I want a....( something) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

I want a....( something) - Essay Example Your dog will never go out with other dogs (or what is worse, women) unless you ask your dog about this. However, even if you ask your dog to spend a little while with somebody else, it will probably prefer to refuse. Your dog is devoted to you with all its doggy soul – nobody else in the world would be as loved as you. Your dog will never leave you at home even if his buddies are waiting for him. You are your dog’s best buddy, so what is the sense? Your dog will never tell that it wants to go fishing without you. Your dog will never be late from work and it will never drink too much alcohol. It will not spend a part of your family budget for a new car detail. You dog will love you despite the way you look. Can you imagine the reaction of your boyfriend who sees your smeared-out make-up and messy hair when you wake up? It is of no importance for your dog. Your dog will never panic if you forget to shave your legs. Your hairdo, make-up, and outfit are not important too. You do not need to spend hours in front of your mirror in order to delight the eye of your dog. Even more, a few extra kilos will not frighten your dog. It does not matter at all. This lovely creature may appreciate your inner world. It doesnt happen very often that you find someone so sensitive and emphasizing. Besides, your dog may help you keep fit. You both will enjoy going for a walk twice a day. A breath of fresh air will always keep cheerful and healthy. Finally, if after all you decide you need to find a boyfriend, your dog may be helpful. Statistics shows that men may use your dog as a reason to get acquainted with you. A man who has a dog may turn to be a worthy, adequate candidate. It is better to escape men who do not like dogs or at least cats. It is hardly possible to find any disadvantages of dogs. Many people say that dogs are better than people. It may be true. Nowadays it is hardly possible to find

The Multi-unit manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

The Multi-unit manager - Essay Example Practical and Implications – The knowledge obtained from this study will help the multi-unit restaurant operation in the development of Human resource in terms of recruitment, selection and training needs. Introduction In the United Kingdom, the service industry represented over 77.1 percent of Gross Domestic Production in 2010 (CAI Fact book, 2011). There are many international hotels such as Hiltons or Accor that have expanded all over the world. In restaurant sector, most restaurants seem to be a small business or family business, which has only one unit. After raising more profit, the business tends to expand its outlets to both national and overseas level. McDonald’s, for example, has expanded its branches, which are approximately 31,000 restaurants in 2010 (Ritzer 2011). Multi-unit restaurants could be defined as a company which rivals in the sector with more than one unit of a concept or theme (Olesen et al 1992). Due to intense competitiveness in the restaurant sector, cost reduction and standardization have been consistently focused on in multi-unit firms in order to get returns on investment of its brand (Jones 1993). In a chain of restaurants, â€Å"manager of managers† or the manager who operates between operations and cooperate level managers is called as the Multi-unit manager (Drucker 1995). According to Goss-Turner (1999), in a multi-unit firm or the multi-unit area responsible for 2 to15 units, the responsibilities of the Multi-unit managers are to concentrate on strategy of business rather than single unit operations. As a result of standardizations that have increased in nineteenth century, the multi-unit has grown along with systematic assessment for selection of training for the multi-unit manager (Goss-Turner 1999). It could be seen that with the intention of expanding in chain, multi restaurant outlets and the multi-unit area need to develop simultaneously. To gain a competitive advantage, the company should be able t o develop quality of their employees especially the multi-unit manager. It can be said that most of the academic study has focused on the role, responsibilities and skills of single-unit operation, but on the multi-unit company. The skills of the area manager are likely to be different from the single unit managers. Umbreit and Smith (1990) claimed that almost all the area managers are recruited from single units. Consequently, the multi-unit managers have faced problems in making the transition from single-units to multi-units because of the role, responsibility and skills that are different from single operation managers. Umbreit and Tomlin (1986) surveyed many multi-food services and highlighted that most functions of the multi-unit managers are related to restaurant operation, human resource, and finance. Subsequently, Muller and Campbell (1995) also showed that human resource was the most significant issue for the multi-unit managers. In addition, in 2009 human resource, restau rant operation and finance were still the major requirements for the multi-unit manager position. For these reasons, at the heart of this study is to analyze the roles, responsibilities and skills of the multi-unit managers in restaurant industry by providing a case study of Pan Asia group. A semi structure conducts interview of the multi-unit

Chef Satisfaction Essay Example for Free

Chef Satisfaction Essay The findings showed that employees’ job satisfaction directly and positively influences organizational commitment, but does not directly influence job performance. Employees’ job satisfaction enhances job performance only through organizational commitment. Internal marketing, empowerment and leadership also positively influence job satisfaction. Empowerment and leadership enhance employees’ organizational commitment. Internal job stress negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction and external job stress enhances employees’ job performance. According to the findings, this paper realized the main factors which influence hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, which can function as criteria for human resource management in the hospitality industry. Key words: Hospitality industry, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance.   With the change of the industrial structure in recent years, the output value of the service industry has become more than 70% of the GDP in most advanced countries (CIA, 2009). Thus, the service industry plays a significant role in national economic development. In 2008, as the world encountered a financial tsunami, the governments of different countries selected potential service industries and supported them with resources, in order to energize economic development. The hospitality industry is a typical service industry, and it is critical service industry around the world. In Taiwan, the scale of the hospitality industry has been increasing year by year. According to the Statistics Department, Ministry of Economic Affairs, in 2001 the business volume of the hospitality industry in Taiwan was NTD 261. 3 billion. In 2006 it passed NTD 300 billion and in 2009 it reached NTD 321. 7 billion. However, the hospitality industry refers to labor services and relies on manpower in areas such as production, delivery and restaurant service. Thus, the hospitality industry is mainly based on services. As mentioned in Bitner’s (1995) framework of the service marketing triangle, service providers play a critical role in the service industries. In service industry management, regarding the importance of employees, Heskett et al. (1994) proposed the framework of service profit chain. In the service profit chain, there are critical linkages among internal service *Corresponding author. E-mail: [emailprotected] tcmt. edu. tw. Tel: +886-2-28102292 ext. 5009. Fax: +886-2-2810-6688. Tsai et al. 4119 quality, employee satisfaction/productivity, the value of services provided to the customer, customer satisfaction and company’s profits. This chain shows that internal service quality can enhance employee satisfaction, which will enhance employee productivity and further result in external service value and enhanced customer satisfaction. Finally, the company can make a profit (Zeithaml et al. , 2009). Therefore, satisfied employees make satisfied customers. Service personnel satisfaction significantly influences organizational commitment and job performance on customer satisfaction and corporate operational performance (Ladkin, 2002; Dunlap et al. , 1988; Tansuhaj