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Assignment 4 The Feeding Tube

HSA 515

Assignment 4: The Feeding Tube

Write a 4 to 6 page paper based on your answers to the corresponding questions for the following scenario:

Scenario:

June, a 34-year-old divorced woman diagnosed with severe anorexia, is hospitalized. Her doctors feel she may need to be placed on a feeding tube soon to save her life. Initially June agreed to the feeding tube. However, in the evening (before the tube has been placed), she became combative, disoriented, and refused to have the feeding tube placed. Her mother and father insisted that the feeding tube be inserted despite her refusal to allow it. Her ex-husband wishes to uphold June’s decision. The hospital administrators seek risk management for legal counsel.

Utilize your Showalter textbook and at least two other sources to answer the following questions:

Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this situation.

Based on the facts given in the scenario, would the patient be considered competent to decide? Explain your answer.

Explain the primary responsibility of June’s doctors.

Explain the primary responsibility of the hospital administrators.

Explain the hospital’s ethical obligations in this situation.

Explain the hospital’s legal obligations in this situation

ANSWER:

1. Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this situation.

The U.S constitution is called the supreme law of the land because it sets standards against which all other laws are judged. The constitution is a grant of power from the states to the federal government. The constitution is a grant of power from the states to the federal government. This grant of power to the federal government is both express and implied. The U.S congress levy and collect taxes, borrow and coin money, declare war, raise and support armies. Congress may also enact laws that are necessary and proper for exercising these expressive powers.

The first ten were ratified in 1791 which are known now as the bill or rights some rights include the following: the right to exercise freedom of speech, practice religion, be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures, bear arms in an organized militia, demand a jury trial, to be protected against self-incrimination and be accordance substantive and procedural due process of law. The bill of rights apply to this situation because June has the right to decide what she wants to do which means she has the right to eat or not eat because it’s her body. Since June initially agreed to have the feeding tube the Bill of rights shouldn’t really apply to her. But since June does have the right to do what she wants to do. This makes June justifiable and makes her have the right to actually decide what she wants to do. This means she has the right to not have the feeding tube inserted in her stomach. In this event it’s difficult to understand why she would do this to herself. June can also be considered suicidal because she is willing to actually risk her life and she could pose a threat on herself and others. The bill of rights does apply to June’s right this is why she is going to need to get legal counsel in order to continue with the feeding tube.

2. Based on the facts given in the scenario, would the patient be considered competent to decide? Explain your answer.

Anorexia is an eating disorder which is characterized by the refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. This can be coupled with a distorted self image.

They alter of how the affected individual evaluates and thinks about her or his body, food and eating. People with anorexia continue to feel huger but deny themselves all but very small quantities of food. Based on the facts of this scenario I believe that June the patient is not unable to decide whether to have the feeding tube.

At the time of the feeding tube she becomes combative and disoriented. This makes her unable to actually help herself out of this mess she has gotten into. This is because June has a disease and is refusing to eat this is considered an illness. June’s condition requires console and care in order for her to survive.

3. Explain the primary responsibility of June’s doctors.

The responsibility of June’s doctors is to make sure she gets the proper care and makes sure she eats the correct food. It’s important for June to understand that she has to eat food in order to survive. And also it’s very important June eats in order to survive in order live. It’s also important for the doctor’s to help June understand that this is a mental condition of how she evaluates herself. Also June needs to understand that this is a psychiatric disorder and that it requires immediate counsel in order to get past it. June needs to understand that the symptoms can include starvation and malnutrition which is common in this disease and that is can cause complications through every organ in her body. Some of these complications can cause rapid and dramatic weight loss. And even dieting which leads to being dangerously underweight. There is also a fear of gaining weight of becoming overweight. Some anorexia’s use laxatives and diet pills on a regular basis and may even engage in self-induced vomiting.

4. Explain the primary responsibility of the hospital administrators.

Hospital administrators are responsible for overall management of health services centers. The following polices are set by governing board of trustees, administrators plan and organize, direct and control coordinate medical and health services. This would include drug abuse treatment centers and long term care facilities. Their responsibilities are varied and usually require the cooperation of assistant administrators and the medical support staff.

The hospital is seeking risk management for legal counsel. This is important in order to save her life. With Anorexia this type of eating disorder can kill people with starving themselves to death. Individuals with anorexia have extreme weight loss which is 15% below the average person normal body weight. People with anorexia are very skinny but are still convinced they are still overweight. Many individual will refuse to eat in front of other people.

5. Explain the hospital’s ethical obligations in this situation. The hospital ethical obligation in this situation is important because their main objective is to save June life even if she refuses because of obsession to be thin. This disease of anorexia is a very serious and dangerous. There are many individuals that take this disease to far as to starve themselves to death. And in some circumstances some women don’t even care is they eat or not. More individuals with this disease are more concerned with how good they look than eating food. Many models suffer from this disease because of many people perception of being thin looks better than being average.

6. Explain the hospital’s legal obligations in this situation

The hospital’s legal obligation in this situation is to try to save June life from starving herself to death. It’s also June’s right to refuse help and deny it. But it’s the hospital’s legal obligation in this situation to try in any way possible to save June’s life. The hospital needs to make sure they get her legal consent before there is any feeding tube placed into her body. June needs to be aware of her care and that she is being helped by the hospital rather than being held against her will. This is why the legal counsel is important for her to go through in order to save her life. It’s also the hospitals obligation to educate her on certain issues that are affecting her mentally and psychically which can also be another factor in her suffering from this disease. Apparently June needs to be educated on the causes and reasons of her disease. Some cultural factors could have led to the promotion of thinness as the ideal female form in the western industrialized nations. This disease is likely to develop among certain environmental factors such as through gender and ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This is primarily true from non-European parents who are wealthy and are from white families this is based on statistics. Another factor that can influence this disease is because of particular professions such as models, actors and dancers. Another factor can be because of the constant pressure of being thin from the social media.

Reference

Showalter, J. S. (2008). The law of healthcare administration (5th ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.

Anorexia. (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/26622/anorexia

For the American Heritage Dictionary definition:

counsel. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved August 21 2011 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/counsel

Assignment for Essay #4

ENG 010

Sarah E. M. Acunzo

Assignment for Essay #4

Assignment: For this assignment, you will use the skills you learned during the last 3 units to write a process analysis essay where you explain to the reader how to do something you are familiar with and relate it to your personal experience.

There are countless ideas you could utilize for this assignment, but here are some suggestions you can borrow or adapt in case you are stuck:

-how to repair, install, or operate something

-how to make some kind of food or craft

-how to celebrate or prepare for a certain holiday

-how to do a task at your job

-how to have a successful relationship, or to end one without hurting someone’s feelings

-how to reduce stress, get in shape, or exercise

-how to prepare for a test or presentation

-how to find a job, an apartment, or a car

-how to find time for both work and school

-how to prepare for a game or match as an athlete

-how to play a certain kind of game or sport

-how to teach a child how to read or anything else

-how to successfully live on your own

-how to do something you have talent for

Issues to Consider:

· Choose a topic that you are interested in and that you already know something about. You will not do research.

· Create a developed thesis statement that proves something. Express a thought or a feeling about the process that can be backed up in your body paragraphs. Do not just say there is a process.

