Thursday, October 31, 2019

Consultancy Skill and Organisational Change Essay

Consultancy Skill and Organisational Change - Essay Example The vitally of change is evident in the adjustments made by organisations in their goals. There are several elements that contribute to this observation. External and internal changes are usually the classification maintained by organisations. Categorising change according to impact allows firms to use appropriate measures and techniques. There are important considerations specified by firms in implementing policies for change. Most of these programmes are studied and deliberated before infused in an organisation. It is imperative for companies to assess the strategy before making adjustments. This will prevent the entities involved from acting differently. The versatility of firms is also a critical aspect when dealing with change. In most instances, organisations that are open to change succeed in the industry. Moreover, the preparation of contingency strategies is also needed when dealing with changes. Firms that resist change have experienced difficulties in dealing with problems and opportunities. It is important for organisations to understand that change is both inevitable and intrusive. There will come a period in a business cycle when a company has to make radical changes. Change also affects the manner in which the general policies of organisations are made. Success in the current global setup is dependent on how firms manage change. The succeeding discussions will tackle organisational changes that have transpired in British Airways. The Company is viewed as a classic case where culture was changed because of demand both within the organisation and outside market forces. II. Organisational Change The stages of change, as derived from the study of Booth-Butterfield (1996) start with pre-contemplation. In this stage the supposed change has yet to gain the awareness of involved entities. Contemplation is a stage shows that the employees are aware of the change. But the focus of the personnel is on different concerns. Then, the employees are prepared for the implementation of changes. In addition, the employees are tasked to perform the modification and provided with maintenance programmes. Prochaska, et al (2001) devised a process that prepares involved entities to change. The cycle starts with the raising of consciousness among the employees. In addition, employees are given with proper tools to handle the change . This is more than just compliments but actual benefits in the growth of the personnel. Moreover, employees are given opportunities to let go of their emotional contentions. This is usually done when the change starts to take effect within an organisation. The employees are then subjected to further evaluation. This is more of a comparison of behaviour before and after the change. Since the problems are identified, the management needs to eliminate stressful components of change. It means that negative stimuli stalling good behaviour will be removed. The company also needs to emphasise on the commitment of the employees to change. This is like a renewed assurance to accept change. The last phase of the process involves finding the proper behaviour for expected changes. This also includes the elimination of bad behaviours that were observed. Schein (1999) created a model that describes change. This method was called cognitive definition. The first stage involved motivation to change . This process is more of a self-evaluation that employees need to determine. The stage includes acceptance that previous actions failed. The second part of the model asserts changes in needed areas. Most firms are concerned about the extensive resources which will be devoted for the activity. But the benefits of this initiative will alter the cost. It is critical for

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Evaluate the impact of the internet on business Essay

Evaluate the impact of the internet on business - Essay Example Internet alone has been able to change the marketing strategies of several businesses and social media is one internet outlet that has really contributed heavily towards the evolution of new marketing activities. Electronic business which is often titled as e-business is a term used to refer to the huge range of business operations that are conducted online and these activities take place between stakeholders of a business that are located within and outside the organization (Columbus, 2000, p.240). One of the first organizations to define the concept of e-business was IBM. They stated that e-business is the alteration of significant business operations with the utilization of internet (Garbade, 2011, p.20). The term is even used to refer to kind of exchange or transaction that may take place between different parties through the means of internet and is quite different as compared to the traditional way of performing business activities in which the physical presence of both the buy ers and sellers used to be required. The success of e-business and the benefits of e-business to organizations can be realized through the e-commerce sales figure of $343 billion experienced by US businesses documented during the period of 2012 by Plunkett Research (Plunkettresearch.com, 2013). The importance of use of internet in marketing activities have been recognized as Plunkett Research figured out that during the period of 2012, 24% of all marketing activities conducted by US organizations was through online channels (Plunkettresearch.com, 2013). On the other hand are those who believe that internet has negatively impacted the world of business and measures should be taken to counter these negative impacts. This writing will argue that internet has more benefits to offer than disadvantages and if used in the appropriate manner, it can help business flourish. Body E-business has assisted businesses in reaching their target market in various methods and has even assisted busine sses in increasing their market shares with limited amount of investments. According to Boone, the internet has made it possible to reach various customers in several ways that were unknown to businesses before it evolution and the main benefit that has been identified by Boone is that internet has made it possible for businesses to cater to the needs of customers throughout the world (Boone, 2012, p.105). This means that internet has eliminated boundaries that divided countries from countries and restricted businesses to cater the need of limited number of people. The opponents argue that although internet has helped businesses cross domestic boundaries and has allowed even small scale businesses to operate in the global world, this feature of internet has increased the competition for local businesses and local businesses are shutting down due to their failure to compete. In my opinion, this is not necessarily a disadvantage and is rather an advantage for local businesses and has helped them in realizing that they need to operate in a much effective and efficient manner if they have to survive the competition. Internet has even assisted organizations in decreasing their expenditure on advertisement and marketing and this feature has even lead to increase in the power of the multinational organizations. Internet based advertising and promotion is almost free of cost. Basic level internet marketing such as creation of blogs and creation of WebPages on Facebook does not cost organizations a dime. If

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Customer Attitudes Towards Search Engine Marketing