et al. , 1988; Chowdhary, 2003; Yang and Chen, 2010). How to enhance service personnel satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance is a critical issue in service industry management. In past research on employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, many scholars (Babin and Boles, 1998; Bernhardt et al. 2000; Van Scotter, 2000; Koys, 2003; Testa, 2001) have validated that employees’ job satisfaction positively influences job performance and organizational commitment. In studies on factors of employees’ job satisfaction, job performance and organizational commitment, the service profit chain proposed by Heskett et al. (1994) and service marketing management model indica ted by Tansuhaj et al. (1988) on overall service industry both demonstrated that managements internal marketing activities produce job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. In addition, many studies have found close relationships between leadership, employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance (Billingsley and Cross, 1992; Yammarino and Dubinsky, 1994; Burton et al. , 2002; Avolio et al. , 2004; Chen and Silverthorne, 2005). The above studies have mainly focused on the educational service industry, retail industry, manufacturing service industry, medical service industry and governmental institutions, but have not conducted indepth explorations on the hospitality service industry. Hopfl (1994) indicated that in the service delivery, firstline employees must be empowered to some degree in order to cope with customers’ special demands. Thus, job empowerment can be treated as important management to encourage first-line service personnel and immediately solve customers’ differential demands. Avolio et al. (2004), Caykoylu et al. (2007) and Chen et al. (2008) respectively conducted empirical studies on medical personnel and employees of the telecommunication industry, banking industry and postal industry, and found that empowerment positively influences employee satisfaction and organizational commitment. One issue worthy of further study is the extent of how empowerment positively influences hospitality industry employee satisfaction and organizational commitment. In addition, first-line employees face different customer demands and supervisor requirements, therefore job stress is a critical issue for them. Jamal (1990) and Jex (1998) suggested that reducing employees’ job stress could enhance employees’ job satisfaction and job performance. Williams and Cooper (2002) and Ouyang (2009) indicated that proper job stress would enhance employees’ job performance. In the hospitality industry, the influence of job stress from external customers and internal supervisors on employees’ job satisfaction and job performance is an issue worthy of further exploration. Based on the above, internal marketing, leadership, empowerment and job stress are possible factors of service industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance, and these factors are validated in various service industries. However, the outcomes in different service industries are not the same. For the hospitality industry, it is important to validate and analyze the influences of the above factors on employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. Thus, this study intended to combine internal marketing, leadership, empowerment and job stress and proposed an integrated model of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance. Hospitality industry employees in Taipei City were treated as the subjects, and the researcher probed into factors of hospitality industry employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance in order to function as criteria for management in the hospitality industry. LITERATURE REVIEW Job satisfaction The term â€Å"job satisfaction† was proposed by Hoppock (1935) who suggested that job satisfaction means employees’ emotions and attitude toward their jobs, and is their subjective reaction toward their jobs. The definition of job satisfaction is generalized into three categories: (1) Definition of generality: Job satisfaction refers to the affective reaction to one’s job as the most (Ozer and Gunluk, 2010). Job satisfaction, which is one of the most important necessities for an individual to be successful, happy and productive, is a feeling of satisfaction, that is, an outcome of the perception of what the job provides for an individual (Ay and Av aro lu, 2010); (2) Definition of difference: This refers to the degree of satisfaction and the difference between ndividual actual returns and required returns. For instance, Porter and Lawler (1968) suggested that the degree of satisfaction depends on the difference between a person’s actual returns and expected returns; (3) Definition of criterion framework: Peoples subjective perception and interpretation on objective traits of organizations or jobs would be influenced by individual criterion framework. According to Smith et al. (1969), job satisfaction is the outcome after a person interprets the job traits according 4120 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. o the criterion framework. The influence of certain work situations on job satisfaction is related to many factors, such as comparisons between good and bad jobs, comparisons with others, personal competency and past experience, etc. Job performance Kane and Lawler (1976) suggested that job performance refers to the record of the results when employees have practiced a job for a certain period of time. According to Schermerhorn (1989), job performance refers to the quality and quantity accomplished by individuals or groups after fulfilling a task. After a certain period of time, measurements of employees’ job performance could serve as criterion for promotions, wage adjustments, rewards, punishments and evaluations. Cascio (2006) suggested that managers must specifically define performance to allow the teams or employees to recognize the organizational expectations in order to fulfill the organizational goals. In other words, managers must set concrete goals, trace the fulfillment degree and evaluate the teams’ or employees’ performance. Van Scotter and Motowidlo (1996) suggested that employees with a high degree of job enthusiasm will demonstrate extra effort and devotion, and will actively seek out solutions to problems at work in order to enhance their job performance. Robbins (1998) divided the measurement of job performance into job result, job behavior and personal traits. Lee et al. (1999) divided job performance into efficiency, efficacy and quality. Efficiency refers to the employees’ output rate and is the ability to accomplish tasks before deadline. Efficacy refers to the employees’ goal accomplishment rate and proposals. Quality refers to the employees’ error rate and complaint rate, supervisor satisfaction, customer satisfaction and colleague satisfaction. This study suggested that in the application of this construct to measure hospitality industry employees’ job performance, efficiency should refer to the employees’ speed in customer service, efficacy should mean the accomplishment of tasks assigned by customers, and quality should mean the employees’ performance in customer service. As to measurement, Shore and Thornton (1986) indicated that self-evaluation allows individuals to participate in performance evaluation and serves as a criterion. Based on the above, according to the views of Lee et al. (1999), this study divided job performance into efficiency, efficacy and quality, and measured hospitality industry employees’ job performance using employee self-evaluation. Smith et al. (1969) proposed the Job Description Index (JDI) to measure job satisfaction, with the constructs including wage, promotion, job, supervisors and colleagues. Black and Gregersen (1997) found a positive correlation between job satisfaction and job performance. Organ (1990) suggested that when employees are satisfied with their work, they are willing to sacrifice themselves and devote to their organization. Organizational commitment From the perspective of attitude, Porter et al. (1974) indicated that organizational commitment is a person’s active and positive intention to identify with and internalize organizational goals and value. According to Reyes and Pounder (1990), organizational commitment is the strong belief and intention to identify with organizational value, devote to and stay with the organization. Mathews and Shepherd (2002) suggested that organizational commitment refers to workers’ attitude, behavior and connection between individuals and the organization. Guest (1995) indicated that organizational commitment is at the core of human resource management. It transforms traditional manpower management into the core of human resources. Organizational members’ attitude or intentions particularly indicate the importance of employees’ organizational commitment. Dee et al. (2006) suggested that organizational commitment is a person’s intention to devote to and be loyal to the organization. Lambert et al. (2006) suggested that organizational commitment is the structural phenomenon of trading between individuals and organizations. It increases with time, but it does not lead to a transferable investment outcome. Thus, in theoretical study and practical use, scholars have valued organizational commitment in human resource management. In recent years, many scholars have probed into organizational commitment from the view of Porter et al. (1974). Thus, this study also followed the above view and divided organizational commitment into value commitment, effort commitment and retention commitment. This study further treated these three constructs as criteria to measure hospitality industry employees organizational commitment. Definitions of these constructs are thus shown: (1) Value commitment: a strong belief and identification with organizational goals and values. 2) Effort commitment: the intention to devote more to the organization. (3) Retention commitment: a strong intention to continue being part of the organization. Internal marketing Internal Marketing (IM) is the process of handling staff as internal customers and projects as internal products that satisfy the needs and desires of the customers and adhere to the company’s goals (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991). Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) suggest that internal marketing involves â€Å"a planned effort to overcome organizational resistance to change and to align, motivate Tsai et al. 4121 nd integrate employees towards the effective implementation of corporate and functional strategies†. Joseph (1996) suggested that internal marketing is can be applied to marketing and human resource management, combining theoretical techniques and principles in order to encourage, recruit and manage all employees in the organization and constantly improve external customer service and mutual services. In addition, Ahmed et al. (2003) defined internal marketing as the emp loyees’ evaluation of the reward system, internal communication, training and development of the company. Internal marketing empirical research in the service sector has proven that internal marketing has influenced on internal customers (that is, employees) satisfactions. Berry and Parasuraman (1991) suggested that the advantages of internal marketing implementation in organizations are as follows: (1) To acquire and keep excellent talent; (2) to provide a common vision so that employees have job purpose and meaning; (3) to give employees the ability and knowledge to accomplish the work; (4) to encourage employees to share the results of teamwork; (5) to create job designs be based on the findings of marketing studies. The aforementioned views reveal that corporate implementation of internal marketing allows employees to enhance service quality, which increases the production and profits of the companies. The implementation of internal marketing in the organizations results in an internal service culture, raises service consciousness and increases profits (Parasuraman et al. , 1985). Based on the views of these scholars, internal marketing is critical for organizations and influences external marketing to further enhance customer satisfaction. According to the these definitions and based on the views of Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) and Ahmed et al. (2003), this study treated employee evaluations of reward systems, internal communication, and training and development of companies as criterion for measuring internal marketing of the hospitality industry. Leadership Leadership refers the process of influencing the team to accomplish the goals (Robbins and Coulter, 2005). Leaders are key success factors of an organization (Bass, 1985; Daft, 2002). Skillful leaders recognize and use the interpersonal relationships of the team and strengthen the members’ loyalty and morale. Effective leaders must learn skills such as patiently sharing information, trusting others and recognizing the timing of interventions (Steckler and Fondas, 1995). In recent years, numerous scholars have tried to discuss leadership from new perspectives. New studies of leadership theory have particularly stressed the influences of demands between leaders and subordinates, the interaction of personality traits and situational factors on leadership (Bargal and Schmid, 1989). Corporate leaders must select a proper leadership according to their subordinates’ different demands for supervision, in order to enhance employee satisfaction and fulfill expected goals. Bass and Avolio (1997) divided leadership into transformational leadership and transactional leadership. In transformational leadership, subordinates trust, respect and are loyal to their leaders. Leaders can develop their subordinates’ potential and enhance their confidence by changing their values and beliefs in order to increase their organizational commitment, intention and motivation to create exceptional outcomes. Transformational leadership can be divided into ideal traits, ideal behavior, the encouragement of inspiration, and the stimulation of wisdom and individual care. In addition, transactional leadership means leaders and members remain in the process of negotiation and mutual benefit instead of a persistent one-purpose relationship. Social exchange theory is treated as the theoretical base. When subordinates act according to their leaders’ expectations, they will have returns with a specific value. Transactional leadership can be divided into contingent rewards, and active and passive exceptional management. Most quantitative studies on leadership have created questionnaires using the MLQ scale designed by Bass and Avolio (1997). The MLQ scale includes two constructs (transformational leadership and transactional leadership). This study also designed a leadership questionnaire for the hospitality industry according to the MLQ scale. Empowerment Empowerment signals a transition away from traditional development that confined people’s role to that of passive recipients, effectively rendering them dependent on handouts in the form of foreign aid (O’Gorman, 1995). Bowen and Lawler III (1992) define empowerment as sharing with frontline employees four organizational ingredients: (1) Information about the organizations performance; (2) rewards based on the organizations performance; (3) knowledge about contributing to organizational performance; (4) power to make decisions that influence organizational direction and performance. Murat and Thomas (2003) suggested that empowerment does not simply refer to telling employees that they are empowered, but aims to allow the employees to recognize what power has been authorized. Boudrias et al. (2004) suggested that in managerial circles, empowerment application includes two types: (1) Empowering the responsibility of decision-making to subordinates while emphasizing rich work environments 4122 Afr. J. Bus. Manage. and diverse authority, information, resources and support, and providing the opportunity to learn in order to improve performance; (2) psychological empowerment, which refers to employees’ experiences of empowerment that are inferred as a mediating variable of empowerment and expected results. According to Sherman (1996), empowerment acknowledges that employees have the power to change in order to encourage employees to increase their competency. Kanter (1993) suggested that empowerment can keep employees from feeling helpless. Organizations could thus reduce negative effects such as low morale. The most significant effect of empowerment is to enhance employees’ abilities and self-efficacy (Conger and Kanungo, 1988). Bowen and Lawler III (1992) suggested the advantages of empowerment for organizations below: (1) To rapidly respond to customer demands and questions; (2) a high degree of employees’ job satisfaction; (3) positive interactions with consumers; (4) employees with creative thoughts; (5) the creation of loyal customers. About the definition of psychological empowerment, Spreitzer (1995) defines this concept as the psychological state that employees must experience for managerial empowerment interventions to be successful.

