The major threats in revenue cycle

The major threats in revenue cycle The objectives of the billing process are to ensure the customers are billed for all sales, invoices are accurate, and the customers are billed for all sales. Accurate billing is crucial and requires information identifying the items and quantities shipped, prices, and special sales terms. But, sometimes threats might happen; the transaction might result from either a mistake or a fraud. The company might face failure to bill customers. The failure will cause loss of assets and revenues and inaccurate sales, inventory and accounts receivable data. For example, the employees who ship the product to might not bill the customers as they customers are their friends. Besides, no reconciliation of inventory amounts shipped with billings might cause failure to bill customers. This could result in undetected underbilling. In addition, the bookkeeper might do not periodically verify that all sales orders and shipping advices have been invoiced. So, the company must observe the problems faced and reduce the risk of errors and fraud. The company may separate the shipping and billing function to prevent that the failure to bill customers. The internal control can manage the billing and shipping records should be integrated on the computer system to provide for reconciliation of inventory amounts shipped and billed. The company internal control must periodically verify that all sales orders and shipping advices have been invoiced. This is because accurate and timely billing is crucial. The Billing Department may require information from the Shipping Department on items and quantities shipped and from Sales on prices and other sales terms. The basic document created is the sales invoice. Invoices may be sent or received in paper form and in invoice-less systems, ensure every shipment is recorded, since the shipment triggers recording of the account receivable. The wellà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬managed internal control should also merge the billing process with sales and marketing by using data about a customerà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s past purchases to send information about related products and services with the monthly statement. All sales tickets should be prenumbered and accounted for. This would quickly spot missing tickets. On top of that, I suggest that the On-line data entry by sales staff. The system should include credit checks on customers as well as check inventory availability Email notification of each department (shipping, billing, etc.) whenever another department performs an action (e.g., billing is notified whenever shipping enters data indicating that an order has been released) Furthermore, there might be the billing error occurred during the sales transaction. The billing might be underbilling or overbilling. This may cause loss of asset and customer dissatisfaction. The employee might prepare the invoices without notification about what was shipped and when. This will cause the billing mistakes when shipping goods. The employees maybe deal with the wrong price list of the products or goods to cause overbilling customers. The solution for the billing error can be controlled by prepare invoice only after receive copy of shipping advice indicating quantities shipped and date. The internal control can use the prices of computer-based such as have the computer retrieve prices from the inventory master file. This can prevent the wrong price with the goods shipping or even wrong price wrong goods. Moreover, the company can use date entry edit control to eliminate the billing error. Have the system to check the inventory availability as order data are entered with the prices of it. The company also can use online terminal to enter sales order date into the system as orders are received to avoid the quantity error with billing error. Internal control can also do have a system to save all the inventory or product list with pricing list so that the company can use barcode scanners to scan the products order. It can prevent the data key in error. Furthermore, for the billing error I suggest that use passwords to limit access to authorized users, and to restrict the duties each employee may perform and which files they may access in case to prevent the inventory data and prices changed by the employees. Next we can also check quantities on packing slip against quantities on sales order to make sure again the right goods shipping and the billing cost. In addition, posting errors in updating accounts receivable is one of the threats of the billing in revenue cycle. Accounts can be written off to cover theft of cash due to uncollectible accounts are not determined on the basis of established criteria. Any of fees earned, cash receipts, and uncollectible accounts expense could be either understated or overstated because of undetected differences between the subsidiary ledger and the general ledger. Also, fees earned and cash receipts or accounts receivable could be understated because of failure to record billings, cash receipts, and write-offs accurately. Trial balances of the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger are not prepared independently of, or verified and reconciled to, the accounts receivable control account in the general ledger. It causes customer dissatisfaction and loss of sales and may indicate theft of cash To solve of this threat problems, the internal control can establish and use criteria for writing off accounts receivable. Write off should be authorized by someone who does not have access to cash and periodic reconciliation of the subsidiary accounts receivable ledger to the general ledger control account for accounts receivable. Besides, the invoice shall be prepared as soon as the order is approved and the inventory, accounts receivable and general ledger files are updated at that time to prevent the delay between order and shipment so that the bill can post into account receivable just in time to avoid any error happened. Between, in case to avoid the error in maintaining the customer accounts, the company internal control may edit checks such as validity checks on customer and invoice numbers so amounts are applied to the correct account. The company can also make the field check on it to ensure payment amounts are numeric. To make sure there are no error occurred during the up dating of account receivable, the internal control shall make the reconciliation of subsidiary accounts receivable ledger with general ledger and sending the monthly statements to every customer to provide independent review. To reduce this threat, I suggest that the company can compare the number of accounts updated with the number of check received. A variety of inputs edit checks (limit checks, range checks, reasonableness tests, etc.) to ensure completeness of data entry and accuracy. Besides, establishment of electronic lockboxes with banks so that customer payments go directly to companyà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s account. Use email notification of each department whenever another department performs an action. The system that provide should include the credit checks on customers as well as check inventory availability to avoid the posting error in updating account receivable and maintaining customer accounts.

