Personal exercise plan swimming Essay Example for Free

Personal exercise plan swimming Essay What I enjoy doing: I enjoy swimming, playing squash, jogging, aerobics and power walking. What activities I already take part in: I play squash two or three times a week, and got to the gym, and in the spring I cycle with my friends. I also have bleep test/ fitness test once every two weeks. By improving my muscle strength and endurance it will mean that I am able to train for longer. Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of your heart to deliver oxygen to your muscles over a long period of time. This will build up my heart muscle and allow me to train for longer and cope with the pace of a longer game. By improving my agility it will my ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in a rapid succession in opposing directions. By improving my speed I will be able to get across the court in less time so my opponent has less time to react. Testing my Fitness Level I am going to use specific tests, which are associated with my sport. I will test how fit I am at the beginning of the six week session. I will test my cardiovascular endurance and my muscular endurance. I will use my aerobic system, anaerobic system and my power. All the tests I decide to do at the beginning of the six weeks, I will repeat again at the end of it so I can see how much my fitness level has improved by. Swimming (set 1) is a continuous training session. This program is mainly going to contain aerobic training with some focus on anaerobic training, to help improve sprint starts and finishes in the water, and my overall speed. Swimming (set 2) will include several types of ketchup to improve my technique. In the program I must ensure that I have enough rest periods to prevent build up of lactic acid or injury Each week is going to include one circuit session and a two swimming sessions. The exercises of the circuit will be performed in the same order that they are written down. This way, after working each muscle group it is then rested by working another group. The number of repetitions, not how long it takes to carry out one activity, will perform my circuit. An example of a circuit session would look like this: At the beginning I will complete a small warm up, jogging 15m, and then stretching from the neck working downwards. Station 1: arms raises using dumb bells (3kg). I will repeat this 15 times on each arm, it will strengthen the muscles in my arms making them more powerful, and making me swim faster. Increase by: 5 arm raises each time. Station 2: V sits. 16 times, strengthening my stomach muscles. Increase by: 3 more v-sits each time. Station 3: cycles with ankle weights, and dumb bells in hands. I will do 20 cycles. This will work my quads, abs, arms and hamstring muscles, making them stronger. Increase by: 4 cycles each time. Station 4: running on a crash mat, 50 steps, this will strengthen my quads and my cardiovascular system. Increase by: 5 steps each time. Station 5: the plank. Hold it for 40 seconds, rest for 40 seconds, and then repeat it three times. This will strengthen my stomach muscles. Increase by: repeat it an extra time each time. Station 6: arm circles, 60 times. Will strengthen arm muscles, making my pulls in my strokes stronger, making me go faster. Increased by: 4 arm circles each time. Station 7: lunges with weights (3kg), 20 lunges. Strengthen my legs, enabling my kicks to be more powerful. Increase by: 2 lunges each time. Station 8: medicine ball lifts with arms, 15 times. Strengthen my arm muscles. Increase by: 2 lifts each time. Station 9: skipping: 50 skips, improve my cardiovascular system. Increase by: 5 skips each time. Station 10: step ups, 50 times strengthening the muscles in my legs. Increase by: 3 step ups each time. Station 11: running 15m 6times, strengthening my cardiovascular system Increase by: 1 15m run each time. At the end of my circuit training session, I will stretch all of my muscles to prevent the build up of laic acid. When I do my circuit training sessions I will increase the amount of reps I carry out, the number that I increase them by is underlined at the bottom of each section. I need to increase the number of reps so that my body does not adjust to the exercise I am doing, and it keeps improving, and so my muscles become stronger.

Discrimination and Physical Appearance :: essays papers

Discrimination and Physical Appearance There are billions of people living in this world, and that is the most important reason why there is a discrimination. This discrimination occurs due to the difference of skin color, religion, language, and even culture. Back in my home country, there are two groups of people who always seem to discriminate one another. These two groups are the Indonesian natives and the Chinese. Since my skin color is very much different as compared to the Indonesian natives’ I could hardly make friends with them. This was mainly because I always thought that the Indonesians were low-class people just because they are poor; they worked as servants, street sweepers and labors. I believed that this thought applies to most of the other Chinese. The Chinese always think that they are much better off than then dark-skinned Indonesians because the Chinese hold the majority of the business throughout the whole Indonesia although the Chinese population is extremely small in Indonesia. Besides the difference in skin color, I used to think that I would never make friends with the natives because ninety nine percent of them were Moslems. I began to realize that I was absolutely wrong when I left my home country for Singapore to continue my further studies. There, I was very impressed how the Singaporeans, the Indians and the Malays get along together very well. There is even a racial harmony day held once a year. Since then, I started to treat my surrounding people equally regardless of their skin color, language, and religion. When I went back to Indonesia, I tried to make friends with the natives. I then realized that they were just the same as the Chinese. I felt very sorry whenever I thought of how I treated my servants and my other Indonesians so badly in the past. I should have treated the Indonesians well since the beginning because Indonesia does not belong to the Chinese; I was only a foreigner there.

