Yankee Fork and Hoe Company Case Study

 Questions for analysis

Question 1:

Comment on the forecasting system being used by Yankee. Suggest changes or improvements that you believe are justified.

Answer:

There are several weaknesses of current forecasting system: Using only Qualitative analysis., forecasting figures are based on the meetings with managers, no mathematical technique is involved, benefits: quick forecast & advantage of experience of each manager. Demerits are : forecast tend to be over inflated .

Suggestion:

Implementation of quantitative method like seasonality technique with linear trend equation2.

Using actual shipment figure, instead of actual demand figures.

Marketing forecast is based on actual shipment data.

Trying to adjust for shortages in actual shipment data by anticipated promotions and environmental and economical changes.

Suggestion:

Focus on past demand to project future demand.

Forecasting based on actual demand will help production department to schedule the production line more effectively.

Provide a clearer picture to project realistic volume.

Create more sales and revenue for the company when anticipating the upward trend of demand.

Prevent losses when anticipated downward trend in the market.3.

Lack of communication between Production and Marketing department

Both do not have accurate forecasting system and have different perception for the same.

Production department think that marketing department over inflates forecast.

Marketing generate unfaithful forecasts by adjusting past shipment and not predicting future demands.

To maintain low-cost production, the long-term purchasing agreement is needed in order to keep the price low for the raw material from suppliers but having it just there is the price to pay for the company.

Suggestions

Marketing should develop a forecasting system that reflects both past shortages and future expected demands.

Meeting between the two should conduct at the end of each month.

Both departments should adjust the anticipated demand monthly to avoid unexpected changes in the economy and shortage of the raw material.4.

Marketing division may not be optimistic.

Delay delivery problem was caused due to low productivity of production department.

Current production is not sufficient to serve customer needs as it is based

on “adjusted forecast”.

Production capacity seemed not to be a problem as rake head & bow could be produced 7,000 & 5,000 units per day respectively, compared to the highest sales record in the last 4 years (month 11 year 1) at 83,269 units.

Inappropriate inventory management was the major cause of unproductive production.

Question 2:

Develop your own forecast for bow rakes for each month of the next year (year 5). Justify your forecast and the method you used.1.

Answer:

Naïve method

Naïve forecasts are the most cost-effective and efficient objective forecasting model, and provide a benchmark against which more sophisticated models can be compared. For stable time series data, this approach says that the forecast for any period equals the previous period's actual value.2.

Moving average method

Moving average techniques forecast demand by calculating an average of actual demands from a specified number of prior periods. Each new forecast drops the demand in the oldest period and replaces it with the demand in the most recent period; thus, the data in the calculation "moves" over time

Weighted moving average method

When using a moving average method described before, each of the observations used to compute the forecasted value is weighted equally. In certain cases, it might be beneficial to put more weight on the observations that are closer to the

time period being forecast. When this is done, this is known as a weighted moving average technique. The weights in a weighted MA must sum to 1.4.

Conclusion

The table gives us the Four-Year Demand History for the Bow Rake and the demand figures are the number of units promised for delivery each month. Hence we could not forecast using the exponential smoothing and the trend adjusted exponential smoothing.  There was no linear increasing or decreasing trend that was evident hence trend analysis for linear trends had to be avoided. By analyzing the data provided we could observe a parabolic trend and season variations with demand increasing during the first 4 months and last 4 months. Using all the different techniques for forecasting and taking into considerations the error associated with each we could conclude that the multiplicative model was the best forecasting technique.

            

Change resistance

Change resistance is a big problem that may face any business organization that is applying a specific type of change as change implementation requires high efficiency from the side of the organization as before applying any change there are many questions that need to be asked such as: how far the change can be successive? Why the organization is applying this change and what reasons lie behind this? Will employees accept and engage with this change? To what extent will this occur? Will there be any resistance? Who will resist such change and why? What can the organization do for facing the resistance to change?