Development of a Retail Leader: Wal-Mart

Development of a Retail Leader: Wal-Mart One of the known industries all over the world is Wal-Mart. Wal-mart is considered as a retail giant due to the companys successful business over the years. With good management practices and unique marketing strategies, Wal-Mart was able to operate successfully not only in the United States but also in international market (Hayden et al, 2002). ÂÂ  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. was first established and founded by Sam Walton at Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. The business growth of the retail store was momentous that within a span of seventeen years in operation, Wal-Mart had already topped annual sales at one billion US dollars. By the end of January in 2002, Wal-Mart has been recognized as the largest retailer in the world a sales record of 218 billion US dollars. With this huge and continuous development, it is no wonder the retail store was able to operate at the global level. The global operation of Wal-Mart was marked by the establishment of its first international store in 1991 at Mex ico City (Govindarajan Gupta, 2001). Through its international reach, an estimate of one hundred million customers are said to visit a Wal-Mart store found somewhere in the world. A total of 1.3 million associates worldwide are employed by the company and are distributed within its 3,200 stores in the United States as well at over a thousand other stores in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, China, Germany, Korea and in the United Kingdom (Govindarajan Gupta, 2001). The retail stores of Wal-Mart are operated in different formats worldwide. In general, the business is divided into three main segments: Wal-Mart Stores, Sams Club and International Stores. The Wal-Mart stores are further subdivided into Discount Stores, Supercenters and Neighbourhood Markets. Sams Club on the other hand, is a business segment that consists of membership warehouse clubs. According to the New York Stock Exchange (2005), Wal-Mart Stores operates about 1,478 Discount Stores, 1,471 Supercenters, 538 Sams Club and 64 Neighbourhood Markets within the United States as of January 31, 2004. In addition to this huge local operation, Wal-Mart and its international segment conducts retail operation within eight countries and Puerto Rico. Wal-Marts international segment is made into several formats, which include retail stores, restaurants, discount stores, Sams Club and Supercenters. Aside from these operations, Wal-Mart also owns a 37.8% unconsolidated minority interest in one of Japans retailers, The Seiyu, Ltd. (New York Stock Exchange, 2005). Strategic marketing Management Techniques of Walmart Wal-Mart dominates the American retailing industry due to number of factors like its business model which is still a mystery and its effectiveness in not letting the rivals let know about the weaknesses. Wal-Mart made strategic attempts in the its formulation to dominate the retail market where it has its presence, growth by expansion in the US and Internationally, create widespread name recognition and customer satisfaction in relation to brand name Wal-Mart and branching into new sectors of retailing. It is learnt that Wal-Mart strives on three generic strategies consisting of Focus Strategy, the Differentiation Strategy and overall cost leadership.ÂÂ  Managers strive hard to make their organizations unique, distinctive and identify key success factors that will drive the customers to buy their products.Thus, firm specific resources and capabilities are crucial in explaining the firms performance. The Resource Based View (RBV) explains competitive heterogeneity based on the premise that close competitors differ in their resources and capabilities in important and durable ways. The companys capability can be found through its functionality, reliable performance, like Wal-Mart superior logistics. (Helfat, 2002)ÂÂ  Wal-Mart has firm infrastructure, well equipped in human resource with management professionals and technologically too. Any organizations thrive hard to be successful for which it needs to have better resources and superior capabilities. Wal-Mart has strong RBV with economically and financially very strong enough to stand still in the time of crisis. Pereira states that dominating the retail market is its key strategy. Wal-Mart operates on low price strategy which is operated as every day low prices (EDLP) which builds trust among the customers.(Brunn, 2006)The strategy lies in purchasing the goods at lower prices and selling the goods to customer at much lower prices, cutting the price as far as possible and increasing the profit by increasing the number of sales. This ferociously increases the competition in the market and Wal-Mart competes with all its competitors till it is dominant it the market. Wal-Mart is expanding seriously and rapidly which is also its strategic goal. Wal-Mart employs over 1.3 associates, owns over 4000 stores out of which 3000 are in US and serves around 100 million customers weekly.ÂÂ  Wal-Mart has acquired many international stores and merged with some super stores like ASDA in UK. Wal-Mart far flung network of retail outlets has ensured that Wal-Mart interacts with and has impact on virtually every locality within US. (Helfat, 2002)ÂÂ  The expanded strategy has led the hunger of Wal-Mart to many European Countries. It is learnt that three countries with no Wal-Mart stores became part of corporations international presence wherein the domestic retail chains were taken over by Wal-Mart including 122 Woolco stores in Canada, 21 Wertkauf stores in Germany and 229 ASDA units in United Kingdom. The takeover strategy by Wal-Mart keeps the company at forefront when entering into the new market and the number of competitors is also minimized. The st rategies have helped the Wal-Mart to rein in number one position in international countries making it the largest retailer in the world. It is seen that Wal-Mart has significantly the Porters five force model wherein through proper strategic planning and strategic implementation has led to removal of barrier entry, rivalry from competitors and pricing norms. In regard to substitutes, Wal-Mart in order to achieve its aim of customer satisfaction has selling goods under its own legal brand. ÂÂ  Wal-Marts big box phenomenon has changed the retailing industry in the United States which is often considered as discount stores and makes profit through high volume of purchases and low markup on profits.