American Eels Habitat and Extinction Research Paper - 1

American Eels Habitat and Extinction - Research Paper Example One of the peculiarities of these eels is the regular basis of migration. In other words, they may not stay in a particular location for longer periods. They like to travel from rivers to river since it like fresh water very much. It stays major portions of tis life in rivers or fresh water sources and visit ocean mainly for spawning or laying eggs. A female eel can lay eggs as much as four million every year. However, after the egging period is over, it will suffer immediate death. Lafontaine et al. (2008) have pointed out that â€Å"Since the 1980s, the American eel (Anguilla rostrata Lesueur) fisheries have declined dramatically in the Lake Ontario–St. Lawrence River watershed providing evidence of a large decline in population of this species (Lafontaine et al., p.185). American eels are decreasing in number over the last few decades because of various reasons such as climate changes, global warming, water pollution etc. Even though, the decline of eels have been noticed as early in the 1960’s, the problem became intensified in the 80’s and 90’s. Eel landing started to decline considerably during the latter parts of the twentieth century, especially 1980 onwards. The decrease in the number of eel landing was calculated based on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) effort.

An Overview Of Metaphor And Politics English Language Essay

An Overview Of Metaphor And Politics English Language Essay The earliest study of metaphor can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, whose definition of metaphor as transference of lexical meaning for achieving rhetorical and poetical value set the tones for scores of generations in their metaphor study. For a long time, metaphor was limited to a narrow field of practical rhetoric and composition, and even considered simply ornamental in function. The advent of cognitive linguistics, put forward by Lakoff and Johnson, has exerted a dramatic change to metaphor research. Metaphor is not merely a linguistic expression, but more fundamentally a form of thought with its own epistemological function. Furthermore, Lakoff also advocated that metaphor, as a phenomenon, involves both conceptual mappings and individual linguistic expressions (1992, p.5). In modern times, metaphor is recognized as a powerful tool in shaping the cognitive world that we experience and therefore is indeed something that we live by. Acknowledged as an in dispensable and decisive feature of natural language, metaphor is so ubiquitous that no study of language can be complete without an adequate account of it. Weekly Radio Address delivered by American Presidents is a special kind of language report in that the Presidents, facing a great number of audiences at home and abroad, have to analyze the current issues and persuade listeners to support or accept à ¥Ã‚ ¤Ã‚ © their ideas. America is a county largely propagating democracy and freedom, therefore, the President is placed on a high obligation to make his decisions open to the public. It should not be taken for granted that once winning the election and taking oaths in the inaugural address, the president can rest easy and relax himself forever. Weekly address serves as a channel for American president to communicate with people, strengthen his power and establish his image. In the address, either for political, cultural or economic, the main aim for the president is to win public support and acceptance; thus language choice and communication skills are of high necessity in achieving political persuasion. Charteris-Black (2004) once cla imed that Choice of language in general and metaphor in particular is essential to politicians overall pervasiveness. (p.2). In other words, proper metaphors are of top priority in the well-formed radio addresses, which can not A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses only get the speeches running smoothly, but add color to the language and make it easily accepted by the audience. Barack Obama is the first black president in American history. So in order to consolidate his position, he should pay much more attention to strengthening his impression on people through public communication. The image of reliability, honesty, morality and integrity is essential to making sure his long-term success in politics. Taking the weekly addresses made by previous presidents into consideration, it is not difficult to confirm that metaphor is widely employed owing to its nature of vividness and persuasiveness. In addition, as a great art work of language, metaphor also contributes a lot to polishing President Obamas speeches so as to avoid the risks of directly noting something unpleasant. So the relationship between politics and metaphor is like fish and water, just as Thompson (1996) once asserted that politics without metaphors is like a fish without water (p.185). In a word, metaphor and politics are closely related in one way or another. Without metaphor, politicians may encounter a lot of obstacles and troubles in expressing their ideas to the people; without metaphor, the strength of the political address will fade; without metaphor, human language will only serve a role of delivering information. Take what Miller (1976) said as a summary, metaphor is essential to political inquiry, because it permits us to extend our knowledge from our familiar world to a region that is not open to immediate experienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Metaphor is necessary to political knowledge precisely because the meaning and reality of the political world transcends what is open to observation (p.457). Therefore, President Obama extensively applies metaphors in