Johnny Tremain :: essays research papers

Imagine being back in the colony of Massachusetts before the Revolutionary war. As you walk down the streets of Boston, you meet a young man named Johnny Tremain. After listening to his story, you think of the different ways you could describe him. You could describe him by his looks, by his personality, and by the talents he portrays. His character is so interesting that it's hard to describe his skilled talents, his complex personality, and his adored physical features. As you remember the tale of his hardships and fate, you know that Johnny Tremain will stand in your mind forever. Standing alone on the wharf next to his magnificent house, you see a thin, light haired, light complected young man. There are many ways you can describe the way Johnny Tremain looks. You can tell by the way he stands, so proud, that he is around 15 years old. You can see that he's strong but he's also frightened. As you move your eyes towards what's behind him you notice that his hand is crippled and was probably burned. Your eyes meet his and they're a piercing blue. You are so struck by his looks you can't wait to go talk to him and find out about his personality traits. Johnny Tremain's personality was very fascinating, and it was most intriguing to read about how he changed from a bossy, impatient boy, into a thoughtful, patient gentleman. Even though he was a skilled worker, he was proud, and full of arrogance. But after his terrible tragedy, his rude character died in the birth and death room, and Johnny was reborn as a more patient and caring person. He still won't take pity from anyone, but on the inside he is probably crying out for help. Although he has no one to talk to, he does have special talents that help keep him going strong. Before Johnny burned his hand working on a sugar basin, he was a skilled silversmith. Imagine burning your right hand and losing many of your talents, such as writing or using an ax. After practicing, he painfully learned to use his left hand to use an ax. He also learned to legibly write, but it used to be better before his accident. Now Johnny diligently works for a newspaper called the Boston Observer. He regularly rides his horse, Goblin, and faithfully delivers the newspapers. Delivering notes for the British officers proved to be a profitable part of his routine. As the day ends, you have enjoyed spending time with Johnny.

Prophet and Tecumseh Essay -- essays research papers

It is believed that Tecumseh was born in 1768 in central Ohio. He was the second son of a Shawnee warrior who was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant. In his dying breaths, his father commanded his eldest son Cheesuaka, to train Tecumseh as a warrior and to never make peace with the whites. Cheesuaka was good to his word and became an excellent warrior and a teacher. He grew close with his younger brother, and after their mother moved to Missouri he acted as a foster parent as well. Tecumseh was a model child, and although it is claimed that he ran in terror from his first battle, his courage never faltered from then on. Tall, muscular, intelligent, and highly charismatic, Tecumseh proved to be a master battle tactics and an excellent speaker. (Edmunds) Prophet was one of a set of triplets born just a few years after Tecumseh. Tenskwatawa, as he was first known was the only one of the three believed to have survived into adulthood. Part of this could be because, unlike Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa was a clumsy child who was unskilled in hunting and would never become a warrior. This was a serious faux paux for a young man in Shawnee society. Tenskwatawa lost his right eye in a hunting accident when he was young. As he grew older, developed a taste for whiskey and quickly degenerated into severe alcoholism. Despite his flaws, Tenskwatawa was devoted to Tecumseh, and the older brother acted as his protector. (Edmunds) Tenskwatawa’s life was filled with alcohol and despair when, he...

