Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Irony in Rip Van Winkle

Irony in Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving used so much irony in his short story Rip Van Winkle. The title character is a youthful married Dutch American who has a kind and generous nature. The main character is located in Catskill Mountains of New York way before the American Revolution. Reluctant to profitable labor, the character prefers rambles within the mountains, sitting under the shade gossiping with his buddies moreover, playing with the community children (Irving 105). Washington develops the thesis of the story by use of irony. After meandering with his gun together with Wolf, his close companion, Rip trails himself into the higher parts of the mountains. Soon afterwards, Rip stumbles upon a stranger who was moving what looked like a barrel of liquor. Consequently, with the aid of the Hollands, moreover a whole day of mountain climbing, Rip falls into a solemn, deep slumber. Nevertheless when he wakes up, Rip does not know how long he has been sleeping or where both of his friends have gone off too. He woke up twenty years later, as an aged man and strolls back to his village; he is amazed by the transformations that have occurred. After some commotion, he is joined with his grown-up daughter and her children. The irony is further noticed in Rips coldness to Dame Van Winkle. He was bossed and chided, but he was satisfied. The owner of the bar, Nicholas Vedder dominated the conversations and views of the junto symbolize the colonial governors selected by the Crown. Even as he rarely spoke, his authority was constantly present. This reflects the inactive position the governors accommodated political affairs, as well as the colonists substantial respect for them. (Irving 109) Another irony to reflect on is the ways wherein Irving anticipates lots of of Thoreaus thoughts. Long prior to the retreat to Walden Pond, Washington introduces Rip Van Winkle as a happy mortal, of idiotic, well-oiled characters, who take the humanity easy, eat brown bread or white, any that can be got without difficulty, and would rather go hungry on a penny than labor for a pound which is very ironic. Nathaniel Hawthornes story Young Goodman Brown is saturated, with irony. At the beginning of the narrative a youthful Puritan husband leaves at sunset from his youthful Puritan wife. Faith, like the wife was suitably named, pushes her own appealing head into the street, allowing the wind to play with the pink ribbons which were on her cap, whereas she called to Goodman Brown. Nathaniel Hawthorne says that Faith is appropriately named, an ironic declaration since she later on in the evening, is being acknowledged into the congregation of devil-worshippers as a fresh convert to the evil cluster. The description of faith as pretty as well as her putting on pink ribbons, as a sign of cheerful outlook on life and youthful innocence is also ironic (Hawthorne 405). There is more irony in the Goodman Browns dialogue with the old man. He at first clings to his apparent purity of lineage furthermore claims that his father and grandfather had not deviated from the Puritanical lineage. The old man discovers that not only were his relatives acquainted with the abnormal path but well familiar the devil on an individual level. The irony inside this passage is seen when the devil assists Goodman Browns ancestors during the persecution of Indians and Quakers. There is definitely irony in the fact that it is the majority of the pious church people who emerge at the evil gathering inside the forest. The aged woman who bypasses Young Goodman Brown as well as the devil on the trail is recognized by Brown as the woman who taught her catechism. There is a remarkable irony to this vow because when Goodman Brown came back at dawn; he cannot look at his wife with the identical faith he had before. After Goodman Brown lastly met with the Devil, he asserts that the cause of his lateness was because Faith kept him back awhile. This proclamation has a double implication because his wife actually prevented him from being punctual for his meeting as well as his faith to God expressively delayed his gathering with the devil as well (Hawthorne 409). All through The Cask Of Amontillado, Poe uses dramatic and verbal irony to construct suspense, foreshadow the ending, and moreover add a touch of ghoulish humor. For instance the title cask meaning wine barrel is resulting from the same root statement used to structure casket, which means coffin. Accordingly, the cask symbolically represents Fortunatos casket. Secondly, Fortunatos name which is Italian implies good fortune, luck. Nevertheless, Fortunato is so unfortunate because he was heading to his death. Another element of irony is Fortunatos Costume. He dresses as a court clown. His celebratory outfit contrasts with the terrible fate that awaits him. Moreover, occasionally, the bell on top of his cone-shaped hat tinkles a nice comic feeling from Poe. Another aspect of irony is when Fortunato asks Montresor if he is a mason, signifying a member of the fraternal array of Freemasonry. It is ironic that Montresor says he is certainly a mason. Nevertheless, he is using the expression to mean a craftsman who constructs buildings using (Cecil 41). Poe also uses irony repeatedly in the dialogue. For instance, when Montresor meets Fortunato, he tells him that he is lucky they met. Later on, when Montresor pretends to be worried about Fortunatos scything cough as they go down into the tombs, he tells him that they have to go back because his health is precious. Fortunato tells him not to worry because the cough will not kill him. Montresor quickly agrees that the cough will not kill him; the audience can nearly see a devilish gleam within Montresors eyes, because he surely knew that Fortunato will die. He later opens a bottle of wine furthermore toasts Fortunato to his long life.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Egyptian Process of Mummification Essay -- Ancient Egypt Egyptian

