Importance of Effective Communication in Construction

Importance of Effective Communication in Construction Introduction Civil engineering works are not just the building of structures, but they provide a livable and safe environment for society. To make it all work, the disciplines involved must be in constant communication. They cannot work in isolation and must communicate with other civil engineers and professions and also be able to communicate with society. When communication fails it will have a negative effect on the works. Defining communication In the Oxford Dictionary the word communication is defined as to share or exchange information, and the word effective is defined as producing an intended result. For a civil project, effective communication can be defined as communication between inter-disciplines, which produces a structure that is designed to be safe, serviceable and economic, and constructed to be on budget, time and to the customers satisfaction. In order for communication to be effective a common language must be used which is understood well by the various disciplines. In communication between two parties, there are four key components involved: Transmitter: person with information Receiver: person to whom information is directed Medium (nature of information): words (written and spoken), drawings, figures, symbols, codes, graphs, diagrams, charts, etc Channel (method of communicating information): meetings, documents, email, telephone, video link, projector slides, etc For communication to be effective, information should flow in both directions because the receiver may not be listening to or reading what is being communicated. There must be a response from them to know that the person has both received the message and understood it2. The nature of Civil Engineering works Compared with products manufactured in factories, where most if not all the design and production stages are carried out by a single company and the end products are the same, civil engineering works are manufactured on site with a number of different disciplines involved in the process at different stages of design and construction. These works are always made to the customers specifications, making them unique for each project. With so many different disciplines3 involved, there is an important need for effective communication between them for any project to be successful. For example, the customer must communicate their needs to the consultant engineers. The consultant engineers must understand the customers needs and interpret them into a design. Then, once the plans have been developed and a bid has been taken, the contractor must understand the plans and communicate the plans to the sub-contractors. The importance of effective communication during civil works As said by Peter Rogers How many projects go wrong because somebody has a vision at the top and the people beneath destroy it because they either do not believe in what is being created or the ambition has not been communicated to them?4 Effective communication is a means to an end, which is fundamentally a project delivered on time, on budget and to an agreed quality. So, where there is a breakdown in communication the opposite is likely to occur. In the UK this has left a bad reputation of the construction industry with the client and as has lead to an increase in disputes with many of cases ending up in court. In 1992 this increasing trend prompted the Conservative government to assign Sir Michael Latham, a former MP with experience of the construction industry to investigate. In 1994 he published his report called Constructing the Team5. One of the recommendations he made was the need for improved team-working, which highlights a need for improved communication between team members. A few years later when the Labour government came into office in 1997 they set up The Construction Task Force. It was made up of a team of ten industry clients6 who were to advise on ways of improving the quality and efficiency of housebuilding. They mentioned seeing the industry typically dealing with the project process as a series of sequential and largely separate operations undertaken by individual designers7. In 1998 the Construction Task Force presented their report (commonly known as The Egan Report). Based on their findings they recommended five key changes that were needed for improvement in the construction industry: Committed leadership A focus on the customer Integrated processes and teams A quality driven agenda Commitment to people It can be seen from their recommendations that a crucial element for any of them to be successful is the ability to communicate and listen effectively and although the Task Force looked specifically at housebuilding, their findings can be applied to civil works as well. It has been over ten years (currently 2009) since the Construction Task Forces recommendations. Looking at the performance of the construction industry in last 5 years, it can be seen that there has been improvement but a lot is still needed. A summary of the performance of the construction industry from 2004 to 2008 is shown in Table 1.1. Client product satisfaction has been at 80% or above for the last five years, but this also means that 1 in 5 clients have not been mostly satisfied with the final outcome of their project. Also the figures for defects last year show that approximately one third of