Down With the Five Paragraph Essay!

Writing essays is a skill that will serve kids well throughout their lives. Knowing how to present facts and opinions in an interesting, understandable way is valuable regardless of whether they attend college or go directly into the workforce.   Unfortunately, the current trend  is to focus on a type of writing called the Five Paragraph Essay. This fill-in-the-blank style of writing has one main goal - training students to write essays that are easy to grade in the classroom and on standardized tests. As a homeschooling parent, you can help your children learn to produce informational writing that is meaningful and alive.   The Problem with the Five Paragraph Essay In the real world, people write essays to inform, persuade, and entertain. The Five Paragraph Essay allows writers to  do that but only in a limited way. The structure of the Five Paragraph Essay consists of: An introductory paragraph that states the point to be made.Three paragraphs of exposition that each lay out one point of the argument.A conclusion that sums up the essays content. For beginning writers, this formula can be a good starting place. The Five Paragraph Essay can help young students get beyond the one-paragraph page, and encourage them to come up with multiple facts or arguments. But beyond fifth grade or so, the Five Paragraph Essay becomes an obstacle to quality writing. Instead of learning to develop and vary their arguments, students remain stuck in the same old formula. According to Chicago Public School English teacher Ray Salazar, The five-paragraph essay is rudimentary, unengaging, and useless. SAT Prep Trains Students to Write Poorly The SAT essay format is even worse. It values speed over accuracy and depth of thought. Students are conditioned to turn out a large number of words quickly, rather than to take the time to present their arguments well. Ironically, the Five Paragraph Essay works against the SAT essay format. In 2005, Les Perelman of MIT found that he could predict the score on an SAT essay solely on the basis of how many paragraphs it contained. So to get a top score of six, a test taker would have to write six paragraphs, not five. Teaching Informational Writing Dont feel you need to assign your children school-type writing projects. Real-life writing is often more valuable and more meaningful to them. Suggestions include: Keep a journal. Many kids enjoy keeping a journal or notebook to capture their thoughts. It can be something to share with you (some teachers use journals to communicate with their students; you can do the same) or a private record. Either way provides useful writing practice.Start a blog. Even reluctant writers can become enthusiastic when writing has a purpose. Writing for an audience provides purpose. There are many options for starting a free blog and privacy features offer parents and students control over who reads the content.Write a review. Ask your kids to review their favorite books, video games, movies, restaurants -  the list is endless. Unlike most school-type reports, reviews have to be written with the audience in mind, and they have to be entertaining. They also help kids learn to express opinions and present valid arguments to the reader.Do a research paper. Give your kids essay-writing a purpose by integrating it into a history project or science topic. Let them c hoose an area that interests them and explore it in depth. Writing research papers also gives students practice in critical thinking and evaluating and crediting source material. Essay Writing Resources If you need some guidance, there are some fantastic online resources for writing essays.   How to Write an Essay: 10 Easy Steps. This hyperlinked guide by writer Tom Johnson is a particularly easy-to-follow explanation of essay-writing techniques for tweens and teens. Purdue OWL. Purdue Universitys Online Writing Lab contains sections on the writing process, how to understand an assignment, grammar, language mechanics, visual presentation and more. About.coms Grammar and Composition site has an entire section on Developing Effective Essays. Research Paper Handbook. A handy textbook by James D. Lester Sr. and Jim D. Lester Jr. The Five Paragraph Essay has its place, but students need to using it as a stepping stone, not the final result of their writing instruction. Updated Kris Bales.