· The steps of your process should be clear and explained with sufficient detail and examples. This essay will be slightly longer than your other essays.

· Each body paragraph should have a clear topic sentence. You will have a minimum of 7 paragraphs in this essay:

1 introduction, 2 or 3 where you explain the steps, 2 or 3 where you relate the process to your own personal experience (past, present, future), and 1 conclusion.

You may choose to have your paragraphs where to you relate the process to your personal experience come before you explain the process or afterwards. It is up to you.

Requirements: Your final draft of your essay should be a minimum of 7 paragraphs and 3 pages in length (typed and double spaced). This is a little longer than we have been doing.

Assignment-4-Medical-Associates-5-pages-with-4-references-1

Medical Associates

HSA 525

Medical Associates is a large for-profit group practice. Its dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 7% per year into the foreseeable future. The firm’s last dividend (D0) was $2, and its current stock price is $23. The firm’s beta coefficient is 1.6; the rate of return on 20-year T-bonds currently is 9%; the expected rate of return is 13%. The firm’s target capital structure calls for 50% debt financing, the interest rate required on the business’s new debt is 10%, and its tax rate is 40%.

1. Calculate Medical Associates’ cost of equity estimate using the DCF method.

The company’s current stock price, Po, is $23, and its next expected annul dividend, E(D1), is $2. Thus, the firm’s Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) estimate of R(Re), according to the DCF model is: R(Re) = E(D1)/Po +E(g).

Answer 1 Last dividend 2

Dividend growth rate 7%

Current stock price 23

AS per DDM, Re = D1/P0 + g 16.30%

2. Calculate the cost of equity estimate using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM).

CAPM is a widely accepted finance model that specifies that equilibrium risk/return relationship on common stocks, it assumes that investors consider only one risk factor when setting required rates of return. Within the CAPM, the actual equation that relates risk to return is the Security Market Line (SML):

R(Re) = RF + [R(Rm) – RF] x b

R(Re) = RF + (RPm x b)

Answer 2  

Risk free return 9%

Beta 1.6

Return from market 13%

As per CAPM,  

Cost of equity = Rf+ (Rm – Rf)*β 15.40%

Managers can estimate the required rate of return on the firm’s stock, R(Re), given estimates of the risk-free rate, RF, the beta of the stock, (b) 1.6, and the required rate of return on the market, R(Rm). RM = to the expected market return is the return the investor would expect to receive from a broad stock market indicator such as the S&P 500 Index. For example, over the last 17 years or so, the S&P 500 has yielded investors an average annual return of around 8.10%. This estimate, in turn can be used as the estimate for the Firm’s cost equity.

3. On the basis of your answers to #1 & #2, what is your final estimate for the firm’s cost of equity?

Answer 3 CAPM, is a better measure among CAPM and DDM approach. Cost of equity 15.40%

4. Calculate the firm’s estimate for corporate cost of capital.

Weight Pre tax cost Post tax cost Weight*post tax cost

Debt 50% 10% 6.00% 3.00%

Equity 50% 15.40% 15.40% 7.70%

Cost of capital 10.70%

5. Describe the four (4) steps of capital budgeting analysis.

The four steps to capital budgeting are as follows:

1. Estimation of cash flows; the investment to be made is to be determined. The income from the project either in terms of profits or cash flows is to be estimated.

2. Assessment of riskiness of the cash flows; the riskiness of the project is to be compared to that of the existing projects of the firm.

3. Determining the appropriate discount rate; the discount rate to be used for the project is then determined according to the riskiness of the project and the proportions of various capitals used.

4. Finding the PV of cash flows; the last step is to discount the cash flows with the appropriate discount rate, to compute the present value of expected cash flows.

6. Describe how is project risk is incorporated into a capital budgeting analysis.

The risk involved in a project is reflected in its discount rate. The higher the risk of the project, the higher will be required return of the capital providers. Thus, the discount rate of the project is high. The risk thus reduces the present value of the project.

References

Cash vs. Accrual Accounting Methods. (2010). Retrieved December 5, 2010, from

AllBusiness.com: HYPERLINK “http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting-reporting/methods-standards-“http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting-reporting/methods-standards-

cash/1308-1.html

Gapenski, L. C. (2008). Healthcare Finance: An Introduction to Accounting and Financial

Management (4th ed.). United States: Health Administration Press.

Miller, C. (2008, Summer). The Equity Capital Gap. Retrieved November 1, 2010, from

Stanford University School of Business: http://nonprofitfinancefund.org/files/docs/2010/

ssir_summer_2008_equity_capital_gap.pdf

Assignment-5-Final-Draft

ASB Budgeting Issue with School BBQ’s

Prepared by

Name Here

ASB Vice President

Private High School Name

November 22, 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………..………… 3

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….…… 4

Behind the Scenes……………………………………………………….….………………. 5

What We Ask………………………………………………………….………………………6

Conclusion………………………………………….………………………………………… 8

Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………….. 7

Works Cited………………………………………………….…………………………..… 9

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES PAGE

ASB Logo ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Your Invited …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

School Dance ……………………………………………………………………….………………….. 8

Executive Summary

Private School Name has been a great high school for me as I have grown up. However, with the recent changes to school policy that disallow the ASB from conducting its regular Friday school BBQ’s the Associate Student Body has lost more than half of its incoming funding.

The problem has raised concern to the ASB because we can no longer plan the same caliber of events that we were previously planning for the school. The ASB does not have a budget on a yearly or monthly basis given to it. The funding that the ASB used to plan the dances was generated by the weekly BBQ’s that it was performing as a service to the school.

I propose that the ASB be allowed to perform its weekly BBQ’s so that it can attain the funding needed to perform school wide events and keep the moral of students raised. If the ASB is not allowed to perform its BBQ’s to obtain funding then I would purpose that the school establishes a monthly or yearly budget for the ASB so that it can perform the duties that were previously expected of it.

INCLUDEPICTURE “http://clickspecialednz.com/wp-content/uploads/ASB-Logo-B-on-W-HR.jpg” * MERGEFORMATINET Introduction

The Associate Student Body of my old high school has been facing a problem for as long as I can remember. The ASB has been fighting a dilemma of underfunding for years now, and it has really put a hold on the high school experiences of many different kids at school. The problems I am referring to stem from the low attendance rate, which leads to underfunding for all departments of the school. Personally I was in many different organizations throughout my high school career. I played sports, sang in the choir, and even was elected Vice President of the entire school. My experiences at the high school were much different than that of the average high school student. Typically in your average high school class there are more than 500 people just in a single grade, at my high school I graduated with 17 others in total. Our school was small and underfunded, but it provided me a great education. Spending my almost my whole academic career at this school (2nd Grade – 12th Grade) I can definitely speak on behalf of the school and say with confidence that some aspects of the school were incredible while others were lacking terribly. ( Marguerite, 2009)

