Sportsmanship Essay - 587 Words

Sportsmanship Sportsmanship is the character, practice, or skill of a person involved in sports. This includes the participant, the parents, the coaches, and all spectators. Sportsmanlike conduct includes fairness, courtesy, learning to be a good loser, being competitive without rude behavior, or experiencing any ill feelings toward the opponent. Too often in any sporting event, the purpose of the sport is forgotten. Winning has become overwhelmingly important to the adults involved. This attitude is inflicted on the youth. People of all ages should be allowed to fully embrace the challenge and fun of playing sports. Teaching, coaching, motivating, and winning are fine as long as the reason for the sport or activity is†¦show more content†¦Too many coaches and parents tend to forget the reason for sports for children. They get caught up in the excitement and competitiveness. Winning is the ultimate goal, at all costs. The cost is the effect this attitude has on the children. I have witnessed this behavior from coaches and parents, where they have actually embarrassed and humiliated young players in front of their peers. The negative effect this has on the athletes is obvious. They become aggressive, sometimes withdrawn and angry, rude, and inconsiderate. Sports are not just an activity. They form a stepping stone toward the future. Sportsmanship teaches children how to interact with peers, how to relate and interact with others. Sports can teach cooperation, sharing, and compassion. At a young age participation in sports introduces players to rules, and how to incorporate them into other aspects of life. A child must realize that losing has absolutely nothing to do with self-worth, that their personal value is not measured by winning or losing, but doing the best that they can in sports and life. It is important that children and adults be part of a group to feel acceptance, without the emphasis on winning. Self-confidence does not come from winning or losing, but how the outcome is handled. If you perform to your best ability, then you have won the only important game. Sportsmanship is what the activityShow MoreRelatedSportsmanship761 Words   |  4 PagesChristopher Kane MSA 560 Sportsmanship Essay Sports events are essentially social in character. They facilitate the coming together of people from various parts of the country, at a national level, and various parts of the world, at the international level. The dictionary defines sportsmanship as the face or practice of participating in sports or sport. It is also the conduct and attitude considered as befitting participants in sports, especially fair play, courtesy, striving spiritRead MoreSportsmanship And Sportsmanship Of A Team1074 Words   |  5 PagesSportsmanship All athletes can recognize that being a part of a team is hard. It is incredibly difficult to select a group of teenagers that will (1) all get along, (2) work together seamlessly, and (3) respect their coaches. The formula for the perfect team is unknowable. One negative spirit always exists to drag the team down, to deflate their motives and increase their egos; but that does not have any effect on the sportsmanship of a team. Sportsmanship does not rely on the cohesiveness of aRead More Sportsmanship Essay1081 Words   |  5 Pagesdefines sportsmanship. What is a sportsman? The definition seems to have undergone a big change over the years. If children follow the example set by todays athletes, the definition would equal a sore loser. High school sports should be a fun way to physically express yourself as an athlete, but at the same time learn some of lifes lessons, like sportsmanship, discipline, and respect. In todays society, winning comes before everything, but if winning requires neglect of good sportsmanship, thenRead MoreAmerican Football and Good Sportsmanship1101 Words   |  5 Pagesdefines sportsmanship. What is a sportsman? The definition seems to have undergone a big change over the years. If children follow the example set by todays athletes, the definition would equal a sore loser. High school sports should be a fun way to physically express yourself as an athlete, but at the same time learn some of lifes lessons, like sportsmanship, discipline, and respect. In todays society, winning comes before everything, but if winning requires neglect of good sportsmanship, thenRead MoreDefinition Essay on Sportsmanship916 Words   |  4 Pages Definition Essay on Sportsmanship Abstract Although it is very common to mention the term Sportsmanship during any sports event, very few individuals are actually familiar with the true definition of the word. For some it is the behavioral aspect shown by the participating teams or athletes while others it is more than just a routine behavior and is associated with the deep rooted respect of the opponent as well as the outcome of an event. Sportsmanship is known to be an aspiration whichRead MoreImportance of Sportsmanship Essay632 Words   |  3 PagesImportance of Sportsmanship When you are on the field of play, it is vital that you remember to be very sportsmanlike, for numerous reasons. There are many spectators who come to enjoy the competitiveness and excitement of high school athletics and a bad sport can turn a good, hard-fought and enjoyable contest into an ugly, forgettable one. Cheap shots and verbal attacks on fellow student-athletes can forever taint a positive athletic career, and that is why it is vital that sportsmanship is emphasizedRead MoreSportsmanship : A Sport Fairly And Loses Gracefully910 Words   |  4 PagesCasey Harral English 1101-23 Sylvia Johnson November 2, 2015 Sportsmanship One who plays a sport fairly and loses gracefully is how The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines sportsmanship, but what is true Sportsmanship considered to you? Is it an attitude, or simply an act? Sportsmanship can be handled in several different ways. It’s how one team handles another on and off the field. Simply it could also be said as just the way you handle the game in general after a tough loss, or after an easyRead MoreHow Sportsmanship Can Be A Part Of A Team1208 Words   |  5 Pagesdoes not have any effect on the sportsmanship of a team. Sportsmanship does not rely on the cohesiveness of a team. It does not correlate with how many bonding trips a team endures or how many groups of friends are on the team. It is not entirely internal or entirely external. Sportsmanship is not simply the willingness of an athlete to respect other teams; it is an athlete’s ability to respect their own team and, most importantly, his or her self. Sportsmanship is innate, refle cting an athlete’sRead MoreThe Effect of Sportsmanship and Motivation on Athletic Aggression1113 Words   |  5 PagesAbstract: The main objective of this experiment was to find what relationships threre are between sportsmanship, motivation and athletic aggression. There we three preset propositions that they anticipated for their theory: (a) self-determined sport motivation will be positively predictive of sportspersonship orientations, (b) sportspersonship orientations will mediate the relationship between self-determined sport motivation and athletic aggression, and (c) sportspersonship orientations willRead MoreThe Importance Of A Healthy Lifestyle On Good Nutrition, Proper Sleep, And Sportsmanship1180 Words   |  5 Pagesscraped knees but I was usually energetic, athletic, creative and optimistic about life. Health, fitness and well-being were important to my family. I came to value the importance of a healthy lifestyle: good nutrition, proper sleep, exercise and sportsmanship. Education was equally emphasized, â€Å"a sound mind in a sound body,† my grandfather repeatedly told my sister and m e. My grandfather, Pop-Pop, was a gregarious, tall and handsome man with a gleam in his eye who greatly valued education. I listened

Satirical Essay on Facebook Free Essays

Facebook and MySpace are one of the many social networking tools that teens use to communicate. Many spend most of their day browsing other teen’s profiles and updating their own. After all, having a cool profile page and lots of friends is very important in showing off your cyber social status. We will write a custom essay sample on Satirical Essay on Facebook or any similar topic only for you Order Now I don’t like to boast, but Tila Tequila accepted me as her friend on MySpace. I leave her comments fairly often and I’m hoping that one day she will actually reply! Although she has almost 1,000,000 friends, I’m convinced she visits my profile often. We have never had a real conversation but I read her bulletins all the time. I know she is always aware of my updated status and I am positive that’s why she never comments. I myself have about 200 friends. I have only had real conversations with about 50 of them, the rest are people I have spoken to once or twice in my life. Of course I have many other music and movie stars, in addition to Tila Tequila. They are really good at keeping in touch with me thru bulletins. Being constantly made aware of my friends status updates such as, â€Å"I am going to an awesome party tonight†, or â€Å"Today was such a good day†, puts me ahead of the crowd. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t know what my friends were doing every minute of every day. Like everything else, there are some downsides to MySpace and Facebook. The biggest problem I have encountered is what to do when someone I know, but don’t like adds me as a friend. I occasionally get friend requests from strange people who I met once, but am glad I have never seen again. The problem occurs when they add me as a friend and I don’t want to accept them. Not accepting a person is another way of telling them you don’t like them. However, if you accept them you risk having a long and awkward conversation with someone you don’t like. I guess this is just a problem you have to overcome when maintaining your virtual life. On the brightside, there are many upsides to MySpace and Facebook. You can use programs to remove pimples from your face when uploading your pictures. You can look at the extremely useful surveys people take and find out their favorite band, what their favorite food is, how long they shower for, and many other important facts. You can fake your identity and get pictures of really good looking people with nice cars and claim they are you so you can become really popular. You can even stay in your room for 7 hours straight and not get bored! I truly feel that Facebook is â€Å"a place for friends†. It is friends who have too much time to remain online each day. This realization comes to me very sadly, however, as I do enjoy reading about how Tila Tequila’s day is going. Maybe one day she will come to the same realization and we can have a conversation in the real world. How to cite Satirical Essay on Facebook, Essays