Customer Attitudes Towards Search Engine Marketing Abstract The present study approaches the empathizing of the UK users behaviour with respect to internet when considere in presence of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and related activities, conceiving the present dynamic role of online and connected consumer who uses the internet and Web 2.0 tools like Social and Media Blogs. An online form survey, reaching up to 100 respondents actively using social network sites like â€Å"Face book†, analyzed the respondents social, demographic and general characteristics, their online behaviour, and their level of conflict with SEM activities. It also discovered the most democratic and the most often used internet tools. The review findings were mostly consistent with same kind of studies conducted in different regions of United Kingdom and Europe .the review of gathered data enabled to find relevant kinships between variables and equating answers through age, gender, and hours fagged on the internet. The results will give all internet marketers a d egree of perceptivity into their direct users, and will allow them to make strategies to provide for the targeted segments effectively. Also, this study will give a vital point of cite for future research related to internet marketing, which will be useful believing the current trends and development of particular marketing activity. The application using PHP and MySQL was designed to get the responses from respondents. Based on the responses collected from the sample of 68, the data was found and the conclusion has been done based on this data collection. The online questionnaire was uploaded on the web on the url http://searchresults.net63.net From this URL, one can access the questionnaire and fill up personal details followed by the responses to different situations. Based on this response, the data was captured onto the database. This database (of MySQL) was helpful to fetch the details and behaviour of individuals towards different options available on the websites. Technical Plan This study is planned as following: Initially, an exploration of previous or existing research and the documented evidence found are placed in the literature review section (chapter 2). Following this is, an explanation of how the study was carried out, which includes research design, followed by sampling, data collection methods, the methods used   for analysis and limitations are discussed in (chapter 3). Furthermore, the answers to research interrogations are discussed in detail in chapter 4, with a systematic analysis of the survey results. The application was being designed using PHP and MySQL. The former was used as the programming language with the back end database support through MySQL. Their personal details followed by their responses to different options available on the web are analysed to have a study on their behaviour for different situations. Based on this approach, the important analysis was further explored. Lastly, the conclusion of our research is accomplished in chapter 5, where study findings are analyzed using the point of observation of their contact on additional academic or professional research, which may include practical testimonials, limitations of findings and other areas for further research. For the purpose of my experiment I had designed a small application which counts clicks on particular links. I developed it in PHP and used MySQL database. The address of the application was located on the link that was made available online at http://searchresults.net63.net. One can easy get an access to this link to fill out the details in an easy manner. This helped in getting responses in a thorough manner. Through this approach, all the data was collected. 100 respondents were approached at initial stages. However, due to lack of response rate, it was noted that there is the need to reduce the sample size. So, I asked 68 participants to do the experiment. Mainly I sent emails to friends. I also went to Universitys library and asked some people to do the experiment. Basically I gave the address to people and once they typed it in a browser. They had to chose gender, age range and how experienced internet users they are. Then there was a short description explaining what will happ en. Participants had to imagine that they are looking for a watch to buy and were given search results copied from google on a ‘buy watches phrase. They had to click on any link they liked. Then they had to imagine that they are looking for a new TV. Search results for ‘buy tv phrase were displayed and they had to click on any. Lastly they were given search results for ‘buy books and again they had to click somewhere. All the clicks were saved in a database. There were organic and sponsored links. I used some simple SQL queries on myPHPadmin panel to extract the numbers. Critical review Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or else Pay per Click (PPC) marketing and is usually known in literature as well and is one of three diverse types of online marketing. The remaining two are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Banner Advertising. Precisely what they are, and how they work and advantages and disadvantages of different techniques are talked over in detail later in this report. Surveys conducted by EIAA i.e. European Interactive Advertising Association show the performance of European internet users and other online buyers or shoppers. As per their Online survey (for which around 7,008 people all across the Europe including UK, France ,Germany, , Italy ,Spain, the Nordics, Netherlands   and the Belgium were interviewed) Out of the total,76% of online buyers use search engines as a source of information. This study also stated deviations between users of the UK in particular. Before investigating the topic more closely, it is significant to define the word of SEM. Though in writing this form of marketing is frequently addressed to pay per click (also occasionally written as pay-per-click) marketing (Anderson, C., 2006). First of all a few definitions of term, to constitute the literature and will be introduced. An accurate explanation will follow later. Pay per click (PPC) is placement of small ads on the search outcome on a page for a precise keyword or set of keywords in return for a individual payment when a guest actually clicks particular ad (Battelle, J. ,2005) Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: A technique of marketing where a company pays a certain sum of money each time somebody clicks on a small advertisement on a search engine‘s results page or a homepage and then takes to the advertiser‘s website (Brin, S. and Page, L., 1998). Pay-per-click (PPC): The payment form used for patronized search advertising. Advertisers set bid on keywords and pay in case when searchers click on the search results listing related with those keywords (Broder, A., 2002). Pay per click advertising used for search engines can be explained most easily by following: The placement of a small content only adverts on search result page which is activated by a particular keyword or phrase equaling typed in search box (Brooks, N., 2004a). Pay Per Click: A performance based model of paying for online ads whereby payments are made for each click on a displayed advert, if there are no clicks then there will be no fee and is also known as CPC i.e. cost per click and CPA is known as cost per action (Brooks, N. ,2004a). This essentially means that there exists text based advertisements and are displayed on search engines result page and are next to natural search listings. Such Text ads are fore grounded by the search engines with different names like sponsored links and are typically on right hand side of a result page, and is clearly distinguished from natural search results which are displayed on left. From time to time one or more than one of those advertisements are showed on top of list, over the organic search results, fore grounded through a different backdrop color. The advertising companies can then decide which key phrase or words searches performed by the search engine users and where their ad should appear (Fain, D.C. and Pedersen, J.O. ,2006).The main mechanism of a search engine marketing operation are defining of important keywords, and the bidding on keywords and a good quality written text ad through a good call to act. The advantage of such methods of advertising when compared to banner ads is to facilitate the advertiser as he has to pay only when someone in fact clicks on the advertisement, and not only for imitation, which a customer might not be able to see. Search engines can show up to 8 Text advertisements of sponsored links on one page. The order of what text advertisement is displayed and the position is defined by how much amount each advertiser is ready to pay for searched keyword. The framework of pay per click advertising is founded on a bidding system. One of the major advantages of pay per click method is that audience is already targeted, as the people are in fact looking for something connected to the product and what company is offering(Fallows, D., 2005) .While banner advertising on other hand shows the ads to customers who may not necessarily be interested in it. They may only be interested in website where banner ad is currently displayed and may not even look at banner ad or may ignore it since they are not interested in buying anything. In addition to this, the online marketer also has the option to target clients by country and even by area or city. This utility was published in 2004 by Google. As a result online marketing is available to nearby situated business for e.g. restaurants .Similarly international companies that want to put up for sale their products outside their region (Feng, J. ,2002). Google also takes the possibility to show the text ads not only on their search engine results pages but also on their websites, clearly displayed as ads by Google. This utility is called as content network. The online marketer has authority on websites where his text advertisements will be shown at, particularly concerning the content. Though it is very hard for online marketer to have a influence on any other fraction of campaign. In addition, the analysis of data is not very suitable, because all parameters cannot be displayed as online marketer would like them to (Feng, J., Bhargava,2007). A very significant topic while talking about pay per click ads is the differentiation among good traffic and bad traffic. This topic impacts mainly PPC-advertising, as the advertiser pay for every single click, while in banner advertising payment method used is pay per impression. The aim of a pay per click advertising operation is not only to make users click on advertisement and visit their advertised website, but also to attract people, who are interested in their product. While in banner advertising, advertiser needs to pay for every impression and no matter if site visitor sees the advertisement and clicks on it at PPC advertising, each click costs money. As a result of this, the text ad must not just try to draw as many clicks as feasible, but attract more clicks of people who are interested in product and are more probable to purchase the product. There are special methods to try to attain this goal, both on keyword related side and on the text ad side. In banner advertising, only method of getting improved converting traffic is to prefer the websites, where banner ad shall be displayed very cautiously. A danger of pay per click advertising, though, is the so called text box cecity. Internet users acquire the banner blindness following banner ads have been used on different websites frequently for number of years. The people mostly just do not realize banner ad any longer or don‘t show any interest in it at all. Banner ads are considered as a necessary evil so as to help lot of websites for offering free content. It is revered by many search engines that such a phenomenon may happen again with pay per click ads. Although the same may not happen in coming time soon, as the search engine users are really looking for something while using a search engine. They may not only read the subject of a site, and are looking for piece of information or stuff to buy or other things similar to that while using a search engine and looking at search engine results page. As a result it is very likely, that people will not actually acquire text box blindness (Greenspan, R., 2004). According to Andrew Goodman who have stated in his work in â€Å"Winning Results with Google AdWord† that international pay per click campaigns don‘t work that well. According to him the markets are too small for converting and running PPC campaigns are waste of money (Hotchkiss, G. ,2004).Another case to second his opinion is that effort for translating keywords and text advertisement in different languages is huge. On the other hand there exist products having huge consumer base. If the resources required to translate keywords and text ads are accessible, an attempt for getting international SEM movements may be a worth. This only makes sense, when a company actually sells products in relevant (Hansen, E., 2002). Buying key phrases in search engines entirely inspire the online advertising, as these infer the idea of Cost per Click -client of such type of advertising pays only when a visitor clicks on a precise advertisement (Carrera, 2009). Equating to SEO, PPC gives more control on visual aspect in search pages, due to amount bid and relevance of text ad (Chaffey et al., 2009). Alternatively of spending time controlling site codes and relevant contents, sellers can then pay for laying in search results (Sen, 2005). Carrera (2009) suggests that currently, main search engines have ad schemes related to hunts (Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter). When a particular visitor writes in search box, single or combination of   keywords, search page shows a set of sponsored links adopted by firms and organic search results, the ads are created by advertisers, with a upper limit of 25 characters in ad heading and 35 for text lines of ad and web address. As visible in Figure 2, advertisements are located in sponsored results region of searches -paid search (EConsultancy, 2008). Though, several sources point out many a time that consumers do not see difference among organic links and sponsored, clicking in links for query but with partial content (OConnor, 2009). In previous PPC programs, ranking of sponsored lists was founded on highest offer of cost per click for a particular keyword. But now, this is not essentially the case: search engines also need to pay attention towards relative click through rates of ads ads having fewer clicks will cut down the listing (Sullivan, 2007). This study is part of Quality Score, a idea shared by most of the search engines, and also analysis of match between keyword and occurrence of the keyword in text, historical click by rate, the engagement of searcher while clicking on ad, and also its loading speed and significance of the associated web page (Google, 2009). The main advantages of such an advertisement system is that it addresses the ads only to target that searched for those specific keywords, and the client only pays when users clicks on the ad. It also and allows the clients to change contents so as to the improve results, and plan the maximum amount of promotion investment and cost per click, and refine and control movements on a daily basis throughout search engine control panels (like Google Analytics). The advertisement stays online till the initial budget accomplishes the end (Google, 2009) and include the concept that PPC is very responsible, results are expected and are simpler to use in comparison to SEO, faster to get placed in search pages and branding effect. But it also has a negative side effect as well: it is highly spirited and exclusive costs per-click, scheming campaigns can be time downing, and many people will not trust ads (EConsultancy, 2008). Therefore, the dispute of this study is to study on how UK internet users differentiates between paid search results and organic search, and how often they click such paid results. 