The particular aspect that I feel most needs to be addressed at my old high school was an issue with the ASB not being able to attain any funding for school wide events. The ASB at the beginning of the school year started with an average budget of between $500 and $1000 dollars. This was usually a bank left by the ASB of the previous year to help get the new ASB off to a running start. This amount of money is trivial when we realize that with this money has to be used to run most of the school events, and by the end of the year you have to have the same amount of money you started with. The initial funding of the ASB was usually used to purchase snacks and food for school wide events. Each day the ASB was allowed to sell snacks at the 15 minute break during the day. The snacks being sold usually consisted of candy bars, muffins, chips, soda, and water. These were mandated to be sold at a low price averaging between 50 and 75 cents per items. These low prices allowed students to be able to snack on something in the middle of the day for a low price. However with prices like these the ASB made little profit. (Calleros, 1995)

Usually with small profits which were limited further by the amounts of sales which averaged between $25 and $100. The ASB pulled in daily revenue, but frequently most of the money was put back into product costs. This left the ASB underfunded and unable to plan certain high school events such as Homecoming, Spring Formal, Sadie Hawkins Dance, and more. The ASB was not granted any tuition funding from the school and was therefore unable to plan nice events that the high school students deserved. To combat this problem the ASB initiated school wide fundraisers by sending “grams” during the holidays. Students were able to send letters from other students by buying gram from the ASB who then distributed the grams with a piece of candy. This made some initial profits for the ASB, but didn’t amount to the $1000’s of dollars needed to plan events that the ASB was responsible for. (Spaulding, 1918)

Finally the ASB came up with a way to make money that both the students enjoyed, and was profitable. The ASB began to do BBQ’s one Friday a month and ran them for profit. Students were able to purchase hamburgers, chips, and drinks, and more for a low price that offered the ASB some room to make some money. This BBQ’s proved to be very profitable for the ASB, and began to run BBQ’s on multiple Friday’s a month. Soon thereafter the school contested the BBQ’s because students were no longer buying the school provided lunches. The school was making money off of the lunches, but it was minuscule compared to the amount that the ASB was able to make for its Friday BBQ’s. The ASB’s funding was again cut off. This cutting off of funds left the ASB dry without money. This forced the ASB to charge students outrageous prices to come to dances and other events. Outraged by this I decided to write a proposal that outlined why the school should either provide a yearly budget to the ASB for events or allow the ASB the opportunity to make money from the school wide BBQ’s.

Behind the Scenes

The job of the ASB

The purpose of the ASB is to plan and provide for school related activities. The ASB has worked tremendously hard to provide an environment enjoyable to high school students of Calvary Christian School. The ASB currently has enough funding to run day to day school wide activities, however with the recent limiting of the school wide BBQ’s the amount of funding for after school activities has dropped. The ASB cannot provide decent events for high school students.

The needs of the ASB

The ASB needs to be provided with the ability to subsidize its own events or it needs to have funding provided by the school. The ASB has in the past ran BBQ’s for profit and been able to subsidize after school events by acquiring funds from the students who wish to have a good school lunch. Currently the school provides lunches each day of the week for a price of $4.00 per lunch, however recently the ASB has been debunked of its Friday BBQ’s because it has been dipping into the school’s lunch revenue. The ASB brings in an average of $400 in revenue each Friday it has a BBQ, however the school averages about $100 in revenue from its daily BBQ’s, this amount to $500 a week, or $400 a week if the ASB runs its BBQ’s on Fridays. The ASB would like to purpose that it be allowed to run its Friday BBQ’s or have the school subsidize the ASB its $400 a week.

The past funding of the ASB

In the past the ASB was able to run BBQ’s and subsidize its cost for 3 annual school dances. The average cost of these dances was around $4500 each that must be provided for by the ASB. This is to keep ticket prices low and around $40 per individual who wishes to attend any dance. These dances usually have around 100 attendees and results in a total cost of around $8500 for an event. These events are held 3 times a year. Previously the ASB was making on average about $1600 a month from school BBQ’s however now that the funding from BBQ’s has been removed the school dances can no longer be paid for by the ASB. Over the course of 3 months of BBQ’s the ASB was able to provide for the costs of the school dances. However now that the BBQ’s are being stopped the ASB can no longer afford to provide for the BBQ’s.

INCLUDEPICTURE “https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTb7IkDe3q84u4lwkA-gAFfc29Lp6LeKxeM63xVrxOvIu3LkJ75yQ” * MERGEFORMATINET

What we ask

The proposal of the ASB

The ASB would purpose that the school either decides to subsidize the ASB’s school dances at the cost of $4500 per dance or allow us to continue having the school BBQ’s to fund our events. The ASB would further propose that if the school is truly upset about the revenue being lost from the lunch meals that the ASB would pay the school a dividend of $100 a week to be able to perform the school BBQ’s. This would be a comprisable point between the two arguments at stake. This way the ASB is still able to make an average of $300 off of its weekly BBQ’s, and the school does not take a $100 week revenue hit.

A breaking point

The ASB can no longer provide school dances for the students without some sort of compromise on this issue. Please consider funding our school dances or allowing us to be able to conduct the weekly BBQ’s. Without these school dances, morale of students would decrease and could possibly end up with even less students being able to come to the school. Right now the school is running most of its extracurricular programs with an extremely low budget. The ASB would like to be able to continue the dances without impacting the school’s budget at all.

Conclusion

A friendly agreement

The ASB would like to be as civil in its request for funding as possible. We would like to assume that the school realizes how much of a burden it creates for the ASB when it takes away its funding. The ASB cannot carry out its fundamental duties when it doesn’t have the necessary funds to do so. By keeping the ASB well-funded and happy the school provides the ASB with the opportunity to make the students happy with their experiences at school. Without money for nice events the ASB gets blamed, and therefore the school gets blamed for “lame” events.

The final decision

The final decision lies with the principal and the school board. The ASB hopes that we find favor with the school board by either allowing us to continue funding ourselves via school BBQ’s or that we would have an approved monthly or yearly budget set aside for school wide functions. The money is there for the school BBQ’s and the ASB is willing to do the work, we just ask that you and the school board are willing to let us. The ASB would hate to see its primary source of funding dropped. Please consider the hard working students of the school and how much they deserve to be rewarded for the effort that they put into their school work. (Finn, 1993)

A reminder

The ASB is more than willing to donate a percentage of its profits to the school lunch system so that any revenue that was previously being generated by the school lunch system can continue to be made. This should be a reasonable solution so that the school continues to generate its monthly lunch revenue, and the ASB is able to fund its school functions.

Recommendation

I highly recommend the reimplementation of the school BBQ’s. This ensures that both the school and the ASB continue to receive the money necessary for both parties to retain their budgets. The school cannot expect to have happy students without a happy ASB. With the Reimplementation of the BBQ’s the ASB will be more than happy to continue to serve the student of this great school.

