Use of Price Elasticity & Income Elasticity of Demand for Businesses Essay Example for Free

Use of Price Elasticity Income Elasticity of Demand for Businesses Essay Price elasticity of demand and income elasticity are two important ideas in practical business activities. Price elasticity, which is represented by PED, measures the changes of one product’s demand in response to a changing in its price. We can write an equation in this way: Price elasticity of demand = percentage change in quantity demanded of the product / percentage changes in price of the product. This is abbreviated to: XED=%ΔQD / %ΔP. Income elasticity of demand (represented by YED) shows the relationship between a change in quantity demand and the changing in income. The equation can be written as: Income elasticity of demand = percentage change in quantity demanded / percentage changes in income. Abbreviated to: YED=%ΔQD / %ΔY. These are just two terms, but how they work is the most important part. For companies, price elasticity of demand is actually effects of prices’ changing on its own sales of products; and income elasticity of demand is effects of consumers’ changes on its sales. Generally speaking, learning the two relationships can help the business find out the situation of the market and make right decisions. Price Elasticity of Demand (PED) The value of price elasticity of demand is usually negative. The product with high value of PED is described to be elastic, while for one with low PED is said to be inelastic. Just an example to show this idea: when Mc Donald rises its price of burger from $2 to $2.3, and its demand falls from 20 million to 14 million, so its PED= (14 million-20 million)/20 million / (($2.3-$2)/$2 = 30% / 15% = 2. It’s a quite big value of PED, so this is elastic. In order to show the degree of elasticity, we use graphs. There are generally 5 types of graphs, and through them we can see the product’s PED, and company can make decisions in different situations. Type 1: Elastic demand (Please ignore the numbers on it.) This occurs when a given % change in price causes a greater % change in demand. In this kind of graph’s condition, the value of PED is greater than 1 and less than infinity. It usually happens when the company has close substitutes, so a little change in price can cause a big changing in demand. When in a company the PED graph gets like this, it should consider decreasing the price a little to achieve more consumers. From the graph, we can see when the price drops a little, the area of revenue increases much. Type 2: Inelastic demand This is when a given % change in price causes a smaller % change in demand. Its PED value will be greater than 0 and less than 1. Goods with this graph are usually necessaries, and even a relatively high change in price would not cause a big decrease in demand. Or, there are no big substitutes closely, so most consumers will still choose to buy it even if the price rises. Type 3: Unit price elasticity of demand This is when a given % change in price results an equal % change in demand. Its PED value will be exactly 1. In this condition, the PED is easy to handle, because the price and the quantity demanded is proportional, so the revenue will remain constant. Thus, the company can change the price flexibly depending on the market’s situation. However this may not happen so frequently, because the real market is much more complicated. Type 4: Perfectly elastic demand This occurs when a constant price will cause the infinite change in the quantity demanded. In this case, the value of PED is infinite. For example, 2 people are selling the exactly the same goods in a small area, and if one of them gets his price below the other one, then he will get all of the consumers. This doesn’t happen frequently, because there may not be such goods that are exactly the same but different in price in a certain area. Type 5: Perfectly inelastic demand Perfectly inelastic demand curve describe the situation for the company that the price’s change will have absolutely no affect on the demand. PED here is 0. No matter how much the price increases or decreases (mostly increases), the demand will not change any. This often happens to the necessaries or monopolies that people have to choose to buy the good even the prices changes rapidly. For example, the gasoline’s price changes from $2.3 to $3.5, the demand will still remain about the same, because for such goods consumers have to pay for it. Conclusion: Different goods will have different PED charts. Companies should change its price depending on different kind of charts. Generally, if a goods is in a competitive market, it can be high elastic, so it should consider to lower the price to increase revenue; contract to it while in a relatively not so competitive market, it can rise price to increase revenue when its PED is low. The goods that are new in the market should decrease the price to survive and achieve higher revenue (new products usually has high PED). Luxuries are mostly elastic, since they are not essential goods. However, PED is not exactly what it would happen in the market; it is limited in many situations, that the practical market condition and the competitors’ changing may have effect on the demand. So it’s better to just make it as a supplement, but not relying on it.

