How to Increase Retail Sales Essay

1 Introduction One of the challenges for companies that have invested heavily in customer data collection is how to extract important information from their vast customer databases and product feature databases, in order to gain competitive advantage. Market basket analysis (also known as association rule mining) is one of the data mining methods (Berry and Linoff, 2004) focusing on discovering purchasing patterns by extracting associations or co-occurrences from a store’s transactional data. Several aspects of market basket analysis have been studied in academic literature, such as using customer interest profile and interests on particular features of the product for the product development and one-to-one marketing (Weng and Liu, 2004), purchasing patterns in a multi-store environment (Chen et al., 2004), or point at certain weaknesses of market basket analysis techniques (e.g. Vindevogel, Van den Poel and Wets, 2005). Market basket analysis has been intensively used in many companies as a means to discover product associations and base a retailer’s promotion strategy on them. When different additional brands are sold together with the basic brands, the revenue from the basic brands is not decreasing, but increasing. â€Å"Buy two, get three†sales promotion campaigns are very successful, if market basket analyses are used in order to determine the right products to be promoted. â€Å"Buy a product, get a gift† sales promotion campaigns are successful, if a basic product and a gift are related and the basic product has high margin rate. Based on market basket analyses, sets of products are defined and sold together with discount. Limitedbrands organizes internal competition in up-selling. Our paper – a case study – presents and analyses the application of market basket analysis in a major trade company in Slovenia. 2 The company Merkur, d. d. Merkur, d. d. is a trading company (Merkur, 2005) that has for years ranked among the top companies in Slovenia dealing in items for home improvement, home services as well as lawn and garden. Merkur, d.d. has recently strengthened its position on the foreign markets through the supplies of goods to industrial enterprises, and by the establishment of its own retail network abroad. Merkur, d.d. is the mother company of Merkur Group. The Group consists of two Slovenian subsidiaries and six subsidiaries abroad (Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Munich, Milan and Warsaw). Besides that, the group also includes two offices (Moscow and Belgrade). Merkur plans to further strengthen its position on the domestic market, spread its sales to the foreign markets, especially to the markets of former Yugoslavia, and develop a high-quality range of products. The company is organised in  several large departments: Wholesale, Retail Sales, Sales to Foreign Markets, Purchasing, Logistics and Supporting Services. Customers include construction companies, trading organisations, installation companies, industrial enterprises, craftsmen and small entrepreneurs, as well as end consumers. The company makes almost 60% of its sales revenues by selling goods wholesale. To make the sales quick and efficient, the Wholesale Department has been divided into four sales sub-divisions. At present, Merkur has 38 retail sales centres in Slovenia. Specialisation increases the effectiveness of sales, so two types of Merkur sales centres were developed: MERKURDOM focusing on ordinary households, and MERKURMOJSTER intended for DIY (do-it-yourself) users. More information about MerkurDom and MerkurMojster is available on Merkur internet site: www.merkur.si. 2.1 Characteristic figures of the company The scope of the company Merkur, d.d. can be shown through the following figures: The sales programme consists of about 200.000 active items (more than 120.000 items on stock), divided into 5 sales programmes, 74 lines of goods, 720 groups of goods and 5.600 basic goods classifications. Around 80% of sales are done with the top 12.000 items and 80% of stock is held on the top 20.000 items. The Purchasing Department issues more than 250.000 purchase orders with 1.200.000 items annually. Merkur purchases goods from more than 2.000 suppliers. About 80% of purchases are done with the top 200 suppliers. Wholesale has business relations with more than 2.500 buyers – organizations. About 80% of wholesale sales are done with the top 800 buyers. Wholesale issues approximately 400.000 invoices with total 2.200.000 items annually. Retail sells goods to 13.000 buyers / organizations and to about 500.000 end consumers. More than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called the â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. Retail issues 6.000.000 invoices with more than 20.000.000 items to end consumers annually. In the period from 1993 to 2004 Merkur achieved 19% average annual growth in revenues, 20% average annual growth in net margin and 27% average annual growth in profit from operations. Today Merkur is the sixth largest Slovenian company in revenues. 