Hygrometer a Weather Instrument that Measure Humidity

A hygrometer is a weather instrument used to measure the amount of humidity in the atmosphere. There are two main types of hygrometers -- a dry and wet bulb psychrometer and a mechanical hygrometer. What is Humidity? Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere caused by condensation and evaporation. It can be measured as absolute humidity (the amount of water vapor in a unit volume of air), or a relative humidity (the ratio of moisture in the atmosphere to the maximum moisture the atmosphere can hold). It is what gives you that uncomfortable sticky feeling on a hot day and can cause heat stroke. We feel most comfortable with relative humidity between 30% and 60%. How do Hygrometers Work? Wet and dry bulb psychrometers are the most simple and common way of measuring humidity. This type of hygrometer uses two basic mercury thermometers, one with a wet bulb one with a dry bulb. Evaporation from the water on the wet bulb causes its temperature reading to drop, causing it to show a lower temperature than the dry bulb. Relative humidity is calculated by comparing the readings using a calculation table that compares the ambient temperature (the temperature given by the dry bulb) to the difference in temperatures between the two thermometers. A mechanical hygrometer uses a slightly more complex system, based on one of the first hygrometers designed in 1783 by Horace Bà ©nà ©dict de Saussure. This system uses an organic material (usually human hair) that expands and contracts as a result of the surrounding humidity (that also explains why you always seem to have a bad hair day when it’s hot and humid!). The organic material is held under slight tension by a spring, which is linked to a needle gauge that indicates the level of humidity based on how the hair has moved. How Does Humidity Affect Us? Humidity is important for our comfort and our health. Humidity has been linked to sleepiness, lethargy, lack of observations, lower observation skills, and irritability. Humidity also plays a factor in heat stroke and heat exhaustion. As well as affecting people, too much or too little humidity can affect your possessions. Too little humidity can dry out and damage furniture. In contrast, too much humidity can cause moisture stains, condensation, swelling, and mold. Getting the Best Results from a Hygrometer Hygrometers must be calibrated at least once a year to ensure they provide the most accurate results possible. Even the best, most expensive hygrometer’s accuracy is likely to alter over time. To calibrate, place your hygrometer in a sealed container alongside a cup of salt water, and place it in a room where the temperature stays relatively constant throughout the day (e.g. not by a fireplace or front door), then leave it to sit for 10 hours. At the end of the 10 hours, the hygrometer should display a relative humidity level of 75% (the standard) -- if not, you need to adjust the display.

Project Charter Essay - 723 Words

Project Charter A Vacation to Remember Kaplan University Project Management IT 301 April 6, 2013 Lewis Travel Investors A Family Vacation Project Charter Project Name: Family Vacation Project Manager: Mrs. Lewis Project Tracking Number: 5511-6677 Project Justification: The intent of the project at hand is to ensure that larger families have an enjoyable, stress free vacation within a reasonable budget. We will explore possibilities beyond the limited amount of people per hotel room, and discover affordable ways to accommodate the perspective families when they exceed the standard limits. Project Priority: This vacation is the primary project and should supersede any and all projects until the planning is complete,†¦show more content†¦Name: | Authority: | Role: | FatherMr. Horace Byrd | Father will have full authority in regards to budget, reservations, activities, and accommodations. | Primary Investor | MotherMrs. Tomeko Byrd | Mother will have full authority in regards to budget, reservations, activities, and accommodations. | Secondary Investor | Mrs. Lewis | Upon approval from primary and secondary investors, full authority in regards to activities, reservations, and accommodations. | Project Manager | Mr. Juan Morales | Upgrade room, and retrieve extras not included in room fee, as well gifting comp coupons and waterpark admissions. | Hotel Manager | Mrs. Gween Hernandez | Schedule restaurant reservations, and prepare food for room service. | Restaurant Manager | Primary Stakeholders’ Roles: Key Constraints: 1. Issues that involve the rental car that would delay arrival at the airport. 2. Accident or Illness. 3. Flight delay. 4. Inclement weather. Key Assumptions: 1. All motel reservations will not exceed budgeted cost. 2. All food that is prepared will be free of allergens as prerecorded with Mrs. Hernandez. 3. All seats on the flight will be located together, as requested. 4. 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The Organizational Change in Early Childhood Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Organizational Change in Early Childhood and Care Settings. Answer: Introduction The essay is about the organizational change in early childhood and care settings. However before the same is narrated it is very important to understand the meaning of the terms organizational change , change management and early childhood care and setting. The former basically means a transformation that an organization or a corporate entity undergoes. A change in the organization is said to happen when there is a significant alteration occurring in the strategies or such important sections of the business. It is commonly known as reorganization or restructuring. Such a change can be a part and parcel of an organization or may even occur in break periods. Whereas early childhood care and education sis basically looking after a child during the budding stage when he or she is growing up as it has a greater impact on the health, well being as well as the proficiency of a child through all walks of his or her life. Bringing in a sudden change within an organization without coordinatin g with the various wings of the organization would lead to toppling down of the transformation process. Thus management of such an alteration is a framework which helps to tackle the implication of the newer business process and procedures. It basically caters to dealing with the human capital side of the organization. Various strategies have to be formulated and followed in order to ensure that the change is being accepted by all whole heartedly (Wan, 2013). The essay describes what kind of a role the leaders are expected to play while endearing an organizational change along with the various strategies that they need to follow so as to ensure that the change is successful in an early childhood and care setting. The National quality Framework has laid down a set of latest National Quality Standard for the early childhood education and care setting specifically for the time period beyond the school hours in Australia. It concentrates upon the staffs as they have a great implication upon the quality of experience that younger children go through. Role of the Leader in Change Management Process The leadership in an early childhood education and care setting is essential to excellence and is much more than supervision and governance. Here leadership basically boils down to innovation and at the same time is very sensitive to the past, multiplicity and situation as well. The said view is supported by NQF wherein it states that for all these services, it is a necessity to appoint an enlightening principal either within the facility or by smaller services setting up official admission to an external educational leader. As per the National Law, Section 169 and National Regulation, Regulation 118, an educational leader is looked up as an instructor, manager or such a person who is competent and a veteran and should be appointed to manage the growth and implementation of the laid educational program within the service being provided. The leader should be well conversant with the understanding of the Early Years Learning Framework as this would help him show a path to the other edu cators as to how to plan their teaching ways and skills for the development of a child and further act as a mentor to the colleagues as well while the practices are being put into action. Although the leaders have to manage twin challenges while undergoing an organizational change i.e. technical aspect and human aspect of which we would emphasize upon the human aspect and the emotional and educational stance attached to it (Ajmal et.al. 2013). A leader is the one who is also known as a shaper wherein he is responsible to define the kind of change he is looking for, sets the pace for the others and expects others to follow them (Lewis Hill 2012). It is the people who are targeted. From the view point of a shaper, a change leadership is associated with steering via the leaders change agenda thus enabling to deal with any kind of resistance shown by the employees of the organization so as to force them to think and behave in a different manner. The role of a leader in early childhood education and care setting as a pedagogy designer includes popping up with such ideas that lead to the birth of newer and better ways of teaching, learning, assessment and curriculum development. To be a creator of pedagogy, it calls for formulation of such strategies that is child friendly. For a leader in this kind of an organizational setting, the interest and the desires of the children should be the main driving factor which would decide upon what should be created (Bendelta. 2015). In an early childhood care and setting, a leader is looked upon as not only an agent of change but also a follower at the same time Thus the leader in such a setting is required to follow these five principles of responsibility, fairness in contribution, dispensation in a group, unremitting communication and positive interdependence but also includes the 4Cs of critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, creativity and communication. While preaching positive interdependence, a leader in such an organization creates an environment for the participants stating the desire to work together in cohesion so that they have the concept of sink or swim together. By the principle of personal responsibility, within the members of an ECE setting, the leader desires that the members of the organization develop a feeling of personal accountability for the performance of the work thus steering towards achieving the organizational goals. By ensuring a fair contribution from all the members of the organization within an ECE setting, the goal of bringing a change in the organization is achieved with success without any hindrances (Stagl, 2011). Identify Various Processes and Strategies a Positive and Effective Process of Change For ensuring the organizational change in an early childhood and educational care setting, various strategies have to be formulated so that the said change occurs in a positive manner. First and foremost, a change can be initiated successfully in an educational setting by setting up an honest and true dialogue with the other members of the school. Various kinds of communication has to be initiated which can be formal, informal, low key as well as hard hitting before such a change be implemented in the school. Further as these educational and care settings propose for change, they can observe to the present knowledge base for the purpose of inspiration and support (Ministry of Education. 1998). If adequate realistic reasons are illustrated for bringing in the change then it would help to persuade those who are against accepting such a change. Learning innovators who are well conversant of the advancement in the cognitive sciences are rationally and habitually politically authorized as they begin to influence school philosophy, policy and practice. Receptive educating relationship gets strong when the teachers and the children learn and educate themselves together. In such a situation the educators are expected to be more approachable, determined and considerate as well when the staff arrangements at the centre is set in such a manner which gives them additional allowance to concentrate only upon their job of educating the children and are not required to diversify their focus to other jobs and tasks. Renewal and reorganization of schools which even includes the childhood educational care settings as well, is a rarity and considered as a logical procedure. The leaders who are bringing in the change should expect and foresee their own poignant responses to alteration, including the staunch reactions from others (Plumb Kautz, 2014). The emotional cycle of change is a five stage process comprising of uninformed optimism, informed pessimism, hopeful realism, informed optimism and a feeling of rewarding completion. Whenever consensus is reached over implementing a change or adopting a new policy, a dip in the performance level of the employees and the staff is experienced which is quite common. Although this may lead to the birth of anger and frustration, yet the same is a temporary phenomena (Morrison, 2007). Once the said negativity has reached its brim, then it is generally seen that a reversal of behavioural pattern is experienced and the individual reorganizes itself in a manner which is even better than before and the children are seen to develop even more fast as well as in a better manner. Conclusion Thus on a concluding note, it is understood that change is a necessity in any organization, be it a corporate house or an educational setting but the method of bringing in the change is important to decide upon the success of the same. The role of a leader cannot be denied or ignored as it is the leader who steers the boat within an organization whenever such a change is to be implemented in an organization. The fact that the early childhood educational care and setting environment is a little critical one in nature as it helps to shape the future of a growing child and prepare their base in a string manner. However, if the change is not welcomed by these care givers, then the children would be the main sufferers. Further, in such a setting, change should be bought in very carefully specially given weightage to the emotional quotient more as dealing with such a stage of the kids needs the staff to have an emotional balance within themselves. Therefore various strategies should be ado pted to bring in the change gradually and in a phased manner. References: Ajmal,S. Farooq, M.Z. Sajid, N. Awan,S. (2013). Role of leadership in Change Management Process. Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences. 5(2). 111-124. Retrieved from https://aupc.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/V5I2-8.pdf Bendelta. (2015). What is the Role of leadership in change management? Retrieved from https://www.bendelta.com/news/organisation/what-is-the-role-of-leadership-in-change-management/ Lewis,J. Hill,J. (2012). What does leadership look like in early childhood settings? Every Child Magazine. 18(4). Retrieved from https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child-index/every-child-vol-18-4-2012/leadership-look-like-early-childhood-settings/ Ministry of Education. (1998). Providing Positive Guidance: Guidelines for early childhood education services. Retrieved from https://education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Early-Childhood/ProvidingPositiveGuidance.pdf Morrison,G.S. (2007). Early Childhood Education Today. 10th Edition. Paerson Prentice Hall: Australia Plumb,M. Kautz, K. (2014). Innovation within an early childhood education ad care organization : a tri-perspective analysis of the appropriation of IT. Retrieved from https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1662context=buspapers Stagl,H. (2011). Six Roles of a leader during change. Retrieved from https://www.enclaria.com/2011/10/06/six-roles-of-a-leader-during-change/ Wan,K.E. (2013). The Role of Leadership in Organizational Transformation. Retrieved from https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/Knowledge/Pages/The-Role-of-Leadership-in-Organisational-Transformation.aspx