defects had a negative impact on the client. Case Study 1: Wembley Stadium The Wembley stadium project is an example of how clients, contractors and sub-contractors can fall out due to poor communication or the lack thereof, which can cause the project to go over budget and time. The client who is Wembley National Stadium Ltd originally selected Bovis Lend Lease and Multiplex to both design and construct the stadium, but negotiations broke down over costs. Multiplex then independently offered a cheaper tender to the client for a fixed price of  £326 million, which in September 2000 was accepted by the client10. However, the price gradually increased to  £445 million after detailed specifications were made. Bovis believed the client had broken the public sector procurement guidelines and that the project should have been retendered. The government commissioned a report to investigate the issue and concluded that retendering would have harmed the project even further in respect to time and money and believed it was not practical to have retendered. But the report also stated that the client: Failed to follow a formal procurement process, including creating proper documentation Carried out two procurement processes at the same time, making it difficult to have competitive procurement Had meetings and conversations with Multiplex before a formal procurement process There were also other problems. Multiplex complained that the client had made 600 design changes to the contract and there were disputes such as the definition of practical completion. There were delays with the raising into position of the arch. Multiplex said that the delays and other troubles were the result of the subcontractor Cleveland Bridges late and defective design of fabrication work. Cleveland Bridge said that the delays and other troubles were because of too many variations or the late supply of information by Multiplex or by the structural engineer, Mott MacDonald Limited. Case study 2: Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 On 27 March 2008 BAA opened Terminal 5 after six years of work, costing  £4.3 billion. The project was a success in terms of being built on time and within budget. However, on the first day of opening there were problems with the baggage system. The baggage system failed and so over 23,000 pieces of luggage needed to be sorted manually. At a press conference just two weeks earlier, BAAs strategy director said We have a world-class baggage system that is going to work perfectly on day one. An investigation into why these problems occurred was undertaken by the House of Commons Transport committee. They found that most of these problems were caused two main factors: Insufficient communication between owner and operator, and Poor staff training and system testing During their inquiry the national secretary for aviation, told the committee: members and shop stewards locally had been raising concerns both within BAA and BA for a considerable period in relation to the opening of Terminal 5, but that no consideration was given to the response from the trade union side. 11 A shop steward working for BAA said that union representatives: said to the company that the way it was going would not work. Based on our own experience having worked there for years no technology can take that away. we said that they must listen to what we said and do it this way, but we were told that, no, it was a state-of-the-art building and everything would work and be all right.12 The Chief executive of Heathrow BAA said that if he could rewind time, he would focus resolutely and determinedly on keeping British Airways and BAA in the same room tightly together. 13 Methods to achieve effective communication According to research carried out by Court, Culley and McMahon14, the method of communication has an effect on the richness of the information received and processed. Table 1.2 shows the various methods of communication and the levels of richness of each. Table 1.2 shows that the best method of communication is verbal, such as in meetings. With verbal communication immediate feedback is received. Information flows in both directions and new issues may be introduced by either party. Meetings are an essential part of effective teamwork and are probably the most important time where designers and constructors work together. They can be said to have two main functions: A social purpose where team members become familiar with one another and one anothers ways of working, A business purpose for communicating information and agreeing actions. For meetings to be successful each must take time to listen to the other, and remove prejudices. We are all individuals and have our own ways of working and communicating with others. What is needed is the desire to communicate and the passion to build something that is good. By sharing information between members, a team is able to make best use of its combined knowledge. Good communication in meetings also depends on individuals being able to understand what is being said. The use of terminology which is not understood by others outside the profession risks poor communication and misunderstanding. A language must be found which is understood well by all parties. Integrated teams An integrated team which was one of the recommendations of the Construction Task Force is another effective method of having team members talking to each