(Parnell, 2008)Wal-Mart with its low cost and ever expanding strategy has made a dramatic impact since 1962 when Sam Walton first started his business. With this strategy, Wal-Mart has now over 4000 stores and outlets in US and other countries through acquisition and mergers. Marketing Performance management Marketing performance management (MPM) is a term used by marketing professionals to describe the analysis and improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. This is accomplished by focus on the alignment of marketing activities, strategies, and metrics with business goals.[2] It involves the creation of a metrics framework to monitor marketing performance, and then develop and utilize marketing dashboards to manage marketing performance.[3] This strategy is used by several companies such as IBM, Intel, and Citrix.[3][4][5] Performance management is one of the key processes applied to business operations such as manufacturing, logistics, and product development. The goals of performance management are to achieve key outcomes and objectives to optimize individual, group, or organizational performance. MPM however, is more specific. It focuses on measuring, managing, and analyzing marketing performance to maximize effectiveness and optimize the return of investment (ROI) of marketing.[6] Three elements play a critical role in managing marketing performance-data, analytics, and metrics. Conclusion Walmart has done a lot in the past in order to secure its position as a retail market leader. These include offering low prices, offering good customer service and constant innovation. However, lately the company has grappled with low customer traffic. Market saturation in the middle income market segment, poor international performance and bad public relations as a result of their employee practices. The company should adopt the following strategies in order to ensure future growth; adopt penetrative strategies international markets, introduce good product packages for products favored by affluent clients and improve health insurance plans within the company. These will go a long way in sustaining the companys positions as the USs retail leader. And as the animosity against Wal-Mart becomes more widespread, here and in foreign countries, Wal-Mart is going to have to work harder to maintain their good reputation.Wal-Marts foundation will become increasingly more important for giving things back to the community. In order for Wal-Mart to stay at the top of their game and follow the company strategy and achieve their key policy goals, they are going to have deal better with their stakeholders and make sure they guard their reputation well.

Imagery and Symbolism in David Guterson’s The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind :: Guterson Country Ahead of Us Country Behind

Imagery and Symbolism in David Guterson’s The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind In David Guterson’s anthology, The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind, characters are portrayed effectively and succinctly through the imagery of their surroundings. Many of his stories are symbolic in that they reflect relationships and feelings of characters. Guterson’s titles have a more complex and deeper connection to the story than is first apparent. They too are often symbolic of a main character, or of relationships. In "Angels in the Snow," Guterson describes the world as fragile because of the snow that has fallen. This fragility of the world, at that particular time, is representative of the relationship between John and Cora. The next morning the world is described as ‘a fragile, white place’ and this symbolises their relationship which has also become very fragile because of what John has revealed. The whiteness of the snow symbolises innocence and purity, but at this moment, through Cora’s eyes, John has lost the last of his innocence. Guterson also uses the act of making angels in the snow to portray innocence that is rapidly fading. We made angels in the snow, Cora and myself, swept our arms through the powder, left an impression of wings that would melt before the new year. It is as if John already knows what is to come, and is aware of how soon it will be. He is aware that his relationship with Cora has changed. She now has confirmation that John is not as innocent as he might have liked her to think. Through making the angels he is making one last attempt to seem innocent, for this is a very innocent act. John appears to think that if he can some how act innocently, he can convince Cora that he really is so. In "The Flower Garden," Guterson continues his exploration of the fragility of a relationship between a man and a woman and again portrays this by drawing parallels with what is happening in nature. The relationship between Anna and the narrator is a very fragile one like the garden they ‘planted with nursery sets and fragile garden cuttings.’ The relationship and the garden are at the beginning of their being, and both are very fragile. Both have to be thought out, then nurtured carefully. Any mistake or misjudgment can have long and lasting consequences.

