How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Product Page in 4 Simple Steps

While theres a lot that goes into making your eCommerce store successful, each products WooCommerce product page is the make or break spot where you either get your customer to add a product to their cart or they move onto something else.After all, if you want to make a lot of sales, you need to do more than just make your products available. You also have to convince people to take a chance on them. This means creating persuasive product pages, that show off what you have to offer in the best possible light.In this guide, we’re going to walk you through the process of optimizing a WooCommerce product page by focusing on improving a products name, description, images, and attributes/variations. widgets youre using, it also might make an appearance in your stores sidebar or footer.To make your products name as effective as possible, it should:Clearly describe what the item is and what it can do.Include a primary keyword  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ relevant to the product if possible – t o help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Usually, this happens naturally as a result of the first tip.Remain as concise as possible, given the above two considerations.To illustrate the point, here’s a type of product name you’ll often find on Amazon and similar stores:Its certainly descriptive, although far too lengthy and convoluted, and it’s an example of keyword stuffing. While you should use a keyword or two, your titles should also be clear and easily-readable to the human eye.On the other hand, this product name gets the job done:It’s clear, concise, and tells you whats most important about the product. Plus, the keyword is worked into the title in an unobtrusive and human-friendly way.Step 2: Write a compelling product descriptionWith your product’s title, it’s best to avoid the temptation to get creative. However, your WooCommerce product page description is also where you get to ‘sell’ the item to your potential c ustomers.There are actually two descriptions on a WooCommerce product page. The full description is created using the default WordPress editor underneath the product name, and will be displayed on the product’s individual page:On the other hand, the ‘product short description’ is a brief summary of the item. Think of it kind of like an excerpt for your product. Some WooCommerce themes show this on the shop page:Beyond sometimes appearing on the shop page, most WooCommerce themes also show both the short and long description on the individual product page.  You can see the difference between the two on the example product page below:Product long descriptionYour approach to writing these two descriptions will naturally differ. You’re best off creating the full description first. This can be as long and detailed as you’d like, but keep the following tips in mind as you’re writing it:Include the most important information first. Especially if y our description is long, customers may not read (or skim) to the end. Therefore, the vital details they need to make a purchasing decision should be included early on.Provide your description with a clear structure. Instead of just writing a wall of text about the product, break up different types of information into unique sections. For example, you could start with a few sentences of description, followed by a bulleted list of features, with additional sections for technical specs or any other relevant details.Make it clear to potential customers how the product will benefit them. Think about the product from a user’s perspective. How will it make their life easier, simplify an important task, or otherwise fulfill an unmet need?Product short descriptionOnce you’re done with the full description, you can select the most vital elements to include in the Product short description. You’ll find this field underneath the WordPress editor:As the name suggests, itâ₠¬â„¢s best to keep this description brief and to the point. Because of how most WooCommerce themes position this description, its basically the hook to get customers to keep reading the long description.Highlight the product’s key attributes, and focus on its benefits to your audience. Dont get too detailed you can leave the nitty-gritty stuff to the long description.Finally, just as with your product title, it can be smart to work a few carefully-chosen keywords into both of these descriptions. Just make sure you’re incorporating them naturally and only where relevant. While optimizing your WooCommerce product page for search engines is important, ensuring it’s easy and smooth for humans to read comes first.Step 3: Include plenty of high-quality product imagesYou’re probably well aware that imagery is often much more persuasive than text. This is especially pertinent when it comes to making a purchase online. Few people will commit to buying a product t hey’ve never seen an image of, and what the item looks like almost always has an effect on their final decision.Therefore, including at least one image on each WooCommerce product page is vital:You can do this by selecting Product image from the right-hand menu in the editor, and uploading an image to your Media Library:Of course, not just any image will do. Your product’s featured image should be:High quality: A low-resolution, poorly-lit, or unprofessional photo is hardly a persuasive argument to buy.A decent size: Small images don’t offer much detail, so you’re better off uploading a larger image and scaling it down where necessary.Original: Even if your product isn’t unique (i.e., other sellers are offering the exact same item), taking and displaying your own images comes across as more trustworthy and professional than using a stock photo.Use product galleries, tooIn most cases, you won’t want to stop at just one image. For all but the simplest of items, it’s best to include a variety of product images. You can show the product from multiple perspectives, display examples of its variations, and provide shots of any accessories it might come with:Another smart move is to add one or more pictures showing the product in use. This helps potential customers get a better feel for how the item might fit into their daily lives:On your WooCommerce product page, you can use the Product gallery section in the sidebar to upload as many images as you’d like. They’ll all be displayed near the main product photo. The exact setup of these images will vary depending on the theme you’re using, but most will look something like this:Taking your time to add plenty of high-quality, representative images of your product is one of the best ways to convince visitors to make a purchase.Step 4: Add attributes and/or variations to your productLast but not least, let’s talk about two WooCommerce features to help you more clearly describe your products   attributes and variations.  