The Egyptian Process of Mummification In ancient Egyptian society, preserving a body after death was an important process necessary for entrance into an immortal existence. According to Egyptian belief the soul did not die. The soul would take the form of a bird usually a falcon and fly around in the world of the living returning later its dead body. The importance of preserving the body revolved around the idea that the roaming soul would be able to recognize the right body and return to it. As a result of this theology, Egyptians developed an effective system of embalming. The Egyptian embalming process was a significant and complicated process performed by priests. Employing a crooked piece of iron the brain would be removed through the nostrils. A sharp stone was used to cut open the body and extract the intestines. Palm wine and spices were used to purify the intestines. The chest and stomach areas would be filled with myrrh, cinnamon, and other herbs. The body would be sewn up and immersed in natron for seventy days. After the seventy days the body would be washed and wrapped in linen from head to foot bound by a gum like substance. Upon completion of this procedure the body would now be ready for burial. Egyptians used other methods of embalment. One method attributed to the lower class was to bury the body in the desert sand for a lengthy period of time. The result of this method dried the skin of the body into a leathery shell. Arab historian Abdel el Latif discovered on one of his expeditions a rather unorthodox method of embalment. Latif and his team came across a jar filled with honey. During a lunch break Latif and his party indulged in the jar of honey until hair... ...ns were stuffed into the ears of the mummies and along the bandages although the significance of this is still unknown. The modern examination of mummies has enabled us to ascertain various facts about everyday Egyptian life. The mummy of Maat-ka-re a virgin priestess had for thousands of years been thought to have been mummified with a child. Using X- ray technology the child turned out to be a mummified baboon, one of her favourite pets. Examination of mummies revealed that Egyptians were quite short. A considerable amount of infant diseases are evident in children mummies. The life expectancy according to the mummies was around forty. Average Egyptians encountered several dental and health obstacles. Spinal arthritis was common as were typhoid and brucellosis. Mummies serve as a tribute to ancient Egyptian society and their technology.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Gap Model of Service Marketing

Introduction In a competitive market, a business’s main purpose is to create value for customers, because it is basically the consumer who essentially determines what a business is, even the future success of a business (Karl, 2009). For service marketing, which is the form of marketing focuses on processes deeds and performances, service quality is only way for customers to evaluate their experiences (Susamoo, 2012). Hence, the service quality is one of the most important factors that any service organisation should face.Service quality can be defined as ‘a customers' perception of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations’ (Seth, Deshmukh ; Vrat, 2005). However, many consumers are short of the knowledge to evaluate the service they receive, meanwhile, the providers also lack skills to meet customer’s needs. When the experience does not match the expectation, a gap arises. The gap model of service quality identifies five major gaps that organi zations seeking to meet customer's expectations in service delivery process (Turner, Bienstock & Reed, 2010).The purpose of this paper is discussing the gaps can occur in delivery of service quality. Besides, this essay will describe the feasible approaches for closing these service quality gaps, and put forward the examples to support. Customer Gap Customer gap is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2006). This gap arises when the customers misinterpret the service quality.The customer expectation is the standards or reference points that customer bring into the service experience, sometimes influenced by their cultural background, lifestyle, personality and so forth. Customer perception is based on the customers’ interaction with service. In ideal world, customer’s expectation world be almost identical to customer’s perception (Talebzade, 2009). However, actually, even some great companies like Apple seem t o be increasing significantly their customer gap. Customers complained that they were squeezed by Apple’s service platform, iTunes, because of the high cost of Apps.The App customers expect was high quality and cost-saving service, but the spending was far outstripped their expectation. It caused customers dissatisfied with iTunes services (Sullivan, 2011). Therefore, the results of customer gap are quite