INCLUDEPICTURE “https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2MKmbRn32sw9jcn4kK78T4pl3UFu9td7J9Q4TVTbnHh7e4JZP” * MERGEFORMATINET

Works Cited

Marguerite, R. (2009). Breaking down school budgets.Education Next, 9(3), Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://educationnext.org/breaking-down-school-budgets-2/” http://educationnext.org/breaking-down-school-budgets-2/

Spaulding, F. (1918). The making of a school budget. The School Review, 26(9), 684-695. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.jstor.org/stable/1078320” http://www.jstor.org/stable/1078320

alleros, C. R. (1995). Training a diverse student body for a multicultural society. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/berklarlj8&div=12&id=&page” http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/berklarlj8&div=12&id=&page=

Finn, J. D. (1993). School characteristics related to student engagement. The Journal of Negro Education,62(3), 249-268. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.jstor.org/stable/2295464” http://www.jstor.org/stable/2295464

Asthronomy Lab

Asthronomy Lab

Name

Date

Asthronomy Lab

Phase I: Exploration

After logging into the given cite, I was able to see a total of twenty stars. They were appearing larger than the galaxies which are far away from the Earth. Because of the small size of the stars, I had to expand their image of being a little bit larger than they were before. It is only because of this that I managed to count the twenty stars.

The total number of galaxies was twelve. This was ascertained after identifying a section of the image as was directed. All the number of objects in a quarter of the image was counted. Thereafter, the finding was multiplied by four to reach at the total number of galaxies for the whole image. This can be demonstrated in the following calculation:

One quarter = 3

Whole image = 4X3 = 12

Some of the galaxies are orange-red in color, while others are white, and others are blue.

The most common color of galaxies in this object is the blue. According to my observation, it was the most prominent color which could be seen in most of the galaxies present in the object. I think this is because they are appearing to be more spiral than any other type of galaxy which always has a different color. In this regard, the galaxies have to show the blue coloring, so as to fulfill this condition.

The galaxies are relatively far. This is because they appear smaller than usual when viewed. However, this cannot be compared to the stars which are positioned far away. I think this is because of their formation. Often, the formation of the Milky Way is a very long process which involves a series of reactions. This explains why these spiral galaxies appear to be far away. However, this does not mean that their diameters will differ. They remain the same, since these are similar objects despite their varying distances from the Earth. They, therefore, have to appear far when viewed in such an image.

Phase II – Does the Evidence Match a Given Conclusion?

I would agree with the generalization that “nearby galaxies are equally split between circular-round and elongated spiral shapes”, because it is accurate and is not misleading at all. It is a true observation of what is happening during the formation of galaxies. The image shows a collection of 10,000 galaxies which were formed millions of years ago. Because of this, the nearby galaxies have to be split between themselves besides having circular round elongated shape. This is typical of a galaxy which must always be seen to be appearing at varying distances.

In this regard, I would like to agree with the student for making such an assertion. In fact, it is a right observation which gives the right information about the galaxy as seen by a telescope. He was right for making such a generalization.

Phase III – What Conclusions Can You Draw From This Evidence?

The distribution of galaxies is not even. This is because the formation of stars must have taken place during different times. The information presented in the table is quite accurate because it gives in-depth information about what is happening as observed by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field researchers. This is a clear indication that such a distribution of galaxies can show a variation in size and shape depending on the distance under which it was covered.

At the same time, galaxies can be of different colors because of the distances they occupy at any given time. Actually, a telescope can help in capturing thousands of galaxies which have lots of stars in them. This is what is seen in this Hubble Ultra Deep Field distribution given in the above study.

Phase IV – What Evidence Do You Need To Pursue?

It is true that there is a difference between the numbers of nearby and extremely distant galaxies. This is in line with lots of researches which have been done by different scholars in this field. It is also true that there are more distant galaxies than the nearby ones. This is because a typical study done some distances away may show galaxies far away to be more than the nearby ones which are seen as whole objects occupying a bigger space. Their long distance enables them to orbit far from the galactic core as compared to the nearby galaxies. This kind of opposing force between these galaxies determines the difference in their numbers.

This process of evidence description is long and entails a lot of steps. It involves a series of studies using a telescope. When charged with such a responsibility, I would go to the blog and analyze how this can be done. First, the researcher should have all the required materials used for looking at the different types of galaxies available in the object observed. Then, he should go ahead to calculate their distances before determining their respective colors and shapes.

Phase V – Formulate a Question, Pursue Evidence, and Justify Your Conclusion

Specific research question here would be: “Is galaxy appearing far or near?” When carrying out such a study, it is essential to follow all the laid procedures. This will begin from carrying out a baseline study, so as to be acclimatized with the actual situation before beginning the analysis. It involves series of studies using a telescope. When charged with such a responsibility, I would go to the blog and analyze how this can be done. First, the researcher should have all the required materials used for looking at the different types of galaxies available in the object observed. Lastly, sort out their shapes before concluding the work.

The conclusion base on evidence will be that distribution is random, making the stars appear smaller and much in number.

Summary

This test was carried out well. The galaxies appear to be unevenly distributed in the whole region. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field study is clear evidence that galaxies are in different sixes depending on their distance from the Earth. Those seen near the Earth are bigger than those located far away. At the same time, it is important to clarify that stars are smaller than the galaxies. This is clear evidence on the fact that they are also located as varying distances.

Audience-Focused Communication Matrix

Axia College Material

Appendix B

Audience-Focused Communication Matrix

Use the matrix to complete the information. Write 3-4 sentences for each item.

What are some audience characteristics you need to consider?

What communication channels would be appropriate and why?

What would you do to ensure your message is effective?

What are some considerations you must keep in mind given the diversity of the audience?

Audience-Focused Communication

Audience Audience Characteristics Channels of Communication Strategies to Ensure Effective Messages Audience Diversity Considerations

Managers Management of team

Focus on bulding a competitive environment

Adaptable

Charmaistic

Great listener

Stable

Empathy

Email

Written and verbal communication The message should be precise and upto the point

Salespeople Assertive

Empathy Email

Verbal Focused on apoint Customers Looks for high value

Need to focus on fulfilling their needs and desires

Telephone

Verbal

The message send and the communication needs to be very persuasive All Looks for high value

Need to focus on fulfilling their needs and desires

Assertive

Empathy

Written

Verbal

Electronic Persuasive

Effiective

Precise

BELLERBYS COLLEGE

Bellerbys College

Business Plan

Insert Business Name and Logo

Teacher: Insert name

Table of Contents

Part 1: Business Plan2

Introduction2

1. Aims and Objectives3

2. Idea Generation3

3.Market and target market4

4.Elevator Pitch4

5.Sources of Finance5

6.Financial data: Cost, Revenue & Profit6

7.Financial Data: Cash Flow 7

8.Legal Structure7

9.Digital Strategy8

10.Evaluating my Business idea and Business Plan9

Part 2: Business Failure11

Task 1- Power Point Slides11

Task 2- Business Failure Report11

Bibliography14

Appendix16

Introduction

Business management and planning are central to the success of any business from startup to growth and expansion. In this view, this report illustrates a plan to establish a Healthy Mashed Potato company. it focuses on various aspects such as the aims and objectives of the business idea generation, targeting of prospective customers and elevator pitch. Besides, the report provides an overview of different sources of finance and indicates the most appropriate for the proposed business. It offers a summary of the financial projections it demonstrates the viability of the business. Additionally, the preferred legal structure and digital strategy of the business is highlighted. The report also reviews the failure of Pan American International Airways in comparison with Blockbusters which also failed. The review shows some of the factors that can drive the success or failure of a business.