Social facilitation theory Essay Example

Social facilitation theory Paper Social facilitation describes the process in which performance is affected by the presence of others and is studied due to the importance of performance improvement in workplaces, education etc. Within social facilitation are coaction and audience effects. The term audience effect is used to explain the effect of a passive presence on performance and was first observed by Dashiell (1930). He looked at the effect of observation on college students completing multiplication problems, and discovered that whilst more problems were finished, the students tended to make more errors, when problem-solving before an audience. The experimenter observed his participant even in the alone condition and this might have impaired results. Studies then focused on the audience size and status. Porter (1939) asked people who stuttered to read aloud to an audience, finding that participants presented with a larger audience were much more affected, and stuttered more than those with a smaller audience. Cottrell et al. (1968) used a blindfolded audience as his experimental condition so that participants could not be observed and found that the audience effects practically disappeared. The experimenter observed his participant even in the alone condition and this might have impaired results. Paulus and Murdock (1971) compared the audience effects shown by student research participants either being observed by an audience of psychology students, or by an audience which contained an expert. The expert was likely to be able to evaluate the performance/capability of the student and in this condition, results showed stronger audience effects. The experiment did use an unrepresentative sample. Latanend Harkins (1976) asked participants about their own nervousness as they recited poems before audiences, which varied in size and status. Whilst the participants rated themselves on different experiences, the experimenters found that participants rated themselves more nervous when before a larger or higher status audience. These experiments implied that the ability of the audience to evaluate the participants performance was important, that both the status and size of the aud ience made a great difference to the results. We will write a custom essay sample on Social facilitation theory specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Social facilitation theory specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Social facilitation theory specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Others studied audience effect variance with task complexity. Cottrell, Rittle and Wack (1967) found that an audience facilitates the memorisation of simple word lists but more complex ones are learnt more slowly. Zajonc, Heingarter and Herman (1969) studied cockroaches and their behaviour when presented with a four-cockroach audience in two situations. In the first, cockroaches ran down a straight runway into a darkened goal area in order to avoid bright light. Here, the audience improved performance. In the second situation, the cockroach escape response was made more complex by requiring a 90O turn to achieve the goal. In this situation, audience impaired cockroaches performance. Hunt and Hillerys (1973) human experiment yielded comparable results in complex and simple mazes, both experiments lacked ecological validity. From his experiment, Zajonc summarised that social facilitation depends on task complexity and familiarity, saying that, An audience impairs the acquisition of new responses and facilitates the emission of well-learned responses. Simple, familiar things are done better when observed, but more complex, unfamiliar tasks are done less well when observed due to an instinctive response to anothers presence and increase in arousal. Cottrell (1972) rejected this, suggesting the evaluation apprehension model instead. He said that early in life we through anothers evaluation we receive social rewards and punishments (approval, disapproval etc. ), so the audience triggers arousal based on evaluation apprehension.

Bossa Nova free essay sample

Nova was created in Brazil in the late sass during a period of economical growth and political change, the boost nova has been often described as the music of the Brazilian middle and upper classes. This music style started In the upper class regions along the beaches of the city of Roll De Jeanine and both Its music and lyrics were composed by middle and upper-class musicians and marketed to the same economic group. For this reason, boost nova was criticized by some for emphasizing a carefree way of living that little resembled the life of mostBrazilian, the great majority of which belonged to the working class (3). Indeed, boost nova songs often spoke of love, the beach, and beautiful women and seemed to be a reflection of the authors casual life rather than a story of Brazilian daily life and struggles as usually happened with the samba musical style, a music genre popular among the working class. We will write a custom essay sample on Bossa Nova or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Girl from Panama, which became popular outside of Brazil both in its original Portuguese form and in translation, Is a perfect example of the uncommitted quality of boost nova songs. (l)The Girl from Panama Is nothing more than the singers description of a woman walking down towards the beach, the nice way In which she moves and sways, how attractive she Is, finishing with the singers statement that shes the most beautiful thing hes ever seen go by. The musical style of the music on the Boost Nova CD can be related to what we as Americans listen to as lounge music. It is very soothing, carefree and pleasurable. Through most of the CD the piano, string bass, flute, snare drum (played with a light brush) and female singing voice make up most of the function of the CD.It is very orchestral composition, rising and flowing. It follows the European style harmonies of the major and minor keys some are more involved than others. For example The Girl from Panama follows a simple almost predictable riff throughout, not until % of the way Into the song does the sax player deviate from the riff and builds upon to give the song depth. But the song flows nicely and smoothly. Most of the CD Is made up of verse and refrain type melodies. The rhythm follows a nice beat mainly around 60-90 BPML depending on the song.Very easy to dance to with a partner In the style f slow dancing with a little flair added in. I believe the track Wave can speak as an example of the CD the pleasant piano and brushed drum with the muted horn. This tracks adds some strings to the back layer to expound on the depth. This song although does not have any lyrics, but you could almost sing your own lyric about pleasure or beauty with the song. I believe the song gives the listener a sense of laid back relaxation. Just enough of an upbeat to keep the listener interested but not overpowering to take over the foreground of a setting. Also as I stated In a previous paragraph The Girl from Panama also represents the CD well. Its simple riff, yet a clam and flowing melody keeps the listener Interested. The lyrics, sung by both a man and woman flow Just as the melody, following each beat and upturn In the music. I think this adds to the songs appeal and constant memory by the listener (l know I am still singing it in my head).I have enjoyed this CD for exactly the reasons I have explained above. The pleasurable and calming feeling I have while listening to it. The piano, brushed rum, horns and strings remind me of a softer style of the American big band musical style. But the boost nova style feels softer and calming. I have used that reference a couple times throughout this paper, but I do believe that is at the heart of this musical style. The feeling of pleasure and carefreenews culminates in a calming feeling.I feel as if I am sitting along a boulevard, relaxing and taking in the environment at its fullest and warmest. Work Cited (1) http://www. Assortment. Com/all/whiteboards_r]be. Tm (2) http://www. Mallet]jazz. Com/lessons/boost. HTML (3) http://www. Brazil. Mom/cavorted. Tm {this is a great boost nova reference full history and personal bios} The musical style of the Boost Nova was created in Brazil in the late sass during a period of economical growth and political change, the boost nova has been often described as the music of the Brazilian middle and upper classes.This music style started in the upper class regions along the beaches of the city of ROI De Jeanine and both its music and lyrics were composed by middle and upper-class musicians and marketed to the same economic group. For this reason, boost nova was criticized by some for emphasizing a carefree way of living that little resembled the life of most Brazilian, the great majority of which belonged to the working class (3). Translation, is a perfect example of the uncommitted quality of boost nova songs. (l) The Girl from Panama is nothing more than the singers description of a woman walking down towards the beach, the nice way in which she moves and sways, how attractive she is, finishi ng with the singers statement that shes the most beautiful Girl from Panama follows a simple almost predictable riff throughout, not until % of he way into the song does the sax player deviate from the riff and builds upon to 60-90 BPML depending on the song.

Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination

Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination Free Online Research Papers America is the land of opportunity, but to be fully qualified for the status, it needs to be color-blind, race-blind, and gender-blind. Affirmative Action began as a way to stop discrimination, but as new laws have been added to it, it has become reverse discrimination. Everyone has the opportunity to be a great addition to society. It is an immense injustice for people to say that someone of a different race or gender is not capable of achieving the same status in life as a white male. Through this paper, the concepts of affirmative action will be analyzed and discussed. Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order 11246 prevents Federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This is when the phrase affirmative action was first used, because it requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are not discriminated against based on race color, religion, sex, or national origin. When Affirmative Action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women, because women have received some of the same discrimination as men in the workplace. There were also earlier laws that were passed to ensure equal rights. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act are two examples of these laws, but they were a little behind considering the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were passed much earlier. The Fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection under the law and the Fifteenth amendment forbid racial discrimination in access to voting. Also, there was the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which was passed one hundred years earlier to ensure equal rights to all men. Secretary George Schultz and Arthur Fletcher, a top deputy, were the architects of some federal hiring and contracting regulations that added to the Affirmative Action regulations. In 1969, Schultz and Fletcher created these regulations under the Nixon administration to redress the unfair treatment of minorities and women in the workplace.4 Even though America is the land of freedom, minorities and women did not fully receive these freedoms until the mid 1960s. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was established to require compliance to affirmative action. The Executive Order required that companies with more than fifty employees and doing more than $50,000 in business directly with the federal government or as a subcontractor prepare goals and timetables. Periodic reports are also required to show progress toward these adversity goals. The OFCCP investigates into the complaints and lawsuits against companies that have been accused of discrimination. It requires that annual reports be submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The OFCCP analyzes these reports and then audits about 4,100 firms in connection with the federal government each year. So, not only can a company get into trouble by people filing complaints, the OFCCP looks for companies that it thinks are not abiding by its rules, which are not always written clearly. The general public, because of how the OFCCP has gone about auditing companies, has c ome to know some of these goals, as quotas. Goals are the precepts of affirmative action, but the goals are sometimes enforced to the point of looking like quotas, which are numeric targets for the racial composition of the work force. An example of how the OFCCP works is in the case of Aaron Woodson, an African American. He applied for a job at Solectron Corporation, but did not get the job. He was a qualified applicant, but there may have been a better one. When the reports were analyzes, the OFCCP decided that the company had a low percentage of minority workers compared to other similar companies in the area. At the end of the case, Solectron offered jobs to the nine qualified minority applicants, payment totaling $237,000, and a promise to refine its affirmative action goals. Woodson did not accept the job, because by this time, he already had another job. This is not the right way to conduct business, because Solectron was following all the rules and the OFCCP decided that the company did not meet the goals. In 1972 and 1973, Allan Bakke, a white male, applied to the University of California at Davis Medical School. He was denied admittance, but his test scores and GPA were higher than students admitted through the affirmative action admittance program. The affirmative action admittance program set 16 of the 100 opening aside for minority students that did not meet the standards of the normal admittance process. Bakke sued for admissions on the basis on the Fourteenth amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bakke claimed he was a victim of reverse discrimination. The University of Californias logic behind this policy was that it is necessary to compensate for past injustice suffered by members of certain disadvantaged groupsIt was one way to open new opportunities for individual groups that in the past had not enjoyed these opportunities. The vote was five to four in favor of Bakke. Justice Lewis Powell wrote, The guarantees of the Fourteenth amendment extends to all pers onsThe guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing to one individual and something else when applied to another. This case was very controversial, because four justices believed that race should not be a consideration at all, while four others believed that affirmative action was a very good idea. The final decision of this case was that Bakke should be admitted to the school and that race could be a factor of the admissions process, but not the main criteria. This reinforces the questions about the legitimacy of affirmative action. This judgement was a step in the right direction, but was not totally constitutional, because the constitution is supposed to be race-blind. Not only does Affirmative Action affect the hiring goals; it also regulates how the government contracts its business. The 8(a) Program is designed to give minority and women owned businesses government contracts. If a firm is given 8(a) status, it is able to get a contract without competitive bidding. Participating companies must be 51 percent owned, controlled, and operated by individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged. Minorities and women are usually considered to be socially and economically disadvantaged. This means that minorities and women should qualify, but that is not the only qualification. The applicant must also demonstrate that their net worth is not above $250,000 to qualify. This criteria means that not only white males are automatically excluded, but also some minorities do not qualify. This criteria not only affects the person who is applying, it also may apply to the spouse of the applicant. For example, Rep. Eva Clayton was denied a contract, bec ause her husband made too much money. Even with this, 46 percent of the programs 5,330 participants are black23 percent are Spanish-speaking and 21 percent are Asian, but only seven white women have qualified. In society, this means that the applicant must learn to play the system, because the qualifications tend to vary between applicants. To be eligible for any government contract, not just the set-aside program, a company must also make a good faith effort to meet their goals and timetables. There are several very influential people who think that these program requirements are not fair. Rep. Jan Meyers is the chairman of the House Small Business Committee. She stated: A black Harvard graduate with a net worth of a quarter of a million dollars stands a better chance of getting into the program than a poor white woman from Appalachia. There is something wrong with that. Also, the government allows the participant to stay eligible while his net worth steadily climbs during his nine-year tenure in the program. Every area of government is affected by Affirmative Action from the EPA to the Department of Transportation. In the Department of Defense, five percent of its entire procurement budget is to be awarded to socially or economically disadvantaged individuals who own firms. The Navy is cleaning up environmental damage on the Kahoolawe, a Hawaiian Island, and gives special preferences to businesses owned by native Hawaiians. In the Education Department, special consideration is given to minorities and minority colleges when applying for grants. Also, public colleges and universities offer scholarships, tutoring, and outreach programs for minority and female students. Not less than ten percent of the money appropriated for diplomatic construction shall be allocatedto minority contractors. That rule also applies to the Department of Transportation.8 These goals are designed to give minorities and women more opportunities. This is not constitutional, because in the Fourteenth amendment, equal protection of the law is guaranteed to all people, not just minorities and women. California decided to question the laws on affirmative action and make them more constitutional. In 1996, California lawmakers presented proposition 209 to its voters. The purpose of proposition 209 was to eliminate affirmative action on the state and local level where the federal government permitted. The court would decide exactly what programs have preferential treatment and what programs the federal government requires that California maintain. California Governor Pete Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, and many other people from around the country support this proposition, because America will reach its potential when the Constitution is considered color-blind. Proposition 209 also has exceptions to the rule since the federal government has not yet passed this law. One exception is to meet privacy standards based on sex. Another is to keep the state eligible for federal money. The state must also stay in accordance with the United States Constitution and the federal law. It has eliminated state affirmative action laws and voluntary rules that are strict quotas. This is Constitutional, because the interpretation of the Constitution cannot change when it is affecting different races of people. Proposition 209 effects public employment and contracting, public schools and community colleges, and state universities. In public employment and contracting, this would save California money spent by not using the lowest bidder on contracts and hiring based solely on qualifications, not race or gender. Funding for public schools would be decided on need, not on the number on minority students. Proposition 209 will affect up to $75 million spent on schools. That money would not leave the school fund, but it might be reallocated to other schools. Proposition 209 would also require California State University and the University of California to restructure its admissions policy. This would also change the requirements such as outreach, counseling, tutoring, and financial aid programs. Proposition 209 would affect about $50 million each year spent at the university level. This is a good idea, because it would put all applicants and students on the same level. With affirmative action, students and applicants are separated by their race and gender and that is not fair, because no one is better than someone else because of their race or gender. Fortunately, California voters passed this proposition with 54 to 46 percent vote. Table 1 shows further demographic breakdown of the state vote on Proposition 209. As visible on the chart, the traditional white male, protestant or catholic, conservative voter voted yes, but the minorities that had the rights taken away from them voted no. It can be assessed from the table that the minority voters are the main critics of proposition 209. Moderates and female voters were the closest vote, because 52 percent is barely a majority. It is also important to remember that the main California supporters were not reelected like Governor Wilson. Conservatives 77% Yes Latino 76% No $60,000 to $75,000 65% Yes Black 74% No Male 61% Yes Less than $20,000 59% No California has recognized the problems with affirmative action. They have recognized that it teaches that if you are a minority, you do not have to be as smart to get into college or bid as low to get a government contract. It is wrong that minorities can get more scholarships and get in to the university of their choose easier than the average, middle class white student. At some universities, an African American can get into a university with a lower GPA and lower test scores than a white applicant. Not only can they get into college, that student is eligible for scholarships that are based on race, not qualification. As the demographics change in the United States, the definition will also have to change, because then that group should not get to be listed as a minority. In the year 2010, it is expected that Latinos will be in the majority in the United States. At that time, white Americans should get to be called minorities, because they will no longer be the majority of the United States population. If white Americans were minorities, it would be with in reach for them to receive the same benefits that minorities are presently receiving. Affirmative action should be done away with totally before we get to this point in the future. If affirmative action still exists, that will mean that the nation is still seeing race and gender, not the person. Just about everyone has heard of affirmative action these days, but just what is it, really? Is it something only minorities really benefit from? Is it really as controversial as some people seem to think? Affirmative action is a term people use, but wh at it really means can be very misleading. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines affirmative action as positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded (Affirmative Action). Positive steps can mean many things, but here, they are meant to mean that women and minorities should enjoy the same rights and opportunities that anyone else in this country enjoys. It sounds simple, and it was meant to be simple, but the entire idea of affirmative action has become very controversial. Affirmative action was not a widely used term until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into legislation. The term was associated with the Act, but still was not very common. It really came into use in the 1970s, when the American Secretary of Labor finally fully defined who was affected by the ruling, and what businesses, institutions, and educational facilities had to do to implement affirmative action and ensure women and minorities had the same rights as anyone else in the system. This is when the term began to become controversial, because many people began to see affirmative action as a kind of quota system, that forced businesses and education to admit certain numbers of women and minorities, even if they were not as qualified as other applicants. The Stanford Encyclopedia continues, Affirmative action, if it did not impose preferences outright, at least countenanced them (Affirmative Action). Therefore, affirmative action became increasingly controversial and disliked by many people. That did not stop affirmative action from gaining ground across the country. It was the law, and it was commonly used for educational admissions, employee hiring, and even guaranteeing that all people could qualify for decent, affordable housing. It continued to be controversial, but it also allowed many women and minorities to gain a foothold in the educational and business communities. Many people who companies and schools might have overlooked got good educations and decent jobs because of affirmative action. However, that did not stop other people from saying it was preferential and kept qualified men and whites out of jobs they were highly qualified for. Even President Clinton acknowledged the dilemma of how to choose between a white and a black using affirmative action procedures. He said, Imagine a college admissions committee trying to decide between the white [son] of an Appalachian coal miners family and the African American son of a successful Pittsburgh neurosurgeon. Why should the black applicant get preference over the white applicant? Many people came to hate the idea of affirmative action, and challenge it in the court system. In 2003, for example, affirmative action made headline news when students at the University of Michigans Law School finally had their day in the U.S. Supreme Court. They had initially filed a suit in 1997 that challenged the Universitys affirmative action admissions process. The two white students alleged that the university used race as a major factor in admissions to the Law School, and that it actually acted as reverse discrimination against more qualified white students. Eventually, the case made its way to the Supreme Court the first such affirmative action case heard in 25 years, and the Court supported the Univeristys admissions procedures. This opened up the topic for current debate and made it even more controversial. One thing is sure, affirmative action can be defined differently by different people. Some see it as a postive step for women and minorities, and others see it as a way to discriminate against white people Affirmative Action may have been a short-term solution to discrimination, but it has out lived its benefits. It is now encouraging reverse discrimination by setting quotas on the number of minorities required for a firm, contract, or school. America is now ready to become a color-blind society, and judge people on their merits, not their race or gender. We need to come together now as one nation, one world and one race the Human race, then and only then we will truly be a free country and a free people. Research Papers on Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraQuebec and CanadaTwilight of the UAWRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andWhere Wild and West MeetComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoDefinition of Export QuotasOpen Architechture a white paperInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesResearch Process Part One