other. Multidisciplinary companies like Arup or Amec have the advantage of the different disciplines working for the same company and in the same building. Typically the members of the project work on the same floor in an open plan office making it easy for communication and ideas to be exchanged between the different team members. Computer programmes As the old saying goes A picture is worth a thousand words, in the same way computer programmes such as CAD can be used to produce 2D and 3D drawings, which can then be communicated to other project members. There is industry standards in terms of symbols and legends used on drawings so that everyone is able to understand what is being communicated. CAD drawings can also be sent electronically to the other team members so that they are able to view the same information and develop their information onto the design. They are also able to analyse the structure and its connection with other structural elements and make any adjustments if necessary. Case Study 3: MidCity Place, London MidCity Place, an office development in London took 57 weeks to construct, which according to the developers Stanhope Plc is half the industry average build time and at a cost 20% lower than the market average for a building of its quality15. The project was completed in December 2001, eleven weeks ahead of schedule and within budget. The contractors Bovis Lend Lease and Stanhope developed a logistics process based on experience in the car industry. The logistics programmes scheduled all the components in their sequence in the construction and put this information into 3D modelling software. The programme modelled the building and its assembly and also allowed them to find glitches in the delivery and construction sequence. The techniques used on MidCity Place are now being used on other Stanhope/Bovis Lend Lease projects, where they are being developed further. Education Educating students at an early stage is important in order to allow them to enact the roles they will need to fill when entering the industry. From experience, this is currently being achieved by methods such as group projects, presentations and subjects such as Civil Engineering Management. Although these methods do improve the personal skills of an individual there does not seem to be any formal subject in developing communication skills. It seems that communicating ideas is left more as an art that needs to be developed individually by students, than something that can be learnt academically. There are postgraduate courses such as Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) run at Cambridge University or the Project Team Leadership Programme run by Design Build Foundations and Henley Management College, which broaden the education of graduates to getting the industry communicating and working together. Conclusions Communicating information is just as important as the information that is being communicated, without which no progress can be made and ideas will remain just that. A lot of time is spent communicating during civil projects. It is in the interest of all those participating in a project to develop effective forms of communication, as a breakdown in communication can have not only time delays and cost overruns, but also harm a companys reputation and/or even bring financial ruin. References 1. Payne, A.C, Chelsom J.V and Reavill L.R.P (1996), Management for Engineers, John Wiley Sons, England, Pg 192. 2. Ibid, Pg 193. 3. These professions are typically the Client, Civil Engineer, Contractor, Sub-contractor, Manufacturer, and also the general public. 4. Spence R, Macmillan S Kirby P. (2001), Interdisciplinary design in practice, Thomas Telford, London, Pg 28. 5. Latham, M. (1994), Constructing the Team, HMSO, London. 6. The members of the Construction Task Force (circa 1998): Sir John Egan (Chairman), Chief Executive, BAA plc, Mike Raycraft, Property Services Director, Tesco Stores Ltd, Ian Gibson, Managing Director, Nissan UK Ltd, Sir Brian Moffatt, Chief Executive, British Steel plc, Alan Parker, Managing Director, Whitbread Hotels, Anthony Mayer, Chief Executive, Housing Corporation, Sir Nigel Mobbs, Chairman, Slough Estates and Chief Executive, Bovis Homes, Professor Daniel Jones, Director of the Lean Enterprise Centre, Cardiff Business School, David Gye, Director, Morgan Stanley Co Ltd, David Warburton, GMB Union. 7. DETR (1998) Rethinking Construction: the report of the Construction Task Force July 1998, Pg 13. 8. Ibid, Pg 12. 9. Ibid, Pg 4. 10. Morton R, revised by Ross A (2008), Construction UK, Introduction to the Industry, Blackwell, Pg 145. 11. House of Commons Transport Committee (2008), The opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, The Stationery Office Limited, Pg 74. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14. Court AW, Culley SJ and McMahon CA. (1997), The Influence of information technology in new product development. International Journal of information Management, Vol. 17 N0.5, Elsevier, Pg 359-379. 15. www.stanhopeplc.com, MidCity Place (2009). 16. Office for National statistics (2008), Construction Statistics Annual No.9, Palgrave.

Lab Report: Antibiotic Evaluation by the Kirby-Bauer Method