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Assistant Manager Free Essays

string(26) " important thing to them\." Education 2 72% University or above Geographic HECK Island , Central, TTS Commercial Areas Source The Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd Nielsen Media Index HECK Year-End Report 2012 Demographic According to the source from HACK Ltd and Nielsen Media Index HECK Year-End Report in 2012, 70% of readers fall into the age range between 30-49 years old. It means that the readers are used to read SCAMP English newspaper. They are loyal to SCAMP for personal reading interest or business insight. We will write a custom essay sample on Assistant Manager or any similar topic only for you Order Now For education background, 72% of readers has university graduate or above so that they are well-educated, repressions and in senior position. The readers are willing to pay the higher price to get quality news instead of free newspaper. The readers under 29 years or below is only 19% of the total market. Geographic: SCAMP circulates the print via channels like newspaper stores and convenient stores. Most of the circulation gain from HECK Island, Central, TTS other commercial areas. As ethnicity was 57% of Non-Chinese and 43% of Chinese, it reflects most of the readers are foreigners. Demographic Geographic are presenting the similar data which means the result would be more truthfully and specifically. Most SCAMP readers are of premium social status such as Managers, Executives and Professionals for self-use etc. For corporate customers, company size with over 50 staff or global firms, the subscription of SCAMP is a corporate image. They are frequent and loyal users regardless of the higher subscription price. Also schools, universities, Government, financial banking clients are the major consumers. Behavioral: SCAMP bases on different consumers’ desires to provide the following marketing plan. 0 Monday – Friday, corporate and stable readers, regularly Sunday – leisure day, less demand, no corporate Saturday is more popular for Job seekers for The Classified Post Company: At least one copy of SCAMP daily 2. 2 Targeting The target customers are divided into B to C (Business to Consumer) and B to B (Business to Business) models. B to C (Business to Consumer) For consumer market, readers are decision makers, Government officers, Coos, senior executives, scholars, professionals, university students, and Westerners. Their average income belongs to high income group (40% Monthly Household Income HECK $70,000 or above). They have high spending power. Job seekers who look for quality arrears ’employers and better salary offers will search the Jobs from Classified Post. The employers / recruitment agents who look for quality staff will place advertising on Classified Post to recruit their staff. Besides, the consumers look for news with highest creditability and they are very loyal to SCAMP. B to B (Business to Business) For corporate customers like multi-national companies, they are very loyal to SCAMP and purchase at least one print in the office on a daily basis for company image or quote SCAMP news as educational reference and or use published statistics in their business reports. For primary, secondary and university students, Education Bureau encourage students to subscribe SCAMP newspaper to pick up their reading hobby. Undeniably, SCAMP is the leader of HECK English newspaper. . 3 Positioning SCAMP mission is ‘As we move forward in these rapidly changing times, can be summed up in three words: Aspiration, Connection and Trust. Aspiration: We deliver value and quality to our customers by enhancing knowledge. Connection: We bridge Hong Kong, China and the rest of the world, and we actively engage in these communities. Trust: We will grow with the region as the tr usted littoral on China. Being market leader in English newspaper, SCAMP won 11 awards in 2013, the Top Prize of Society of Publishers in Asia Editorial Award 2013. SCAMP gained the 1st ranking of Highest Credibility in Hong Kong newspaper market according to the survey conducted by Center for Communication Research of Chinese University (2011). SCAMP is consistently striving to seek ways to retain its market leader position in English newspaper market since 1903 and keeping the high standard in newspaper contents with highest credibility so that its readers are very loyal to SCAMP. 3. Marketing Mix The marketing mix is a business tool used to execute the market strategy into practical business activity. Our team is study focus on newspaper business – South China Morning Post (SCAMP) – an English Newspaper, retail selling price is HECK$9 from Monday to Saturday; HECK$II for Sunday Morning Post. The most important value of the newspaper is Fair, Fact, Credibility, and Integrity; it is why SCAMP can be the market leader and long lasting Product is â€Å"the tangible or intangible goods or services and how it can satisfy consumer’s needs and wants†. Products have different life cycle, it will grow, mature and eventually decline and phrase out. Therefore, SCAMP has carried various product mix in order to extend the product line to secure the income and maintain the growth of the business. Apart from printed copy, it has