his weekly radio address in that they can help to explain complex political issues, and Obama in this way can persuade listeners to accept his ideas, and influence their interpretation as well. 1.2. Goal of the Study Metaphor and politics are closely connected with each other. Weekly Radio address is a typical platform for the president conveying his political views and winning supports from the public. In the address, American president employs various tips, metaphor in particular, to make his speeches more accessible and powerful. In the past years, scholars both at home and abroad have made great efforts to study English political speeches in line with pragmatics, stylistics, rhetoric and syntax. But little 2 Chapter 1 Introduction emphasis has been placed on analyzing President weekly radio address from the perspective of conceptual metaphor. Therefore the purpose of the present study is to further analyze it in terms of the metaphor. We are expected to solve such problems: What kinds of metaphors are frequently selected in President Obamas Weekly Radio Address? What are the roles of metaphors in Weekly Radio Address? How do metaphors reveal president Obamas ideology meaning? By discussing the above three aspects, the author intends to raise wider awareness of metaphors and finally comes to a conclusion that selection of metaphor is to satisfy or realize the purpose of the speakers, that is, identifying speaker with the whole audience. 1.3. Data and Method The data in this paper is all Weekly Radio Addresses delivered by the current American President Barack Obama in 2010, from January 2nd to December 25th. These speeches mostly focus on discussing the important issues at home and abroad, and they are all downloaded from VOA website. As the main purpose for this thesis is to analyze the radio addresses in terms of conceptual metaphor, identifying or selecting the metaphors out is of top priority in the process. With the development of linguistics and science, Gerard J. Steen and other ten linguists have introduced a five-step procedure for metaphor identification (2002b); they are 1) identification for metaphor focus; 2) identification of metaphor ideas; 3) identification of metaphor comparison; 4) identification of incomplete compositions; 5) identification of metaphor mapping. (Steen, 2002b, p.393). Therefore, based on their theory of metaphor identification as well as Lakoff and Johnsons conceptual metaphor theory, the researcher will first select the conceptual metaphors from the data, and then classify them in groups for further discussion. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the process of analysis, so that the conceptual metaphors, as well as their frequency and functions can be measured in details. 1.4. Organization of the Thesis In general, the thesis consists of three parts, introduction, body and conclusion. The 3 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses introduction is responsible for presenting the purpose and the macro-organization of the thesis. Some background information and the research tasks of the thesis are also included in this part. The body is the main part in the study, including four chapters. Chapter 2 first presents the history of metaphor study and then mainly focuses on exploring the conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, including its categorization, working mechanism and systematicity. It comes to a conclusion that metaphor is pervasive in our daily conversation, no longer restricted in poetry language as before. Therefore, political language is also full of conceptual metaphors deserving our consideration and study. Chapter 3 gives a brief introduction to the Weekly Radio Address, and also explains its features and functions according to the varieties of public speaking. Chapter 4 discusses research design and research procedures. Conceptual metaphors from the weekly radio addresses delivered by president Obama in 2010 will be singled out and classified for special analysis. Then based on quantitative and qualitative methods, their discourse functions as well as frequency will meet careful investigation. Chapter 5 as the last chapter of the body mainly discusses the basis and the purpose for applying conceptual metaphors in radio address. That is, why should the prepared radio address choose metaphors to fulfill its goals? At last, the conclusion part is a brief summary of the above five chapters and generally restates the findings of this study. Some limitations and future proposals are also mentioned for further research. 4 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis 2.1. Previous Studies on Metaphor 2.1.1. A Brief History of Metaphor No technical term or concept in linguistics as well as in any other science is born out of nothing. The notion of metaphor originates from the Greek word metapherein, meta means with or after (denoting sharing) and pherein means bring across. Although the researches on metaphor have a long history which can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle, a widely-accepted definition for metaphor has not come into being yet. In the era of Greek scholars like Aristotle, metaphor was only referred to here and there in the ocean of linguistic literature or poetry. At that period, western literacy, linguistics and critical traditions had been interested in the possibilities of differentiating between literal and figurative language. Aristotle, generally praised as a first thinker to elaborate the theory of metaphor, also classified language into rhetorical and common ones, and in his book Poetics (1951, p.71) he pointed out that Metaphor is the application of an alien name by transference either f rom genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy, that is, proportionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Analogy or proportion is when the second term is to the first as the fourth to the third. We may then use the fourth for the second, or the second for the fourth. Sometimes too we qualify the metaphor by adding the term to which the proper word is relative., which indicates that the greatest scholar here identified metaphor as a figure of speech, using the name of one thing to refer to the other. After that, his view on metaphor has been largely followed by rhetorical scholars who also regarded metaphor as a displacement or an extension of the meaning of words (Ricocur, 1978), or an implied comparison of two different things (Feng, 1983). In addition, they also emphasized that an eye for resemblance was essential in making a good metaphor, and metaphor itself could polish language, make language more charming and distinctive. Later on, another slightly different view on metaphor, known as substitution, was proposed by the ancient Rome rhetorician Quintilian. It mainly stated that metaphor was formed by using one expression to substitute another equivalent literal expression (Lin Shuwu, 1997, pp.11-19). Therefore, both Aristotle and Quintilian have limited metaphor 5 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses to lexical level, as a figure of speech no different from other rhetorical devices like synecdoche, metonymy and personification. But their main differences lie in that the former regarded resemblance or analogy as the essence of metaphor, while the latter shifted his attention to substitution or replacement. From 1930s to 1960s, a new view called Interactive Theory was put forward by Ivan A. Richards, one of the founders of modern, psychologically based literary criticism, to examine the metaphorical property of human beings mind and action and the structure of metaphor. He claimed that In the simplest formulation, when we use a metaphor we have two thoughts of different things active together and supported by a single word, or phrase, whose meaning is a resultant of their interaction(Richards, 1936, p.89). Therefore, according to Richards, when researchers are trying to find out how the language works, they are actually studying human beings mechanism of thought, emotion and other brain activities. Compared with the above mentioned two theories, Interactive Theory is much better and more authentic in that it no longer limits metaphor at lexical level, but shifts to the way of thinking. Whats more, Richards has widened the researching field of metaphor, not just in rhetorical or poetry d iscourse but in our daily language including science discourse. A new view of metaphor that challenged all these aspects of the powerful traditional theory in a coherent and systematical way was first developed by George Lakoff and Make Johnson in 1980 in their seminal study: Metaphors we live by. Their conception has become known as the the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson challenged the deeply trenched view of metaphor by claiming that 1) metaphor is a property of concept, and not of words; 2) the function of metaphor is to better understand certain concepts, not just some artistic or esthetical purposes; 3) metaphor is often not based on similarity; 4) metaphor is used effortlessly in everyday life by ordinary people, not just by special talented people; and 5) metaphor, far from being a superfluous though pleasing linguistics ornament, is an inevitable process of human thought and reasoning (1980, p.3). They have been convinced that metaphor is pervasive both in thought and everyday language. 2.1.2. Definition of Metaphor In terms of the several theories discussed above, it can be taken for granted that metaphor has witnessed a great revolution, from rhetorical devices at lexical level to 6 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis cognitive aspect as a way of thinking, and from poetry discourses to daily language. Its definition has also changed a lot: as in the ancient Greek, the word metaphor was defined as a novel or poetic linguistic expression where one or more words for a concept are used outside of its normal conventional meaning to express a similar concept; but since 1980s, the essence of metaphor has focused on cognition instead of comparison and the locus of metaphor is not in language at all, but in the way we conceptualize one mental domain in terms of another. Today, an increasing number of cognitive scientists, including cognitive linguists, are engaged in researches on metaphor. The reason is that metaphor study has extended to a much wider area, interrelating with human thought, understanding, and reasoning. Trying to understand metaphor, then, means attempting to understand a vital part of who we are and what kind of world we live in. So now one widely shared definition of metaphor is propose d by Lakoff and Johnson (1980): metaphor is not just a matter of language, that is, of mere words, but a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system; the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another; and metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action (pp.3-5). In addition, other scholars also put forward their ideas about metaphor. Metaphor is characterized by the conceptualization of one cognitive domain in terms of component more usually associated with another cognitive domain (Taylor, 1989, pp.132-133). Yu (1998) focuses on the mappings between the source domain between the target domain, stating that metaphor is a conceptual mapping from a source domain to a target domain with both ontological correspondence and epistemic correspondence entailed by the mapping (p.15). All the definitions indicate that metaphor is related to conceptual system and should be understood as a metaphorical concept. 