For many products, using these two features appropriately can make for a better product page.WooCommerce product attributesIf you check out the Product data section underneath the WordPress editor, you’ll find a tab called Attributes. This is where you can add key descriptive terms to help describe your product’s characteristics:These attributes might include the product’s color, the material it’s made from, its size, and so on. Once you’ve added and saved a custom attribute, it displays in the Additional Information area of your WooCommerce product page. It will have the same style as  product dimensions (which you can set in the  Shipping tab):This is a clearer way of immediately displaying this information to potential customers than merely listing it in the product description. Plus, showcasing each product’s key attributes this way makes it easier for cu stomers to search for items with the exact characteristics they want.WooCommerce product variationsYou can add attributes to just about any product. Variations, on the other hand, are only relevant in certain cases – but are still useful:Variations are actually based on attributes. The difference is that attributes just provide more information, while you can use variations to let shoppers purchase different versions of a product.For example, you can let shoppers choose the color of a t-shirt rather than creating separate product pages for each color. Common examples of when to use variations are things like:Size e.g. a t-shirt that comes in small, medium, large, etc.Color e.g. a t-shirt that comes in red or blue.Weight e.g. coffee that you sell in 8 oz, 16 oz, and 32 oz bags.Etc.To add variations to an item, you’ll first need to select Variable product from the drop-down menu in the Product data section. Then, you can follow a few simple steps to add and save as ma ny variations as you’d like. Once you’re done, you’ll see them displayed on the product page:When applicable, using variations is important because it makes it easy for customers to pick the exact item they want without requiring you to create lots of separate items. For example, if you create separate product listings for each size of a t-shirt that you sell, that would be confusing. By using variations, shoppers can much more easily find the exact product that they want.ConclusionOne of WooCommerce’s main selling points is how easy it is to use. You can create a store and list your first few products in under an hour. However, if you want to see results, you’ll need to take your time with the process.While there’s a lot of information you can add to a WooCommerce product page, these are the four most important optimizations you’ll want to address:Create a clear and descriptive product name.Write a compelling product description.Incl ude plenty of high-quality product images.Add attributes to help describe your product. And if necessary, consider using those attributes to create separate product variations that shoppers can purchase.Do you have any questions about how to create an effective WooCommerce product page that drives sales? Let us know in the comments section below! Learn how to optimize individual #product pages at your #WooCommerce store

How to Write a Sociology Term Paper Detailed Guide

How to Write a Sociology Term Paper Detailed Guide Need advice on how to cope with a sociology term paper? Sociology term papers are assigned to students who take sociology classes with a purpose to evaluate their performance and develop their understanding of a topic. You should approach these assignments seriously because when you practice writing, you also practice thinking in a more rigorous and profound way. You will learn not only to summarize a text but perform such complicated tasks as analyzing the text as well as evaluating and applying it. Are you thinking that sociology term paper writing is too challenging for you? Writing is just a skill and, like any other skills, it can be learned through hard work and practice. In this easy writing guide on how to write a sociology term paper, you will find effective tricks and tips that will help you organize the writing process. We will also provide details on planning, outlining, editing, rewriting etc. Be patient, use our guide to practice a lot, and you are sure to notice improvements in your work. What Is a Sociology Term Paper? A sociology term paper is actually an extended essay based on the argument for your thesis. There are 4 types of sociology term papers that are typically assigned to college students: The general research paper where you have to collect data through library research. Its goal is to improve the thesis statement and gather information to support it; The quantitative research paper where you need to collect data according to specific techniques of collecting and analyzing data. Its goal is to provide an answer to a sociological question; The ethnographic field paper where you need to generate data from observing and social interactions with people in their typical social environments; The textual analysis paper where you need to analyze some texts or books. The sociology term paper is typically written in a form of a research report that consists of the following sections: Abstract Introduction Literature Review Methodology Results/Findings Discussion/Conclusion References Sociology term papers are typically formatted using APA or ASA citation styles. You can use a variety of resources from: from discipline-specific databases, for example, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences; subject-specific databases where you can get access to the most common scientific journals; general interests databases that offer a wide range of materials. Since sociology is actually an empirical discipline, you have to base conclusions of your term paper on the relevant evidence that is documented and gathered from collected experiences and cases. To make your claims convincing, you need systematic evidence. When doing research and reading, you can use different types of evidence from primary and secondary sources to support your thesis, for example, newspapers, scholarly journals, books, observations, interviews, surveys, questionnaires etc. All evidence can be subdivided into 2 groups: Quantitative data is used for studying social processes at a large scale, for example, changes in social attitudes, population changes, income inequality etc. it comes from censuses, surveys, and statistics. Qualitative data comes from data and texts, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and the researcher’s own reactions and impressions. Such data can give insight into how different people find certain meaning in their world. How to Choose Good Sociology Essay Topics: Advice from Our Writers The first step in writing a sociology term paper is to choose a topic. You are likely to have some broad interests in sociology but your task is to develop a specific research question. Here are some tips for choosing a successful sociology research paper topic. Select a topic that you are genuinely interested in. You will enjoy doing research and writing and your readers will appreciate your passion when reading your paper; Use your volunteer or civic engagement experience as an inspiration. You can combine your academic and personal interests to stay engaged on the topic; Pay attention to hot topics that are debated on social media or news outlets. Find questions that need answering now; Use this chance to do something new to you. Find a topic that is unfamiliar to you and challenge yourself; Look for current or past research topics in the top journals in the discipline. After you have chosen a topic for your research, you have to turn it into a narrower research question. It is a specific problem that can be addressed with empirical data. You should use brainstorming techniques to find some narrow slices in your broad topic. After you’ve found some narrower topics, you should start developing to your research question which should be very specific. Here is an example of how you can do that. If your topic is â€Å"Media