1 INTRODUCTION The topic of this explore, â€Å"Examination of UK Online Consumers sensing and Attitudes towards Marketing governed by Search Engine in context of Web 2.0† .Firstly, we need to understand what is Search Engine Marketing and is essential for contextualization of project. Carrera (2009) and Chaffey et al. (2009) have defined Search Engine Marketing as an action that affects promoting firms with the help of online search engines, to meet marketing targets by providing relevant content to users and search results, thus motivating to click on particular link. As for Search Engine Marketing Park and Kim (2008) have defined it as most measurable, strategic and governable way to build a dynamic and mutually good consumer to consumer and   also consumer to marketer communications about a certain service, product or company. It is acknowledged in field of marketing that the knowledge owned by customers, their prediction of relative conduct, and meeting expectations which is important and is key to success. As a result, internet marketers need to understand characteristics of users and internet habits of users in order to effectively find and reach target segments (Carrera, 2009; Chaffey et al., 2009). From position of consumer marketing, study of internet users and their decision making process should be based upon users characteristics and relative online behaviour. This study aims to critically find how UK online consumers comprehend and act in front of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and other activities, and main objectives are as follows: To realize impact of internet on existing modern day marketing. To look into the current circumstance of the Web 2.0 consumer, and its role on web To realize the modern day internet Consumers conduct towards marketing To look into key concepts related to Internet Marketing, poring specifically on SEM (Search Engine Marketing). To examine the ways UK consumers comprehend SEM activities, and evaluate mental attitude towards SEM activities. To suggest testimonials for further study or schemes in internet marketing context During the procedure of secondary search, there are several key questions ,   which forms the foundation of form elaboration: To what extent trust issues are a concern when analyzing activities for internet marketing and their effectiveness? How do consumer performs searches using search engine pages and what is considered more important during the search? Why internet users choose massively the organic results retrieved from a search engine page, instead of frequented links? What incites internet users in forward marketing emails to their friends and other users? How far consumers engage in company blogs and various social network pages? How do users interact with blogs and various social network pages? From a point of view of a user, web search engines require to provide applicable and useful results in reply to some user input, usually a query. Web search engines employ dozens of factors in knowing how to score significance and to rank the found results. Typically, the internet user has no thought what factors has lead to particular result being ranked and retrieved. One exception to this is sponsored links. Many web search engines currently give at least two types of search listings for web Search Engine Results Page (SERP). First type of links is non sponsored list, which web search engine show with the help of proprietary algorithms (Hotchkiss, G. ,2006). The other type of link is the sponsored list, which comes due to a bid on phrase that searcher has entered in his query. Most of the major web search engines available today present sponsored and non sponsored listings in different areas of SERP. For this one (and frequently only one Category), searchers are informed in broader terms how these result are retrieved. Why other results are not highlighted (for e.g., anchor text, page rank)? Certainly, the causal motivation is to highlight the economic motivation that caused the sponsored listing to come into view. Study shows that web searchers are biased against sponsored links (Hotchkiss, G., 2004). Though, assuming that web searchers wish relevant and helpful results in reply to their queries and sponsored links are as appropriate as against non sponsored results, are web search engines doing the web searchers a disservice by stressing the sponsored links so prominently? 1.1 The impact of the Internet on consumer marketing Analyzing the internet with regards to consumer marketing is important to understand .A simple question which arises is: What factors affect Internet consumer marketing? According to Chaffey et al. (2009) internet has enhanced marketing as first website made in 90s was (http://info.cern.ch/) (CERN, 2008), and now, there are more than one billion users using internet regularly and the manner companies sell products or services and way consumers react has changed emphatically. Peterson et al. (1999) honor this idea, debating that World Wide Web owned maximum potential for marketing. Drawing Success in business mostly depends upon technological knowledge and further gives competitive edge and remains continuous process. There are many authors who conceive that Internet play an important major impact on Marketing mix 4 Ps: in Product Mix, digital brought different services and products (e.g. software) and further added new features to already existing ones (Carrera, 2009). Avlonitis and Karayanni (2000) admit to the fact that internet helped the discovery of user needs, cut across and product testing; In Price Mix, Carrera (2009) expresses that there is significant reduction in costs is seen, which developed firms selling products or services at a very low price, with the use of web sites for e.g. a low-cost airlines. Nevertheless, the customization of services and products allows companies to appoint premium price, as they abide by with buyers tastes and is studied in detail by (Chaffey et al., 2009); For the Place, products and services like home banking has facilitated the interaction and reduced costs in comparison to other distribution channels. Besides, the ability to continue information related to clients is much more effective than traditional transfers, dealing the Promotion, with regards to digital context and advertising adapts directly to the needs of consumers, as it collects information related to these for e.g. detection   of IP address and profile of buyer for suggestions (Carrera, 2009). Furthermore, the promotion of a service /product is now also built by C2C basis, which is very difficult to control and there are different ways to manage (Mangold and Fauls, 2009), and will be analyzed later in project. All these elements have changed the manner consumers behave with companies, thus bringing a wider choice from all the different suppliers, and are a means to selecting and purchasing of items has turned out to be easier and faster. But for long customers are engaged and confident of this new way of marketing. 1.2 Web 2.0 A paper was published by Microsoft (2007), stating that web 2.0 is changing the internet into a powerful and authoritative medium, changing the way how society believes and behaves or reacts. The report confirms that especially social networking process is gathering people from different communities, and acting as a medium for personal reflection. This is consistent And is in accordance with Fu et al. (2007), and is said that use of collaborative technologies leads to an extraordinarily fast growing community which is virtual, here people pass by and share their information. These authors have agreed on the fact that World Wide Web is moving towards social web, and users have an important role in all the aspects of business and remains to be the main focus in this study. Consumers have embraced role of an important agent, who can express themselves using new tools, like wikis blogs or social networks (Carrera, 2009). In similar manner, Cheung and Lee (2009) contend that web has moved from being mere medium of information into a medium of content creation and further sharing. Chaffey et al. (2009) further gives arguments that the widespread acceptation of high speed broadband and world-wide media experiences are more and more used to absorb consumers with each other and also with companies. More and more people discuss online and interact with products and brand campaigns, in a manner of â€Å"viral effect†. These authors are in line with Carreras definition, which suggests that by addition of Web 2.0 it enhances in promoting interaction and user yielded content using virtual community and participation of social network, content ratings and widgets and tagging. However, it remains to be seen is how users are willing to absorb the internet marketing campaigns and further motivates user to share the latter. 1.3 Online Consumers behaviour towards e-Marketing Online users mostly dont have physical comfort provided by offline stores and a communication which is face to face. This concept is related to security problems and stories of fraud and internet commerce (Chaffey et al., 2009). As a result, consumers look for evidence of trust on a website, which may include brand familiarity or site appearance and quality of content, site may have official recognition and other recommendations given by users. Ha (2004) completes this discussion, by excusing that consumers have grown more internet savvy, they now insist on interacting with firms they trust. Various other trust factors are also added like privacy (risk of giving personal information), security related with payment risks, navigation like fulfilling access to various kind of information and related to order fulfillment (Bart et al., 2005; Ha, 2004). However, there are consumers who buy only on company websites: but also have other online sources, is important to purchase choice. Following the research conducted by AOL UK (2006), about 77% of all the respondents accord that if they read a negative review about a product on internet related, it would make them think about their purchase, 42% assumed that they had to switch and move towards a different brand. One of the most important sources for online information is the search engines, which is followed closely by websites of famous brands, price comparison websites and reviews/opinions available on internet, are written by experts, customer reviews on websites. One of the important factors is that these online sources for information reduce time spent in comparing product quality which is to be done before purchase, this is a common aspect related to offline context (Huang et al., 2009). As a result, it is important to carry on here   that the trust factors has an important role related to consumers perceptions towards online marketing, also consumers need to reach for different sources related to information of products they want to buy. 1.4 Attitudes of Online Consumers Towards e-Marketing Breitenbach and Van Doren (1998) studied five distinguished kind of internet users, which are accorded by different academics to continue valid currently (Chaffey et al., 2009): organized information seekers: Those who want to get information for product or leisure, services information, that generally are not brought online Unorganized information seekers: They are referred as â€Å"surfers†, and such users want to browse and change web sites using links, looks for interesting or different things and are   more expected to click on ads or banner Organized buyers: Such users are usually get online to purchase something specific. Websites which compare various products have an important role in this case. Bargain hunters: Users who want to get offers and promotions, so as to vindicate their investment in shopping. Entertainment seekers Such users look for complete online entertainment in various contests like puzzles ,quizzes, or games for multi-player, and lik to interact with various animated features available on web site Recently, a study from EConsultancy (2004) found a similar classification for online consumer behaviour, stating it does not involve behaviours which are applied to various people on the basis of product or occasion; different individuals may react or behave differently. The report found the â€Å"Tracker† and the â€Å"Explorer† concept. But it needs to be explored in detail, and is the kind of consumer who dont have any buying intention, and is exposed to internet marketing action (like Search Engine Marketing), which may result in a conversion. 1.5 Attitudes towards search engines To conduct product or service explores, consumers mostly use search engines. These are powerful consumer tools which retrieve relevant information related to products or services. Consumers can perform quick searches which are online by simply issuing queries built up of search products or services (Kumar and Lang, 2007). However, it is very important to note that not all consumers are searching for particular products; consumers mainly want to know for information on search engines. In reality, as Smith (2009) states, Yahoo and Googles (worlds most used search engine) objective is to retrieve relevant information related to the words queried. More so, information websites forever rank higher in comparison to profit-driven sites, continuing here an important dispute for Search Engine Marketing. To understand this consumer search engine conduct, iProspect a Search marketing company in (2006) carried out a research on the way consumers use search engines. The major findings were that 62% of users only look only at first page of results and ignore the rest. Aula and Rodden (2009) accomplished this finding, by demonstrating that users assess search results very quickly and most of the times make unconscious decisions, centering mainly on first two results for a particular search as shown in (Figure 1). iProspect also expresses that when consumers do not get what they were looking for, about 41% change their search term and 82% complicate their search with other complementary words. As for prestige, it was ascertained that about 36% consider that the firms enrolled at the top of search are best brands in market. The final feeling was that comparing with sponsored area, which is between 60% and 80% and click on natural or organic listings of search page. It remains to be searched why users mostly like organic links, and reasons behind not flicking on sponsored links. 