2.2. Researches on Conceptual Metaphor In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or one conceptual domain, in terms of another. There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphor: one is source domain, referring to the one from which we draw metaphorical expressions; and the other is target domain, referring to the conceptual domain that we try to understand. For 7 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses example, in the metaphorical sentence ARGUMENT IS WAR, the word war is the source domain, while argument as the target domain; the concrete source domain is used here to better analyze the abstract target domain. Therefore, with the advent of cognitive linguistics, metaphor has witnessed a great revolution in getting access to the conceptual study. In this part, some researches on conceptual metaphor are to be discussed for the sake of theoretical basis. 2.2.1. Categorization of Conceptual Metaphor Influenced by Michael Reddys Conduit Metaphor Theory (Reddy, 1979, pp.284-310) (He put forward that language functions like a conduit, transferring thoughts bodily from one person to another), Lakoff and Johnson in their cognitive theory of metaphor subdivided conceptual metaphor into three categories: structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, and ontological metaphor (1980, pp.93-112). Structural metaphor refers to the type of conceptual metaphor in which a target domain is understood by reference to the structure of its source domain (Wang Yin, 2006, p.409). In terms of its definition, there are two components and two conditions that are essential to compose a structural metaphor. The source domain and the target domain are the two components that must be two different concepts, which satisfy the first condition. The second condition requires that the two unlike concepts should have something in common by which the structural metaphor adopts to illustrate and comprehend the concept of the target. Again take the expression ARGUMENT IS WAR for example: Conceptual metaphor: ARGUMENT IS WAR Linguistic analysis: Your claims are indefensible; His criticisms were right on target; I demolished his argument; Ive never won an argument with him; He attacked every weak point in my argument. (Wang Yin, 2006, 459) It can be seen from the example that the words like claims criticisms and argument used for describing argument can also collocate with such war-related words or expressions as indefensible on target demolished won and attached. So we can come to conclude that the concept ARGUMENT is metaphorically 8 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis constructed in terms of the concept WAR. Ontological metaphor is another evidence to show that metaphor is not only a phenomenon of language but also a means of thinking and behavior, which is pervasive in our daily life (Wang Yin, 2006, p.410). The source domain in ontological metaphor always refers to those familiar things or objects in our world, which can be seen and touched easily, so we can know its function and qualities at the first sight, then it contributes to the comprehension and cognition of the target which is regarded as non-material or supernatural experience. Take the following sentence as an example. ARGUMENTS ARE BUILDINGS. Obviously, buildings are the most familiar thing that we see and have a direct contact every day, so their special qualities, such as the appearance, the foundation, the thickness, the possibility of construction, repair, destroy, collapse, etc., can be physically perceived. Therefore, arguments are metaphorically described as buildings, implying that a successful argument is similar to a good building based on careful preparations, firm foundations, good working skills and so on. Otherwise, it will be defeated. In terms of the ontological metaphor: ARGUMENTS ARE BUILDINGS, there arise many expressions as follows. We need some facts or the argument will fail apart. We need to construct a strong argument for that. This is an argument, and it needs more foundation. If you dont support your argument with solid facts the whole thing will collapse. Orientational metaphor, also called the spatialization metaphor, refers to a series of conceptual metaphors structured according to spatial orientation such as up-down, in-out, front-back, left-right and central-peripheral (Wang Yin, 2006, p.410). The specialty of the orientational metaphors is that they are not used in arbitrary but in a fixed way based on peoples experience and culture, and their cognitive job is to give an ontological status to general categories of abstract target concepts. For example, Happy is up, sad is down. Im feeling up/down. You are in high spirits. He is really low these days. The above four sentences prove that we can understand and express our feelings in 9 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses terms of the simple spatial concept (like up and down), and the spatial concept itself is constructed from our experiences, that is, interactive with the physical environment. The physical words up down high and low here are no longer understood as the direction words as before, but used to explain and describe the non-physical phenomenon. 