Unit 4 M1 Essay Example

Unit 4 M1 Paper Verbal information is when you communicate with a person in front of them for example face to face communication. This is a good way to communicate because you can get the point across more easily and understand the situation much better then over the phone. Telephone is another source of communication. This is when you talk to a client or a person over the phone and communicate about something. This is a good way because if someone lives very far you could communicate with them over the phone. Verbal communicating is the best way as you could understand the better for example when a teacher speaks to a student it is easier for them to understand as it is a face to face communication. Written information Writing is another way to communicate with people these are word that are written on a paper. There are different way of written communication for example graphs and diagrams that tell you different information. These could be easier to understand on paper instead of phones. It wash wood heath school teacher provide students with written information about the work because this much easier to understand and could follow what they have to do on the paper Multimedia information Multimedia can be in a made up of a lot of media in one for example texting, phone calls and emails these are different way of multimedia communication. Multimedia can also be interactive media this like video games and cd ROMs and more. Washwood heath school use a lot of different multimedia sources to let everyone communicate. We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 4 M1 specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 4 M1 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Unit 4 M1 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Teachers send each other emails so they can keep in touch and communicate. They also use assembles where they use presentation to communicate with staff and tell them information that they need to no. Onscreen information Information can be presented on a big screen. This can be showed on TVs, big screens, audio and videos and many more. In washwood heaths school teacher produce presentation on a big screen so students can read it and understand their task and gain information to help them. Web based information Web based information displays many benefits of multimedia technology. No there is a link of internet everywhere. This is an advantage because you can get information from anywhere and everywhere. Washwood school student can access their school information on moodle so student can use their information to complete their school work. Updating knowledge It is important that a business keep themselves up to dates with the changes going in the market there business is in. information must be found so a business know how they are developing in the market. They will need see how the market is changing over time. The business needs to know how the economy is and what new laws and regulation are in placed by the government. At washwood heath school make sure they update their students and employees so if there was an emergency they would have the correct details. Informing future development If a business that does not stick to it environment it may fall back behind their competitors. A business will need to research on their products and see if they sell before they start to buy the product and sell them in their business. washwood heath school has to research on a new subject before they decide to introduce them to the school. They will need to ask students if they will be interested in the subjects that are gone reduce and what advantage will it be if they introduce it. Strategic direction and swot analysis Strategic management is the process by which organisations determine their purpose, objective and desired level of attainment. It helps an organisation decide on actions for achieving these objectives in appropriate timescale, and requires information through both internal and external means. A SWOT analysis is use for auditing an organisation and its environment. Washwood heath Technology College has strategic management which manages the objectives of the school for the students and the staff member in there. Swot strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat Strength: the strength can be a new product lunched by a business. Where the business is set and located. Also this can be the quality processes and also procedures;it can also be any other aspect that you can include value to the business. The muscle of wash wood heath Technology College is the courses or the subjects introduced by the school. It can also be the location where the school is placed. There is a large sum of the community living which is surrounding the school which means it is easily accessible for the people to make it. The strength can be the quality of the education the school gives and allows the students for re-takes of their gcses exams so they can give it another go. Weaknesses The weaknesses of a business can be the need of the marketing expertise. Another weakness can be undifferentiated products or even services like if the product is not improved than the competitors or it is just the same and the competitors then it is a weakness. The place of the business if it is not in a suitable position can be a weakness for the business. If the business has poor good service, then it is a weakness for the industry. A damaged reputation of the business can lead the business decreasing. If wash wood heath school has a broken reputation in the community then there will not be enough students in the school. OPPORTUNITIES: A business should have a developing market like internet selling products on the internet. There should be mergers, joint ventures or strategic alliances. A business can have an opportunity by moving into new market segments that offer improved profits. If a new international market is introduced it will be a greater opportunity. A market vacated by an ineffective competitor is one great opportunity. Washwood heath Technology College can have its local site and develop more interest in other people so more students move to that school. THREAT: A threat is a new competitor in the home market. Price wars with the competitors are threats. A competitor with an innovative product or service. Competitors having superior access to channels of distribution are a threat. If taxation is introduced on a product or service it’s like a threat. If washwood heath technology college is closed by the government due to some issues that is a threat. If more schools are opened in the same community that is a threat to the school. Offering competitive insight: A business needs to be aware of what their competitors are doing, to make sure they do not fall behind and loose sales and market shares. Regular research is very useful as it keeps one updated with the competitor’s sales. Some large businesses have a section of their marketing departments dedicated to analysing competitor activity. Washwood heath Technology College has a chart which compares the results of their school with the other schools around. Washwood heath knows if their competitors have done better than them or not. Communicating sales promotion: Businesses use a variety of information and methods to communicate sales promotions to customers. They place information about products, services and special offers on their websites and have newspaper and journal adverts, and television and radio adverts. Good market research information will offer an insight into the behaviour patterns of the customers and their buying motivation. Information can help businesses to promote their goods. Washwood heath Technology College collects information about the results of the other schools as it helps them a lot. They try to improve their standards according to that information. Inviting support for activities: Information is also required and needs to be communicated in order to support business activities. The support has to come from inside and outside the organisations. For example, the business may wish to change the way it operates to it make more efficient; this must have support of the workforce. Clear information will have to be given to the staff, explaining why the business needs to move in this direction. Washwood heath Technology College informs the staff about all the changes taking place in the school. The school takes support from inside and outside the business. The teachers and every member in their helps out. The external support is also taken. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Internal sources: Internal information is the information which is already present in the school. Internal information could come from a variety of sources within the organisation. A lot of departments will store information about the members in their department. Washwood heath Technology College stores information about the students who had been studying in the school before. It keeps a record of all the teachers what subject they have been teaching and what day they started school and when did they leave school. For example: Finance: Finance will have wealth of information relating to company performance, such as profit and loss figures, the balance sheet, cash flow information and the costs of running the business. Washwood heath technology college has a record of how good their results have been and what benefits have they got with that. Sales departments: Sales departments will often store information about customers, as well as sales records for the organisations existing products and services. Washwood heath Technology College has information stored about its old staff. Human resources: Human resources can provide information about the staffing and training within the organisation, such as staff turnover, number of employees, skills available, training needs and projections for future employment. Washood heath Technology College has some demands before hiring staff like the skills and that. Production: Production will be able to give details of production costs, along with past and possible future levels of production. This gives details of the sort of results produced at washwood heath Technology College. Marketing: Marketing can give information about the results of research undertaken by the company, the success of previous marketing campaigns and promotional activities, as well as information about the market the organisation currently operates within. Washwood heath technology college has information about how well they have done compare to the other schools around. Customer services: Customer services can tell you what customers think about the business and give you information on how customers have responded to existing products and services. Washwood heath Technology College responds to the needs of the community and the pupils of the school. External resources: External resources are the resources used from outside the business. The information which is brought from outside or which already does not exist in the business. External data exists in the form of published materials, collected by someone else outside the company. FOR EXAMPLE: Government resources: They are supplied by, among others, the ONS (office of national statistics), the DTI (department of trade and industry), and the OECD (organisation for economic development). The government sources are useful for wash wood heath technology college, they can find out the results for other schools and the skills other schools are using so compare to them they can do better. Trade groupings: Trade groupings are groups of businesses from the same industry or marketplaces that provide a service to representatives of their industry. They can act as pressure groups to initiate positive change for their industry. They also publish trade journals. These are published by leaders in the industry. This can help washwood heath Technology College find out about management of the schools and what their school is lacking and what can they do to do better.

Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations essays

Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations essays The Nature And Sources Of The Wealth Of Nations Adam Smith has been regarded to be the father of modern economics, and many of his ideas have been integrated the nations in the present day western world. His major work was "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," where he discusses many of his economic views. Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, and raised by his mother, Margaret Douglas. His father, Comptroller of Customs in Kirkcaldy, died before Smith was born. Smith began his education at the University of Glasgow at the age of 14. He demonstrated a talent for math and physics, but his interest was in philosophy, to which he applied his analytical skills and tireless inquiry for the rest of his life. He later studied at Oxford, although he wasnt satisfied with the education provided at the famous university, and later returned to Scotland to lecture in Edinburgh. Smith gained fame as an intellectual in 1759, when he published of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which was based on his lectures from Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he was Professor of Logic and then Professor of Moral Philosophy for thirteen years. Following his position at the University of Glasgow, Smith became tutor for the third Duke of Buccleuch in France and Geneva, where he met Voltaire and other philosophers. Perspectives gained during this time inspired Smith's work on Wealth of Nations Smith showed surprising conclusions during his time, when he applied scientific principles to economic behavior. One of his conclusions was that people mainly acted out of their own self-interests, and if permitted to follow their instincts, it created natural harmony and economic productivity. This would occur and was led without any conscious control or direction, as if by an invisible hand. According to Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," he stated the idea that a greater division of labor lead to increased p...

Afganistan war Veteran Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Afganistan war Veteran - Essay Example I researched literature on the country’s culture and people, and this served to help me to avoid the common pitfall that most of my colleagues fell into of incorrectly stereotyping the country’s people. When we finally landed in the country, I discovered that most of the material I had read on the country had essentially been written during a period when peace prevailed and since then, a number of things had changed with the advent of war. The Afghani people were initially apprehensive and prejudiced about us and our mission. Years of living under the severely repressive Taliban regime had caused them to grow apprehensive of strangers. However, when we started winning against the dreaded Taliban insurgents, the people became quite welcoming towards us and would often greet us in the streets cheerfully and hail us as their hero’s (Kerry, 2010). In Afghanistan, the majority of the soldiers happen to serve in various support functions that include accounting, logistics or even laundry. For these officers, the war frontline is essentially the camp’s front gate. A typical day for me generally involved getting a briefing in the morning as to the current situation and what was expected to occur during the day. We would then embark on a patrol of the local town and its environs. It was not uncommon for newly deployed troops that were assigned to engage with the local leaders to quickly grow comfortable with these leaders in a case of assumed similarity. These troops would incorrectly assume that these leaders happened to share similar characteristics with themselves and it was thus important that the recruits be accompanied with experienced veterans (Kenny, 1994). These veterans would help the recruits engage with these leaders and locals in a professional manner as the recruits gradually adapted to the country’s cu stoms and culture. After the patrol, we would then report back

Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Reading response - Essay Example For instance, the word chair – we only of the word chair as the object itself but we cannot make any other significance to the word beyond its own definition â€Å"unless† we combine it with other parts of speech: This chair is mine. Now it makes a lot of sense. In a nutshell, and as a student, it is not enough to simply learn the words of a language but to know the context in which they can be spoken, written or used in any other way possible. Chapter 9 is probably the most crucial and interesting one considering that at the end of day, the purpose of having a language is to send message and express meaning. The central point of this chapter is the duality of an English expression: (1) the sentence construction; (2) the meaning of the sentence construction (132). As mentioned earlier, words do not make any other sense aside from their individual significance in a language unless combined with other parts of speech to create a complete thought and a whole new meaning. I n the same way, in expressing meaning, words should be chosen based on which king of meaning we intend to express: command, request or question. By having this knowledge as a student, I am always being reminded to not only focus on words but on meaning too to ensure clarity of expression. In the initial passages of chapter 10 entitled â€Å"The Link between Language and Culture†, a very strong point has been brought across: â€Å"acquiring the ability to understand the social meaning of an utterance is an important part of learning a language† (175). This is particularly true, most especially for cultures that are heavily rooted from extreme conservatism. Significantly, there is a certain degree of interlocked relationship between language and culture considering that language is basically moulded from the dynamics and general consensus of a particular community. For instance, accent variations tell a lot about a person’s nationality or regional affiliation such that New York residents pronounce the word car differently from residents of Michigan or Boston area for that matter (175). Furthermore, in the context of religious conservatism, there are countries that are very strict when it comes to using certain terminologies such as the world â€Å"Allah† – Muslim for â€Å"God† – which is prevalently agreed to be used only by Muslims. As a student, having knowledge of the social and cultural significance of a certain language will help establish smooth and amicable communication with people of different nationalities, language or culture; it encourages dynamism and flexibility. Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 make tessellated points in so far as the importance of understanding the context in which a language is being spoken and used is concerned. Politeness is substantial for the language learner because the standards of certain virtues like politeness are â€Å"determined by a given culture based on assumptions about what it means to be polite in that society† (194). This point provides a great deal of learning: it allows the language learner to understand the array of differences in which the essence of politeness in a certain language can be carried out or manifested. As a student, this will surely help in ensuring that language

Jonathon Livingston Seagull Essay Example for Free

Jonathon Livingston Seagull Essay 1. The fictional book, Jonathon Livingston Seagull written by Richard Bach, sold over a million copies during its debut in 1970 and stayed on The New York Times Top Ten list for 38 weeks in a row. The story focuses on Jonathon the seagull’s passion for flying and his belief that there is more to life than scavenging for food. Bach explores the idea that there is more to this life than what meets the eye and the extreme satisfaction you receive when doing something you are great at and have a passion for. 2. The setting of this story takes place on some sea shore where thousands of seagulls live. The sea shore setting described in the book really helps to paint a picture of what Jonathon and this flock of seagulls experienced daily, â€Å"It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.†(Bach pg 3) 3. Jonathon Livingston Seagull is the protagonist in this story with his strong drive and persistence to be different from the flock and to be his own seagull. The antagonists in the story are the Elders of the flocks of seagulls because they are very closed mined leaders and they force Jonathon and other seagulls to be outcast from society and ban them to a life of isolation and despair. Chiang was an Elder Gull that taught Jonathon very specialized flying techniques and improved his skills and taught him things about life. When Jonathon was outcast from the gull community everyone in the community thought that Jonathon was a reckless and irresponsible seagull, so when Jonathon finally returned to the community and everyone saw how amazing his flying skills were they changed their minds and many of them asked to be taught by Jonathon himself which was breaking the gull community law, This is an example of foil characters. â€Å"His thought was triumph. Terminal velocity! A seagull at two hundred and fourteen miles per hours! It was a breakthrough, the greatest single moment in the history of the flock, and in that moment a new age opened for Jonathon Gull.† (pg 16-17) 4. The plot of this story is a traditional plot type. The story ends with the last words of his Jonathon’s teacher, Keep working on love. Through his teachings, Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and that the way to progress leads for him, at least through becoming a teacher, not just through working hard as a student. So, if any seagull believes that it is free to do what it wants to, it becomes Jonathan the seagull, for whom, possibilities were endless. Every law is an illusion. Once we become conscious of this, our existence gets a new meaning. a. The biggest conflict was Jonathon going against the norm of the seagull community and ultimately getting expelled from the community for his irresponsible acts. â€Å"For his reckless irresponsibility†, â€Å"Violating the dignity and tradition of the Gull family.† (pg 24) b. The situation at the end where Jonathon returned to the breakfast seagull flock was sig nificant because it demonstrated forgiveness and compassion. These gulls hated Jonathon and wanted nothing to do with him and yet he still had the courage to forgive them and even teach them how to fly like he does. â€Å"You have to practice to see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and help them to see it in themselves.†(pg 89) 5. -This book was definitely one of the more inspiring books that made me think out of the box that I have read in quite some time. For example, I really liked one of the messages that implied that if you want to have a fulfilling happy meaningful life you need to stop following the crowd and make your own path even if there are consequences. If you find something that you are good at and enjoy doing stick with it and master it and watch how it will shape you life. -This story uplifted my spirits and motivated my behavior change in several ways. For example, Jonathon Livingston Seagull is a great example to me because not only does he go against the norm and try to learn everything about his passion in life, he also learns forgiveness and compassion for the other seagulls of the community and wants to teach them how to live a wonderful life. I have noticed in my life that I am most happy when I have found something that I love to do and also when I am helping others find that same thing or serving them in some manner and I think Jonathon mastered this aspect of true charity. â€Å"You have to practice to see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and help them to see it in themselves.†(pg 89) 6. In conclusions the book had both strong and weak contributing factors. The strong factors were that it had a very unique, interesting story line that kept the reader interested enough to keep reading. Bach also used implied messages of inspiration and important values in this life which in my opinion was very cool and had a strong plot. Some of the weak factors were that the book almost needed to be read straight through in one sitting to really get the message and make sense. It was not very challenging to read which could be good and bad. The setting was not very descriptive, it basically just took place either in the air or on the sea shore. I think the proper age group for this book would be late high school students and college students and even young adults. Richard Bach impacted me by creating a plot and story line that delivers a messages that anything is possible in life as long as you want it enough and practice at it thus, I am now interested in making some changes in my life. Works Cited Back, Richard. Jonathon Livingston Seagull. New York: Scribner, 1970.

