Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Without Her by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Without Her by Dante Gabriel Rossetti ‘Without Her’ Dante Gabriel Rossetti Formed in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood consisted of a group of young artists who wished to throw off the conventions of the art establishment and found a new movement that took its inspiration from the more ‘primitive‘ art of the medieval and early Renaissance period. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the founding members of the group and acted as an energising force to the other artists. Rossetti himself, though, was never exclusively devoted to painting. Dividing his time between painting and poetry, he was in part responsible for the group’s use of literary subjects and symbols in their work as well as for the printing of the group‘s short-lived literary journal, The Germ. A significant number of his poems were written to supplement painted subjects and his philosophical ideas about painting were also argued in his poems. Following the death of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal, many of his poems were preoccupied with love and death. It is believed that h is marital infidelities, together with his experience of falling in love with the wife of his friend, William Morris, led to feelings of guilt and remorse and influenced the pessimistic tone of his later poems (Wilmer, 1991, 7-21). Walter Pater (1889, 230) comments upon the ‘definiteness of sensible imagery’ and the ‘minute and definite’ attention to visual detail in Rossetti’s work and it is certainly the case that the symbolism of ‘Without Her’ is grounded in particular physical objects which are described with a painterly eye and with the typical Pre-Raphaelite attention to the detail of nature. Yet Rossetti is also concerned with the sound and rhythms of poetry. He translated Italian verse into English and his sonnet sequence, The House of Life, shows that influence, particularly in his use of Petrarch‘s model of the sonnet cycle. The sonnet ‘Without Her’ is written in the Petrarchan form, its fourteen lines of iambic pentameter arranged as an octet followed by a sestet. The rhyme scheme, abbaabba cddccd also follows this convention. However, within this framework, Rossetti frequently subverts the form, especially in irregular patterns of rhyt hm and stress, in order to convey the pressure of emotion. This irregularity of rhythm is present in the opening line, which breaks in the middle and then runs on to the second line. Rossetti rejects the normal iambic rhythm, beginning the line with the stressed word ‘What’ and ending with two stressed words ‘blank grey’. The second line has a similar pattern, varied in the middle, but again beginning with a stressed word, ‘There’ and ending with the double stress of ‘moon’s face’. To add greater emphasis, he makes use of alliteration in the hard g of ‘glass’ and ‘grey’ in the fist line and the assonance of ‘pool’ and ‘moon’, ‘there’ and ‘where‘ in the second. Straddling these two lines, the alliteration of ‘blank‘ and ‘blind‘ also echoes the consonant ‘l’ from ‘glass’ and ‘pool‘. The diction of these lines is deceptively simple, made up as it is of single-syllable words. However, these images work in a symbolic way, repeating images such as the mirror, the pool and the moon that have occurred elsewhere in The House of Life (for example, in XLI, ’Through Death to Love’ and in the ’Willowwood’ sequence, XLIX-LII). His lost lover is linked with the moon a conventional symbol of femininity and the mirror that had previously reflected her presence is now empty. In the second pair of lines, Rossetti continues this pattern of irregular stresses. Just as the despair of the first lines is emphasised by the double stress of ‘blank grey’, so the third line contains the phrase ‘tossed empty space’. The ‘s’ sound in ‘dress’ in taken up by ‘tossed’, ‘space’, ‘whence’ and ‘passed’ and the absence of the moon is reiterated. In the second quatrain, Rossetti subverts the expectation that he will create pairs of lines that break in the middle of the first and run on to the end of the second; instead, three consecutive lines are broken in the middle and run on to the next. Only the final line of this quatrain is a completed. In this greater metric irregularity, Rossetti shows a greater emotional agitation, especially in the exclamation ’Tears, ah me!’, followed by the triple stress of ’love’s good grace’, with its alliterative ‘g’ sounds adding weight to the feeling. Again, he uses alliteration for emphasis, especially when referring to the bed from which she is absent as ‘her pillowed place’, which picks up the ‘p’ sound from ‘paths’ and ‘appointed’ in the previous line. Whilst the octet uses four concrete instances from the outward physical world to represent the absence of the beloved, the sestet turns inward to the heart of the poet. With the question ’What