Aims and Objectives 

The mission of Healthy Mashed Potato Company (HMPC) is to become one of the leading premier fast-casual food companies that offer healthy processed potato in the food industry. The firm aims to produce healthy foods in society amidst increasing concerns about unhealthy fast food. The primary aim of the company is to offer healthier and affordable potato food products in the country. It seeks to expand the market share of healthy food by approximately 10%. Therefore, the company purposes to achieve its mission through enhancing traffic in its stores through offering, healthy and affordable potato products.

Idea Generation

Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the most successful brands that have succeeded through the selling of Chicken. Its success arises from its ability to collaborate with farmers and help them enhance the production of healthy chickens to ensure that the positive influence quality and reduce operations costs. Secondly, the firm drives its sales through the creation of a strong brand name essentially because of effective marketing and sales strategies (Kowalkowski, 2015). HMPC will be successful since it shares some of the strengths of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The company shall establish a close working relationship with farmers and also open factories close to the potato plantations to reduce the cost of operation. Secondly, the company aims at improving its sales and customer traffic by building a strong brand image and strategic marketing activities. The combination of these two strategies will ensure that HMPC can improve its revenues while cutting operational costs to promote its profitability. 

Graph 1: Market for Healthy Snacks

Market and Target market

HMPC aims to become a global producer and supplier of potato products. In this view, the primary target segment is young adults, teenagers, and children. The group is targeted since they are the highest consumers of the potato products across the globe. HMPC’s product is targeted at a mass market. The company does not restrict its services to the targeted consumers since anybody can be the customer of the company regardless of age. Food products are bought by all the people in the society. Therefore, the business focuses. Recently, there has been an enormous increase in the growth of healthy snacks. Currently, it dominates about 36% of the snacks market and it is expected to grow about 7.9% annually (Findholt et al., 2014). Therefore, there is still a gap in the market for healthy potato products. 

Elevator Pitch

The product offered by HMPC is Mashed Potato. While there is an increase in the production and supply of healthy snacks across the globe, there are still high concerns about unhealthy foods. In this case, HMPC aims at increasing the supply of healthy mashed potato products in the market. The products specifically target children, teenagers and the young adults who comprise the highest population of those consumers’ snacks. The product seeks to enhance the supplier of the healthy snacks to reduce unhealthy foods in the market to help in addressing the issue of obesity and overweight among children as a result of unhealthy snacks in the market (Bublitz & Peracchio, 2015). The unique selling point of HMPC is designed for every client a set of dietary according to various health conditions. The firm shall add value through sourcing natural food products used for production. 

Sources of Finance

Different sources of finance can facilitate business startup. Firstly, there is a personal investment which is advantageous because one is not under pressure of repaying. However, the challenge with a personal investment is that it is limited in some cases it may not be enough. Friends and family can also help with some money in the form of grants or loans. Its benefit is the fact that it is interest-free. The number of friends and family can be small and may cause dependence. Business loans are another source that is advantageous since one can borrow a large amount of money. Nonetheless, the interests may be high and the business owner is always under pressure to pay it. In this view, the best source is a combination of personal investment and business loans because it enhances access to the full amount of the required initial capital. However, loans can be affected by an increase in interest rates which makes them expensive to procure. On the other hand, interest rates and inflation may affect the projections of the initial capital since it results in higher prices which will necessitate the procurement of more finances. It has to be noted that a sole trader has unlimited liability and has to shoulder all the debts made against his or her business. Besides, it makes it difficult to raise funds using personal savings or consumer loans (Klačmer et al., 2014). In the case of HMPC, the 25000 pounds which is the initial investment was a grant which is advantageous as a source of finance because it offers flexibility in the management of the business due to minimal pressure of repaying the money.

FINANCIAL DATA: COST, REVENUE & PROFIT

Variable and Fixed cost

The Fixed Costs

Item Amount in Pounds

Rent for Space 6000

Weekly Payroll 4000

Production Equipment 7000

Utility bills 3000

Variable Costs

Delivery charges 1000

Advertising and Publicity 2000

Sales commissions 2000

Total 25000

Table 1: Fixed and Variable Cost.

Figure 2: Break Even Chart

The breakeven chart is important in the management of costs, profits and volume. It helps in the examination of the relationship of volume, cost, and profit. It is a useful tool in making managerial decisions since it shows the impact on profit of changes in variable costs, fixed costs, volume of sales, and selling price (Krishna et al., 2017). Financial data: Cash Flow

Trading Quarter First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter Fourth Quarter Total

Cash Flow

Cash Inflow (A)

Sales 4000 5000 15000 22000 32500

Total Inflow 4000 5000 15000 22000 32500

Cash Outflows Utilities 500 500 500 1000 2500

Wages 2000 2500 3000 4000 9500

Professional fees 1000 1000 1000 1000 4000

Marketing 1000 1000 2000 2500 6500

Rent 2500 2500 2500 2500 10000

Equipments 8000 Total Outflow (B) 7000 7500 9500 11000 35000

Cash Summaries

Net Cash (A-B -11000 -2500 5500 11000 Capital 25000 0 0 0 25000

Opening Balance 0 14000 Closing Balance 14000 11500 17000 28000 Cash flow is beneficial because it helps in understanding the liquidity position of the company and how funds flow. As the cash position of the company is known, any shortfall assessed and mitigations put in place to address it (Cavusgil et al., 2015). The challenge of developing a cash flow includes slow-paying invoices, expensive debts, and incorrect sales forecasting.

Legal Structure

The business takes a form of Sole Trade in its initial stages but progressively it will be transformed into a limited firm. The sole trade is established because of its ease to form and to start doing business. The registration process and requirements are very minimal which will result in the fast operationalization of the business. A sole trader is preferred because the owner has complete control and tax filling processes are quite simple. Overall, the cost of starting a sole trader is less compared to any other form of business. It will offer flexibility in making things work and the company to start growing (Burns, 2016). After growth has started it would be easier to change to a limited company. 

Digital Strategy

The advent of technology and globalization has brought new opportunities for businesses. Ecommerce notwithstanding enables a small business to increase their competitiveness and productivity by providing a comprehensive range of benefits which include; low operational costs resulting from automation that reduces operational processes and infrastructure. Other benefits include increased revenue, greater customer acquisition, customer buying analytics, social recommendation, online presence and larger marketing ROI (Bones & Hammersley, 2015). This levels the field and allows small enterprises to punch far above their weight in customer attraction and compete against established businesses.

However, the disadvantage of e-commerce to a business idea is that it creates duplication of duties on the online and offline fronts leading to additional costs. Also, many customers still prefer the personal relationships formed by businesses with a physical presence. Security and credit fraud are huge risks for online businesses. Network unreliability and coverage create unreliability challenges. Legal issues that emerge when running on online company i.e. software infringement make investors shy away.

Ecommerce is good for business and a great experience for customers because of its convenience and easiness. Also, it can attract new customers with search engine visibility. It also decreases the cost of inventory management by using the web-based management system. It also gives the owner insight into customers’ buying habits and hence be able to provide tailor-made offers to suit customer requirements. It also allows the business to stay open and operate 24/7/365, therefore, being beneficial for customers to buy products at their convenience. It boosts brand awareness in the market through search optimization and enhances the target audience to your products (Bones & Hammersley, 2015). Finally, it offers an opportunity to expand the market for niche products.