Histopathology Literature Review

Question: Discuss about theHistopathology for Literature Review. Answer: Introduction Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to identifying causal organism of disease and treat any microbial infection. In this context, diagnostic microbiology is an appropriate field to identify diverse bacterial species (1). The traditional methods of identifying bacterial species relied on culture-based method, but it could not identify all types of species (2). This process takes a lot of time and due to its selective nature, it could not reflect the presence of mixed microbial species in infections (1). However, with the advent of new molecular technologies like PCR sequencing and hybridization techniques, sensitive detection of bacteria has now become possible (2). This molecular technique is now utilized to slow growing species like Mycobacteria or difficult to culture species like Tropherymawhippelii (1). Another useful technique, Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) uses rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes to identify individual microbial cells in situ. It gives a bette r result for the detection of pathogenic organism causing infection in patients with suspected sepsis (2). While FISH gave the result within one day, traditional methods took much longer time. The FISH technique was also four times sensitive than blood culture method in detecting causal organism for sepsis. Culture methods took two weeks to provide the result which FISH could give within one day (3). Thus, molecular advancement highly facilitated rapid diagnosis to improve morbidity associated with disease, reduce the length of stay at hospitals and lower the use of broad spectrum antibiotics (4). Besides this, another discovery in ISH probe is the peptic nucleic acid (PNA). It is a DNA mimic in which sugar-phosphate backbone has been replaced by the uncharged synthetic peptide backbone. This peptide backbone is resistant to hydrolytic cleavage, and so it can be utilized in imaging probes, sequence selectivity, PCR clamping and other molecular techniques (5). This new development ha s the potential to improve systems like the development of gene therapeutic agents and manipulating nucleic acids (6). This report reviews literature related to the description of features of peptic nucleic acid probes and oligonucleotide probes and evaluates the sensitivity of these probes in the future study. Comparisons of Oligonucleotide Probe and PNA Probes: In microbial ecology, Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes tool is highly used (10). The use of oligonucleotide in FISH is beneficial because of optimal experimental conditions which give good fluorescence signal to microbial cells containing rRNA probes. It results in the perfect matching of oligonucleotide probes and also minimizes the risk of binding of probes to non-target microorganisms (8). The optimization of oligonucleotide probes has lead to accurate evaluation of samples for methanogenic Archaea. Helper nucleotide facilitates improved in situ hybridization of six probes to three different helices (7). Thus, rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probe has turned into an efficient tool culture-independent identification and enumeration of a variety of bacteria present in the natural environment (9). Through mapping probe accessibility models, visualization of oligonucleotides probes has become possible. It has enabled users to virtually observe the secondary and tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA in silico (9). One study on 16S rRNA of E.coli showed that about 20% signal of the maximal fluorescence signal is received in one third of 200 probes examined (7). Besides this facts, direct screening of PNA probe is very costly as the price of a single PNA probe is higher than DNA analogs by ten times (10). Thus, specificity of PNA probe is highly critical in FISH detection (10). The PNA probes can enter algal cells quickly and render the cells green by binding with the target species. Apart from this, PNA probes have high efficiency of hybridization, excellent binding capacity and competent enough for target cell enumeration. In addition to this, it provides increased binding capacity for target nucleic acid sequences. Another advantage is that PNA and LNA oligomers can specifically bind with DNA and RNA strands. There is a minimum chance of destabilization due to mismatches compared to typical oligonucleotide duplex (1 1). On comparison of DNA oligonucleotide sequence and PNA sequence, it was found that fluorescein-labeled PNA probes provide intensified fluorescent responses. The modern technology uses fluorescein-labeled oligonucleotides to monitor in situ hybridization to telomeric repeat sequence (12). However, more sensitive and better quantitative results can be obtained by using fluorescein-labeled PNAs. Applications of PNA In the absence of electrostatic repulsion also, PNA can hybridize to DNA OR RNA because of its uncharged polyamide backbone. It occurs under low salt concentration, and short PNA oligomers of 13-18 based can be used because of its greater affinity (6). PNA binds specifically with cell penetrating peptides or lipophilic molecule to increase cellular delivery during antigen application as it cannot diffuse at a fast rate (6). Oligonucleotides are designed to recognize and hybridize to those genes where there is the chance of interference with the transcription of that gene. This process is called antigen strategy (13). In another way, nucleic acids analogs are so designed to inhibit translation by binding to the complementary sequence in mRNA. Thus it exhibits anti-sense strategy. PNA is beneficial for FISH technique as it binds to DNA and RNA at a much faster rate even at low salt concentration and during unfavorable conditions (6). PNA probes are also useful for in vivo imaging of mR NA and aids in cancer research (14). PNA also plays a role in specifically binding to globin mRNA during cDNA synthesis and inhibiting reverse transcription (6). PNA can form a stable triplex structure with the DNA and arrest transcriptional processes. For this feature, they are used in microarrays and biosensors (15). A PNA microarray in combination with PCR helps in the detection of genetically modified organisms in food (16). PNA can bind to DNA and RNA sequence following Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding rules. It also enables elongation of DNA primers by DNA polymerase (13). PNA also helps in simplifying the Southern hybridization process by reducing the time because in the presence of PNA pre-gel hybridization cumbersome processes like separation, probing and washing steps are eliminated. They also act as genome cutters in combination with methylases and other restriction endonucleases (17). Because of it unique hybridization properties, PNA is also used to purify nucleic acids. P NAs can purify nucleic acid by nickel affinity chromatography. PNA inhibits elongation of primers by DNA polymerase. When PNA invades DNA duplex under physiological conditions, it inhibits DNA replication. Inhibition of replication is also possible if DNA is single-stranded (19). Moreover, biotinylated PNA molecule can isolate transcriptionally active chromatin fragments containing multiple tandem triplets (20). Thus PNA holds great promise for gene therapeutic drugs design (13). With the advancement in diagnostic technology and therapeutic products, PNAs has a bright future in the field of biotechnology (6). Level of Reliability and Sensitivity of PNA Probe: The rapid identification of five major Candida species found in positive blood culture is possible by the Yeast Traffic Light PNA FISH technique. It has excellent sensitivity and specificity with very few cross-reactions (21). Measurement of methylation level in heterogeneous tissues can be done by PNA hybridization and MALDI-TOF-MS analysis. It promotes rapid evaluation of DNA methylation markers at first analysis (22). PNA can be practically applied in HPV genotyping assays because of its sensitivity, reliability and specificity and longer shelf life (23). The PNAs are also resistant to protease and nuclease degradation because of its unnatural backbone. Because of the property of resistance to enzymatic degradation, it has extended life both in vivo and in-vitro. This property of high biostability is the reasons for increase reliability of PNAs in diagnostic applications (5). The PNA array can be strategically used for the development of advanced methods that can detect several DN A targets along the food chain in a systematic way (16). The PNA-FISH assay is also a more appropriate technique for exiting Salmonella probes compared to culture-based methods. It is more sensitive than PCR and ELISA protocols (24). The use of PNA probe in FISH technique has also helped in the detection of Cronobacter in powdered infant formula (25). Due to high specificity and accuracy by FISH method, it has assisted in the discovery of new techniques for detection of Salmonella species un food samples (26). It is also more efficient way compared to culture-based methods. On the whole, it can be concluded that flow cytometry PNA-FISH is a beneficial and standardized approach for detection and identification of pathogens from blood cultures. This method will be useful in the long run for identification of microbiological diagnostics at an accelerated rate, and it will eventually improve heath outcome of patients with sepsis (27). Advantage and Future of PNA Probe: The invention of PNA probes has provided the biotechnological world with new testing formats for clinical microbiology and pathology testing. It has lead to the discovery of new test applications for the detection of the variety of sensitive diagnostic techniques (31). The clinical world can benefit a lot from the development of PNA probes as it will lead to better health outcome in patients. Because of its high sequence selectivity, PNA probes open new