Toyota Scion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Toyota Scion - Research Paper Example mpetitors of scion can’t be said to possess a competitive advantage, but for scion FR-S which has numerous competition can be said to be very trendy due to its engine performance as well the sporty look. The main reason as to why the target market becomes attractive from the descriptive analysis of the target market below is due to the fact that Generation-Y is not fully exploited in automotive industry. This categories of people is estimated to purchase 40% of vehicles bought according to a report by Deloitte. There is a foreseeable increase in the purchases of automobiles from the young generation as indicated by experts (Barkholz, 2012). The market niche of this car can be said to be expanded taking into consideration the Scion FR-S since the older generation considers it due to its performance. This makes the brand to a wider demographic penetrating beyond the targeted segment. Scion operates in a market with stiff competition where trends keep changing and therefore, the brand is continuously threatened by new and upcoming vehicles. As such, Scion has adopted a competitive positioning strategy that seeks to provide new market offing to the market by appealing to the perception of the consumers. Since the target market for scion brands is generation Y, scion has undertaken to appeal to youths through such features such as installation of better standard audio features and special financing for students. Scion’s competitive positioning is also rooted in their marketing campaigns and advertising. The company has realized the need for new untraditional ways of marketing by acknowledging that fact that their target market is very resilient to mass-marketing. Since the target market for scion brands spends most of their time in the internet, most of the marketing campaigns are done online. This makes it possible to communicate with consumers through email campaigns and online chats. Scion also employs the association to most of the elements of generation Y

Performance Management - Assessment item 1 (Essay) Essay

Performance Management - Assessment item 1 ( ) - Essay Example Performance appraisals are used to determine the quality of performance of each employee in his job. An idea as to those who have talent or need training and those who may be promoted, demoted, retained, or fired will be obtained. The transitional differences in organizations over the recent years have influenced the performance appraisal systems too to accommodate larger business opportunities and priority in the aims (Sonnentag, 2002, p. 115). Sonnentag has described performance appraisal as a â€Å"generic term covering a variety of processes whereby an individual’s work performance is assessed, usually by that person’s line manager and discussed with a view to solving problems, improving performance and developing the individual appraised† (2002, p.116). He has detailed three perspectives contributing to employee performance: the individual, situational and performance regulation. The behavior, motivational personality and the interpersonal relationships of the employees play a role in the success of the appraisal systems. The appraisal would materialize based on the organizational politics and conflict avoidance of the appraiser, the appraisee’s behavior and the relationship between the two parties. The appraisee’s differences in behavior change his views on the â€Å"need for achievement, goal orientation, self awareness and self efficacy, self esteem, locus of control and feedback attitudes† (Sonnentag, 2002, p. 115). His performance level would depend much on his personality and mental make-up, the situational aspect where events may facilitate or obstruct his functional performance and the organizational performance regulations of goal setting (Sonnentag, 2002, p. 8). â€Å"declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and skills and lastly motivation† (1990). Campbell’s model was considered proficient. The

Leadership legacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership legacy - Essay Example Because Jesus transforms, he should be our servant model. The book exposes the domains of the servant leader from a holistic perspective (heart, hands, head, and habits). As a leader, I would want to be remembered by the people in my church, at work, at home and in my community. Applying the four spheres of leadership, I will act in a manner that mimics the â€Å"transformational† leadership of Jesus Christ. I will highlight my points in the different paragraphs for better clarity (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). In the book â€Å"Lead like Jesus†, Blanchard says that this is the most significant of all the four domains. According to Blanchard, it’s all about what motivates a leader (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). As a servant leader, I will exhibit the Exalting God Only traits through confidence and leadership. My main motivation will be the urge to touch and transform the lives of the people I come across. I will be there not to serve myself, but the people I lead to their progression and not mine. Blanchard goes on to say that this is the place to start as a leader. This domain, mainly deals with a leader’s viewpoint, theories and beliefs about motivating and leading others. Since I intend to lead like Jesus, whose point of view was servant leadership, I too will conform to the same. As a leader, I will set the destination and course on how to get where my subjects ought to be. For this reason, as described by Blanchard is the visionary role of a leader. A leader has to plan for the future and how to get there (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). While setting my visions, I will personally see to it that everything is done using the right set of protocols. All things done to get to our preferred â€Å"destination† will be focused on serving, and not my pleasure. I certainly will exhibit these two roles, as Jesus did an excellent job exemplifying both (Webb, 2007). The