We Need Censorship :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

We Need Censorship It won't kill us to make limits, but it might if we don't. That is why it is JUSTIFIABLE to limit adult's freedom of expression--it is in our, society's, best interests to protect the children. Lional Tate is just one example of a child gone bad because of the media. Tate mimicked his idol the Rock, killing a six-year old girl by smashing her skull, pulverizing her liver, breaking her ribs and causing numerous cuts and bruises. If that's not enough of an example what about the teen from New Jersey who simply listened to Ozzy Osborne's "Suicide Solution" and killed himself? These are not random occurrences, we hear about them on the news frequently. If our freedom of expression is harming kids why can't we fix the problem by not allowing them access to it? Argument one, People, especially children are very susceptible to being influenced by what they watch or see happen throughout their lives. "Monkey see, Monkey do." Everyone has heard this phrase sometime in his or her life. This phrase is simple, yet very applicable to today's debate. When a child sees someone or something doing something. They will of course follow suit and imitate the action being performed. Children do not know any better. Therefore they are innocent and deserve to be respected. It is for these following reasons that we argue for the censorship of harmful materials that could influence a child or children into violent acts, expressions, and other dangerous actions. Through television, video games, and movies, children and teens view countless acts of violence, brutality, and terror as part of entertainment. They become conditioned to associating violence with entertainment. First-person shooter video games develop our children's skills in operating weapons. The games reward marksmanship, and further reinforce the association of killing with entertainment. In the past, the heroes of movie and television shows were usually people who strictly followed the law. Now, heroes are often people who take the law into their own hands, who see an injustice or evil and seek to rectify it personally, sometimes brutally, regardless of the consequences. Such portrayals signal, to a child, society's approval of that behavior.

Multistep Synthesis of Benzilic Acid

Multi-Step Synthesis of Benzilic Acid from Benzoin Abstract: The main purpose of this experiment was to convert a secondary alcohol to a ketone, utilizing a mild and selective oxidizing agent. In addition, this converted alpha diketone was then subjected to rearrangement to a carboxylate salt, then acidification, to produce an alpha-hydroxyacid. In this experiment, benzoin was used and converted into benzil, which was then used to synthesize benzillic acid. The yields were not ideal: . 081g of benzil- a 27. 5% yield; . 038g of benzilic acid- a 34. 7% yield. The matching melting points and IR readings, however, confirmed a high degree of purity for each compound: 95. 6 °C for benzil, and 104. 5 °C for benzilic acid, meager . 632% and . 333% discrepancy from literature values, respectively. Finally, the IR absorption frequencies on the attached graphs illustrate the successful removal of the alcohol in the oxidation step and successive return of the alcohol/creation of carboxylic acid, following rearrangement. Multistep syntheses are essential to producing complex molecules.This experiment illustrated the importance of verifying intermediary products are pure, by utilizing different techniques such as IR and melting point. Below is a diagram of the overall reaction. First Reaction: Second Reaction: Introduction: The multistep reaction from Benzoin to Benzillic acid involves multiple organic chemistry concepts, such as oxidation and re arrangement. The first part of the experiment involves the oxidation of benzoin to benzil, utilizing a mild oxidating agent. The process of oxidation is used in all organic chemistry labs and is essential to a wide variety of synthesis reactions.In addition, oxidation reactions are essential in the the biochemistry of most living organisms. This experiment also breaks down oxidizing agents into selective and non-selective agents. For this experiment’s purposes, nitric acid was used, as it is selective towards secondary alcohols, oxidizing them to ketones. The second part of this experiment involves the rearrangement of benzil to benzillic acid or, more generally, the reaction of an alpha-diketone to an alpha-hydroxyacid. This reaction was first conducted by Justus von Liebig in 1838 (1).The basics of this reaction involve the formation of a carboxylate salt from an alpha-diketone; acid is then added to produce an aromatic alpha-hydroxyacid. The reaction conducted in this expe riment is an essential base step in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and certain hallucinogenic drugs. The synthesis of Benzil from Benzoin is shown below: The above reaction shows the condensed oxidation of benzoin to benzil. The following diagram shows the condensed reaction of benzil to benzillic acid. Rearrangement occurs to form a salt, then the salt is acidified to form benzillic acid.Once the products of each step were obtained- benzil and benzillic acid- their melting points and IR readings were obtained. These two measurements were used to prove that the correct product was formed without any impurities. One of the major risks in this experiment is loss of product through multiple filtrations. To minimize this problem, the filtration steps should be carefully and slowly executed. This ensures that the least amount of reactants are lost. In addition, recrystallization can occur too quickly if a hot solution is directly placed in an ice bath, allowing impurities to be trapped within the precipitate’s crystal lattice.To avoid this, the solutions should be given ample time to cool