Path Goal Theory Essay

I have chosen the movie â€Å" Miracle† as an illustration of an individual, Herb Brooks, fulfilling the parameters of Robert House’s Path-Goal Theory . There are events that one witnesses throughout one’s life that for various reasons leave an indelible imprint on one’s heart and soul. The unexpected victory of the US hockey over the heavily favored Russian team in the 1980 Olympic Games was one of those events. I was at a cocktail party and someone turned on the TV and soon the entire group was gathered around the set, small talk forgotten, as what has been described as the greatest sporting event of the 20th century unfolded. The country was still recovering from the negative effects of the Vietnam War, a weak Jimmy Carter presidency , and enduring a low point in national pride and optimism as Japan and Germany seemed to be gaining control of the world economy as our military dominance seemed to be slipping away. As the final buzzer rang and the â€Å" Do you believe in Miracles? â€Å" issued from the TV, you could feel the surge in national pride and optimism that swept through our little group and of course throughout the whole country. Herb Brooks supplies an extraordinary example of a positive example of Houses’ path -goal theory, which basically states that the leader’s, manager’s, or in this example the coach’s mission is to guide his subordinates to follow the best paths to reach their goals. According to the theory , the leader employs a variety of leadership behaviors( directive, achievement-oriented , participative, and supportive) to accomplish his mission. The theory also postulates that each behavior type was affected by contingency variables, environmental and follower characteristics. The movie afforded a clear picture of the flexibility required by a leader as he guides and inspires his group to achieve their common goal by successfully applying the following four diverse leadership behaviors: 1) Brooks employed directive path- goal leader behavior (â€Å"situations where the leader lets followers know what is expected of them and tells them how to perform their task†.-Wikipedia) throughout the majority of the film. After the tryouts Coach Brooks immediately sets the tone of his coaching regime by informing his assistant and eventually the Olympic Hockey advisory board that he would not consult either of them when deciding the make-up of the squad. He had basically done extensive homework  on all of the players, most of whom he was familiar with through his college experience. Brooks also makes it well known that he is â€Å"not looking for the best players but the right players.† This statement sets the tone for the rest of the movie. As a seasoned coach Brooks recognizes that the best path to success lies in building a real team, whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and clearly avoids choosing a dysfunctional dream team. This example also exemplifies the effect of an environmental contingency factor on leader behavior (directive) as Brooks recognizes and effectively chooses behavior that will deal with the formal authority system (Olympic hockey board) and allow him to im plement his coaching strategies without interference. A second example of Brook’s use of directive leadership techniques is demonstrated by his frequently asking the players , â€Å" Who do you play for?†. Early on in the film , they uniformly reply with the names of their college teams, demonstrating, as Brooks has recognized, that they are still a group of competitive young men and not a team. He continually challenges them, especially after a fight between former collegiate rivals , to start becoming a team and to depend upon â€Å"flow , passing , and creativity†-â€Å"Who do you play for?†. This example flows into the third example his strong directive leadership abilities when after an exhibition loss to the Swedish national team, he makes the players stay after the game to skate sprint drills. In between sprints he informs them that if they don’t want to work during the game, then they can work after it. He tells them that they don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone and that the name on the front of their jersey means a lot more than the one on the back. He repeats his message of win or loose, play like champions. Over and over Brooks shouts â€Å" Again â€Å", driving the players to exhaustion. He doesn’t stop, ignoring the pleas of his assistants, until the future team Captain, Mike Eruzione, states â€Å" I play for team USA. â€Å" Brooks lets them go and a turning point has been reached. They are finally becoming a team , one of destiny with a common purpose. This also is another example of Brooks employing directive leadership to reach a goal despite the effect of a subordinate contingency factor, locus of control. When the team first came together, they were group of highly competitive and independent group of young men hwho identified with their past institutions. Their locus of control was mainly internal and Brooks, with his concept of a cohesive tem, dependent  upon another and the coach for direction, gradually moving their locus of control toward a more external variety, â€Å" I play for team USA†. He has imposed his will on the team and he is now able to lea d direct them completion of their common goal. A third and clear example of directive leadership occurs during a session in the film room where he instructs the team on the tactics and strategy they will employ to be able to stay with the more individually talented Russians and eventually beat them late in the game .He tells them that they will be better conditioned than their adversaries and that they will attack instead of defending. This example also illustrates Brooks employment of Directive Leadership taking into consideration the effect s Of Environmental ( task structure)and Subordinate(Percieved ability) Con tingency Factors to enable the team to reach it’s ultimate goal. After the film session , Brooks has not only clarified the task structure but has defined the team’s perception of their abilities so that they are now gaining confidence that those abilities will be sufficient to achieve their goal. 2) Brooks also employed Achievement- Oriented Leadership (AOL) behavior(â€Å" situations where the leader sets challenging goals for followers, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to met this expectation.