doors for evaluating the progress of cancer and planning appropriate therapy in patients. The PNA array biosensor will be highly useful in the future for identification of single-base mutations in cancer-specific genes in patients. However, this new technology dependent on the PNA-based device is still in its developmental form, and more research is required to fully understand its function and properties in the identification of specific sequences. Researchers still need to work on the diagnostic need of higher sensitivity and analyz e reduced matrix effects (28). New development in the application PNA in genetics and cytogenetic also came up last years, and it demonstrated the development of the strong yet simplified technique for detecting mutation or screening aneuploidy, genome mapping, and antigen therapy. The PNA-FISH method offered the need to design PNA probes that can act against almost any pathological and non-pathological microorganism. With its specificity property, it can be applied in different sections of clinical and pathological examination and microbiological testing (29). Short PNA sequence along with different fluorochromes now constitutes a new class of genomic biomarkers for microarray platforms. Its discovery has now created another level of challenge for extending this technology to the diagnosis of preimplantation genetics (5). PNA still cannot be used as a genetic therapeutic agent because it needs development of an efficient technique for uptake and penetration of PNA probes inside the cell (13). However, despite these challenges, it has still offered great scope for the development in the field of biotechnology, biology, and chemistry. PNA molecules have offered a useful alternative that can take the place of real-time PCR probes. It has specifically led to the design of probes that can target particular defect sequence (30). Another advantage of PNA lies in the development of in vivo fluorescence imaging. The ability to insert fluorescent probes inside living cells will enable in-depth study of mRNA transfer and live gene expression (5). In vitro studies have also demonstrated that PNA could inhibit both transcription and translation of targeted and problematic genes. Therefore the agent holds a great promise antigene and antisense therapy. However, one major problem that will still occur is that delivery of PNA through cell membrane will be a challenging task. Thus, PNA-FISH is simplistic like traditional staining techniques because of its sensitivity and spec ificity to target sequence in molecular technologies. Thus an approach that is useful enough to replace existing methodology of microbiological testing is needed to plan appropriate therapy for patients with infection. Conclusion Thus, the report highlighted the need for early diagnosis in treating microbial infection and discussed the different technique that is used in diagnostic testing. It specifically brought into focus the advantaged of fluorescence in situ hybridization in detecting DNA sequence compared to traditional culture-based methods. The report mainly gives detail about the new development in ISH probe which is PNA. The report gave a detailed description of the mechanism by which it is resistant to hydrolytic cleavage. Due its property of specificity and sequence selectivity, this agent has found the place in antisense drug therapy, PCR clamping, and imaging probes. Comparison of oligonucleotide probe wth other PNA probes stressed the advantage of PNA probe in the identification of target sequence and inhibiting transcription and translation in those genes. Thus PNA probes have great scope for future diagnostic testing, and it can help a lot in accelerating diagnostic patients. It will give bet ter health outcome in the long run. Reference Moter A, Gbel UB. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for direct visualization of microorganisms. Journal of Microbiological Methods. 2000;41(2):85-112. Amann R, Fuchs BM, Behrens S. The identification of microorganisms by fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2001;12(3):231-6. Kudo M, Matsuo Y, Nakasendo A, Inoue S, Goto H, Tsukiji J, et al. Potential clinical benefit of the in situ hybridization method for the diagnosis of sepsis. Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy. 2009;15(1):23-6. Enomoto H, Inoue S-i, Matsuhisa A, Aizawa N, Imanishi H, Saito M, et al. Development of a new in situ hybridization method for the detection of global bacterial DNA to provide early evidence of a bacterial infection in spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Journal of Hepatology. 2012;56(1):85-94. Pellestor F, Paulasova P, Hamamah S. Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) as diagnostic devices for genetic and cytogenetic analysis. Current pharmaceutical design. 2008;14(24):2439-44. Koh W. Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) and Its Applications. Fuchs BM, Glckner FO, Wulf J, Amann R. Unlabeled helper oligonucleotides increase the in situ accessibility to 16S rRNA of fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide probes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2000;66(8):3603-7. Crocetti G, Murto M, Bjrnsson L. An update and optimisation of oligonucleotide probes targeting methanogenic Archaea for use in fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH). Journal of Microbiological Methods. 2006;65(1):194-201. Kumar Y, Westram R, Kipfer P, Meier H, Ludwig W. Evaluation of sequence alignments and oligonucleotide probes with respect to three-dimensional structure of ribosomal RNA using ARB software package. BMC bioinformatics. 2006;7(1):240. Chen G, Zhang C, Zhang B, Wang G, Lu D, Xu Z, et al. Development of a PNA probe for fluorescence in situ hybridization detection of Prorocentrum donghaiense. PloS one. 2011;6(10):e25527. Bruce KL, Leterme SC, Ellis AV, Lenehan CE. Approaches for the detection of harmful algal blooms using oligonucleotide interactions. Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry. 2015;407(1):95-116. Lansdorp PM, Verwoerd NP, Van De Rijke FM, Dragowska V, Little M-T, Dirks RW, et al. Heterogeneity in telomere length of human chromosomes. Human molecular genetics. 1996;5(5):685-91. Ray A, Nordn B. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA): its medical and biotechnical applications and promise for the future. The FASEB Journal. 2000;14(9):1041-60. Heckl S, Pipkorn R, Waldeck W, Spring H, Jenne J, von der Lieth C-W, et al. Intracellular visualization of prostate cancer using magnetic resonance imaging. Cancer research. 2003;63(16):4766-72. Knudsen H, Nielsen PE. Antisense properties of duplex-and triplex-forming PNAs. Nucleic acids research. 1996;24(3):494-500. Germini A, Rossi S, Zanetti A, Corradini R, Fogher C, Marchelli R. Development of a peptide nucleic acid array platform for the detection of genetically modified organisms in food. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. 2005;53(10):3958-62. Veselkov AG, Demidov VV, Nielsen PE, Frank-Kamenetskii MD. A new class of genome rare cutters. Nucleic acids research. 1996;24(13):2483-7. Orum H, Nielsen PE, Jrgensen M, Larsson C, Stanley C, Koch T. Sequence-specific purification of nucleic acids by PNA-controlled hybrid selection. BioTechniques. 1995;19(3):472-80. Taylor RW, Chinnery PF, Turnbull DM, Lightowlers RN. Selective inhibition of mutant human mitochondrial DNA replication in vitro by peptide nucleic acids. Nature genetics. 1997;15(2):212-5. Boffa LC, Carpaneto EM, Allfrey VG. Isolation of active genes containing CAG repeats by DNA strand invasion by a peptide nucleic acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 1995;92(6):1901-5. Hall L, Le Febre KM, Deml SM, Wohlfiel SL, Wengenack NL. Evaluation of the Yeast Traffic Light PNA FISH probes for identification of Candida species from positive blood cultures. Journal of clinical microbiology. 2012;50(4):1446-8. Schatz P, Distler J, Berlin K, Schuster M. Novel method for high throughput DNA methylation marker evaluation using PNA-probe library hybridization and MALDI-TOF detection. Nucleic acids research. 2006;34(8):e59-e. Choi J-j, Kim C, Park H. Peptide nucleic acid-based array for detecting and genotyping human papillomaviruses. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2009;47(6):1785-90. Almeida C, Azevedo NF, Fernandes R, Keevil CW, Vieira M. Fluorescence in situ hybridization method using a peptide nucleic acid probe for identification of Salmonella spp. in a broad spectrum of samples. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2010;76(13):4476-85. Almeida C, Azevedo N, Iversen C, Fanning S, Keevil C, Vieira M. Development and application of a novel peptide nucleic acid probe for the specific detection of Cronobacter genomospecies (Enterobacter sakazakii) in powdered infant formula. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2009;75(9):2925-30. Almeida C, Cerqueira L, Azevedo N, Vieira M. Detection of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis using real time PCR, immunocapture assay, PNA FISH and standard culture methods in different types of food samples. International journal of food microbiology. 2013;161(1):16-22. Kempf VA, Mndle T, Schumacher U, Schfer A, Autenrieth IB. Rapid detection and identification of pathogens in blood cultures by fluorescence in situ hybridization and flow cytometry. International journal of medical microbiology. 2005;295(1):47-55. Wang J, Rivas G, Cai X, Chicharro M, Parrado C, Dontha N, et al. Detection of point mutation in the p53 gene using a peptide nucleic acid biosensor. Analytica Chimica Acta. 1997;344(1):111-8. Stender H. PNA FISH: an intelligent stain for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases. Expert review of molecular diagnostics. 2003;3(5):649-55. Petersen K, Vogel U, Rockenbauer E, Nielsen KV, Klvraa S, Bolund L, et al. Short PNA molecular beacons for real-time PCR allelic discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Molecular and cellular probes. 2004;18(2):117-22.

Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook.Doc Uploaded Successfully Essay Example

Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook.Doc Uploaded Successfully Essay This handbook deals with the basics of setting up and using a monitoring and evaluation system for a project or an organization. It clarifies what monitoring and evaluation are, how you plan to do them, how you design a system that helps you monitor and an evaluation process that brings it all together usefully. It looks at how you collect the information you need and then how you save yourself from drowning in data by analyzing the information in a relatively straightforward way. Finally it raises, and attempts to address, some of the issues to do with taking action on the basis of what you have learned. Need of Having Handbook on monitoring and evaluation If you don’t care about how well you are doing or about what impact you are having, why bother to do it at all? Monitoring and evaluation enable you to assess the quality and impact of your work, against your action plans and your strategic plan. In order for monitoring and evaluation to be really valuable, you do need to have planned well. Planning is dealt with in detail in other toolkits on this website. We will write a custom essay sample on Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook.Doc Uploaded Successfully specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook.Doc Uploaded Successfully specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook.Doc Uploaded Successfully specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Application of the Handbook The Handbook can helpful in following events: †¢ To set up systems for data collection during the planning phases of a project or organization. †¢ To analyze data collected through the monitoring process. †¢ To know how efficiently and how effectively you are working. †¢ To evaluate what impact the project is having at any stage. In fact, monitoring and evaluation are invaluable internal management tools. If you don’t assess how well you are doing against targets and indicators, you may go on using resources to no useful end, without changing he situation you have identified as a problem at all. Monitoring and evaluation enable you to make that assessment. CHAPTER-1 BASIC CONCEPT OF MONITORING EVALUATION Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses. It is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a project or organization. It is based on targets set and activities plann ed during the planning phases of work. It helps to keep the work on track, and can let management know when things are going wrong. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management, and it provides a useful base for evaluation. It enables you to determine whether the resources you have available are sufficient and are being well used, whether the capacity you have is sufficient and appropriate, and whether you are doing what you planned to do. Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans. It looks at what you set out to do, at what you have accomplished, and how you accomplished it. It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of functioning of the project or organization). It can also be summative (drawing learnings from a completed project or an organization that is no longer functioning). What monitoring and evaluation have in common is that they are geared towards learning from what you are doing and how you are doing it, by focusing on: †¢ Efficiency †¢ Effectiveness †¢ Impact Efficiency tells you that the input into the work is appropriate in terms of the output. This could be input in terms of money, time, staff, equipment and so on. When you run a project and are concerned about its replicability or about going to scale, then it is very important to get the efficiency element right. Effectiveness is a measure of the extent to which a development project achieves the specific objectives it set. If, for example, we set out to improve the qualifications of all the high school teachers in a particular area, did we succeed? Impact tells you whether or not what you did made a difference to the problem situation you were trying to address. In other words, was your strategy useful? Did ensuring that teachers were better qualified improve the pass rate in the final year of school? Before you decide to get bigger, or to replicate the project elsewhere, you need to be sure that what you are doing makes sense in terms of the impact you want to achieve. Need Of Monitoring Evaluation Monitoring and evaluation enable you to check the â€Å"bottom line† of development work: Not â€Å"are we making a profit? † but â€Å"are we making a difference? † Through monitoring and evaluation, you can: †¢ Review progress; †¢ Identify problems in planning and/or implementation; Make adjustments so that you are more likely to â€Å"make a difference†. In many organizations, â€Å"monitoring and evaluation† is something that that is seen as a donor requirement rather than a management tool. Donors are certainly entitled to know whether their money is being properly spent, and whether it is being well spent. But the primary (most important) use of monitoring and evaluation should be for the organization or project itself to see how it is doing against objectives, whether it is having an impact, whether it is working efficiently, and to learn how to do it better. Plans are essential but they are not set in concrete (totally fixed). If they are not working, or if the circumstances change, then plans need to change too. Monitoring and evaluation are both tools which help a project or organization know when plans are not working, and when circumstances have changed. They give management the information it needs to make decisions about the project or organization, about changes that are necessary in strategy or plans. Through this, the constants remain the pillars of the strategic framework: the problem analysis, the vision, and the values of the project or organization. Everything else is negotiable. Getting something wrong is not a crime but failing to learn from past mistakes because you are not monitoring and evaluating, is. It is important to recognize that monitoring and evaluation are not magic wands that can be waved to make problems disappear, or to cure them, or to miraculously make changes without a lot of hard work being put in by the project or organization. In themselves, they are not a solution, but they are valuable tools. Monitoring and evaluation can: †¢ Help you identify problems and their causes; Suggest possible solutions to problems; †¢ Raise questions about assumptions and strategy; †¢ Push you to reflect on where you are going and how you are getting there; †¢ Provide you with information and insight; †¢ Encourage you to act on the information and insight; †¢ Increase the likelihood that you will make a positive development difference. The effect of monitoring and evaluation can be seen in the fol lowing cycle. Note that you will monitor and adjust several times before you are ready to evaluate and replan. EVALUATION Monitoring involves: Establishing indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and impact; †¢ Setting up systems to collect information relating to these indicators; †¢ Collecting and recording the information; †¢ Analyzing the information; †¢ Using the information to inform day-to-day management. Monitoring is an internal function in any project or organization. Evaluation involves: †¢ Looking at what the project or organization intended to achieve – what difference did it want to make? What impact did it want to make? †¢ Assessing its progress towards what it wanted to achieve, its impact targets. Looking at the strategy of the project or organization. Did it have a strategy? Was it effective in following its strategy? Did the strategy work? If not, why not? †¢ Looking at how it worked. Was there an efficient use of resource s? What were the opportunity costs of the way it chose to work? How sustainable is the way in which the project or organization works? What are the implications for the various stakeholders in the way the organization works? In an evaluation, we look at efficiency, effectiveness and impact. There are many different ways of doing an evaluation. Some of the more common terms you may have come across are: †¢ Self-evaluation: This involves an organization or project holding up a mirror to itself and assessing how it is doing, as a way of learning and improving practice. It takes a very self-reflective and honest organization to do this effectively, but it can be an important learning experience. †¢ Participatory evaluation: This is a form of internal evaluation. The intention is to involve as many people with a direct stake in the work as possible. This may mean project staff and beneficiaries working together on the evaluation. If an outsider is called in, it is to act as a facilitator of the process, not an evaluator. †¢ Rapid Participatory Appraisal: Originally used in rural areas, the same methodology can, in fact, be applied in most communities. This is a qualitative way of doing evaluations. It is semi-structured and carried out by an interdisciplinary team over a short time. It is used as a starting point for understanding a local situation and is a quick, cheap, useful way to gather information. It involves the use of secondary data review, direct observation, semi-structured interviews, key informants, group interviews, games, diagrams, maps and calendars. In an evaluation context, it allows one to get valuable input from those who are supposed to be benefiting from the development work. It is flexible and interactive. †¢ External evaluation: This is an evaluation done by a carefully chosen outsider or outsider team. †¢ Interactive evaluation: This involves a very active interaction between an outside evaluator or evaluation team and the organization or project being evaluated. Sometimes an insider may be included in the evaluation team. INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS |Advantages |Disadvantages | |Internal Evaluation | |The evaluators are very familiar with the work, the organizational |The evaluation team may have a vested interest in reaching positive | |culture and the aims and objectives. conclusions about the work or organization. For this reason, other | | |stakeholders, such as donors, may prefer an external evaluation. | |Sometimes people are more willing to speak to insiders than to |The team may not be specifically skilled or trained in evaluation. | |outsiders. | |An internal evaluation is very clearly a management tool, a way of |The evaluation will take up a considerable amount of organizational | |self-correcting, and much less threatening than an external |time. | |evaluation. This may make it easier for those involved to accept | | |findings and criticisms. | | |An internal evaluation will cost less than an external evaluation. It may cost less than an external evaluation; the opportunity costs | | |may be high. | |External evaluation (done by a team or person with no vested interest in the project) | |The evaluation is likely to be more objective as the evaluators will |Someone from outside the organization or project may not understand | |have some distance from the work. |the culture or even what the work is trying to chieve | | | | | | | | | | |The evaluators should have a range of evaluation skills and |Those directly involved may feel threatened by outsiders and be less| |experience. likely to talk openly and co-operate in the process. | |Sometimes people are more willing to speak to outsiders than to |External evaluation can be very costly. | |insiders. | | |Using an outside evaluator gives greater credibility to findings, |An external evaluator may misunderstand what you want from the | |particularly positive findings. |evaluation and not give you what you need | Selecting An External Evaluator or Evaluation Team Qualities to look for in an external evaluator or evaluation team: †¢ An understanding of development issues. †¢ An understanding of organizational issues. †¢ Experience in evaluating development projects, programs or organizations. †¢ A good track record with previous clients. †¢ Research skills. †¢ A commitment to quality. †¢ A commitment to deadlines. †¢ Objectivity, honesty and fairness. †¢ Logic and the ability to operate systematically. †¢ Ability to communicate verbally and in writing. A style and approach that fits with your organization. †¢ Values that are compatible with those of the organization. †¢ Reasonable rates (fees), measured against the going rates. When you decide to use an external Evaluator: †¢ Check his/her/their references. †¢ Meet with the evaluators before making a final decision. †¢ Communicate what you want clearly – good Ter ms of Reference †¢ Terms) are the foundation of a good contractual relationship. †¢ Negotiate a contract which makes provision for what will happen if output expectations are not met. Ask for a work plan with outputs and timelines. †¢ Maintain contact – ask for interim reports as part of the contract †¢ Build in formal feedback times. Do not expect any evaluator to be completely objective. S/he will have opinions and ideas – you are not looking for someone who is a blank page! However, his/her opinions must be clearly stated as such, and must not be disguised as â€Å"facts†. It is also useful to have some idea of his/ her (or their) approach to evaluation. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO EVALUATION Approach |Major purpose |Typical focus |Likely methodology | | | |questions | | |Goal-based |Assessing |Were the goals |Comparing baseline | | |achievement of goals |achieved? Efficiently? |(see Glossary of | | |and objectives. Were they the right |Terms) and progress | | | |goals? |data (see Glossary of | | | | |Terms); finding ways to | | | | |measure indicators. | |Decision Making |Providing information. |Is the project effective? |Assessing range of | | | |Should it continue? How might |options related to the | | | |it be modified? |project context inputs, | | | | |process, and product. | | | | |Establishing some kind of | | | | |decision-making consensus. |Goal-free |Assessing the full |What are all the |Independent | | |range of project effects, |outcomes? What value do they |determination of needs and | | |intended and |have? |standards to judge project | | |unintended. | |worth. Qualitative and | | | | |quantitative techniques to | | | | |uncover any possible results. | |Expert judgement |Use of expertise. |How does an outside |Critical review based | | | |professional rate this |on experience, informal | | | |project? surveying, and subjective | | | | |insights. | A combination of all these approaches is recommended as the best option. However an organization can ask for a particular emphasis but should not exclude findings that make use of a different approach CHAPTER-II PLANNING FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATION Monitoring and evaluation should be part of your planning process. It is very difficult to go back and set up monitoring and evaluation systems once things have begun to happen. You need to begin gathering information about performance and in relation to targets from the word go. The first information gathering should, in fact, take place when you do your needs assessment (see the toolkit on overview of planning, the section on doing the ground work). This will give you the information you need against which to assess improvements over time. When you do your planning process, you will set indicators (see Glossary of Terms). These indicators provide the framework for your monitoring and evaluation system. They tell you what you want to know and the kinds of information it will be useful to collect. In this section we look at: †¢ What do we want to know? This includes looking at indicators for both internal issues and external issues. †¢ Different kinds of information. †¢ How will we get information? †¢ Who should be involved? There is not one set way of planning for monitoring and evaluation. The ideas included in the toolkits on overview of planning, strategic planning and action planning will help you to develop a useful framework for your monitoring and evaluation system. If you are familiar with logical framework analysis and already use it in your planning, this approach lends itself well to planning a monitoring and evaluation system. WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? What we want to know is linked to what we think is important. In development work, what