Lab Report: Antibiotic Evaluation by the Kirby-Bauer Method Introduction Chemical antimicrobial agents are chemical compounds capable of either inhibiting the growth of microorganisms or killing them outright. Those which are taken internally to alleviate the symptoms of or promote healing from disease are called chemotherapeutic drugs, and among these is a class of compounds called antibiotics. In order for a chemotherapeutic drug to be classed as an antibiotic, it must be produced by a microorganism such as bacterium or fungus or at least derived from a chemical produced by one.It must also be capable of killing or inhibiting the growth of other microorganisms and of doing so when taken in very small quantities. To study whether a microbial product qualifies as an effective antibiotic, a standard procedure called the Kirby-Bauer method is employed. This method, which is the procedure recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration, was devised by William Kirby and A. W. Bauer in 1966. In the current protocols involved in the Kirby-Bauer method, Mueller-Hinton standard agar is used as the medium for bacterial culture.The pH of the standard agar is 7. 2 to 7. 4 and it is poured exclusively to a depth of 4 mm. The medium is heavily inoculated with bacteria and paper disks containing enough of the antibiotic under study to create an optical density of 1 (the McFarland standard) are placed on top of the cultures. By examining the results of incubation in the form of a zone of inhibition around each disk after incubation, it can be determined how effective each antibiotic is against any given bacterium. A minimum inhibitory concentration can then be deduced for the given antibiotic vs. he specific bacterium tested so that appropriate dosage may be determined. Resistant bacteria cultures will show a small or no zone of inhibition if their growth is not sufficiently inhibited for the antibiotic to be a viable candidate in treating infection by that organism. Sensi tive cultures, on the other hand, will be appreciably inhibited in their growth or, ideally, eliminated entirely in a relatively large radius around the McFarland standard disk. In this case, the antibiotic under study might be prescribed as a useful counter to illness brought on by that particularly bacterium.In the experiment discussed here, we tested eight antibiotics against four common opportunistic pathogens, namely Streptococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Of these, the first two are Gram positive and the latter pair are Gram negative. The eight antibiotics tested were: Ampicillin, a beta-lactam antibiotic that inhibits the final stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis by binding to receptors within the cell wall. The result is a porous cell wall and subsequent lysis carried out by the bacteria's own enzymes.It is effective against many bacteria, both Gram positive and Gram negative, and is particularly used in treating infect ion by E. coli, Salmonella typhosa and Enterococcus faecalis, among others. (DrugBank) This antibiotic is a semi-synthetic derivative of penicillin, which is itself an antibiotic produced by the fungus Penicillium notatum. Bacitracin, a mixture of polypeptides obtained from Bacillus subtilis var Tracy. It inhibits synthesis of the peptidoglycan layer in Gram positive bacteria by preventing the function of a molecule that transports components to synthesis sites.Bacitracin has a low threshold of toxicity when taken orally or injected, but it has found application as a topical ointment in the prevention of wound infection by Staphylococci. (DrugBank) Chloramphenicol, a broad spectrum antibiotic that is produced synthetically but which was originally discovered in a Streptomyces bacterium. It can be employed against several types of infection but most notably has found application in combating typhoid fever cholera. This antibiotic inhibits protein synthesis by suppressing the function of the 50S subunit in bacterial ribosomes.Chloramphenicol is bacteriostatic but does not kill bacteria. It also has a low toxicity threshold when ingested, and so it is now used almost exclusively to combat life-threatening illness or infection. (DrugBank) Erythromycin, which is produced by a Streptomyces and functions as a protein synthesis inhibitor in much the same way as Chloramphenicol. It is much less toxic than Chloramphenicol and is used to combat such diseases as whooping cough, diptheria, and pelvic inflammation due to syphilis. (DrugBank) Novobiocin, one of the aminoglycoside antibiotics.This class of antibiotics works by binding to the bacterial 16S rRNA and causing the misreading of tRNA. Because of this, the bacteria synthesizes incomplete or toxic polypeptides, resulting in the death of the bacterial cell. Novobiocin can be used to treat infection by Gram negative bacteria and Mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is not effective against anaerobic b acteria, however, and is not often used against Gram positive infections because other antibiotics that are less toxic to the patient are available for this purpose. DrugBank) Moreover, Novobiocin is known to bind to and alter the function of DNA gyrase, effectively stopping proper replication in the bacterial cell and thus bactericidal. Penicillin G, another antibiotic of the beta lactam class. It is used primarily against Gram positive bacteria such as the Streptococci but is also effective against some Gram negatives such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and the spirochete Treponema pallidum, which is responsible for syphilis.Penicillin G