predictable, the higher the customer gap, the higher the risk of generating customer dissatisfaction and losing loyalty. In order to close the customer gaps, managers should educate customer to see reality of service delivery and clearly understand the customer expectation.IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer used to collect the information about customers’ ideal shopping experience so as to meet customers’ needs before opened its Chicago store. In basis of those feedbacks, IKEA redesigned the store, and made it more appropriate for shopping. Loc al customers were so satisfied with this store, and rated 85 per cents ‘excellent’ for this store (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2006). Hence, clearly understanding customers’ expectation and perception in advance can help managers to narrow the gap. Knowledge GapKnowledge gap is the difference between customer expectation of service and company understanding of those expectation (Webb, 2000). Service providers who result in knowledge gap sometimes apply inadequate marketing research orientation and lack of communication with employees and customers. Moreover, the factors of lacking company strategies to strengthen customer relationships and inadequate service recoveries are also the critical reasons to cause knowledge gap. Boeing has been the leader of airplane manufacturing and service providing.However, in 2006, Boeing declared that their cabin broadband access service was suspended, because this service was badly received by passengers. In actual, for passenger s, what they want was flights to be on time. Boeing assessed customer expectation in wrong way, and made failure of the service innovation (BBC, 2006). In a customer-orientated business, it is important to have a clear understanding of the customer’s need for service. To close the gap between the customer’s expectation and business’s perception of service delivery, anagers require a set of comprehensive marketing research and adequate upward communication with their customers and employees. For solving this problem, Ritz-Carlton Hotel establishes its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for improving service quality. The information of registered customers in CRM can help Ritz-Carlton Hotel to customize client’s accommodation experience based on customer’s lifestyle and preference (Delio, 2000). Therefore, for closing knowledge gap and improving service quality, manager should know what customer really want.Design and Standard Gap Design and Stan dard Gap is the gap between provider’s perception and customer-driven service designs and standards. It may arise when companies are difficultly translating customer expectation into service quality specification. The reasons of this gap occurs can include poor service design, lack of quality specification and failure of maintaining and updating servicescape (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2006). Presently in Taiwan, the tourism sector encourages local farmers to develop their rural tourism in order to attract mainland visitors.Therefore, the number of agents were founded in the last two years. Nevertheless, many agents are not registered with Taiwanese tourism sector, and do not get the appropriate insurances for taking care of tourists (Siow, 2012). The tourist’s expectation is the safe and pleasant journey experience, but the tourism sector cannot supervise this market well. It causes negative impact among visitors. In order to close design and standard gap, managers n eed make sure that they are defining the level of service quality they believe.For example, Amazon has set standards for specifying the shipping time when a products is unavailable, out of product in local warehouse and other different conditions (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2006). These sets of specifications can improve the efficiency of daily operation, and enhance service quality for customers. Therefore, managers should specify service quality standards that reflect expectation so as to narrow the design and standard gap. Performance Gap Performance Gap is the gap between the service quality specification and service delivery.This gap exposes when service providers fail to deliver service quality according to their goals and standards. Sometimes, service providers who leading this gap have poor human resource policies, or staffs lack of knowledge and skills to delivery service to customers (Chenet, Tynan & Money, 2000). Motorola is famous for its performance management. Motorol a’s managers believe that the human resource strategy is identical to their performance management. Motorola focuses on the skills of individual employee to improve the process of delivering value to customers.Motorola‘s service performance objectives consist of two parts, business goals and behaviour standards. These two parts work together to improve employee performance and service quality (Ahire, Waller & Golhar, 1996). Therefore, for narrowing the performance gap, managers need to audit the customer experience that providers currently deliver, in order to make sure the level of service delivery can live up to the specification (Rajagopal, n. d. ). Besides, managers also should consider the role of employee and customer in delivery process.For Motorola, except for improve staff training and education, managing and analysing the customers’ different requirements are also important. Hence, so as to close the performance gap, managers