of the heart without her?’, the poem becomes self-reflexive in its tone and these six lines also begin to have a more regular metrical rhythm. The overriding image is of the ’wayfarer’ who is ’weary’ and ’labouring’. The emptiness of his existence is thus emphasised by a more settled rhythm, which represents the dull despair of a lonely journey through life. Particularly effective are the final four lines, in which the diction is dominated by words such as ’barren’, ’chill’, ’steep’, ’weary’, ’darkness’ and ’labouring’. The repetition of the pair of words ’the long’ in the penultimate line shows that the poet regards his life as a series of te dious repetitions without his love. Furthermore, this repetition is taken up in the final line with the alliterative phrase ’doubled darkness’, where the cloud and the wood become oppressive to the poet, feeling as he does that his life consists of ’labouring’ up a steep hill. Throughout the sonnet, the phrase ’without her’ has recurred six times and so the final images of ’doubled darkness’ takes up this sense that the poet feels grief as a kind of constant repetition of emptiness and darkness which is reflected in the repetitions that he sees in the natural world around him. In the use of such visual imagery, Rossetti has thus written a sonnet where his painterly eye complements his poet’s ear to create a fusion of the two art forms to which he devoted his life. BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary sources Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1928. The House of Life: A Sonnet-Sequence, Paul Franklin Baum, ed., Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, ‘Without Her’ (with textual notes) accessed at http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/26-1871.raw.html Secondary Sources Pater, Walter, 1889. ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti’, in Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, accessed at  http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/pr99.p32.rad.html Wilmer, Clive, 1991 ‘Introduction’, in Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, Selected Poems and Translations, Manchester: Carcanet.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Improving Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)

Improving Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Suppression of recombination channels of Dye-sensitized solar cells made of SnO2 using core shell structure of SiO2 extracted from rice husk N. F. Ajward, D.L.N. Jayathilaka, J.C.N. Rajendra and V.P.S.Perera Introduction Dye sensitized solar cells (DSC) are one of the most promising types of solar cells for next generation of solar cell technology that has power conversion efficiency as high as 12% (Nazeeruddin et al., 2011). Compared with conventional silicon photovoltaics, DSSCs offer the cost savings in the materials and a range of solution deposition methods for device manufacture. However, there are still many challenges to be met before DSCs can truly compete with current silicon solar cell technology. Device efficiency, stability and lifetimes and scalable methods for device fabrication are the key issues in this field of research. A lot of work has been done to improve efficiency of DSSCs taking different avenues, which includes increasing the surface area of the metal oxide, developing new dyes with broad absorption spectra, suppressing the recombination channels and introducing light-scattering materials in the film. Utilization of mesoporous film made of nano particles of titania for DSSC is the imperative innovation made by Gratzel and co-workers in 1991 to achieve high efficiencies (Regan B O and Gratzel M., 1991). After that it was realized the possibility to achieving high efficiencies even with other high band gap semiconductors such as SnO2 and ZnO made in nano range (Bergeron et al., 205, Keis et al., 2002). However DSSCs of high efficiencies comparable to that made of TiO2 films has been achieved with other high band gap semiconductor films made in the form of composites (Niinobe et al., 2005]. The improvement is principally accepted as the suppression of recombination of germinated charge carriers due to passivation of trap states and charge carrier confinement. Materials such as Al2O3, MgO, and ZrO2 have been used previously as barrier layers in DSSCs, but no record available for the use of SiO2 for the same purpose (Kay and Grà ¤tzel, 2002). But SiO2 particles have been used to scatter light in TiO2 films of DSScs. In this research work we improved the performance of DSSCs by introducing thin barrier layer of SiO2 surrounding the SnO2 crystallite to prevent recombination of charge carriers in the diffusion assisted transportation. Here the thin barrier of insulating material enhance the lifetime of germinated charge carriers of DSSC so as to improve the efficiency. Methodology Rice hHusks (RH) of BG 300 rice variety was collected and initially washed with tap water to remove soils and dirt. It was further washed with distilled water and dried at 120 ËÅ ¡C. The dried RH will bewas fully burnt to white ash at around 700ËÅ ¡C in a muffle furnace and the Rrice husk Husk ash Ash (RHA) was collected. which is white in colour. Extraction of Silica Aforementioned dried RHA was refluxed with 2M HCl and thoroughly washed with distilled water and dried. 