These questions are helpful for the business organization because they can reveal many things and solve many problems that may occur if change was applied without preparation so the first step that should be applied before implementing change is preparing for the change and checking that all parts of the organization are ready for applying such a change in addition to making sure that change can be applied by a systematic way.

This can be made by choosing a special change model and follow it and there are many models such as for example, ADKAR model that depends on five main steps for applying change which are awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement and each of them refers to the way the organization prepares for change, there are other models such as Lewin's model which involves three main stages which are unfreezing that reflects preparing for change, change that means to apply change and refreezing which means to stress the success of change application. By following a change management model, the organization can succeed in the type of change it is intending to apply as this will force managers to make analysis and studies about employees' reactions for the change and at the same time, they will be prepared for applying the change properly in order to raise the organizational efficiency.    

Importance of Games in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Games are usually defined as a fun tool which is used for encouraging both teachers and students to break the ice at a time of getting bored or at the beginning of a lesson. According to Byrne (1995), games are some kind of playing which have rules to control them, they are not just a method for making a nice atmosphere in the classroom yet they are a fun that everyone enjoys and at the same time they could be a strategy that involves students in the learning process and into language using through the game. As to Jill Hadfield (1990), he gave a definition for games to be a ruled activity which has goals and fun elements. Gibbs(1974) defined games as an activity that involves co-operation and competition among decision makers who desire reaching some goals through following some rules. There are many factors within games as goals, rules, relaxing competition and learning as a specific point and getting into educational issues. They could be tools for helping students to learn and teachers to make the educational process much more enjoyable and easier. Any classroom game has rules which needs to be explained before beginning the game. Using games in EFL classes needs to be well explained so as to be understood by students and not being puzzling for them. Rules should be simply explained and they shouldn't be too many. When presenting games in EFL classes, it is good to use demonstrations so as to allow students to follow the games rules accurately and not to find it hard or puzzling. If they do not understand the game and its rules, they may feel bored with it and have no benefits at last. The best game to be presented for students must be a competitive one and has encouraging elements so competition is highly needed so that students can share in the game eagerly and with success motivations so as to solve problems or beat teams and get higher scores. Fun is a good factor for pleasing the students involved in the game or even watching it but learning is the main focus in fact as learning through games allows students to learn new vocabulary, pronunciation, letters and grammatical points that they do not easily forget. So we can at last define games as a group of elements of learning provided to students in a relaxing form of a game which is enjoying and beneficial at the same time. 

Teachers are lucky with this matter as there are a good number of language games with a variety of types to choose from. EFL classes has special nature as most teachers and students of EFL classes see games as a tool for warming up, a reward , a wrap up at the end of the lesson or a filling items in extra time periods. The teachers of EFL classes employ them as a fun aid but not for real work. Schools in which English is presented as a foreign language do not believe in including games as a teaching method. This perspective reduces the effectiveness of game using in EFL classes which makes deciding the proper type of game a dilemma that teachers find challenges when they do it (Rodilla 2012) Each class has its nature and characteristics as well as each lesson or grammatical point so teachers should concentrate when choosing the proper game for a specific class or a specific language point as there are factors they have to consider while choosing the game. The first factor is the level of the game and the language level of students, games should be selected carefully according to the class level, its purposes and the curriculum contents. Student characters also must be taken into consideration as they may be very serious students, old, young, open- minded or not, funny and mastering the language according to their level or not. Choosing the time is another factor as it is important to know when to use and what game to choose at this specific time. Another important factor is the motivation of teachers themselves to play and get into the game and having the ability of leadership in a game or to assign a student to master the game instead. In EFL classes, games sometimes may be difficult for students so teachers have to modify them to be suitable for the students' level. In EFL classes games must be well used so as not to be a waste of time and students think it is time for making troubles in class or for joking.   

To conclude, it is important to mention that games are very important as they could be defined as tools for engaging student in the learning process and letting them acquire language experiences easily and in a funny way. Deciding the proper game is a process which requires effort from teachers as there are factors for this process. The next chapter will discuss the advantages of using games in EFL classes and reasons for using them.