†-Wikipedia) throughout the film in various appropriate situations. The first occurrence takes place when Brooks gathers his newly chosen squad sets and sets lofty goals for the team. He tells them they are not just going to the Olympics to show but to legitimately compete. He reinforces their already apparent confidence of having already survived a rigorous tryout and warns them that only 20 names will appear on the final roster and that more of them will be going home. I believe Brooks’ choice of this leadership type behavior was influenced by a Subordinate contingency factor-Experience. Brooks correctly recognizes that his new team’s experience is limited when compared to the other international teams and that confidence in their abilities is an important cornerstone in the team foundation and that the moment called for Achievement – Oriented Leadership Behavior. Brooks has correctly identified that his squad would need to be superbly conditioned if they could hope to achieve one of their major goals-being  able to stay close to the more individually talented and experienced Russians and then outskate them at the end and secure victory. To achieve this announced goal of being the best conditioned team at the Olympic games , Brooks once again employs AOL as he challenges his highly competitive group of players to reach this goal with frequent conditioning drills. His slogan of â€Å" the legs feed the wolves† becomes almost a battle cry and is heard frequently throughout the film as he encourages the players to meet the high physical standards he has set as their goal. Once again Brooks has chosen a leadership behavior pattern(AOL) in consideration Subordinate contingency factor, perceived ability as he reinforces the team’s confidence as they see their abilities increase with their improved conditioning. In one of the most dramatic scenes in the movie which occurs in the locker room right before the big game with the Russians , Brooks once again demonstrates AOL behavior as he sets the final challenging goal of defeating the Russian team and shows his confidence in their abilities-â€Å"You were born to be hockey players† and sends a highly inspired and confident team out onto the ice . 3) An example Herb Brooks exhibiting Participative Leader behavior(â€Å" leaders consulting with followers and asking for their suggestions before making a decision.†-Wikipedia.) occurs when the coach is determining his various lines- groups of 3 players who play together and who substituted together in relief of other lines. He summons three players referred to as â€Å" The Coneheads† and instead of taking a directive approach , he takes a clear participative path as he involves the young men in the decision making process as he asks them if they would like playing together as a line and if they thought it was a good fit for them. The players agreed with Brooks and go on to be a very effective line. This shows Brooks once again choosing the correct leader behavior-participative- relative to an Environmental Contingency factor-work group-to achieve performance goals and group satisfaction. Brooks once again demonstrates participative leadership when well into the team’s development, he decides to add a new ,very talented college player to  the roster. On their own, 3 team members approach the coach and voice an opinion that this new player is not needed and should not take a roster spot of a player who has worked so hard to earn that spot. The coach argues that the new player is very talented and will help the team and asks why the 3 young men do not want him. They respond he is not â€Å"family â€Å". Brooks recognizes that he has achieved his goal of team and has clearly consulted with followers before making a final decision. 4) Coach Brooks also employs Supportive Leadership behavior ( â€Å" behavior directed toward the satisfaction of subordinate’s needs and preferences. The leader shows concern for the follower’s psychological well being.†- Wikipedia.) and his early interaction with goalie Jim Craig demonstrates this type of leadership behavior. Jim is an outstanding goalie whose play has been erratic since the recent death of his mother. Brooks knows that against the aggressive Russian team the goalie will play a deciding role. Jim had earlier refused to take a team test and had expected a tongue lashing from Brooks . Instead , Brooks , cognizant of the psychological aspects of the grieving process which are affecting Jim’s playing and his ability to fully commit emotionally to the team. In private sessions he recognizes and therefore validates Jim’s emotional issues. After the coach points out an erratic performance, Jim is benched and asks the coach is it because he didn’t take the test and Brooks replies, â€Å" No, I want that guy that wouldn’t take the test†. Jim is named the starter and against the Russians plays an outstanding game, turning back a deluge of shots on goal by the Russians. If the coach had chosen a harsher style, Jim may have very well shut down further and robbed the team of a valuable asset. Once again Brooks has chosen the right leadership behavior –Supportive- to bring out the best in his follower, enabling them both to reach a common goal. In doing so he had identified the relation between a subordinate contingency factor, locus of control, and the need for the proper leader behavior-Supportive-to achieve the goal. Jim was feeling isolated and distracted by his grief, leading to a more internal locus of control and Brooks was able to move him toward a more external perception involving the concept of team, discipline and conformity to leadership by employing that behavior style. In another demonstration of utilization of Supportive leadership, Brooks exhibits compassion and empathy when he drops Ralf Cox from the Olympic squad near the end of the training period. Since Brooks himself was in a similar situation, having been cut from the 1960 Olympic Hockey right before their run for the gold medal, he personally understands the psychological trauma after a rejection of this magnitude. He personally comforts and consoles Ralf and thanks him for his fine effort and tell him that he is a great player. This display of supportive leadership could not help but further strengthen the team’s belief in their coach’s leadership abilities and character. A final example of supportive leadership, occurs , when understanding the psychological and physical distress of the injured Jack O’Callahan, Brooks meets with him privately and assures him that he remains confident in his ability to perform and that he will not be , as Jack so desperately feared, be cut from the team. Jack goes on to heal and play an important role in the US victory, vindicating Brooks’ discision and use of supportive leadership. As presented, Herb Brooks clearly demonstrates in the movie â€Å"Miracle† the effective use of House’s Path-Goal Theory as he guides his team, the 1980 US hockey team on its historic journey toward the defeat of the supposed invincible Russian team and the winning of the gold medal. I doubt that Brooks was even aware of House’s work but, guided by experience and instinct he effectively employed the various leadership behaviors and the modifying effect of environmental and subordinate contingency factors to gain the