and Beauty†, you can brainstorm such sub-topics as Asian, white, and black portrayals of ideal body types; Why are media using super-skinny models? Your research question can be formulated like this: Can ethnic differences in women’s conceptions of â€Å"ideal body types† be influenced by the ways they are marketed in the media targeted to certain racial/ethnic groups? If you are new to sociology studies, you may be at a loss how to choose a good research paper topic. Have a look at a short list of interesting sociology research paper topics ideas. Human Rights Movement Gender Stereotypes at a Workplace How is Homosexuality Portrayed in the Media? What Messages Are Promoted in Hip-hop Music? Cyberbullying in Social Media What Causes Childhood Obesity? Celebrities on Social Media What Features Make a Patriot? How Does Race Affect Educational Levels? Gender and Sexuality in the Contemporary Society Compare Typical Users of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram How Is Food Advertised in the Media? Wages and Taxes in Modern Society Parenting Styles Of Different Classes Can Money Buy People Happiness? Viking Legends Single Parenting Are Wealthy People Less Ethical? What Is More Important for Success: Intelligence or Beauty? Escapism Through Virtual Reality How to Choose Methodology to Answer Your Research Question When you have chosen your research question, you need to decide how you will answer it. The choice of the right sociology research methods will depend on what you want to say. All sociology methods are divided into qualitative (ethnography, interview, participant observation) and quantitative (statistical analysis of some numeric data). Besides, sociologists use historical or archival methods and content analysis and, in some cases, experimental approaches. Quantitative methods are used to identify relationships and patterns among certain characteristics and outcomes of large groups of people. Qualitative methods are applied to determine mechanisms in the relationships and to monitor different social processes in detail. When choosing your methods, you should keep in mind that certain sociological phenomena can’t be easily measured with just numbers. In some cases, it is necessary to use multiple methodologies to get an answer to a research question. Start Writing with a Literature Review The first thing you should do is to perform a research of the relevant literature on your topic and work on your literature review. You need to give an analytical summary of the previous works on your topic. Remember that it’s not just writing some paragraphs that summarize the content of every article you read. Your task is to link together the main points that you have read to make a story of what has been done by previous researchers and what has to be done. You should determine several key empirical or theoretical categories and link them together. And you need to determine the key debates on your topic. In the literature review, you need to provide the background information that will help your reader understand your research question. Use brainstorming techniques to identify several key empirical and theoretical issues for an investigation and start locating your sources. You should start with influential scholarly books and recent articles in the journals, and then use other library resources and Google Scholar. You should make a working list of relevant sources in a form of Word document and copy there their titles, sources, and abstracts. Then, you should read your sources, paying attention to all the keywords on your research question, and make notes of the key points. After you finish reading about 70% of the sources on your list, you may start to draft your literature review. Develop an Outline An outline is an organizational plan for your sociology term paper. It helps you present what you plan to say and develop supporting paragraphs to move to your conclusions. Making a good outline can save you tons of time during the revision process because you will not need to rearrange your ideas after you have written them. Need advice on how you can create a good outline? Here are some tips: First, you should carefully read all your notes and think about ways to organize them. You have to classify all your findings, taking into account how they relate to your thesis statement or research question. That’s why you need to look for some common trends. For example, you can classify all your findings under 2 big headings. That is quite enough for a 5,000-word term paper. You can find clues how to do it if you look through an original assignment that your professor has given you. There is a variety of techniques that you can use for classifying your findings, for example, you can do it on paper with different-colored highlighters or symbols or paper-clip index cards with your notes. If you find that some sections for supporting your argument are not strong enough, you should do some more research or combine 2 weak section under one heading. You can use any outline format that works best for you. There is no need to stick to the formal roman-numeral structure. Writing a Draft Now that you have an outline, you have to start writing your sociology term paper sections. You should stick to the point and focus on your thesis statement or research question. Your task is to provide a convincing argument and relevant evidence to support your argument and persuade your readers that your ideas are correct. Make sure that your thesis statement is strong and do your best to write clearly and concisely. Avoid padding and digressions. Be ready that you’ll need to make more than one draft. Typically, all first drafts are vague, confusing, they feature bad writing and are full of omissions and other errors. Second drafts are better but they are not perfect. So you’ll need to revise your drafts and make improvements in the content and in their logic. Remember that the best term papers are commonly rewritten several times. Revising and Editing Tips In the process of revising, your task is to push your analysis further, to improve and expand your original argument, and make connections between your key points. There are different kinds of revising: large-scale and small-scale revising, editing, and proofreading. When making a large-scale revision, you need to look at the entire paper and find places where your logic is not clear. You may need to provide additional evidence, to define certain terms or even offer an entirely new aspect to your initial reasoning. If you discover a new interesting idea, you might even decide to rewrite the entire paper or at least certain sections. You can change the structure of your sociology term paper to make it more effective. If you notice that a certain part of your paper is not good enough, you may need to perform a small-scale revision. You should revise this section and after that, you will need to review the whole paper to make sure that the part you have revised works well in the context of the entire sociology term paper. When editing, your task is to find some minor problems with the text and improve readability – cut and paste paragraphs, delete some sentences or words. At this stage, you need to make your project clear and interesting to your readers. When proofreading, you will need to find and fix some small punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors. You should go through all these levels of revision to ensure that your sociology term paper is powerful and flawless.