1.6 Attitudes towards Emails Following a analysis by Habeas (2008), irrespective of email and other internet threat concerns, users are still and will continue to be dependent on email, irrespective of their relationships with business organization or from each one other through web 2.0 applications. The study   has revealed that nearly 69% of total users expressed concern related to email fraud scams, and many of them do not know how can they distinguish between possibly dangerous and emails that are trustable. It also showed that majority prefer firms that offer choices and content of emails. Mintel (2008) added up users that trust emails which come from similar companies who provide relevant information with least effort. In a seminar conducted by dotMailer (2009), it was mentioned that even though the current circumstance of web 2.0 era in which consumers have the power, still email is gateway to consumers. Users today have digital lives where every single user owns an email account (or may be more t Customer Attitudes Towards Search Engine Marketing Customer Attitudes Towards Search Engine Marketing Abstract The present study approaches the empathizing of the UK users behaviour with respect to internet when considere in presence of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and related activities, conceiving the present dynamic role of online and connected consumer who uses the internet and Web 2.0 tools like Social and Media Blogs. An online form survey, reaching up to 100 respondents actively using social network sites like â€Å"Face book†, analyzed the respondents social, demographic and general characteristics, their online behaviour, and their level of conflict with SEM activities. It also discovered the most democratic and the most often used internet tools. The review findings were mostly consistent with same kind of studies conducted in different regions of United Kingdom and Europe .the review of gathered data enabled to find relevant kinships between variables and equating answers through age, gender, and hours fagged on the internet. The results will give all internet marketers a d egree of perceptivity into their direct users, and will allow them to make strategies to provide for the targeted segments effectively. Also, this study will give a vital point of cite for future research related to internet marketing, which will be useful believing the current trends and development of particular marketing activity. The application using PHP and MySQL was designed to get the responses from respondents. Based on the responses collected from the sample of 68, the data was found and the conclusion has been done based on this data collection. The online questionnaire was uploaded on the web on the url http://searchresults.net63.net From this URL, one can access the questionnaire and fill up personal details followed by the responses to different situations. Based on this response, the data was captured onto the database. This database (of MySQL) was helpful to fetch the details and behaviour of individuals towards different options available on the websites. Technical Plan This study is planned as following: Initially, an exploration of previous or existing research and the documented evidence found are placed in the literature review section (chapter 2). Following this is, an explanation of how the study was carried out, which includes research design, followed by sampling, data collection methods, the methods used   for analysis and limitations are discussed in (chapter 3). Furthermore, the answers to research interrogations are discussed in detail in chapter 4, with a systematic analysis of the survey results. The application was being designed using PHP and MySQL. The former was used as the programming language with the back end database support through MySQL. Their personal details followed by their responses to different options available on the web are analysed to have a study on their behaviour for different situations. Based on this approach, the important analysis was further explored. Lastly, the conclusion of our research is accomplished in chapter 5, where study findings are analyzed using the point of observation of their contact on additional academic or professional research, which may include practical testimonials, limitations of findings and other areas for further research. For the purpose of my experiment I had designed a small application which counts clicks on particular links. I developed it in PHP and used MySQL database. The address of the application was located on the link that was made available online at http://searchresults.net63.net. One can easy get an access to this link to fill out the details in an easy manner. This helped in getting responses in a thorough manner. Through this approach, all the data was collected. 100 respondents were approached at initial stages. However, due to lack of response rate, it was noted that there is the need to reduce the sample size. So, I asked 68 participants to do the experiment. Mainly I sent emails to friends. I also went to Universitys library and asked some people to do the experiment. Basically I gave the address to people and once they typed it in a browser. They had to chose gender, age range and how experienced internet users they are. Then there was a short description explaining what will happ en. Participants had to imagine that they are looking for a watch to buy and were given search results copied from google on a ‘buy watches phrase. They had to click on any link they liked. Then they had to imagine that they are looking for a new TV. Search results for ‘buy tv phrase were displayed and they had to click on any. Lastly they were given search results for ‘buy books and again they had to click somewhere. All the clicks were saved in a database. There were organic and sponsored links. I used some simple SQL queries on myPHPadmin panel to extract the numbers. Critical review Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or else Pay per Click (PPC) marketing and is usually known in literature as well and is one of three diverse types of online marketing. The remaining two are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Banner Advertising. Precisely what they are, and how they work and advantages and disadvantages of different techniques are talked over in detail later in this report. Surveys conducted by EIAA i.e. European Interactive Advertising Association show the performance of European internet users and other online buyers or shoppers. As per their Online survey (for which around 7,008 people all across the Europe including UK, France ,Germany, , Italy ,Spain, the Nordics, Netherlands   and the Belgium were interviewed) Out of the total,76% of online buyers use search engines as a source of information. This study also stated deviations between users of the UK in particular. Before investigating the topic more closely, it is significant to define the word of SEM. Though in writing this form of marketing is frequently addressed to pay per click (also occasionally written as pay-per-click) marketing (Anderson, C., 2006). First of all a few definitions of term, to constitute the literature and will be introduced. An accurate explanation will follow later. Pay per click (PPC) is placement of small ads on the search outcome on a page for a precise keyword or set of keywords in return for a individual payment when a guest actually clicks particular ad (Battelle, J. ,2005) Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: A technique of marketing where a company pays a certain sum of money each time somebody clicks on a small advertisement on a search engine‘s results page or a homepage and then takes to the advertiser‘s website (Brin, S. and Page, L., 1998). Pay-per-click (PPC): The payment form used for patronized search advertising. Advertisers set bid on keywords and pay in case when searchers click on the search results listing related with those keywords (Broder, A., 2002). Pay per click advertising used for search engines can be explained most easily by following: The placement of a small content only adverts on search result page which is activated by a particular keyword or phrase equaling typed in search box (Brooks, N., 2004a). Pay Per Click: A performance based model of paying for online ads whereby payments are made for each click on a displayed advert, if there are no clicks then there will be no fee and is also known as CPC i.e. cost per click and CPA is known as cost per action (Brooks, N. ,2004a). This essentially means that there exists text based advertisements and are displayed on search engines result page and are next to natural search listings. Such Text ads are fore grounded by the search engines with different names like sponsored links and are typically on right hand side of a result page, and is clearly distinguished from natural search results which are displayed on left. From time to time one or more than one of those advertisements are showed on top of list, over the organic search results, fore grounded through a different backdrop color. The advertising companies can then decide which key phrase or words searches performed by the search engine users and where their ad should appear (Fain, D.C. and Pedersen, J.O. ,2006).The main mechanism of a search engine marketing operation are defining of important keywords, and the bidding on keywords and a good quality written text ad through a good call to act. The advantage of such methods of advertising when compared to banner ads is to facilitate the advertiser as he has to pay only when someone in fact clicks on the advertisement, and not only for imitation, which a customer might not be able to see. Search engines can show up to 8 Text advertisements of sponsored links on one page. The order of what text advertisement is displayed and the position is defined by how much amount each advertiser is ready to pay for searched keyword. The framework of pay per click advertising is founded on a bidding system. One of the major advantages of pay per click method is that audience is already targeted, as the people are in fact looking for something connected to the product and what company is offering(Fallows, D., 2005) .While banner advertising on other hand shows the ads to customers who may not necessarily be interested in it. They may only be interested in website where banner ad is currently displayed and may not even look at banner ad or may ignore it since they are not interested in buying anything. In addition to this, the online marketer also has the option to target clients by country and even by area or city. This utility was published in 2004 by Google. As a result online marketing is available to nearby situated business for e.g. restaurants .Similarly international companies that want to put up for sale their products outside their region (Feng, J. ,2002). Google also takes the possibility to show the text ads not only on their search engine results pages but also on their websites, clearly displayed as ads by Google. This utility is called as content network. The online marketer has authority on websites where his text advertisements will be shown at, particularly concerning the content. Though it is very hard for online marketer to have a influence on any other fraction of campaign. In addition, the analysis of data is not very suitable, because all parameters cannot be displayed as online marketer would like them to (Feng, J., Bhargava,2007). A very significant topic while talking about pay per click ads is the differentiation among good traffic and bad traffic. This topic impacts mainly PPC-advertising, as the advertiser pay for every single click, while in banner advertising payment method used is pay per impression. The aim of a pay per click advertising operation is not only to make users click on advertisement and visit their advertised website, but also to attract people, who are interested in their product. While in banner advertising, advertiser needs to pay for every impression and no matter if site visitor sees the advertisement and clicks on it at PPC advertising, each click costs money. As a result of this, the text ad must not just try to draw as many clicks as feasible, but attract more clicks of people who are interested in product and are more probable to purchase the product. There are special methods to try to attain this goal, both on keyword related side and on the text ad side. In banner advertising, only method of getting improved converting traffic is to prefer the websites, where banner ad shall be displayed very cautiously. A danger of pay per click advertising, though, is the so called text box cecity. Internet users acquire the banner blindness following banner ads have been used on different websites frequently for number of years. The people mostly just do not realize banner ad any longer or don‘t show any interest in it at all. Banner ads are considered as a necessary evil so as to help lot of websites for offering free content. It is revered by many search engines that such a phenomenon may happen again with pay per click ads. Although the same may not happen in coming time soon, as the search engine users are really looking for something while using a search engine. They may not only read the subject of a site, and are looking for piece of information or stuff to buy or other things similar to that while using a search engine and looking at search engine results page. As a result it is very likely, that people will not actually acquire text box blindness (Greenspan, R., 2004). According to Andrew Goodman who have stated in his work in â€Å"Winning Results with Google AdWord† that international pay per click campaigns don‘t work that well. According to him the markets are too small for converting and running PPC campaigns are waste of money (Hotchkiss, G. ,2004).Another case to second his opinion is that effort for translating keywords and text advertisement in different languages is huge. On the other hand there exist products having huge consumer base. If the resources required to translate keywords and text ads are accessible, an attempt for getting international SEM movements may be a worth. This only makes sense, when a company actually sells products in relevant (Hansen, E., 2002). Buying key phrases in search engines entirely inspire the online advertising, as these infer the idea of Cost per Click -client of such type of advertising pays only when a visitor clicks on a precise advertisement (Carrera, 2009). Equating to SEO, PPC gives more control on visual aspect in search pages, due to amount bid and relevance of text ad (Chaffey et al., 2009). Alternatively of spending time controlling site codes and relevant contents, sellers can then pay for laying in search results (Sen, 2005). Carrera (2009) suggests that currently, main search engines have ad schemes related to hunts (Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter). When a particular visitor writes in search box, single or combination of   keywords, search page shows a set of sponsored links adopted by firms and organic search results, the ads are created by advertisers, with a upper limit of 25 characters in ad heading and 35 for text lines of ad and web address. As visible in Figure 2, advertisements are located in sponsored results region of searches -paid search (EConsultancy, 2008). Though, several sources point out many a time that consumers do not see difference among organic links and sponsored, clicking in links for query but with partial content (OConnor, 2009). In previous PPC programs, ranking of sponsored lists was founded on highest offer of cost per click for a particular keyword. But now, this is not essentially the case: search engines also need to pay attention towards relative click through rates of ads ads having fewer clicks will cut down the listing (Sullivan, 2007). This study is part of Quality Score, a idea shared by most of the search engines, and also analysis of match between keyword and occurrence of the keyword in text, historical click by rate, the engagement of searcher while clicking on ad, and also its loading speed and significance of the associated web page (Google, 2009). The main advantages of such an advertisement system is that it addresses the ads only to target that searched for those specific keywords, and the client only pays when users clicks on the ad. It also and allows the clients to change contents so as to the improve results, and plan the maximum amount of promotion investment and cost per click, and refine and control movements on a daily basis throughout search engine control panels (like Google Analytics). The advertisement stays online till the initial budget accomplishes the end (Google, 2009) and include the concept that PPC is very responsible, results are expected and are simpler to use in comparison to SEO, faster to get placed in search pages and branding effect. But it also has a negative side effect as well: it is highly spirited and exclusive costs per-click, scheming campaigns can be time downing, and many people will not trust ads (EConsultancy, 2008). Therefore, the dispute of this study is to study on how UK internet users differentiates between paid search results and organic search, and how often they click such paid results. 