trust and respect of his peers and his players, leading them to the ultimate prize. In doing so , Brooks demonstrates to all leaders the importance of flexibility in leadership techniques and of not only gaining the trust of one’s followers but the necessity of fostering trust between those followers. Part 2 The movie â€Å"Miracle† also illustrates examples of Victor Vroom’s Expectancy  Theory. As described in Robbins and Judge, pages 86-87, this a motivation theory which postulates there is a certain relationship between personal effort and outcomes and that employees and in our examples, team members, can be motivated to achieve favorable outcomes. ) Vroom describes three processes or links, 1) Effort –Performance , 2) Performance- Reward, and 3) Rewards-Personal Goals† and their relationships. In the first link ( Effort –Performance), the individual ascertains if effort will equate to performance. In the second link (Performance-Reward) , he or she determines whether there be a desired outcome following a good performance and in the third link (Rewards-Personal Goals) will those rewards satisfy my personal needs? I believe the following 3 players dynamically exhibited the 3 links or processes of Vroom’s Theory. 1)Jimmy Craig-A an extremely t alented goaltender who led Boston University to the 1978 NCAA Division 1 championship. Effort-Performance- Initially deemed the back up goalie, Jimmy makes it clear that he is only attending the try-outs because he promised his mother shortly before she passed away near the end of his college career to try out for the Olympic Team and win a gold medal.. After he makes the team, both Jimmy’s attitude and thus his effort increase throughout the early and middle parts of the film as he is shown practicing harder and engaging in extra drills to increase his hand eye co-ordination and conditioning. As these efforts pay off, his performance begins to improve as he obviously knew it would with increased effort, thus demonstrating the link between performance and effort. Performance – Reward- Recognizing his improved performance , Coach Brooks rewards Jimmy with the the starting goalie position which led to the further rewards of victories against the teams they needed to overcome in the 1980 Olympics . Against a veteran Russian team it was his outstanding perfor mance(36/39 saves) , especially late in the game , that preserved the US victory. Jimmy and the US team then went on to attain their ultimate reward-the Gold Medal. Reward-Personal Goals- These rewards were of course personally desirable as they led to the attainment of personal goals such as fulfilling his mother’s wishes and helping to improve his grieving father both emotionally and probably financial as the notoriety and exposure led to a professional Hockey career and eventually a successful long term profession as a motivational speake John J. â€Å" r, spokesperson, and marketing and sales strategist. 2) Michael  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Rizzo â€Å" Eruzione- Mike was a Boston University hockey standout who graduated several years earlier than his above teammates. He was described by his BU coach, Jack Parker as† Pete Rose on skates†-â€Å"Wikipedia†. Rizzo went to successfully play 2 years in the International Hockey League before trying out for the 1980 Olympic team. Effort-Performance- It is clearly apparent from the onset of the film, that Mike is a long shot to make the team and when he does , he is chosen last. It is also obvious that Rizzo is a natural leader as he is portrayed settling disputes between rival Minnasota and Boston players and is a critical factor in coalescing the group into an effective team, when as noted in part one is the player who shouts, â€Å" I play for team USA â€Å". He not only gives great effort in practice but also in his natural leadership and that led to success in performance in both areas Performance –Reward- Eruzione’s all around performance in rewarded by not only making the team but being appointed Team captain, a prestigious position. He is then further motivated to play to the limits of his ability and makes the winning shot against the Russians. He is the player that Coach Brooks was talking about when he stated â€Å" I don’t want the best players, I want the right players.† Reward-Personal Goals- Initially , recognizing his limited ability Rizzo’s personal goal was just to make the squad and continue to play hockey a little bit longer and he accomplished this and more, eventually winning a gold medal. It is obvious that his personal goals were different than many of his teammates whose personal goals were to go on and play professional hockey. I suspect he had other personal goals as he was able t o parlay his Olympic success into a rewarding business and TV careers. 3)John â€Å" Jack â€Å" O’Callahan – Another extremely talented college hockey standout who also played for and was Captain of the 1979 championship Boston University team. Effort-Performance- Jack was a highly competitive player who always gave 100% on the ice. He once stated in the movie that he had skated so hard he couldn’t feel his legs. He also had definite leader ship abilities and inspired his teammates to also go all out. His continued maximum effort lead to superior performance and a high scoring output. Performance – Reward- Jack’s outstanding performance led to rewards on several different levels. First, he was easily rewarded with a position on the team and granted significant playing time. Then, when he suffered a potentially season ending  knee injury during the exhibition game against the Russians, Coach Brooks rewarded him with a show of faith by keeping him on the team despite the fact he was not able to play the opening Olympic rounds. Jack was obviously highly motivated by this gesture and vigorously rehabbed and was able to return to play in the key game against the Russians, making a key play that led to a score that tied the game and eventually led to another reward –the Gold Medal. Reward - Personal Goals- When Herb Brooks stated in the locker room before the pivotal Russian game, â€Å" you were born to be Hockey players† one of the players that definitely fit that description was Jack. He exemplifies the Expectancy Theory by being able to convert the desired awards into fulfillment of his personal goal –to play professional hockey, playing 390 games in the NHL. I think this movie and the actual reality it depicts is an excellent example of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. This theory appears to be more applicable to sports than the workplace as there are clear and defined linkages between effort and performance and performance and reward. As compared to the average workplace , the endpoints of reward and personal goals can reach , as we know, extraordinary levels of financial success and notoriety.

