the entry-level employees, their advantage is reduced as employees advance within the company. They do rotate employees to different jobs yearly giving them good experience in different areas but cannot keep them until retirement. If ACC takes care of their employees and  gives them a competitive wage, good benefits and advancement opportunities they should have an advantage over DJC with more efficient workers. References: http://net.mba.wfu.edu/Shafer/FulltimeOpsStrategy/acc%20handouts.ppt

Free Essays on Integrative Theory

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