TOW#13: Increase the Odds of Your Start-Up's Success

Successful business owner Vineet Nayar, who owns the billion-dollar business HCL Connect, wrote an article to inform small business owners on the steps necessary for survival in this economy. In his piece, “Increase the Odds of Your Start-Up’s Success” he discussed his business over time and the vital mindsets and actions for a business to develop. The first three paragraphs of the article was to describe the success of his start-up business which allows his audience to see him as a credible source that clearly knows what it takes to run a business. Once he developed respect and trust from his audience, Nayar listed out the five most important and essential aspects to running a prosperous company: create a purpose, prioritize employees, maintain flexibility, pay attention to timing, and empower all employees. By using this descriptive list set up, Nayar was able to approach the audience in a clear-cut way to have the greatest impact in a simple way. While simplified, each of the five points were sure to provide a depth description of exactly what he meant as well as why it is important. By including an in depth but not overwhelming list of necessities he encouraged the audience of small business owners by making success tangible. Had he included a long list of intense steps, small business owners would have feared the future of their business and possibly given up on their dream. Nayar does not sugarcoat business owning but he does not make it seem impossible to achieve success; he provides a nice balance of harsh reality and encouragement. In attempt to inform business owner on what it takes to be successful, I believe that he was able to achieve this. He made an obvious list of the steps necessary for success and was very clear in how to achieve each step, however he did not stray from the reality and difficulty of it. By being clear, realistic, and encouraging Nayar was able to achieve his purpose.

Article: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/increase-the-odds-of-your-startups-success/

Building Success
URL: http://linkedintobusiness.com/businesssuccessisgameofinches--i-248.asp

TOW#12: The Most Controversial Decision

Wilson D. Miscamble wrote the book The Most Controversial Decision after the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing in response to the revival of the worldwide controversy. So far, the book has simply recapped the entire development and decision making about the bombing to provide readers with a straightforward description of the events leading up to the bombing. Miscamble uses an extremely vast amount of renowned resources throughout the book; this is to demonstrate that there was an extensive amount of research done before the text was written. By providing multiple quotations for each page he allows the audience, intellectual adults interested in this controversy, to have faith in his credibility. Miscamble approaches the first section of the book with an unbiased tone, stating facts and integrating quotes without posing an agreement or disagreement with the decision of dropping atomic bombs in Japan. By maintaining an unbiased viewpoint he gains even more credibility with the audience. It is important in a research-based text to keep personal opinions form being incorporated into the piece because it eliminates the possibility of alienating the audience and leads to a more accurate description of what happened. It is through these educated and accurate portrayals of the events leading up to the dropping of the bombs that Miscamble achieves his purpose. Had he taken a biased and less factually based approach to the topic, the text about such a controversial topic would have been too controversial in and of itself leading it to be less impactful to the readers. Retelling such a huge topic must be strictly fact based, since he did this the audience is able to trust this text as a source of credible information providing a well-rounded view of the event. I am interested see how he uses this credibility to argue whether it was or was not a justifiable act, the next chapter is, “Necessary, But Was Is Right?” so I am assuming he will make an argument in this chapter.

Debris
URL: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm

TOW#11: "Too Much, Too Young"

David Whitebread, a developmental psychologist as the University of Cambridge, and Sue Bingham, an early childhood education consultant, recently wrote co-wrote the article, “Too Much, Too Young” in regards to the United Kingdom’s debate on whether schooling should begin at the age of two. In response, these two wrote this article to warn against the negative effects of early, formal education. They provided a large variety of statistics and the results of studies to support their reasoning, arguing that play-based learning at a young age is necessary for proper brain development. It allows children to gains linguistic skills as well as become more independent at an earlier age. Along with the personal effects of formal education at too young of an age, statistics support that countries that provide greater time for play-based education often have higher test scores when the children age, proving that the argument of trying to, “get ahead” does not work. School also causes a lot of stress; so forcing young children into formal education are exposing them exposed to stress at an early age, which can cause mental health problems. Whitebread and Bingham use vast amounts of facts to support their argument that young schooling negatively affects the children’s academic and emotional well-being. They are indirectly writing to the UK Minister of Education and the Office of Standards in Education to prevent the UK from lowering the age of formal schooling; they are also writing to inform parents of the dangers of putting excess pressure on young children and enrolling them in formal education style preschools. I believe that these purposes were achieved because they overwhelming amount of statistics and facts illustrate that Whitebread and Bingham both recognize and understand the opposing argument but have factual evidence to dispute other claims. By providing so much evidence they are proven to be extremely well-educated and trustworthy in these field giving the audience no reason to dismiss their points.

Article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029435.000-too-much-too-young-should-schooling-start-at-age-7.html#.UpyWrBY2mfQ

Advantages of Play
URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029435.000-too-much-too-young-should-schooling-start-at-age-7.html#.UpyWrBY2mfQ

TOW#10: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games has been a huge phenomenon for a few years now and earlier this week the second movie, The Hunger Game: Catching Fire, was released. Prior to the premier, many people were made aware of this movie through commercials and posters. In this particular poster, Jennifer Lawrence who stars in the movies as Katniss Everdeen is depicted with a bow and arrow, her famous weapon of choice.  The strength and power that she possesses in this poster shows that the battle that she won in the first movie is far from over. The overall plot to the second movie is a battle between the victors of previous Hunger Games, a fight to the death. Across the top it reads, “Remember Who the Enemy Is” to describe that this battle is not necessarily between the victors, but against the government who enforces these barbaric games. The title is printed in the largest font to draw attention, then the names of cast members so illustrate the high profile many of the actors have, and finally the “November 22” is written a bit larger and bolder then the cast to clearly show when the movie would be premiered. The purpose of this poster is to encourage people old enough to watch the violence included in the film to become aware of the movie’s release and plan to attend it. This poster was most likely created by a team of design artists to form a perfect balance of visual and practical appeal to make it as influential to the audience as possible. I believe that the people who developed this poster were able to influence their audience into attending the movie due to the vast amount of theaters that were full of a variety of people. The first movie was a huge hit and I predict that second and third one will as well.

Catching Fire
URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/11/20/review-the-hunger-games-catching-fire-is-just-too-ironic/

IRB#2: The Most Controversial Decision

For the second marking period I will be reading, The Most Controversial Decision, by Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C. This book is about the American decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in efforts to end World War II. In the text many different issues concerning the decision will be accounted for and extensive research will be used to defend Miscamble’s well-developed view on the controversy. The causes and effects will all be presented to give me full vast image of how Truman came to his decision and how it changed the lives of so many people. I came across this book when my older sister cam home from college. She is studying to become a high school history teacher so she often brings home many book such as this. Last year I wrote a two-part research paper for this topic where I had to both defend and criticize this action. Since I already know a lot on this topic I was interested in looking at other aspects I may have overlooked last year as well as gaining more knowledge concerning such a well-known topic. This book is much different from my normal genre choice so I am interested to see how Miscamble approaches such a controversial topic in his writing and style. The back of the book consists solely on reviews which all lead me to believe that this will be a well-developed and informative text so I look forward to seeing what he includes and whether or not a bias is presented. That is one particular aspect I plan on looking for because in a topic like this, it is difficult set aside one’s own opinion.

Atom Bombing Japan
URL: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/abomb.htm