Pygmalion...........How does Shaw mark the differences between his characters through their speech?

Introduction

Pygmalion is a great play that Bernard Shaw wrote in order to highlight society classes at that time, the play contains a variety of classes of society differentiated using many tools one of which is language as accents, dialects and slangs showed characters' classes.

Body

1.  An example on using language and slangs to point to one's social class is in Act two when Eliza was asked about her name by Higgins and she answered in a way that shows how she comes from a low class of society as the dialogue was :

" HIGGINS. What's your name?

THE FLOWER GIRL. Liza Doolittle.

HIGGINS [declaiming gravely] Eliza, Elizabeth, Betsy and Bess, They went to the woods to get a birds nes': PICKERING. They found a nest with four eggs in it: HIGGINS. They took one apiece, and left three in it.

They laugh heartily at their own wit.

LIZA. Oh, don't be silly.

MRS. PEARCE. You mustn't speak to the gentleman like that."

This dialogue shows how vulgar and rude Eliza is to the extent that she cannot say her name correctly. The dialogue also shows that Mr. Higgins comes from a high class of society who are very interested in correct pronunciation and who make fun of lower people without caring for their feelings. Liza's words "Don't be silly" show how rude she is and that she does not choose words when talking with gentlemen.

Another quote from act two tells that accents tell what class people belong to :

"PICKERING [gently] What is it you want, my girl?

THE FLOWER GIRL. I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. But they won't take me unless I can talk moregenteel. He said he could teach me. Well, here I am ready to pay him—not asking any favor—and he treats me as if I was dirt."

 Her way of pronouncing the word gentle as "genteel" shows that she does not know the correct way of talking or the right English pronunciation which is a feature of low social classes people whose slangs are not as the correct English language that high class people use.

2. The use of slangs distinguish the youth from the old as Eliza for example uses free language which makes Higgins attracted to her because he sees that this is an experiment that he enjoys and likes. Words of the young are usually different from those of older people, for example in act three Eliza was using a new fashionable slang that attracted everyone even Higgins who began to dislike the wayMrs. Higgins talked, this was clear in the way she talked formally with Higgins as she said:

"MRS. HIGGINS. Well, you never fall in love with anyone under forty-five. When will you discover that there are some rather nice-looking young women about?

HIGGINS. Oh, I can't be bothered with young women. My idea of a loveable woman is something as like you as possible. I shall never get into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits lie too deep to be changed. [Rising abruptly and walking about, jingling his money and his keys in his trouser pockets] Besides, they're all idiots.

While Eliza words and slang was showing how youthful she is as when she said:

"LIZA [darkly] My aunt died of influenza: so they said.

MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [clicks her tongue sympathetically]!!!

LIZA [in the same tragic tone] But it's my belief they done the old woman in.

MRS. HIGGINS [puzzled] Done her in?

LIZA. Y-e-e-e-es, Lord love you! Why should she die of influenza? She come through diphtheria right enough the year before. I saw her with my own eyes. Fairly blue with it, she was. They all thought she was dead; but my father he kept ladling gin down her throat til she came to so sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon.

3. Characters in Pygmalion have different ways of speaking which distinguishes every character with some specific features of speaking. For example, Higgins used to swear too much with the devil and say Damn which distinguishes him from any other character in the play, he also used to make exclamations by saying words like:" Oh Lord". Doolittle's character was also distinguished by saying short sentences as: "governor", "I never did", "so help me". "Certainly", "I'll come. Liza's way of speaking was also distinguished by words as : "Yeeeeeeeeeeees", "Nah", "Oh", "Ah, ah, ah, Ow, ow, oo".

Conclusion

Language could be used by authors in their works to identify people's characters, social classes and to refer to the character formation, conflicts and attitudes. Bernard Shaw was very successful in Pygmalion as he figured his characters through their language use, the slangs and dialects of each one.