1 INTRODUCTION The topic of this explore, â€Å"Examination of UK Online Consumers sensing and Attitudes towards Marketing governed by Search Engine in context of Web 2.0† .Firstly, we need to understand what is Search Engine Marketing and is essential for contextualization of project. Carrera (2009) and Chaffey et al. (2009) have defined Search Engine Marketing as an action that affects promoting firms with the help of online search engines, to meet marketing targets by providing relevant content to users and search results, thus motivating to click on particular link. As for Search Engine Marketing Park and Kim (2008) have defined it as most measurable, strategic and governable way to build a dynamic and mutually good consumer to consumer and   also consumer to marketer communications about a certain service, product or company. It is acknowledged in field of marketing that the knowledge owned by customers, their prediction of relative conduct, and meeting expectations which is important and is key to success. As a result, internet marketers need to understand characteristics of users and internet habits of users in order to effectively find and reach target segments (Carrera, 2009; Chaffey et al., 2009). From position of consumer marketing, study of internet users and their decision making process should be based upon users characteristics and relative online behaviour. This study aims to critically find how UK online consumers comprehend and act in front of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and other activities, and main objectives are as follows: To realize impact of internet on existing modern day marketing. To look into the current circumstance of the Web 2.0 consumer, and its role on web To realize the modern day internet Consumers conduct towards marketing To look into key concepts related to Internet Marketing, poring specifically on SEM (Search Engine Marketing). To examine the ways UK consumers comprehend SEM activities, and evaluate mental attitude towards SEM activities. To suggest testimonials for further study or schemes in internet marketing context During the procedure of secondary search, there are several key questions ,   which forms the foundation of form elaboration: To what extent trust issues are a concern when analyzing activities for internet marketing and their effectiveness? How do consumer performs searches using search engine pages and what is considered more important during the search? Why internet users choose massively the organic results retrieved from a search engine page, instead of frequented links? What incites internet users in forward marketing emails to their friends and other users? How far consumers engage in company blogs and various social network pages? How do users interact with blogs and various social network pages? From a point of view of a user, web search engines require to provide applicable and useful results in reply to some user input, usually a query. Web search engines employ dozens of factors in knowing how to score significance and to rank the found results. Typically, the internet user has no thought what factors has lead to particular result being ranked and retrieved. One exception to this is sponsored links. Many web search engines currently give at least two types of search listings for web Search Engine Results Page (SERP). First type of links is non sponsored list, which web search engine show with the help of proprietary algorithms (Hotchkiss, G. ,2006). The other type of link is the sponsored list, which comes due to a bid on phrase that searcher has entered in his query. Most of the major web search engines available today present sponsored and non sponsored listings in different areas of SERP. For this one (and frequently only one Category), searchers are informed in broader terms how these result are retrieved. Why other results are not highlighted (for e.g., anchor text, page rank)? Certainly, the causal motivation is to highlight the economic motivation that caused the sponsored listing to come into view. Study shows that web searchers are biased against sponsored links (Hotchkiss, G., 2004). Though, assuming that web searchers wish relevant and helpful results in reply to their queries and sponsored links are as appropriate as against non sponsored results, are web search engines doing the web searchers a disservice by stressing the sponsored links so prominently? 1.1 The impact of the Internet on consumer marketing Analyzing the internet with regards to consumer marketing is important to understand .A simple question which arises is: What factors affect Internet consumer marketing? According to Chaffey et al. (2009) internet has enhanced marketing as first website made in 90s was (http://info.cern.ch/) (CERN, 2008), and now, there are more than one billion users using internet regularly and the manner companies sell products or services and way consumers react has changed emphatically. Peterson et al. (1999) honor this idea, debating that World Wide Web owned maximum potential for marketing. Drawing Success in business mostly depends upon technological knowledge and further gives competitive edge and remains continuous process. There are many authors who conceive that Internet play an important major impact on Marketing mix 4 Ps: in Product Mix, digital brought different services and products (e.g. software) and further added new features to already existing ones (Carrera, 2009). Avlonitis and Karayanni (2000) admit to the fact that internet helped the discovery of user needs, cut across and product testing; In Price Mix, Carrera (2009) expresses that there is significant reduction in costs is seen, which developed firms selling products or services at a very low price, with the use of web sites for e.g. a low-cost airlines. Nevertheless, the customization of services and products allows companies to appoint premium price, as they abide by with buyers tastes and is studied in detail by (Chaffey et al., 2009); For the Place, products and services like home banking has facilitated the interaction and reduced costs in comparison to other distribution channels. Besides, the ability to continue information related to clients is much more effective than traditional transfers, dealing the Promotion, with regards to digital context and advertising adapts directly to the needs of consumers, as it collects information related to these for e.g. detection   of IP address and profile of buyer for suggestions (Carrera, 2009). Furthermore, the promotion of a service /product is now also built by C2C basis, which is very difficult to control and there are different ways to manage (Mangold and Fauls, 2009), and will be analyzed later in project. All these elements have changed the manner consumers behave with companies, thus bringing a wider choice from all the different suppliers, and are a means to selecting and purchasing of items has turned out to be easier and faster. But for long customers are engaged and confident of this new way of marketing. 1.2 Web 2.0 A paper was published by Microsoft (2007), stating that web 2.0 is changing the internet into a powerful and authoritative medium, changing the way how society believes and behaves or reacts. The report confirms that especially social networking process is gathering people from different communities, and acting as a medium for personal reflection. This is consistent And is in accordance with Fu et al. (2007), and is said that use of collaborative technologies leads to an extraordinarily fast growing community which is virtual, here people pass by and share their information. These authors have agreed on the fact that World Wide Web is moving towards social web, and users have an important role in all the aspects of business and remains to be the main focus in this study. Consumers have embraced role of an important agent, who can express themselves using new tools, like wikis blogs or social networks (Carrera, 2009). In similar manner, Cheung and Lee (2009) contend that web has moved from being mere medium of information into a medium of content creation and further sharing. Chaffey et al. (2009) further gives arguments that the widespread acceptation of high speed broadband and world-wide media experiences are more and more used to absorb consumers with each other and also with companies. More and more people discuss online and interact with products and brand campaigns, in a manner of â€Å"viral effect†. These authors are in line with Carreras definition, which suggests that by addition of Web 2.0 it enhances in promoting interaction and user yielded content using virtual community and participation of social network, content ratings and widgets and tagging. However, it remains to be seen is how users are willing to absorb the internet marketing campaigns and further motivates user to share the latter. 1.3 Online Consumers behaviour towards e-Marketing Online users mostly dont have physical comfort provided by offline stores and a communication which is face to face. This concept is related to security problems and stories of fraud and internet commerce (Chaffey et al., 2009). As a result, consumers look for evidence of trust on a website, which may include brand familiarity or site appearance and quality of content, site may have official recognition and other recommendations given by users. Ha (2004) completes this discussion, by excusing that consumers have grown more internet savvy, they now insist on interacting with firms they trust. Various other trust factors are also added like privacy (risk of giving personal information), security related with payment risks, navigation like fulfilling access to various kind of information and related to order fulfillment (Bart et al., 2005; Ha, 2004). However, there are consumers who buy only on company websites: but also have other online sources, is important to purchase choice. Following the research conducted by AOL UK (2006), about 77% of all the respondents accord that if they read a negative review about a product on internet related, it would make them think about their purchase, 42% assumed that they had to switch and move towards a different brand. One of the most important sources for online information is the search engines, which is followed closely by websites of famous brands, price comparison websites and reviews/opinions available on internet, are written by experts, customer reviews on websites. One of the important factors is that these online sources for information reduce time spent in comparing product quality which is to be done before purchase, this is a common aspect related to offline context (Huang et al., 2009). As a result, it is important to carry on here   that the trust factors has an important role related to consumers perceptions towards online marketing, also consumers need to reach for different sources related to information of products they want to buy. 1.4 Attitudes of Online Consumers Towards e-Marketing Breitenbach and Van Doren (1998) studied five distinguished kind of internet users, which are accorded by different academics to continue valid currently (Chaffey et al., 2009): organized information seekers: Those who want to get information for product or leisure, services information, that generally are not brought online Unorganized information seekers: They are referred as â€Å"surfers†, and such users want to browse and change web sites using links, looks for interesting or different things and are   more expected to click on ads or banner Organized buyers: Such users are usually get online to purchase something specific. Websites which compare various products have an important role in this case. Bargain hunters: Users who want to get offers and promotions, so as to vindicate their investment in shopping. Entertainment seekers Such users look for complete online entertainment in various contests like puzzles ,quizzes, or games for multi-player, and lik to interact with various animated features available on web site Recently, a study from EConsultancy (2004) found a similar classification for online consumer behaviour, stating it does not involve behaviours which are applied to various people on the basis of product or occasion; different individuals may react or behave differently. The report found the â€Å"Tracker† and the â€Å"Explorer† concept. But it needs to be explored in detail, and is the kind of consumer who dont have any buying intention, and is exposed to internet marketing action (like Search Engine Marketing), which may result in a conversion. 1.5 Attitudes towards search engines To conduct product or service explores, consumers mostly use search engines. These are powerful consumer tools which retrieve relevant information related to products or services. Consumers can perform quick searches which are online by simply issuing queries built up of search products or services (Kumar and Lang, 2007). However, it is very important to note that not all consumers are searching for particular products; consumers mainly want to know for information on search engines. In reality, as Smith (2009) states, Yahoo and Googles (worlds most used search engine) objective is to retrieve relevant information related to the words queried. More so, information websites forever rank higher in comparison to profit-driven sites, continuing here an important dispute for Search Engine Marketing. To understand this consumer search engine conduct, iProspect a Search marketing company in (2006) carried out a research on the way consumers use search engines. The major findings were that 62% of users only look only at first page of results and ignore the rest. Aula and Rodden (2009) accomplished this finding, by demonstrating that users assess search results very quickly and most of the times make unconscious decisions, centering mainly on first two results for a particular search as shown in (Figure 1). iProspect also expresses that when consumers do not get what they were looking for, about 41% change their search term and 82% complicate their search with other complementary words. As for prestige, it was ascertained that about 36% consider that the firms enrolled at the top of search are best brands in market. The final feeling was that comparing with sponsored area, which is between 60% and 80% and click on natural or organic listings of search page. It remains to be searched why users mostly like organic links, and reasons behind not flicking on sponsored links. 1.6 Attitudes towards Emails Following a analysis by Habeas (2008), irrespective of email and other internet threat concerns, users are still and will continue to be dependent on email, irrespective of their relationships with business organization or from each one other through web 2.0 applications. The study   has revealed that nearly 69% of total users expressed concern related to email fraud scams, and many of them do not know how can they distinguish between possibly dangerous and emails that are trustable. It also showed that majority prefer firms that offer choices and content of emails. Mintel (2008) added up users that trust emails which come from similar companies who provide relevant information with least effort. In a seminar conducted by dotMailer (2009), it was mentioned that even though the current circumstance of web 2.0 era in which consumers have the power, still email is gateway to consumers. Users today have digital lives where every single user owns an email account (or may be more t