should coordinate the inter action between employees and customers in delivery process, and make service experiences meet the specification. Communication Gap Communication gap is the gap between the delivery of customer experience and what is communicated with customers (Hudson, 2011). Sometimes, customer expectations are highly influenced by the promises made by service providers.Therefore, this gap arises when service providers are over-promised, and do not match the actual service quality to customers. In 2009, Google launched its music service in mainland China, and cooperated with local music website, Top100 to provide free and legal music. Google promised that customers can create their own online songs list, and easily access to that in any time. However, with the failure of the cooperation with partner, and shut down the mainland division, Google's music service became unstable. Customers often cannot accesse to their online music list as Google promised.Google over-promised their service and finally cannot perform that (Tejada, 2012). Clearly, Google’s failure is the result of communication gap between customers’ perceptions and Google’s promises. Therefore, so as to narrow the communication gap, managers should ensure service performance quality matches to their promises. Besides, they also need avoid ineffective management of customer expectation and inadequate horizontal communication among different service providers (Zeithaml, Bitner ; Gremler, 2006).As an electronics retail giant, BestBuy have 1150 stores around the world. In each BestBuy store, staffs will clearly and directly promise the returns commitments of goods to customers, and faithfully perform their promises (BestBuy, 2013). Hence, managers need avoid exaggerating what will provide to customer so that finally harming customer’s perceptions. Conclusion This paper has described the five gaps that occur in the process of service delivery. Moreover, a set of approaches so as to close the se service quality gaps is explained following each gap model.Today’s consumer has become increasingly demanding. Customers often look at the service quality of both the process and outcomes of service delivery. The delivery of high quality service is one of the most complicated and important tasks for each service provider. The gap model of service quality is a measure of how service supplied by providers meet or surpass customer’s expectation (Ahmed et al, n. d. ). In order to close these gaps, managers should clearly understand customer expectation, set quality specification, manage employee performance and communication channel.To narrow the service quality gap is not only for improving the service quality, but also for delivering value well to customers. References Ahire, SL, Waller, MA ; Golhar, DY 1996, ‘Quality management in TQM versus non-TQM firms: an empirical investigation’, The International Journal of Quality ; Reliability Management, vol. 13 , no. 8, pp. 8-27, viewed 23 March 2013, ;http://search. proquest. com. ezproxy. utas. edu. au/business/docview/197606505/13D0B260F7C754E46B9/3? accountid=14245;. Ahmed, I, Gul, S, Hayat, U ; Qasim, M n. d. Service quality; Service features; and Customer complaint handling as the major determinants of customer satisfaction in Banking sector, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, viewed 24 March 2013, ; http://www. wbiconpro. com/5[1]. ISHFA. pdf;. BestBuy, 2013, Return ; Exchange Policy, BestBuy Official Website, viewed 24 March 2013, ;http://www. bestbuy. com/site/Returns-Refunds/Return-%26-Exchange-Policy/pcmcat260800050014. c? id=pcmcat260800050014;. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 2006, Boeing exits in-flight broadband, BBC, London, viewed 23 March 2013, ; http://news. bc. co. uk/2/hi/business/5261562. stm;. Chenet, P, Tynan, C ; Money, A 2000, ‘The service performance gap: testing the redeveloped causal model’, European Journal of Marketin g, vol. 34, no. 3/4, pp. 472-497, viewed 23 March 2013, ;http://search. proquest. com. ezproxy. utas. edu. au/business/docview/237021271/13D0B1BB3BD6EE81139/1? accountid=14245;. Delio, M 2000, For Ritz-Carlton, It All Begins with Customer Knowledge, destinationcrm. com, viewed 23 March 2013, ; http://www. destinationcrm. com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/For-Ritz-Carlton-It-All-Begins-with-Customer-Knowledge-47424. spx;. Hudson, P 2011, An examination of how gaps between customer expectations of service quality and actual service quality can arise, Marketing Student Blog, viewed 24 March, ;http://www. phil-hudson. com/an-examination-of-how-gaps-between-customer-expectations-of-service-quality-and-actual-service-quality-can-arise/;. Karl, JA 2009, Customer Service – The Importance of Quality Service, SparkNET, viewed 22 March 2013, ;http://ezinearticles. com/? Customer-Service—The-Importance-of-Quality-Service&id=2220862>. Rajagopal, V n. d. Closing the Gap Between Guest Expectation and Management Perception, Pacific International Hotel Management School, New Plymouth, viewed 24 March 2013, . Seth, N, Deshmukh, SG & Vrat, P 2005, ‘Service quality models: a review’, The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 22, no. 8/9, pp. 913-949, viewed 23 March 2013, .Siow, CW 2012, Identify Possible Critical Provider Gap(s) in the Package Tours Sold by Travel Agencies in Singapore, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, viewed 23 March 2013, ;http://digitalscholarship. unlv. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article=2335;context=thesesdissertations;. Sullivan, D, 2011, Why Do Amazon ; Apple Hate Families? , Daggle. com, viewed 22 March 2013, ; http://daggle. com/amazon-apple-hate-families-2867;. Susamoo, J 2012, Services Marketing Basics, StudyMode. com, viewed 22 March 2013, ;http://www. studymode. com/essays/Services-Marketing-Basics-1051800. html;.Talebzade, S, 2009, The Customer Service Gap Model, University of Technology, Sydney, v iewed 22 March 2013, ; http://www. brainmates. com. au/brainrants/the-customer-service-gap-model;. Tejada, C 2012, Google to Shut Down China Music Service, The Wall Street Journal (Asia Edition), viewed 24 March 2013, ;http://online. wsj. com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578009941960495424. html;. Turner, KF, Bienstock, CC ; Reed, RO, 2010, ‘An Application Of The Conceptual Model Of Service Quality To Independent Auditing Services’, Journal of Applied Business Research, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. -7, viewed March 23 2013, ;http://search. proquest. com. ezproxy. utas. edu. au/business/docview/733023826/13D0AC1065736D08DC5/1? accountid=14245;. Webb, D 2000, ‘Understanding customer role and its importance in the formation of service quality expectations’, The Service Industries Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 1-21, viewed 23 March 2013, ;http://search. proquest. com. ezproxy. utas. edu. au/business/docview/203346350/13D0AD569442014A8BC/1? accountid=14245. ; Zeithaml , VA, Bitner, MJ ; Gremler, DD 2006, Service Marketing – Integrating Customer Focus Across The Firm, 4th edn, McGraw-Hill, Irwin, Chapter 2, pp. 32-46 ,

Friday, January 3, 2020

Lose vs. Loose How to Choose the Right Word

Although it’s easy to lose what is loose, one letter makes a significant difference between the meaning of these two words. Lose, a verb, most often refers to failing to get something, while loose is usually used as an adjective to designate something that is not tight or has been freed from restraints.   How to Use Lose Lose is a verb that means when you fail to win something, such as a sports game, or when you have failed to take advantage of something, like an opportunity. It also means when you have misplaced something and are unable to find it, such as losing your keys or losing your sense of direction in a new place. Finally, it can refer to something that you are freeing yourself from. For example, many people to try to lose weight or lose bad habits because they want to get rid of them. How to Use Loose Most often, loose is an adjective that can refer to something that is not tight or fixed. This can be used when talking about clothing—loose pants might require a belt—or something more intangible. For example, someone with loose morals would not follow a strict moral code. Loose can also refer to something that is lacking in precision, such as a loose approximation, or an approximation that is not entirely accurate, as well as something that has been freed from restraint, like an animal set loose.   It can also be used as a noun: â€Å"on the loose† refers to someone who is â€Å"at large,† such as a criminal who is running from the police.   Finally, loose can be used as a verb. Its most common verb usage refers to â€Å"relaxing,† but it can also be used to mean â€Å"released† or â€Å"set free,† such as when someone looses their fury on someone or looses their guard dogs on visitors. However, it is uncommon to see â€Å"loose† used in this way, and it most often appears as an adjective.   Examples The ring was too  loose on her finger, and Sarah was worried it would slip off and she would  lose it: In this sentence,  loose describes how the ring does not fit properly and is not tight enough on Sarah’s finger, which makes her worried that it will fall off and she will misplace it.  After  losing the game, he decided he needed to  loosen up by watching TV instead of getting stressed out:  In this sentence,  losing describes how he failed to win the game, and  loosen refers to how he is opting to relax and unwind, rather than stay tense.  Michael decided to start running in order to  lose  weight, but he had a  loose  grasp on maintaining a routine and didn’t work out on a regular basis:  In this sentence,  lose refers to Michael’s desire to free himself of extra weight, but  loose indicates that he does not have a firm routine and is thus not working to meet his goal on a consistent basis.  Harold was a decent writer, but many of his metaphors were  loose and he would often  lose his anger when criticized: In this sentence,  loose describes how there is a lack of precision in Harold’s metaphors, suggesting they might be hard to follow or not well-written, and  loses shows that Harold is setting free his anger when he doesn’t get the reception he wants.   How to Remember the Difference Though the two words have fairly different definitions, their spelling can make it easy to confuse them. One trick to tell them apart is to remember that if  loose loses an â€Å"o,† it becomes the opposite of â€Å"to find.† You can also think of the double o’s in â€Å"loose† like the double o’s in â€Å"too†Ã¢â‚¬â€something that is  loose has  too  much space. Sources â€Å"Loose vs. Lose.†Ã‚  Grammarist, grammarist.com/usage/loose-lose/.â€Å"Loose vs. Lose.†Ã‚  Grammarly, 13 May 2019, www.grammarly.com/blog/loose-lose/.â€Å"Lose vs. Loose vs. Loosen: Whats the Difference?†Ã‚  Writing Explained, 8 Dec. 2015, writingexplained.org/lose-versus-loose-difference.