Evaluation of my Business idea and Business Plan

A business plan refers to blueprint of a company and an essential part when starting a business. It tests the feasibility of the market by ensuring that attention is paid to the broad operational and financial objectives of the business idea to make the business manageable and effective. Business plan development requires analysis of the present situation, setting objectives, developing and instituting a strategic & financial plan. This helps to see the whole picture and give strategic focus through development of priorities, managing reforms, and enhancing accountability. It also manages cashflows, strategic alignment, and setting realistic continuous monitoring systems (Cosenz 2018). Planning holds many benefits; however, it has its sets of challenges that lead to the failure of a business. The challenges include failure to involve the relevant individuals, poor implementation, inadequate accountability issues, and spending time on irrelevant issues (Saura 2019).

With a good business plan, it is easier to show all interested parties your commitment to building the business. The plan establishes milestones that are laid out for the success of the business. It forces you to analyze the competition hence getting an in-depth understanding of customers. It brings out previously hidden assumptions and tests their viability. It assesses the feasibility of the venture and documents the revenue model (Chang 2017). The plan also determines the amount of capital needed and its usage. This forms the basis for financial proposals and provides answers to key questions. It is a gateway to research and a firm understanding of market trends. This is necessary in attracting a talented management team as it plots a roadmap of its operations and direction to look on in times of doubt. It also establishes partnerships and positions for the business hence widening the scope of customers, investors, and partners. The plan gives a clear view of how to judge the success of the business. It repositions the business when dealing with changing conditions and documents the growth patterns of the business. All these are essential in determining its viability, forecasting the company’s needs and uncovering new opportunities (Hinterhuber 2017).

In the development of the business plan, I was able to complete the business idea sections effectively but experienced challenges with financial data. The framing of the business idea and identification of the market segments and targets was done well. I was able to explain and identify the best sources of finance. Besides, the development of the legal strategy was effectively done. However, I need to improve on the financial data presented to ensure that I can effectively capture all the expenses, sales focus and use it to develop the break-even charts and the cash flow statement.

Part 2: Business Failure

Task 2 – Insert Power Point Slides

Task 2 – Business failure report

Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) established in 1927 and was seen as a symbol of aviation’s historical days and the largest international carrier in America for many years dead cease business in 1991 due to business failure related issues. At its peak, the company set the world record by using B747 (Kunert & Staar, 2018). After 64 years of growth and prosperity, the business ceased its business due to challenges such as unfavorable poor management, fierce competition, and poor brand image but the name continues to live on but it has now been adopted by a private rail company.

Reasons for Pan American World Airways Failure

Poor management

 Pan America World Airways failed because of poor management. Despite its growth and successes throughout the 1970s, the management of the airline was not able to navigate through different economic challenges. Due to the inability to operate in the domestic routes and the rising cost of fuels, the airline started making losses. Unfortunately, this was a challenge that effective management would have addressed immediately. Strategic management entails the ability to creatively and innovatively influence the growth of business and its sales despite different economic situations. The management ought to have developed policies and frameworks to navigate through the challenges that it experienced in the 1980s (Salpukas, 1991). In 1988, Pan Am B747 crashed in Lockerbie increasing the woes of the businesses. The FAA found that the airline had 19 security failings and fined it. These show that the management was not diligent to ensure that the safety of passengers is guaranteed. Consequently, the company lost about $300 million in lawsuits causing more losses. In the subsequent years, it was estimated that the company was losing about $3 million per day which made its operations unattainable (Kunert & Staar, 2018). In this view, Pan Am lacked strategic management and leadership which would help it navigate through competition and other economic challenges.

Fierce Competition

The aviation industry has been very competitive since when it was founded. Like any other business, expansion can result in bankruptcy or profits. The airline industry is largely influenced by the advancements of technology and change is constant. Such changes and the need to continue to maintain competitiveness in the market may result in losses (Kunert & Staar, 2018). Pan Am in the effort to enhance its competitiveness, adapt to the changing regulations, and consumers need experienced losses. Fierce competition in the market drove the fares down while the fuel prices were increasing and the expense concerning meeting changing demands of consumers and the market continued to rise. The United States government also tilted the favors of competition against Pan Am when it refused to allow it a connecting dome tic-route network. At the time, the domestic-based Transworld Airways dominated the local travels (Salpukas, 1991). Such issues affected the ability of the airline to increase its revenue base within the domestic market and also made it difficult to compete with airlines with both domestic and international travel rights.

Poor Brand Image

The management of Pan Am failed to effectively manage its brand image to gain goodwill and attraction among the consumers. Its problems started with the inability of the firm to build healthy working relationships with different agencies in the sector, for instance, the government and FAA. At one time the Department of Transport secretary indicated that the airline might cease operations soon. Coupled with a bad presser, lack of travel agents and fear, the fate of the airline in public perception and perspectives was sealed. Terror activities largely influenced the negative public image of the airline. In 1986 Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked in Pakistan and in 1988 terrorists bombed Flight 103 above Lockerbie damaging its reputation (Salpukas, 1991). Despite these challenges that affected its public image. The airline did not put in place effective public relations strategies to improve the confidence of its customers.

Comparison to Blockbuster

Blockbuster had grown and had more than a million worldwide but ceased its operations in 2010. Like Pan Am, the company was affected by several factors. However, one of the major reasons was that the business failed to adapt to the rapidly changing environment of providing movies. Pan Am remained with the renting of physical DVDs (Monaghan, 2013). Similarly, management is blamed for the failure of the company because it failed to acknowledge the new trends in the industry and attempt to develop strategies to overcome its challenges. The company’s management did not innovate yet; technology was rapidly developing within its environment. Blockbusters did not increase their streams of revenue. The brand image of Blockbusters also caused its failure the same way it caused in the failure with Pam Am. 

As the company grew it lost focus on the core customers resulting in low trust levels among consumers. Consequently, the business started losing clients over time directly impacting its brand image and reputation. Overall, poor management of blockbuster led to a negative brand image resulting in failure (Walls, 2014). The firm’s management did not focus on its relationship with the customers to ensure that I develop a strong brand image and reputation through customer-centered services. Therefore, the causes of failure of the two companies are fairly related.

Conclusion

Based on the review of the failure of Pan American Airways and comparing it with the Blockbusters, it is evident that the management of a business is at the center of all business failures. Both companies failed because of a lack of innovation and creativity to navigate through the challenges within their industry environment. Besides, competition and poor brand image cause business failure. In this view, it is essential for businesses to focus on having effective, creative and innovative management that focuses on the strategic growth of the company. Besides, it is essential for a company to develop proper strategies to address the changing demands and needs within the environment. Again, the reputation and brand image of a company determines its success or failure. It is important to create strategic marketing policies that address public relations to ensure that the company maintains a reputable brand image.

 

Bibliography

Bones, C., & Hammersley, J. (2015). Leading Digital Strategy: Driving business growth through effective e-commerce. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bublitz, M. G., & Peracchio, L. A. (2015). Applying industry practices to promote healthy foods: An exploration of positive marketing outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 68(12), 2484-2493.