Friday, October 25, 2019

Criticism Of Shame :: essays research papers

Criticism of Shame Shame, published in 1983, a year before his most famous work The Satanic Verses, presents a fabulistic account in a country that disturbingly represents Pakistan. Critically, Shame is compared to Midnight’s Children because the of its resemblances in themes and style. The idea for Shame, reported interviewer Ronal Hayman in Books and Bookmen, grew out of Rushdie’s interest in the Pakistani concept of sharam, a word that denotes a hybrid of embarrassment, discomfiture, decency, modesty, and a sense of having an ordained place in the world. Reaction to Shame was mostly positive; many applauded the style of Rushdie’s work and the themes it presented . Many critics appreciated the subject matter and presentation of Rushdie’s work. Cathleen Medwick in Vogue stated, "His new novel. . . reveals the writer in sure control of his extravagant, mischievous, graceful, polemical imagination. (414, Editor) "Magic realism", a technique often employed by Rushdie is essential to the structure of how the story of the book is conveyed. Michael Gorra’s characterization of Rushdie’s style stated, "His prose prances, a declaration of freedom, an assertion that Shame can be whatever he wants it to be coy and teasing an ironic and brutal all at once. . .[Rushdie’s work] is responsive to the world rather than removed from it, and it is because of this responsiveness that the mode in which he work represents the continued life of the novel. . . and one wants something better to describe it that the term ‘magical realism’— is an assertion of individual freedom in a world where freedom is strangle. . . "(360, Editor) Christopher Lehmann-Haupt boldly asserts, "If Mr. Rushdie had followed [the logic of realistic psychology] in Shame, he would have robbed his novel of its spectral magic, its breakdown of narrative logic that allows time to rush suddenly forward and reveal the end of things, or permits characters to be reincarnated in each other. He would have robbed his novel of the truth—not precisely the truth of the parable or allegory or myth, but the truth of a narrative that describes a world apart and is a system accurate and logical only unto itself"(356, Editor) Lehmann-Haupt then goes on to compare Shame to Midnight’s Children: ". . .this doesn’t begin to account for the extravagantly tragicomic nightmare evoked by Shame, which does for Pakistan what Mr. Rushdie’s equally remarkable first novel, Midnight’s Children did for Inida.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Night World : Daughters of Darkness Chapter 12