we think is important is linked to our values. Most work in civil society organizations is underpinned by a value framework. It is this framework that determines the standards of acceptability in the work we do. The central values on which most development work is built are: †¢ Serving the disadvantaged; †¢ Empowering the disadvantaged; Changing society, not just helping individuals; †¢ Sustainability; †¢ Efficient use of resources. So, the first thing we need to know is: Is what we are doing and how we are doing it meeting the requirements of these values? In order to answer this question, our monitoring and evaluation system must give us information about: †¢ Who is benefiting fro m what we do? How much are they benefiting? †¢ Are beneficiaries passive recipients or does the process enable them to have some control over their lives? †¢ Are there lessons in what we are doing that have a broader impact than just what is happening on our project? Can what we are doing be sustained in some way for the long-term, or will the impact of our work cease when we leave? †¢ Are we getting optimum outputs for the least possible amount of inputs? Do we want to know about the process or the product? Should development work be evaluated in terms of the process (the way in which the work is done) or the product (what the work produces)? Often, this debate is more about excusing inadequate performance than it is about a real issue. Process and product are not separate in development work. What we achieve and how we achieve it are often the very same thing. If the goal is development, based on development values, then sinking a well without the transfer of skills for maintaining and managing the well is not enough. Saying: â€Å"It was taking too long that way. We couldn’t wait for them to sort themselves out. We said we’d sink a well and we did† is not enough. But neither is: â€Å"It doesn’t matter that the well hasn’t happened yet. What’s important is that the people have been empowered. † Both process and product should be part of your monitoring and evaluation system. But how do we make process and product and values measurable? The answer lies in the setting of indicators and this is dealt with in the sub-section that follows. What Do You Want To Know? Indicators Indicators are also dealt with in overview of planning, in the section on monitoring and evaluation. Indicators are measurable or tangible signs that something has been done or that something has been achieved. In some studies, for example, an increased number of television aerials in a community has been used as an indicator that the standard of living in that community has improved. An indicator of community empowerment might be an increased frequency of community members speaking at community meetings. If one were interested in the gender impact of, for example, drilling a well in a village, then you could use â€Å"increased time for involvement in development projects available to women† as an indicator. Common indicators for something like overall health in a community are the infant/child/maternal mortality rate, the birth rate, and nutritional status and birth weights. You could also look at less direct indicators such as the extent of immunization, the extent of potable (drinkable) water available and so on. Indicators are an essential part of a monitoring and evaluation system because they are what you measure and/or monitor. Through the indicators you can ask and answer questions such as: †¢ Who? †¢ How many? †¢ How often? †¢ How much? But you need to decide early on what your indicators are going to be so that you can begin collecting the information immediately. You cannot use the number of television aerials in a community as a sign of improved standard of living if you don’t know how many there were at the beginning of the process. Some people argue that the problem with measuring indicators is that other variables (or factors) may have impacted on them as well. Community members may be participating more in meetings because a number of new people with activist backgrounds have come to live in the area. Women may have more time for development projects because the men of the village have been attending a gender workshop and have made a decision to share the traditionally female tasks. And so on. While this may be true, within a project it is possible to identify other variables and take them into account. It is also important to note that, if nothing is changing, if there is no improvement in the measurement of the key indicators identified, then your strategy is not working and needs to be rethought. DEVELOPING INDICATORS Step 1: Identify the problem situation you are trying to address. The following might be problems: †¢ Economic situation (unemployment, low incomes etc) †¢ Social situation (housing, health, education etc) †¢ Cultural or religious situation (not using traditional languages, low attendance at religious services etc) †¢ Political or organizational situation (ineffective local government, faction fighting etc) Step 2: Develop a vision for how you would like the problem areas to be/ look. This will give you impact indicators. What will tell you that the vision has been achieved? What signs will you see that you can measure that will â€Å"prove† that the vision has been achieved? For example, if your vision was that the people in your community would be healthy, then you can use health indicators to measure how well you are doing. Has the infant mortality rate gone down? Do fewer women die during child-birth? Has the HIV/AIDS infection rate been reduced? If you can answer â€Å"yes† to these questions then progress is being made. Step 3: Develop a process vision for how you want things to be achieved. This will give you process indicators. If, for example, you want success to be achieved through community efforts and participation, then your process vision might include things like community health workers from the community trained and offering a competent service used by all; community organizes clean-up events on a regular basis, and so on. Step 4: Develop indicators for effectiveness. For example, if you believe that you can increase the secondary school pass rate by upgrading teachers, then you need indicators that show you have been effective in upgrading the teachers e. g. evidence from a survey in the schools, compared with a baseline survey. Step 5: Develop indicators for your efficiency targets. Here you can set indicators such as: planned workshops are run within the stated timeframe, costs for workshops are kept to a maximum of US$ 2. 50 per participant, no more than 160 hours in total of staff time to be spent on organizing a conference; no complaints about conference organization etc. With this framework in place, you are in a position to monitor and evaluate efficiency, effectiveness and impact. DIFFERENT KINDS OF INFORMATION (QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE) Information used in monitoring and evaluation can be classified as: †¢ Quantitative †¢ Qualitative Quantitative measurement tells you â€Å"how much or how many†. How many people attended a workshop, how many people passed their final examinations, how much a publication cost, how many people were infected with HIV, how far people have to walk to get water or firewood, and so on. Quantitative measurement can be expressed in absolute numbers (3 241 women in the sample are infected) or as a percentage (50% of households in the area have television aerials). It can also be expressed as a ratio (one doctor for every 30 000 people). One way or another, you get quantitative (number) information by counting or measuring. Qualitative measurement tells you how people feel about a situation or about how things are done or how people behave. So, for example, although you might discover that 50% of the teachers in a school are unhappy about the assessment criteria used, this is still qualitative information, not quantitative information. You get qualitative information by asking, observing, interpreting. Some people find quantitative information comforting – it seems solid and reliable and â€Å"objective†. They find qualitative information unconvincing and â€Å"subjective†. It is a mistake to say that â€Å"quantitative information speaks for itself†. It requires just as much interpretation in order to make it meaningful as does qualitative information. It may be a â€Å"fact† that enrolment of girls at schools in some developing countries is dropping – counting can tell us that, but it tells us nothing about why this drop is taking place. In order to know that, you would need to go out and ask questions – to get qualitative information. Choice of indicators is also subjective, whether you use quantitative or qualitative methods to do the actual measuring. Researchers choose to measure school enrolment figures for girls because they believe that this tells them something about how women in a society are treated or viewed. The monitoring and evaluation process requires a combination of quantitative and qualitative information in order to be comprehensive. For example, we need to know what the school enrolment figures for girls are, as well as why parents do or do not send their children to school. Perhaps enrolment figures are higher for boys than for girls because a particular community sees schooling as a luxury and prefers to train boys to do traditional and practical tasks such taking care of animals. In this case, the higher enrolment of girls does not necessarily indicate higher regard for girls. HOW WILL WE GET INFORMATION? This is dealt with in some detail in the toolkit on action planning, in the section on monitoring, collecting information as you go along. Your methods for information collecting need to be built into your action planning. You should be aiming to have a steady stream of information flowing into the project or organisation about the work and how it is done, without overloading anyone. The information you collect must mean something: don’t collect information to keep busy, only do it to find out what you want to know, and then make sure that you store the information in such a way that it is easy to access. Usually you can use the reports, minutes, attendance registers, financial statements that are part of your work anyway as a source of monitoring and evaluation information. However, sometimes you need to use special tools that are simple but useful to add to the basic information collected in the natural course of your work. Some of the more common ones are: †¢ Case studies †¢ Recorded observation †¢ Diaries †¢ Recording and analysis of important incidents (called â€Å"critical incident analysis†) †¢ Structured questionnaires †¢ One-on-one interviews †¢ Focus groups †¢ Sample surveys †¢ Systematic review of relevant official statistics. WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED? Almost everyone in the organization or project will be involved in some way in collecting information that can be used in monitoring and evaluation. This includes: †¢ The administrator who takes minutes at a meeting or prepares and circulates the attendance register; †¢ The fieldworkers who writes reports on visits to the field; †¢ The bookkeeper who records income and expenditure. In order to maximize their efforts, the project or organization needs to: †¢ Prepare reporting formats that include measurement, either quantitative or qualitative, of important indicators. For example, if you want to know about community participation in activities, or women’s participation specifically, structure the fieldworkers reporting format so that s/he has to comment on this, backing up observations with facts. (Look at the fieldworker report format given later in this toolkit. ) †¢ Prepare recording formats that include measurement, either quantitative or qualitative, of important indicators. For example, if you want to know how many men and how many women attended a meeting, include a gender column on your attendance list. Record information in such a way that it is possible to work out what you need to know. For example, if you need to know whether a project is sustainable financially, and which elements of it cost the most, then make sure that your bookkeeping records reflect the relevant information. It is a useful principle to look at every activity and say: What do we need to know about this activity, both process (how it is being done) and p roduct (what it is meant to achieve), and what is the easiest way to find it out and record it as we go along? CHAPTER-III DESIGNING A MONITORING AND/OR EVALUATION PROCESS As there are differences between the design of a monitoring system and that of an evaluation process, we deal with them separately here. Under monitoring we look at the process an organization could go through to design a monitoring system. Under evaluation we look at: †¢ Purpose †¢ Key evaluation questions †¢ Methodology. MONITORING When you design a monitoring system, you are taking a formative view point and establishing a system that will provide useful information on an ongoing basis so that you can improve what you do and how you do it. On the next page, you will find a suggested process for designing a monitoring system. For a case study of how an organization went about designing a monitoring system, go to the section with examples, and the example given of designing a monitoring system. DESIGNING A MONITORING SYSTEM Below is a step-by-step process you could use in order to design a monitoring system for your organization or project. For a case study of how an organization went about designing a monitoring system, go to examples. Step 1:At a workshop with appropriate staff and/or volunteers, and run by you or a consultant:Introduce the concepts of efficiency, effectiveness and impact. Explain that a monitoring system needs to cover all three. †¢ Generate a list of indicators for each of the three aspects. †¢ Clarify what variables need to be linked. So, for example, do you want to be able to link the age of a teacher with his/her qualifications in order to answer the question: Are older teachers more or less likely to have higher qualifications? †¢ Clarify what information the project or organization is already collecting. Step 2:Turn the input from the workshop into a brief for the questions your monitoring system must be able to answer. Depending on how complex your requirements are, and what your capacity is, you may decide to go for a computerized data base or a manual one. If you want to be able to link many variables across many cases (e. g. participants, schools, parent involvement, resources, urban/rural etc), you may need to go the computer route. If you have a few variables, you can probably do it manually. The important thing is to begin by knowing what variables you are interested in and to keep data on these variables. Linking and analysis can take place later. From the workshop you will know what you want to monitor. You will have the indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and impact that have been prioritized. You will then choose the variables that will help you answer the questions you think are important. So, for example, you might have an indicator of impact which is that â€Å"safer sex options are chosen† as an indicator that â€Å"young people are now making informed and mature lifestyle choices†. The variables that might affect the indicator include: †¢ Age †¢ Gender †¢ Religion †¢ Urban/rural †¢ Economic category †¢ Family environment †¢ Length of exposure to your project’s initiative †¢ Number of workshops attended. By keeping the right information you will be able to answer questions such as: †¢ Does age make a difference to the way our message is received? †¢ Does economic category i. e. do young people in richer areas respond better or worse to the message or does it make no difference? †¢ Does the number of workshops attended make a difference to the impact? Answers to these kinds of questions enable a project or organization to make decisions about what they do and how they do it, to make informed changes to programs, and to measure their impact and effectiveness. Answers to questions such as: Do more people attend sessions that are organized well in advance? †¢ Do more schools participate when there is no charge? †¢ Do more young people attend when sessions are over weekends or in the evenings? †¢ Does it cost less to run a workshop in the community, or to bring people to our training centre to run the workshop? Step 3:Decide how you will collect the informati on you need (see collecting information) and wh