to room temperature before adding the solutions to an ice bath. These precautions were taken to try to reach our goal of a high percent yield of product with little to no impurities. There were no new techniques used in this experiment, however there were old techniques used to provide information/obtain a product. The first technique was crystallization which was useful to obtain a solid product that can then be purified. Another old technique utilized was filtration, via hirsch funnel and vacuum. This technique was used to obtain a purified product, removing impurities.Once the final solid product was obtained in both reactions the melting point procedure was used to determine the level of remaining impurity of the final product, comparing the experimental and expected values found in literature. In conjunction with the melting point procedure, infrared spectroscopy was used to reveal the different functional groups of the products. In other words, the IR machine indicates whether our final product matches up with the desired one, matching carbonyl and alcohol absorption peaks (or the lack thereof) to their theoretical presence (either benzil or benzillic acid).Procedure: 1. 5ml of nitric acid was added to . 30g of benzoin in a conical vial with a stir vane. The mixture was then heated in a 70 degree Celsius water bath, while stirred, for one hour. The mixture in the conical vial was then cooled to room temperature and, using a pipette, the solution was transferred to a beaker containing 4ml of ice water. The mixture slowly crystallized in the beaker and the crystallized product was filtered on a hirsch funnel with vacuum. 5 ml of cold water was used to wash the product and then the product was allowed to dry.The solid product was then collected from the funnel and added to a hot 95% ethanol solution in an Erlenmeyer flask and completely dissolved . Once the solid was dissolved completely, the solution was allowed to cool to room temperature. Once yellow crystals formed, the solution was placed into an ice bath. The product was then collected and filtered again on a hirsch funnel with vacuum. The product was then washed with ice cold 95% ethanol. Once completely dried, the crystals were weighed and the final mass, percent yield, melting point, and IR reading of the crystallized product measured/calculated. 100g of benzil and . 30ml of ethanol were mixed in a conical vial.The solution in the conical vial was then heated to about 100 degrees celsius until the benzil dissolved. Then . 25ml of potassium hydroxide was added dropwise to the vial. The mixture was then heated to 110 degrees for 15 minutes, then allowed to slowly cool to room temperature. The product was transferred with a pipette to a 10ml beaker and cooled in an ice bath for 15 minutes. 1ml portions of ethanol were added once crystallized and filtered. The product w as then transferred to a 10ml beaker with 70 °C water, allowing the product to dissolve. 0. ml of HCL acid was added dropwise and the mixture was allowed to cool and then transferred to an ice bath. The crystals were collected on a hirsch funnel and washed with 4ml of cold ice water.The crystals were dried and collected for final mass, percent yield, melting point, and IR reading. Results and Discussion: Table 1: Mass and Molar Quantity of Starting and Synthesized Materials; Percentage Yield and Both Experimental and Theoretical Melting Points of Products and Percent Discrepancy| Compound| Mass (g)| Quantity (mol x10-4)| % Yield| M. P. EXP ( °C)| M. P. THEO ( °C)| % D| Benzoin| 0. 298| 14| -| -| -| -| Benzil Yield| 0. 081| 3. 5| 27. 50%| 95. 6| 95. 0| 0. 632%| Benzil Start| 0. 1001| 4. 76| -| -| -|   | Benzilic Acid Yield| 0. 038| 1. 67| 34. 97%| 149. 5| 150| 0. 333%| The initial mass of benzoin and its yield of benzil in the first part of the experiment, as well as the star ting mass of benzil and its yield of benzilic acid in the second part.Note that the yield from part 1 was not the same amount used at the start of part 2. Also shown: the converted molar quantity of each mass and corresponding percent yield for the two synthesized compound, as well as their experimental and theoretical melting points and percent discrepancy between these values. As noted, the â€Å"Start† weight of Benzil- in row 3 of Table 1- differs from the â€Å"Yield† weight- in row 2. The yield, itself, was not used in the second part of this experiment: the synthesis of benzilic acid from benzil. Furthermore, an error occurred in the second portion of the experiment and very little acid product was salvaged; thus, the yield shown for benzilic acid is data that has been shared from another synthesis (this product yield was from _____ and his lab partner). Additionally, this alternative product was the one used in determining a melting point. Graph 1 illustrates t he successful oxidation of benzil, as the alcohol has been eliminated. As expected, it also retains a strong peak at ~1657cm-1, indicating the carbonyl groups present in the diketone, although this is a slightly lower absorption than expected. Graph 2 also presents a successful synthesis, as a relatively strong and somewhat broad peak appears around 3390cm-1, suggesting the reemergence of an alcohol and potential presence of the carboxylic acid; that the peak at 1715cm-1 remains strong, confirms his.SAMPLE CALCULATIONSCalculation of Benzil Percent Yield: Moles BenzilMoles Benzoin=. 081g? 210. 23g/mol. 298g? 212. 24g/mol=3. 85? 10-4mol14. 0? 10-4mol=0. 275? 100%=27. 5% Calculation of Benzilic Acid Percent Yield: Moles Benzilic AcidMoles Benzil=. 0380? 228. 25g/mol. 1001? 210. 23g/mol=1. 67? 10-4mol4. 76? 10-4mol=0. 3497? 100%=34. 97% Calculation of Percent Discrepancy in Benzil Melting Point: %D=xTHEO-xEXPxTHEO? 100%= 95. 0? -95. 6? 95. 0? =. 00632Ãâ€"100%=0. 32% Calculation of Perc ent Discrepancy in Benzilic Acid Melting Point: %D=xTHEO-xEXPxTHEO? 100%= 150. 