What happened then was interesting. Mary-Lynnette got to see the sisters do all the things she'dmissed earlier in the clearing. All the hissing and the clawed fingers. Just like the movies. Except that when a vampire hissed, it sounded real. Like a cat, not like a person imitating a cat. All three girls jumped up and stood ready to fight. There wasn't any weird grimacing. But Jade and Kestrel were showing teeth that were long and beautifully curved, coming to delicate feline points that indented the lower lip. And something else. Their eyes changed. Jade's silvery-green eyes went even more silvery. Kestrel's golden eyes looked jewel-yellow, like a hawk's. Even Rowan's eyes had a dark light in them. â€Å"Oh, boy,† Mark whispered. He was standing beside Jade, staring from her to Ash. Ash said, â€Å"Hi.† Don't look at him, Mary-Lynnette told herself. Herheart was pounding wildly and her knees were trembling. The attraction of particle to antiparticle,she thought, remembering a line from last year'sphysics lass. But there was another, shorter namefor it, and no matter what she said to herself, she couldn't keep it out of her mind. Soulmates. Oh, God, I really don't want this. Please, please, Ididn't ask for this. I want to discover a supernova and study mini-quasars at the Gamma Ray Observatory. I want to be the one who solves the mystery of where all the dark matter in the universe is. I don't want this. It should have happened to someone like BunnyMarten, someone who spent timelonging for romance. The only thing Mary-Lynnette longed for wassomebody to understand †¦ †¦ to understand the night with you,a distant part ofher mind whispered. And instead here she was, stuck with a guy whose own sisters were terrified of him. It was true. That was why they were standingpoised to fight, making threatening noises. Even Kestrel was afraid of him. The moment Mary-Lynnette realized that, anger washed out the trembling dismay inside her. Whatever she felt about Ash, she wasn't afraid of him. â€Å"Don't you ever knock?† she said and walked toward him. Strode toward him. She had to hand it to her new family. Both Jadeand Kestrel tried to grab her and keep her from getting close to their brother. Protecting her. MaryLynnette shook them off. Ash eyed her warily. â€Å"Oh. You,† he said. Unenthusiastically. â€Å"What are you doing here?† â€Å"It's my uncle's house.† â€Å"It's your aunt's house and you weren't invited.† Ash looked at his sisters. Mary-Lynnette could justsee little wheels turning in his head. Had they already told about the Night World or not? Of course, if they hadn't, their behavior should be giving somebody a due. Most human girls didn't hiss. Ash held one finger up. â€Å"Okay. Now, listen† Mary-Lynnette kicked him in the shins. She knew it was inappropriate, she knew it was uncalled-for, but she couldn't stop herself. She just had to. â€Å"Oh, for God's sake,† Ash said, hopping backward. â€Å"Are you crazy?† â€Å"Yes, she is,† Mark said, abandoning Jade and hurrying forward to take Mary-Lynnette's arm. â€Å"Everybody knows she's crazy. She can't help it.† He backedup, pulling. He was looking at Mary-Lynnette as if she'd taken all her clothes off and started to dance the mambo. So were Kestrel and Jade. Their eyes had gone ordinary, their teeth retracted. They'd never seen anyone treat their brother quite this way. And to have a human doing it †¦ If the girls had superhuman strength, Ash was undoubtedly even stronger. He could probably flatten Mary-Lynnette with one blow. She still couldn't help it. She wasn't afraid of him, only of herself and the stupid floating feeling in her stomach. The way her legs wanted to fold under her. â€Å"Will somebody just tell her not to do that anymore?† Ash was saying. Kestrel and Jade looked sideways at Mary-Lynnette. Mary-Lynnette shrugged at them, her breath coming quickly. She saw that Rowan was looking at her, too, butnot in the same dumbfounded way. Rowan looked worried and surprised and sorry. â€Å"You've met,† she said. â€Å"I should have told you,† Mary-Lynnette said. â€Å"Hecame to our house. He was asking my stepmotherabout you and your friends-saying that he needed to approve them because he was head of the family.† All three girls looked at Ash with narrowed eyes. â€Å"So you have been around,† Kestrel said. â€Å"Forhow long?† Rowan said quietly, â€Å"What are -you really doinghere?† Ash let go of his shin. â€Å"Can we all sit down and talk about this like reasonable people?† Everyone looked at Mary-Lynnette. She took a deep, calming breath. She still felt as if her entire skin was electrified, but her heart was slowing down. â€Å"Yes,† she said and worked at looking normal so they'd know her temporary insanity was over. As he helped her to the couch, Mark whispered, â€Å"I have to tell you, I've never seen you act so immature before. I'm proud of you.† Even big sisters have to have some off time, Mary-Lynnette thought. She patted him vaguely and sat, feeling tired. Ash settled in a plush-covered chair. Rowan andKestrel sat beside Mary-Lynnette. Mark and Jade shared an ottoman. â€Å"All right,† Ash said. â€Å"Now can we fast introduce ourselves? I presume that's your brother.† â€Å"Mark,† Mary-Lynnette said. â€Å"Mark, that's Ash.† Mark nodded. He and Jade were holding hands. Mary-Lynnette saw Ash's eyes drop to their intertwined fingers. She couldn't tell anything from his expression. â€Å"Okay. Now.† Ash looked at Rowan. â€Å"I'm here to take you back home, where everyone misses you violently.† Jade breathed, â€Å"Give me a break.† Kestrel said, â€Å"What if we don't want to be taken?† and showed her teeth briefly. Mary-Lynnette didn't find that strange. What she found strange was that Ash didn't return the smile. He didn't look lazy or sardonic or smug right then. He looked like somebody who wants to get a job over with. Rowan said, â€Å"We can't go home, Ash.† Her breathing was slightly irregular, but her chin was high. â€Å"Well, you have to come home. Because otherwisethere are going to be some fairly drastic consequences.† â€Å"We knew that when we left,† Jade said, with aslittle emotion as Rowan. Her chin was high, too. â€Å"Well, I don't think you've really thought itthrough.† Ash's voice had an edge. â€Å"We'd rather die than go back,† Jade said. Kestrel glanced at her quickly, one eyebrow raised. â€Å"Oh, well, fine, I'll just make a note of that,† Ash said tightly. Then his expression darkened. He lookedmore determined than Mary-Lynnette would have thought he could look. Not in the least like a big blond cat. Like a lanky, elegant pale tiger. â€Å"Now, listen,† he said. â€Å"There are a few smallthings that you don't understand, and I don't have any time to play games. So how about we send yourlittle friends home and then we can all have a fam ily talk.† Mary-Lynnette's hands clenched into fists. Mark clutched at Jade, who pushed him awayslightly with her elbow. She was frowning. â€Å"I think maybe you'd better,† she said. â€Å"I'm not going to leave you.† Rowan bit her lip. â€Å"Mark †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm not going. Don't try to protect me. He's not stupid, sooner or later he's going to find out that we know about the Night World.† Rowan drew in her breath involuntarily. Kestrel's expression never changed, but her muscles. tensed as if for a fight. Jade's eyes went silver. Mary-Lynnette sat very still. They all looked at Ash. Ash looked heavenward. â€Å"I know you know,† he said with deadly patience.†I'm trying to get you out, you poor sap, before I find out how much you know.† The sisters stared. Mary-Lynnette opened hermouth and then shut it again. â€Å"I thought you didn't like humans,† Mark said. â€Å"I don't; I hate them,† Ash said with brittle cheer. â€Å"Then why would you want to cut me a break?†Ã¢â‚¬ Because if I kill you, I have to kill your sister,† Ash informed him, with a smile that would have fit in perfectly at the Mad Hatter's tea party. â€Å"So what; she kicked you.† Ash stopped tossing answers back like footballs. â€Å"Yeah, well, I may change my mind any minute.† â€Å"No, wait, † Jade said. She was sitting with legs folded under her, staring at her brother fiercely. â€Å"This is just too weird. Why would you care whathappens to a human?† Ash didn't say anything. He looked at the fire place bitterly. It was Rowan who said softly, â€Å"Because they're soulmates.† An instant of silence, then everybody started talking explosively. â€Å"They're what? You mean, like what Jade and Iare?† â€Å"Oh, Ash, this is rich. I just wish our father were here to see this.† â€Å"It is not my fault, â€Å"Mary-Lynnette said. She found everyone turning toward her, and realized that her eyes were full. Rowan leaned across Kestrel to put her hand on Mary-Lynnette's arm. â€Å"You mean it's really true?Mark said, looking from Mary-Lynnette to Ash. â€Å"It's true. I guess. I don't know what it's supposed to be like,† Mary-Lynnette said, concentrating on making the tears go away. â€Å"It's true,† Ash said moodily. â€Å"It doesn't meanwe're going todo anything about it.† â€Å"Oh, you've got that right,† Mary-Lynnette said. She was glad to be angry again. â€Å"So let's all just pick up our toys and go home,†Ash said in the general direction of his sisters. â€Å"We'llforget all about this; we'll just agree that it neverhappened.† Rowan was watching him, shaking her head slightly.There were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. â€Å"I never thought I'd hear you say something likethat,† she said. â€Å"You've changed so much-I can't believe it.† â€Å"I can't believe it, either,† Ash said bleakly. â€Å"Maybe it's a dream.† â€Å"But you have to admit now that humans aren'tvermin. You couldn't be soulmates with vermin.† â€Å"Yes. Fine. Humans are terrific. We all agree; nowlet's go home.† â€Å"When we were kids, you were like this,† Rowan said. â€Å"Before you started acting like you were better than everyone. I always knew a lot of that was just show. To hide how scared you were. And I always knew you didn't really believe a lot of the horriblestuff you said. Somewhere inside, you're still that nice little kid, Ash.† Ash produced his first really flashingsmile of theevening. â€Å"Don't bet on it.† Mary-Lynnette had listened to all this feeling shakier and shakier. To conceal it, she said to Rowan, â€Å"I don't think your aunt thought so.† Ash sat up. â€Å"Hey, where is the old hag, anyway?I need to have a talk with her before we leave.† This silence seemed endless. â€Å"Ash †¦ don't you know?† Rowan said. â€Å"Of course he knows. Ten to one, he did it,† Kestrel said. â€Å"What is it that I'm supposed to know?† Ash said, with every sign of being about to lose his patience. â€Å"Your aunt's dead,† Mark told him. â€Å"Somebody staked her,† Jade added. Ash looked around the room. His expression said he suspected it was a practical joke. Oh, God, Mary Lynnette thought numbly, when he's startled and bewildered like that he looks so young. Vulnerable. Almost human. â€Å"Somebody †¦ murdered †¦ Aunt Opal. That's what you're telling me?† â€Å"Are you telling us that you don't know?† Kestrel asked. â€Å"What have you beendoing all night, Ash?† â€Å"Banging my head against a rock,† Ash said. â€Å"Thenlooking for you. When I walked in you were talking about me.† â€Å"And you didn't run across any livestock tonight?Any-let's say-goats?† Ash gave her a long, incredulous look. â€Å"I fed, if that's what you're asking. Not on a goat.Whatdoes this have to do with Aunt Opal?† â€Å"I think we'd better show him,† Rowan said. She was the one who got up and lifted the fold ofrug away from the goat. Ash walked around thecouch to see what she was doing. Mary-Lynnette turned to watch his face. He winced. But he controlled it quickly. Rowan said quietly, â€Å"Look at what was in the goat's mouth.† Ash picked up the black flower gingerly. â€Å"An Iris. So?† ‘Been to your club recently?† Kestrel asked. Ash gave her a weary look. â€Å"If I had done this, why would I sign it with an iris?† â€Å"Maybe to tell us who did it.† â€Å"I don't have to kill goats to say things, you know. I can talk.† Kestrel looked unimpressed. â€Å"Maybe this way the message has a little more impact.† â€Å"Do I looklike the kind of person who wastes time turning goats into pincushions?† â€Å"No. No, I don't think you did this,† Rowan said inher quiet way. â€Å"But somebodydid-probably whoever killed Aunt Opal. We've been trying to figure outwho.† â€Å"Well, who have we got for suspects?† Everyone looked at Mary-Lynnette. She looked away. â€Å"There's one who's pretty prime,† Mark said. â€Å"Hisname's Jeremy Lovett. He's a real-â€Å" â€Å"Quiet guy,† Mary-Lynnette interrupted. If anyonewas going to describe Jeremy, it was going to be her. â€Å"I've known him since elementary school, and I would never,ever have believed he could hurt any body-especially an old lady and ananimal.† â€Å"But his uncle was crazy,† Mark said. â€Å"And I'veheard things about hisfamily-â€Å" â€Å"Nobodyknows anything about his family,† Mary-Lynnette said. She felt as if she were struggling to keep her head above water, with barbells tied to herwrists and ankles. What was dragging her downwasn't Mark's suspicion – It was her own. The littlevoice in her head that was saying, â€Å"But he seemed like such a nice guy†Ã¢â‚¬â€œand which meant, of course, that he wasn't. Ash was watching her with a brooding, intent expression. â€Å"What does this Jeremy look like?† Something about the way he said it irritated MaryLynnette beyond belief. â€Å"What do you care?† Ash blinked and shifted his gaze. He shrugged minimallyand said with forced blandness, â€Å"Just curious.† â€Å"He'svery handsome,† Mary-Lynnette said.Gooda way to let out her anger and frustration. â€Å"And the thing is that he looks very intelligent andsensitive-it's not empty good looks. He's got hair that's sort of the color of Ponderosa pinecones andthe most wonderful brown eyes†¦. He's thin andtan and a little bit taller than me, because I'm normally looking at his mouth†¦.† Ash didn't look pleased. â€Å"I saw somebody vaguelylike that at the gas station -in town.† He turned to Rowan. â€Å"You think he's some kind of outlawvampire?† â€Å"Obviously not a made vampire because MaryLynnette has watched him grow up,† Rowan said. â€Å"I was thinking more that he might be renegade lamia.But there's not much use in trying to figure it out from here. Tomorrow we can go and see him, and then we'll know more. Right?† Mark nodded. Jade nodded. Mary-Lynnette took adeep breath and nodded. Ash nodded and said, â€Å"All right, I see why you can't go home until this is solved. So, we'll figureout who killed Aunt Opal, and then we'll take the appropriate action, and then we'll go home. Got it?† His sisters exchanged glances. They didn't answer. As she and mark walked back to their house,Mary-Lynnette noticed that Sirius had lifted abovethe eastern horizon. It hung like a jewel, brighterthan she had ever seen it before-much brighter. Itseemed almost like a miniature sun, flashing with blue and gold and violet rays. She thought the effect must be psychological,,until she remembered that she'd exchanged blood with three vampires.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Selling Class Assignment