The Hobbit - Bilbo Baggins essays

The Hobbit - Bilbo Baggins essays Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. In the book, The Hobbit, the cautious Bilbo Baggins slowly develops his abilities, both physical and mental. A hobbit is a dwarf-like person, yet quite the opposite. They are proper mannered and have a very simple and tedious life. But a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, was about to change the reputations of the hobbits. Bilbo, along with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves were on a quest to reclaim their stolen riches from an evil dragon. But Bilbo was not strong and had never seen the outside world. Bilbo starts to use his strength, courage, and wisdom to pursue the closing of his Bilbo used his strength to help himself and his company. As Bilbo goes with Gandalf and the dwarves everything changes for him. He is on an all-day traveling schedule and he could barely eat a proper meal. He was not used to this, any other hobbit would have given up by now, but not Bilbo. He was determined to finish his quest along with the others. Bilbo had to use his brute strength to climb up trees in the thick woods. Since Bilbo was the lightest he was the only one able to. His job was to see were the forest ended. He pushed his way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in the eye; he was greened and grimed from the old bark of the greater boughs; more than once he slipped and caught himself just in time. He was tired and lightly hurt, but he was in stable condition. His brute strength did help him in his quest. In some situations, Bilbo showed admirable courage. Once, Bilbo was in the caves and was separated from his group. He later woke up after being unconscious and although it was pitch black, he kept calm and managed to get to the closure of the cave. As he went ...

The Hobbit - Bilbo Baggins essays

The Hobbit - Bilbo Baggins essays Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. In the book, The Hobbit, the cautious Bilbo Baggins slowly develops his abilities, both physical and mental. A hobbit is a dwarf-like person, yet quite the opposite. They are proper mannered and have a very simple and tedious life. But a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, was about to change the reputations of the hobbits. Bilbo, along with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves were on a quest to reclaim their stolen riches from an evil dragon. But Bilbo was not strong and had never seen the outside world. Bilbo starts to use his strength, courage, and wisdom to pursue the closing of his Bilbo used his strength to help himself and his company. As Bilbo goes with Gandalf and the dwarves everything changes for him. He is on an all-day traveling schedule and he could barely eat a proper meal. He was not used to this, any other hobbit would have given up by now, but not Bilbo. He was determined to finish his quest along with the others. Bilbo had to use his brute strength to climb up trees in the thick woods. Since Bilbo was the lightest he was the only one able to. His job was to see were the forest ended. He pushed his way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in the eye; he was greened and grimed from the old bark of the greater boughs; more than once he slipped and caught himself just in time. He was tired and lightly hurt, but he was in stable condition. His brute strength did help him in his quest. In some situations, Bilbo showed admirable courage. Once, Bilbo was in the caves and was separated from his group. He later woke up after being unconscious and although it was pitch black, he kept calm and managed to get to the closure of the cave. As he went ...

Interview : Interview / Background

For this interview process, my initial intention was for it not to be so much of a question and answer type of interview. Since I do have a relationship with these two ladies, I was wanting to make this as smooth, casual and fun as possible. This helped, because it did not create any form of uncomfortable situations; by creating awkward situations, I feel that it can alter the way the interview is conducted and how it can be of a result. The interview took place at as restaurant where the three of†¦ In my interview I choose to interview one of my housemates Samantha Wood. I do not know Samantha very well but have communicated with her the odd time. Samantha goes to Georgian college and is 21 years old. I choose to interview her specifically because she is quite about her life and interests so I was motivated to use this interview to get to know her better. I asked Samantha basic questions about her use of and experiences with social media. The interview process was beneficial for what information†¦ This paper intends to describe an interview conducted with an eight year old about sports. A remarkable quote from this young man was â€Å" I only struck out twice last season and I didn’t get out after that at all†. The sports that Cannon Crooks plays, his favorite sport, his favorite player, his favorite position, and future aspirations and more shall be covered in this paper. The interview was conducted over the phone with an eight-year-old boy named Cannon Crooks. Cannon Crooks is a third grader†¦ There are three types of interviews: structured interviews, semi structured interviews, and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews are interviews that are formal such as telephone interviews, survey research and political polling. The interview is set up with a designed place ahead of time and a set of questions preplanned. Semi structured interviews are interviews that allows the interviewee to talk about a topic more â€Å"open minded† (pg. 87) rather than structured and to the point. The interviewer†¦ research that a well-prepared interview guide is crucial. Within the interview guide, all the items of the interview are included and organised in a certain order with the purpose of promote the flow of the interview. This includes the sections of the interview, task that the interviewer has to do and designed questions with careful wording selection. Although the role of interview guide is crucial in semi-structured interview, it is stressed that the idea of interview guide is â€Å"much less specific†¦ Family Interview and Genogram I chose to interview Inmaculada â€Å"Alex† DeFeo (2015). She is the source of much of the information. I based assessments on my analysis of her explained life. Detailed is given to her age and familial relations. The strength perspective used in order to highlight strengths in how overcoming or living with situations, statuses, and results of events. Individual and family patterns, concern, and influences regarding them aimed are touched upon. Family Members Names†¦ selects interview as the second method to generate the data. This paper, for that selection, deals with the second key research instruments, interview. Specifically, it explains and proposes a plan for carrying out interview for the research. The section starts with discussing the advantages of interview instrument. What follows after is a brief overview and discussion around the issue of critical dimension of interview. This review helps to provide guidelines for the deployment of interview in this†¦ At the very beginning of the interview I noticed how much I was looking down to document what Amy was saying. I was so focused on making sure I had documented everything Amy said and I think I lost some meanings by not watching her body language. If I were to put myself in Amy’s position I probably would have felt like I was just there to answer a bunch of assessment questions and the therapist really did not care what I had to say. The empathy was there in my voice, but not in my actions, so†¦ Interview Analysis The mock interview assignment really helped me identify different strengths and weaknesses in interviewing. This document will be a discussion of my mock interview. I will discuss my strengths during the interview as well as my faults and what I will do in the future to adjust those. I will apply what I learned in this experience to interviews in the future. Perhaps one of the easiest weaknesses to identify in my interview was in my appearance, specifically my hat I forgot to†¦ The majority of the interview took place during periods three, five, and six, but I was able to ask her a few questions before and between the other periods I shadowed her. I first asked her about her schedule and what classes she had other than English and math at the end of the day. She explained that she had three other classes, government, IT, and band. When I expressed curiosity as to how that worked since she didn’t have a science course. Students are given the option to opt out of science†¦

Social Psychology paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Psychology paper - Essay Example This makes this theory applicable only to higher mammals, including human beings. The theory is especially helpful in understanding the core processes of everyday human interactions. Say, a boss goes out to lunch with a female colleague; this is a typical scenario that falls within the application range of Causal Attribution theory. In this case, the boss orders food for his colleague while not being cognizant of her food allergies. Causal Attribution theory will help us answer such questions as â€Å"How much causal responsibility can we assign to the boss, for this apparent mistake†? etc. The theory is also useful in controlling levels of pain or joy. Since the cognitive mechanism that results in sensations of pain or joy is a matter of anticipation and expectation, painful experiences can be mitigated and joyful experiences amplified if the individual sees events from a favorable perspective. As a result, Causal Attribution theory is also useful for psychotherapists who deal with cases of chronic anxiety and depression. The techniques learned to control levels of pain/joy can also help athletes in managing niggling injuries or competitive pressure when participating in a major sport event like the Olympic Games. A few other phenomena associated with Causal Attribution theory are â€Å"The Self-Serving Bias and The Fundamental Attribution Error† (from the Presentation). Seminal work on these components was done by Jones and Harris in 1967 and by Ross and his team in 1977. Jones and Harris studied Fidel Castro’s public image and the causal mechanisms at play. Ross and his team studied game shows and found that participants â€Å"fail to see the inherent disadvantages in people† (from the Presentation). Daniel Gilbert proposed a precautionary measure to avoid Attribution Errors. He recommended against weighing behavioral and situational information at the same time. The other area where distinction