How to do qualitative research Essay

Introduction: Qualitative research is about asking questions and gathering information through words, to then later analyze. One way of doing this is through ethnography. But before any research can be done, there must be a research question. In this case, â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in finding out the information needed to answer this research question. Methodology: An ethnography is â€Å"A Research approach to understanding the culture of a group (patterns of behaviour/attitudes, how they create meaning), by immersing oneself in the activities of the specific group over a period of time and then writing up a descriptive summary. † (Savage 3). An ethnographic approach includes being engaged in and listening to conversations, taking regular notes and collecting â€Å"artifacts† of the group being studied (Savage 7). All of these things later help in writing up a summary of findings that where gathered from the ethnography. There are two main types of ethnography, first there is an overt ethnography where the participants are told they are being observed. This type of ethnography is most commonly used and is less risky because the participants are aware of the study that is taking place. The other type is covert. This is where the researcher is unknown by the participants (Savage 10). The ethnography done about whether the Olympics change the way an audience acts is a covert ethnography. The subjects were unaware of the researcher and the fact that they were being studied and just watched TV as they normally would. Although this study was in a closed setting, there is always a chance of a risk when doing a covert study, because one of the participants may not want to be studied (Savage 9-10). Another important aspect of doing an ethnography is gaining access. Gaining access all depends on whether it is a closed setting or an open setting. Open settings are public settings are are fairly easy to gain access to. They include places like a street corner, or a movie theatre lobby, or city council meetings (Savage 9). Closed settings are non-public settings that are harder to gain access to because they usually require a contact, or permission to get into. Closed settings include families, firms, doctors offices and political parties (Savage 9). These are places that access is only granted to people who have permission. Although, in most cases, a lot of groups that are in a closed setting, have both open and closed settings, so if permission was not granted, then there would still be an opportunity for an ethnography when the group is in an open setting. The ethnography that was done took place in a closed setting and access was granted due to it being at the researchers house. This made it easy to gain access without having to worry about any limits that can sometimes come with closed settings. Summary of Findings For this topic, one would find that using ethnography would be the best way to go about making a research project about the Olympics causing an audience to act differently then when they watch other popular TV shows. This is because the study was about to view two different settings, one of subjects watching a popular TV show (American Idol), and one of subjects watching the Olympic Games. This allowed for a very good comparison between the two, and made answering the research question fairly easy. While doing the ethnography in both settings, being a â€Å"fly on the wall† allowed the researcher to observe how the subjects acted in both situations without being noticed. The setting also helped in disguising the researcher, because the subjects were just told it was homework, or they were used to the researcher being on the computer anyways. If this study were to be conducted as an in-depth interview, the results would be quite different. The interviewee may not know how they react when they’re watching television, or may not notice that they act differently and vise versa, which would then make it difficult to get the desired information. This would put the study at a halt because no relevant information would have been gathered. Conducting an ethnography is the only real way to go about answering this research question. There is a certain level of control that comes with doing an ethnography for this question because the researcher is unknown, this also ensures that the subjects are acting the way the normally would and not acting the way the think they should act. Which is sometimes the case when people are told they are being studied. Also, (in this case) the subjects are somewhat being forced to watch the desired television show. This ensures that the subjects are being exposed to the same show and can allow for more specific research. Ethnography is also useful because it allows for change. If the ethnography were to go on, there would most likely be more television shows to compare the Olympics to, but in this case, the research question could be narrowed down to â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching American Idol? â€Å". If the study were to continue, because it is an ethnography with multiple subjects for each show, there is room for change, and the data that was already collected would still be useful. Whereas if an in-depth interview was to done, and data was collected there is no guarantee that each subject watches the same television shows to be able to compare among the different subject that were interviewed. Key Learnings After choosing to use an ethnography to answer this research question, some things became quite clear. First, when conducting a covert ethnography, sometimes it is not so easy to remain unknown to every subject, and it is difficult to judge what they are thinking or what they will do if they were to find out. This raised the question of what should the researcher do if they are in a closed setting that they cannot leave and a subject did not want to be studied and was very angry? In most closed setting situations, the chances are that it will not be a covert ethnography, but after this covert closed setting ethnography, it was made clear that the position of research should not be made known for the safety of the researcher. This leads to another question about ethics and who should be harmed in that case. If the researcher is in danger of being harmed if they were to tell the subject that they were being studied, and if the researcher did not tell the subject, then it is considered unethical because the subject is being lied to. Does this issue then become an issue of choosing the greater good? In which case, who decides what the greater good is? Second, when doing an ethnography there is not always something useful to take note of. This causes ethnography to be very time consuming because the research must wait until they have all the information needed which may take a very long time if nothing is happening. This causes a problem because there is no guarantee that anything will happen at all that would help the researcher answer their research question. Conclusion: In discussing using ethnography to answer the question of â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † and what was learned, it is safe to conclude that ethnography is the best way to approach a question like this. This is largely due to the method being more successful at gathering information than it’s alternative, and because there are a number of way that is can be performed to ensure that the researcher is able to get the information needed.