In this case, Margaret Sprunger is handling the sales rep Jenner is accused of passing confidential information. Firstly, Margaret should take further investigation on this case. She should investigate clearly that did Jenner pass the confidential information to Orthopedics. After the investigation, if she finds out that he really pass the confidential information to Orthopedics, the company can fire Jenner. It is illegal for any staff to participate in trading on the confidential information. And this case should send a memo to the whole company.This shows the employees that passing confidential information to others is a serious issue and can remind them the consequence of doing this If Margaret didn’t have any evidence to proof Jenner is convicted, she should explain to Bob Heckman about this issue. And also need to explain to Jenner the whole issue. Jenner may be upset by this issue and loss morale. The company should motivate Jenner. After that, the company should take so me action to minimize the possibility of sales rep to leak some confidential information to others. This is related to the ethical and legal responsibilities of the staff.The first thing is to set up the code of ethics in the company. A code of ethics  is a written ethical guideline to let the employees to follow. Having a code of ethics can show that the organization cares about whether its employees behave in an ethical manner. The company is responsible for establishing, communicating, and enforcing the ethical standards they expect their salespeople to follow. They should provide some training for them to understand the code of ethics as they may not know how to follow the ethical standard in some situation.In the training lessons, they will face some ethical dilemma, this gives them a guideline to handle it when they face in the selling process. Besides that, sales managers must ensure that their salespeople are aware of their legal responsibilities. They must provide trainin g with regard to their legal responsibilities. This can prevent them to do some illegal things. Sometimes they may not even know they are committing crime and don’t know the seriousness of some action like passing confidential information to others. The company should update them with the most recent court case and the enactment of laws.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Australia during the great depression essays

Australia during the great depression essays A depression is a deep and extended slump in total business activity, where both buying and selling drop, causing a decline in production, prices, income and employment. Money becomes limited, many businesses fail and many workers lose their jobs. Unemployed workers have less money to spend, which leads to further drops in sales and demand for products, which leads to decreased production and more employees losing their jobs. This seemingly endless downward spiral can continue until the economy is able to recover, employment and demand for products increases and life may continue normally. A depression of this kind can affect a single industry, a region, a nation or even the entire world. The Great Depression began in 1929 after the Wall Street Crash - shares in the United States were at an all-time high. Investors panicked and sold all of their shares because they knew the prices of their shares could not go any higher only decrease. This massive sell-up of shares was the catalyst for the Great Depression, which was to cripple the economy of the leading nations of the world for almost a decade. As the American economy withered, so did the economies of the countries it had ties with. Australia was one of the worst to be affected by the Depression, because it was a relatively new nation and relied heavily on the support of its international allies. Overseas loans were cut off and debts called to be repaid, but Australia had no funding to spare. Todays Australia has been undeniably shaped by the changing economic circumstances it has been though, such as the Great Depression of 1929 - 1932 In the 1920s, Australias economy prospered because of their healthy income from exports and tariffs. In February of 1923, the Bruce-Page government came into power and brought with it the Men, Money, Markets policy. This was a policy designed to bring labour and capital from the United Kingdom in order to...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Free Essays on The Taoism

What is Buddhist Meditation? In general, any virtuous object can be used as an object of meditation. If we discover that by acquainting our mind with a particular object our mind becomes more peaceful and virtuous, this indicates that for us that object is virtuous. If the opposite happens, for us it is a non-virtuous object. Many objects are neutral and have no particular positive or negative effect on our mind. There are many different virtuous objects of meditation, but the most meaningful the objects of the twenty-one meditations, from meditation on relying upon a Spiritual Guide to meditation on emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena. Explanations of these can be found in the The Meditation Handbook By relying upon a qualified Spiritual Guide we open the door to practising Dharma. Through the blessings of our Spiritual Guide we generate faith and confidence in our practice, and easily attain all the realizations of the stages of the path. For these reasons we need to meditate on relying upon a Spiritual Guide. We need to meditate on our precious human life to realize that we now have a special opportunity to practise Dharma. If we appreciate the great potential of this life we shall not waste it by engaging in meaningless activities. We need to meditate on death and impermanence to overcome procrastination, and to ensure that our Dharma practice is pure by overcoming our preoccupation with worldly concerns. If we practise Dharma purely it is not very difficult to attain realizations. By meditating on the danger of lower rebirth, taking refuge sincerely, and avoiding non-virtue and practising virtue, we protect ourself from taking lower rebirth and ensure that life after life we shall obtain a precious human rebirth endowed with all the conditions conducive to the practice of Dharma.... Free Essays on The Taoism Free Essays on The Taoism What is Buddhist Meditation? In general, any virtuous object can be used as an object of meditation. If we discover that by acquainting our mind with a particular object our mind becomes more peaceful and virtuous, this indicates that for us that object is virtuous. If the opposite happens, for us it is a non-virtuous object. Many objects are neutral and have no particular positive or negative effect on our mind. There are many different virtuous objects of meditation, but the most meaningful the objects of the twenty-one meditations, from meditation on relying upon a Spiritual Guide to meditation on emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena. Explanations of these can be found in the The Meditation Handbook By relying upon a qualified Spiritual Guide we open the door to practising Dharma. Through the blessings of our Spiritual Guide we generate faith and confidence in our practice, and easily attain all the realizations of the stages of the path. For these reasons we need to meditate on relying upon a Spiritual Guide. We need to meditate on our precious human life to realize that we now have a special opportunity to practise Dharma. If we appreciate the great potential of this life we shall not waste it by engaging in meaningless activities. We need to meditate on death and impermanence to overcome procrastination, and to ensure that our Dharma practice is pure by overcoming our preoccupation with worldly concerns. If we practise Dharma purely it is not very difficult to attain realizations. By meditating on the danger of lower rebirth, taking refuge sincerely, and avoiding non-virtue and practising virtue, we protect ourself from taking lower rebirth and ensure that life after life we shall obtain a precious human rebirth endowed with all the conditions conducive to the practice of Dharma....

Sunday, October 20, 2019

5 More Examples of Misplaced Modifiers

5 More Examples of Misplaced Modifiers 5 More Examples of Misplaced Modifiers 5 More Examples of Misplaced Modifiers By Mark Nichol Make sure that when you shoehorn additional information into a sentence, it is being wedged in at a location where its relationship to a word or phrase is clear. Each of the following sentences suffers from ambiguity because of sloppy syntax; the discussions and revisions clear the confusion. 1. Many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts. The sentence implies that students found safety within social media posts, but the fact that such posts were the medium by which students communicated their safe status to friends and family is best relocated to immediately after the subject: â€Å"Many students used social media to let friends and family know they were safe.† (This revision also places the key word, safe, where it is most effectively located- at the end of the sentence.) 2. Millennials consist of people born from 1980 to 2000; to put it more simply for them, since they grew up not having to do a lot of math in their heads, thanks to computers, their demographic group consists mostly of teens and twentysomethings. The location of â€Å"thanks to computers† creates initial ambiguity: Does it modify the preceding phrase, or the one that follows? Computers bear the blame for millennials’ lack of facility with cranial computation, or the age range of their demographic group is credited to computers? The former choice is the correct one, obviously, but it’s not clear until after the first or even second reading. To clarify the sentence’s intent, that parenthetical phrase should appear earlier in the sentence: â€Å"To put it more simply for millennials, since, thanks to computers, they grew up not having to do a lot of math in their heads, their demographic group consists mostly of teens and twentysomethings.† Better yet, to reduce comma clutter, write, â€Å"Millennials consist of people born from 1980 to 2000; to put it more simply for them- since, thanks to computers, they grew up not having to do a lot of math in their heads- their demographic group consists mostly of teens and twentysomethings.† 3. The Financial Conduct Authority is a financial regulatory body that operates independently of the UK government, whose responsibilities include maintaining financial market integrity. The simplest solution for this sentence- which unintentionally states that the UK government, rather than the Financial Conduct Authority, bears the specified responsibility- is to merely replace the comma with and to create a compound modifying phrase. But a more elegant solution is to place the trailing modifying phrase as a mid-sentence parenthetical comment: â€Å"The Financial Conduct Authority, whose responsibilities include maintaining financial market integrity, is a financial regulatory body that operates independently of the UK government.† 4. In fact, if employers do not reinforce learning, the forgetting curve shows that about 80 percent of important workplace information can be forgotten in the first month. According to this sentence, the failure of employers to reinforce learning causes the forgetting curve to demonstrate the percentage of key workplace information forgotten within a month. But the forgetting curve needs no such prompting. â€Å"The forgetting curve† is the subject, and it should be nearer the head of the sentence (after a brief modifying tag): â€Å"In fact, the forgetting curve shows that if employers do not reinforce learning, about 80 percent of important workplace information can be forgotten in the first month.† 5. If a third party is to be given consumers’ personal information, such as an auditing organization, data should be anonymized. An auditing organization is identified in this sentence as an example of consumers’ personal information. But an auditing organization is an example of a third party, so that parenthetical phrase should immediately follow â€Å"third party†: â€Å"If a third party, such as an auditing organization, is to be given healthcare consumers’ consumers’ personal information, data should be anonymized.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing a Reference Letter (With Examples)On Behalf Of vs. In Behalf OfQuiet or Quite?