Psychological Profile Tests Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psychological Profile Tests - Essay Example The test-retest reliability for the GESS score has been analyzed by comparison of the data from two administrations of this test to identical subjects.   The scatter plots of these two sets of data shows a nearly identical pattern.   The slope of each best-fit line for the each data set is nearly identical, as is the Mean and Standard Deviation.   Because the slopes of the best-fit lines are positive numbers close to a correlation coefficient of +1, 0.94 for GESS 1 and 0.66 for GESS 2, there is a strong positive correlation between these measurements.   The values obtained for the slopes of the GESS 1 and GESS 2 data suggest a high level of test validity.   A direct relationship is shown to exist between GESS 1 and GESS 2 and this is a very powerful indication of reliability.   From all of these observations, the GESS test appears to be highly reliable and highly valid.The Cronbach’s Alpha value is 0.84 for the comparison of the data between GESS 1 and GESS 2.   Cronbach’s Alpha is an important statistical analysis method that demonstrates the level of test-retest reliability.   Empirical evidence has shown that a Cronbach’s Alpha score greater than 0.7 is necessary in order for a psychological instrument to have an adequate degree of test-retest reliability.   The high value of 0.84 obtained in this study indicates that the GESS inventory has a very strong level of test-retest reliability and is therefore a clinically usable instrument.The test-retest reliability for the ICI score has been analyzed by comparison of the data.... The current study shows that these measurements are essentially the same. The test-retest reliability for the GESS score has been analyzed by comparison of the data from two administrations of this test to identical subjects. The scatter plots of these two sets of data shows a nearly identical pattern. The slope of each best-fit line for the each data set is nearly identical, as is the Mean and Standard Deviation. Because the slopes of the best-fit lines are positive numbers close to a correlation coefficient of +1, 0.94 for GESS 1 and 0.66 for GESS 2, there is a strong positive correlation between these measurements. The values obtained for the slopes of the GESS 1 and GESS 2 data suggest a high level of test validity. A direct relationship is shown to exist between GESS 1 and GESS 2 and this is a very powerful indication of reliability. From all of these observations, the GESS test appears to be highly reliable and highly valid. The Cronbach's Alpha value is 0.84 for the comparison of the data between GESS 1 and GESS 2. Cronbach's Alpha is an important statistical analysis method that demonstrates the level of test-retest reliability. Empirical evidence has shown that a Cronbach's Alpha score greater than 0.7 is necessary in order for a psychological instrument to have an adequate degree of test-retest reliability. The high value of 0.84 obtained in this study indicates that the GESS inventory has a very strong level of test-retest reliability and is therefore a clinically usable instrument. The test-retest reliability for the ICI score has been analyzed by comparison of the data from two administrations of this test to identical subjects. The scatter plots of these two sets of data shows a

Women’s Experiences in the Military Essay Example for Free

Women’s Experiences in the Military Essay Women suffered a lot during the wars. Many were reported to have been physically tortured, for instance, they were hit with mortar rounds; making the whole building to shake. They spent nights out in the cold and the sleeping conditions were horrible. Some became paralyzed and lay on the ground for hours before receiving help. They fought for their lives on without protection since men were also in the fields. If women were discovered to be in possession of valuable positions such as diamond, it was taken away from them. (Taylor, p367) There were incidents when women came out of their homes to provide assistance if they saw their dwellings being set on fire. The women did not care about their personal safety and neither did they worry that their lives could end any time. They put their lives on line to save their people and families. For instance, they died from serious injuries and smoke from burning houses, falling debris and flames. (Chen, p389) There were women who provided assistance in saving or rescuing other children and adults who were caught up in burning structures. They did this without protective clothing and shoes. They kept on entering and re-entering the buildings in order to vacate their children to safety. Women continuously assisted the residents in Vietnam to relocate their personal properties as well as livestock. By this time there were no fire fighting equipment and personnel assistance. This reflected courage commitment and self-sacrifice on Vietnamese women. (Insun, p366) Their experiences made them emerge as heroes and they were awarded medals. However, their naivety did not make them realize that they deserved the medals. Coupled with that they were very young and hence had not received enough exposure. They could not make sense out of the problems they were having. (Insun, p254) During those times of war, despite women’s involvement in the military, they were still nursing young children at homes. They had to strike a balance between the time spent at the military and the time spent with their families. Their children were affected by diseases, while growing up. Women said that things appeared perfectly normal at birth of their children but as soon as they become toddlers something always went wrong. Mothers gave birth to children with cancer, especially of the kidney and other types of tumor, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder), teeth and bone deformities as well as fainting spells. Other children displayed symptoms of Grand Mal Epilepsy. Most of the conditions which affected these children were made worse by the negative effects of war. The health of the children was seriously affected. At night, women experienced mass attack which affected the entire corner within Long Binh. They had mortar attack which landed on their homes and killed some of them. At his time, all they had were prayers. (Taylor, p567) They prayed a lot when all failed. At around 1968, the military intelligence received a document which stated they were giving away approximately twenty five thousand dollars for every female who was a white American. The government gave women life insurance. The insurance was worth only ten thousand dollars. This was too little and they actually laughed at it because they were definitely worth much more. (Woodside, p56) The women most of the time ignored the problems that they had with men because they did not want those problems to take toll on their lives. Some other challenges that women faced were lack of audience. They had grievances amongst themselves and despite their efforts to air them, nobody could listen to them. The communications department was not effective and there was no order of the events taking place. In addition, the communication channels were not properly defined. They were random and did not consider the urgency of the information. (Insun, p89) The policies of children adopting were changed, and this affected parenting and especially women who were not able to give quality life to their children. The situation affected them psychologically and some women became hostile to the new policies. The children suffered emotional and psychological torture due to lack of parental love. The bonds that tied a child and his mother were no longer there. (Insun, p67)

my life ant its ways :: essays research papers

My Thinking and its Ways   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A utopia is a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions. When I sit to think I think of my own utopia. I dream of things that I could not do the normal world but in my own utopia. In my utopia a key phrase and motto is â€Å"don’t worry†. I want to have no worries in what I do, think, feel, and every other aspect that would worry about. In my utopia, I am the utopia. I am the one and only in my world. Temptation to do things and the will to not do things is what separate the strong and the weak. I feel and many others may disagree when I say that everyone will fall to temptation. I am not a perfect individual and many others are not either and if you think your perfect certainly you are to bigheaded to be perfect. So in my world I like to be by myself. How can one be tempted if there is no one to tempt him? A main reason for me to be by myself is so I can live in a world without temptation. I know I am not a weak person but I am not the strongest and I fall to temptation. I think that I could do everything by myself. I think that I can depend on myself and no one else. I know in a real world this could not happen that you cannot make it by yourself, but in mine you can make it by yourself because you are the one that makes it. No one can challenge you and it is not necessary to not challenge anyone else. Life is hard and harsh place to be so to be somewhere else would be a dream. Being alone would not bother me; I would be able to do it. Sometimes I love being myself just thinking about this little world that I could live in and do things my way. You may think being by yourself would be dull because there is no impact, but when your alone you can think of the most imaginative places and scenarios. From reading this you might think that I am an anti-social person, but I am not one. I love the people around me but when you dream and think you can do things you cant do on earth or in reality.