TWO TEXTS ANALYSIS ARAB OPEN UNIVERSITY

Introduction

English language has many functional frameworks which are used for interpreting texts, the written texts, they have different interpretations regarding the contexts they are written in. Analyzing texts show many aspects such as opinions and attitudes of writers, their cultural backgrounds and how far they are acknowledged about what they are writing about. This TMA is trying to analyze two texts from two different magazines about the same topic. The first is from Kuwait Times and the other is from New York Times and will be analyzed using the functional grammar framework trying to compare the two texts and discussing each one according to their field, tenor and mode.

Task1

 (selection of texts)

Choose two newspaper Editorials on the same event/topic one from a newspaper/magazine published in English in Britain or the United States and one from an Arab newspaper/magazine published in English (e. g. Kuwait Times, Gulf Times, etc.).

Two texts were chosen and signed.

Task2(500 words)

Perform a register analysis of the two texts.  In other words, you should show how the social roles and relationships (tenor), subject matter (field) and the nature of the text as a communicative event (mode) influence particular aspects of grammar and vocabulary in each text.

Text 1

Clauses are underlined.

KUWAIT TIMES

Jonas Brothers on Break-Up: We won’t leave fans in the lurch

 31/10/2013 

The Jonas Brothers said that they will not complete the album they were working on at the time of their break-up, but promised to do something for their fans during an appearance on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday morning. The group will release four songs from their now aborted fifth album and will combine them with live tracks from their summer concert appearances. They will give that music to their fan club members.

“We do not want to just leave without giving them back something,” Kevin Jonas said. The news of the split has left the Jonas faithful stunned, ever since the boys canceled a 19-date tour earlier this month just a few days before it was set to begin. They reflected with host Robin Roberts about their reasons for separating after eight years making hit music together, noting that it had a lot to do with differences over the band’s sound. “It was time and for us it took some time getting there, but we feel like it’s time that the Jonas Brothers comes to an end,” Kevin said.

Nick said he was the one who initiated the discussion about a possible breakup. “We’re family first, and that’s always been our main priority, and so honesty within what we do as a group was really important,” Nick said. “In a nutshell, I said, ‘I feel like we’ve had some complications within the new group for a long time without addressing them. I think this train will fall off the tracks without getting real about some of the limitations and some of the concerns that we may feel as individuals and within the group,’ “he added. “We felt like it was starting to get stale to us,” Joe said. “It was just individual things that we were butting heads about, whether it was a way to set up the music video to even personal opportunities, and at some point we decided that it was best to finish this.”—Reuters

Words "Content"	148
Clauses	13
Lexical Density	11,3

The text was written in English but the writer is an Arabic writer, density of the text is not very strong despite it is a written text.  Regarding the text field there could be a kind of social content. The writer is writing for Arab audience so this is clear as the Arab audience are less interested in music bands which is clear in the boring feelings of the writer towards the issue he was writing about. It seems with little communicative purpose and little explaining for the event which is clear from the number of quotations as the writer's article is full of quotations. The writer does not have enough information to write about concerning the topic which is clear as the writer did not use stated details about the Jonas Brothers Break up. The mode in this text represents having neither enough knowledge about the event nor personal attitudes or reactions of the writer himself.  vocabulary were used in a very weak way which tells the writer is not sure of the information he tries to present as he used promised, something, possible break up and differences.  The text'stenor is very weak as it lacks enthusiasm to the event or the music at all as the writer did not present explicit messages to the reader about his beloved band or about his own opinion of the event of break up the Jonas band which confirms the idea that Arab people are not those who are interested mostly in hit music.

Text2 Clauses are underlined.

New York Times

October 10, 2013, 1:31 pm 7 Comments

Jonas Brother Against Brother (Against Brother); Tour Canceled

By ALLAN KOZINN

The Jonas Brothers were to have played the first of 19 concerts in a North American tour on Friday in Upper Darby, Pa., but they may break up instead. At the very least, the tour, which was to include a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan on Oct. 23, has been scuttled because of what the group’s spokesman, Jesse Derris, described to People magazine as “a deep rift within the band” and “a big disagreement over their musical direction.”