inhibits synthesis if peptidoglycan by the same mechanism as in Ampicillin. (DrugBank) Polymyxin B, a mixture of polypeptides derived from Bacillus polymyxa. It can be used bactericidally against most Gram negative bacteria and is applied most often against urinary tract, blood, and meningal infections of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It has no effect upon Gr am positive bacteria. It kills bacterial cells by binding to a removing lipids in the cell membrane.Due to this mechanism, however, Polymyxin B also damages eukaryotic cells and thus sometimes proves to be a neuro- and nephrotoxic in humans. (DrugBank) Tetracycline, synthesized from chlortetracycline, a compound produced by a Streptomyces. It works by binding to the bacterial ribosome and interfering with protein synthesis and is effective against a wide range of Gram positive and negative bacteria, including the Mycoplasma and the bacteria responsible for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and nongonococcal urinary tract infections. DrugBank) Material and Methods Cultures:Streptococcus faecalis Staphylococcus aureus Escherichia coli 1 Pseudomonas aeruginosa One person each in a team of four heavily inoculated two Mueller-Hinton agar plates with one of the cultures listed by aseptic transfer from a broth culture using a sterile cotton swab. Each plate was marked off into four segments, a total of eight sectors. One McFarland standard disk containing one of the eight antibiotics tested was placed, using alcohol-flame sterilized forceps, in the center of a sector.After incubating for 18 hours at 37Â °C, the diameters of the clear zones (zones of inhibition) around each McFarland disk was measured with a standard ruler to the nearest millimeter. The measurements obtained were matched against a chart (Claus 407) to determine whether the bacterium was resistant, sensitive, or intermediate in susceptibility to the antibiotic used. The numbers against which these measurements are matched take into account the difference in zone sizes caused by variations in diffusion rates through agar in the antibiotics tested. Results Bacterium: Streptococcus faecalis | |Antibiotic used |Inhibition zone size (mm)|Culture response | |Ampicillin |28 |S | |Bacitracin |20 |S | |Chloramphenicol |22 |S | |Erythromycin |21 |S | |Novobiocin |20 |S | |Penicillin G |20 |S | |Polymyxin B |0 |R | | Tetracycline |24 |S | Bacterium: Staphylococcus aureus | |Antibiotic used |Inhibition zone size (mm)|Culture response | |Ampicillin |48 |S | |Bacitracin |22 |S | |Chloramphenicol |24 |S | |Erythromycin |25 |S | |Novobiocin |39 |S | |Penicillin G |43 |S | |Polymyxin B |0 |R | |Tetracycline |32 |S | Bacterium: Escherichia coli | |Antibiotic used |Inhibition zone size (mm)|Culture response | |Ampicillin |20 |S | |Bacitracin |11 |R | |Chloramphenicol |0 |R | |Erythromycin |25 |S | |Novobiocin |21 |S | |Penicillin G |8 |R | |Polymyxin B |6 |R | |Tetracycline |12 |R | Bacterium: Streptococcus faecalis | |Antibiotic used |Inhibition zone size (mm)|Culture response | |Ampicillin |0 |R | |Bacitracin |0 |R | |Chloramphenicol |21 |S | |Erythromycin |22 |S | |Novobiocin |10 |R | |Penicillin G |0 |R | |Polymyxin B |18 |S | |Tetracycline |25 |S | Discussion S. faecalis was sensitive to all of the antibiotics tested except for Polymyxin B. Since that antibiotic is known to be effective only agai nst Gram negative bacteria, this observation is in keeping with expected results.As a Gram positive, one would expect, as we observed, that it would be sensitive to polypeptide inhibitors, such as Penicillin G and Ampicillin, as well as protein synthesis inhibitors, such as Tetracycline and Erythromycin. Novobiocin, while not often used against Gram positives due to concerns about its toxicity, is known to be effective against Gram positives as well, which is borne out by these observations. Like S. faecalis, S. aureus is a Gram positive, and so would be expected to be sensitive to the same antibiotics and resistant to Polymyxin B. Our observations verify this as well. E. coli is Gram negative, and our observations show it to be sensitive only to Ampicillin, Erythromycin, Novobiocin.It was, however, resistant to Penicillin G, demonstrating that there is some chemical factor which allows one beta lactam antibiotic to inhibit this bacterium (Ampicillin) while another (Penicillin G) do es not. This is likely due to the difference in chemical structure of the two. Penicillin G lacks an amino group, which is present on Ampicillin. It may well be that the presence of a partially-charged amino group on Ampicillin allows it to be uptaken by the bacterium more readily than Penicillin G. (Deacon) More unexpectedly, E. coli was resistant to Chloramphenicol, even though this antibiotic is useful in inhibiting other Gram negative bacteria. It may be that the E. oli strain used in this experiment has developed a resistance to this particular antibiotic. P. aeruginosa also proved to be resistant to Ampicillin, Bacitracin, Novobiocin, and Penicillin G. This suggests that the chemical structure which allows Ampicillin to inhibit E. coli is not effective in the case of this bacterium, which is sensitive to neither of these beta lactams. Bacitracin is only useful against Gram positives as well, so it had no noticeable affect upon P. aeruginosa. On the other hand, this culture was sensitive to Polymyxin B, Tetracycline, Chloramphenicol, and Erythromycin, as one would predict for a Gram negative. Its resistance to Novobiocin is due to its having a modified DNA gyrase (Miller 674).It is worth noting in this case that while the bacterium is resistant, Novobiocin does have some effect at a standard concentration, and higher concentrations can be used to kill the organism. Such concentrations, however, would also be toxic to the patient if taken as a chemotherapeutic dosage. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria has been an ongoing phenomenon since shortly after the widespread use of penicillin, the first antibiotic, began. The rate at which this occurs has increased as the availability and employment has increased since then, and it has now become a significant medical problem. The major reason for this is that the use of antibiotics acts as a selective pressure. Those bacteria which carry a mutation on their plasmids that make them able to s urvive treatment give hem access to a niche which non-resistant strains cannot exploit, leading to their proliferation both in infected individuals and ultimately in the environment in general. The use of antibiotics kills not only pathogens, but also normal microflora which might otherwise prevent virulent bacteria from establishing a foothold in the human body. Thanks to the phenomenon of transformation, in which living bacteria can incorporate naked genetic material left over when other cells are lysed for reasons other than antibiotic sensitivity, resistance genes can cross between genera. For example, the Staphylococci can incorporate resistance genes from Bacilli and Streptococci.Added to this are resistance genes that exist as transposons found in the main bacterial genome and which can be transmitted to other members of the same species by temperate phages via the process of transduction. These mechanisms have resulted in the arisal of such things as Vancomycin-resistant str ains of S. aureus, responsible for a usually-lethal nosocomial infection that, ironically, is carried by the very bacteria that Alexander Fleming first observed as being susceptible to penicillin, the original antibiotic. (Deacon) Literature cited Bauer AW, Kirby WMM, Sherris JC, Turck M. 1966. Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. Am J Clin Pathol 45(4):493-6. Deacon, J. The Microbial World: Penicillin and Other Antibiotics. http://helios. bto. ed. ac. k/bto/microbes/penicill. htm. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, The University of Edinburgh. August 2003. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00320. July 29 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00816. txt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00862. txt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/d rugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00953. txt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00694. xt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00646. txt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD01190. txt. July 29, 2006. DrugBank, http://redpoll. pharmacy. ualberta. ca/drugbank/cgi-bin/getCard. cgi? CARD=APRD00572. txt. July 29, 2006. Miller RV, Scurlock TR. 1983. DNA gyrase (topoisomerase-II) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 110 (2):694-700. Understanding Microbes: A Laboratory Textbook for Microbiology, by G. William Claus, W. H. Freeman and Co. , New York, 1988.

An Introduction to Personal Responsibility

†¢ Define personal responsibility and what it means to you.†¢Explain the relationship between personal responsibility and college success.†¢Include a preliminary plan to practice personal responsibility in your education.I. Introduction a. personal responsibility :1. Personal responsibility begins inside and moves outward. 2. We have to begin with ourselves and take responsibility for our thoughts, choices, actions and reactions. Then we can be responsible for the circumstances we create in our world. 3. When you believe something or someone else is responsible for your problems and the resulting solutions, that exact thought is the first problem to solve when it comes to taking personal responsibility. b. what it means to me:1. Taking care of my family 2. Taking care of my job 3. Taking care of my studyIl. Primary purpose for educationThe relationship between personal responsibility and college success. a. Personal responsibilities:1. Having something in your care to take care of. It is your responsibility that your kids get taken care of on a daily basis 2. Taking Responsibility for Your Own Actions. b. college success:1. Students have to learn to take responsibility for their education. 2. With college come the skills needed to be successful. 3. Every student who enters into a college level program needs to bring some very useful skills with them.Ill. Adult learning stylePreliminary plan to practice personal responsibility in your education. 1. Attending college is taking personal responsibility for your education. 2. Time management and proper organization serve not only in planning for education success but also in aspects of life. 3. With and a higher education we have a better salary then without. 4. To be successful in educational endeavors its necessary to act as a personally responsible student. 5. Students are Responsible for Their Own Educational Future.IV. ConclusionAccepting personal responsibility can have life changing affects.