Impact of Arrival of Television on Electioneering In England Essay

INTRODUCTION The invention of television marked he beginning of a new epoch. The age of information technology made information available at the push of a button. Facts and distortion of facts are the tools of the entertainment industry. Exaggeration is the premise on which the advertizing agency works. It is confluence of the audio visual impact which is one of the most powerful influences that is experienced by the individual. It left no human endeavor untouched .The fate of democracy is determined by the elections. Television was utilized for campaigning of the candidates participating in the election. It brought about a complete revamping of the election campaign. Local issues were sidelined and an emphasis on the national campaign was     the dominant feature of the election process.[1]Mass media had completely mesmerized both the masses and the persons responsible for planning and execution of the election campaign. The recent proliferation of the media channels has led to a depletion of issues that can be aired on these channels .therefore there has been a shift from national to local politics. The impact of the television is not just limited to what is going to be at the forefront but it has led to complete overhaul of the process. The campaigns are more articulate and well planned .The concept of negative publicity has been inducted like it was done never before. The elections are loosing personal touch as there is more emphasis on the how to air the campaign. Consequently the expenditure on the elections is rising partly because of infalation and partly because the campaigns are conducted on grand scale. British Law permits each party to air its programme, policies and agendas on the national channels across England for 20 minutes without paying any tariff for putting it on air. Each party is given a maximum of five repeat telecast. HISTORY OF POLITICAL BROADCAST Political broadcasting started in Britain in 1924 on radio with a20 minute allocation time for each party. it was started on television in 1951.   It was an unpaid time slot of 15 minutes that was allocated to each party. The political broadcasts are regulated by the 1990 Broadcasting Act and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000.The initial directives of the act forbade that the political advertisement should not be purely political in nature. In 2001 general election the   three major political parties were given five chances to broadcast their political campaign where as the minor political parties were given one chance if they were contesting one sixth of the total seats. 5 and 10 minutes of political advertisements were replaced by 2’40†, 3’40† or 4’40†³and a stricture is placed on them so that they should not violate decency and good taste. All the political electoral broadcast by various party are simultaneously aired .These are either preceded or followed by   previews and reviews by the major news paper daily and there fore the messages are a kind of reinforced. Currently there is ongoing debate on whether the system of political broadcast should be completely scraped or it should be revised with a provision of paid commercials. Since time immemorial it has been stated that effective governance is related to whether the voters have made an informed choice. It is privileged class who will try different means to gather information about the party and candidates standing in the election. The masses either do not makes a conscious effort to gather information or they rely on effortless means to gain information about the political parties. What the media is representing can differ. On the one hand it can be balanced objective on the other hand it can be preferential[2] It has been observed that commercial broadcasting system can have ulterior motives as they are there to maximize their benefits. The national broadcasting system is more conducive to producing objective information   Ã‚  about the political parties[3]. Political advertising in England is more party oriented where as in America the emphasis is on the candidate .Lot of attention is being paid to the effect of use of media in the election .It is very difficult to conclusively prove that what results it is going to produce .England is a very old democracy and all the parties have their particular image .Media cannot altogether alter the image of the party   .It can highlight the achievement of the party and it can make the manifesto more lucrative. This premise is in accordance with the earliest studies of the impact of television on the electoral outcomes by Blumler and McQuail.[4] The party campaign through the media is expected to effect the voter turn out. It can bring to the forefront various campaign issues. It can create an enthusiasm for gathering more information about the party programmes.[5]These early studies reflected that voting for political parties were a matter of class and the election campaign served very little purpose. [6]The conservative and the Labour party were dividing the voters on the basis of who did manual labour and who didn’t work with their hands i.e the managers and the employers and the middle class The voters who changed their loyalties from one party to another were primarily for a short term. It has been observed that this faction was to swing back its support to he party which it originally adhered to.   It can be said that these floating voters can be influenced by the televised transmission of the electoral campaign. This can be contended because the labour part lost three elections in a row in 1959 although the class that does manual labour constitute major chunk of the electorate. The material prosperity entailed a spread of the middle class values and hence the conservatives won the election. The messages that are aired during the political campaigns in election are not the only information available to the electorate. The long term memory of the people might be short. That doesn’t mean that the events political debates     press conferences, by- elections etc preceding the election campaign have no consequence. The election campaign through the media is of two kinds. One in which the focus is on the image building or the achievement of the party .The other kind deals with the character assassination of the opponent. If the attack broadcasting is exaggerated and is not substantiated then it can create sympathy for the opponent. The conservative party campaign nick named ‘Demon eye’ of 1997 was counter productive It created an image of Labour as leftwing radicals. The electorate had experience a moderate labour party government under the leadership of Tony Blair. A caricature of Mr. Bust and Mr. Boom was used to depict the economic condition of England .The facts that Britain had experienced a spurt in the economy in 1980 under the leadership of Thatcher. This kind of media campaign has to be used with great caution as it is either counterproductive or it does not have any effect on the target audience. If there are fractions within the party then it can bolster unity among the contending fractions. The persuasive propaganda is more useful and almost all the parties realize that it is the best way to campaign .It pays attention to detailing the ideology of the party. It is oriented on the fact that the achievement of the party is highlighted. Moreover it is presented in manner that it appears more entertaining so as to keep the audience hooked on to it. It can be proved that the parties are more interested in this positive kind of advertisement by looking at the percentage of the campaign allocated to the political advertisement. Negative references were a small and similar proportion of the total literature of all three parties: 8.7 per cent Conservative, 10.4 Labour, 9.8 per cent Liberal Democrat. The televised broadcast of the political party programmes is useful tools because the minor political parties get a chance to make themselves felt. This is true for most of the countries who have democracy and who have televised political advertisement.[7] Even .The liberal democrats were able to make themselves felt through their advocacy strategy. In 1951 the minor parties had around 10% to 3% of the vote share. This vote share increased in the 1997 and almost one fourth of the total share of the vote. There are many reasons for the increase in the vote share of the relatively new and unknown political parties like social class. Education of the voter as it determines whether it is an informed choice or not. Media especially the print media is specially tilted in favor of conservative parties IT was in the I970s that the researches were conducted and it reflected that a change had occurred in the political environment of Britain .The voters were not holding to the rigid class bias of the political parties due to the influence of the television. The other factor that is responsible for this change was the economic affluence in England as that was responsible for mitigating the gap between the rich and the poor.[8]Other researches argue that this doesn’t mean that class politics has changed rather it can be seen as both the parties are going out of favor. Heath et al argue â€Å"analysts have mistaken changes in behavior by voters for changes in their motivation without asking first whether or not the political stimulus they have received is still the same or not. They suggest, for example, that variations in the strength of the class alignment may well reflect changes in the distance between the parties on class-based issues†.[9] The voters are not taking their decisions in vacuum there are certain political and social issues that are motivating the voters to vote for apolitical parties. The short term shift in the voters preference is based on the perception of the competence of the parties,. The parties in power can effectively utilize the print as well as the television in advertizing its achievement .There have been fears that   the hegemony of the media was responsible for the conservatives winning the election as they have the hegemony over the press. It has been time and again proved television is not the sole deciding factor in determining the outcome of the election. The 1980s saw a shift from the national to regional politics .There was a variation in the voting patterns from one region to another. If television has been the main sway in the elections then the entire country should have shown a similar pattern. Local campaign did make a difference The surveys conducted by the Labour party showed that Its percentage of votes was directly related to number of people working for the party [10] Local campaign play an important role in persuading the voters to vote for a particular party. It is very difficult to find out what was the ultimate reason for voting as the preferences of an individual are shaped in the recesses of an individuals mind. Television came second in the list of what influenced the voters of the survey conducted by MORI .The regional television can be utilized to create amore local and specific advertisement for the electorate. This area has yet to be explored by the political party..   The labour party topped the list of frequency of the reference of the constituencies and it made almost 28.7 per cent of sentences referring to local provision. The Conservatives made 16.5 per cent and made the Liberal Democrats 10.2 per cent references to the local issues. This means the elections are by and large fought on national issues which are effectively transmitted through the television. The lab our party has thrice lost elections till 1997. This reflects that though they made more references to the local electoral constituencies they were unable to convert the voters in their favour. CONCLUSION It is seen that the advent of television had completely changed the way in which we look at the different issues .Things which are of relatively lesser importance can be presented in an innovative method .The election process in England has its own peculiarities.   Television didn’t bring about a complete transformation of the election process of Britain. England is one of the oldest proponents of the institution of democracy. The two major parties the lobour and conservatives have their peculiar images .Television cannot completely alter the public perception. The older generation is more difficult to mould as its ideas are set .The televised broadcasting of the party manifesto can be aimed at the youth which is more likely to change its preferences. A perceptible shift is seen in the support base of the two major political parties the Labour party was supported by the people doing manual labour and the conservatives were supported by the middle class. The class distinction was thought to be the basis of the voting pattern. Now this distinction is becoming less and less important as media and economic affluence has reduced the gap between the rich and poor.   The influence of television has backfired on the two major parties .The minor political parties have increased their vote percentage. The major beneficiary is the Liberal Democratic Party. Although it has been the pristine premise that the informed electorate   can lead to the formation of more effective and responsible government .It can be said with certainty that the voters of the present age are more informed but there is difference between having knowledge and judicious use of knowledge..The other aspect of this election scenario of England is that there is no alternative to the present parties on the national level .Even if the voter is aware of the shortcomings of the present parties, he has no choice. The voters have to choose the lesser evil. REFERENCES Blumler, Jay G. and Denis Mc Quail. 1968. Television in Politics: Its Uses and Influence. London: Faber &Faber.n.p Bonham, J. (1954), The Middle Class Vote (London: Faber)pp 56-62 Butler, D. and Stokes, D (1974) Political Change in Britain(2nd. edition) pp54-78(London: Macmillan) Evans, G. Heath, A., and Payne, C. (1999), ‘Class: Labour as a Catch-All Party?’ in Evans, G. and Norris, P. (eds.), Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective n.p   (London: Sage) Kaid, Lynda Lee and John C. Tedesco. 1993. ‘A comparison of political television advertising fromthe 1992 British and American campaigns.’ Informatologia 25(1-2): 1-12 Kavanagh,   The British General Election of 2001. Basingstoke n.p: Palgrave Macmillan News on Party Images in the 1997 British General Election.’ British Elections and Parties Norris, 2001. Ed. Britain Votes 2001.n.p   Oxford: Oxford University Press. Norris et al .1999; Norris and Sanders 2000   pp 110-120 Sanders, David and Pippa Norris. 1998. ‘Does Negative News Matter? The Effects of Television Semetko , holi .A 1996 The Media In Comparing democracies edited by Lawerence   Le Duc,Richard Niemaand Pippa Norris London:Sage   pp254-279 Seyd, P. & P. Whiteley (2002) New Labour’s Grass Roots: The Transformation of Labour Party Membership, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.pp10-38 Zaller John2003†Anew standerd of the news quality: Burglar alarm Monitorial Citizens†Political communication20 109-130 [1] (Kavanagh, (1970). The British General Election of 2001. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan News on Party Images in the 1997 British General Election.’ British Elections and Parties n,p [2] Zaller John2003†Anew standerd of the news quality: Burglar alarm Monitorial Citizens†Political communication20 pp109-130 [3] Semetko , holi .A 1996 The Media In Comparing democracies edited by Lawerence   Le Duc,Richard Niemaand Pippa Norris London:Sage   pp254-279 [4] Blumler, Jay G. and Denis McQuail. 1968. Television in Politics: Its Uses and Influence. London: Faber &Faber.n.p [5] Norris et al .1999; Norris and Sanders 2000   pp 110-120 [6] Bonham, J. (1954), The Middle Class Vote (London: Faber)pp 56-62 [7] Kaid, Lynda Lee and John C. Tedesco. 1993. ‘A comparison of political television advertising from the 1992 British and American campaigns.’ Informatologia 25(1-2): pp1-12 [8] Butler, D. and Stokes, D (1974) Political Change in Britain(2nd. edition) pp 54-78(London: Macmillan) [9] Evans, G. Heath, A., and Payne, C. (1999), ‘Class: Labour as a Catch-All Party?n.p Norris, P. (eds.), Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective (London: Sage)n.p [10] Seyd, P. & P. Whiteley (2002) New Labour’s Grass Roots: The Transformation of Labour Party Membership, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan pp.10 – 38