Usa economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Usa economy - Research Paper Example The present US economic crisis would possibly get recovered before 2010 has been a serious matter for discussion throughout various media for last few months. This research work attempts to analyze the current crisis and factors that are more likely to help the economy overcome the current economic turmoil. This paper discusses how the plans that are taken by new president Barack Obama can bring possible changes within the economy so as to save millions of families who suffer from job loss, falling of wages and home values and other difficulties. US new President Barack Obama has been shining out as the opposite of affirmative section, because he is paradoxically a post racial figured among those who are exhausted of racial discriminations. But, this is now his most challenging time to put efforts in order to save the economy. Robert Kuttner (2008) emphasizes that all of the promises and expectations come to naught if Obama fails to help economy overcome the deepening recession caused by distressed financial system and bad consumer purchasing power. (p. 17). The crisis had greater impacts on US politics that in turn it became the challenge for Obama. According to David McKay (2009), â€Å"The effect of the crisis on American politics was profound. First it helped plunge the economy in to recession-a recession that in turn helped Barack Obama secure the presidency in 2008† (p. 398). When he became US president, people expected him to come with effective measures to overcome economic crisis and thus the economic crisis itself had brought responsibility upon him. Obama’s challenge includes finding solution to the simultaneous outbreak worldwide inflation, the increasing unemployment, the worst collapse in housing market price, banking loss between $1 and $2 trillions of capital and widening income insecurity and inequality. When President Barack Obama announced his

Globalization, Gentrification and Migration Impact to New York Coursework

Globalization, Gentrification and Migration Impact to New York - Coursework Example There has been an argument as to whether the processes of gentrification, globalization, and migration lead to involuntary displacement of the low-income residents in a city. For instance, in New York City, the low-income residents are not likely to move out of a gentrifying suburb than they are to move out of a non-gentrifying suburb. On the other hand, the process of globalization in New York is explained in terms of the strategic sites where various global processes materialized and the various linkages that join them. Among the above-mentioned sites are the off-shore banking facilities, export processing areas and the global cities (Hamnet 1994, p.422). According to Sassen, the rapid growth of the global economy in New York City has led to the modern geography of marginality and centrality. The above mentioned modern form of geography causes inequalities, nevertheless, it leads to the formation of dynamic economic growth, where the city operates from the development of the employment structures to the distribution of telecommunication. New York as a global city possesses a lot of economic powers and various financial services, which offer super-profits. The level of transactions in New York specifically through the trade in services, financial markets and investments have rapidly increased, therefore, the orders of magnitude involved have also increased.

Developing Teamwork in Project Management

Developing Teamwork in Project Management To achieve stated goals and objectives people in organizations work in teams. These teams go through various stages. The extent to which project leadership success or failure, relates to the stages of teams formation, in the pursuance of these goals and objectives are not clear cut as past researches have given divided opinion and bringing other factors in contention. This assignment will introduce the concept of team formation and project leadership and critically discuss the extent to which the stages of team formation relate to the success or failure of project leadership. Introduction To critically evaluate how the stages of team formation relate to the success or failure of project leadership, Tuckmans team building model which explain the five forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages of the team formation (please see appendix 1) and Blanchards situational leadership model which explain the four leadership styles that a leader should adopt during the team development situations will be evaluated as the team behaviour and leadership style can be clearly seen in these two models. Tuckmans model emphasis that as the team develops, the leader changes leadership style. At the forming stage a successful leader follow a directing style which is similar to telling phase described in situational leadership model, at the storming stage leader coaches their team to come out from the conflict which is similar to the selling phase of the situational leadership style model, at the norming stage the leader facilitates its team to develop standards which is s imilar to the participating phase of the situational leadership model, at the performing stage leader delegate task to the members and almost detached which is similar to the delegating stage of the situational leadership model. Tuckmans team building model Blanchards situational leadership model Discussion The different stages of team building and their relation to the success or failure to the project leadership are explained as follow: Stage 1 Forming: At this stage the team initially formed, the team members meet each other; identify the purpose of the team, terms of reference and its composition. Team members endeavor to test each other, establish their personal identity and create an impression within the group with most consideration given to structure of the team, code of conduct, objectives, individual roles and responsibilities. If the team is more diverse, it is more difficult for the team to maneuver through as this stage takes longer. Therefore, in the formation of multicultural teams it is a particularly sensitive stage as it is characterized by commonality, courtesy, caution and confusion. To take the team to the performing stage leadership is crucial. Team members will not be comfortable if there is lack of clarity. If a leader could not direct the team members effectively, team would not able to reach the next stages of the team formation; therefore this stage does impact the success or failure of the project leadership. When team members truly consider that they are the part of a team, generally this stage is complete. Member competencies needed: Leadership competencies needed: Asking open-ended questions Maintaining equity and being fair Listening without making assumptions and judgments Helping the group to articulate its purpose and overriding goal Observing group patterns of communication Facilitating discussions Using inclusive communication patterns Intervening to include all Disclosing ones needs appropriately Stage 2 Storming: This phase of team development is typically marked by conflict between team members, criticism and tension. Conflict arises due to the competing approaches to obtain the groups goals, disagreements over responsibilities and appropriate task related behavior. Team members might disagree about who should be leading the team and how much power the team leader should have and can result in redefining of the teams overall goals and specific tasks. Team members are likely to individually decide their level of commitment to the group tasks and extent, to which they like the team tasks, therefore may resist the control imposed by the team. At storming stage the team members may begin to withdraw, therefore this stage relates to the success or failure of the project leadership. If leaders coach their teams effectively, teams can proceed to the next stage. Therefore this stage is a critical stage for the group survival and effectiveness as the conflict harms the team progress and negatively affects some interpersonal relationship. When teams control is no longer resisted by the team members and everyone