Purpose and importance of advertising

Purpose and importance of advertising Defining Advertising is the non-personal communication of giving information usually paid for which usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. Now, I would like to lets take this statement apart and see what it should be. Advertising is bringing a product and service to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising is focused on one particular product or service. Thus, an advertising plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Advertising is typically done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, etc. The first assumption that was queried related to purchasing itself, in terms of what advertising would achieve if it was effective. This assumption was advertising achieved the conversion. In the sense of converting loyal user of the other brand to loyal users of the brand advertised. We pointed out that this pattern, although it could on occasion be found in actual purchasing sequences, was actually quite rare. It also happen in this case: I have always bought brand B, but now I have the advertising for brand A has persuaded me that it is better in fulfill my requirement under the advertisement, so in future I will buy brand A The advertisement pointed out that strengthen of the product which mean its communicating with the people. First, what is non-personal advertising? There are two basic ways to sell anything: personally and non-personally. Personal selling requires the seller and the buyer to get together. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. The first advantage is time: the seller has time to discuss in detail everything about the product. The buyer has time to ask questions, get answers, and examine evidence for or against purchase. Next, the seller can easily locate potential buyers. If you enter a store, you probably have an interest in something that store sells. Street vendors and door-to-door sellers can simply shout at possibilities, like McDonaldsretailer shop who call out, I say there, I would like to order food?, or knock at the door and start their spiel with an attention grabber. From there on they fit their message to the individual customer, taking all the time a customer is willing to give them. Disadvantages do exist. Personal selling is, naturally enough, expensive, since it is labor-intensive and deals with only one buyer at a time. Just imagine trying to sell chewing gum or guitar picks one-on-one; it would cost a dollar a stick or pick. In addition, its advantage of time is also a disadvantage. Personal selling is time-consuming. Selling a stereo or a car can take days, and major computer and airplane sales can take years. Nonetheless, although personal selling results in more rejections than sales, and can be nerve-racking, frustrating and ego destroying for the salesperson, when the salesperson is good it is more directed and successful than advertising. From the above, it appears that personal selling is much better than advertising, which is non-personal. This is true. Advertising has none of the advantages of personal selling: there is very little time in which to present the sales message, there is no way to know just who the customer is or how them is responding to the message, the message cannot be changed in mid-course to suit the customers reactions. Then why bother with advertising? Because its advantages exactly replace the disadvantages of personal selling and can emulate some of the advantages. First lets look at the latter. First, advertising has, comparatively speaking, all the time in the world. Unlike personal selling, the sales message and its presentation does not have to be created on the spot with the customer watching. It can be created in as many ways as the writer can conceive, be rewritten, tested, modified, injected with every trick and appeal known to affect consumers. (Some of the latter is the content of this book.) Second, although advertisers may not see the individual customer, nor be able to modify the sales message according to that individuals reactions at the time, it does have research about customers. The research can identify potential customers, find what message elements might influence them, and figure out how best to get that message to them. Although the research is meaningless when applied to any particular individual, it is effective when applied to large groups of customers. Third, and perhaps of most importance, advertising can be far cheaper per potential customer than personal selling. Personal selling is extremely labor-intensive, dealing with one customer at a time. Advertising deals with hundreds, thousands, or millions of customers at a time, reducing the cost per customer to mere pennies. In fact, advertising costs are determined in part using a formula to determine, not cost per potential customer, but cost per thousand potential customers. Thus, it appears that advertising is a good idea as a sales tool. For small ticket items, such as chewing gum and guitar picks, advertising is cost effective to do the entire selling job. For large ticket items, such as cars and computers, advertising can do a large part of the selling job, and personal selling is used to complete and close the sale. Advertising is non-personal, but effective. Facebook advertising method C:UsersYonGDesktopdddd.png The red arrow showing the Facebook advertisement People treat Facebook as an authentic part of their lives, so you can be sure you are connecting with real people with real interest in your products. Facebook Ads provided CM Photographic the ability to target their exact demographic 24-30 year old women whose relationship status on Facebook indicated that they were engaged. Over 12 months, CM Photographic generated nearly $40,000 in revenue directly from a $600 advertising investment on Facebook. Of the Facebook users who were directed to CM Photographic website from the ads, 60% became qualified leads and actively expressed interest in more information. http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/zD/r/2xon6QBONrZ.jpg I have found [Facebook Ads] SO effective. My business wouldnt be anywhere close to where it is today if it werent for Facebook, and the ads campaign. Chris Meyer, President From the information given, Facebook Ads makes it easy and cost-effective to quickly set up and manage your campaign. G5 found success setting up a series of Facebook Ad campaigns targeted to college students at 21 campuses prior to Summer break for StorQuestself-service storage facilities. Real-time suggested bids for our auction-based system provided guidance that enabled G5 to hone ad effectiveness based on their various targeting filters (age, college level and location). The results from StorQuests Facebook ad campaign were one of their highest performing online advertising efforts: Over 50% increase in total rentals versus prior year at the same store. 10% conversion rate from visits originating from Facebook Ads. On par with Google AdWords on a cost-per-lead and cost-per-customer basis. $1.25 CPC delivered $10.25 cost-per-lead. When you have a broader presence on Facebook with Facebook Pages or Facebook Events plus ads for instance, you can turn your advertising message into a trusted referral by including content from a users friends who are already affiliated with your products. ANA took this approach by creating a Facebook Page to acquire interested users for on-going messaging opportunities and developing a compelling advertising campaign. ANA used a creative grouping of keywords to target advertising to users specifically interested in traveling and Japanese culture and developed ad creative that resonated with their audience. Average campaigns for ANA result in CTR of 8 12%. Facebook Ads resulted in a 25% CTR. Conversions resulted in positive ROI which is unique for ANA considering their product is not an impulse purchase for most people and Japan is not traditionally seen as a leisure destination. If the company is running a Facebook Ad Campaign, they can choose to target Social Actions in their campaigns. With this feature enabled, those people who fan the Page may see the Ad listed among their News Feeds. Companies can also use the Facebook messaging system to communicate with their fans. The advantages and disadvantages of Facebook advertising method Advantages of Facebook advertising method Facebook Advertising. The popularity of facebook has become the top social network while its advertising is truly a goldmine for advertiser to use it as the facebook player owned over 39 billion page views a month and 400 million active users, its really a huge traffic source for firm to advertise their goods and service ,just like the way of there is a market ,supply will occurs when there is demand. The huge profit of Facebook advertising to internet marketing specialists and online advertisers is the social networking websites massive user base. In February 2010, Facebooks is celebrate of having 400 million active users from all around the world and the figure is still growing quickly. According to figure shows that the average Facebook user spends around 55 minutes a day on this social networking website.this is a positive symptom for the firm to advertise their goods on facebook as there are higher possibilities to let user to notice their ads. Highly Targeted Online Marketing Campaigns, Facebook advertising offers social media traffic instead of using typical tradisional search traffic. The new type or searching had leads to a different demographic targeting options, along with searching by unique keyword system. Facebooks advertising platform operate in a certain area or products that are designed for a specific age range. The facebook advertising media ,makes nine different ways to target audiences which are Location, Age, Gender, Keywords , Education, Workplace, Relationship Status, Relationship, Interests, Languages. All these are important to firm as they get to know which kind of consumer they are targeting . Customer Reach 400 million customers (100 million mobile users) cannot be ignored. Yes, there are more Google searches that are being done and one could argue that Google Ad words can reach more but with usage time on social media channels continuing to soar, the customer reach for Facebook advertising is monumental and needs to be utilized. Increased Targeting Because of its ability to dissect and segment customer information, Facebook has the ability to offer increased targeting for their advertisers. If you would like to only target women, ages 25-35 with a college education who live in Glendale, California, then you can do that. Similary when someone changes status (married, single, engaged) they move into new markets, making them more attractive to target. CPM or PPC Option Most ad networks only offer one or the other. Facebook allows you to determine whether you are more focused on exposure and awareness (CPM) or focused on conversion and providing more information (PPC). You must understanding your audience first, but it is nice to know that the option is there. Successful with Local Clients With the ability to target locally very precise, companies