2.2.2. Working Mechanism of Conceptual Metaphor In the past years, different linguists have formed different understandings on the working mechanism of conceptual metaphor, such as Richard and Black interaction theory (1936), Lakoff and Johnsons mapping theory (1980) and Fauconniers conceptual blending theory (1996). Mapping theory will be singled out in this part for further discussion. According to Lakoff and Johnson, there are two cognitive domains in the conceptual metaphor, the source and the target, and its working mechanism is to map the experiences of the source domain onto the relatively abstract target domain. They also reinforced that metaphorical thought, in the form of cross-mappings is primary, metaphorical language is secondary (1999, p.123). Fauconnier inherited Lakoff and Johnson cross-domain mappings, claiming that mappings between domains are at the heart of the unique human cognitive faulty of producing, transferring and processing meaning (1997, p.1). Mapping theory is widely applied in illustrating how the two parts or domains can be identified with each other. Take LIFE IS A JONRNEY for example; figure 1 shows the corresponding conceptual mappings between the source domain JOURNEY and the target domain LIFE: Figure 2-1: Mapping Structure in LIFE IS A JONRNEY Source domain Journey Travelers Point of departure Distance Obstacles Destination Termination Target domain Life Common people Birth Process of life Difficulties Goals in life Death 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis 2.2.3. Systematicity of Conceptual Metaphor According to Lakoff and Johnson, metaphorical concept is systematic as metaphor is to understand one concept in terms of another (1980, p.12). Based on the above analysis of the expression ARGUMENT IS WAR, it can be seen that such war-related words as indefensible, on target, demolished, won and attacked are used in a systematic way to describe the battling aspects of an argument. The conceptual features of war are partially transferred to those of argument, adding much color and vividness to the abstract word ARGUMENT. The analysis of LIFE IS A JONRNEY put forward by Lakoff also proves that full clusters of semantically-related words (the italic parts) are sometimes used with related metaphorical meanings. It goes as follows: He got a head start in life. Hes without direction in his life. Im where I want to be in life. Im at a crossroad in life. Hell go places in life. Hes never let anyone in his way. Hes gone through a lot in life. (Lakoff, 1993, p.19) One aspect needs to be pointed out that the very systematicity allows people to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another but meanwhile it also hides other aspects of the concept. Just as the above mentioned, the conceptual features are just partially not totally transferred from one domain to another. Some other features especially those inconsistent ones are not selected out for cross-mappings. For instance, air battle, naval battle, radar-invading airplane, missile, field hospital and Military Area Command are all under the vocabulary of war, but they are not chosen here to systematically depict the feature of argument. 11 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses Chapter 3 Weekly Radio Addresses of the US Presidents 3.1. Introduction The Weekly Radio Address is the weekly discussion of current events in the United States by the President. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to deliver such radio addresses, and then in 1982, President Reagan revived the practice of delivering a weekly Saturday radio broadcast which is followed by all the other successors including President Barack Obama right now (Wikipedia). It is a typical and important kind of discourse, as in the speech, the President usually announces many newly-emerged domestic or international issues, attracting public attention and responses. The address embraces a lot of useful and fresh information, ranging from politics, economics, culture, education, military service, to health care, etc.. Since Barack Obama made his inaugural address on January 20th, 2009 as a new President in America, his weekly addresses have continued on the White House website, showing his concern on America as well as the whole world. So it can be taken for granted that the weekly address is of great necessity either for the President who can build up his public image, or for the American people who can in this way enhance their vigilance and take current problems into further consideration. 3.2. Varieties of Public Speaking The Weekly Radio Addresses made my U.S. president can be perceived as a sort of public speaking for the audience around the world. Therefore, the varieties of public speaking are necessary to be mentioned here to illustrate the features of Weekly Address. In accordance with their general purposes, speeches usually can be classified into four categories: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, and to stimulate. 3.2.1. Informative Speech Information or information transition plays an important role in the development process of human society. In the ancient time, people could not have developed themselves without sharing information or drawing on the experiences of others. In 12 Chapter 3 Weekly Radio Addresses of the US Presidents addition, people in the modern world often consider information as a kind of power, bringing a lot of physical property and mental legacy. One of the major purposes for human communication is to collect, exchange and share information with each other, and so is public speaking. As for this type of speech, the speaker is required to convey information, or in other words, to keep the audience informed of something important and teach them how to deal with it. For instance, President Obama once started his radio address with a matter of doctors pay cuts aiming to keep people informed of its real reason and effect: More than a decade ago, Congress set up a formula that governs how doctors get paid by the Medicare program. The intent was to slow the growth of Medicare costs, but the result was a formula that has proposed cutting payments for Americas doctors year after year after year. These are cuts that would not only jeopardize our physicians pay, but our seniors health care. Since 2003, Congress has acted to prevent these pay cuts from going into effect. These votes were largely bipartisan, and they succeeded when Democrats ran Congress and when Republicans ran Congress which was most of the time. (12th, June, 2010) The above paragraph is a typical example of informative speech in Obamas weekly radio addresses. Furthermore, in the process of delivering speech, such techniques as discussion, explanation, illustration and description are of great help in ensuring that the audience can bear what the speaker said in mind and then really put them into practice. 