10 g of the sample was stirred in 80 ml of 2.5 N sodium hydroxide solution. It was then boiled in a covered 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask for 3 hours and the solution was filtered using a Whatman No. 41 filter paper. Filtrate was allowed to cool down to room temperature and added 5 N H2SO4 until it reaches pH 2. Then NH4OH was added to the suspension until it reaches pH 8.5 and allowed to be at room temperature for 3.5 hours. The precipitated SiO2 was separated by filtration and thoroughly washed with distilled water. The silica obtained was oven dried at 120 0C for 12 hours and cool down to room temperature. Preparation of SnO2 Particles Tin (ivIV) chloride was dissolved in distilled water to obtain 0.5 M solution and ammonia was added stirring the solution to obtain fine particles of SnO2. The SnO2 particles are thoroughly washed with distilled water to remove chlorine ions. Then the particles are suspended in diluted ammonium solution for stabilization. Preparation of SnO2 and SiO2 core shell structures Tin (IV) Oxide particles were coated with ultra thin layer of silica by the following method. 0.5g of SnO2 particles were weighted and grinded in an agate mortar with 2 ml of ethanol. Then measured volumes of 0.5M sodium silicate which was prepared by dissolving extracted silica in NaOH was added at a time to different SnO2 samples that has been prepared as described above. After that 1 ml of acetic acid was added drop wise to that mixture. Sodium silicate around the SnO2 particles suppose to turn into SiO2 in the process of acidification. Fabrication of DSSC with SiO2/SiO2 composite The paste as prepared was used to coat films on Cconducting Ttin Ooxide (CTO) glass plates by the doctor blade method that cut into the size of 1.5 x 1 cm2. Prior to coating the films on the CTO glass, they were thoroughly cleaned by detergent, distilled water and acetone with ultrasonic agitation. CTO plates coated with SnO2/SiO2 films were dried on a hot plate heated up to 120 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ °C for 5 minutes. Then the films were sintered at 450 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ °C in a furnace for 30 minutes. When the films cooled down to the room temperature they were immersed in Ru-bipyridyl N-719 dye solution (0.5 mM in ethanol) for 12 h. After the dye adsorption, films were rinsed with ethanol and sandwich with platinum sputtered conducting glass substrates using clips. The capillary space in between the two plates of cells were filled with electrolyte containing 0.5M potasium iodide, 0.05M iodine in a mixture of acetonitrile and ethylene carbonate 1:4 by volume. Characterization Techniques I-V characteristics of the cells were measured under the illumination of 100 mWcm−2 simulated light source and computer controlled setup consisting of potentiostat/galvanostat. Elemental analysis of RHA was done using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and SEM images were also obtained for SnO2/SiO2 composite films. Results and discussion According to the literature reports, silica extracted from RH is in naorange with least impurity levels. Elements that present as impurities in RHA of BG 300 rice variety were analyzed with atomic absorption spectroscopy. Percentages of impurities in RHA after burning and refluxing with HCl are given in table 1. Table 1: Percentages of impurities in RHA after burning and after refluxing in HCl. Impurities % in RHA after burning % in RHA after reflux with HCl Calcium 0.926 0.402 Magnesium 0.537 0.198 Manganese Not detected Not detected Ferrous 0.269 0.060 It is inferred from these results that the impurity level of RHA is low and can be reduced further by refluxing with HCl. That is because these impurities present in the RHA as oxides can be removed easily by acid wash. In this study we have investigated the possibility of using SiO2 thin barrier around the SnO2 particles to impede leakage of electrons for recombination processes which is one approach to increase the efficiency of DSSCs. Figure 1(a) shows the measured open-circuit photo-voltage (Voc) and short-circuit photocurrent (Isc) of DSSCs with different SiO2% by weight in the SnO2/SiO2 films. Figure 1: (a) Open-circuit photovoltage (Voc) and short-circuit photocurrent (Isc) of DSSCs with different SiO2 % in SnO2 films (b) Suppression of recombination of injected electrons in the conduction band of SnO2 by SiO2 shell. Initial increment of SiO2 % in the film gradually covers the SnO2 particles as an ultra thin layer and beyond certain limit of