3.1 The history of DW&BI in Merkur Merkur started to implement data warehousing and business intelligence (DW&BI) in 1999 with a project called KAS (Commercial Analytical System) (Svetina, 2002). Before 1999, different analyses and reports were performed in Merkur’s transactional information systems, much of the analytical data was held in Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. In the past, Merkur twice attempted to implement DW&BI technology, but failed because proposed technology was still too difficult to use for the majority of the users. In 1999 Merkur started with a major business process reorganization and, therefore, better and new business analyses were needed in order to make better decisions. The need for a DW&BI system emerged, so the KAS project was given high priority. Merkur started to design analytical data models for sales data and succeeded in integrating sales data from wholesale, retail and sales to foreign markets in one unified data model. The IT department proposed Microstrategy DW&BI technology, which was installed and tested in the beginning of the year 2000. The technology was found to be appropriate and the decision was made to implement DW&BI with Microstrategy solutions. The first power users (sales analysts) were educated and the first KAS sales analyses were used in the decision-making process. In the beginning the ETL (extract – transform – load) process was carried out on monthly basis, but by autumn of 2000 the company started to perform ETL process daily. Later in the year 2000 the purchasing analytical system was introduced as well. In 2001, the data warehouse was upgraded with data on Merkur’s business plans. Sales and margins were planned on a very low organizational level. The annual plan fact table has more than 1.000.000 records, so the salespersons’ performance is measured very accurately. Because the technology is easy to use, the number of KAS users increased up to 100. In 2002, the implementation of a very large and complex analytical module followed, containing inventory data. The inventory levels of each item in every warehouse on a monthly basis is stored in KAS and enables detailed inventory analyses and detection of critical items. Also, data on Merkur’s partner’s  debts and liabilities was added to data warehouse, which enables accurate cash flow management. Item price calculation elements and different prices were imported in KAS in 2003, so critical prices can be detected and all inconsistencies eliminated. Many minor additions to the system were also made over the last few years. All the time Merkur tries to use adequate analytical and data mining methodologies in order to improve the whole system of business reporting. From the DW&BI history we can see a controlled step-by-step development of the KAS system. Such way of development gives opportunity for good definition and implementation of analytical contents and enables Merkur to make many better business decisions. The KAS system brings Merkur an important competitive advantage, which enables the growth of the company. Improved decision making can be demonstrated through different measurable key success factors which are improving constantly. Key success factors such as net margin, net margin per item, net margin per customer, number of new customers and others are measured in KAS. These factors are always accessible for KAS users and help them to make better decisions. 3.2 DW&BI technology Since 2000 Merkur has used the Microstrategy DW&BI technology. Microstrategy provides ROLAP solutions, which enable a step-by-step approach in data warehouse development and processing large amounts of data. The data warehouse is implemented in an Oracle relational database. This means that the same database technology is used in both transactional and analytical information systems. Therefore, Merkur’s IT department can focus in one database platform instead of two or even more. Oracle technology was used in Merkur before the implementation data warehouse was started, so the implementation of this technology was fast and smooth. In Merkur the  following Microstrategy tools (Microstrategy, 2005) are used: MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the heart of the BI system and provides reporting and analysis for the whole enterprise. This BI server provides the full range of BI applications through unified metadata and a single integrated server. MicroStrategy Administrator consi sts of a suite of tools that provide the systems management environment for business intelligence. It maximizes uptime of BI applications. Its tools give an environment for developing, deploying, monitoring and maintaining of systems. MicroStrategy Architect is a rapid development tool that maps the physical structure of the database into a logical business model. These mappings are stored in a centralized metadata repository. MicroStrategy Desktop is the business intelligence software component that provides integrated query and reporting, powerful analytics and decision support workflow with a desktop PC. MicroStrategy Desktop provides an arsenal of features for on-line analysis of corporate data. Reports can be viewed in various presentation formats, polished into production reports, distributed to other users and extended through a host of ad hoc features including drilling, pivoting and data slicing. The interface itself is customizable to different users’ skill levels and security profiles. In Merkur, the Desktop solution is used by 13 power users (analysts). MicroStrategy Web provides users a highly interactive environment and low maintenance interface for reporting and analysis. Using this intuitive HTML-only Web solution, users access, analyze and share corporate data through any web browser on any operating system. MicroStrategy Web provides ad hoc querying, quick deployment and rapid customizability, making it even easier for users to make informed business decisions. In Merkur, Microstrategy Web is used by 90 end users of KAS. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a proactive information delivery server that distributes personalized business information to users via email, pagers and cell phones. It includes an intuitive self-subscription interface that enables users to specify what information they want to receive, as well as when and how they want to receive that information. Narrowcast Server is becoming more and more important in Merkur because of its efficiency. 3.3 Merkur’s DW&BI system today Presently, KAS; Merkur’s DW&BI system, is five years old. The development of the system continues constantly and there is still much content throughout the organization which must be implemented in the BI system. The most important content to be implemented in the future are the following: Integral data from Merkur’s finance and accounting system (the finance and accounting analytical system) Relevant business data from Merkur’s subsidiaries Data from Merkur’s human resources analytical system Data from Merkur’s e-business analytical system Data from Merkur’s logistic analytical system Presently in KAS (Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, 2005): †¢ 13 power users (analysts) and 90 end users; of both groups, 50 users have the ability and knowledge to set-up their own reports. †¢ Up to 30.000 reports are run on KAS on monthly basis. †¢ KAS consists of the following objects: o 137 tables o 433 attributes o 1.195 metrics o 5.611 reports †¢ Over 35 automated services are run on the Narrowcast Server The KAS system enables many sophisticated business analyses such as market basket analyses, described later in this paper. 4 Market basket analysis and the used methodology Market basket analyses are an important component of analytical system in retail organizations. There are several definitions of market basket analysis. In a broader meaning, market basket analysis targets customer baskets in order to monitor buying patterns and improve customer satisfaction (Microstrategy, 2003). The following analytics can be used: attachment rates, demographic baskets, brand switching, customer loyalty, core items, items per basket, in-basket price, revenue contribution, shopper penetration and others. In a narrower meaning, market basket analysis gives  us the answer to the following question: which goods are sold together within the same transaction or to the same customer? By analysing this information, we try to find out recurring patterns in order to offer related goods together and therefore increase the sales. We can track related sales on different levels of goods classifications or on different customer segments. In this paper, the narrower meaning of market basket analysis will be taken into consideration, focusing on the use of these analyses in Merkur. It has to be noted that several other terms are also used to describe market basket analysis: related sales, cross-sell, up-sell. The distinction between these terms is very unclear and the same terms are often used in different meanings. What can we gain from market basket analysis (Limitedbrands, 2004)We get the ability to learn more about customer behaviour. We can make more informed decisions about product placement, pricing, promotion and profitability. We can find out which products perform similarly to each other. We can determine which products should be placed near each other. We can find out which products should be cross-sold. We can find out if there are any successful products that have no significant related elements. 1. Discover the selling documents (transactions) with the item, for which we want to perform market basket analysis. This logic is valid, if we want to carry out item-related market basket analysis. We can also perform good classification or even loyalty card holder-related market basket analyses, which will be shown later in this paper. 2. Discover all the items in relevant selling documents and their selling quantities, prices, number of transactions and other relevant data. As an example, an item related market basket analysis will be presented. We want to analyse sales related to item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’. In the first step we determine the selling documents with this item. The partial result is shown in the table 1. Further, the result of the first step is used as a filter in the second step, which results in a table with items, sold together with item 209525. 5 Areas of market basket analyses In Merkur different kind of market basket analyses are done. Analyses are adapted to various business needs, and some of them are discussed in the following sections. In every section, the relevant examples of analyses are presented and opportunities for business action discussed. 5.1 Marketing and sales promotion campaigns When sales campaigns are prepared, promoted items must be chosen very carefully. The main goal of a campaign is to entice customers to visit Merkur’s retail centre and buy more than they usually do. Therefore, we must choose the right items and offer the right prices or other conditions. Margins on promoted items are usually cut, therefore, additional non-promoted items with higher margins should be sold together with promoted items. As we could see from the example in Section 3, item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’ is quite adequate to be included in a promotion. Together with it many other items are sold, so we can allow a lower margin of promoted item. Of course, there are some other criteria for an item to be included in a campaign, such as: †¢ Where on the item life cycle curve is the item situated? †¢ What is our brand promotion policy? †¢ Can we reach an agreement with the supplier (producer) to