Operations Business Report – Case Study: Qantas

Executive Summary Cantatas Is Australia largest domestic and International airline Cantatas was founded In the Queensland outback In 1920 and It began Its operations with one aircraft carrying mail and now it has expanded to 146 planes transporting people all over the world Cantatas' major influences they have to deal in today's market with include globalization, technology and the increased cost-based competition and the strategies that they have Implemented to meet these influences are outsourcing and a mix of established and leading edge technology .Competitive Advantage Cantatas, having two flying services (Cantatas and Starters) allows them to organism and book two aircrafts to serve the passenger to compete the competitive advantage more than others Cantatas established the frequent flyer program that different from other Lorene to make customer loyalty. Cantatas Is also In coalition with many local companies.Woolworth is the most known and the idea is to provide a competitive advantage to each other Cantatas is known for premium service so they incorporate Starters as a budget flight giving a competitive advantage, but also a cost advantage Cantatas is one of the worlds most recognizes and reputable brand, which gives them an opportunity to exploit their competitive advantage. 3. Operations Cantatas manages to sustain a competitive advantage In the market, predominantly due to how their operations function and how they manage It. 3. 1 – strategic Role of operations Cantatas has three different strategic roles of operations.These strategies that Cantatas has incorporated are cost leadership, differentiation and market focus Operations management within Cantatas includes scheduling, determining staffing levels and staff training and has demonstrated its ability to respond quickly to challenges and the success of rival low cost airlines Cantatas' operations are strategically important because most organizational activity comprises the day-to-day acti vities within the operation function Its strategy and operations go hand-in- hand and Is a key determinant of its ability to achieve long term success and ultimately, a competitive advantage within the marketThe influences and current operational responses by Cantatas include globalization, rapidly developing technology and increased cost-based competition Globalization has made Cantatas re-think about their operations as they need to not only keep up with constant fluctuations and how the world is responding to it, to sustain their competitive advantage.The responses from Cantatas regarding globalization include o launching new airlines in Asia due to the Asian century we are experiencing and o cost minimization to be more internationally competitive. The rapidly developing technology from Cantatas has allowed for operational processes to be a lot more efficient and effective. The changes have included o newer planes o new check ins o Q bag tags Due to the expanding market of aircr aft, it has resulted in an increased cost based competition.Cantatas has had to respond to these changes within the market and the responses from Cantatas include o outsourcing o online bookings o employing more labor saving techniques The influences that Cantatas has had to deal with has made them change a lot of heir operations but the way they have responded to it, has allowed them to sustain a competitive advantage 3. – Operations Processes The operations processes are classified into three separate groups, inputs, the transformation process and outputs Inputs are classified into sub groups, which are transformed and transforming resources This means, Cantatas focuses on food ingredients for their catering services, computers, labor, and capital. The transformation process are also classified into subgroups, which include volume, rarity, variation in demand and visibility (the four Vs..) and monitoring, controlling and improvement. In terms of the four vs.., Cantatas expe riences a predictable major increase in demand for the school holidays and other major events but also had to cope with major decreases such as the 9/1 1 bombings Monitoring and controlling at Cantatas involves taking corrective action and making new plans if necessary Customer service is Cantatas' major output and they continually focus on delivering the highest levels of customer service. They have recently adopted the â€Å"Net Promoter Score† as a key measure of customer service. The processes that Cantatas have implemented, how they identify peak times of the year and then deal with those situations has given them a competitive advantage over other businesses, which fail 3. 