Key Players In Malaysia Airline Industry Tourism Essay

Key Players In Malaysia Airline Industry Tourism Essay This chapter includes research background, problem statement, research objectives, research questions, and hypotheses of the study, significance of the study and chapter layout. Research background provides the overall phenomena and background of the study. Problem statement consists of the issues that should be emphasized and more deeply develop in the research questions and hypotheses. After clearly point out the research problem of the study, the research objectives to be accomplish and the research questions to be answered are discuss in the following as well. Hypotheses are developed from the proposed theoretical framework. Next section will be significance of study which briefly explain the importance and the contributions of this study. Last section will be briefly outlines each chapter of the research report. The state of the airline industry is truculent currently and the demand has decrease sharply caused by many factors which is affected to the Airline Company. Besides that, the global airline industry has forecast of deeper loss according to the international air transport association. In recent years airline industry has been suffering from severe turbulence and faced its longest deepest crisis. However, at the macro-economic level Asia Pacific growth is impressive because Asian carriers led profitability with US$1.5 billion while other region are struggling such as US or European carrier lost in US billion. In the region operating margins averaged less than 2%, still the best performance in the world but most are below the 7% to 8% needed to cover the cost of capital and give investors an acceptable return. Initially, the crisis caused by the downturn of economic crisis, the external shocks such as the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, and the SARS epidemic. The industry economic impact is estimated at RM 11.9 trillion, which is about 7.5% of the world gross domestic product annum. However, according to the the total passenger traffic in airline industry has expanded rapidly with increasingly by 5% between 2000 and 2005, with an actual drop in 2001. (WTO, 2007). The development of air transport is an important foreign exchange earner in the service sector and developing comprehensive network of airport to facilitate trade, tourism and speed up socio-economic development. In Malaysia, the Malaysia Airport Berhad was incorporated in year 1991 focuses on operation and management. Malaysia airport has continually restructured and able to operate the airport with expensively business direction recently. In addition, the airline service in Malaysia consists of the domestic and international. The international airport in Malaysia only located in certain states which are in Kuala Lumpur (KLIA), Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching. Some of the domestic airports are located in every other state such as Perak, Kedah, Melaka, Sabah and Sarawak. There are four different types of the airline companies in Malaysia such as Malaysia Airline System which is MAS, Air Asia, Firefly and Berjaya-Air. Furthermore, these airline companies are in different position and they are using different strategy to target different group of customer. There are three different type of Airline Business Model in Malaysia such as full-service carriers, low-cost carriers and charter carriers. Full-service carrier like MAS is defined as an airline company developed from the former state-owned flag carrier, through the market deregulation process into an airline company. On the other hand, low-cost carrier like Air Asia and Fire-Fly is defined as a low fare or no-frills airline, and they are designed to have a competitive advantage in term of costs over a full-service carrier. Lastly, charter carrier like Berjaya-Air is defined as the airline company that operates flights outside normal schedules, by a hiring arrangement with a particular customer. The only function is to transport holidaymakers to tourist destinations. Due to the decrease of growth rate and revenue, airline companies in Malaysia are having a high competition in order to acquire and retain the customers. Therefore, the primary competitive weapon that Airline Company used is the price. Besides that, they need to search more other ways to increase their service quality and product differentiation to obtain the market advantage. The strategies that Airline Company adopted are the implementation of capacity controls, differentiated pricing by market segment, frequently flyer programs, and improving on-time performance to induce passengers repurchase intention. Hence, the airline industrys competition is very fierce. In order to gain competitive advantage, the important factor is improving the airline service quality to the passengers. According to the Ostrowski et al (1993) shows that airline could acquire and retain their customer loyalty if they are continuing to provide perceived high quality services. As the conclusion, Airline Company provides the superior service quality is important and it is the main agenda for all airlines in order to remain competitive. Key Players in Malaysia Airline Industry International Airline Company Local Airline Company Jetstar Asia Airways Malaysia Airline System Cathay Pacific Air Asia Bangkok Airways Fire-Fly China Airlines Berjaya-Air Air Japan Airfast Indonesia Vietnam Airlines Korean Air 1.2 Problem Statement Travel is the dream for every people as it can let people to achieve a relaxing mood and explore to the world wide. With the needs of people to travel around the world, it helps airline industry to continue expand their business. However, many external factors have been affecting the airline industry hard to perform well. At year 2009, economic crisis lowered the purchasing power of traveler. People try to save their money and reduce the frequency of travelling. This has cause the sales performance of airline industry decrease dramatically. Besides, the diseases such as SARS and H1N1 have been frightening the people to travel to another country. People rather stay at home for their health purpose. Political stability of one country also becomes an important factor lead to the willingness of people to travel. The unstable political condition such as Thailand will cause people not to travel to that certain country. The external factors are giving a big impact on the sales performance of an airline company. The highly competitive of airline industry after the entrance of AirAsia Airline in year 2001 caused the airline company need to use more strategies to attract the customer. At the first, Malaysia Airline monopoly the airline industry which there is no other airline company competes with it. Since AirAsia Airline enter into the market offering the low cost air flight to the customer has been making the airline industry become more competitive. In order to retain the customer Malaysia Airline also tries to promote their air flight ticket at lower price at non peak season to attract the customer. Nevertheless, customer still switches between Malaysia Airline and AirAsia Airline often. This in turn means low cost air fares does not increase the customer satisfaction to continue patronage to the particular airline company. We need to discover the factor which to enhance the customer satisfaction in order loyal to only one airline company. There is lack of research from the past studies towards the factor which can increase the satisfaction of air flight passengers. Therefore, we need to do this research in order to figure out the factor that cause the customers satisfy with the service quality of airline service. Research Objective The purpose of the investigation of this study can be divided into two categories which are general objective and specific objectives as below: General Objective The objective of this study is to determine the relative impact of three dimensions of service quality (reliability and customer service, convenience and accessibility, and in-flight service); airline image and passengers satisfaction on repurchase intention among Malaysian airline passengers. Specific Objective To examine the impact of service quality in term of reliability and customer service, convenience and accessibility, and in-flight service toward passengers satisfaction and airline image. To examine the impact of service quality in term of reliability and customer service, convenience and accessibility, and in-flight service toward passengers satisfaction. To examine the impact of service quality in term of reliability and customer service, convenience and accessibility, and in-flight service toward airline image. To examine the impact of passengers satisfactions toward airline image. To examine the impact of passengers satisfaction toward repurchase intention. To examine the relative influences of passengers satisfaction, airline image on repurchase intention. Research Questions We tend to improve our understanding whether there are any interrelated of each dimensions of the service quality, airline passengers satisfaction, airline image towards future passengers repurchase intention by answer as below questions: Does Airline service quality (reliability and customer service, convenience and accessibility, and in-flight service) have positive effect on passengers satisfaction and airline image? Which of the dimension of the service quality contribute the most to the customer satisfaction? Which of the dimension of the service quality contribute the most to the airline image? Will passengers satisfaction enhance airline image? Will satisfied passengers lead to their repurchase intention? Will passengers satisfaction and airline image influence passengers future repurchase intention? Hypothesis Below are the hypotheses that covered in this study: Hypothesis 1a H0: There is a positive relationship between reliabilty and customer service with passengers satisfaction H1: There is a negative relationship between reliabilty and customer with passengers satisfaction Hypothesis 1b H0: There is a positive relationship between convenience and accessibility with passengers satisfaction H1: There is a negative relationship between convenience and accessibility with passengers satisfaction Hypothesis 1c H0: There is a positive relationship between in-flight services with passengers satisfaction H1: There is a negative relationship between in-flight services with passengers satisfaction Hypothesis 2a H0: There is a positive relationship between reliabilty and customer service with Airline Image. H1: There is a negative relationship between reliabilty and customer with Airline Image. Hypothesis 2b H0: There is a positive relationship between convenience and accessibility with Airline Image H1: There is a negative relationship between convenience and accessibility with Airline Image Hypothesis 2c H0: There is a positive relationship between in-flight services with Airline Image H1: There is a negative relationship between in-flight services with Airline Image Hypothesis 3 H0: There is a positive relationship between passengers satisfaction and airline image. H1: There is a negative relationship between passengers satisfaction and airline image. Hypothesis 4 H0: There is a positive relationship between passengers satisfaction and repurchase intention. H1: There is a negative relationship between passengers satisfaction and repurchase intention. Hypothesis 5 H0: There is a positive relationship between Airline Image and repurchase intention. H1: There is a negative relationship between Airline Image and repurchase intention. 1.6 Significance of Research This study is crucial to the services provider or the airline company as well as the airline industry. Customer repurchase intention is one of the factors that will affect airline company business. Hence, this research will provides a better understanding on how airline service quality apply in service industry and how its dimension identifies the customer perception of airline service quality in airline industry customer perspective as well as their satisfaction and airline image affect repurchase intention. The airlines that focusing on retaining customers and influence their repurchase intention as the main source of competitive advantage. The airlines respond rapidly to increase pressure to restructure, consolidate and segment the airline industry will achieve competitive advantages in which airline service providers improve and tailoring their services and winning consumer preference and substantial customer base. In this context, this study aim to give a clear picture to airline service provider about the main driver affecting passengers satisfaction, airline image and passengers repurchase intention. Besides, customer repurchase intention affected by passengers satisfaction that the customer purchases are potential repeat purchases when they satisfied with the airline services provided by service provider. By understand the significant of the repurchase intention and the determinanat factors drive repurchase intention lead the following study more comprehensive, future supplement and prove the proposed framework. In addition, researchers wish to identify the factors affecting Airline consumer toward the perception of service quality provided by several airline company in Malaysia. Moreover, this will create a good reference for those Airline Industries Company, marketer and academic people to make a further discovery and improvement of the airline service in order to attract and retain more Malaysian using local airline services. Due to competitiveness in airline service industry, gathering of this data will lead to a better understanding of the influencing level of the attributes on customer satisfaction. In return, researchers look forward to the opportunities for Malaysia Airline market share will expanding and increasing the usage rate of Airline services in Malaysia Country services. 1.7 Chapter Layout Chapter 1 is the description of this research overview. This chapter outlines the research background, research problem statement, research objectives, hypotheses and the significance of the study to the development of management theory and practice. Chapter 2 is the description of the literature review. This chapter is to build a theoretical foundation for the research by reviewing relevant journals and articles to identify research issues which are worth researching. Besides that, this chapter also provides a theoretical framework to proceed with further investigation. Chapter 3 of the research project is the description of the methodology. Thus, it describes how the research is carried out in terms of research design, data collection method, sampling design, operational definitions of constructs, measurement scales and methods of data analysis. Chapter 4 is the description of data analysis. The chapter presents the results of the research after analyzed feedback from respondents. It includes several sections such as descriptive analysis, scale measurement, and inferential analyses. Chapter 5 involves discussion, conclusion and implication of this study. This chapter attempted to provide a summary of statistical analyses, discuss the limitations of the study as well as provide recommendations for further research and overall conclusion of the entire research objective set. 1.8 Conclusion As conclusion, this chapter provides a brief overview of the research. The direction, insight, and scope of the research will be presented to support the following chapters. Therefore each variable will be discussed in detail and the proposed conceptual framework will be illustrated by the following chapter 2.