Business Strategy Affecting Information Systems And Organizational Decisions Commerce Essay

Business Strategy Affecting Information Systems And Organizational Decisions Commerce Essay A strategy can be defined as a plan. A business strategy can be defined as an explicit description of the strategic destination of a business in terms of what it targets to achieve, as well as the road map of getting to that place or operational status quo. Such a strategy is the means through which an enterprise communicates its vision, mission statement and set objectives. In response to various market forces such as demand and supply, the managers of a company devise this business strategy. To achieve set organizational goals, managers make various decisions which are key to the optimization of processes and resources. Such decisions include financing decisions; investment decisions; operational decisions among others. Hence the need for any organizations information systems to offer the best decision making support to management. An information system is an organized combination of interrelated components which are people resources; computer software and hardware resources and in frastructure which operate within set boundaries to achieve a common goal. There is strong link between a business strategy and the IS (Information System) strategy as well as the organizational strategy of any business. Prosperous business entities come up with an overruling business strategy which dictates the complementary IS and organizational strategy to be employed. The relationship between these three strategies is called the Information Systems Strategy Triangle. According to the Information System Strategy Triangle, understanding business strategy means providing answers to the questions listed below: 1. What is the business goal or objective? 2. What is the plan for achieving it? What is the role of IS in this plan? 3. Who are the crucial competitors and co-operators, and what is required of a successful player in this value net? ( Adapted from Stephanie Overby, Found to Fail CIO Magazine, May 1, 2005, pp. 49-54). Managements decisions about the organizational structure, staffing issues and other elements of the organizational strategy and decisions regarding IS components such as hardware and software applications are all dependent on the type of strategy which a business adopts and pursues. There is therefore the need to balance these three strategies though organizational design which positions the IS and organizational strategies as complements of the business strategy. As such, the business strategy affects the information systems and organizational strategy of a company in that any changes in a firms business environment not only necessitate business process re-engineering or rethinking the business strategy of giants such as Roche, but revamping the IS infrastructure as well. Where a firm designs its business strategy to use IS to gain a competitive advantage, constant innovation in IS becomes necessary (Stephanie Overby, Found to Fail CIO Magazine, May 1, 2005, pp. 49-54) Resultantly, the three strategies must be constantly reassessed. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ QUESTION 2 : What generic strategy does Roche appear to be using based on this case? Provide a rationale for your response. Roche mainly employs the Innovation strategy through the use of IT, driving change in organizational culture and the consequent change in business processes. Firstly the innovation strategy is evident in that the organization has had to embrace and organizational revolution to accommodate the technological revolution. The shift in approach in Research and Development Roche moves towards a system which encourages a warmer style of teamwork as opposed to the ultra competitive culture in which scientists fought for scarce resources and did not encourage flow of information. In the new system, the preferred team members are young, ambitious researchers with the agility to handle change. Klaus Lindpaintner, Roches worldwide head of genetics research says A young researcher can be fully up to speed with the most modern stuff and be less distracted by all of the other things that 50 year-olds focus on. In addition, there is increased interaction between researcher from different background s or technical expertise for example biologists and statisticians collaborating on how to use data from a Genechip experiment. Secondly, as Roches business strategy has resulted in the generation of large amounts for data which need to be screened and processed, the innovation strategy is seen in the information technology that the company employs to deal with this flood of data, for example the Zeiss machine which is used to increase efficiency and speed in the screening of potential drugs, shortening the time it takes to get the product on the market. Innovation is also demonstrated in the way Roches computer services experts had to devise a way to use computer capacity effectively, for the storage of raw data and experiments. Roche has quite evidently begun a form of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) as a response to the new breakthroughs in medical research. The beginning of research cycle has changed and has more possibilities, as a result the processes that follow have to upgraded to handle the increased volume of information, as a result Roches business will be completely remodelled over time. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. QUESTION 3: Apply the hyper-competition model to Roche. Which of the 7 Ss are demonstrated in this case? The hyper-competition models chief proponent is Richard DAveni, the professor of business strategy at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. Mr. Daveni believes that business can no longer be business as usual due to shifting market rules which render it impossible, in an extended time frame, to sustain a companys competitive advantage. The world over, the business environment has slid into a status of hyper-competition where survival for any business goes beyond issues to do with maximizing profits. To ensure that a business continues and survives there is a need for business entities is to focus strategic energies on toppling the market leader by eliminating their present competitive advantage. This new paradigm comes in the wake of four main contributors to the new age of hyper-competition, which are adjusted consumer preferences and the resultant changes in product and service demand; constant upgrades; research and development in the field of information technology; world globalization which merge all nations into one global market thus nullifying geographical and industry divides, and deep pockets among competitors (Daveni). Due to the impact of the four forces listed above, there is need to devise new ways of upsetting the market. Mr. DAveni came up with a new set of rules key in this new era of hyper-competition, and labeled these simultaneous or sequential strategic thrusts , strategic soothsaying, surprise, speed signals, shifting the rules and stakeholder satisfaction. Ground breaking developments in human genomics as well as molecular biology in the Pharmaceuticals industry sparked the need for Roche to adopt Davenis new set of rules to stay afloat in the world of hyper-competition. The following are the Ss which are demonstrated in the case study for Roche Group. 3.1 SOOTHSAYING, i.e. Discontinuing the pursuance of obsolete business thrusts and ideas in favour of currently applicable methodologies of innovation and team collaboration. Ensuring a speedy and timely identification of peoples susceptibility to illness or infirmity. Roche hires new employees and leverages on existing employees to best prepare for efficient implementation of new ideas. 3.2 STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION Effective maneuvering of Roches value chain to maximize value addition to cancer drugs, thereby increasing their profitability and efficiency in treating cancer ailments. Ensuring a speedy detection of side effects caused by the use of certain drugs such as probable toxicity. Employing the Gene Chip to aid treatment and monitoring of patients, which translates to better health care insurance for Roches customers. Maximizing returns to shareholders by producing competitive pharmacy drugs which best meet customer expectations. 3.3 SPEED Critically evaluating and analyzing large volumes of data in a shorter period of time using the Zeiss machine. Achieving the rapid discovering of new and better pharmacy drugs and nipping in the bud toxicity risks through early identification. Team collaboration in favour of encouraging scientific team competition means that teams take lesser time to be productive due to the pool of intellectual capital, unlike where individual teams would be stuck with outdated ideas, trying to preserve their careers. 3.4 SIMULTANEOUS AND SEQUENTIAL THRUST. Researchers can now consider multiple ideas on a daily basis rather than to spend years focusing on one idea. Having different initiatives running at different times. 3.5 SURPRISE Investing in new technology 3.6 SIGNALLING Developing markers for cancer Media briefing showing the direction market will take. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ QUESTION 4 : How do information systems support Roches business strategy? Roches business strategy has resulted in the generation of large amounts of data which needs to be processed screened, analyzed then either discarded or stored. 4.1 Screening The head of clinical research believed that the best hope of finding new drugs fast would be to test as much compounds as possible and discarding as quickly as possible, those that had lower odds of succeeding. This resulted in the procurement the Carl Zeiss machine which has assisted Roche with efficient and faster testing of compounds per day.. 4.2 Processing / Experimenting- the Genechip has assisted Roche in reducing the time it takes to identify disease markers when conducting experiments on tissue samples. This contributes positively to the business strategy in that it increases the speed at which new products can be identified and developed. 4.3 Storage All the data generated as a result of Roches new strategy which is experiments that are either discarded or continuing with further investigation needs to be stored on the companys data systems. Roches computers services experts have had to devise an effective way of storage that ensures that all the employees are allocated sufficient storage in their respective areas of responsibility. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦

Twelfth Night Essay: Olivias Denial -- Twelfth Night essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚   After first reading Twelfth Night I was puzzled at Olivia's denial of Orsino's hand in marriage and her subsequent desire for Cesario. After considerable thought and research, I intend to propose and support the argument that Olivia is not being simply "coy" towards Orsino, nor does she desire Cesario because he/she is attracted to him/her. She denies Orsino because of her refusal to marry a man of higher rank and desires to marry Cesario because he is a man of lower rank. Olivia wants to give the impression that her mourning of her brother's death doesn't allow for the admittance of suitors. In the opening scene, Valentine says that Olivia "shall not behold her face at ample view" (1.1.27) because she "desires to season a brother's dead love" (1.1.31). Feste knows that mourning is the not real reason for her refusal to marry Orsino.    Clown: Good madonna, why mourn'st thou? Olivia: Good fool, for my brother's death. Clown: I think his soul is in hell, madonna. Olivia: I know his soul is in heaven, fool. Clown: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul, being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen. (1.1.64-70)    Feste shows Olivia the foolish nature of mourning over her brother's death since he is in hea... ...t that Olivia may have a lesbian tendeny because she is attracted to Cesario (who is really a woman) is rendered less plausible.    Works Cited David, R. W., ed. The Arden Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost. London: Methuen, 1951. Erasmus, Desiderius. In Praise of Folly. Trans. Hoyt Hopewell Hudson, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970. McDonald, Russ. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents. New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1996. Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.