Businesswire.com Global Health and Wellness Food Market 2018-2022. Adoption of Healthy Eating Habits Boost Demand. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180723005413/en/Global-Health-Wellness-Food-Market-2018-2022-Adoption”https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180723005413/en/Global-Health-Wellness-Food-Market-2018-2022-Adoption

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia.

Chang, W. L. (2017). Online training for business plan writing through the World Café method: the roles of leadership and trust. Universal Access in the Information Society, 16(2), 313-324.

Cosenz, F., & Noto, G. (2018). A dynamic business modelling approach to design and experiment new business venture strategies. Long Range Planning, 51(1), 127-140.

Hinterhuber, A., & Liozu, S. M. (2017). Is innovation in pricing your next source of competitive advantage? 1. In Innovation in Pricing (pp. 11-27). Routledge.

Findholt, N. E., Izumi, B. T., Nguyen, T., Pickus, H., & Chen, Z. (2014). Availability of healthy snack foods and beverages in stores near high-income urban, low-income urban, and rural elementary and middle schools in Oregon. Childhood Obesity, 10(4), 342-348.

Krishna, K. M., Pandey, N. K., & Thimmalapura, S. (2017, December). Break-even analysis and economic viability of powertrain electrification—An analytical approach. In 2017 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC-India) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Klačmer Čalopa, M., Horvat, J., & Lalić, M. (2014). Analysis of financing sources for start-up companies. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 19(2), 19-44.

Kowalkowski, C. (2015). Business marketing: A Nordic School perspective. Kowalkowski, Christian (2015),“Business Marketing: A Nordic School perspective”, in The Nordic School: Service Marketing and Management for the Future, Johanna Gummerus and Catharina von Koskull (Eds.).

Kunert, S., & Staar, H. (2018). Failure in organizational change. In Strategies in Failure Management (pp. 9-25). Springer, Cham.

Monaghan A. (2013) Blockbuster to disappear from high street after 25 years. The Guardian. HYPERLINK “https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/12/blockbuster-disappear-high-street-close-dvds”https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/12/blockbuster-disappear-high-street-close-dvds

Salpukas A. Dec 5, (1991). Its Cash Depleted, Pan Am Shuts. The New York Times. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/05/business/its-cash-depleted-pan-am-shuts.html”https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/05/business/its-cash-depleted-pan-am-shuts.html#

Saura, J. R., Palos-Sanchez, P., & Grilo, A. (2019). Detecting indicators for startup business success: Sentiment analysis using text data mining. Sustainability, 11(3), 917.

Walls, W. D. (2014). Bestsellers and Blockbusters: Movies, music, and books. In Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (Vol. 2, pp. 185-213). Elsevier.

Appendix

Appendices 1: Market Share of Healthy Food

Retrieved from Businesswire.com (2018)

Benefits of Facebook

Name:

Instructor:

Subject;

Date:

Social network is a term used to describe a system composed of individuals or organizations with a common interest of friendship, communication, advertisement, sharing knowledge and networking. Some of the present social networks include Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook among others. Facebook forms one of the major social networks in the world with over 800 million subscribers. Facebook’s operations are primarily dependent on the internet, where it offers the platform on which it operates (Cragun et al. 83).

Facebook’s operation is straightforward. One only needs to provide a valid email address for registration in order to create an account. One then fills in personal details such as where one lives, works or attended school. The network uses to notify users of any activities taking place in their accounts such as new messages, friend requests, comments or latest news around the globe. People can share their ideas, feelings or recent happenings in their lives. Other people get to comment and make their views on the person’s status update.

Joining Facebook has various benefits. It connects people by enhancing communication as it offers means of keeping in touch through means such as messages, pictures and chatting. It also gives people a chance to market their businesses, keep in touch with their clients and make new ones (Cragun et al. 83). Facebook is also a form of entertainment where one can upload photos, music and videos. They can also download and listen to music, view their friend’s photos and use different applications such as ‘hug-me’.

One does not always gain by joining Facebook. By joining Facebook, one loses privacy as they share personal information publicly with different people. People may want to intrude one’s life so endangering it. Facebook has an impact on people’s syntax and language since it distorts it. The language used in Facebook is redundant and uses the short-form of words such as ‘c u’ to mean see you, ‘l8er’ to mean later, among other forms of words. This can have a negative impact on one’s verbal and written communication.

Work Cited

Cragun, Ryan, Cragun, Deborah, et al. Introduction to Sociology. Alabama: Blacksleet River (n.d.). Print.

Beowulf represents an Old English heroic poem with an anonymous writer that dates back between 8th and 11th century

HEROISM

by Student’s Name

Course

Professor’s Name

Institution

City, State

Date

Heroism

Type of text

Poem

Title of the text and its Source

Beowulf poem dates back to 8th century

Composer of Text

Anonymous

Medium of production

Oral tradition

Summary

Beowulf represents an Old English heroic poem with an anonymous writer that dates back between 8th and 11th century. Gummere (2007) recounts the poem citing the rein of King Hrothgar who had successfully flourished the kingdom, but suffered casualties of his people each night through a demon-like monster. The Dane (Danish) kingdom had suffered for more than 12 years the terror of Grendel a gigantic man-like demon that resides in swamplands within Hrothgar’s kingdom. Beowulf a young Geatish warrior hears of Hrothgar plight and sails with fourteen finest men to fight Grendel. On arrival, the king prepared a feast for Beowulf and his men for coming to their rescue. In the middle of the night, Grendel angered by the celebratory mood of the party emerges and kills a man before reaching Beowulf. Beowulf fights Grendel unarmed and proves to be stronger than the monster, which becomes terrified. While Grendel tries to escape, Beowulf tears his arm off and mortally injures him as he slinks to the swamp to die. Grendel’s mother who lives in an isolated lake hears about the death of his son and vows revenge. She kills Aeschere who is one of the trusted advisers of the king and Beowulf plans to revenge. He and his men travel to the foggy swamp where Beowulf dives in, fights with Grendel’s mother and kills her with a sword meant for a giant. He also finds Grendel corpse and cuts its head and brings it to the Danish people who celebrate the end of their terror. Beowulf returns to Geatland to his king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd respectively. Over time, Hygelac and his son get killed in the war and Beowulf becomes king. He rules with strength and harmony bringing peace to Geatland for many years. When he becomes an old man, one day a robber disturbs a barrow that had been hiding a dragon. The dragon comes out and in a few days he destroys and unleashes destruction in Geats. Even though Beowulf knows he is old and about to die, he goes after the dragon and succeeds in killing it. However, the dragon bites him on the neck before dying and the venom kills Beowulf who is celebrated by his people and given a king’s burial. The purpose of Beowulf poem was to emphasize the Anglo-Saxons culture and their values. The traditional Saxon society promoted the values of heroism and strength of warriors to support the king in protecting the people. The audience of the poem is the traditional Anglo-Saxon as well as the Scandinavian people to recognize heroic deeds (Gummere 2007).