The group’s differences seem to have erupted fairly suddenly: as of Tuesday, the  trio — Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas — was still promoting its tour on its Twitter feed, and on Wednesday, the group performed at We Day, a children’s charity event in St. Paul,Minn. Not long after their performance ended, though, the singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee, who was to have toured with the Jonases, posted a note on Twitter that read: “Hey guys sad 2 say my tour w @jonasbrothers has been canceled!”

By noon on Thursday, Ticketmaster has posted red cancellation notes on the group’s tour dates.

TMZ reported on Wednesday that the group had an explosive fight during the weekend over which of several newly recorded songs should be released. The problem for the band, TMZ reported, is that the songs are in a variety of pop and hard rock styles, and the brothers were unable to agree on which represented the direction that planned to take.

Tickets for the canceled shows will be refunded.

Words "Content"	110
Clauses	15
Lexical Density	9

The text is of not very strong density but it has good number of relative clauses. The field here is presenting a vivid social content which is rich of detailed information with dates and not very many quotations as text1. It is an informative telling text which has many things to tell as it is addressing the people of America who are crazy about this kind of music and such bands. The writer has his information from specific resources such as the spokesman of the Jonas band and he dated many of the events he mentioned exactly. He spoke about the songwriters as the public are recognized with them which is a native feeling of the native music. As to the mode, it depends on phrases and clauses the writer used professionally to show how much he is specialized in music writing as he mentioned names of places where musical concerts are held such as "Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan". Its communicative purpose is to tell the American audience specific information about the events that the band is involved in like the charity event and about the information about the break up. Grammatical contexts are flowing easily in an American language  as the writer did not tend to used many relative clauses. The tenor is representing coherent text with American the writer did not directly represent his own opinion or impose it but he professionally showed it through his wide knowledge background such as telling from TMZ, Twitter, Ticketmaster and people Magazine which shows how much he is personally and professionally interested in the event.

Task3(500 words)

In this task you should compare the two editorial texts suggesting reasons for, and effects of, the differences (i.e. differences in views, ideas, positions, attitudes, assessment, etc. of the same event/topic).

The two texts are about the same event which is the break up of the Jonas Brother musical band. Although the two texts were written about the same topic and tended to discuss the same event, there are great differences between them. The first text written in Kuwait Times seems to be a text of quotations appearing to be written by a writer who was fearing from writing about the topic or lacking the needed background that's why it seemed to be a weak text not expressing opinions nor addressing a specific audience who are interested in music. As the writer was an Arabic writer, he seemed not interested in the band or I the hit music of that kind, the people he is addressing are also Arabs who are not in fact interested in Jonas Brother band information or may be not interested in such a kind of music the fact that let me inquire what made the writer choose such a topic and write about? May be he did not find the right topic or event to write about or he was asked to write about it but lacked information. However, the writer did not used much information from his own to be discussed unless some sentences stating the event. His ideas about the event were not certain or clear. The second text which is striking the reader after reading the first one, the writer seems to challenge himself presenting vivid informative text full of details about the band activities and their reasons possible for the break up choosing different points of views such as the words of the songwriter Bonnie McKee as well as showing vast knowledge from following news about the band on different magazines and on social websites such as Twitter. As any American or as people who live in America, the writer seemed interested in the music band event and how the band will refund people the money they paid for the cancelled show which tell us the readers may be involved in the events and are waiting for their money for the cancelled show to be back to them. Native attitudes are clear enough through naming places such as Manhattan and St. Paul, Minn. The text is saying the opinions neutrally but intelligently which is a known American style. The writer seemed interested himself without giving direct words to confirm his own interest yet it is a fact that he was following the event's news on Twitter at least. May be he is a fan of the band. The American interest in money is clear as the writer guarantees his readers' rights in getting their money back after the cancellation of the show. The writer shows good musical knowledge as mentioned different musical styles such as hard rock and pop music styles. The writer was accurate in presenting dated information with mentioning the date and the day of the events such as the charity event being on Wednesday and the North American tour on Friday as well as Manhattan concert on the 23rd of October. In fact the comparison between the two text weakened the first one more than the amount of weakness it has.