3.2.2. Persuasive Speech The purpose of this type of speech is to influence or change audiences attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings, etc. or to persuade them to take some action. In ancient Greek, a famous scholar, Aristotle in his book Rhetoric and Politics (1954) once pointed out a reasoning formula known as the syllogism, in which ethos, pathos and logos were identified as the three criteria for achieving a successful argumentative speech. Ethos means the persuasive appeal of ones character, especially how his character is established by means of the speech and discourse. It is a vital factor in determining whether the speech enjoys a persuasive power or not, as only an ethical and honest speaker could present a truthful argument and win the audiences approval. Pathos is 13 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses another communication technique and means persuading by appealing to the readers or listeners emotions. So in order to make the argument attractive enough, the speaker needs to have deep passion when delivering the speech. Logos stands for the appeal to reason. It is harder to argue against the argument built on reason and solid ground; and such arguments make the speaker look prepared and knowledgeable to the audience, which can in turn enhance the power of ethos. All the above mentioned three factors are of great necessity in improving the speakers persuasive ability when making a public speech. President Obamas radio address on 12th, June will be selected here once more for analysis: Im absolutely willing to take the difficult steps necessary to lower the cost of Medicare and put our budget on a more fiscally sustainable path. But Im not willing to do that by punishing hard-working physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare. Thats just wrong. And thats why in the short-term, Congress must act to prevent this pay cut to doctors. If they dont act, doctors will see a 21% cut in their Medicare payments this week. This week, doctors will start receiving these lower reimbursements from the Medicare program. That could lead them to stop participating in the Medicare program. And that could lead seniors to lose their doctors. (12th, June, 2010) In persuading Congress to draft a plan to prevent doctors pay cut, President Obama first defines himself as a man full of sympathy, love and considerateness by putting on the shoes of physicians and the millions of Americans, and then presents several reasons to consolidate his argument. So ethos, pathos and logos are all skillfully used in this persuasive part. 3.2.3. Entertaining Speech As the name suggests, this type of speech is just to bring some entertainment or amusement to the audience rather than to arouse any serious response. It is

drugs report :: essays research papers

My partner and I both currently attend courses on the sociology of drugs and youth and it was from these classes where we derived our question for this project. As these subjects were a shared interest we decided to focus our question on the drug habits of Stirling University students as we would have no access problems to a sample. Once our topic was decided apon the specific question ‘Have the drug habits of Stirling University third year students changed since coming to university’. Even though the report had to be done in pairs this did not necessarily make the task any easier. I thought there would be a major benefit in the fact that we could negotiate reading duties between the pair of us but it emerged that for a really successful project we would have to have as wide a knowledge of the subject as possible. Communication was paramount at all times as we wanted the report to flow as apiece and not appear to be obviously written by two separate people. I believe our communication with each other was a significant contributing factor to the success of our project. The fact that my partner and I share the same timetable at university was highly advantageous as we had ample opportunities to meet up and discuss any developments or problems that arose. The only significant conflict that arose between my partner and I concerned the questions in which to ask our respondents during our interview. We had contradicting views as to what questions should and should not be asked and also about the wording of the questions. After some deliberation and by conducting ‘mock’ interviews with each other equilibrium was reached. My personal progress throughout the report was aided considerably by the use of a research diary. This was used to chart any progress, queries, ideas or problems that occurred during the semester. The research diary assisted me by keeping a personal record to share with my partner whom also had a research diary filled with her own thoughts therefore ensuring we never forgot any information. Furthermore, the research diary was also used to record advice given to us by our tutor at class time and at personal meetings. The true benefit of the diary, though, emerged when we finally came round to writing up our report as we had a physical reminder of problems and self-criticisms that would otherwise have been forgotten.