SiO2 contributes to the growth of the SiO2 layer around the SnO2 particles increasing the thickness. This is the reason why both the Isc as well as the Voc increase initially with the increment of SiO2 % in the SnO2 films of DSSCs. The increment of Isc and Voc is attributed to the suppression of recombination of injected electrons by the photo excitation of the dye in the conduction band of SnO2 due to the development of ultra thin layer of SiO2 around SnO2 particles (Figure 1b). The highest photocurrent of DSSCs with the addition of 2.5 % of SiO2 may have been achieved due to the perfect coverage of SnO2 particles with ultra thin layer of SiO2. But Voc continues to increase further up to 4% of SiO2 in SnO2 films. It is noticeable that the decrement of Voc afterward is not significant as in Isc after reaching the maximum. Anyway further increment of the thick ness of the ultra thin layer of SiO2 happens to decrease both Isc and Voc. The amount of dye adsorbed on the semiconductor film is also a detrimental factor on the performance of DSSCs. We have noticed that the dye absorbed on SnO2 films decreased with the increment of SiO2%. To quantitatively analyze it, we have desorbed the dye adsorbed on SnO2 films with different SiO2 %. This was done by allowing the films to adsorb dye for determined period and completely desorbing the dye by immersing the dye adsorbed SnO2 films in known volume of 0.5 M KOH solution. The concentration of the dye in the KOH solution was estimated spectroscopically at the wave length of 550 nm. Figure 2 given bellow shows the deviation of dye adsorbed on SnO2 films for different SiO2 %. Figure: 2 (a) Variation of dye adsorbed on SnO2 films for different SiO2 % and (b) structure of the N-719 dye. It is evident from the Figure 2 that the dye adsorption on SnO2 films decrease with the increment of SiO2 %. This may affect adversely on photocurrent of DSSCs. Although dye aggregations on semiconductor films also results to decrease photocurrent there should be sufficient amount of dye adsorbed on SnO2 crystallites for efficient operation of DSSCs. The decrement of Isc at higher SiO2 percentages is main consequence of low dye adsorption on SnO2 films. The adsorption of dye on SnO2 films decrease with the increment of SiO2 % because of the acidity of SiO2 which prevent chelation of N-719 dye on SnO2 films by the carboxylic groups. XRD and SEM analysis was also carried out to characterize the SiO2 ultra thin layer coated on SnO2 particles. Figure 3 shows the SEM of SnO2 film with 4.5% of SiO2. The resolution of the SEM images was not sufficient to identify the SiO2 thin layer. But it can be seen that the SnO2 particles are distributed in wide range of particle sizes which also affect adversely on the performance of DSSCs. The XRD pattern of the SnO2 film with 4.5 % of SiO2 is given in Figure 3(b). There was no any peaks appeared for SiO2 in the XRD pattern of the SnO2 films as well. The insertion in the Figure 3(b) is the XRD obtain for SiO2 powder obtained by acidification of Na2SiO3 with acetic acid and sintering at 450  °C for 30 minutes. It is found to be in amorphous form and most probably the SiO2 around the SnO2 is also amorphous. Because of the amorphous nature of SiO2 and low percentage might produce significant peaks for SiO2 in the XRD pattern. Figure 3 (a) SEM image of SnO2 film with 4.5% of SiO2 (b) XRD pattern of the SnO2 film with 4.5 % of SiO2. Insertion is the XRD obtain only for SiO2 powder. Conclusions The silica extracted from rice husk is with low impurity levels suitable for coating ultra thin layers of SiO2 arround SnO2 to fabricate DSSCs. Deposition of ultra thin layer of SiO2 on SnO2 particles improved the performance of DSSCs. The reason for decrement of cell performance with higher percentages of SiO2 is not only due to the barrier thickness, but also due to the low dye adsorption. It was observed by the SEM images that the particle size of SnO2 is widely diverse because of particle aggregation. It is recommended to use uniform size of SnO2 particles for better performance of DSSCs. some chemical treatment also required to enhance the adsorption of dye on SiO2 ultra thin layer on SnO2 particles. References 1. Bergeron B.V. , Marton A., Gerko Oskam G., and Meyer G.J.; (2005) Dye-Sensitized SnO2 Electrodes with Iodide and Pseudohalide Redox Mediators; J. Phys. Chem. B, , 109 (2), 937–943. 2. Kay A. and Grà ¤tzel M.; (2002) Dye-Sensitized Core−Shell Nanocrystals:à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ° Improved Efficiency of Mesoporous Tin Oxide Electrodes Coated with a Thin Layer of an Insulating Oxide; Chem. Mater., 14 (7), 2930–2935. 3. Keis K., Bauer C., Boschloo G., Hagfeldt A., Westermark K., Rensmo H., Siegbahn H.; (2002) Nanostructured ZnO electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications; Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 148, issue 1–3, 57–64. 4. Nazeeruddin M. K., Baranoff E, Gratzel M., (2011) Dye-sensitized solar cells: A brief overview; Solar Energy 85 1172–1178. 5. Niinobe D. , Makari Y., Kitamura T., Wada Y., and Yanagida; S.; (2005) Origin of Enhancement in Open-Circuit Voltage by Adding ZnO to Nanocrystalline SnO2 in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells; J. Phys. Chem. B, , 109 (38), 17892–17900. 6. Regan B O and Gratzel M; (1991) A low cost high efficient solar cell based on dye sensitized colloidal TiO2 films; Nature 353 737.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Review of Platos The Allegory of the Cave :: World Literature

In Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave," Socrates tells an allegory of the hardship of understanding reality. Socrates compares a prisoner of an underground cave who is exploring a new world he never knew of to people who are trying to find a place of wisdom in reality. According to Socrates, most people tend to rely on their senses too much and believe the world as it is appeared to our sight. In order to free our souls from this mental prison, Socrates suggests that we should go through a phase that does not only prepare ourselves for the real world but also prevent us from heading to the wrong direction to seek the truth - education. In conclusion, Socrates believes those who have reached a higher level of knowledge and wisdom should bear a responsibility to lead the community and improve it because they are blessed with better education and are able to enjoy a different reward than the power to control others like most politicians do. Two thousand years after Plato has written down the allegory, it is amazing how we can still relate it to our everyday lives. As Plato wrote in "The Allegory of the Cave," education is a very important phase that leads us to wisdom and helps us to get accustomed to the real world with less difficulty. Apparently, this theory has proven to be correct for the past two thousand years. Until today, those of higher wisdoms are mostly people who have mastered a thorough and solid education; and they certainly have become the leaders of the community who share their knowledge and enlighten many people. We can also find Plato's theory on rulers of countries relevant to the world today.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Inherit the Wind- Freedom to Think Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Inherit the Wind, based on the famous â€Å"Scopes Monkey Trial† in the small town Dayton, Tennessee, was written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The play was not intended to depict the actual history or the proceedings in the Scopes’ trial but it was used as a vehicle for exploring social anxiety and ant-intellectualism that existed in the Americas during the1950s. Lawrence and Lee wrote the play as a response to the threat to intellectual freedom presented by the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthy era. The major themes depicted in the Inherit the Wind include the intellectual curiosity, narrow-mindedness or limited perception, the importance of religion, and the relationship between the perception of others and self-worth portrayed by the characters in the play. The characters include Henry Drummond, Matthew Harrison Brady, E.K Hornbeck, Bert Cates and Rachel Brown; they represented the ideas and ways of thinking that existed then and no w.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Inherit the Wind took place in the small town of Hillsboro in which ‘the time was not too long ago.’ Bert Cates, a young teacher, who is imprisoned in the jail for teaching evolution to his high school biology class. The Reverend’s daughter and Cate’s fiancà ©e, Rachel, urges Cates to tell the town what he did was wrong and he is sorry; however, the town firmly believes that Cates is wrong and awaiting for Matthew Harrison Brady to come to town to prosecute Cates. Brady is a three time presidential candidate and firm believer in the Bible. The town hung a banner â€Å"Read your Bible† on courthouse and paraded the streets enthusiastically singing â€Å"Give me that old-time religion† when Brady arrives into town. Also arriving in Hillsboro, is E.K Hornbeck of the Baltimore Herald, who is cynical reporter and comments on everything. Hornbeck informs Brady that he will be arguing against Henry Drummond in court. The town see s Drummond as the devils advocate. Drummond arrives in town with little notice and is shunned by the people in town. In the course of the trial, Brady starts out confidently and chooses witnesses who profess strong religious belief. Brady calls for Rachel to be on the witness stand and twists her words about what Cates has told her. Meanwhile, the judge excludes all Drummond’s scientific witness on the grounds of evolution itself is not on trial. D... ...will appeal the case; however, his victory is setting an example for others who choose to think. It will make it easier for the next person. Cates finds a new life