in the team agree about who will lead the team, this storming stage is completed. Member competencies needed: Leadership competencies needed: Using inclusive language and behaviors Establishing an agreed-upon work plan Managing emotional expression Using mediation skills Giving and receiving feedback appropriately Using diverse methods of feedback and conflict transformation Stage 3 Norming: At this stage norms and expectations about what different members are responsible for doing are realize and develop as the team delineates task standards, develop intra group cohesiveness and establish standards, rules and regulations. Team members really start to feel their belongings to the team and the development of close ties with other team members. Therefore this phase of team development is characterized by: commitment, collaboration, cooperation and cohesion as team members attempts to mutually agree upon objectives and goals, accept different opinion and try to open exchange of information. Feeling of belongings and friendship to team, help to work towards team goals. At the norming stage the leader facilitates and enables their team to establish the standards and reach to the performing stage. By the end of this stage, standards to guide behavior in the group are agreed by the team members. This stage is similar to the participating stage of the situational leadership model. If the leader does not participate to establish standards, the team may develop their own standards and norms which may me contrary to the project overall objectives and lead to the project leadership failure. At this stage the major decisions are normally made by the team members jointly and the minor decisions may be delegate to the individuals. Member competencies needed: Leadership competencies needed: Demonstrating support on task and in relationships Reinforcing high standards for task Recognizing individual and cultural differences in how appreciation is shown Coaching where needed Stage 4 Performing: This is the stage at which real work is done, team members know their role and duties and performing their work according to the expectations. Team members concentrate on the achievement of common goals and objectives. Sometime it can take long to reach to the performing stage, in most cases when they are self-managed work teams. Team members make progress towards common goals and feel comfortable working within their roles. This phase is marked by consideration among members, creativity challenge and group consciousness. At this stage the team morale is high and team has a good ability to focus on the task as relationship issues have been resolved. At the performing stage the team may produce another successor leader. At this stage the team members does not need assistance and instructions, but they need delegated tasks from the leader. Therefore at this stage leader delegates, observes and almost detach, this stage is similar to the delegating stage of the situational leadership model. This is the main stage where actual work will take place; delegation of wrong tasks to wrong person may lead to project leadership failure. Member competencies needed: Leadership competencies needed: Adapting and changing Establishing a process for incorporating change and renewal Including new members Sharing leadership Stage 5 Reforming or Adjourning: At this stage a task force teams disbands after the fulfillment of its goals or due to poor performance. But some teams are permanent (ongoing work teams), therefore may not reach to the adjourning stage and often remain to the performing stage. This final stage can be characterized by communication, closure, compromise and consensus. The adjourning phase is not the main task of developing a team, but this stage is very relevant to the team members. Stage Leadership Activity Forming Direct the team and establish objectives clearly by negotiating ground rules. Storming Establish process and structure, and work to smooth conflict and build good relationships between team members. Generally provide support, especially to those team members who are less secure. Remain positive and firm in the face of challenges. Explain forming, storming, norming and performing idea for people to understand why conflicts occurring, and that things will get better in the future. Teaching assertiveness and conflict resolution skills. Norming Help the team take responsibility for progress towards the goal by arranging a social, or a team-building event. Performing Delegate as far as possible. Once the team has achieved high performance, the aim now is to have as light a touch as possible by focusing on other goals and areas of work. Adjourning When successfully achieved the objectives time should be taken to celebrate the achievements. The above table clearly depict the relation between the stages of team formation and successful project leadership, the reverse will mean failure. 4. Conclusion Teams are formed because they can achieve far more than their individual members can on their own, and while being part of a high-performing team can be fun, it can take patience and professionalism to get to that stage. Effective team leaders can accelerate that process and reduce the difficulties that team members experience by understanding what they need to do as their team moves through the stages from forming to storming, norming and, finally, performing. Successful project leadership should realize that not all teams and situations will behave in the way depicted by Tuckman. However, in using this approach, the leader should not attempt to force situations to fit it but make sure that people dont use knowledge of the storming stage as a license for boorish behavior. There are some drawback with Tuckmans team formation modal as it does not talk about the time teams do spend and should spend in different project and external environment does not take into account. Paper 2 Critically evaluate of the dynamic between Task, Team and Individual as related to managing a project successfully. Abstract People in organizations work in teams in achieving stated goals and objectives. The extent to which project success relates to the management of task, the individuals and the teams formation in the pursuance of these goals and objectives are not of equal proportion and need to be well judged and balanced by the leader. This assignment will use John Adairs Action Centre Leadership model to related the dynamic between task, individuals and team; critically discussing the extent to which these three needs are related to the management of a successful project. Introduction One person cannot handle whole project, he/she need other individuals an effective team to successfully complete the project. An effective team is a team who has high commitment, is highly appreciated by upper management, is always ready (adaptive) to change open to new ideas and always achieves its goals. Bailey and Cohen (1997: 4) considers a team as a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, see themselves and are seen by others as an intact social entity, embedded in one or more larger social systems and who manage their relationships across organizational boundaries. Adairs Action Centred Action (ACT) model will be used to find the dynamic between task, team and individual as relate to managing projects successfully, as this model identifies three core interrelated functions, which explain the management and leaders core management responsibility. These three core function consist task: achieving the teams goal. team: developing and building your team, so that its ever more effective. individual: helping individuals develop their full potential in the workplace. Discussion Davis (2001) identified three factors, which can determine whether the team is effective or not, such as: The people (individual) within the team: Effective team determining factor for individual aspect include personal job satisfaction, low or no conflict and power struggles, having job security, appreciation by management and mutual trust of colleagues. The organizations rules and culture: includes the people do thinks and believes of the individuals. The tasks to be completed: including appropriate leadership, team involvement in