assure larger quantities and better prices? Table 4. Sales promotion market basket analysis In table 4, data from a New Year’s promotion campaign is shown. The: campaign was done through public advertising. Paper catalogues of promoted items were sent to households, there were also commercial spots on TV and radio, and advertisements in newspapers. Because of advertising a certain number of customers came in Merkur retail centres in order to buy the promoted items. Additionally, they also bought many non-promoted items (70% opposed to 30% of revenues and 75%  opposed to 25% of margins) with much higher % of margin (29,08% opposed to 21,81%). This means that promoted items generated sales of non-promoted items. There are also many possible ways for organizing campaigns using direct marketing tools for the interaction with Merkur loyalty card holder. This issue will be discussed in Section 5.5. 5.2. System solutions offering Market basket analyses are also used to combine more items in a set or a system, because the majority of customers are interested in buying and using them at a time or in a short period of time after the purchase of a particular item. By designing sets and systems of related items a company can increase sales and also cut down costs of sales transactions, so that various discounts can be offered to customers. This results in a typical win-win situation. A retailer must know the needs of customers and adapt to them. Market basket analysis is one possible way to find out which items can be put together in sets and systems. Table 5. Classification Group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’ market basket analysis In Table 5 we can see groups of goods which were sold together with the group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’. In the related groups are also different kitchen appliances like refrigerators, dish washers, kitchen-ranges, taps, dishes etc. This means that Merkur should design and offer the customers different kitchen systems. These systems should include kitchen furniture,  major and small kitchen appliances and kitchen utensils. Such a system should be displayed in one place in a retail centre where customers could choose from whole system solutions to just several parts (items) of these solutions. 5.3. Placement of goods in retail stores Market basket analyses give retailer good information about related sales on group of goods basis. As we can see in Table 5, the majority of kitchen appliances groups are related. Customers who buy a kitchen appliance often also buy several other kitchen appliances. It makes sense that these groups are placed side by side in a retail centre so that customers can access them quickly. Such related groups of goods also must be located side-by-side in order to remind customers of related items and to lead them through the centre in a logical manner. In Merkur, two basic concepts of retail centres are used: MerkurDom specialises in high-quality items for home improvement and garden, MerkurMojster specialises in high-quality products aimed at DIY users, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs. Centres are also classified by size as small and large centres. For each of these concepts, standardized placement plans were developed. Market basket analyses represent one segment of tools for decision making considering placement of goods. It can show us where we should change the placement of goods. After the change we can measure the business effects of the change. 5.4. Education of salespeople The interesting results of market basket analyses must be presented to the salespeople in retail centres, because the employees must be aware of them and they should use them in the process of selling. Every salesperson has some knowledge about related items from his or her experience. With market  basket analyses we can structure this knowledge and use it to teach less experienced personnel. Merkur invests a lot in education of salespeople through both internal and external sources. Knowledge from market basket analyses is widely used in internal education. 5.5. Segmentation of customers As mentioned in Section 1.1., more than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. This data enables us to answer the following question: What did consumers who bought item (group) X in period 1, buy in period 2? If we identify customers who bought item X today, we can anticipate what they will buy, for instance, in next three months, and we can advertise them the right products. A typical example is shown in Table 6. We analysed loyalty card holders who bought ceramic tiles in the period from April to June 2004. In Table 6 we can see product groups which were bought by the same card holders in the period from July to November 2004. They bought different bathroom and kitchen accessories and central heating elements. It would be very useful, if Merkur organized a targeted marketing campaign for this specific group of customers in July 2004 and promoted these products. There are many other possibilities and opportunities in Merkur to use loyalty card-based market basket analyses as a support tool for direct marketing campaigns. Merkur usually organizes non-targeted common campaigns, in which the majority of Slovenian households are included. But lately Merkur also started to implement direct marketing methods and therefore an effective data warehouse and business intelligence system is essential. This helps many interesting marketing ideas to be implemented. 