and services that are looking for local or regional clients can reap benefits from the Facebook advertising system. Disadvantages of Facebook advertising method Low Conversion Rates for eCommerce People are using Facebook to talk with their friends and socialize and rarely are thinking about buying something when they log into their Facebook account. This creates issues when companies are focusing on click through rate and high (>2.5-5%) conversion rates. Weird, Irrevelant Ads One thing that Facebook has continued to try and crack down on is advertising campaigns that make their way into the system that are irrevelant and are, at times, off putting to users of the system. Free giveways, rewards programs and humor sites have continued to flood the system, giving the ads less relevance when the consumer is viewing them. High PPC Cost for Niche Markets Marketers and bloggers have complained that PPC costs for niche markets, that would normally provide a low cost, are similar to pricing for general terms and demographic targeting. Facebook will need to continue to optimize their pricing model to make sure niche markets like chicago wedding photographers can afford to use this engine to attract traffic to their site. Costs-per-click tend to be higher than other companies for popular niches. Not as versatile as Google, for instance, with no suggestion of keywords. You really need to know your market to make conversions. These users are not on Facebook to buy. There are there to socialize. On the other hand, when someone types in size 8, Calvin Klein, white skinny body jeans into a search engine, she wants to buy. Someone on Facebook talking about or interested in designer jeans is not necessarily interested in your ad to sell them jeans. Facebook is more private in the sense that people keep to themselves, and trust their group or clique. You have to bother people while they are doing something they enjoy, like looking at Grandmas photos or exchanging recipes with girlfriends. This is called interruption marketing and is not always seen in a positive light. FB is not a direct sales venue. You need to understand how a sales funnel works to build trust to get leads rather than sales on the spur of t he moment. Can consume resources and waste a lot of money. With Adwords, it is possible to test ads by showing two similar ads to everyone. This is apparently not effective on Facebook because you are not targeting whole countries. And many internet marketers say it is too costly to experiment. Users complain that ads are not relevant to their interests so they have no reason to even go further. Improvement for facebook advertising method IQ Tests Ads IQ tests are by far the most popular advertisement scams on Facebook. While browsing the Facebook social network, youre sure to have come across ads that display the fake IQ test results of your friends or celebrities. In a pure case of I know they arent smarter than me most Facebook users are baited into falling for the IQ test advertisement scam. These ads are made to fit well into the design of Facebook, but once clicked; this scam will redirect you to another website where all of the scamming will begin. Ironically, by clicking the link of this advertisement scam, youve already failed the real IQ test. These ads will have you answer a list of seemingly legitimate questions, but in the end, they sink their teeth in for the real scam. In order to see the results of your IQ test, youll have to sign over your first born child submit your cell phone number and will be charged as much as $20 a month. Nice going smarty pants. Dating Ads Facebook is plagued with thousands of ads with scantily clad, well endowed, and playfully slutty women that happen to be single, and by sheer coincidence live in your hometown. Dating advertisement scams usually say things like Lonely, 18 (21), and single, Im bored, half naked, and looking to get completely naked tonight or other messages that should immediately trigger your brain with a scam alert; if all the blood in your body hadnt escaped from your brain to gather in another area. These ads are nothing but dating site scams and youll be out of cash just to receive teases on another site. To publish to people who have liked your Web page, Open Graph tags must be added to the Web page. The required Open Graph tags for publishing can be found. Once added, you can publish via our interface by clicking on the admin page link to the right of the Like button.( link only visible to the admins defined via Open Graph tags on the Web page). The best pratices for publishing is we found that involving emoational topics, passinate debates, and imprortant storts event have the activity of other stories. Status updates which ask simple question or encourage a user to like the story which haven given and stories publisher in the early morning or later evening have higher engagement. Banner advertising method C:UsersYonGDesktopasdasdasdad.png The Arrow showing the banner advertising method http://www.heybannerbanner.com/client_folders/CAGERAGE/CAGERAGE1b_300x250.gif A banner ad is an image shown on a webpage for advertising purposes. Along with animation, contemporary ad banners often use simple forms of interaction as a lure, taking advantage of plug-ins such as Flash and Shockwave to create banner-based games. As you can see, advertisers came to the conclusion that banner ads were not as effective as full-page magazine ads or 30-second TV commercials. At the same time, there was an incredible glut of advertising space, thousands of sites had a million or more page impressions available per month, and companies like DoubleClick began collecting these sites into massive pools of banner-ad inventory. The economic principle of supply and demand works the same way on the Web as it does everywhere else, so the rates paid for banner advertising began to plummet. Undoubtedly you know what banner ads are; youve seen innumerable ones as youve surfed across countless websites. You may have already clicked on a number of them. Banner ads take different shapes and sizes, and many forms and styles, but they share a common goal: attracting visitors! Banner ads usually contain graphics, sometimes they are entirely text and others they use graphics and text. The main idea of a banner ad is to present an interesting idea to the surfer and have them click on it for more information, leading them to the advertisers site. Banner ads come in many sizes, the most popular, is a full banner (468 x 60), but all styles are used. Some people claim you should stay away from using full banner ads as they are already so common that most surfers avoid them. Obviously placing banners that advertise your site on other websites costs money. There are several ways of paying for this type of advertising. You may pay per click on the banner; per thousand clicks; per sales to visitors directed to you, or another form. How much banner ads work for you will depend on a variety of things? Where you place the ads, how relevant the sites hosting the ad are to your site; what your ads look like, how appealing they are; how clear they are about what you are advertising, etc. Placing the ads on sites related to yours is vitally important, i.e. people surfing for watches will probably not be interested in an ad for parachutes. Your ads should be attractive, preferably animated, clear and to the point. They should be advertising a specific product or service, not just the name of your site. People who click on the ad should be able to find the product or service in question with relative ease. Ideally, the ad should lead directly to it. The advantages and disadvantages of Banner advertising method Advantages of using Banner advertising method Get a structured and well thought out campaign advantages of hiring a banner advertising agency to conduct your campaign is the fact that your campaign will be in the hands of the professionals and therefore it will be conducted in a sensible and professional manner. This structured campaign will also lead to better results. You will also save a lot of time when you hire a company such as this. This is because you will not have to spend any time figuring out the ground work. Professionally designed banners and email marketing agencies have professionals that work on the job. Therefore you can be assured that if you outsource your campaign to them you will have banners that are professional looking and catchy promoting your products. You must remember that a banner will be of no use if it cannot grab the attention of the people on that page. Getting your banner advertisement designed by the professionals give you a clear cut advantage as the professionals know exactly what works and what doesnt. Being in the right place at the right time another very big advantage that you have when you hire an online advertising agency to help with your banner advertising is the fact that they know exactly where to place you banner to ensure that you get the desired results. Banners such as these can only be placed on websites that have content similar to what the banner is promoting. Therefore instead of you doing all the research to figure out where you banner can be placed, the agency will do it for you. That way you get to focus on other aspects of your business Low cost is the main thing. Even if the Internet ads can be displayed as very comprehensive compared to other media, it is definitely much cheaper than most. Internet Ad Packages are offered as low as $ 10.00 for a period of one month, or by a set amount of hits, depending on the advertiser you go with. Disadvantages of using banner advertising method Online banner advertising provides a method of getting click through to the advertisers site. The biggest of the online advertising disadvantages, is cost. Banner ads are also being frowned upon because it affects website speed and traffic. Like any other graphics, banner ads take time to load. This and the idea that they create clutter can discourage some visitors. Another of the online advertising disadvantages is that bigger ads catch attention. But not every advertiser can afford bigger ads and oftentimes, the banner exchanges only accept a standard ad size. Finally, some search engines never have or are no longer accepting banner ad placements, relying instead on targeted ads and paid listings. To them, the most important of the online advertising disadvantages is interference with the user experience. For example, Google, the number one search engine, offers a user-friendly interface that relies on contextual advertising. Basically, they put text ads on non-search pages that fit based on content. Using online banner images can really come in handy. Especially if you do not have your own website. You can normally just copy and paste the codes in and have your banner up and running. They are great for websites to. But there are some times when your banner may stop working. If this happens to you then here are a few troubleshooting problems that may solve the issue. The biggest reason why most online banner images stop working is because people make chances to the codes they were given. They chance where the banner links to or