added digital subscription from 2010 as Internet and Smartened become more common and popular. They have changed the reading habit of the whole world. Besides, mobile APS application has been added in 2012. Subscribers are Job seekers who expect to find quality Jobs from the newspapers. On the other hand, it attracts employers or recruitment/hiring agents to post the recruitment advertisement on the newspaper. It is an important platform for Job seekers, employers and recruitment agents. Pricing is â€Å"the process of setting a price for a product or discount. The price needs not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services. SCAMP is carrying premium pricing strategy. From circulation information, its target customers are well-educated and belong to the group of middle to high income. They are less sensitive (inelastic of demand) to commodity items like food and newspapers. Buying a newspaper at $9/$10 is not a concern to them. On contrast, Chinese newspaper segment is large and very sensitive to penny change on pricing, hush free newspaper is popular in the market Premium pricing also represents the reader’s prestigious status and quality. High credibility is the most important thing to them. You read "Assistant Manager" in category "Papers" Apart from newspaper revenue, advertisement is one of the major income streams in SCAMP. It also charges the customers higher advertising price for posting recruitment advertisement if comparing to Recruit, Jobs. It tells the customers that its readers possess good quality when they are looking for their companies. If the customers want to recruit people with high quality and capability, SCAMP is the only choice. Place (or distribution): â€Å"It is how to deliver the goods or service to the customer. † For printed newspaper, Scamps retailing channels will be news stand or convenient store e. G. 7-11 . In HECK, TTS, Central and HECK Island, due to business and commercial centers are gathered with numerous westerners coming from different countries. Hence, the circulation of printed copy in these districts is the most. For digital subscription, it is via internet or mobile app. Promotion: â€Å"It includes various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company including advertising, sales promotion, publicity, PR, direct marketing, digital arresting, sponsorship, personal selling. † Despite SCAMP is a media, it also needs to promote its business. Apart from putting advertisement on its own newspaper and website, SCAMP needs to promote its product via different channels. Loyalty discount to customer: Offer discount to loyalty readers, employers and recruitment agents who has subscribed its newspaper for a long period of time. SCAMP wins numerous Good Word-of-Mouth in this industry. It wins 11 awards gets the highest ranking in credibility in the HECK newspaper. E. G. Edward Snowmen fair selected SCAMP; it has shown its newspaper has high integrity to the public. It also Joins Job Exhibition Fair, Trade Fair, and Seminar to broaden its exposure to the public. 4. Customer Relationship Management Firstly, as mobile is the single fastest growing source of digital traffic, SCAMP continue to its existing digital offerings with new products such as SCAMP News Pulse, new phone app to enhance the relations with the customers, especially among younger generation. Secondly, if the customers have subscribed to the members of Classified Post, they can search their Jobs according to their requirements. The Classified Post (â€Å"CUP’) will keep customer’s C.V. and personal information in a highly secured way. Then, CUP provides Job Alert e-newsletter and course/self-enhancement information to subscribers’ emails based on subscribers, particular information. This would create a strong bonding relationship between SCAMP and its readers. 5. Market Analysis 5. Circulation Source The Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd Cover price for SCAMP increased by $1 to $9 since January this year. The online subscription fee for scamp. Com has also increased in late June 2013. 2013-2015 According to the source from the Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd, the daily circulation of SCAMP is around 100,860 to 107,629 from 2009 to the first half of 013. The daily circulation is very stable within this period. But the circulation m ix was changed once digital version was launched in the first half of 2010. In 2009, the daily circulation was solely print version. Once digital version was launched, it commenced to grow from 3363 in the 1st half of 2010 to 18,149 in the 1st half of 2013. The growth rate of circulation in digital version is 6 times in 3 years. There was a slight drop from 100,860 to 88,776 for print version from 2010 to 2013. This implies the fast growing popularity of phone affect the habit of readers and there is growing rend in digital version in the future. Michael Porter’s 5 forces 1. Bargaining Power of Paper Suppliers – Due to the cost of paper material increases, the paper suppliers will transfer the incremental cost to SCAMP. It is under great pressure to increase the price of the newspaper print. 2. Bargaining Power of Customers – Customers have little switching cost to read other newspapers. Besides, free digital version is offered by HECK Standard. 