Is Thomas More s Utopia - 1374 Words

Thomas More’s Utopia is a work of fiction that explores the idea of the commonwealth of Utopia as an ideal society both governmentally and productively. Later thinkers delved deeper into the questions of society, looking at why people enter societies, what type of governments are most successful, and distribution of wealth among the population. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx all had varying thoughts on how to achieve social order in the societies in which they lived. Their differing notions on the issue of social order and human nature lead to contradictory solutions. In Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, Hobbes discusses body politic which is the state collectively, an organized group of citizens. The Leviathan is the commonwealth and as Hobbes describes, an artificial man. The ruler is at the heart of the being and is the only reason that the state as a whole exists. The magistrates and other officers are the joints that put the state in motion while the rest of society are considered the nerves. The actions of the head flow down through the magistrate to the common people, but the common person’s actions can go back to the head of state. As Hobbes says, â€Å"†¦ reward and punishment, by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty every joint and member is moved to perform his duty†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (35). When any part is missing the entity as a whole cannot function and ceases to exist. Hobbes believed that mankind in its natural state was at war. In this state of war, thereShow MoreRelatedThomas More s Utopia?1464 Words   |  6 Pages Thomas More’s Utopia By: Jocelyn Torres English 2322 12 October 2017 Jocelyn Torres English 2322 Read MoreThomas More s Utopia?2123 Words   |  9 PagesThomas More’s Utopia Thomas More wrote this book in 1516. He was latin and published this book in Louvain which is basically belgium. This book was written as a conversation between these three people, Thomas More, Peter Giles and Raphael Hythloday. More and Giles are real people who lived and breathed on this earth but Raphael is completely fictional he did not exist at all. They meet and their meeting turns into the book we now know as Utopia. I believe that a lot of the ideas presented inRead MoreUtopia By Thomas More s Utopia1350 Words   |  6 PagesMore’s Utopia Thomas More’s book, Utopia, was constructed to criticize aspects of European life during the 1500s. One issue that More evaluates is the subject of politics and war. War during this time was used to gain territory or increase the ruler’s power. The Utopians are a peaceful group of citizens that rarely have any altercations occurring upon their island. They have a strict daily schedule that provides a minute amount of time for leisure, resulting in a low rate of problems. 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His goal of escaping the detrimental state of the European society was in reach, only in the utopia mentioned in his book. This book was one of the first of it s kind, capturing the eyes of many readersRead MoreAnalysis Of Thomas More s Utopia1338 Words   |  6 Pagespopular culture and continues to evolve even today. The piece of literature that serves as the source and namesake of this genre is Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) â€Å"which describes a fabricated country named Utopus after its conqueror. King Utopus r eshapes a savage land into an ideal society through planning and reason fulfilling the ideal of the philosopher-king.† Utopia is derived from the Greek words ou and topos meaning â€Å"no place† directly stating that the land is impossible to arise, but it is provedRead MoreThomas More s Utopia And Friedrich Engels Condition1980 Words   |  8 Pages Thomas More’s Utopia and Friedrich Engels Condition of the Working Class in England as two books provide extensive detail as well as insight on how societies and economies functioned earlier on throughout times. These books provide us with ideas that are still functionally applicable when we look to critique our current society and world economic system. They bring to attention what factors are paramount in the corruption and provide solutions that could aim to prevent or alter these societalRead MoreThomas More s Utopia And The Problem A Selfish Community1057 Words   |  5 PagesBlair ENGL 1101 Oct. 2, 2015 Thomas More’s Utopia and the Problem a Selfish Community What is an ideal society? As described in Utopia by Sir Thomas More, a utopia is close to ideal because it assumes that the population is not ideal. He describes Utopia as being a place where the laws are built in such a way that makes that makes immoral thinking irrational. Utopia operates in a way that people act in the community’s best interest, rather than their own. In Utopia, More argues that a community thatRead MoreSir Thomas More s Utopia And Edmund Spenser s The Faerie Queene1178 Words   |  5 PagesThe sixteenth century brought many to focus more abundantly on the internal trials rather than the outward appearances of individuals. This caused various writers and philosophers to begin evaluating the importance of every person. Because of this, the idea of renaissance humanism was inevitably created. In simple terms, humanism is the belief that every individual, putting aside his or her rank, is of equal importance. A better understanding of renaissance humanism ca n be reached after reviewingRead MoreSir Thomas More s Utopia And Niccolo Machiavelli s The Prince1454 Words   |  6 PagesSir Thomas More’s Utopia and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince reflect the ideals of the Renaissance. Their reflections of the Renaissance are similar; however, their representations of the Renaissance also have distinct differences. The Renaissance or â€Å"rebirth† was a cultural movement that accompanied the passage of Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian civic humanist, historian, diplomat, philosopher, politician, and writer during the Renaissance. He applied