6 Conclusion The practice in Merkur proves that market basket analysis is a very useful for marketing campaigns, good placement definition and education of sales personnel. Merkur uses market basket analysis throughout the promotion campaign process. When a sales promotion is prepared, market basket analysis is used to define the right products and the right prices for the campaign. Related non-promoted items are also defined in order to place them in the vicinity of promoted items and therefore increase sales. When sales promotion finishes, its results are carefully analysed in order to discover opportunities for next promotions. Merkur widely uses market basket analyses to manage the placement of goods in retail centres. Related products and product groups are placed together in such a manner that customer can logically find items he/she might buy. The findings of market basket analyses are an important part of the process of teaching the salespeople of Merkur. Sales personnel must be aware of related products in order to increase satisfaction of customers and intensify sales. Market basket analyses are just a part in the holistic approach to the execution of marketing development strategy in Retail in Merkur. The analytical process is integrated in other marketing activities and analysts are an important part of Merkur marketing development team. Team work is crucial for successful use of such analyses. Beside of the organization of the Merkur marketing process, a capable DW&BI system is needed. The BI system must have good performances when processing large amount of data. It also has to be scalable and flexible, but, above all, the BI system must be user-friendly so that different marketing specialists can use it without any problems.  Fortunately, Merkur’s KAS is such a system. But there is still much work to be done. We demonstrated that market basket analysis in Merkur can be done and that it brings useful results. In the future a working direct marketing strategy must be developed based on data already available in KAS. Then an organization and information systems for efficient execution of this strategy have to be established. 7 References Berry, M.J.A., Linoff, G.S.: Data Mining Techniques: for Marketing, Sales and Customer Relationship Management (second edition), Hungry Minds Inc., 2004  Chen, Y.-L., Tang, K., Shen, R.-J., Hu, Y.-H.: â€Å"Market basket analysis in a multiple store environment†, Decision Support Systems (article in press), 2004, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Limitedbrands: Achieving Greater Efficiencies with Market Basket Analysis, Microstrategy World 2004 Conference, Miami, 2004 Microstrategy: Business Intelligence in the Retail Industry, Microstrategy World 2003 Conference, Las Vegas, 2003 Microstrategy Web Site: http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/, Microstrategy, 2005 Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, internal document, Merkur, 2005 Merkur Web Site: http://www.merkur.si/ang/podj.html, Merkur, 2005 Svetina, Marko: Izdelava in uporaba market basket analiz, http://www.muson.net/Konferenca_login.asp?mni=12, Konferenca MUS 2004, Ljubljana, 2004 Svetina, Marko: Kome rcialni analitski sistem v podjetju Merkur d.d., Konferenca Poslovna inteligenca in upravljanje odnosov s strankami, Ljubljana, 2002 Vindevogel, B., Van den Poel, D., Wets, G.: â€Å"Why promotion strategies based on market basket analysis do not work† (article in press), Expert Systems with Applications, 2005, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Weng, S.-S., Liu, J.-L.: â€Å"Feature-based recommendations for one-to-one marketing†, Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 26, 2004, pp. 493-508.

President Harding essays

President Harding essays The two former presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolige were alike in some ways and different in others. President Harding was a news paper owner from Ohio. He was chosen as the Rep. candidate after serving as an Ohio senator. Calvin Coolige was the Vice-president at the time of Warren Harding's death. Coolige fished the rest of Harding's term and then was re-elected. President Coolige followed Harding's policies when finishing his term, but after re-election he began to make some of his own. Harding focused on trying to settle the nation back into peace. He tried to ensure this peace by making treaties and disarmament acts. Harding also tried to lower taxes, take care of war veterans, protect farmers, and collect wartime debts owed to the U.S. . However Harding was not prepared to face the huge problems of the presidency. He made the mistake of appointing some of his Ohio friends to high ranking positions. The men he appointed were involved in many scandals and money stealing. Calvin Coolige like Harding was an admirer of American business. They both believed that business should mainly be left alone without government interference. Coolige especially believed business would be less profitable with more regulation. He also believed, unlike Harding, that nothing could be done to help the U.S. farmers. Coolige vetoed many bills designed to help farmers, like the McNary-Haugen bill, by saying "Farmers have never made much money and I don't believe we can do much about it" . These two presidents were also very different when it came to their personalities. Harding was laid back and likable, always playing cards with his friends and smoking cigars. Coolige, on the other hand, was very quite plain and thrifty. He said very little, earning him the nickname "Silent Cal." These two presidents were more different than alike. They shared only a few views and had very differ...