3. Threat of New Entrants – There are many English newspapers emerging in HECK market like China Daily and Wall Street Institute which provide free newspapers at some selected estates. . Threat of Substitute Products – Due to growing popularity of phone, the customers have been changing their habits of reading newspapers. Digital version or mobile APS to access the updated newspapers create tremendous treat to the traditional newspaper industry. 5. Competitive Rivalry Within An Industry – The major competitors, HECK Standard is aggressively offering 200,000 free tabloid newspapers distributed in different districts on a daily basis as well as providing free digital version to their readers. Competitor Analysis The Standard is doing the same as SCAMP to provide English newspaper print, digital erosion and Job searching function. The Standard has changed to a free newspaper since September 2007. On the other hand, it provides different levels of subscription discounts, which include digital subscription only and print plus digital version subscription. It also offers corporate digital subscription which allows multi-reader access to the digital version. The subscriptions allow readers to access their online and tablet content unlimitedly. We have made a comparison table between SCAMP and The Standard so that we can have more understanding of the keen competition in the newspaper industry. Comparison of SCAMP and The Standard SCAMP The standard price $9 Free (1st free newspaper since 2007) Digital Version Yes Yes Daily circulation Format Black white, standard size Full-color, Tabloid Functions Archive news up to 10 years Archive news up to 1 year *HACK Audit July-DCE 2012 ** â€Å"The Standard† official website Strength Diversified information SCAMP has published diversified information. It includes the information of current issues, information of sports, property, finance, lifestyle. Also, it encloses Classified Post for Job seekers; Young Post and Education Post for student subscribers. Market leader There are not much English newspapers being published in Hong Kong. The major competitor is The Standard. The competition is not keen. Thus, SCAMP is the market leader among English newspapers. Sustained demand SCAMP targets high-educated customers. Usually, they earn more, they can afford more. Also, those NC corporations, universities and foreign residents all have regular subscriptions. There is sustainable demand. Weakness Increased staff production cost Source: SCAMP Group 2013 Interim report – Extract of Income statement Staff and production costs have increased for about HECK$48. Million and HECK$3. Lion respectively. It is mainly due to the increase in headcount and SCAMP Group has included the production of ELL on 2013. It decreases the net profit. Less popular in HECK It costs HECK$9, which is the most expensive newspaper in Hong Kong. Also, it’s bulky in size. It’s inconvenient for readers to carry it around. Moreover, it cannot satisfy those non-Engl ish readers. It cannot become a popular newspaper in Hong Kong. Subscription for unlimited digital access If readers want to have unlimited access on digital access, they are obliged to subscribe by money. However, other Hong Kong newspapers, including The Standard, are free of charge on digital version. It may hinder the increase of digital readers as they may prefer choosing free information. Shares have been suspended trading Its shares have been suspended trading in HECK stock market since 26 February 2013. SCAMP is a listed company in Hong Kong, however, its percentage of public float confidence on the investment and the public image of SCAMP has been affected. Opportunity Increases on demand Source: HECK Census and Statistics Department (â€Å"HACKS†) website – Population statistics Source: HECK Census and Statistics Department (â€Å"HACKS†) website – Foreign companies The above statistics has shown that HECK population has kept rising since mid of 2010 to 7,KICK in the mid of 2013. It has also shown that the number of foreign companies setting up local offices in HECK has increased. There is an opportunity for SCAMP to acquire more readers from the growth of population and foreign corporations. Hong Kong Government has promoted post-secondary education since the past decade. The below 2 tables have shown that there has been an increasing trend for people had Post-secondary education nowadays: The demand of English-language newspaper has been increasing with the rising umber of high educated people. Expand new market It can expand new market by the advancement of technology on digital version, for example â€Å"Southern China† as there has been an economic growth in China in the recent years. Threats Keener advertisement added competition The Government has increased 2 new free licensed TV. The advertisement companies have 2 more advertising channels, so there would be keener competition. Decreasing newspaper revenue Source: SCAMP Group 2013 Interim report Revenue from newspaper has been decreased for near HECK$5 million for the 2 interim periods. It indicates less people are willing to buy newspaper. How to cite Assistant Manager, Papers

Business Accounting Land and Building