Compensation Philosophy

The short term lending industry has been one of great scrutiny for many years. It has been well known the controversy of whether these businesses hurt or help the middle class. But what no one ever talks about are the employees that work in this industry. When these businesses are shut down state to state, it is not just the borrowers that are affected and left with no way to pay their bills, but also the lives and financial security of employees that are lost as well. Current Compensation Philosophy Advance America is a leader in the payday loan and short term lending industry. Let’s look at the compensation philosophy for different levels of employment, nonexempt hourly, non exempt salary and officers and executives. Nonexempt hourly employees are nonunion and are paid above market, nonexempt salaried employees are paid at market and officers and executives are paid above market. At Advance America, all employees that are center level managers and lower are hourly employees. The Average wage for center managers is between $10. 08 and $20. 73 per hour (www. payscale. com). The average wage for customer service representatives is between $7. 83 and $13. 91 per hour (www. ayscale. com). Advance America is not known for hiring part time employees due to scheduling. Advance America requires center level employees to be available from 8am-8pm everyday and provide their own reliable transportation (www. advanceamerica. net). The hourly employees have a variety of benefits, health, dental, vision, 401k, Paid time off, The next level of employment is the divisional and regional directors of operations. These employees are salaried and receive an average salary of $49,000 to $60,000 for Divisional Director and $118,000 to $126,000 for Regional Director (glassdoor. om). The executives, like many organizations, see the biggest increase in wage, CEO, John Patrick O’Shaughnessy for 2011, received a total compensation package of $2,992,791, $1,080,673 of which as core and bonus compensation (www. businessweek. com). Mr. O’Shaughnessy also received stock options, legally required benefits and discretionary benefits. â€Å"At the core of our compensation philosophy, our programs were designed to attract, motivate, reward, and retain managemen t talent in order to achieve increased stockholder value within a highly competitive industry. Our compensation philosophy was also focused on aligning the financial interests of management with our stockholders† (Advance America, SEC, 2012). Ways to Enhance Current Philosophy (Key Factors- Internal and External; mission and strategic focus, financial and cultural resources) The Primary principle of a well defined compensation philosophy is the objective of â€Å"compensation plans that enhance shareholder value† (Hodak, 2011). â€Å"The specific goals that satisfy this basic objective are essentially the same for every company:† (Hodak, 2011) 1. ) â€Å"To attract and retain the talent needed by the company to create value† (Hodak, 2011); 2. â€Å"To reward, and thereby motivate, that talent for sustainable value creation; and† (Hodak, 2011) 3. ) â€Å"To meet the company’s attraction and alignment objectives at the lowest reasonable cost to the shareholders† (Hodak, 2011). Advance America can meet these goals through conducting a strategic analysis and compensation survey (Martocchio, 2011). External key factors â€Å"include industry profile, information about competitors, and long-term growth prospects† (Martocchio, 2011). Internal key factors include â€Å"financial condition and functional capabilities† through marketing and human resources (Martocchio, 2011). All core compensation plans and bonus compensation plans are performance based (Advance America, SEC, 2012). â€Å"Compensation at all levels within Advance America is based primarily on a qualitative assessment of performance and long term variables, such as title and associated responsibilities, tenure with us, compliance with our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, maintaining regulatory compliance objectives, maintaining and upholding our commitment to responsible industry practices and customer satisfaction, and management’s assessment of market levels of ompensation. Our incentive programs had maximum incentive opportunities that were consistent with competitive market practices† (Advance America, SEC, 2012). Conclusion Advance America operates on a performance based commission and bonus plan structure. Advance America does not sell customer accounts or customer information to 3rd parties unless the account is severly overdue, because of this, the majority of ori ginated customer advances result in a performance based compensation. More specifically for the center level hourly employees, their performance based compensation is tied to the center volume for which to operate, this compensation results in their base pay and multiple bonus opportunities. This performance based compensation plan allows Advance America to attract, motivate, reward, and maintain valuable employees.