Guide Of Writing Observation Essays

Guide Of Writing Observation Essays Winning Tips and Topics on Writing an Observation Essay In order for you to come up with an interesting observational essay, you should consider being a good listener and observer of situations. These two factors are essential in acquiring new information that could be a plus to your personal experience. Three concepts that each student should have in their memories to come up with a captivating observation essay are observation, interpretation, and tangible facts. The difference between a word wizard and a good observational essay writer lies on a students ability to come up with an excellent observation essay. All our body senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing are crucial towards the crafting of an observational essay. If you intended to impress your readers enough to make them come back for more, then purchasing personalized academic papers from reliable top academy writing websites in the United States might just do the trick. The outline Template for an Observational Essay The guidelines below will help you understand the outline of writing an observational essay to enable you to come up with a structure that will give your essay a logical flow of ideas. Personal Experience This aspect is the best way to describe the particulars of a situation since you have personally gone through the situation and you understand all angles about it. The connection created by your personal experience and the subject matter under discussion should be on a high level of order, as a way of ensuring you can share the experience with other on a deeper and understanding level. For this reason, you should ensure that you choose the topic of discussion carefully. For instance: having chosen a topic on how exhilarating biking while hiking is, make sure you describe related factual and statistical data about how it brings out the excitement in you.   However, if you have never experienced hiking while riding a bike, it will be difficult to share such an experience with your audience. Supporting your claim should always be based on personal experience about the subject of discussion. It’s even advisable to try such an experience, before writing the related observational topic. This way, you will gain more tangible information to share with your audience. It is important to know that note taking is a crucial part of sharing experiences; thus you should come up with reliable ways of writing down your experiences and recording them appropriately. From what has been recorded, you can begin doing a draft of your essay. Capture the whole process of your personal experience. For example, if its related to going to a stadium, mention going through security, locating your sitting position, watching the game and what emotions were provoked, and the feeling you felt when you were surrounded by a mob of angry fans whose team took a loss. Dont forget to note down the impressions and use criteria to rate aspects lie the general atmosphere, utilities at the stadium, the security box among other elements of your story. If you experience a modification in your personal intake for events that transpired, jot down notes about the change, and the time it happened. All your events should be arranged in chronological order to help you restructure your chain of events as you embark on writing your essay. Ask for a friends opinion about their personal experience of going to the stadium and not them down. This will help you have an informed view of events thus come up with a first-class observational topic. Create an outline A sketch of your work is important in ensuring that it is well-structured and there is a logical flow of ideas. It is useful to use just in case you face a challenge while restructuring your essay. The final draft can be changed, but bear in mind that you must adhere to the set outline. In case your teacher wants to see an outline, create a separate page that you can outline it for review. After this, if you are challenged with any other aspect, or you do not understand how to formulate an observational essay, do not hesitate to consult the various online professional services for assistance. Introduction In this section, you are required to provide a brief, but credible information about what the reader is about to read all through the article. Make sure you begin with a thesis statement which will address the points and arguments that you plan to address. After this, craft a catchy hook sentence that will grab the attention of your readers. It is also advisable to provide them with reasons as to why you chose that specific topic. After addressing the above aspects, your introduction part is now well composed and captivating to keep your readers glued to your observational essay/ The three body paragraphs At this point, the expressed points of argument in your thesis statement are each handled in its paragraph, with the addition of supporting evidence to give meaning and sense to your argument. Make sure that each paragraph or idea is presented as per the outline you created to give your observation essay more logic and concrete structure. Conclusion This section requires simplicity and a summative narrative about the topic of discussion. I stead of just doing a summary of your arguments, restate your thesis statement and appeal to it, as you use a call to action element to give the final input to finish up your paper with a strong impression to the reader. This will allow the reader to reason about your points of view and make a choice if they support still stand by their perspective. Through this, you have engaged your writers effectively and created a strong impression. The use of a rhetorical question will sum up the essay in exclusive style and ensure the audience is fully engaged. The final page should include a complete bibliography that included all the sources and references used. Editing and Proofreading After concluding the writing part of your essay, you should consider going through your work to remove any punctuation or grammatical that might appear. It will be more effective if someone else did it for you or submit it to a professional proofreading service that man college students use to ensure their work is ready for submission. The three aspects to consider in this section are: Grammatical errors Punctuation and spelling errors The distinctiveness of your observational essay Examples of Observational Essay Topics Organization and rich vocabulary skills are the two most important skills that you need to have in order to write a first-class observational essay. Bear in mind that your ultimate goal is to share your personal experience with your target audience. The following are useful examples of observational essay you can use: The dynamics of tattoo and body piercing Is tolerance an important trait to possess? Are video games capable of causing death? How important independence and freedom are Gaining knowledge and its impact on our lives Money and its meaning to an evolved world Sports and its contribution to developing leadership A chat with your favorite celebrity The thrills of biking while hiking Age-appropriate movies The most epic club in the city The flawless gift for a wedding or birthday How to define loyalty Can music provide a soothing healing effect? Success and achievement through professional writing Endurance and its effect on our daily lives Describing character traits of my favorite idol Winning Tips to Use in Writing an Observation Essay Laying down your work with a personal touch is important. Remember that your main goal is to share your personal experience and let the readers add it to theirs. Have a notebook and pen around you! This will ensure that you can jot down events as they happen to have a full view outlook of the experience. Dont use an unnecessary word to make your essay longer. Be brief, precise and straight to the point while addressing the outline content of your work. By reducing the use of introductory and transitional words, you gain to display a clear topic and thesis statement. While writing your observation essay, utilize your personal experience by using instances you personally went through in your life. This helps the readers identify themselves with your experiences and understand you better. There exist an association between a descriptive narrative and an observation essay, thus use human senses freely when need be. Provoke a reaction from the reader of one, if not several of their five senses. Always stick to being objective. Remember to include a bibliography page at the end. A point to remember: an emphasis on the importance of your topic is crucial and should utilize your personal experience. If you face by any challenge, or need proofreading and editing for your work, choose our academic writing help.