Question: Describe about the Business Accounting for Land and Building. Answer: Introduction: In the case given, there are mainly 2 proposal on which the board of the directors of the company are confused as to which alternative must be chosen. This report relates with the issue of shares and the other with the sale and leaseback of the land and building. The company undertaken for the purposes of this report is Black Box Ltd. This report and the main aim of the Black Box Ltd is to know as to which option under the given 2 proposals would be favourable for it. The company is trying to look and go for an option that results in the minimum amount of the cash outflow and also the same complies with the Australian Accounting standards. Issue of shares: The AASB 132 deals with the presentation of the various financial instruments. In respect of the equity instruments, the examples of which includes the non-puttable ordinary shares, many types of the preference shares and warrants. The issuer of these non-puttable ordinary shares takes into account the fact that there are many of the formal acts that make the distribution and also become somewhat legally obliged to the shareholders in doing the same. This would be so when there is a declaration of the dividend or when the entity is being wound up or in the case, there are any assets left out after the satisfaction of the various liabilities that becomes distributable to the shareholders. There is a purchased call option or there are some of the similar contracts that have been acquired by the entity and that gives them the right to acquire the fixed number of the equity instruments in exchange of the delivering of the fixed amounts of cash or any other financial asset which is not a financial asset for the company. Further, in respect of the settlement of the equity instrument of the company which are its own, the examples of which includes the classification of the different types of the contracts of the own equity instruments of the company. These would further include the contract that would be settled by the entity when it comes to receiving or delivering the fixed number of the own shares for the future consideration or exchanging the fixed number of the own shares of the company for the fixed amount of cash or any other financial asset which is an equity instruments. As per the standard, any amount of consideration which would be received or be paid for such of the contract would be added or be deducted from the equity. On example of the same would be the issued share option that gives the right to the company to buy some fixed number of the shares of the entity for a fixed amount of cash. In case, there is a contract that requires the entity to purchase its own shares or any other financial assets at some fixed or at a determinable date or in demand, then the entity would recognise that financial liability for the present value of that redemption amount. An example of the same would be the obligation of the entity under the forward contract to repurchase the number of its own shares for a fixed amount of cash. When an entity decides to purchase back its own shares, then that would give rise to the financial liability for the present value of the amount of redemption even in the case wherein the shares have bene obliged to be repurchased and the same is not fixed or in case, the obligation is somewhat conditional on the counterparty that exercises the right of redemption. Another example of the same is the conditional obligation which is an issued option which requires the entity to purchase the own shares of the company for cash in case the counterparty exercises this option (AASB, 2016). There could be a contract wherein the settlement may be in cash or in any other form of a financial asset. This would include the payment of cash or the financial asset that would be delivered or received on the basis of the changes made in the market price of the equity of the company. There could be a contract that could be settled in a variety of ways in the own shares of the company whose value is equal to the underlying value of that asset. Such a contract is considered to be a financial asset or a financial liability (AASB, 2016). Now, if the company goes for the payment of just $50 per shares, then there would be a cash outlay of $6,140,000 but if the company goes for the second option, then then cash outlay of the company would be $7,613,600. So, it is recommended that the company goes for the first option wherein it just has to pay $50 per share at the end of the 10 years. This is as per AASB 132. Sale and leaseback: The companys usually want to keep leases off their books since they like to defer their expenses and they do the same by the way of reporting their leases as operating leases. The financial Accounting standards Board has the following rule when it comes to treating the lease as the capital lease. The capital lease is when it meets any of the following 4 conditions: If the life of the lease is more than the 75% of the life of the asset. If there is a provision of ownership to the lessee at the end of the term of the lease. If there is an option to purchase the asset at the bargain price as in the end of the term of the lease. If the present value of the lease payments