4 – Operations Strategies There are a number of strategies for improving operations at Cantatas and the two major strategies that Cantatas have implemented are outsourcing and technology Outsourcing is on the increase within Cantatas and currently, Cantatas outsourcer early all of its IT operat ions and some small call centre operations.The advantages that outsourcing has given Cantatas include saving in capital outlay, saving in labor and saving in cost Cantatas relies heavily on technology, but airline technology is complex and it is continually being advanced and updated. Cantatas was one of a number of airlines, who placed advance orders for the new Airbus AWAY, but they were opted to make sure they were not the airline to receive the very first ones asCantatas are all about quality for the customer Cantatas made sure that they could sustain their competitive advantage within the market by ensuring that they got leading edge and established technology that was well reviewed and started outsourcing the right things to keep the operations effective and efficient 4. Conclusion Through Cantatas' strategies they have adopted, the way they have changed and adapted to the influences within the market and the efficiency of the their processes, it has allowed for Cantatas to no t only gain a competitive advantage but sustain it as well

The Possessive Apostrophe

The Possessive Apostrophe The Possessive Apostrophe The Possessive Apostrophe By Daniel Scocco Its time to talk about being possessive. Sometimes possessiveness is good, sometimes its bad. However you look at it, if youre speaking English, then you will need an apostrophe to show who owns what. The apostrophe () is one of the most used and misused English punctuation marks. No one is ever quite sure where to put it. You can use it when things are left out (contractions), but its the possessiveness that causes the most trouble. The apostrophe is all about making a statement of ownership. You belong to me. This belongs to that. In grammar speak, the apostrophe shows the possessive of nouns. There are four ways to use the apostrophe to show ownership or belonging. 1. Add apostrophe s to the end of a singular noun that does not end in s: the managers room 2. Add apostrophe s to the end of a singular noun, even if it ends in s (this practice may vary in some places): Doriss scarf 3. Add apostrophe s to the end of a plural noun that doesnt end in s the childrens bag 4. If the plural noun ends in s, just add the apostrophe my friends car Notice that possessive pronouns like yours, his, hers, ours, its and theirs are not followed by the apostrophe. Finally, if you want to play around with it, Wikipedia has a list of four phrases illustrating how the apostrophe can literally change the meaning of sentences. my sisters friends investments (I have one sister and she has one friend.) my sisters friends investments (I have many sisters and they have many friends.) my sisters friends investments (I have many sisters and they have one friend.) my sisters friends investments (I have one sister and she has many friends.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings)Peace of Mind and A Piece of One's Mind20 Clipped Forms and Their Place (If Any) in Formal Writing

Pied Beauty essays

Pied Beauty essays In the poem Pied Beauty, the theme of God and his creations or nature is manifested throughout. It is a hymn that praises God for all of the colorful and diverse things in nature. The poem opens with an offering, Glory be to God for dappled things. It then continues in the next five lines giving examples of which things he means to include under the subject of dappled. The definition of the word dappled is spotted or dotted and in this poem relates to the earth or nature. The poet includes the patterned white and blue colors of the sky, the brinded or streaked hide of a cow, and the patches of contrasting color on a trout. The chestnuts offer a more complex image that is compared to the coals in a fire, black on the outside and glowing within. When chestnuts fall, they reveal their meaty insides normally concealed by its hard shell. Next, the wings of finches are multicolored, as is like a patchwork of farmland in which sections look different according to whether they are planted and green or freshly plowed. The final example is of the trades and activities of man, with their rich diversity of materials and equipment. In the final five lines, the poem gives characteristics or qualities of the examples earlier. It becomes an apology for the things that are negative or strange; things that might not normally be valued or thought beautiful. Ultimately, they are all creations of God and the poem ends by saying praise him. The poem is a hymn of creation and could be applied in a literal sense as a message to the world. God is the creator of all things both good and ugly and we must recognize His variety and creative power in the natural world and then thank him for the diversity. The world and life itself would be mastered easily if we didnt have diversity or choices making our life a color wheel or pie beaut ...