Ethics, Fraud, and Internal Audit at Ut Southwestern

There are many taxpayer supported medical schools in this country, most receiving their fees for services through Medicare and Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services requires that medical students who have graduated to the resident status have a teaching physician physically present when performing key portions of patient service to be able to bill those services to Medicare. In fact, the patient chart must be legibly signed by the attending physician that they were present and supervising the specific service in order to bill Medicare (â€Å"Guidenlines for teaching,† 2011).According to an article in the Dallas News, a former employee by the name of Jack Mooney was hired in 1991 by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as a reimbursement manager to make sure that all medical billings submitted to Medicare and Medicaid were properly documented and billed (Dunklin & Moffeit, 2010). For example, that the teaching physicians were physically present wh en residents were performing services to meeting the required mandates for Medicare billing. He discovered that was not the case and took the information to his supervisors.Stricter policies were put into place for the departments to follow to make sure that all employees were following the necessary guidelines. In 1997, when Mr. Mooney was the director of UT Southwestern’s billing compliance office, he was still seeing and documenting the same problems. Mooney left the college in 1998 shortly after filing a federal whistle-blower lawsuit. The earliest documentation that can be found of UT Southwestern’s Internal Audit departments involvement comes in a 2003 when they approve of some of the college’s compliance policies, but noted that they do not have a policy in place to review reimbursement claim documents.Dallas News notes that six faculty meetings were held during 2007 and 2008 in which billing concerns were discussed. The Internal Audit Annual Reports for those years do not report any ongoing audits, but do report that they provide the billing compliance committee â€Å"independent consultation and guidance to help billing compliance activities address institution risks† (Rubel, 2008). In 2010 we finally see an internal audit performed of UT Southwestern’s billing compliance programs. The report stated that â€Å"the audit identified a significant finding in the Hospital Billing Compliance program†.As of 2010, the program had not yet implemented the 2005 Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Supplemental Compliance Program Guidance for Hospitals. Although this guidance is voluntary, it is highly recommended by the OIG to help hospitals in â€Å"preventing the submission of erroneous claims and in combating fraud and abuse in the Federal health care programs (â€Å"OIG supplemental compliance†). The guidance specifically states that â€Å"hospitals should have in p lace procedures regarding resident rotation and monitoring†.The audit report recommends that the compliance program implement the OIG guidance, consolidation of the billing compliance groups (there are currently four), development of a single risk assessment plan with a corresponding audit plan, a monitoring system for both the risk assessment audit plan and the billing compliance audit report. Also of note in the audit report are repeated failures by the same department to meet billing practices. It is noted that these â€Å"recurring systematic failures increase the risk of exposure to potential civil damages and penalties, criminal sanctions, and administrative remedies, such as program exclusion†.The audit recommends that the failures be addressed at the department level and to develop a formal training plan to improve billing compliance. According to the report, all significant findings are tracked by the University of Texas System Audit Office to make sure that al l agreed upon recommendations have been implemented. These reports are unavailable for review and there has been no further comment on the billing compliance audit in the 2011 Internal Audit Annual Report. This issue was first brought to light 20 years ago by someone that was hired to review billing compliance.We know that 7 years ago the internal audit department was aware of the issue, but as far as we can tell, no significant audit of the hospitals billing department, in relation to Medicare billing requirements, was completed until 2010. Was the hospital fraudulently obtaining money from the government? Not in so far as anyone has determined. Was the audit department aware of the issue? Yes, as far as we can tell. Did the internal auditors follow the IIA’s mandatory guidance? Yes in the completion of the audit in 2010 but it is my personal opinion, given the facts provided, that the audit should have been ompleted years earlier. ?References Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2011). Guidenlines for teaching physicians, interns, and residents. Retrieved from website: http://www. cms. gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNProducts/downloads/gdelinesteachgresfctsht. pdf Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. (n. d. ). OIG supplemental compliance program guidance for hospitals (Vol. 70, No. 19). Retrieved from website: http://oig. hhs. gov/fraud/docs/complianceguidance/012705HospSupplementalGuidance. df Dunklin, R. , & Moffeit, M. (2010, May 30). Feds probe alleged fraud at ut southwestern, parkland. Dallas News. Retrieved from http://www. dallasnews. com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20100530-feds-probe-alleged-fraud-at-ut-southwestern-parkland-. ece Rubel, R. (2008, November 03). Internal audit annual report fiscal year 2008. Retrieved from http://www. utsouthwestern. edu/media/footer_required_documents/audit-2008. pdf Rubel, R. (2010, February 24). Billing compliance audit report. Retrieved from http://res. dallasnews. com/localnews/responsivedocs_audit_2010. pdf