History of the Novel :: Free Essay Writer

The arrival of the novel was not a sudden process. Stories have existed among mankind since the cave man began drawing on the walls. From the Bible to Homer's epic poems to Shakespeare's plays the evolution of the novel has been a gradual but steady process. Now it must be made clear that books existed before the eighteenth century, fiction was written–however, the idea of a ‘novel’ did not come into existence until the 1700s. Although there is no way to credit the ‘first’ novel, however there are at least three â€Å"groups of works† which can be designated as the novels â€Å"predecessors† (Stoddard 30). These three consist of: 1. The Greek Romances "All that we have of it is evidence, more or less complete, of the existence of eight tales" (Stoddard 30) including the story of Nimrod, the story of Dinias and the story of Sinonis. These are stories of adventure and romance. According to Stoddard, these stories focus mainly on external events. These stories do not discuss the internal emotions of the hero. It is a story "wholly external depicting only adventures of the body, of the physical senses" (Stoddard 35). 2. The Italian and Spanish Romances These texts have "vastly influenced the literature of Europe" (Stoddard 39). Although they are similar to the Greek romances with their adventurous tales, there is a more sentimental feel to these stories. These texts take the "pastoral" idea of romance and images of the sentimental lover and longing for the past come into mind. "They are not the novel" (Stoddard 41) but when studying these works, one can see the influence the played on the eighteenth century novel. 3. Prose Romances of Chivalry They tell stories of knights rescuing the damsel in distress and riding off into the sunset. "Tracing a direct line of decent is difficult, but the spirit of these romances of the chivalric deeds"

Essay --

Growing up in an affluent New Jersey neighborhood, Peter Balakian’s house can tell us a lot about his up bringing. Tenafly, New Jersey seems to be a common topic in Balakian’s memoir ‘Black Dog of Fate.’ Not only must we study the house, but also the relationships that are formed within Balakian’s household. His extended family is made up of physicians, merchants, and well-known literary authors. Arguably the biggest presence in Peter’s life was his Grandmother, along with his Mother and Father. One of Peter’s most vivid memories is of his Grandmother. He starts off his memoir with a lengthy description of her and her apartment, as if she were still alive when he wrote it. He describes her apartment as â€Å"mysterious and exotic after the suburban houses of Teaneck† (6). He seems to view her apartment as old fashioned (â€Å"it was a 1940s kitchen with long white cabinets, a white enamel sink, red-speckled linoleum cracking at the seams, and a coiled buzzing fluorescent light on the ceiling† (7)) and different then the houses he is used to in suburbia. Her apartment seems to be laced with Armenian culture compared to his Americanized home back in Teaneck. A tradition or at least custom that seems important to Peter and his life at home is his love for and following of the Yankees. The Yankees were a type of family bonding for Peter, and he even followed them with his Grandmother. â€Å"My grandmother and I followed the Yankees together, and by the time I was ten it had become an ongoing conversation between us. Box scores, averages, pitching rotations, prenogis for the World Series – because there was almost never a series without the Yankees† (12). The Yankees were a symbol of American pride for Peter, â€Å"they were more than a team... ...e. †¦ On either side of our new development were grand nineteenth-century houses and manors set back behind high hedges. †¦ Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century stone Dutch houses still spotted the town and some quite fabulous nineteenth-century estates surrounded our new street† (50). This description of Balkians’s house, as he remembers it, might tell him that his family is becoming more accustomed to the American culture, yet still keeping with their Armenian roots. The move from Teaneck to Tenafly just shows that his family is living the American Dream by finding a city that fits them best and a house that is custom built to their liking. All of a sudden Peter is living in a community where families are larger and dinner is just a race to get done with. It seems as though the move to Tenafly is an immersion into the American lifestyle, even more than Teaneck.