Humans Adapted

What are some specific ways that we humans have adapted to the physical environment in which we live in? Such as plate tectonics, weathering and erosion, and the form of precipitation. How do/can we adapt to nature and its disaster? Plate tectonics causes earthquakes, which are one of the things that we have to adapt to. Earthquakes are powerful and each time it strikes it separated the land. So over time we as humans have created strategies. To keep us safe and how to remain calm as the earthquakes are coming our way. One thing we do is that we now have a machine called the seismography, that lets us know how strong the earthquake is, when it’s coming and where it’s going to hit. We have also learned how to make our homes stronger and durable, so that it will not be easy for the earthquake to take it down; California is one of those examples. Rain, sleet, hail, and snow are all examples of precipitation. Rain creates floods, it can be very dangerous depending on how much rain we falls down. We have learned how to adapt to the floods. Such as creating drain pipes so the water can go in the sewer so that the flood want create big damages but the drain pipes don’t always work. Sleet is like watery snow and if enough hit the ground and its cold outside then it can turn hard and make the grounds slippery. So we have learned that salt can unfreeze the roads and make it safe to drive on. Hail is small, sometimes big, balls of hard ice falling out of the sky. It can be dangerous and maybe even deadly if the hail is big and it hits you in the right place. We have learn just to not go out when the hail is hard, and to make sure that you are in a builder or house that can protect you if you are out and not protected. As life goes on we will always find more ways to keep our family and ourselves safe from nature’s disasters. Creating more machines and even more knowledge for years to come.