20 Synonyms for Ghost

20 Synonyms for Ghost 20 Synonyms for â€Å"Ghost† 20 Synonyms for â€Å"Ghost† By Mark Nichol Ghost conjures an image of a visual but incorporeal representation of a person, but not all ghosts are alike, and like ghost, most of its synonyms also have connotations that apply to the everyday, substantial world. Here are twenty of those terms, with references to their natural connotations as well as supernatural ones: 1. apparition: a ghostly figure, or a sight that is unexpected or unusual 2. bogey (or bogie or bogy): synonymous with phantom and spirit, but also something that prompts fear or dread; by extension, an unidentified aircraft, especially an enemy warplane (also the source of the term bogeyman often spelled boogeyman referring to a monster whose name is invoked by parents or other adults to frighten children into obedience 3. banshee: a female spirit whose appearance or wailing cry presages death 4. bogle: synonymous with specter (the word from which bogey and its variants were derived) 5. eidolon: synonymous with phantom, but also refers to an exemplar or ideal 6. familiar (or familiar spirit): a spirit that takes animal form and protects or serves a person, especially a witch (also refers to flesh-and-blood figures, including a companion or other well-known person or a person seen frequently in a specific place or in general, a household attendant for a important official, or somebody who knows a subject well 7. haunt (or hant): synonymous with ghost; also, a frequented location, or, as a verb, to visit or reappear or recur frequently, or to trouble, or to inhabit or visit (said of a ghost) 8. materialization: synonymous with apparition 9. phantasm (or fantasm): synonymous with specter; also, an illusion or product of the imagination, or a mental image of a physical object 10. phantom: synonymous with apparition, but other figurative senses include something that is elusive or that has no physical form, including a representation, or something that evokes dread 11. poltergeist: a noisy, mischievous ghost 12. shade: a spirit, or a fleeting or unreal appearance, in addition to the standard meanings associated with the obscuring of light 13. shadow: synonymous with apparition, in addition to literal and figurative senses regarding partial darkness 14. specter (or spectre): a visible ghost; also refers figuratively to some threat or imminent disturbance, such as the threat of famine or war 15. spirit: a ghost that may or may not be visible, or a being capable of possessing a person; also, an animating force, a supernatural being, or a characteristic quality or temper 16. spook: synonymous with specter, but also slang referring to a spy 17. sprite: synonymous with ghost, though more often synonymous with elf or fairy or used to refer to an elflike person 18. vision: a supernatural appearance, not necessary of a lifelike figure, that reveals something to the viewer, in addition to connotations associated with sight as well as imagination 19. visitant: a visitor from a spirit realm; also, a real-life visitor 20. wraith: synonymous with specter, but also has the sense of a representation of a living person that appears to another just before that person’s death; also, like shadow, refers to a remnant, either of a person or a thing Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the FutureThe Many Forms of the Verb TO BE20 Clipped Forms and Their Place (If Any) in Formal Writing

Managing Change in an organisation Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Change in an organisation - Coursework Example The case indicates the existence of a large internet provision company that has employed a large number of employees. In addition, it also possesses small sales stores in two other cities. With this, it is expected that the business activities should make it possible for the organization to attain its goals and objectives in an easier manner. However, it is not possible since the culture within the organization does not provide the appropriate environment for the staff members to work together as a team and achieve the organizational goal.The cultured within the organization is so relaxed to the extent that it does not allow the organization to provide satisfactory services to its customers. This is what creates the need to change and manage the different aspects so as to ensure that the quality of services provided by the organization make it possible to meet the organizational goals and objectives. In this case, the principle problem to be addressed is the culture of the organizati on in terms of management of people and the tasks within in order to maximize the services that are provided to the customers and therefore, the returns that are produced by the organization.One of the major issues being faced by this organization is the fact that the culture within it was very relaxed. This is in the sense that the employees do not have a specific dress code, they are merely employed as friends and not in an official way that is based on the merits and demerits of the job at hand.