Drama and Theatre Studies structured records

‘Use of space' explored the broad topic of social and professional satisfaction and happiness. In order to highlight the universal implications of our piece, we decided that it was necessary to use diverse characters allowing the audience to identify with aspects of each persona's issues. Initially, we brainstormed several different problems that could affect an individual's happiness in the work place, and came up with the fundamentals for five characters. The original basis of my character came from my own anxieties towards life. During devising we were contemplating university choices and starting to arrange our lives after college. As a group we all felt anxious and many felt a lack of direction. This insecurity we felt towards leaving the secondary education system, led to the creation of Pamela (the character I played. ) After discussing Pamela's initial characteristics, focusing on her feelings of anxiety and confusion we had to decide her plot. Her lack of control and direction led us to create her objective to gain a secure role in the work place to solve her anxieties. After creating the fundamentals of each character we discussed as a group their characterisation. The role of Pamela primarily emerged through a series of role-plays. Firstly, I performed as her character in different situations allowing me to develop her personality. The remaining members contributed as supporting characters in the role play and often suggested ways to present her. I feel that my understanding of Pamela's persona emerged during the staging of her box monologue. Through this monologue we hoped to communicate to the audience Pamela's feelings of anxiety and confusion towards her professional future. As a group we felt the most effective way to portray this was through the use of physical theatre, therefore, the remaining members of the group adopted the role of a maze in which Pamela was metaphorically trapped. During the staging of this sequence I had to deliver my monologue whilst struggling through a figurative maze. As a performer I was sensitive to my characters claustrophobic feelings allowing me to successfully communicate her anxieties to the audience. Throughout the staging of this monologue the remaining group members concentrated on the performing space I was given. Although it was frustrating for me to be contained to a very small performing area, it allowed me to sympathise with my characters feelings of confinement and eventually resulted in a very successful portrayal of Pamela. During devising our characters, we were aware that each individual had to adopt a dream persona in the ‘fantasy' scenes. We hoped to communicate to the audience contrasting characteristics in these persona's, to highlight their desire to escape the frustration they feel towards reality. Whilst creating the character Angela's ‘fantasy' persona we analysed the reality Angela. Angela shows boredom towards her monotonous life. Through her character we hoped to communicate to the audience the necessity of having hobbies and dreams. The fantasy Angela emerged through the improvisation of a Latin American soap opera. We created the vivacious and dramatic character Maria who starkly contrasted Angela. As a group we agreed that the performance of Maria should be melodramatic and exaggerated to further contrast Angela's tedious reality. It was important to introduce a character for Maria to interact with to inject more energy into the scene. Through discussion we settled with a clichi love story and decided to introduce a male character who Maria is having an affair with. It was essential for this scene to maintain intense energy levels to contrast with the previous office scene. Firstly, we researched typical novella characters to influences our roles. I suggested that the group members in this scene (Helia and Payam) should highlight the sexual attraction between the characters. Initially this provoked awkwardness between Payam and Helia; therefore, we felt it was necessary to introduce an activity to make the two more comfortable with each other. We used several team building exercises to make Helia and Payam more physically comfortable with one another; the most successful was the leading the blind exercise. Through this exercise the participants were forced to be more sensitive towards each other, in partners one partner was chosen to lead the other blindly by the tip of the nose. Through constant contact and reliance this was very successful in making Payam and Helia more at ease. Similarly, it helped to distance the novella character to the actor. Through exaggerated physicality and melodramatic acting techniques the actor was dissociated with the character. Costumes successfully contributed to the portrayal of my character in the murder mystery fantasy. I played a stereotypical, stock detective character originally based on the Agatha Christie character Hercule Poirot. Initially I struggled to effectively portray this character because it was such a contrasting role to my reality. Physicality was a very important aspect of this character because of the desired effect we hoped to achieve. We had chosen to use melodrama and clichid anecdotes, therefore, it was important that the audience drew parallels between my character and Poirot for comedic effect. Through further independent research I discovered Poirot's defining feature was a French trench coat, and I decided to rehearse wearing this item. Surprisingly, the trench coat allowed me to connect with Poirot's physicality and personality, through wearing the coat my characterisation improved and allowed me to successfully perform as a response to Poirot. How the group planned for a range of responses from the audience. Initially we intended to present a serious production highlighting the importance of life satisfaction parodied through working life, based in an office. However, during the initial devising stages we decided to introduce fantasy scenes to contrast the monotonous office scenes and highlight the significance of dreams and ambition. As a group we showed interest towards comedic genres and felt that these would juxtapose the natural and static nature of the office scenes. However, although many of our fantasy scenes were intended for humorous effect a few were interpreted by the audience as humorous without intent. Fortunately, we decided to perform a dress rehearsal to a mock audience to gain an understanding of the successful aspects of humour the results were unexpected. Through devising the silent movie fantasy scene, we were expecting humorous results due to the slapstick nature of the comedy, however, we had to take into account the clichi and overexposed format of the silent movie. As a group we discussed the possibility that the audience would not react well to this scene due to the lack of originality. Throughout popular culture for the past fifty years in some opinions this genre has been exhausted, therefore we had to be prepared for an underwhelming reaction towards this particular scene. In order for the humorous response to be successful we decided that the content of our silent movie had to be obviously inspired by original content. As a group we decided that we were not going to aim to be original in this scene but aimed to create a polished and skilful tribute to silent films. It was important for us to consider different attitudes towards comedic genres. In particular silent films and slapstick comedy often generate various opinions. Through discussion we discovered that in our group of five alone there were several different opinions regarding slapstick comedy. Personally, I contributed an annoyance towards the genre explaining that I found it tedious, patronising and often crude. However, contrastingly, Payam presented his enthusiasm towards slapstick comedy and defended his fondness towards slapstick comedians such as Lee Evans and Charlie Chaplin. Therefore we were initially prepared for an audience varied responses to the slapstick moments throughout our piece. This discussion led us to consider our target audience. Due to the content of our play we discussed that it transcended a fixed target audience, any age group could respond to the implications and the messages we were hoping to portray. However, because of the universality of our play we discussed different attitudes towards aspects of the play. Firstly, we evaluated that a younger audience would react better towards the humorous aspects especially ages between 12 and 19, therefore we decided to target the humour to this age group. We initially decided to do this by exaggerating our humorous stereotypes and characters physicality to the extreme. However, during a viewed rehearsal run it became apparent that our characterisations needed to be exaggerated, especially in our silent movie scene. Through discussion we came to the conclusion that older audience members would react well to the stereotypes used in out murder mystery fantasy. In particular the detective stereotype took inspiration from the fictional character Poirot. Generationally, we were aware that a younger audience member would be alienated by the introduction of this stock character because they would not be able to identify with the original. The characterisation of the detective also played a large reliance on the audience members, creating a pantomime like effect. Whilst playing the detective character I often made eye contact with the audience and projected jokes to them, therefore their reactions were very important at these stages. We used lighting to gain more audience reaction during this scene by up lighting the audience subtly allowing the performers to see their reactions and in turn play off their reactions to the humour. During the novella fantasy scene, melodrama was employed. An argument between Carlos and Maria the Latin American characters led to Maria slapping Carlos around the face. This prompted a shocked reaction amongst the audience because they were not expecting it. Difficult reactions from the audience- racist generalising Latin American, stereotyping French maids, stereotyping in general we had to be sensitive towards the audience whilst approaching these scenes. Explore the impact of social, cultural and/or historical conditions on your devised piece. – Vicki Marks. Our devised piece ‘Use of Space' is socially and culturally influenced by traditional conventions of popular culture. Foremost, we decided to exploit the familiarity of these conventions to highlight social perils. Most poignantly we decided to highlight the implications of a female in the workplace and comment on the fact that women still earn substantially less from their employment than men. We chose to emphasize this by going against traditional clichis. Primarily, the character of Nicky symbolised an ambitious business women hoping to succeed in the workplace. To highlight her characters struggle to be successful we altered the traditional female clichi. We felt that typical stereotypes of women came from medieval genres; furthermore the clichid format was a damsel in distress being rescued by her knight in shining armour. For this social comment to be accessible to the audience we simply chose to invert the roles of the typical damsel in distress and knight in shining armour. This resulted in highlighting the fact that women are capable of metaphorically ‘rescuing' themselves, in turn reaching success without help, showing the capability of women and hopefully promoting sexual equality in the workplace. Additionally, through our research into the presentation of women in conventional medieval drama, we learnt the historical relevance of female roles. In a traditional damsel in distress story women are patronised and demeaned. To emphasise the inequality between the sexes we chose to use contrasting levels. For example we chose to place the damsel on higher levels than the knight; this allowed the damsel to take a more commanding role. However, throughout we made constant references to the traditional format through humour, by showing the characters awareness of the reversed roles. I feel that this was very effective because we were culturally aware that a modern day audience would be aware of the clichi allowing it to become humorous in itself. Whilst devising another characters fantasies we settled on the concept of a traditional Latin American soap opera. We chose to use this format to contrast the tedious nature of the characters work life. This idea initially was influenced by the popular television series ‘Ugly Betty' showing clips of traditional Latin American soap opera's or novellas. This genre was particularly useful because of the melodramatic acting techniques used, to give this scene authenticity we chose to have the characters speak a few words or phrases in Spanish and maintained a Spanish accent throughout. Surprisingly, the use of accents and clichid Spanish phrases created a comedic effect, the audience reacted well to this humour. To further the humorous effect we exaggerated the Spanish personalities getting inspiration from the Mexican cartoon character ‘Speedy Gonzales' which allegedly depicts a stereotypical Mexican. Through popular culture we were aware of many of the love clichis also apparent through this scene, in particular the over poetic declaration of love using the analogy of the ‘fake red rose. ‘ Initially, we wanted to explore the format of a silent film in order to highlight the importance of communication, but were anxious to use such a challenging convention on stage and were worried that the audience would become confused. However through research we were able to adopt this style very successfully. Silent movies were made before technical advances allowed an audience to view a film with both images and sound. We wanted to make our silent scene as authentic as possible therefore through our research into silent movies we noticed the projection speed and decided to significantly slow the scene down; some scenes were intentionally slowed down further in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of the slapstick moments. One of the main messages of our production was the importance of job satisfaction. There have been many recent surveys and articles surrounding