Night by Elie Weisel Book Analysis

Night Analysis Elie Wiesel’s use of language and structure emphasizes the meaning and tone of the selection. Closely examine the memoir and your annotations to find examples of these features of language and structure. Fill in the chart below, providing the definition of the device, 2-3 examples from the text complete with page number references, and the effect of each example on the context in which it is used and the work as a whole.Literary or Stylistic Device| Definition of Device| 3-4 Examples from the Text| Effect of Each Example | Anaphora| The repetition of a word or short phrase at the beginning of a sentence or sentences| 1)†Never shall I forget that night†¦Never shall I forget that smoke†¦Never shall I forget the small faces of the children†¦Never shall I forget those flames†¦Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence†¦Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God†¦Never shall I forget those things†¦Never. † ( Wiesel 34)2)†Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!..Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire!.. Fire! I see a fire!.. Look at the fire! Look at the flames!.. Look at the fire! Look at the flames!.. Jews, look! Look at the fire! Look at the flames! † (Wiesel 24-28)3)†Blessed be the Almighty†¦Blessed be God’s name†¦Blessed be God’s name†¦Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Wiesel 67)| 1) The effect of this example is that it shows how Wiesel will never forget anything that happened his first night in camp.Elie Wiesel says he won’t ever forget the smoke, nor the children he saw walk right into death. He won’t forget his lost faith, his silence, or the events that killed his God, his soul, and his dreams. Wiesel will never forget any of those, as long as he lives. Wiesel states, â€Å"Never shall I forget those things, even if I were conde mned to live as long as God Himself. Never. † No matter Wiesel does, or doesn’t do, we will always remember his first night in Birkenau. 2)The effect of this example is that it shows that Mrs.Schachter sees something continuously, but no one else on the cattle car sees it. The fact that she sees these flames and fire before they even arrive in Birkenau symbolizes their fate and death. Some people’s fate on the cattle car was to live and make it through some concentration camps. Others were destined to die in the crematorium with hundreds of others. Mrs. Schachter’s sanity was withering, and she began to hallucinate, even though she was telling the truth. 3)The ffect of this example is that it shows that through all the heartache and trials, the Jews have not lost complete faith. Them saying â€Å"Blessed be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  over and over again represents that they want God to help get them out of the trouble they have been placed in. | Diction| Word choice| 1)†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦A royal feast going to waste!.. A man appeared, crawling snakelike in the direction of the cauldrons. † (Wiesel 59)2)†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar? † (Wiesel 67)3)’†Here, take this knife,† he said. â€Å"I won’t need it anymore†¦ Also take this spoon. Me inheritance†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Wiesel 75)| 1)The effect of this example is that it shows how rough their months and years have been in the concentration camps, so that when the Jews see 2 cauldrons of soup their minds go spinning. They realize that is the most food they have seen at one time. If the Holocaust had never happened, these Jews wouldn’t appreciate the food they had as much as they did when they came to the camps. The snakelike part enhances the actions of the old man and how secretive he was trying to be so no one would notice him.The way Wiesel uses the words make the actions of the Jews and th e man much more important than what they seem. 2) The effect of this example is that it shows how Elie Wiesel is questioning why he should praise God, if God was the one who left all his people alone to be killed with no purpose. Wiesel uses this question to demonstrate his lost faith and his need to question everything he has learned about God. 3) The effect of this example is that it shows how any typical person would be glad to get their inheritance (money, a car, etc. ).But the fact that all Wiesel’s family had left were a knife and silver spoon, shows how much the SS took from them. Wiesel didn’t even want to take his inheritance because that would have also meant letting go of the last family member he had with him. | Foreshadowing| A hint of what is going to happen| 1)†Mother was stroking my sister’s blond hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men. I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place