George Lucas

English George Lucas 11/3/11 Greatest Producer of all Time, Mr. Lucas George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucas was born in Modesto, California on May 14, 1944. Lucas was a single child while his father sold nuts on his Walnut Farm. Before graduating Modesto high school in 1958, Lucas was in a car accident that left him in the hospital for three months. Lucas then became interested in movie making and photography.With getting into filming Lucas’s career took off. Lucas would film car races with a camera. Lucas’s filming style got the attention of Haskell Wexler, a great cameraman, who helped Lucas get into the college of USC. Lucas made eight films on campus, graduated, and became a cameraman. One of his best school films was THX:1138 which won first prize in the National Student Film Festival. After college Lucas got a scholarship from Warner Brothers to go and work with them in1969. Lucas then married Marcia Griffin in the same year.In 1973, Lucas directed, and co wrote his first movie, American Graffiti, which costs 750,000 dollars. When the movie came out Lucas was nominated for five academy awards. Lucas then started working on Star Wars, which would be a trilogy. Star Wars came out on May 1977 and was rated very well. Star Wars grossed 400 million dollars. The merchandise sold from Star Wars grossed 500 million in the first three years! In 1979 Lucas made his own movie business company called Lucas Film Ltd.The rest of the Star Wars film brought in 1 billion dollars and merchandise brought in 3 billion dollars! Star Wars placed thirteenth in top 100 Best Films of All Time. As Lucas began making money with Star Wars, he decided he wanted to start working on some new films. Lucas began working on Indiana Jones, which supported archeologist movies and work in 1940. The first of the Indiana Jones movies was Raiders of The Lost Ark which made 2,500,00 dollars. The rest of the Indiana Jones movies didn’t do as gre at but still made close to the same amount of money.Indiana Jones was not as great as Star Wars but came in sixty-sixth place in top 100 Best Films of all Time. Lucas changed ideas of filming. Even though Lucas has produced only six movies he still has been in many more. Lucas is known as one of the best producers on earth. Since high school he has been filming movies and working to become better at this art. Lucas’s movies have made the most money in the history of movie making. Lucas will be remembered for a long time. TRIVIA Lucas was a diabeticLucas adopted three kids Star wars was turned down by every big movie company except 20th Century Fox Lucas is a fan of Family Guy and lets Family Guy make skits about Star Wars Sound and music are 50% of the movies of Lucas Friends with Steven Spielberg a great producer like George Lucas Websites â€Å"www. notablebiographies. com no publication date. 11/7/11 <http://www. notablebiographies. com/Lo-Ma/Lucas-> www. imdb. com † 1990-2011, 11/7/11 <George. htmlhttp://www. imdb. com/name/nm0000184/>

Literary Theory and Criticism, and Its Relevance Today Essay

Literary Theory and Criticism and Its Relevance Today Literary criticism is primarily the evaluation of the importance of a particular work or body of work on such grounds as: the personal and/or cultural importance of the themes and the uses of language of a text; the insights and impact of a text; and the aesthetic creation (or, performance) of the text; mainly as these areas are seen to be reciprocally dependent, supportive or inflective. The word ‘criticism’ has ordinary-use negative connotations, and to an extent that is right: for literary criticism is part of he disciplining of dialogue generally and of what is considered literature in particular. One patrols the confines of good writing, admitting or excluding, determining what should be thought about a text, and why, what personal and cultural value should be placed on it. Judgments of significance are not simple, however. They require that one consider what constitutes importance, what the personal and social importance of literature is what the significance of ‘the aesthetic’ is. And they require that one interpret the text. As texts Judged to be of high literary significance tend to be marked by complexity and even ambiguity, and to yield various interpretations, Judgment may eventually require a theory of interpretation, or at least careful consideration to the question of what constitutes, guides, and legitimates interpretation. Theory is the route of understanding what the character of literature is, what functions it has, what the relation of text is to author, to reader, to language, to society, to history. It is not Judgment but understanding of the frames of Judgment. Literary Theory is part of a prevalent movement in the culture which has affected a number of disciplines, occasioning similar disputes in some, a movement which has explored and elucidated the complexities of meaning, textuality and understanding. Literary Theory is not a single venture but a set of interrelated concepts and practices † most significantly deconstruction, post-Althusserian ideological or ‘political’ criticism, post-Lacanian psychoanalytic criticism, New Historicist or ‘cultural’ criticism, some reader-response criticism and much feminist criticism. The aim of this essay is to identify the issues that ground these contemporary literary theories. There have always been literary theories † about how literature works, what connotation is, what it is to be an author and so forth. The essential interpretive practices in force and in power in the academy which are being challenged by Theory were themselves ground-breaking, theory-based practices which became the norm. The two main crucial practices in the mid portion of the century have been the formalist tradition, or ‘New Criticism’, which sees a text as a omparatively self-enclosed meaning-production system which develops gigantic signifying power through its formal properties and through its conflicts, ambiguities and complexities, and the Arnoldian humanist tradition exemplified most clearly in the work of F. R. Leavis and his followers, which concentrates evaluatively on the capability of the author to represent moral experience concretely and engagingly. Many readers have in practice combined the principles and methodologies of these