job prospects and the amount of people dissatisfied in their current job placements. We therefore decided to show a group of characters that want to break free from the confinements of an unsatisfying job to highlight the importance of passion and dreams. We feel as young adults embarking on our working lives and starting to make important decisions that will shape our futures, it is very relevant that we have shown our anxieties towards working life. Work related stress is also socially rife especially in western culture therefore; through one of our characters we showed the importance of maintaining hobbies outside of a job to hopefully indicate that money is not the most important thing. Use of Space is an escapist piece; the fantasies represent each character hoping to escape the constraints of their tedious, impassionate lives. Dream worlds are a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. The use of a dream world creates a situation whereby a character (or group of characters) is placed in a marvelous and unpredictable environment and must overcome several personal problems to leave it. The dream world also commonly serves to teach some moral or religious lessons to the character experiencing it a lesson that the other characters will be unaware of, but one that will influence decisions made regarding them. When the character is reintroduced into the real world (usually when they wake up), the question arises as to what exactly constitutes reality due to the vivid recollection and experiences of the dream world. How acting techniques or design elements and the use of dramatic form were consciously employed to achieve intended effect. The dramatic form of ‘use of space' was inspired by abstract theatre. Our devised piece does not follow a typical chronological time sequence; it has a warped sense of time due to our introduction of ‘fantasy' scenes. Dreams allow the repressed parts of the mind to be satisfied through fantasy and let the mind express things that would normally be suppressed in the waking world. Dreams may also offer a view at how future events might proceed; this is similar to running future events through the mind, for instance a work presentation or a job interview. As a group we identified dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious. Therefore we wanted to highlight the contrast between reality and fantasy. To begin with we discussed using contrasting lighting effects to show an obvious transaction between reality and fantasy. To express the abstract, fantasy scenes we felt the audience would react well to pink colour fill lighting. This was successful because, the unnatural pink lighting allowed the audience to be aware of the abstract format of the scene. We also relied on the audience's familiarity with clichi dream scenes shown in popular culture. Dream worlds are a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. Lighting is often used similarly when representing a dream, often flashing lighting is used and mists to show the audience the unreality. As a group we took this into account and decided to use soft lighting throughout the ‘fantasy' scenes by using a flood effect to fill the whole stage. Flash lighting was also used subtly during the transaction from a reality scene to a fantasy scene. We decided as a group to only use subtle flash lighting during the transition because we did not want to reproduce the clichi formats of a dream sequence, we felt that this would undermine the intended serious messages we were trying to relay to the audience. Firstly each fantasy scene is triggered by an action and a simple freeze frame to link the office reality to the dreams. This use of gestus was an acting technique developed by Bertolt Brecht which reflects the characters emotional conflict through a brief frozen action. Gestus was employed during the transaction from my characters monologue to her fantasy scene. As a group we discussed our desired effect of the gestus and decided to show an obvious link between the character's emotional conflict and the freeze frame, for the audience's accessibility. We therefore decided to each come up with a simple freeze frame highlighting the principal emotions of my character, due to the lack of direction my character was feeling we chose to physically interpret the emotion confusion. Coincidentally, each member of the group similarly replicated a curled up freeze frame with their hands clasping their heads. As a group we decided that this composition showed the audience the characters basic feelings of confusion. Sound plays a big part in our production. Our opening scene begins with a metronome to highlight the artificial nature of the office scene and the rhythm of a monotonous life. We decided to open with a metronome to cause a feeling of anticipation through the audience; the ticking rhythm exaggerates and builds tension therefore immediately engaging with the audience before the action begins. The metronome rhythm also acted as a beat to keep our opening routine in time. The beat and the routine showed the audience the typical rhythm of an unsatisfying job. Due to the intimacy of our staged environment we decided not to use microphones because we wanted the sound to be raw and natural even in the fantasy scenes to accentuate the fine line between dreams and reality. This also made the audience feel close to the actors and therefore able to relate to the performers more easily. However to contrast this effect we chose to show all costume changed on stage employing the popular Brechtian technique Verfremdungseffekt through using this we hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was, in fact a construction. During the silent movie scene we used clichi silent movie music. We wanted to stay authentic to a conventional silent film therefore we had a pianist. This music contributed to the atmosphere and gave the audience vital emotional cues. Silence is also an important tool in our production because it is in contrast to the loud interludes of music for example in the silent movie fantasy. Silence was often used after intense sections of dialogue or monologue. For example during my characters monologue the volume levels of my voice were used to create intensity building up to a climax. The silence during my characters gestus freeze frame is poignant because when the sound is taken away the audience begins to focus more on the movement and the emotion of the character, the silence intrigued them. There are many different characters and settings in our play; therefore we decided that our set should remain very neutral. We designed our set in a deliberately ambiguous way, so we could move easily between fantasy and office scenes. We decided that altering the layout of the stage and the set between each scene would prove noisy and would distract the audience's attention. We were however very aware that a permanent set would become boring and the audience would lose interest, nevertheless we decided through rehearsals and a practice production that the intensity of the action made up for the lack of set changes. We used two black oblong boxes as the fundamentals of each scene, occasionally changing the positioning of them to create a different atmosphere. We chose not to have a specific setting contributing to the representation of free-flowing images within the characters mind. However, we decided to introduce an element of decaying society preoccupied by work ambitions and promotions through the use of broken computer monitors, keyboards, mice, and disks positioned around the stage. This gave the stage an overall look of disarray and immediately introduced the audience to the conflict within the characters in the production. How research material was gathered and used within the process. – Vicki Marks To begin the devising process our group was presented with five quotes that took inspiration from different aspects of life, this supplied us with an excellent starting point for developing a challenging piece of theatre, however our initial responses to the stimuli shaped our early work and many aspects were later changed as the piece matured. Firstly each member of the group decided separately which quote inspired them and worked towards abstractly analyse the meaning of these quotes. As a group we were drawn towards the quote â€Å"fear is a dark room where negatives are developed. † We felt that this quote gave us enough scope to produce a brainstorm surrounding the analysis of it. After analysing the quote through a brainstorm we decided to focus on the idea of fear. These fear aspects of the quote lead our group to research and gain an interest surrounding common phobias. As an initial response to phobias we decided to explore phobias that restrain and dominate everyday life. As a group we were interested in the psychological effects of irrational fears, through discussion, we realised one of our member's arachnophobia and decided to research real life stories showing the influences of phobias. We began to gain an understanding of the psychological effects of living with an irrational fear, this allowed us to contemplate the way a person living with a phobia views the world. This topic particularly appealed to our group because three of the members were studying a course in psychology and took a specific interest in phobias. Through research we were drawn to highlighting different perceptions of the world, this is initially why we decided to show a dream or fantasy of each character. I was currently studying Margret Atwood's dystopian novel â€Å"A Handmaid's Tale. † And inferred parallels between dystopian societies and living with a life altering phobia. As a group this led us to discuss the concepts of normality and initially directed us to create a dystopian society to base our phobic characters in. However, we felt that through creating a dystopian society we were overcomplicating the piece and decided in order to create an accessible message we would have to simplify the plot. Many of our responses to the quote were detached and impersonal; therefore we decided to take a more personal approach to the analysing the quote. We wanted to create a more abstract approach to analysing, consequently, rather than brainstorming we played a word association game. Our earlier research indicated to us the potential of exploring fear; for that reason we opened by associating responses to the word ‘fear'. This resulted in a discussion of our apprehension and anxiety towards our futures, each member of the group was in the process of applying to university and planning the next step of their lives. It was important for us to follow our dreams and mistakes in choices at this stage worried us and we were sensitive to the idea of being stuck doing something we were not passionate about. This discussion allowed us to infer parallels between our fears towards losing our passion and job satisfaction in the work place. This led us to create a work place scenario, highlighting different characters problems with the way their lives have transpired. Although we had created an initial scenario we had to decide how to highlight the importance of job satisfaction and dreams. This is where our ideas surrounding an exploration of dreams and fantasies linked in with our running idea. How group skills contributed to the development of the drama. – Vicki Marks As an ensemble, we had many different approaches to the production of our devised piece. Firstly, after the initial discussions of the basic structure of ‘use of space' we decided that each member should separately prepare an initial suggestion for a fantasy scene. Subsequently as an ensemble we modified each member's idea to fit the characters objectives incorporating each group member's requirements. Two of the four fantasy scenes required only two characters, therefore allowing the two remaining members to direct. This particularly put pressure on the team and initially certain members of the group did not respond well to being directed, however, we had to be flexible whilst blocking a scene and be open to criticism and changes. Considering the ensemble approach to devising we wanted each member to experience directing each scene, this also allowed us to incorporate more than one member's objective for a particular scene. Therefore, we often resorted to switching roles mid scene to appreciate the way each member would perform certain characters and situations. I feel that this successfully allowed us to create two dimensional characters and by including aspects of everyone's ideas created an overall satisfaction towards each scene. Each member of the group had a monologue allowing the audience to understand each individual characters state of mind. The preparation of a monologue is often very personal, initially, Helia and I scripted each monologue, but we worked as a group throughout the blocking and performing, however, this proved difficult. Due to the individual approaches of a monologue, taking control of scripting them was ineffective. This approach resulted in confusion and the monologues were less emotionally effective, because members struggled to connect with them on a personal level. Therefore, firstly, we each took our monologues separately and worked on the content through closely analysing our characters objectives and intentions. After we were happy with the essential content of our monologues we worked as a group to develop them. Group timing was essential during the silent movie fantasy, due to a lack of dialogue the scene required carefully choreographed action, which required the group to work carefully in relation to one another. At one stage of this scene, Helia was required to jump on Payam's back and knocked to the ground. In order to prevent any injuries we applied a partnering system, involving a free member of the group shadowing Helia, providing support during the initial stages of rehearsals. During the later stages of devising the murder mystery scene we became uninspired with the outcome An evaluation of the ways in which ideas were communicated to the audience. – Vicki Marks Throughout the devising process we focused predominantly on comedic genres, to allow the audience to access the central messages through humour. Although we were aware of the comedic