whe re I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I kept walking, my father holding my hand. (Wiesel 29)2)†Just you wait, kid†¦You will see what it costs to leave your work†¦You’ll pay for this later†¦And now go back to your place†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wiesel 57)3)†Suddenly, the gate opened, and Stern, a former shopkeeper who now was a policeman, entered and took my father aside. Despite the growing darkness, I could see my father turn pale. † (Wiesel 12)| 1)The effect of this example is that it shows how naive and innocent Elie Wiesel was because he didn’t even realize he would never see his sister and mother again. Once he lost sight of them, he would never see nor hear from them again.The SS took so much away from Wiesel and the other Jews that they were too gullible to realize what was going on, and by then, it was too late. 2)The effect of this example is that it shows that because Elie was snooping around and not following the orders he wa s given, he was caught peaking on Idek and a Polish girl and will now â€Å"pay for this†. So now we, the readers, must wait to find out what unknown punishment Wiesel will receive. 3)The effect of this example is that is shows that because father got pale, the Jews began to know something bad was going to happen. Imagery| The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas| 1)†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for their machine guns. This took place in the Galician forest, near Kolomay†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wiesel 6)2)†In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived.In Birkenau. â€Å" (Wiesel 28)3)†Not f ar from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes†¦children thrown into flames. (Is it any wonder that ever since, then sleep tends to elude me? )† (Wiesel 32)| 1)The effect of this example is that it we, the readers, can visualize what the Jews were doing as they dug their own graves without even knowing it. Those Jewish people had to dig the trenches, and then were shot without a word of prayer said over them. )The effect of this example is that as Wiesel is stepping off the cattle car and taking all this in, it is almost as if we are there with him. You can visualize the smell of burning bodies, and you can see the smoke and flames from the crematorium. This quote takes us to Birkenau and makes us imagine what Elie really saw. 3)The effect of this example is that we can almost see the flames, the ditch, and the babies being dumped into them and burned alive. This quote is so vivid and real that it’s almost like a dream, except for the fact that Elie Wiesel experienced it. Parallel Structure| The author maintains the same structure in the sentence| 1)†Never shall I forget†¦ Never shall I forget†¦ Never shall I forget†¦Never. † (Wiesel 34)2) â€Å"They passed me by, one after the other, my teachers, my friends, the others, some of whom I had once feared, some of whom I had found ridiculous, all of those whose lives I had shared for years. There they went, defeated, their bundles, their lives in tow, having left behind their childhood. They passed me by like beaten dogs†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wiesel 17)3)†He is very weak†¦ The weak don’t last very long around here†¦so weak. (Wiesel 45)| 1)The effect of this example is that Elie Wiesel is showing he won’t ever forget and when repeats it over and over, not just to let himself know that, but to let the readers know how significant that night was and how it will and has affected the rest of his life. 2)The effect of this example is that Wiesel is mentioning all the people who had lived in his community, wise or unwise, known or unheard of, they lived with him. And as they walk the streets, their heads are low, and they went by, defeated by the Germans. 3)The effect of this example emphasizes how weak Elie is, and how hard it is to stay healthy in their situation.Weak also shows how cruel the SS are to the Jews because if they weren’t so cruel to them, many of the Jews that were still living, would be strong and healthier than they were. | Polysyndeton| Repetition of a specific conjunction| 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Rhetorical Question| A question that is asked, but not meant to be answered| 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Symbolism| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Personification| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Metaphor| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Sentence Variety (Syntax)| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Irony| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)| Understatement| | 1)2)3)| 1)2)3)|