Relation to Heroism

Legendary heroes refer to individuals that exceed ordinary people in terms of skill, strength and courage. However, courage or strength is not the only terms that refer to heroism. The people who possess moral bravery such as those who risk their lives or reputations to do a good deed, as opposed to what is normally popular are known as heroes. Heroism in Beowulf is depicted by Beowulf who shows great strength and courage to face monsters. He puts his life at stake to defend the people of Dana and even his own people. He has moral courage that involves risking his own life to protect is people from the dragon. Even when he knows he is too old and almost near his death, Beowulf rushes to fight the dragon that is unleashing destruction in Geatland (Gummere 2007, p. 34).

Language and Features

Beowulf has employed a third person narration and a present tense sequence of events. The use of personification such as “on the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings,” creates a dramatic flow of the story. Beowulf includes features of symbols to accentuate the characters of the poem. The Golden Torque is a collar that Wealhtheow wife of Hrothgar offers to Beowulf as a symbol of loyalty and trust between Danish people and Geats. Beowulf gave Hygelac the golden torque and he died in war with it and this signifies the continuity of kinship between the two. The Banquet that is prepared after the defeat of Grendel shows the reinstatement of peace and order among the Danish community (Gummere 2007, p. 67).

Context

The Beowulf poem is recounted at the period when the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian people conquered the island of Britain and settled in the place for many years. They brought with them several related Germanic languages that later evolved to form the Old English. The story of Beowulf was set around 500 A.D. in the time before the migration. The element of the poem features the role of warriors in this ancient community and the amplification of expected behaviors in the society (Gummere 2007).

Comparison

Beowulf and The Old Man and the Sea are similar in that the protagonists portray heroism. Beowulf decided to risk his own life to protect the people of Dana from monsters and even at old age he went after a dragon and died protecting his people. Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea shows heroism as he decides not to give up and ventures into deep waters to fish. The marlin fish he catches tries to escape and even though it was stronger and causing damage to his hands, he persevered until he killed it (Kammer, 1995).

Task 2

The passage occurs deep in the sea as the old man Santiago begins to head home. The sharks had eaten the marlin fish he had caught and after fighting with them for several hours he became tired. The sharks devoured the entire fish and only the skeleton remained and he ignored them as he sailed home through the night. The old man decides that he made a mistake going too deep into the ocean because the sea is dangerous. He makes a vow to sail home to get some sleep and concludes the sailing deep into the ocean is not advisable. The marlin fish he caught is devoured by sharks through the night. Only the fish’s skeleton remains and it is the only thing that he manages to go home with after the adventure (Kammer, 1995, p. 40).

Hemmingway makes use of personification to accentuate and emphasize the points in the story. The personification element in the story allows the reader to get a deeper meaning of the text and become engaged in the story. He cites, “The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought” which is personification that adds tone to the prose. Hemingway is conveying the idea that he understands he has come from a battle and he is glad to be going home. The wind was blowing in a direction that allowing the boat to sail smoothly to the shore. The personification in the passage shows that the old man felt gratitude to have come from a successful battle and desired to get some rest. He uses the words to indicate that he realized that sailing deep into the sea was not a wise decision because of the many dangers, but he was glad to have met the marlin fish (Kammer, 1995).

The passage shows heroism because the old man understood that he had been defeated by the sharks that consumed the marlin. He realized that the safest idea would be to sail home, rest and prepare for another day of fishing. The old man knew that even though he managed to kill the marlin, it was too big to lift in the boat and could not deter the sharks from eating it. He made a wise decision to let the sharks finish the marlin carcass while he heads home safely. The quality of courage is revealed in the passage as the old man manages to catch a marlin fish which was huge in size. The theme of wisdom also appears in the passage when the old man makes the decision that sailing deep into the sea is a dangerous venture. The language of wisdom is portrayed as he says “I went out too far” to insinuate that he knows how to make the right decision in future (Kammer, 1995, p. 48).

Task 3

I agree that a hero represents an ordinary person who is able to find courage to endure even when faced with obstacles. A hero means a person of great character, strength, skills, wisdom and determination. However, a hero is not described by courage and strength because moral bravely also makes a person a champion. In ordinary world, people can be heroes in various spheres of life. This means people who have the ability to go beyond what society expects of them to protect or assist people in need. For example, a woman who finds an abandoned child and makes a home for him/her represents heroism. Despite the obstacles of limited resources, food, and shelter such a woman shows perseverance and compassion for others. In this way, ordinary people represent heroes in many ways such as offering help to a friend in need, reporting crimes, and taking care of the elderly (Kammer, 1995).

For example, from the story of The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago represents an ordinary man who becomes a hero. He knows that going deeper into the ocean offers the chance to catch fish even after going many days without a catch. He does not give up because circumstances have become tough, but instead uses it as a challenge to forge ahead. He ventures into the deep waters and catches a big marlin that proves hard to control. However, even with the obstacle of having less strength compared to the fish, the old man does not give in to defeat. The marlin pulls the boat deeper into the ocean and the old man refuses to let it go. He perseveres even as his hands begin to breed from the pressure caused by the fishing rope he is using to hold on to the marlin. He spends more than three days into the deep ocean waiting for the right moment to overcome the marlin fish. In this way, Santiago shows qualities of strength, courage, honor and bravery even though he is just an old man. He resolves that “man is not made for defeat . . . man can be destroyed but not defeated” which indicates that even though he faces many obstacles, he does not give up. The story of The Old Man and the Sea teaches that a hero is a person who does not give up even in trying times. It shows that ordinary people can be heroes depending on the decisions they choose to take. If a person faces obstacles and cowers instead of finding a solution, he/she does not portray heroism (Kammer, 1995, p. 48).

Additionally, heroes as ordinary men go beyond their normal duties even risking their lives to assist others. In most cases, such a person may be afraid or terrified in doing a task, but finds the strength and courage to persevere. A major difference between a hero and a villain is signified by concern for others. People who are selfish and uncaring cannot be considered heroes. For example, if one meets a person wounded in an accident and does not offer any assistance for fear of using personal resources, this shows cowardice. Individuals that choose to put other people’s needs ahead of their own shows courage, and requires recognition as heroes. In this way, one can only care about others if he/she has compassion in his heart to want to help others. In others words, it is the will to give up personal comfort and desires in order to secure the life of another individual. This compassion goes beyond family members and extended to strangers who may require assistance (Gummere 2007).

For instance, from the story Beowulf, the protagonist Beowulf shows heroic attributes when he offers to help the people of Dana kill a monster. Beowulf risks own life because he feels that he has the talents and will to destroy the monster that terrorizes the people. He does not hesitate to contact King Hrothgar and offers his help without expecting anything in return. He faces the monsters Grendel and his mother with courage and determination until he prevails. Beowulf also shows that he can risk his own life to save others. When he becomes a king who is old and about to die, a dragon begins to terrorize his own people at Geatland. He knows that he is about to die and does not have the same strength as before, but he still goes after the dragon. He manages to kill the dragon and also loses his own life to protect his people. Beowulf represents a man who put the needs of others before his own desires and rejoices at the thought of protecting the people. He has love for others even though they are not his family members or his own people, Beowulf cares about their security. The poem cites, “… must be skilled to sever and sunder duly” to indicate that courage means power (Gummere 2007).

Bibliography

Kammer, P 1995, The old man and the sea, Munich, Hueber Verlag.

Gummere, F 2007, Beowulf, Minnesota, Wilder Publications.