rewrite what is in the alt section. Doing this can get your banner codes deleted from their service without warning. This will leave you will a image with a small red x in the middle. You must not chance the code at all to keep the image working. A simple solution to this is to download the image to your PC and then upload it to your web hosting service. Then you can link your ad to any place you want without fear of it being cancelled. Unfortunately some free site services do not give you this option so you will have to use the codes as they are given to you. You can always create your own link underneath the banner for people to click to if that helps. Another one of those troubleshooting problems can be quite simple. You may not have copied all of the code you were given. Just missing one character can prevent your online banner image from working. Double check to make sure that you got all of the code. Sometimes a banner can get blocked by other java scripts on your site. Your troubleshooting problems could start with you removing other codes off your site one by one to see which one is blocking it. When you find the right one you will then have to decide which one stays or goes. Since not all codes can work on the same page at the same time it will be a little bit of a challenge to find the code that your online banners image does work with. Unless you have lots of different codes it shouldnt take you long to find. It could be a easy as the banner site that you used have either went offline or experiencing technical difficulties. Check to see if they still exist and if they do contact them with your problem. There are times when you can run into issues of your online banner images working on the web from other computers but not from yours. This is one of those troubleshooting problems that can be confusing. There could be several reasons why this may occur. You may just need to update your java software to the latest version. There could be spyware that is blocking the code from coming up so scan your PC with the protection you are using and with an online service you trust. If you decide to rent the help of a professional, a freelancer or a company for the production of your site and /or advertising for your product or service, of course it costs more than if you did it yourself. For more information logon to www.tried-tested-marketing-strategies.com .While the costs can advance an initial disadvantage, the results in the long term may in fact be very beneficial if you have the right people to work with. Improvement of using banner advertising method Using banner advertising effectively and to create a banner ads isnt all that difficult, you just need to know what to do right? For those of you who dont know this marketing method: its a paid marketing method to promote your business or product by means of placing a banner advertisement on other websites. This could either be a banner exchange, or you simply pay another website to have your banner placed. It is a very powerful and effective method if you know how to design a good banner ad. Lets take a closer look. Using Banner Advertising Effectively 3 Golden Rules For Effective Banner Ads Golden rule 1. Whats the benefit for your customers? Effective banner ads will always communicate the main benefit(s) to your prospective clients. If your product makes people loose weight for instance, then its obvious to make your headline something like: Loose 10 Pounds In Just One Week! Banner ads will have to include the benefit of your product or service in the main headline. Communicating benefits to people gets your attention. Effectively implementing banner advertising generates a much higher click through rate. Golden Rule 2. Graphics are not as effective as text! When using banners for advertising, you also want the headline of the banner ad to stand out. Make the headline (thus the benefit of your product or business) in big bolded letters. I always use the Arial font for my effective banner ads. This font is easy to read from computer screens. Using banner advertising effectively means that you also need to include another 2-3 lines of text to the banner. Perhaps you can mention some extra benefits or additional info about the service, product or business. Check out the site you are going to banner advertise. Golden Rule 3. Include instructions for your prospects. Tell them what to do next!A lack of communication in banner ads will make your campaign fail. If you want to start using banner advertising effectively, a banner ad MUST include a Call-2-Action. Instruct your audience what to do. Include text that tell people what to do such as Show Me Now, Visit Us Now or Show Me The Biz. It will make the click through rate go up and so will the conversions to sales, generating more profits for you. Of course there are many more golden rules to follow for effective banner ads, but the above 3 are the most important for using banner advertising effectively. Using the method of advertising with banners and creating banner ads that are effective is just one method of marketing to advertise your business and to drive traffic to your website. Let me show you where you can see all the other 50 or so proven and powerful marketing methods, strategies tips and tricks to market virtually any product or business online. Pop-up advertising method A pop-up ad is an ad that pops up in its own window when you go to a page. It obscures the Web page that you are trying to read, so you have to close the window or move it out of the way. Pop-under ads are similar, but place themselves under the content you are trying to read and are therefore less intrusive. http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/web-advertising-popup-ad.gif http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/web-advertising-popup-ad2.gif A typical site with two pop-up ads that appear on top of the home page A pop-up ad is a pop-up window used for advertising. When the program is initiated by some user action, such as a mouse click or a mouse over , a window containing an offer for some product or service appears in the foreground of the visual interface. Like all pop-ups, a pop-up ad is smaller than the background interface windows that fill the user interface are called replacement interfaces and usually resembles a small browser window with only the close, minimize, and maximize options at the top. A variation on the pop-up ad, the pop-under , is a window that loads behind the Web page that youre viewing, only to appear when you leave that Web site. Pop-up and pop-under ads annoy many users because they clutter up the desktop and take time to close. However, they are much more effective than banner ads. Whereas a banner ad might get two to five clicks per 1,000 impressions, a pop-up ad might average 30 clicks. Therefore, advertisers are willing to pay more for pop-up and pop-under ads. Typically, a pop-up ad will pay the Web site four to 10 times more than a banner ad. That is why you see so many pop-up ads on the Web today. Pop-up windows come in many different shapes and sizes, typically in a scaled-down browser window with only the Close, Minimize and Maximize commands. There is a strong resentment by some Web surfers towards pop-up ads. Marketers often do not realize the ill-will generated by pop-ups because it is easier to click the close button than send an email to complain. What can often be seen is an above-average click-through rate, although some of this can come from false positives, unintentional clicks when the pop-up gets in the way of the desired target. Advertisers can get a better picture of the effectiveness of pop-up advertising by paying attention to conversion rates and return on investment (ROI). Pop-up ads are not popular with the average Web surfer, and there are several products that disable them, such as Pop-up Stopper, Pop-up Killer, and Pop-up Annihilator. One thing to look for in such a program is the ability to differentiate between user-initiated pop-up windows and others, because many other applications (such as Webcast s, for example) make use of pop-up windows. If a pop-up stopper utility cant tell the difference between a pop-up window that the user has requested and an unsought pop-up ad, the program may cause more problems for the user than it solves. The advantages and disadvantages of pop-up advertising method Advantages of using pop-up advertising method they offer the example of Web giants like Yahoo! and Google Inc. who also offer their users pop-up ads. The site owners cite this precedent as justification for using pop-up ad

Knight in Shinning Armour in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Essay examp

The Knight in Shinning Armour in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales offers the reader an insight into our past, providing vivid glimpses into the 14th century's social structure, and into the personalities, lives, and ethics of twenty-eight members of that society drawn together to travel on a pilgrimage. The General Prologue to the Tales deals primarily with introducing these people to us, providing physical descriptions and character outlines of virtually each pilgrim; it is a tribute to Chaucer's skill that his descriptions (as filtered through the neurotically happy narrator) succeeds in creating such lively characters out of what are, essential, two-dimensional stereotypes from his era. Chaucer manages to create strong characters through multiple means, each pilgrim receiving special detail in various areas. Take, for instance, the first of the pilgrims: The Knight. The knight has always been a romantic, heroic figure, and in this group of pilgrims, is the highest placed member on the social stepladder. Chaucer does the knight - and our preconceptions of him - justice, painting an image of a strong, valiant, and noble figure. Oddly enough (or perhaps, wisely), very little attention is given to his physical detail, concentrating more on the knight's activities and demeanour. In fact, the only lines that provide a direct physical description of the knight are: But for tto tellen you of his array, His hors were goode, but he was nat gay. Of fustiaan he wered a gipoun, Al bismottered with his haubergeoun, (73-76) Therefore, we know he has a good horse (a sure sign of wealth), and that he avoids flashy, gaudy clothing (unlike his son the squ... ...ion of which has obviously caused the knight to go on a pilgrimage. Something is obviously bothering the knight, else he would not feel the need to atone for his actions. But these small flaws only make him that much more of a human figure, and can only serve to further draw the reader into the knight's coming tale. So, while the knight may be besmirched, and troubled, and no longer gleam, he still, in Chaucer's, the narrator's, and most reader's view, remains the Knight in shinning armour. Works Consulted Geoffrey Chaucer. Twayne's English Authors Series, Ed. Sylvia Bowman, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1964. Modern Critical Views: Geoffrey Chaucer, Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. Blackwell Critical Biographies. Ed. Claude Rawson. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992.