0? -149. 5? 150. 0? =. 0033Ãâ€"100%=0. 33% Both steps of this experiment’s synthesis are considered successful. Though not in the desired quantities, a product of benzil was obtained from benzoin and that of benzoic acid from benzil. The initial step, synthesis of benzil, resulted in a yield of 27. 5%, despite an encouragingly smooth synthesis. The synthesis may have called for a second, more thorough recrystallization to appeal this yield.The recrystallization was performed correctly; however, the mixture was likely not allowed to cool at an ideally slow rate. It was removed from the hot plate and, shortly thereafter, transferred to the ice bath- likely, before it had calmed to room temperature. This could have interrupted the ability for the product to crystallize without impurities being trapped within its lattice. During the second portion of this experiment, a known, pure quantity of benzil w as used to synthesize a 34. 97% yield of benzilic acid. This small yield is likely also due to factors similar to the aforementioned.Additionally, the recorded yield was shared from another synthesis; the original synthesis performed yielded too small and impure an amount of product to effectively determine a melting point and I. R. spectra. This failure may certainly be attributed to an error during the recrystallization, prior to the initial filtration. Proper care was taken to allow the solution to cool very slowly during this second recrystallization. Unfortunately, once the solution was transferred to the ice bath, a large chunk of ice crystals somehow fell over the lip of the flask and into the mixture. Being that the intermediate was relatively water

“Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx Essay

â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†Annie Proulx was born on August 22, 1935, in Norwich, Connecticut, into a family of farmers, mill workers, inventors, and artists whose ancestors had lived there for three centuries. Because of her father’s career in textiles, Proulx’s family constantly moved, so she lived in several states, including North Carolina, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Vermont in 1969 and then went on to graduate from Concordia University with a Master’s degree in Art in 1973 (Info Please). Starting as a Journalist, her first published work of fiction was â€Å"The Costums Lounge† and she subsequently published stories in Gray’s Sporting Journal in the late 1970s, eventually publishing her first collection in 1988 and her first novel in 1992. Proulx has twice won the O. Henry Prize for the year’s best short story (Info Please). In 1998, she won for â€Å"Brokeback Mountain,† which had appeared in The New Yorker on October 13, 1997. Proulx won again the following year for â€Å"The Mud Below,† which appeared in The New Yorker June 22 and 29, 1999. Both appear in her 1999 collection of short stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. Proulx emphasizes a heartbreaking tale of two homosexual individuals who struggle to be together, bound by the norms and rules of society. I found â€Å"Brokeback Mountain† to be a very real and compassionate tale of two cowboys who unexpectedly found love in each other. In a most peaceful setting, away from the world, two cowboys embody one of the most disquieting issues affecting our entire culture. The pain experienced by every character is believable as is the anger. Proulx does a great job of letting Ennis’s confusion and his accompanying anger percolate beneath the cloak of social conformity. It is a garment that doesn’t fit, yet he is terrified to remove it. Proulx helps depict the depth of pain experienced when the object of love is socially unacceptable, and the anger one experiences when forced to live dishonestly. Proulx is the narrator of â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†. She tells the story of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist’s summer on Brokeback Mountain, and the many years after that, and the deep love they develop for one another in an intolerant world. The point of view of the story is third person omniscient. The narration is real in tone and employs description and dialogue to examine the actions, emotions and thoughts of the characters. Proulx describes a sequence of events from a beginning point in time, when the characters are introduced in the year 1963 in Wyoming, to the end of the story nearly 20 years later. Throughout the story, Ennis and Jack reunite for brief liaisons on camping trips in remote settings over the course of 20 years. Proulx uses setting details to heighten the thematic significance of the story. The most effective use of setting as symbol occurs when she juxtaposes harsh and beautiful images of the landscape’s cruel beauty to suggest the difficult nature of Ennis’s and Jack’s relationship. The story starts out with Ennis Del Mar getting a job on the mountain as a sheep herder with Jack Twist. Day after day, Ennis tends the camp while Jack herds the sheep and sleeps out on the mountain with them. One day, when Jack complains about his â€Å"commutin four hours a day,† he accepts Ennis’s offer to switch jobs. Every evening, they share supper by the campfire, â€Å"talking horses and rodeo, rough stock events, wrecks and injuries sustained,† (Proulx 75) and other details of their hard lives in the West. Toward the end of the summer when they shift the camp, the distance Ennis has to ride out to the sheep grows longer and he begins to stay later at the camp at night. One evening, after the two sing drunken songs by the campfire, Ennis decides it is too late to go out to the sheep and so beds down at the campsite. After his shivering wakes Jack, he insists that Ennis share his bedroll. Soon after, the two have sex, something Ennis had never done before. Their sexual activity becomes more frequent in the following days while they both insist that neither of them is â€Å"queer.