value of each scene it was difficult to predict the audience's reactions, therefore we decided to perform it to a small audience during our rehearsal to evaluate which areas of humour were successful and which were less effective. Consequently, we realised that many of the melodramatic fantasies such as the silent movie were physically being underplayed resulting in a misrepresentation of our desired style. This resulted in a member of our group to employ a technique that we had used on a physical theatre work shop. Performing our characters physicality on levels from one to ten, ten being the most physically expressive allowed us to evaluate which level of physicality was successful. As a group we decided that the audience reacted best towards the silent movie scene when we employed a physicality level of ten. Due to lack of dialogue, physicality and expression allowed the audience to follow the storyline whilst also creating humour. As a result of working with a limited number of actors it was necessary to multi-role; however, through multi-rolling it is often easy to confuse an audience. We therefore decided to employ the Brechtian technique of changing our signifying costumes on stage. This allowed the audience to understand the style of our piece, and the abstract nature of the fantasy scenes. We also decided to place each change of costume on stage from the opening scene to intrigue the audience and allow them to become more involved in the action. We also had to take into account the wide range of characters we used. For example in one fantasy scene Payam took on the role of a Spanish soap character and during the next fantasy scene his character changed to a medieval knight. As a group we realised that a change of costume would not be sufficient to demonstrate to the audience a change in character, therefore we had to ensure that each actor varied their physicality according the role they were playing. As a group we consciously casted many of the characters as stock characters and stereotypes, allowing us to successfully communicate to the audience a significant change in role. Naturalistically it was difficult to vary each member's character therefore by using melodramatic genres we were able to separate each members character. Originally, we intended to highlight the importance of job satisfaction through juxtaposing the office scenes with the fantasy scenes. We hoped to communicate to the audience the monotonous routine of being unsatisfied in a job. In order to convey this to an audience we decided to use opposing theatrical styles for the fantasy and office scenes. We decided on a naturalistic approach for the office scenes to highlight the dissatisfaction of the characters, similarly we decided to use abstract and melodramatic genres for the fantasy scenes to show the positivity. The accessibility of the humour in our piece relied on the audience's knowledge of the common clichis we drew inspiration from. I feel we did not fully take into account the age range of our audience and miscalculated the universality of the clichis. After discussing with our audience their reactions towards our piece many of the younger members did not understand the humorous aspects on every level. For example in our murder mystery fantasy we took inspiration from the popular detective character Poirot, however many of the younger To open our piece we decided to have each character on stage the composition involved my character facing the audience frozen in a spotlight and a visible shadow of the four other characters in the background, to show individual stories and the universal message that applied to each character. t. How rehearsal and the production process contributed to the final performance. – Vicki Marks During the rehearsal process, we encountered many difficulties with the staging of certain idea's and aspects. Initially we had decided to each perform a separate monologue as our office characters to highlight the objectives of each individual, we felt that it was important to portray to the audience an interesting insight into the characters feelings and wanted each monologue to project different forms. After the initial scripting of the monologues, we brainstormed the different approaches to staging them. Fortunately, each monologue adapted distinctive structures which allowed us to manipulate and create visually appealing scenes. During the staging of Payam's monologue initially aimed to block the physical placement, this required him to be free to travel across the stage, and therefore, a remaining member of the group read his monologue whilst he attempted to block it. Surprisingly, this created an interesting effect of daydreaming; therefore we decided to continue having his monologue projected from off stage. At one stage during our rehearsals we were challenged to find an original and inspiring way to present our idea. We had already decided that we wanted to contrast reality and fantasy. We had devised the fundamentals of ‘office scenes' created to depict our original character Dylan's disconnection with a dystopian society. Because we had created a leading character we struggled to introduce equal roles. Therefore, we decided to create a structured brainstorm addressing our themes and the ideas we hoped to communicate. Through this we discovered a situation where Dylan's disconnection with society linked to a modern day scenario. Dylan's alienation towards an unfamiliar society was transformed into a group of office workers unsatisfied with their situations. Luckily, through former improvised scenes we had created characters which fitted this scenario. Throughout the devising process we were interested in developing an interpretation of parallel universes. We were initially drawn to this idea through different interpretations of phobia's and the way an individual interprets fears. This idea led one member of the group to compare parallel universes to dreams, and fantasies. As a group we decided that we were interested in highlighting the importance of following your dreams, therefore began to research different fantasies and dream scenarios. We began to discuss different genres and settled initially on medieval clichis drawing on the typical female fantasy of being rescued by a knight in shining armour. As a group we decided that our acting techniques should mirror this genre therefore we settled on melodrama. Previously, we had only attempted naturalistic acting techniques, and as a group we were aware of the contrast between naturalism and melodrama. In order to familiarise ourselves with this acting technique we attended a physical theatre workshop, it was apparent to us that in order to effectively portray a melodramatic genre we would have to introduce exaggerated physicality. Initially this felt unnatural to most of the group members due to our back ground in naturalism, therefore, the support we received from the workshops group leader was very helpful. We benefited from the group leader knowledge surrounding physical theatre and he introduced us to a technique which allowed us to exaggerate the physicality during rehearsals. How the influence of ideas of other playwrights and/ or directors, designers and performers have been used. Originally, we hoped to achieve a depressing and desolate office scene highlighting the impassionate emotions of the characters. We initially decided that the characters would remain deadpan to express their negative attitudes towards their work environment; however, we wanted to employ a more exciting abstract format to express this further. We therefore turned to ‘Machinal' by Sophie Treadwell which one of our group members had previously studied. The opening scene to Machinal is a powerful expression of a monotonous office scene. Treadwell uses an expressionist form employing repetitive dialogue and action and harsh audio effects to create a tedious and mechanical impression. Inspired by Treadwell's use of repeated dialogue and action we began to improvise scenes using similar techniques. Firstly, we chose words and phrases linked to an office environment and repeated them, overlapping each other and increasing in volume throughout to create an intense atmosphere. Unfortunately, due to the small group, this did not achieve our desired effect. This then lead us towards a more physical representation, as an alternative to repeated dialogue we chose to highlight the routine of the office through repeating typical office actions. The use of stylised actions reminded a member of the group of a performance of ‘absolute beginners' through which the director had expressed the rigidity of the office through women typing in unison creating a routine effect. Considering the size of the group we were not enthusiastic to have each character simultaneously performing one action, we therefore, took inspiration from the over exaggerated nature of each movement. Instead of using a routine we highlighted a sense of artificiality by introducing a metronome to emphasise the mechanical and artificial nature of the scene. Characterization was very important to the success of our performance. Because we had chosen to show many stark and stereotyped characters throughout it was important to exaggerate the physicality of the characters in certain places. Physicality was expressed most poignantly through the silent film fantasy. Because this was such a challenging format to express due to the lack of dialogue it relied fully on each actor's physical representation of the character. Inspiration was originally taken from Charlie Chaplin. Through research we learnt that as a Silent film actor he emphasized his body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what his character was feeling and portraying on screen. However, simply watching and attempting to replicate Chaplin's style was not enough. As a group we decided to participate in a ‘Jet' physical theatre company workshop. This not only allowed us to work on our physicality as performers in general but gave us excellent scope to improve our silent film scene. Costumes were not hugely significant in our performance. We did not want to over complicate things and circumstantially our performance consisted of many short scenes and an array of different characters, similar to the conventions of epic theatre employed notably by Bertolt Brecht we decided to do all of the costume changes on stage. These changes only consisted of small variations to costumes such a hats a jackets that symbolised each character Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself, which he called the Verfremdungseffekt. Such techniques included changing costumes on stage. Through this Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was, in fact a construction and, as such, was changeable. Another Brechtian technique used in our performance was the use of song. We decided that this allowed the audience to distance themselves from the action hopefully making the social comments throughout more accessible and setting the abstract theme from the beginning notably the entire performance was strictly episodic and many scenes were in isolation from each other. Each fantasy scene is triggered by an action and a simple freeze frame to link the office reality to the dreams. This use of gestus was also an acting technique developed by Bertolt Brecht which reflects the characters emotional conflict through a brief frozen action. Gestus was employed during the transaction from my characters monologue to her fantasy scene. As a group we discussed our desired effect of the gestus and decided to show an obvious link between the character's emotional conflict and the freeze frame, for the audience's accessibility. We therefore decided to each come up with a simple freeze frame highlighting the principal emotions the character. The initial idea to dress each character in their own variation of full black was inspired by a performance of ‘attempts on her life' at the national. The director Martin Crimp chose to dress each character in their own interpretation of completely black. We adapted this idea to our performance because it allowed each character to show their own individuality whilst still highlighting the monotony and dull nature of the office and their negative emotions towards their situations. We took a large amount of inspiration from the melodramatic acting techniques employed by soup opera's. We particularly focused on the style of acting used in traditional Novella's or Latin American soups. Whilst approaching this style we researched the soup opera ‘Days of our lives. ‘ To help us adopt similar persona's. How the stimulus material was developed through the drama process. To begin the devising process our group was presented with five quotes that took inspiration from different aspects of life, this supplied us with an excellent starting point for developing a challenging piece of theatre, however our initial responses to the stimuli shaped our early work and many aspects were later changed as the piece matured. Firstly each member of the group decided separately which quote inspired them and worked towards abstractly analyse the meaning of these quotes. As a group we were drawn towards the quote â€Å"fear is a dark room where negatives are developed. † We felt that this quote gave us enough scope to produce a brainstorm surrounding the analysis of it. After analysing the quote through a brainstorm we decided to focus on the idea of fear. These fear aspects of the quote lead our group to research and gain an interest surrounding common phobias. As an initial response to phobia we decided to explore phobias that restrain and dominate everyday life. As a group we were interested in the psychological effects of irrational fears, through discussion, we realised one of our member's arachnophobia and decided to research real life stories showing the influences of phobias. We began to gain an understanding of the psychological effects of living with an irrational fear, this allowed us to contemplate the way a person living with a phobia views the world. This inspired us to contemplate feelings and emotions surrounding living in a different mindset to the norm. We therefore decided to create five different freeze frames, abstractly exploring the physicality of emotions.