decisions, appropriately skilled team members, challenging work, goals and objectives. According to Davis (2001) it is easy to appreciate the impact of organizational rules and job tasks on each other and on people (individual), but it is much more difficult to understand the impact of individual-related factors on other factors of successful teams of a successful project. Individual related factor such as trust is a major component in forming an effective working team that achieves results. Leaders/ managers are primarily responsible for creating trust. Adair (1997) describe the best leaders is who balance the task, team maintenance, and individual needs. Balancing task, team and individual Adair found that effective leaders pay attention to three areas of need for members of the team: those relating to the task, to the team itself and to individual team members with emphasis on variation with all three interdependent variables. Teams can be more effective for making decisions effectively and quickly than the traditional hierarchical structure according to the large body of research (Thompson 2008). As group members come and go, due to turnover, promotions, hiring and other reasons; therefore resulted over time change in teams, goals, group tasks etc (George et al. 2008). Teams can be classified on the basis of size, organizational level, composition, potential contribution to organizational performance, objectives, permanent versus temporary. According to Colloquia et al., there are 5 general types of teams such as work teams, management teams, parallel teams, project teams and virtual teams. Leadership is the ability to affect human behaviour to accomplish a mission, the act of influencing people to set and achieve goals (McGraw, 2009). Great leaders are visionary people who are able to achieve results using people. They exhibits authority in themselves and exhume confidence in their team members. Some leaders are democratic, allowing team members to express their opinions. Some are dictatorial, explaining what they want from their teams to the team members to execute. All styles have opportunity and challenges and may be used in certain circumstances. Team leaders must also realise that there are different types of human traits that can be exhibited among team members. These traits rarely have advantage over others as they are complementary. It is the duty of an effective team leader to identify the trait in individual members of his or her team and know how to use the qualities to advantage. All these traits have the qualities which effective team leaders can exploit and none is better than the other. Tasks are those activities that need to done in order to achieve the desired goals and outcome. Leader can help to facilitate these tasks by planning the work, allocating the resources, checking performance and reviewing progress. Team maintenance relates to maintaining good relation and building team spirit, training the group, maintaining discipline. Individual needs can be satisfied by attending to personal problems, training the individual, giving them status and praise, meeting their needs and reconciling conflicts between group needs. To achieve the task, management should make it clear who is going to do what, proper delegation of responsibilities, everyone is clear about the objectives, is adequate authority delegating to the team, are working conditions right for the group, have the time planned affectively, who will cover the absent person, is there adequate resources to complete the tasks. In building and maintaining the team, management should make it clear is the size of the team is correct, are the right people working together, are the rules seen to be reasonable, is the team motivated to achieve the tasks, is the conflict dealt properly, does the team accept the objectives do the team knows about the expected standards of performance. In developing the individual, management should make it clear that have the targets been agreed and quantified, does the individual know about their contribution to work, overall result, does the individual got sufficient authority to achieve the task delegate to them and has adequate provisions been made for retaining and training team members. According to the Hackman (1987), there are 3 primary definitions of team success, and these relate to the task, social relations, and individuals. A successful team completes its task. While completing the task, team members develop social relations that help them work together and maintain the team. Teamwork should help to improve an individuals social and interpersonal skills. Mullins (2010:369) suggests that the action taken by the leader in any one of these area of need will affect one or both of the other areas of need with the ideal position been the complete integration towards the achievement of all three. However, building the team and satisfying individual needs are considered to be part of leadership whilst achieving the common task involves the process of management. According to Robbins (1998) Individual behavior have key variables, which make up individual difference. Every individual has their own attitudes, personality, values, talent, ability to learn, motivation factors, perceptions. Different nature of these variables (attributes) make individual different. Attitude is the judgment an individual make about events and people. This judgement can be positive or negative. Basic values influenced attitude and attitude affect the individual behaviour. Sometime attitudes can change, while values are unlikely to change. Values: Values are the general belief about what is good and bad. Values affect the individual behavior and attitude and difficult to change. Personality: Individual act and behave in a particular way, which called personality. Personality can be learned and inherited. Talent: Talent means the intelligence and ability of the individual. Level of persons talent will depend on how those people perform their job. Ability to learn: This is related to the change in behavior based on experience and getting new ideas. Motivation: Motivation means willing to do something with inspiration, not by force. Different individual have different motivating factors, such as money, name and fame etc. According to Bowditch et al the motivation of team members of joining a team, strongly influence cohesiveness of the team and the members productivity. Perception: Different people give different meaning to what they see around them; therefore people perceive things in different ways. By Knowing about individual differences leaders can understand why individual respond differently. Leaders should appreciate that it is difficult to change values, therefore they may be try to change attitude. As attitude affect behavior, which affect job performance and motivation. The key learning point from these different factors is that if leader want to get best from their team he should appreciate that individuals need to be treated differently. There is also Myer-Briggs model (1956) which effective team leaders have to contend with. This model is about personality types. Myer-Briggs identified four ways people differ from each other. These are: the way they think; the way they view; the way they feel/perceive and the way they see things. Team diversity include language difference, cultural difference, background difference, qualification difference, class, age, sex and experience also have effects in a team which the leader must manage. Mckenna and Maister draw attention on the importance of group leader establishing trust among the group by helping them understand the behaviours that build trust (Cited in Mullins, 2010). Successful project management will require the following list of common tasks for each of the three management responsibilities so that leaders will balance their resources appropriately. Task:Â  Establish deadlines for project tasks, and explain the quality standards expected. Team:Â  Ensure that everyone in the team has the skills and training to accomplish the final goal Individual:Â  Help define each individuals role within the team and agree the tasks they are responsible for. Task:Â  Clearly state the final goal of the team. Team:Â  Monitor team relationships, and resolve conflicts where necessary. Individual:Â  Appropriately praise and reward individual team members for their contribution to the team. Task:Â  Ensure everyone understands the resources, people, and processes that they should be using Team:Â  If team will be working in smaller teams, appoint a leader for each team, and ensure that he/she is effective and properly trained. Individual:Â  Ensure that one on one time is spent with each member: identify their strengths and weaknesses, their needs, and any special skills they can bring to the team. Task:Â  Create a detailed plan for how the group is going to reach their final goal. Team:Â  Work on keeping the team motivated with high morale. Individual:Â  If any team members seem to be lagging behind, coach them until they are back on track. Task:Â  Identify the purpose of the team and communicate team members. Team:Â  Identify the style the team will be working in (very formal, relaxed, etc.) Individual:Â  Ensure each team member has the skills to perform his or her role successfully. Give regular feedback on the teams performance. 