† One day the foreman, Joe Aguirre, watches them together through his binoculars. At the end of the summer, When Jack asks Ennis if he is coming back to the mountain the next summer, Ennis tells him that he will be getting married in December and then will try to find work on a ranch. Jack determines to go back home and then maybe to Texas, and the two say an awkward goodbye. As Ennis drives away, his gut wrenches and he feels â€Å"as bad as he ever had†. Ennis marries Alma  and their first child, Alma Jr., is born a year later and after their second child is born, Alma convinces Ennis to get a place in town, so she doesn’t have to deal with anymore â€Å"lonesome ranches.† Four summers after their first on Brokeback Mountain, Jack visits Ennis. When Jack first arrives, he and Ennis share a passionate embrace, watched by Alma. When Jack meets Alma, he announces that he too is married and has a baby boy. After a few awkward moments, Ennis and Jack leave, pick up a bottle of whiskey and head for a motel where they spend the night together. They talk of how they missed each other and Jack suggests that he married his wife, Lureen, because she came from a wealthy family. Ennis admits that he has been thinking about whether he is gay, but insists that he is not because though he does not enjoy sex with women, he has not been with any other man. Jack declares the same. After the two express their passion for each other, Ennis determines that nothing can be done since they both have families and warns Jack that if they are seen together, they may be killed. The only future Ennis can see for the two of them is to get together once in a while, explaining â€Å"if you can’t fix it you got to stand it.† After a while, Ennis and Alma begin to grow apart and she starts to resent him for not finding a stea dy job, and always going with Jack on fishing trips. Eventually, they divorce and Alma remarries but stays in touch with Ennis and lets him visit their children. During the following years, Ennis and Jack occasionally meet on different ranges throughout the West. One night, they catch each other up on their lives, both admitting affairs with women and problems with their own children. After complaining about the infrequency of their time together, Jack suggests that they move to Mexico, but Ennis declines, insisting that he has to stay and work. Months later, when Ennis receives back a postcard he had sent to Jack marked â€Å"DECEASED,† he calls Lureen, who informs him that Jack was killed when a tire blew up in his face. Ennis suspects, however, that he was murdered after he was caught with another man. He makes a trip to see Jack’s parents and offers to take Jack’s ashes up to Brokeback Mountain, where Jack had told Lureen that he wanted to be buried. During the visit, Ennis goes up to Jack’s room where he finds Jack’s shirt, which is covered in Ennis’s blood. Inside the shirt, he finds one of his own. Ennis then buries his face in Jack’s shirt, hoping to be able to smell his scent, but there is nothing there. Before Ennis leaves, Mr. Twist informs him that  Jack’s ashes will be buried in the family plot. Ennis would have dreams of Jack and visions of their time in Brokeback Mountain, which fills him with both sorrow and joy. The protagonist of the story are Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Proulx gives a good description of both stating â€Å"They were raised on small, poor ranches in opposite corners of the state, Jack Twist in Lightning Flat, up on the Montana border, Ennis del Mar from around Sage, near the Utah line, both high school drop out country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough mannered, rough spoken, inured to the stoic life†(Proulx 74.) The antagonist of the story would be the locals and society for killing Jack because they didn’t find it acceptable for a man to be living with another man. I think both Ennis and Jack changed because they were both very masculine, rough, cowboys who had never been with a man before until they had a sexual encounter with each other and realized they were in love. This change is very believable because there are many people in our society today who are homosexual, marry their partners, and even take pride in be ing gay. The story’s use of language is informal. Informal language is characterized by spontaneous speech and situations that describe natural or â€Å"real life†. It’s used by family and friends, which proves the story has informal dialogue with casual conversation. The external conflict of the story is Man versus Society. Jack and Ennis must hide their relationship because of its immoral content. Thus, they live a life hiding from their true feelings. At times they even tried to deny their nature. Because of the threat of being ostracized and possible killed, these men led a life separate from their love for one another. In the end, their prejudice, along with everyone else’s, killed Jack. The internal conflict of the story is Man versus Himself. Proulx sketches a picture of two men who live in a constant struggle with their ideas of morality and presents a devastating study of Jack and Ennis’ subsequent struggle with both their families and their work as they try to come to terms with their sexual relationship. In exploring the intimacies and sexual pleasures emerging from  this masculine world, Proulx captures the destruction and isolation, which comes from both men’s disapproval of their homosexual tendencies. Proulx identifies this conflict when she writes, â€Å"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it† (Proulx 79). Throughout the story the reader sees Jack and Ennis deal with the fact that they do not approve of their own feelings. The moral norm in the American West was that homosexuals are perverts. Ennis lives his adult life plagued by the remembrance of a man who was