Pfizer Company: A Presentation of Strategic Context

Pfizer is the number two largest biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development company in the world, boasting in excess of fifty Billion dollars per year in gross revenues. While the recession has hit many companies, the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sector has remained not only relatively insulated, but in addition to that the forecasting models for growth predict a profitable future. Pfizer has had its share of growing pains, a cause for reduction in gross revenues comes primarily from a growth strategy to acquire another large biopharmaceutical company, yet net retained earnings have continued to increase at a rate of six percent annual average each year over the last three years. After Pfizer’s acquisitions of Wyeth they saw a substantial increase in operating profit margins due to increased efficiencies between the two companies. Pfizer has recently acquired a biopharmaceutical company named Wyeth. By purchasing Wyeth which specializes in vaccines, Pfizer has broadened their customer base by expanding their product line. This business practice aligns with Pfizer’s current pro-growth Strategy. It is clear, in most part; Pfizer’s business Strategy aligns with the wild wild west model of Industry Ecosystems. Pfizer if a relatively fast growing company, in an industry that thrives on making fast and furious technological discoveries, and they have a very high rate of customer retention due to patent protection. Pfizer has many competing technologies in the market place for such diseases as cardiac health, mental health, and infectious disease treatments. Their drug Lipitor is by far the highest grossing drug the company currently has on the market. Cardiac disease is the most common and fatal disease that Americans face. Lipitor functions by lowering low density lipids (or fats) in the blood stream thus promoting cardiac and circulatory efficiency and health. Pfizer’s patent on Lipitor is set to expire in November of this year which would potentially result in reducing their total revenues for that drug significantly because other companies could then introduce a generic substitute. The net effect of Lipitor’s patent expiration on Pfizer’s bottom line could be a reduction as large as ten percent of total gross revenues. Pfizer would be expected to retain approximately twenty percent of users which equals four percent of Pfizer’s total Gross Revenues. Some customers ill continue to use Lipitor, for example: those patients whose insurance does cover name brand medicines or patience of physicians that reject writing prescriptions for generic substitutes. This problem is a perfect example of one of Porters Key strategy principals that Pfizer follows, analyzing and protecting a threat of substitute products. How Pfizer addresses the problem is how they exercise his strategy. The current estimated retail cost of Lipitor is around one hundred and seventy dollars per month depending on the prescribed dosage. After November of this year it is very possible that we could see a generic substitute on the Wal-Mart four dollar list. Part of Pfizer’s Business strategy has been to launch legal battles for patent protections and extensions longer than the November 2011 date, which would result in a prolonged period of increased earnings and profits. To continue with an analysis of strategy, Pfizer uses both a combination of the resource based view in conjunction with the industry investment prospective. An example of this would be Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth which catered to a much broader and diverse section of the drug market. The resource prospective would say that Pfizer already has massive research and development capabilities, drug production and manufacturing systems, and well established distribution channels for its already long list of products, making Wyeth a fit for the company’s growth and expansion strategies. What is different from the resource based view and supports the industry investment strategy is that Wyeth is a leading researcher, developer, and provider of vaccines, which is a very lucrative industry in and of its self. The numbers of users for vaccines are much larger than for a specialized product such as Lipitor, yet vaccines still have patent protections that help drug companies keep prices high. These two companies merged together have much greater and sustainable competitive advantages than either one by itself. One of the resources that will help to fend off threats to their product lines is their pooling of resources for their in house legal team. As new products emerge from the research and development scientists, their joint capacity to protect their drug assets and keep products in the hands of the end users will inevitably eep other drug companies from capitalizing on the opportunities to produce generics. Some of the more rare and inimitable products are the ability to produce huge financial gains for Pfizer if they pass through all the stages of FDA screening protocol. Some areas Pfizer is currently investing research and development dollars are, DNA specific drugs, new small molecule compounds, Stem Cell therapies, Amino Acid therapies. DNA specific drugs have huge potential for Pfizer because many side effects can be prevented, allergies can be detected, and a shorter time line for approval to the FDA can result from better drugs. New small molecule compounds are useful because they tend to have fewer side effects which equal fewer liabilities and risk for the producer, and can be easier to develop and manufacture. Stem cell research also opens up a great deal of opportunity for drugs that work well on the cellular and molecular level, but can even be toxic or fatal in the human body. The method of drug delivery is many times the largest hurdle in getting an effective drug to the reaction site to produce the desired effect. Finally, and quite possibly most interestingly there are over three hundred and twenty know amino acids. Our human bodies produce or utilize only twenty four of them. Many of the reaction mechanisms on the molecular level can be imitated or recreated by unnatural amino acids meaning that we may see a huge increase in effective drugs with decreased side effects by utilizing these products. In conclusion Pfizer has acquired a great addition to its company with Wyeth as part of its pro-growth business strategy. It is clear that they have used a combination of both resourced based and industry based strategy. By tapping into a broad mass market via a new product by a new company Pfizer will have a clear competitive advantage over companies like Merk and Novartis. Pfizer is definitely leveraging their human resource assets to prevent substitute products from entering the markets. I believe that by exercising these strategies Pfizer can prevent slipping into the creative destruction life stage of a company.