when discounted at the appropriate discount rate is more than 90% of the fair value of the asset (Stern, 2016). Under the given case, company Black Box has an option to purchase back the asset in the end of the 10 years which is the useful life of the asset. Since this condition has been fulfilled, it can be considered as a capital lease. AASB 117 on leases states that this transaction includes the sale of the asset and then leasing the same back to the seller of that asset. The payment of the lease and the sales price is interdependent since these have been negotiated as a package (Chartered Accountants, 2016). In case, the leaseback is a finance lease, then the transaction would provide the finance to the lease with the asset in the security. It is for this reason that the excess amount is never treated as the income in the statement of profit or loss. In case, the sale price of the asset is below its market value, then the any profit or loss that have been recognised shall be deferred and shall be amortised over the term of the lease for which the asset is expected to be used. In case, the leaseback is an operating lease, then the payments of the lease and if the sales price is at the fair value, and there has been a normal sales transaction, then any amount of profit or loss would be recognised immediately. For th e purposes of the finance lease, there is no adjustment necessary till there is a fall in the value in the asset in which the carrying amount would go on to reduce the amount of the recoverable as per the requirements of the AASB. The disclosure requirements for the lessees and the lessors would be applied. And the same would apply in the case of the sales and leaseback transactions as well. The required description of the material leasing arrangements would lead to the disclosing of the unique or an unusual provision of the terms and the agreement of the transactions of sales and leaseback (AASB, 2016). If we follow the above stated standard on accounting, then it is a capital lease but the company would benefit if it goes for the operating lease. The company if it goes for the operating lease would pay and the amount of the lease and would charge the stated expense as against the profit for each year but if it goes for the capital lease, then it would be entitled for the depreciation and also, the lease payment would be treated like a loan. So, double benefit in the case if the company goes for capital lease. So, it must go for capital lease. For proposal number 2, the question is about as to whether the company must go for the operating or the capital/finance lease as per the AASB 117. As per the facts given in the question, the company will have to follow the capital/finance lease method since the majority period of the lease term is more than 75% of the total useful life of the asset. Also, this method is beneficial for the company since in this method, the company could treat the lease on the asset as loan and it would be entitled for tax deduction on this and also, it would be able to claim the depreciation on that asset which is gain tax deductible. Hence, capital/finance lease would be beneficial for Black Box. Conclusion: In respect of Proposal 1, it would be appropriate if the company goes for the cash payment at the end of the 10 th year. This is since it leads to a reduced cash outflow for the company. Further, the company must go for the cash payment at the end of the 10th year. Now, if the company goes for the payment of just $50 per shares, then there would be a cash outlay of $6,140,000 but if the company goes for the second option, then then cash outlay of the company would be $7,613,600. So, it is recommended that the company goes for the first option wherein it just has to pay $50 per share at the end of the 10 years. In respect of proposal 2, the companys sale and leaseback would be termed as a capital lease. The company if it goes for the operating lease would pay and the amount of the lease and would charge the stated expense as against the profit for each year but if it goes for the capital lease, then it would be entitled for the depreciation and also, the lease payment would be treated like a loan. So, double benefit in the case if the company goes for capital lease. So, it must go for capital lease. References: AASB 117 Leases. (2016).Charteredaccountants.com.au. Retrieved 7 October 2016, from https://www.charteredaccountants.com.au/Industry-Topics/Reporting/Australian-accounting-standards/Analysis-of-AASB-standards/AASB-117--Leases AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments. (2016).www.aasb.gov.au. Retrieved 7 October 2016, from https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content102/c3/AASB1033_10-99.pdf AASB 117. (2016).www.aasb.gov.au. Retrieved 7 October 2016, from https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content102/c3/AASB117_07-04_ERDRjun10_07-09.pdf AASB 132. (2016).www.aasb.gov.au. Retrieved 7 October 2016, from https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB132_07-04_COMPapr07_07-07.pdf Operating versus Capital Leases. (2016).Pages.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved 7 October 2016, from https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/AccPrimer/lease.htm