Characters and Setting in Poes Fall of The House of Usher Essay

Characters and Setting in The Fall of the House of Usher    The primary objective in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† is to give the reader a sense of horror. Through the creation of elaborate imagery and dreary circumstances Poe conveys a story that elicits in the reader the dark feelings he has hoped for. In this analysis I will focus on Poe’s characters and setting, and how he structures them to produce the overall effect.    The story begins with a description of our narrator’s first impressions of the House of Usher. He has been summoned there so that he might provide comfort to his boyhood friend. The particular friend, Roderick Usher, is an eccentric character which the narrator has not seen in quite some time. The reason for his visit is so that he, Usher’s only friend, may provide some companionship which will ease Usher’s lonely, disturbed mind. The setting for this story takes place in what is known as the House of Usher. The house is reminiscent of a sovereign insane asylum. The family who has lived in the house for many years is described by Poe as having a stem with no branches (p.665). The occurrences which have taken place throughout the years of this family’s incessant and peculiar behavior give the house a life of its own which tells an eerie story. In the particular passage we have chosen the narrator describes the effect upon seeing the house: â€Å"It was a m ystery all insoluble.†(p.654) The mysteriousness surrounding the house gives it a sense of darkness. The term â€Å"mystery† also serves to tap into the reader’s curiosity. This quality is important to the overall effect of Poe’s story. By leaving the effect of the house as something somewhat unknown he lures the reader to join the narrator in a disc... ...ing set the stage, Poe’s story culminates with a battle between Usher and his sister. This episode provides the reader with an exciting display of the horror for which he has been warned throughout the story. Earlier in the story the narrator told of the entombment of lady Madeline -- Usher’s sister. Although the reader knows she has been entombed, it is not until the end that it is revealed she was buried alive. On the last night of the narrator’s stay lady Madeline erupts from her coffin to battle her brother. The narrator darts out of the house as the House of Usher and sees its’ final demise.    The style and structure of Poe’s story are excellent. His use of descriptive phrases and psychology paint a twisted picture for the audience. The slow -- moving style creates a feeling of suspense that is perfectly released as the story comes to a dramatic ending. Characters and Setting in Poe's Fall of The House of Usher Essay Characters and Setting in The Fall of the House of Usher    The primary objective in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† is to give the reader a sense of horror. Through the creation of elaborate imagery and dreary circumstances Poe conveys a story that elicits in the reader the dark feelings he has hoped for. In this analysis I will focus on Poe’s characters and setting, and how he structures them to produce the overall effect.    The story begins with a description of our narrator’s first impressions of the House of Usher. He has been summoned there so that he might provide comfort to his boyhood friend. The particular friend, Roderick Usher, is an eccentric character which the narrator has not seen in quite some time. The reason for his visit is so that he, Usher’s only friend, may provide some companionship which will ease Usher’s lonely, disturbed mind. The setting for this story takes place in what is known as the House of Usher. The house is reminiscent of a sovereign insane asylum. The family who has lived in the house for many years is described by Poe as having a stem with no branches (p.665). The occurrences which have taken place throughout the years of this family’s incessant and peculiar behavior give the house a life of its own which tells an eerie story. In the particular passage we have chosen the narrator describes the effect upon seeing the house: â€Å"It was a m ystery all insoluble.†(p.654) The mysteriousness surrounding the house gives it a sense of darkness. The term â€Å"mystery† also serves to tap into the reader’s curiosity. This quality is important to the overall effect of Poe’s story. By leaving the effect of the house as something somewhat unknown he lures the reader to join the narrator in a disc... ...ing set the stage, Poe’s story culminates with a battle between Usher and his sister. This episode provides the reader with an exciting display of the horror for which he has been warned throughout the story. Earlier in the story the narrator told of the entombment of lady Madeline -- Usher’s sister. Although the reader knows she has been entombed, it is not until the end that it is revealed she was buried alive. On the last night of the narrator’s stay lady Madeline erupts from her coffin to battle her brother. The narrator darts out of the house as the House of Usher and sees its’ final demise.    The style and structure of Poe’s story are excellent. His use of descriptive phrases and psychology paint a twisted picture for the audience. The slow -- moving style creates a feeling of suspense that is perfectly released as the story comes to a dramatic ending.