A Day in a Life: a Summary of the Case and Some Questions Essay

* Summary of the case This case shows a daily working life of Rachel, the project manager of a large information systems project, to mainly discuss whether she allocates her time appropriately or not. When we take a closer look at her works on that certain day, then we can classify those works into three parts: project related, non- project related, and routine works. After analyzing those works each by each, therefore we are able to get the concept easily of whether Rachel has been playing a good role in project manager. No matter the answer turns out to be yes or not, we still can improve her work schedule more efficient by viewing the result of our analysis. * Answers of the questions 1. How effectively do you think Rachel spent her day? Based on the whole day schedule provided by the case, I would like to make a table to address how effectively Rachel spent her day. The consequence above shows that Rachel spent around 70% of her working time dealing directly with project related work. Due to everyone has different aspects in judging how effectively of Rachel regarding to the figure, from my point of view, when a manager who can spend his or her time on project work beyond 65%, then I would probably consider he or her is an effective project manager. So, therefore, in this case, Rachel is no doubt to be positive asset to her company for sure. See more: Beowulf essay essay 2. What does the case tell you about what it is like to be a project manager? a. Outlining specific goal for teammates As an appropriate project management, he or she must act like a captain of a big ship understanding exactly which way we should move on in the center of the huge ocean. Project management not only has to have good sense of direction, but also has to monitor what is going on in each phase. People says that the performance of the team is not determined by the most outstanding teammates, instead; is determined by the weakest one. That is being said, making sure the slowest part to catch up the pace of the whole team is one of the imperative job of project manager. b. Integrating diversified workers from different department One of the most hardest and special part of being a product manager is to integrate diversified people from different department. Due to project team sometimes is temporary and short, different field’s people they don’t know each other well, so that it might occur lots of conflicts during cooperating period of time. From my personal experience over the past few years, tasks failed not because workers didn’t have the ability to fulfill the task itself which was because they spent too much energy and time on dealing with each other because each individual has his or her opinions. Therefore, if project manager doesn’t have outstanding social skills to lead each worker, no matter how smart he is, then he is not able to complete the mission as he expect. c. Being an optimistic cheerleader and powerful coordinator between each department Most of time working is frustrated especially as a member of a new team. Sometimes, workers not only have to be responsible to project manager but they also still have to do original tasks from their regular team. How can they be cheerful if pressures come from both sides of the supervisor? Thus, project manager somehow should be a cheerleader to give these teammates some sort of incentives such as extra bonus or holidays, asked from big boss, to motivate them to get the tasks done as soon as possible. Moreover, product manager needed to be powerful in order to coordinate conflicting issues between each department. Take this case for example. Client firm is upset because they didn’t get certain features which promised by marketing representative and Rachel had no clues about it until she hears from one of the members. We all know project manager is of course the head of the project, but if Rach el has no power to get the features promised my marketing representative to her client, and then next time her client won’t become company’s loyal customer again. d. Take full responsibility that project is completely successful within time and budget Unlike other functional manager, project manager takes full responsibility in entire project which should be successful within time and budget (professor mentioned in reality it is better to beyond the budget in order to get extra amount of money for next one). So, from this point of view, there is no other job like project manager in terms of huge pressure. On the other hand, some people might think to be a project manager can feel a great deal of sense of achievement as long as finishing the task. Therefore, project manager is a job which needs all kinds of ability including organizing, allocating resources, communicating, cheering people, coordinating, politic skill, and so on. * Insights of the case A number of things I have learned from this case. First of all, Rachel, even though, spent 70% of her daily working time on dealing with project’s work directly, it doesn’t mean that she did effectively in the project itself. In other words, she still can save her time by taking care of client firm issue thoroughly and cautiously. Again, let’s take client firm’s case for instance. Regarding to the time table above, Rachel spent 130mins (25% of her total working time) just on handling this case! Is there any other way to prevent this kind of incident happened? Answer would be yes by having a great report system among each department’s head and Project manager, so that before things going to the public or to client’s side, they still have a plenty of chances to make it right, otherwise; they have no choice but to waste more costs (time and money) to correct it again. Moreover than that, clients might have a negative experience on it and start to doubt whether this company has enough ability to handle this project. So, my point is that if Rachel were powerful enough; she would be able to handle this project more effectively. Thus, her boss needs to give her adequate resources during this period of time. As a project manager, although she has power in hand, she also has to use it very careful, otherwise as project team dismissed in the future, then she would face a big problem in terms of working with her fellow workers. This is really a good case which gives me a whole profile of being a project manager. With this case’s help, I feel more knowledgeable of learning Project Management this class in this semester. * Reference 1. By answering the question 2 above, I referred to text book page 10, the topic of â€Å"The Project Manager†, which giving me a several numbers of responsibilities that project manager should have. 2. Slides in Chapter 1 (slides 1-11 and 1-12) also give me some points of view that what skills are needed as being a project manager.