Graduation Speech: Its All About Us! :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Hello Class of 2012! I assure you that no matter what your parents are thinking—which is something along the lines of, "I did a great job with him or her"—their conceited thoughts are irrelevant to this occasion. It's not about them; it's about us. Contrary also to what the board members (who you'll see today for the first and last time) believe, that they've earned the right to hand us our diplomas due to their perfect decision making (comedic stare and pause), this moment is also not about them; but again, about us. Then, in opposition to what every lawyer and doctor, teacher, business owner, and worker in general is thinking—which is something along the lines of, "blah blah blah, I remember my graduation"—they're just daydreams. This is not about them either; it's about us. And when we leave this place to pursue separate ambitions, the attention will never fade, the hate will never subside, the mountains will increase without fail. No matter how many people have blazed a path, rivers will not part, expectations will not reduce and therefore it will still be about us. And though we continue to grow even after being handed the diploma, to understand life, and choices, the opposite sex, the pressure of here and now, the strain placed on us from long ago, and the demands that our future will fire upon us, there will be close calls, fatalities, elation, affliction, and joy. And thus, it will remain about us. When others see us they see half of us in jail, some of us unemployed, some pregnant currently or in a month or two. They see too many blacks or too many Latinos or too many whites or Asians or Native-Americans for us to make anything of ourselves. While these thoughts are derogatory, the fact is they are still about us. When we, however, see ourselves, we see doctors, lawyers, preachers, presidents, teachers, and outstanding members of their fields and society in general, and what we think has been and will be the only thing that matters; because what we think was created by us. And we break the statistics that say this many go to jail and this many become pregnant. And we reconcile stereotypes that encourage different members of society to refrain from interacting with other members of society, and we become the long awaited for female or Black president, the owners of this and the CEO of that. Graduation Speech: It's All About Us! :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address Hello Class of 2012! I assure you that no matter what your parents are thinking—which is something along the lines of, "I did a great job with him or her"—their conceited thoughts are irrelevant to this occasion. It's not about them; it's about us. Contrary also to what the board members (who you'll see today for the first and last time) believe, that they've earned the right to hand us our diplomas due to their perfect decision making (comedic stare and pause), this moment is also not about them; but again, about us. Then, in opposition to what every lawyer and doctor, teacher, business owner, and worker in general is thinking—which is something along the lines of, "blah blah blah, I remember my graduation"—they're just daydreams. This is not about them either; it's about us. And when we leave this place to pursue separate ambitions, the attention will never fade, the hate will never subside, the mountains will increase without fail. No matter how many people have blazed a path, rivers will not part, expectations will not reduce and therefore it will still be about us. And though we continue to grow even after being handed the diploma, to understand life, and choices, the opposite sex, the pressure of here and now, the strain placed on us from long ago, and the demands that our future will fire upon us, there will be close calls, fatalities, elation, affliction, and joy. And thus, it will remain about us. When others see us they see half of us in jail, some of us unemployed, some pregnant currently or in a month or two. They see too many blacks or too many Latinos or too many whites or Asians or Native-Americans for us to make anything of ourselves. While these thoughts are derogatory, the fact is they are still about us. When we, however, see ourselves, we see doctors, lawyers, preachers, presidents, teachers, and outstanding members of their fields and society in general, and what we think has been and will be the only thing that matters; because what we think was created by us. And we break the statistics that say this many go to jail and this many become pregnant. And we reconcile stereotypes that encourage different members of society to refrain from interacting with other members of society, and we become the long awaited for female or Black president, the owners of this and the CEO of that.