4. Conclusion Leaders have many responsibilities when it comes to managing their teams. And, its easy to get so focused on one area that the others slip by the wayside, leading to an unbalanced, poorly-functioning group. ACL model states that leaders must balance the actions they take across all three key areas if they want their project to succeed. The areas are interdependent; if a leader focuses too much on one area and neglects the other two, then the group will experience problems. The leaders do not necessarily have to divide their efforts equally across these but balance according to the situation and over time. Using a tool like Action Centered Leadership can help any leader stay on top of the most important responsibilities, and keep the group working efficiently, happily, and productively. John Adairs simple Action-Centered Leadership model provides a great blueprint for leadership and the management of any team, group or organisation. Good managers and leaders should have full command of the three main areas of the ACL model, and should be able to use each of the elements according to the situation. Leaders who are able to achieve the task; building the team and develop keeping the right balance, gets results, builds morale, improves quality, develops teams and productivity, and is the mark of a success. References and Bibliography: Adair, J (1997), cited in Management Extra Leading Teams; page 43 Bailey and Cohen (1997), cited in Halverson B. Claire; Trims S. Aleel: Effective Multicultural Teams-Theory and Practice, page 4 Belbin R. Meredith: Team Roles at work; 2nd Edition, page 122 Belbin, M. (2004) Management Teams Why They Succeed or Fail? 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0 7506 910 6. Colquitt A., Jason; Lepine A., Jeffery; Wesson J., Michael: Organizational Behaviour (2nd Edition) Daniel Levi: Group Dynamics for Teams (2nd Edition) page 20 George M., Jennifer; Jones R., Gareth; Understanding and managing organizational Behaviour (5th Edition.); 2008 Harvard Davis (2001), cited in Management Extra Leading Teams; page 7 Hondon (2002), cited in Managing People in Organizations Contemporary Theory and Practice by Dr Jeremy Adams. Making the team: a guide for managers / Leigh L. Thompson. (3rd Edition) Mullins J., Laurie (2010): Managing and Organizational Behaviour (8th Edition), Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1947) The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers. Oyedele, O (2010) Team Management: Lessons from the Leadership Styles of Successful Team Managers, Glasgow Caledonian University, June 2010 Robbins (1998), cited in Management Extra Leading Teams; page 7 Thompson, L. (2008). Leading high impact teams. Team leadership survey from the Kellogg School of Management Executive Program. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, cited in Making the team: a guide for managers/ Leigh L. Thompson. (3rd Edition)

Game Playing and Artificial Intelligence Essay -- Video Games AI

Game Playing and Artificial Intelligence Abstract Since the inception of the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), game playing has had a key role. Likewise, AI has been an integral part of modern computer games. This collaboration of academic and commercial research and development into AI has yielded vast amounts of crossover technology. Academic research problems have become or influenced commercial games and the money gained from the commercial applications of AI have helped advance academic research as well. Highly publicized man-machine tournaments, such as between Gary Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue have served to showcase the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence agents. The technology from these game players is finding its way into many other software fields, such as medical databases. Introduction Not long ago, at the mention of Artificial Intelligence (AI) the first thing most people thought of was the science fiction image of computers capable of independent thought and possessing a human-like personality such as HAL from the movie 2001. It is not unusual now to see commercial computer games advertised and reviewed based on their AI capabilities. The strategic war game EARTH 2140 for example is advertised as containing "excellent strategic and economic AI". Where once AI was solely a matter of fiction and research, it has effectively made its way into the consumer market in the form of computer games. While AI artifacts have not yet reached the level of HAL, computers and their games have advanced substantially from the days of punch cards and Pong. The early uses of Artificial Intelligence in game playing were not the highly graphical, user friendly, mass marketed computer games seen today. The e... ...hat the game required "robot-like planning abilities,"2 not deep search. The tools used to solve problems in AI will continue to evolve via game playing as long as there are new games to play and new computers on which to play them. Bibliography 1. AAAI Hall of Champions, Matthew L. Ginsberg, 2. "Smart games: beyond the Deep Blue horizon" Sara Hedberg IEEE Expert July/August 1997 3. "Deep Blue Wins 3.5 to 2.5: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue the rematch" IM Malcolm Pein, London Chess Centre May 11, 1997 4. "Classic Games and AI - What's Been "Solved"", Steven Woodcock 5. "Deep Blue's Hardware - Software Synergy" Scott Hamilton and Lee Garber Computer October 1997 6. "Debbi One: Challenging the Extremes of Computation", George Kaplan 7. Interplay's Earth 2140 Website 8. "Ultima Online", Cindy Yans Computer Games Strategy Plus July 1997 Pages 44 - 49

Advantages and Disadvantages of Democracy Essay

The term ‘democracy’, like many other political terms, was first discovered in Ancient Greece. It consists of two short words: ‘demos’ which means either ‘a citizen in a particular city-state’ or ‘the lower orders’, and ‘kratos’ which means either ‘rule’ or ‘power’ – but these two are not of the same meaning. The original meaning of democracy is the rule by the poor or by the rabble. Aristotle had a clear argument stating that a rich majority would not be able to govern fairly (Arblater, 2002). This essay aims to identify advantages of modern democracy-based governments, such as equality for men and women, free press and media and totalitarianism as well as provide criticism in terms of the two systems. Democracy has become the subject of various debates, with the supporters claiming that it is the most appropriate form of government nowadays because it guarantees constitutional rights for people. Moreover, democracy can create a positive structure for economic development as it provides free trade relationships between countries. The main purposes of democracy are presented in the way of core constitutional rights, such as a right to vote, equality of rights for men and women, freedom of speech and expression and, last but not least, personal sovereignty. All these elements are required for the modern society. For this reason, a democratic government aims to meet these requirements in order to satisfy its people. A governmental structure