How CoSchedule Uses Marketing Collaboration Software

How Uses Marketing Collaboration Software The content marketers at get asked a lot about how we really manage our projects and work together to create our content. So I was humbled when a guest blogger of ours recently  shared a bit about his experience working with our marketing team: The amount of preparation done for a post and the superb coordination of their team members taught us a lot on improving our own process. Meeting their high expectations are quite tough, but we are truly honored to have the opportunity to learn from among the best in the business! Since itself is a marketing collaboration software that takes the form of an editorial calendar, I guess it makes sense that youd like to know how our  process actually works. I can tell you from experience that the tool is different than normal collaboration software because its designed by marketers to help marketers do what they do better than ever. How Creates Better Content With Marketing Collaboration SoftwareAnd because of that,  we see ourselves- the marketing team here at - as role models for the planning and process behind successful content marketing and social media. So I thought youd find it  interesting to get a behind-the-scenes peek into how we  exactly: Plan less content  that creates bigger results. Use our own tool to collaborate  super efficiently. Developed a process  that  helped us generate 852,506 page views and 7,375 email subscribers just last month. Sound like fun? Judging by the  cheers Im hearing in my head,  I thought so. :) 1. Start By Scheduling A Content  Planning Meeting Even for a tech company, its nice to get together as a team to collaborate on solving a problem in person. For us, this is one of the best ways for the entire team to  come up with creative ideas that will help us reach our 10x growth goals. You see, as  the content marketing lead, it would be easy for me to come up with every content marketing  idea all by myself and tell the team to execute them. But there is a lot more value when  the team develops those  ideas because they take ownership in the entire blogs success- not just their own content. Build a culture focused on growth. #blogging #teamworkAnd a  content planning meeting is a perfect setting for the kind of team collaboration that builds a culture focused on growth. Heres why: I know the kinds of content we publish that produce big results. So a content planning meeting is a way for me to teach the team about those details so they incorporate them into their own ideas and content creation. Every person on the team comes to the table with diverse backgrounds and ideas. This exercise is a great way to sift through everyones thoughts equally while evaluating  every idea according to our audiences preferences. That helps us choose to create really good content while consistently reminding our team of who our audience is and what they expect from content. Its a fun exercise that gets all of us up and away from our computer screens for a bit while connecting with each other. And when you have fun while you work, it feels less like work and more like something you love to do. This is how we do it: The 20-Minute Brainstorm Frenzy Some say theres nothing worse than group brainstorming if youre looking for innovative ideas. Then again, brainstorming by yourself will  only give you ideas limited to your own background. So the first  phase of our content planning meeting focuses first on individual contributions to eliminate groupthink. And its super easy: Give everyone on the team a stack of Post-It notes. Ask everyone to write down as many thoughts as they can without holding anything back. Set a timer for 20 minutes (I often use my phone for this). Go. At this point, its just fun to see the team writing down tons of ideas, working super fast, and wracking their brains for the ultimate best ideas. Theres usually coffee (lots of coffee), laughs, and then dead silence as  they get serious about finding better ideas that will really make a difference. The 40-Minute Grading  Process By this point, we probably have close to- if not more than- 100 or so ideas. The truth? We wouldnt publish 90% of them because theyre just not  quite right for our audience. And thats just fine because its during this grading process that the team  chooses which content  to publish and which ideas to  toss. Allow your team to choose which #contentideas to publish and which to toss. #contentmarketingHeres how we do it: Each person  posts all of their Post-It notes on a wall. Then  on a marker board next to the notes, I write 1 | 2 | 3 , which is our grading scale for the ideas. An idea is a 3 if its the best thing ever, while a 1 is not so good. To grade the ideas, I ask the team a couple simple questions: Is  this a topic our readers would be deeply interested in learning more about?  How similar is this to our other top content? An idea is a 3 if we answer  definitively, yes, this is  something our audience would find uniquely valuable that is better than anything else they could find on the Internet for this topic. An idea is a 2 if  the idea  doesnt fit the qualification of a 3. An idea is a 1 if  its not something we think our audience would look to us to publish. It could still be a good guest post idea. Then we read off each idea one by one while every  team member grades the topic from 1 to 3. From there, we simply post the ideas  below the  corresponding  numbers on the  marker board. Heres the outcome from a planning meeting with a bunch of 3 content ideas. A Mistake I Made That You Can Avoid: Until recently, Id have the team shout off their answers: Thats a 3, definitely! I agree, 3. Uh, yeah, lets go with 3 on that. I noticed that once the first person spat off their answer, the rest of the team was very likely to say the exact same answer. I found out later this happened  because of  social conformity, a psychological principle that  was discovered decades ago: So The Takeaway Is This: When you do this exercise, read off the ideas, then have each individual write down their grade of  1, 2, or 3  on a new Post-It note. Have them show their individual notes all at the same time for each idea, then categorize the idea as a collective 1, 2, or 3.After this process,  we only explore the best ideas- those graded as 3- for content  that well actually publish. 2. Add That Content To Your Editorial Calendar Where the planning meeting sets the collaborative tone, the editorial calendar in is where the software helps us actually plan and create the content as a team. The planning meeting sets the tone and the editorial calendar helps you  plan content #bloggingFirst, we vet the best ideas for keywords, further narrowing our scope of potential content we will  create. Recommended Reading:  How To Make An SEO Content Strategy That Will Improve Your #1–3 Results By 248% Then, we add the ideas  onto the calendar,  naming the blog posts by their keywords and assigning them to their author. We consistently publish two posts every week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Heres why. Once all of the new blog posts are on the calendar, its easy to see which authors might have a bit too much on their plates in a given week. From there, we simply  drag and drop blog posts around until we feel 100% satisfied that the publishing schedule is realistically doable for every person on the team. Asking a content marketer to write two robust posts for a single week isnt very realistic for us. So these posts could flip-flop to make this a doable content schedule. Then we use comments to add in any notes from the planning meeting- including the original idea- so the author has a clear idea of where  to start with a blog outline. We use comments in to communicate the main idea from the planning meeting. This way, we leave lots of creative room to use the keyword in the blog post title while still covering the original idea we thought would be successful. 