Branding Universities Essay

The end of the 1990s witnessed the corporatization of public universities in Malaysia resulting in the publication of corporate literature in these universities and the type of writing Fairclough (1993) refers to as the marketization of academic discourse. Marketization is necessary in public universities due to stiff competition in attracting students among the public universities as well as from the increasing number of private universities. This article reports how Malaysian universities re-brand themselves using the results of an investigation on corporate brochures from these universities. The investigation employs a structural analysis and a textual analysis. Although informative in nature, these corporate brochures exhibit the use of promotional elements in the texts as seen in the contents and the language use. The communicative functions of university brochures are viewed to be more promotional than informative. ABSTRACT KEY WORDS: brochures, corporate culture, genre analysis, re-branding, universities Introduction Academic institutions, particularly public universities, used to be regarded as the pinnacle of learning. Most of these universities were reputed for providing the best tertiary education and the mere mention of their names lit up the faces of those who had the privilege of learning from these fountains of knowledge and those who aspired to be associated with them. There was a time when admission was ‘by invitation only’, otherwise young men and women were seen struggling to gain admission into these prestigious institutions. These public universities acquired a promotional value (Wernick, 1991) without having to promote or market themselves. In advertising terms, these universities did not go through the process of branding. Branding is a fundamental strategic process of effectively marketing a product or service which includes creating a brand name and identity, designing Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 58 Discourse & Communication 2(1) the packaging and promoting the product or service (Randall, 1997). Although Randall (1997) argues that ‘brands (and therefore branding) are so fundamentally important to the survival and success of many firms’ (p.2), this was not the case in public universities in the past. This is significantly due to the fact that these academic institutions were claimed to be free from other influences as evidenced by Cardinal Newman’s view of universities cited by Wernick (1991) as: . . . the high protecting power of all knowledge and science, of fact and principle, of inquiry and discovery, of experiment and speculation; it maps out the territory of the intellect, and sees that . . . there is neither encroachment nor surrender from any side . . . (Cardinal Newman, 1847, cited in Wernick, 1991:151) That was the traditional image of public universities, independent of political or societal influence and this image was not built by advertising or branding. As centres of academe, public universities were known for their quality education based on the results of their graduates and their performance in the careers they embarked on upon graduation. As years passed, more aspiring young people would apply for admission in certain universities due to their reputation. This reputation in turn became the  image of the universities which automatically created the promotional value (Wernick, 1991) of these universities, mentioned earlier as the pinnacle of learning. Each university was identified by its name or logo and no further promotional strategies were required. By providing quality education, these universities successfully built ‘a distinct brand personality’ (Randall, 1997: 67) for themselves as the success of branding is justified when people are reminded of a particular brand just by looking at the logo or hearing its brand name. The traditional role of public universities was to manage society (Jarvis, 2001) by producing scholars in the various fields of study so that they can go out to make the world a better place to live or join the academia to continue producing scholars. However, towards the end of the 20th century, the role of universities started changing from serving the state in managing society to serving the industry and commerce in ensuring that people are employable (Jarvis, 2001). This is partly due to the demands of the contemporary knowledge-based society (Veitch, 1999) where consumers have become more knowledgeable and have started demanding for better education and improved quality of life. Changes started taking place in public universities in the West as early as the 1980s where the governments were forced to abolish academic tenure and decrease funding for these universities. This was when many traditional universities started transforming into corporate universities (Jarvis, 2001) where they have to assume a more corporate form and function more like a corporation. From being the centre of academe, universities have become business-like entities (Connell and Galasinski, 1998). In Malaysia, a number of public universities have recently been corporatized, a move taken by the Malaysian government in its effort to inculcate better and more efficient management of these institutions. As corporate culture (Treadwell and Treadwell, 2000) is a new culture in all these universities, most of them Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising have set up corporate communications departments (Hajibah Osman, 2005) to handle corporate matters. Among the functions of these departments are managing corporate information and publication and projecting a positive image of the universities which are part of corporate advertising. Corporate advertising Business corporations use corporate advertising to enhance the image of the whole organization, or of the general brand in order to influence social values or to establish a connection between the corporation/brand and an already established positive value and in this era of identity, a lot of emphasis has been put on the importance of brand and corporate identities (Richards et al. , 2000). Unlike business organizations, universities are non-profit institutions. Public universities are viewed to use corporate advertising to enhance the strong foundation and to highlight the quality of these institutions of higher education. While it is common for business corporations to publish informative or promotional literature from time to time to inform the public about new developments in the organization (monthly or yearly reports) or to introduce new products or services (product launch leaflets), the use of promotional literature in academic institutions is a recent development. Malaysian public universities have started producing informative literature in the form of university brochures and special booklets in conjunction with certain celebrations in the universities as well as promotional literature in the form of leaflets providing brief information on academic programmes offered by the universities or introducing new programmes (Hajibah Osman, 2005). By employing new strategies to market their traditional image, from the advertising perspective, these universities are re-branding their products and services. Re-branding is the process of marketing an existing product or service of one brand with a different identity involving radical changes to the brand name, logo, image, marketing strategy and advertising themes (Wikipedia, 2006). In the advertising industry, re-branding is often referred to as re-positioning, that is, re-positioning a product or service in order to improve sales. Although there was no actual initial branding taking place in universities, being non-profit making institutions, the term ‘re-branding’ is used in this article to illustrate the change in the image of these universities particularly since the late 20th century. Significantly, this change has been effected without compromising the traditional characteristics and values of these