Advantages and disadvantages of E-learning Assignment

Advantages and disadvantages of E-learning - Assignment Example This paper seeks to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of E-learning. E-learning employs two main teaching methods depending on the institution and learning facilities present (IBM, 2010). The first is the Asynchronous learning method which is a student centered approach. In this method, lessons are delivered informally using internet based resources, virtual tutors where resources needed for learning are made available through reference sites, and computer based training. The second method is synchronous learning that involves a number of students learning in a virtual classroom at the same time, whereby students use telecommunication facilities such as video conferences to take lectures. Thus, instructor teaches the lesson virtually through an internet portal, as students watch online (Nayak & Suesaowaluk, 2007). E-Learning allows students to study from anywhere in the world, and take any course of their choice since it uses internet resources whereby a student can register f or a course offered in a different location, access reading resources and take online examinations for the course. E-learning reduces costs that occur in the traditional teaching methods considering that the institutions using this method save on cost incurred by lecturers in travelling to lecture in different locations. Education institutions in different countries are using this system to offer their courses, as a tutor can conduct a class from their geographical location electronically without the need to travel physically. This also makes the utilization of labor in these institutions efficient because they need few staff members to conduct lecturers for a large audience (IBM, 2010). Electronic learning improves classroom learning efficiency because it allows for better interactivity between students, tutor and the learning process. Multimedia capabilities and internet resources involve the student intellectually in the whole learning process. This mode of study uses resources l ike videos, blogs, audio files, and web pages to teach the students leading to worldwide acceptability (Markovic, 2010). In addition, it has a global reach in the learning process, which involves students and tutors from all locations, and races, as students have universal access to experts who assist them in the learning process. Institutions using this method have dedicated workers available online to answer any queries from students; employing websites that are interactive and students can get answers to frequently asked questions that can arise as they study (Stennes, n.d.; Nayak & Suesaowaluk, 2007). This form of learning is convenient to all the people involved in the study process; for instance, it makes classroom assessment easy for the lecturer. The lecturer gives reading resources electronically and receives answers to assignments electronically, which allows them to easily track the assignments and check for plagiarism and copying. The administrators of institutions offer ing e-learning get feedback on the progress of the classes from all the stakeholders. Students can make comments and reviews on the subject’s content, and also the whole teaching process which is used as a framework for improving the process. In addition, lecturers receives students comments and feedbacks on the modules, content of the study, and understands where to change and improve the classes (Markovic, 2010). This method poses a number of disadvantages to both students and institutions that offer it, considering that e-learning relies heavily on internet and telecommunication facilities, which incurs cost for hardware and software installation, as well as internet charges to access learning

A Concept to Avoid and Minimize Security Risks in Cloud Computing Essay

A Concept to Avoid and Minimize Security Risks in Cloud Computing - Essay Example This project declares that the existing protection mechanism like encryption failed to provide sufficient security especially from the insider attacks within the cloud network. To overcome this issue a new technology has been introduced called Fog Computing. After doing deep analysis it is apparent that fog computing is not considered as a substitute for cloud it is just an addition of the cloud computing system and introduce new applications and services. These applications ensure safety by isolating user data from each other. The foremost goal of this technology is to put data near to the ultimate consumer. This paper makes a conclusion that Cloud Computing is a technology based service which is used for protecting data and for making use of the cloud resources anywhere anytime. Further Cloud Computing is designed with a collective pool of resources which manages private data centers for clients who are utilizing web application and batch processing services. Fog computing is a virtual platform which offers computing, networking and storage resources to the end-users. Fog computing is a new standard which provide a virtual IT infrastructure. The security solutions which are designed for cloud computing does not allow fog computing devices to balance their connectivity load at the verge of the network. Fog computing offers greater security and benefits while working with cloud. In this the user has to first register and sign up fog computing.