brutally killed because people thought him to be a homosexual. In essence these two live a life that could have been a lot happier if there weren’t prejudices that prevented them from being together. What I find most interesting is that it wasn’t other people’s prejudices that kept them apart; these men are kept apart by their own morals. They truly believed that their homosexuality was immoral. The climax of the story is when Ennis sends Jack a postcard about getting together in November and it got sent back to him stamped â€Å"DECEASED†. After Ennis visits Jack’s parents and they tell him of Jack trying to fix up a ranch for him and another man, Ennis realizes that it wasn’t the tire that blew out that killed him. The locals murdered him for being homosexual and there was no resolution. As Ennis said, â€Å"If you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it†. I found that Proulx used the descriptive settings as a symbol. The most effective use of setting as symbol occurs when she describes harsh and beautiful images of the landscape’s cruel beauty to suggest the difficult nature of Ennis’s and Jack’s relationship. For example, she describes the â€Å"sweetened† cold air of the mountain on their first morning with the phallic â€Å"rearing lodge pole pines massed in slabs of somber malachite†(Proulx 74). When Ennis and Jack begin their sexual relationship, Proulx captures its harsh and exhilarating duality when she describes Jack and Ennis as â€Å"flying in the euphoric, bitter air† (Proulx 76) on the mountain. The title of the story is â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†. The title is the name of the mountain where Ennis and Jack worked together when they first met.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Brokeback Mountain† represents all the memories the two cowboys had together and where their intimacy and love for each other deepened. I believe the story only had one significant meaning which was that although love is prescriptively understood by people as a feeling between a man and a woman, as the evolution of human beings continues, love should be looked in another way. Any two people, no matter what gender or race, can find love. Shame is a major theme in the story. Ennis’s internalization of the belief that homosexuality is indecent and punishable by death, causes him to be ashamed about the intensity of his feelings for Jack. At the beginning of their relationship on the mountain, he insists that he is not â€Å"queer,† that their feelings for each other are not indicative of his sexual orientation. His shame, coupled with his need to maintain his marriage in the face of public scrutiny, causes him to lie continually to Alma about his feelings for Jack, insisting that when she catches the two in a heated embrace, their actions are a result of their not having seen each other for years. His internalized homophobia makes him unable to accept himself or act congruently. Ennis needs to maintain the illusion of a conventional life, even if that life denies him the one person he desires most. The plot of this short story mirrors many experiences that gays have had to deal with in today’s society, such as banding gay marriages or homosexual hate crimes. There have been many incidents where homosexuals have been threatened, abused, and even killed because people don’t agree with their lifestyles. Although I was very skeptical about reading this story at first, I found it to be very eye opening and real. Proulx does a wonderful job of telling a tale of two men who develop a deep love for each other but who are forced to live separate lives in an intolerant world. I think the story will help people empathize diversity in each other and become more tolerant. Works Cited â€Å"Annie Proulx Biography.† Info Please. 2007. Information Please Database. 13 Oct. 2008 . Proulx, Annie. â€Å"Brokeback Mountain.† The New Yorker 13 Oct. 1997: 74-85.

Trifles Susan Glaspell Irony Symbolism Theme

Elizabeth NolanNovember 24, 2012 English essay Favorite Play â€Å"Trifles†, a play by Susan Gaspell, is a story of women banding together to protect one another in a male dominated society. The play is titled â€Å"Trifles† because women’s concerns were often considered mere trifles, and not worth the thought and time of men. The use of theme, symbolism, and irony are the reasons why this play is so appealing, especially to women. â€Å"Trifles† contains themes of female identity, revenge, and protection.The protagonists of the play are women, but they are not known by their first names. They are only called by their husbands’ name. It is only when they speak of Mrs. Wright before her marriage that she is called Minnie. The men believe that the women are small-minded and assume the identities of their husbands. Minnie Wright was a vibrant, outgoing young lady. After her marriage to John Wright, the light in her dimmed until she was nothing but a sh ell of her former self.He took away her self worth, making her life with him unbearable. This is the reason she snapped and murdered her husband. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover evidence that the men could not. They approached the house as a home instead of a crime scene. The women identified with Mrs. Wright after piecing the story together and decided to keep the evidence that would convict her to themselves. By protecting her, they are standing up for women everywhere. Mrs.Wrights pet canary is a symbol of herself. She had once been a beautiful girl with a nice singing voice, but her marriage to John Wright was like a cage. She was secluded from others and treated poorly by him. The bird was her only source of happiness in her cold, lonely life. When john strangled the bird, he killed the last part of Mrs. Wright that was Minnie Foster. He had taken away her only comfort in life, and this is why she decided to strangle him with the rope.