institutions as the pinnacle of higher learning. The process of re-branding is aimed at improving the image of the universities by focusing on the facilities and highlighting the quality of the academic programmes. This article attempts to investigate the process of re-branding in public universities in Malaysia by conducting a genre analysis on university brochures, one type of print materials published by the institutions that represent corporate advertising. Analysing genres can lead to a ‘thick description’ (Bhatia, 1993) Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 59 60 Discourse & Communication 2(1) of the texts contained in these genres, explaining why certain texts have been constructed the way they are. The specific objective of this article is to identify and discuss the strategies used in the re-branding process based on the structural organization of university brochures and the communicative functions of this type of brochure. Previous investigations of advertising genres mostly focused on straightsell advertisements of products or services. Bruthiaux (2000), for instance, investigated how advertisers make use of a limited space available to them to create successful advertising copies by examining the syntactic features in an undisclosed number of display and classified advertisements. His results show that the degree of syntactic elaboration ‘varies substantially even when content of equal simplicity/complexity or familiarity to readers is being presented. This variation appears to correlate with perceptions of status on the parts of both writers and readers’ (p. 298) and the persuasive elements lie in the vacuous displays of linguistic sophistication designed to create a largely artificial sense of exclusiveness among status-conscious readers (p. 369). Investigations have also been conducted on the language of advertising in Asia, for instance, Tej Bhatia’s (2000) investigation of language of advertising in Rural India and Henry and Roseberry’s (1998) investigation of the linguistic features in tourist information brochures from Brunei. Thus far, there have been very few linguistic analyses conducted on the genre of corporate advertising. Therefore, the genre selected for analysis in this article is brochure, specifically corporate brochure from academic institutions. A brochure is a printed document of six or more pages, used to introduce an organization, published only once and distributed to special publics for a single purpose (Newsom and Carrell, 2001). The discourse community of Public Relations (PR) specifies five characteristics of brochures, three of which are related to the present article: always having a singular message statement; having a purpose – to persuade or to inform and educate; and attracting and holding the attention of the audience. Brochure genre makes an interesting study because, first, this genre is viewed as a ‘blurred genre’ (a term borrowed from Scollon et al. , 1999) in that the term ‘brochure’ has been used to refer to other forms of publications including booklet, flyer, leaflet and pamphlet (Newsom and Carrell, 2001). Second, a brochure is a genre of persuasive discourse shaping the thoughts, feelings and lives of the public (Dyer, 1993) placing it under the field of advertising. However, according to Newsom and Carrell (2001), brochures are produced by PR practitioners rather than advertising practitioners. This is probably due to the fact that PR, among other things, incorporates looking after the reputation of an organization ‘with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour’ (Beard, 2001: 7). The question of ownership arises placing brochures in an even more ‘blurred’ state as the communicative functions of brochures have been set by the discourse community to which the genre belongs. In the context of this article, brochures are categorized as a corporate genre (basically PR) involving the principles of corporate writing (Treadwell Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising and Treadwell, 2000). Brochures are readily available, particularly in print version, and are easily accessible electronically. Finally, brochure genre needs to be investigated because brochure format is one of the most frequently used information formats in advertising and PR but is ironically the least written-about (Bivins and Ryan, 1991). Corporate genre in academic institutions This article establishes that any publications from universities, particularly those produced by the Corporate or Public Relations Office, are referred to as corporate genre. Corporate brochures are usually categorized as informative brochures (Richards et al. , 2000) providing all the necessary information about the organizations they represent. There are certain corporate elements present to qualify them as corporate brochures, but mostly these brochures are informative. However, an analysis of corporate brochures from multinational corporations by Askehave and Swales (2001) prove that these brochures also function to promote the organization. This is evident in the presence of promotional elements selected as syntactic choices in these brochures. Corporate brochures also function to establish long-lasting trading relationships which are in fact paramount in today’s industrial market. Hajibah Osman (2005) also notes that corporate brochures from academic institutions are promotional in nature with the use of promotional strategies apart from corporate and informative strategies. Another corporate genre in academic institutions, the university prospectus, started changing in form in the 1990s (Fairclough, 1993) where apart from providing information on the core business of the university, that is, the academic programmes, the prospectus has also included information on other aspects of the universities. Based on a critical discourse analysis of prospectuses from a number of British universities, Fairclough notes that these universities started promoting their programmes because they have come increasingly under (mostly government’s) pressure to operate like other types of businesses competing to sell their products to consumers. The university prospectus has become a ‘genre of consumer advertising colonising professional and public service orders of discourse on a massive scale, generating many new hybrid partly promotional genres’ (Fairclough, 1993: 139). Academic institutions in Malaysia have also published promotional leaflets (Hajibah Osman, 2005) to advertise their academic programmes and these are circulated to potential students particularly before a new academic year begins. These leaflets are no longer the plain, boring information sheets but colourful and interesting ones. This article concurs with Askehave and Swales (2001) that corporate brochures function as promotional brochures more than projecting the corporate image and providing information. Thus, the investigation in this article attempts to identify and discuss the strategies that realize the promotional functions in this type of brochure as part of the re-branding process in public universities. Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 61 62 Discourse & Communication 2(1) Methodology In 2005, there were 11 public universities in Malaysia (currently, there are 20). Brochures were obtained from the 11 universities and were initially analysed to identify the possible structural organization. Based on the organization, the communicative functions of these brochures were determined. The 11 public universities included in this investigation are: International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM/UIA); Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM); Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM); Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS); Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS); Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM); Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI); Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM); Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM); University of Malaya (UM). A textual analysis was conducted to examine the strategies used in the rebranding process. The strategies in the context of this article are tactical choices (Bhatia, 1993) which are cognitive processes ‘exploited by the writer to make writing more effective keeping in mind any special reader requirements, considerations arising from the use of medium or constraints imposed by organizational and other factors’ (p. 20). The strategies used by universities in re-branding the institutions are discussed within the framework of the sociolinguistic theory which considers writing as ‘part of the overall activities of a group and organization’ (Gunnarsson, 1997: 140) and in relation to the corporate culture (Hagberg and Heifetz, 2000) practised by the universities. As a genre is a typical form of utterances, it should be studied in its social contexts of use (Berkenkotter and Huckin, 1993). Sociolinguistics does not only describe linguistic variation and the social context in which such a variation occurs, but also shows how linguistic differentiation reflects social structure (Coupland, 2001). The sociolinguistic perspective in this article considers the existence of factors underpinning the construction of university brochures and the concept of promotional culture (Wernick, 1991). Re-branding academic institutions It has been established that university brochures form part of the corporate advertising strategies in Malaysian universities which in turn are part of the rebranding process in these traditional institutions. The structural organization in these brochures consists of 10 sections identified as moves (Table 1). Some of the moves are exemplified with extracts from the university brochures in Figure 1 (see Appendix). In identifying the moves, the term ‘service’ is used to refer to the educational services and the support services offered by the universities. All the brochures from the 11 universities include Moves I, C, L, D, J and S, indicating that these six moves are obligatory. Ninety-one percent of the brochures include Moves A, T and E, while 81 percent include Move V, making them optional moves. The 10 moves have been used to realize three communicative functions of the university brochures which are: †¢ To inform the public about the academic programmes offered in the university and the facilities and other services available to support the academic programmes; Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising †¢ †¢ To portray a corporate image of the university; and To promote the university as an academic institution based on the quality and the variety of academic programmes offered as well as the facilities available. These communicative functions of university brochures correspond with the general functions of brochures (Newsom and Carrell, 2001) set by the discourse community of PR. Re-branding strategies The 10 sections in university brochures have been identified as moves and these moves are realized with the use of strategies, and for the purpose of discussion in this article, re-branding strategies. The article discusses how the strategies contribute to the re-branding process and what their communicative functions are. NAME AND LOGO The first move in university brochures is called identifying the service which presents the name and the logo of the university. Although the brochures are in English language, the names of the universities are in Malay, the national language of Malaysia except two universities, International Islamic University Malaysia and University of Malaya. The names of the public universities were officially changed to Malay when the national language was made the medium of instruction in the mid-1970s. In the case of IIUM, however, the acronym by which it is commonly referred to by Malaysians is the Malay version, UIA. Similarly, University of Malaya is now popularly known as Universiti Malaya (UM). Interestingly, alumni up to the early 1980s still refer to this oldest university in the country as MU (Malaya University). TA B L E 1. Structural organization of university brochures Section Move identification Name of the university University slogan or motto Vision/Mission statement Profile or background of the university Location and size of the university Academic programmes offered at the university Facilities available to support the academic programmes Entry requirements, fees charged and duration of the programmes Career opportunities and recognition received by the university Contact addresses and telephone numbers Identifying the service (I) Attracting reader attention (A) Targeting the market (T) Establishing credentials (C) Locating the service (L) Describing the service (D) Justifying the service (J) Indicating the value of service (V) Endorsing the value of service (E) Soliciting response (S) Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 63 64 Discourse & Communication 2(1) In the past, universities were identified by their crests but now these crests have been generally referred to as logos. Although it cannot be ascertained when the change exactly took place, this is the first re-branding strategy. However, this is not an obvious re-branding element because some of the established traditional universities in the world still use the term crest, for example, Oxford University (http://www. ox. ac. uk/web/crest.shtml). As far as Malaysian universities are concerned, both terms are similar and a recent survey of the university websites shows that most of the public universities in Malaysia refer to the crest as the logo while two universities (UKM and USM) refer to them as emblems. Most of the websites also provide the rationale for the design of the logo (e. g. UiTM, UPM). Whether used as crest, logo or emblem, interestingly, there are two common shapes observed: the shape of a shield (six universities) and a round shape (five universities) (Figure 2, see Appendix). The shape of USM’s emblem differs significantly from other logos in that it resembles a state emblem. This qualifies for the use of the term ‘emblem’ (a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization or family – Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2001) by the university. Although the current shape of UPSI’s logo is round, it once had the shape of a shield (Figure 3, see Appendix). Compared with the logos of established universities which include traditional designs representing the academe, the current logos of Malaysian public universities include elements of modern designs. In fact, some of these logos have gone through some kind of ‘evolution’ as in the case of UiTM, UPM and UPSI. UPM ‘evolved’ from a training school to a college to a university focusing on agriculture. Later, the university started including more disciplines and the name was changed from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (Malaysia University of Agriculture) to Universiti Putra Malaysia (Putra University of Malaysia) in 1997, taking after the name of the first prime minister at the same time keeping the same acronym. UPSI and UiTM underwent almost similar ‘evolution’; from a centre to a college to an institute and finally to a university. Throughout the ‘evolution’, the logos have also gone through many changes where the concept incorporated in the logos mainly represents the focus of the university. While UPSI’s logo changed in shape but not in concept, UiTM’s and UPM’s logos underwent a total facelift (Figure 3, see Appendix). This is probably due to the fact that UPSI’s focus of training teachers remains throughout. MOTTO AND SLOGAN A motto is a short sentence or phrase that expresses a rule for sensible behaviour, especially a way of behaving in a particular situation (Collins Cobuild Dictionary, 2001). Most of the university logos have the motto inscribed on them as the motto represents the culture or the way of life in the university. Once again, all the mottos of the public universities