with Rachel away from the small town Hillsboro. The trial in Hillsboro is an allegory for the situation in the 1950s. In the 50’s, the government condemns people who supported Communism; thus leading to the censorious climate of McCarthyism. In addition to the witch-hunt and anti-Communist hysteria, regional conflicts between northern and southern states in the east of America. Laurence and Lee wrote the play to parallel some of conflicts of idea and subtly review them to the people. It was the method of exploring the major themes in the theses conflicts between intellectuals and believers, thinkers vs. narrow mindedness, and the relationship between the perception of others and self worth. Ultimately, Inherit the Wind encourages the right to think and the freedom of thought. In the attacking the value of free thought and speech upon which this country is built, nothing is obtained just like the situation in which Brady attacks his own house and inherits the wind—nothing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Friday, August 2, 2019

Canterbury Tales :: essays research papers

Canterbury Tales Chaucer wrote about many personalities and their triumphs and inadequacies.The Knight is portrayed as an ideal persona. He is a part of the Feudal system. The impression that I get is one of am older weathered soldier. He is modest of his cultural status. I think that after the wars and battles that he fought he might not want to talk about them and he may even be guilty of them. He wore older clothes. They were not as fancy as he could have worn. He portrays the chivalry element of the bunch. He is religious and also courageous:Who from the day on which he first began / To ride abroad had followed chivalry,Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy. (44-46) He traveled many places over great distances to fight at almost all of the important battles. Chaucer calls him a perfect Knight: â€Å"He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight†(68). He owned fine horses that were a symbol of wealth at that time, but he did not show this wealth outwardly in his clothing or adornments. The Knight’s son is somewhat his opposite. He dresses more fancily and shows off. He is a squire training to be a knight like his father. I don’t think that he is very serious about this because he enjoys the pleasures of life and not much of his training. Chaucer’s thoughts of his appearance were: He was some twenty years of age, I guessed. In stature he was of moderate length,With wonderful agility and strength. (78-80) He stayed up mall night and partied so he did not get much sleep. The Oxford Cleric was an odd scholar. He had a skinny horse and he looks hollow. His clothes were worn thin because he spent all his money on learning. He took money from his friends and spent it on more knowledge: Whatever money from his friends he took / He spent on learning or another book (303-304) The only thing he cared about in his life was studying.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Franklin wanted the best of everything and lived for happiness to every extent. He had the finest food and wine and was obsessed with them. He was not religious. He was so obsessed with food that he had to have the finest there was and if he sis not he blamed the cook.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The wife of bath was deaf. She made long scarves and traveled. In church she did not like anyone to go in front of her in church.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Motivation Plan. About my mentor Essay

Tangie Stevenson works for Medicredit Corporation, which is a Management and Recovery Agency, better known as The Outsource Group. This agency is a third party collection agency which a third-party collection agency is as agency that was not a party to the original contract between a creditor first-party and a debtor second-party. In most cases, a third-party collection agency is used once internal first-party collection efforts have been considered unsuccessful. First-party collection agency usually lasts for a period of months before the debt is turned over to a third-party collection agency. A creditor assigns accounts to a third-party collection agency for a fee. The fee differs depending on a wide variety of factors ranging from the collection agency that the creditor chooses to work with, to the number and type of accounts that will be submitted on a routine basis. The fee can be as simple as a flat fee per account submitted or a performance percentage fee on each amount that is collected. In some cases, it may be a combination of both. It is dependent upon the relationship that is agreed upon. As a collections manager Tangie oversee’s all activities related to the company’s credit and collections. She is responsible for formulating, implementing, and maintaining credit and collections policies, monitoring collections and past due accounts, reporting on the activities of