based on the principles of democracy, which is established well enough in the Western countries and Europe, has been developing for more than four centuries and has been absorbing and leaving essential requirements, for instance constitutional rights for all citizens, for further evolution of democracy. Today, democratic countries, for example Great Britain, provide sovereignty to all citizens regardless of their religion, race or social status. The main way of providing population with the elements required for a democracy is a straight dialogue between the government and people and apprehending the latter’s needs and desires. (Arblaster, 2002) Furthermore, press and media is one of the most important aspects of the modern democracy. However, there are still some countries with a democratic status but with issues in this particular field. These areas are partly or totally controlled by governmental agencies and authorities. The leading position in the non-democratic behavior is held by the Arab countries. The information released by Freedom House in October 2010 demonstrates that the closure of the Nichane newspaper, one of the most open-minded Arabic language weeklies, was another strong blow to the freedom of press in Morocco. The main reason for the closure was a systematic multi-year boycott as a result of controversial reports about the company run by the Moroccan Royal family, Omnium Nord-African Group. The Freedom of Expression Officer at Freedom House, has emphasized the issue in this area by saying that: â€Å"Authorities are increasingly using economic manipulation to punish and intimidate independent or critical media†. Currently, the impacts of democracy play an integral role in active economy. Aspects such as private property, competition, and fair market – which are guaranteed to the society in democratic countries today – create stable economic markets. Additionally, democracy makes trade and market relationships between countries easier in comparison to communistic countries, for example China, where regulations on export and import are still much stricter (Zuzovski, 1998). After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the way Czech Republic managed to recreate from the situation in a quick and positive manner is a great example of economical benefits in democracy-based states. The principal changes, like privatization of businesses, liquidation of monopolized external trade and regulation of the market prices took place in Czech Republic between 1989 and 1992. Moreover, willingness to open the door to investments from abroad in Czech Republic led to redevelopment of industries and infrastructures in just 20 years. Thus, for example, United States have been investing in to Czech Republic economy since 2008 and in 2011 a contribution worth $5. 41 billion was made. These investments have hepled in support of infrastructure and industry within the country, and allowed the Czech Republic to become one of the strongest economics in Western Europe (U. S. Departament of State, 2012). An example like this could make a nation more faithful in democracy-based government structures. However, opponents argue that total democracy can face issues like fascism and discrimination purely because some people might think that it is in their right to divide people by race, nationality or religion. In addition, the opponents claim that an alternative political structure for democracy can be totalitarianism, which establishes a society with paper-based democracy but no dignity of an individual rights in practice. Totalitarianism has been cited as totally opposite system to democracy. The supporters claim that totalitarianism creates an ideally structured government and society. The philosophy of totalitarianism simply rejects the independence of an individual and instead substitutes it with the notion of collectivity. It only targets needs and interests of the society as a whole. However, the totalitarian regime controls private lives of people, which includes belief, tastes, and many other parts of the life. In the times of the Soviet Union, private life of all citizens was totally controlled by the governmental agencies. The rights of the people were complied, but only on paper and not in practice. However, in reality, citizens’ dignity was hijacked. Salient features of Soviet Union society was illusory and fictitious nature of the represented world. Members of some social groups had privileges, but members of other groups did not have a right to a passport, to walk on particular streets, or to use holiday resorts (Todorov, 2003). In addition, Todorov (2003) argues that the totalitarianism in post-communist Commonwealth of Independant States republics led to corrupt political institutions, and it had ravaged the economy, the environment and human souls. To demonstrate corruption rate in one of post-communist countries, Holmes (2009) claims that in the first decade after collapse of the Soviet Union, the corruption rate in Russian reached 2. 7 per cent. Moreover, there have been widespread concerns that democracy might have influenced people’s behavior towards each other. This might be based on difference and unequal treatment in terms of race, gender or ethnicity. U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n. d. ) reported statistics, which claims that in the beginning of 21st century race discrimination was 36. %, however in 2011 this figure decreased for almost one per cent and became 34. 5%. Furthermore, the fact Benhabib (1996) suggests that the discrimination rate in the United States has decreased in the past ten years, and it works because of the positive treatment of people regardless of their gender, race, background or ethnic identity within the country. However, the core definition of democracy, which was mentioned above, sometimes cannot be used as a plain and uncompleted term. One of the problems is the relation between the idea and reality. The contemporary reality sometimes does not correspond with the idea of the classic notions of democracy. For instance, does the fact that the government is elected by the people mean that the system is a democratic one? Thus, when Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, he did it through a constitutional process, as the leader of the Nazi party, who gained 43. 9% at Reichstag. Few people could complain about legitimacy of the German elections in 1933 but yet not many would be able to describe the Third Reich as a democratic governor. Arblaster (2002) argues that the best remedy for this might be to revise the concept of democracy itself to suit it to real modern society. In addition, Arblaster (2002) suggests that society should not follow these mistakes, committed in the past. Moreover, Modern democracy is, in fact, capitalistic. It is rule of the capitalists. Electioneering is carried out with money. The rich candidates purchase votes. Might of economic power rules over the whole process. The net result is that we get plutocracy under the garb of democracy-democracy in name and form, plutocracy in reality. It cares a fig for the common man. The rich hold the media and use it for their own benefit. Big business houses influence dailies and use these dailies for creating public opinion to their favour. Influence of moneyed people over politics is probably clear in England, America and India. Consequently, communists don’t accept it democracy at all. Socialist democracy is democracy in the right sense of the term because the welfare of the labour class and farming community can be safeguarded properly only under socialist democracy. (Tusha Jupta, 2012) In conclusion, for reasons identified and described above, democracy should be viewed as a prosperous and useful way of governing a country because it is also relatively peaceful for co-existence of individuals, society as a whole, and the government. In comparison to totalitarianism, democracy has significant positive factors, such as economic structure, easier trade relationships, constitutional rights, which in totalitarian countries are stricter and more limited. Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that democracy still has problems that need to be addressed, especially the ones in press and media sector.