are in Malay. The more established universities still retain this culture inscribed in the logo as seen in UM’s motto (translated as) ‘Knowledge, the Source of Development’, UPSI’s ‘Knowledge, the Beacon of Pure Character’, UTM’s ‘By the Name of God for Mankind’ and UUM’s ‘Scholarship, Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising Virtue, Service’. UPSI keeps the same motto inscribed on the logo throughout its ‘evolution’ but UiTM left out its motto of 39 years from its new logo. The newly established universities (UMS and UNIMAS) do not have a motto inscribed in their logos. While a motto is a traditional feature of a public university, having a slogan is a new phenomenon. A slogan is a distinctive catchphrase that serves as a motto for a promotion campaign (Wells et al., 2003) used to sum up a theme for the benefit of the product or the service in order to deliver a message in a few words which are easily remembered. There are two types of slogans (Russell and Lane, 1990): hard-sell slogans are strongly competitive, epitomizing the special significant features of the product or service being advertised. Institutional slogans establish a prestigious image for companies which they need in order to enhance their products or services. Slogans in university brochures fall under the category of institutional slogans. Again, it cannot be ascertained when universities started creating slogans but there is a strong probability that they started at the same time when Malaysian public universities were undergoing corporatization in the late 20th century. Slogans started appearing on brochures and prospectuses of these public universities. The use of slogans has been viewed as a significant re-branding strategy as slogans represent the most promotional element in advertising. The purpose of having a slogan is to attract the reader’s attention and to let it linger on the reader’s mind. According to Russell and Lane (1990), the memorability of slogans can be enhanced by making use of literary techniques. These techniques consist of certain types of words including: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Boldness – use of strong powerful words, and startling or unexpected phrases; Parallelism – use of a repeated structure of a sentence or phrase; Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration – use of repeated sounds; Aptness – use of appropriate, direct words (Russell and Lane, 1990). Slogans in university brochures have been created based on good advertising principles as they have been observed to make use of the literary techniques, for example: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ boldness: Garden of Knowledge and Virtue (IIUM) parallelism: The National University with an International Reach (UKM) aptness: Your Inspiration parallelism: Contemporary and Forward Looking (UNIMAS) boldness: Towards a World-Class University (UPM) boldness: Towards Excellence and Supremacy (UPSI) Boldness is exemplified with words such as ‘virtue’, ‘world-class’ and ‘supremacy’ where the universities are bold enough to associate themselves with such high stature. Traditionally, public universities are centres of academe which do not portray an image of flaunting. Slogans using parallelism aim for jingle-like sounds so that readers can remember them easily while aptness acts like punchlines, strong and effective to be easily remembered. The bottom line is that a slogan is an Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 65 66 Discourse & Communication 2(1) advertising concept and a marketing tool. The fact that public universities as nonprofit making academic institutions use slogans place them in a different light. They are currently functioning more like business entities. MISSION STATEMENT This move is identified as targeting the market based on the communicative functions of the mission statements. A mission statement provides information about what type of organization it is and what it does (Falsey, 1989) at the same time highlighting the positive factors in the organization. Stating the mission of the university is viewed as one of the two crucial strategies (the other being using slogans) in re-branding academic institutions as this move never appeared in academic genres before. This move has placed public universities in the same league as other successful corporations. Mission statements of public universities in Malaysia are observed to provide information as to what and how they can contribute to the public in terms of tertiary education as highlighted (underlined) in the following examples: (10) To become a distinguished university, aspiring to promote academic excellence in higher education and professional training necessary for the country’s socio-economic development (UiTM). (11) To be a premier university seeking excellence in the advancement of knowledge to meet the aspirations of the nation (UM) (12) To become an exemplary university of internationally acknowledged stature and as a scholarly institution of preference and choice for students and academics through the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and scholarship (UNIMAS) (13) To lead in the development of creative human resource and technology in line with the aspirations of the nation (UTM). The words ‘distinguished’, ‘premier’, and ‘exemplary’ are used to emphasize the quality of the universities. Other words like ‘excellence’, ‘advancement’ and ‘stature’ as well as ‘to lead’ are all bold words of promise by the universities. PROFILE OF THE UNIVERSITY This section is identified as the move to establish the credentials of the university as it provides information on the background and/or the current status of the university. The background information includes the date of establishment and the reason for the establishment while information on the current status of the university usually includes the achievements of the university in terms of academic programmes and physical development as well as the quality of the programmes offered. This move is supposed to be informational but there are a number of instances where the brochures provide the information on the current status of the university using ‘promotional’ words and phrases. For example: (14) UNIMAS is an ISO-certified university . . . Its undergraduate programmes have been designed to suit the needs of society and industry. Downloaded from http://dcm. sagepub. com by Heemal Kasseean on October 9, 2009 Osman: Re-branding academic institutions with corporate advertising An ISO certification for an organization confirms the quality of that organization and it is now a common practice among public universities to obtain such certification to convince the public about the quality of the university, particularly the academic programmes on offer. Universities with ISO certification usually highlight it in their brochures as a strategy to promote the institutions. Other instances of promotional words can be observed in the following examples: (15) The university is the catalyst for regional growth in the northern region of Peninsula Malaysia (UUM) (16) From these humble beginnings, UM grew hand-in-hand with the young nation to become the nucleus for producing graduates of the highest quality and calibre. The word ‘catalyst’ denotes the importance of the university in the regional growth of the northern region of the country, without which there would not have been much growth in that region, thus promoting the significance of the university. Similarly, the word ‘nucleus’ conveys the significance of UM to the developing nation. Another instance is when a university states the commitment of the university to the public or the nation. UPM boldly states its commitment to become a worldclass university to convince the public to come and enrol in this university. (17) Named Universiti Putra Malaysia in honour of the pioneering Prime Minister of Malaysia, . . . has adopted this pioneering spirit and is committed to become the world class Univers.