A History of Melody Essay

The violin emerged from a primitive musical bow, usually an arched stick with a string stretched taut between the two ends (Hughes, 2008). The string is divided by a loop or a bridge (Thinkquest, 1999). The first bridge was used to add to the instruments’ resonance when the string was vibrated, and strings were attached across suitable receptacles (Hughes, 2008). These resonance enhancers took many forms-tortoise shells, coconut, calabash, wooden boxes and even pig bladders (Thinkquest, 1999), thrust tightly between the strings and the bow (Thinkquest, 1999). Also to enhance the resonance of the bow, the instrument was held before the mouth (Thinkquest, 1999). The violin probably came to Europe around the 9th century, mostly originating from Asia (Thinkquest, 1999). It took the evolutionary process of the violin about 450 years to bring the violin to its present form. This only shows the long years of experience needed by the makers of the stringed instrument (Thinkquest, 1999). The use of a bow to draw across the strings followed, probably imported into Europe from Asia by Arab travellers (Hughes, 2008). The evolution of the violin was slow. It took until the middle Ages for a version of the zither, a popular and older instrument, to evolve into the vielle, which saw the instrument being held against the shoulder. This differentiated it from the zither, as the latter was held across the knees (Hughes, 2008). As time went on, the original one string grew to four, and for a time, five strings (Hughes, 2008). Fashionable until the 16th century, the vielle was changed with the small wooden ribs used in similar wooden plucked instruments replaced by the tailpiece and bridge (Hughes, 2008). Violin 2 By the time of the Renaissance, the viol (a bowed stringed instrument chiefly of the 16th and 17th centuries made in treble, alto, tenor, and bass sizes and distinguished from members of the violin family especially in having a deep body, a flat back, sloping shoulders, usually six strings, a fretted fingerboard, and a low-arched bridge (Merriam-Webster, 2008), was being used, the first having a hole adding resonance and tone to the instrument (Hughes, 2008). It was a short time that the viol evolved into the viola da gamba (a bass member of the viol family having a range approximating the cello (Merriam-Webster, 2008), which was played between the knees of the musician, and the viola de braccio held against the shoulder. The modern shape of the violin was evolved from the second version of the instrument (Hughes, 2008). The Violin evolved form many different instruments, including the Rebob, the Rebec, Lira da Braccio and the Renaissance fiddle. The violin today, the â€Å"new violin† was not used until 1630 in Italy (Berkeley, 2008). The evolution of the modern violin appears to have been completed in Italy with the most famous violin maker Andrea Amati at Cremona, providing 24 violins, six violas and eight cellos for the French King Charles IX in 1560 (Hughes, 2008). Another famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivarius, joined the Amati school in the latter half of the 6th century (Hughes, 2008). The violins’ refinery As stated earlier in the paper, that apart from the Arab travellers’ influence had an on the violin, there is no certain fact on who invented the violin or a stringed instrument that is played with a bow (Hughes, 2008). Some of the theories place the invention of the violin at around 1520 A. D. wherein the violin is included in the Gaudenzio Ferrari painting â€Å"The Madonna of the Orange Trees (cited in Berkeley, 2008). Violin 3 But the violin emerged in Italy in the early 1500s and seems to have developed from two medieval bowed instruments-the fiddle, also called the viele or fiedel, and the rebec-and from the Renaissance lira de braccio (a violin-like instrument with off the finger drone strings (Rosenblum, 2007). Also related to the violin, but not direct ancestors, is the six-string fretted viol. The viol appeared in Europe before the violin and existed with it side by side for about 200 hundred years (Rosenblum, 2007). In the early 1600’s, however, the violin gained prestige through its use in operas such as Orfeo(1607) by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, and through the French King Louis XIII band of musicians, the 24 violons de roi (the â€Å"King’s 24 violins†, formed in 1626). This growth in stature continued throughout the Baroque period (1600-1750) in the works of many notable composer-performers. Among them were the Italians Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Tartini and the Germany’s Heinrich Biber, Georg Philipp Teleman and Johann Sebastian Bach (Rosenblum, 2007). The Craftsmen The earliest important violin makers were from Northern Italy, Gasparo da Salo (1540-1609) and Giovanni Maggini (1579-1630) from Brescia and Andrea Amati (1525-1611) from Cremona. The craft of violin making reached its height in the 17th and 18th centuries in the workshops of the Italians Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1737) and Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) from Cremona and the Austrian Jacob Stainer (1617-1638) (Rosenblum, 2007). Violin 4 Gasparo da Salo (1542-1609) The founder of the Brescian school of violin makers, Gasparo Bertlotti, or Gasparo da Salo, was a dedicated craftsman and instrument maker. He was formerly credited with the claim of having developed the violin in the shape we know today. Although his claims have been disproved, his instruments are nevertheless admired and venerated (Smithsonian, 2008). Gasparo’s violas are considered finer than his violins and probably were more numerous (Smithsonian, 2008). His viola da gambas were converted to violincellos and are much esteemed, and some of his six-stringed bass viols have been remounted as three and four stringed double basses. Twenty instruments have been recorded (Smithsonian, 2008). Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1579-1630) An apprentice of Gasparo da Salo, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the woods available to him (Smithsonian, 2008). Maggini made his own mark and as a master, his own techniques of craftsmanship. He frequently experimented to improve tone quality for his pieces and perfect his construction methods (Smithsonian, 2008). Many of the instruments made by Maggini at the twilight of his career are considered his finest work. These works are known for the quality of the woods and unusually large sound holes as well as for their unusually mellow tones (Smithsonian, 2008). Andrea Amati (1525-1611) The founder of the great Cremona school of violin making, Amati focused on violins and was making viols and rebecs. Instruments dated after 1584 are said to be the works of his sons Antonio and Hieronymus (Smithsonian, 2008). Violin 5 It is claimed that he made 24 violins, 6 violas and 8 cellos for the French king Charles IX for use at the court at Versailles (Smithsonian, 2008). A few of these instruments survive to this day (Smithsonian, 2008). Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1734) Stradivarius’ interpretation of geometry and design served as a conceptual model for violin makers for more than 200 years (Smithsonian, 2008). Stradivarius also made harps, guitars, violas and cellos- more than 1,100 instruments by current estimate (Smithsonian, 2008). About 650 of these instruments survive today (Smithsonian, 2008). Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) Guarneri is considered the most illustrious member of this violin making family. The fifth and last member of the family, he is known more as Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu. Guarnerius is the Latin form of the family name and Joseph the Hebrew form of Giuseppe (Smithsonian, 2008). The estimate of his total production is not more than 250 violins; no evidence suggests that he made more (Smithsonian, 2008). But at least one violoncello and some violas are attributed to him. The outline of his violins, with slight modifications, is founded on instruments of Stradivarius (Smithsonian, 2008). Stradivarius and Guarnerius are ranked as among the greatest violin makers, but fine violinists prefer Guarnerius over Stradivarius (Smithsonian, 2008). Whatever the history or whoever the maker of the violin, we all must appreciate the efforts of these individuals who in one way or another contributed to the making of the violin. All these men have given much by way of continuously honing the instrument as it is known and enjoyed today by scores of people. Violin 6 Personal Reflection The violin represents probably on of the more versatile, elegant and mysterious of the instruments that we have today. The seeming smallness of the instrument somewhat does not tell of the long and painstaking process that went into its refinement and development. The reason that I centred the paper on this instrument is just for those following reasons. The instrument for me seems to just waft its notes and sounds over the listeners’ ears at just the right moments. They are, I believe, different from the wind pieces such as the trumpet and the saxophone. These pieces produce these shrill notes that sometimes tend to be irritable if you are not an admirer for the kind of music. But the violin just seems to play its notes in a mellow and smooth sound. It sometimes will want to lull to sleep at times. I’m a fan of the violin. For me, there is just no instrument just like it in sound and depth and quality of sound. Yes, there are many pieces out there that seem to sound alike, but can’t seem to touch the position of the violin. I can’t imagine an orchestra without a violin in the strings section. It would be incomplete without it. The sound would be really different than the violins in it. And the violin can cross over to different genres of music, from classical to country to pop to jazz and to others, without a tad of difficulty. That’s another thing I like about this instrument, it’s very versatile. It can just blend in with the various styles of music that you put it with and it will perform handsomely, a trait not all instruments can boast of. What we can do now is just relax at every playing of the violin, just to enjoy the elegant sound of the instrument as the musician begins to play and begins to once again weave its magic over its listeners. Reference Berkeley. (2008). The origins and history of the violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Berkeley website. http://www-atdp. berkeley. edu/2030/jmoriuchi/violin-title. html Hughes, A. (2008). Where did the violin originate? Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Answer Bank database http://www. theanswerbank. co. uk/Article1910. html Merriam-Webster. (2008). Viola. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Merriam-Webster website http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/viol Rosenblum, M. (2007). Violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia database. http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761576364/Violin. html Smithsonian Institution. (2008). Violin makers. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Encyclopaedia Smithsonian website. http://www. si. edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/violdasa. htm ThinkQuest. (1999). The violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Oracle Education Foundation database. http://library. thinkquest. org/27178/en/section/1/index. html