3. Define Your  Content Process Our content development  process  is ever-changing, and we just gave it a major overhaul recently to: Add a couple more  tasks into our process to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Clearly define what done means for each task to keep everyone accountable for their responsibilities. Track how soon we should start working through blog posts to hit every deadline, every time. There were lots of benefits for us to get  organized in this way, so we started very simply by asking ourselves: What are all the steps we need to do to publish a blog post? We brainstormed all of the steps, then  simply put them in chronological order  the best that we could to help us know what to do from  beginning to end. One  collaboration software tool  we use all the time as a team is Evernote because no matter where anyone is- or if theyre online or offline- they have access to the information they need to do their work. And, it just so happens, Evernote integrates really nicely into . Anyway, this is what that process looked like as we worked through it in its rough format using Evernote: Heres a rough look at our first pass at the steps we needed to do to write and publish our content. From there, we had enough  information to understand which steps  we could group together into a cleaner, condensed workflow. And when we did that, it was easy to understand who on the team would be the best fit to complete those tasks according to their individual interests and skills. We refined the steps in the workflow and created notes in Evernote to define what done means for each task. The only thing left to do was to define when we should complete each  task to work far enough ahead to nail every deadline and assign it. This simple exercise  gave us exactly what we needed to build the  task template we manage using for all new blog posts we write. It gave us  a solid definition of what to do for each task. Before anyone who is accountable for a task marks it as complete in , they would first ask themselves if they truly completed the task according to the definition of done. Assign tasks and due dates to everyone on your team with task templates in . Now we know to start writing our blog posts a month before they publish to make sure we have several posts 100% ready to publish on the calendar at any time. We know content that is complete and published is white, and we can see which content is complete by not yet published because its yellow and labeled 100% ready to rock. Since weve done this, we pay more attention to the details that make a difference toward our goals, everyone understands their roles to  know  exactly  what to do, and we work more efficiently while producing better content. 4.  Create The Content According To Your Workflow Ill be the first to say that our  workflow- or the task template we built in - looked magical. If we could seriously create content that way with every task checked off on time and in that specific order, wed be crushing it. But that wasnt always the case. Especially as we got started with the  new process because  we had to take a little time to learn. rocks  a task-based workflow that helps the team keep each other accountable. #bloggingAnd that was OK because our editorial calendar had our back. Let me explain. Traditional workflow and project management tools operate in phases. When someone does step 1, then someone else can do step 2. We all know that doesnt  work 100% of the time. So rocks  a task-based workflow that helps the team keep each other accountable for hitting deadlines. Let me explain how this happens: emails you the day before you have a task due on the calendar and you can see a dashboard of the tasks youre responsible for completing today and into the future. So everyone knows what they need to do. When you get into the office  in the morning and you see that the person before you hasnt gotten through their work, you can chat with them about the game plan for the day to get back on track. You can communicate with everyone who has a task assigned to them in a  specific piece of content  right in with a comment.  That way, everyone can see the progress the team is making on the project. When  you can move on to complete your task- even if the task one step before  isnt quite done- you can still do that and check it off your to-do list. Thats a lot of power for team collaboration. And while being behind is a rarity, this sort of communication may be necessary at first when youre implementing a brand new process with your team. We use the dashboard in to track a daily to-do list and collaborate with improved team communication. No more endless emails! Here are a few lessons I learned along the way that you may find useful: Help your team moderate themselves more than you intervening into their process. The more  they define the process, the more theyll stick to it. Dont expect perfection because its unachievable. Demand excellence and make that the expectation. When you set an expectation, make it a standard and stick to it. The second your team sees your standards are flexible is the moment those are just  guidelines. What Do You Want In Your  Marketing Collaboration Software? I like to joke a lot that Im a content marketer who  uses content marketing to market a content marketing tool. While thats funny, its absolutely true. And I wouldnt be able to love what I do if I didnt believe the team behind   tries harder than anyone else to give marketers like us exactly what we need to boost our  efficiency. Naturally, the content marketing team at gravitates toward an editorial calendar as our preferred marketing collaboration software. as a tool helps us collaborate, communicate, create, and promote our content super efficiently. Get your 14-day free trial of to: Get more organized than ever: With a little thought into your blog publishing schedule, workflow, and  social media promotion, will help you  shave hours off your to-do list. Find time to create more effective content: You tell us a lot that youre too busy to even find time to create content. Let manage the mechanics behind  team collaboration and social media promotion so you can use that time to create even better content. Manage a happier marketing team: Forget endless emails, miscommunication, and missed steps in your workflow. is a marketing tool designed by marketers to eliminate the inefficiencies that hold you back from  publishing awesome content. I hope youll join us. And, as always, let me know what you think when you get started with . ;)