the accounts receivable department, and ensuring timely collection of customer accounts receivables. She also provides training, direction, and evaluation of credit and collections employees. In addition to overseeing the collection department staff, she tracks customer feedback through the review of incoming letters, emails, and phone calls and the analytical data collected through outside reporting agencies. She also identifies errors or glitches in collection procedures and recommends solutions to increase collections on delinquent accounts while ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. The Plan I have established a plan to keep the employees in Tangie’s department motivated and satisfied. Keeping employees motivated and satisfied are important elements of not only getting the most out of your employees, but also in retaining your best employees. The best employees are always in high demand, and will change companies if they are not kept motivated and satisfied at work. It doesn’t matter what you build, invent or sell; your organization can’t move forward without people. CEOs, company founders and managers the world over know that keeping the teams beneath them moving forward together in harmony means the difference between winning and dying. The plan that can be applied to Tangie’s department that would increase the motivation, satisfaction and performance would be to first, have the team members build ownership among themselves. They must feel as if they own the place and not just work here. Once of the principles of self-managed teams is to organize around a whole service or product. One way to inspire this feeling is to have each of the members become familiar with what the other members are doing, allowing them to bring their ideas for improvement to the table and have input in the entire process. If the roles are too specialized, have each of the members of the team exchange responsibilities often. This all makes them feel like â€Å"it’s mine†, and most people, when it’s theirs, really don’t want to fail. Next, you must trust the employees to leave their comfort zones. This means to allow them to do more than one specific task, it will allow them to grow and become more confident in their abilities while making them feel more valuable to the organization. Even though as a manager it may feel like allowing individuals to try new things presents a risk to productivity or places workers outside of their established place, it heads off other issues. The bigger risk is having people get burnt out or bored. Then, is to keep the team informed; business leaders have a clearer perspective on the bigger picture than their employees do. It’s really important to tell subordinates what’s going on. What a manager may take for common knowledge about how things are going or what challenges are down the road, employees should be informed of. Spreading the intel lets everyone in on the lay of the land and at the same time strengthens the feeling among workers that they are an important asset to the organization. Then, is the fact that your employees are adults so treat them as such. This is also important when it comes to motivation and satisfaction in the organization. Employees need to be dealt with in a respectable manner. In any organization there is going to be bad news. It could have to do with the individual or the company as a whole but just remember to treat employees accordingly. As a manager, if you choose to keep people in the dark about trying times or issues, the fallout could be more serious than the issue itself. When people are left out, they tend to make things up. An important part of the plan is to remember that money matters, but not as much as you think. Compensation packages are a big deal when employees are hired, but once hired the motivation tends to go downhill. The motivation then comes from things like the challenge of the work, the purpose of the work, the opportunity to learn, and the opportunity to contribute. Last, is to reward and recognize employees if they’ve done something truly outstanding. Instead of telling others that your employees are doing such a great job, take the time to bring a specific person into your office or write an email or note along with that person’s paycheck to let him know that his work is truly outstanding. Rewarding them with small gifts like tickets to a movie, a gift certificate to a grocery store or even highly wish for tickets to a sports game is a good reward. Reward employees with time off, you will be astounded to see how quickly your employees get to work when you offer to let them leave a little early or if you give them the option of coming to work a little late the next day. Reference Forbes. (2013). 7 Ways to Keep Your Employees Happy (And Working Really Hard). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/09/08/7-ways-to-keep-your-employees-happy-and-working-really-hard/

Away Essay Essay

Discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings and renewed perceptions of ourselves and others. This is evident in Away by Michael Gow which focuses on aspects of discovery including realisations within oneself which can uncover further perceptions of ourselves or others. Gow also includes concepts based on the idea that the recognition that death is inevitable forces people to discover the meaning of life. Emotional turmoil and heartbreak may be a catalyst for discovery and acceptance of a situation and similarly, it must be discovered that healing can occur through love and reconciliation. Realisations within oneself can uncover further perceptions of ourselves or others. During the play â€Å"Away†, Gow portrays Gwen as a distraught woman as she has a meltdown. This is as a result of her obsession with social status, wealth and material possessions which has turned her into a cynical, angry woman. Gwen’s initial realisation occurs when Vic, who saw a lost woman in Gwen, suggests a walk and uses the inclusive pronoun â€Å"us girls† to provide a gentle approach. Walking is used by Gow as a catalyst but also a metaphor for progress and change. The walk up the beach helps Gwen to realise the elements of life are more important than her concerns over wealth and after being unable to take the BEX powder, she is no longer able to find consolation in such simplistic solutions which implies that Gwen has come to the realisation for more sophisticated thinking. The BEX powder is a symbol for Gwen’s attempt to artificially create happiness. â€Å"I want to take it and I can’t†. Gow has expressed the discovery of Gwen as very confronting yet rewarding as these new perceptions of herself lead to new perceptions of her relationship with her family and others. The recognition that death is inevitable forces people to discover the meaning of life. Coral is battling with the loss of her son in the Vietnam War, which also portrays a controversial issue at the same time. Coral’s detached attitude to life clashes her ironic statements, such as â€Å"aren’t we lucky to live in such a rich country† and â€Å"there is a price to be paid of course†. The play within a play is a cathartic experience for Coral. â€Å"I’m walking, I’m walking, I’m walking† is shown in a metaphorical and literal sense and symbolises the evident reconciliation with herself and for her son’s death. Tom has made a significant impact in Coral’s life which has caused her to change her perspective and reconcile with Her interaction with Tom  and the recognition that he will die allows Coral to overcome her intense mourning. Emotional turmoil and heartbreak may be a catalyst for discovery and acceptance of a situation. Harry and Vic are hoping the camping trip will help them overcome the shock of learning that Tom will die. â€Å"A few weeks just with ourselves. Just with you. It’ll be good.† Tom and his parents have accepted his inevitable death; however, there is still uncomfortableness between them in some situations. â€Å"Harry: when you’ve got your own family- Tom: do you want a drink or not?† In this scene, Gow uses the pause in Harry’s dialogue to the show the tension which has been created. Their tent symbolises their social status but also their lack of concern for material possessions as they are more focused on improving their relationships and spending time together. This makes them a happier family than the other two presented in the play. It must be discovered that healing can occur through love and reconciliation. Roy has been in conflict with Coral over her â€Å"strange† behaviour as he feels it is affecting his professional standing in the community. After losing a son in the Vietnam War, Roy has been impacted deeply but has, however, moved on whereas Coral is weighed down with a continuing grief which has caused struggle within the relationship. â€Å"Do you want me to arrange shock treatment?† Roy is obviously irritated with Coral’s detached and â€Å"ghostly† behaviour but it is not until Coral discovers reconciliation that she finds her happiness. During the dumb show, there is a visual representation of reconciliation as Roy buries his head in the shells and kisses Coral’s hands to symbolise the resolution of conflict. Therefore, discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings of renewed perceptions of ourselves and others as shown evidently within Away by Michael Gow. Gow has demonstrated a use of concepts within the play which reflect a theme of discovery as they can offer new understandings of ourselves and others, leading to renewed values and ideas and future possibilities. This is shown within the relationships between characters throughout the play, including Roy and Coral who find reconciliation portrayed in the hat of shells, Harry and Vic who discover and accept the inevitable death of their son and Gwen who, within herself, rediscovers happiness which allows a new perception of her relationship with her family and others.