Appendix

Scheme for register analysis

Aspects of Situation	Text1	Text2
Field	The Jonas Brothers said that they will not complete the album they were working on	The Jonas Brothers were to have played the first of 19 concerts in a North American tour on Friday in Upper Darby, Pa., but they may break up instead.
Tenor	They reflected with host Robin Roberts about their reasons for separating after eight years making hit music together,	the group performed at We Day, a children’s charity event in St. Paul, Minn. Not long after their performance ended
Mode	Tickets for the canceled shows will be refunded.	Information is not enough

Nimber of words used:  1125

References

• Arab Open University, Reader1 and 2. Book2. Inside English: Interpreting texts.
• http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/jonas-brother-against-brother-against-brother-tour-canceled/?_r=0
• http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/organization-and-development/text-level-measurements-adequate-writing/2/lexical-density/     

TEXTS WORDS ANALYSIS

Introduction

Written English texts are interpreted according to many aspects of functional grammar framework. The interpretations vary according to the contexts. English grammar are of may characteristics which could be analyzed in order to learn about the writer, the topic and many things else. In this TMA we are going to perform a register analysis upon two newspaper editorials about the same topic but one posted in Gulf Times and the other was posted in Washington Post. We will analyze the texts according to the functional grammar framework: field, tenor and mode in order to find out the differences between the two texts.

Task1

 (selection of texts)

Choose two newspaper Editorials on the same event/topic one from a newspaper/magazine published in English in Britain or the United States and one from an Arab newspaper/magazine published in English (e. g. Kuwait Times, Gulf Times, etc.).

Two texts were chosen and signed.

Task2(500 words)

Perform a register analysis of the two texts.  In other words, you should show how the social roles and relationships (tenor), subject matter (field) and the nature of the text as a communicative event (mode) influence particular aspects of grammar and vocabulary in each text.

Text 1

Clauses are underlined.

 GULF TIMES

Beckham  setting up new MLS team in Miami? 10:55 PM 0:55 PM

30October2013

Retired England soccer star David Beckham has chosen Miami for a new US Major League Soccer expansion team, a source familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday.

 The former England captain, who retired earlier this year after stints with Manchester United, Real Madrid and the MLS club LA Galaxy, had been considering several locations and toured Miami this summer, meeting with city and county leaders. His MLS player contract included an option to create a new team for $25 million. Beckham was still putting together a team of investors, the source said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Beckham’s plans have yet to be officially announced.

 His representatives are already looking at sites for a purpose-built soccer-only stadium, according to a well-placed source in Miami’s business community. “They have people looking real hard. They want to be in the urban core,” the person said.

 A fan group, which has been campaigning for a team to come to the city, welcomed the news. Julio Caballero, spokesman for the group, which calls itself MLS Miami Bid, posted: “It’s our time,” on the group’s Facebook page. MLS confirmed it was in discussions with Beckham but declined to confirm if a deal had been struck. “We are continuing our discussions with David Beckham regarding future ownership of an MLS expansion team,” said Dan Courtemanche, a spokesman for MLS.

Miami officials also reacted cautiously to the news. “We’ve not had any official notification that David Beckham has chosen Miami for a new Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement.

“That said, I join the hundreds of thousands of soccer fans throughout South Florida who are ready and eagerly waiting for an MLS team to be established in Miami. A world-class community like Miami-Dade County, also known as the Gateway to the Americas, would be a fitting home for the world’s most popular sport.”

The greater Miami area has a large and growing Latin American population and local sports bars always draw large crowds during the World Cup soccer tournament every four years. More than 70,000 fans attended an International Champions Cup match in Miami between Real Madrid and Chelsea in August. The city briefly had an MLS team, the Miami Fusion, which played in neighbouring Fort Lauderdale. It joined MLS in 1998 but was closed by the then struggling league after four seasons. The only professional team in the area is the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, which plays in the second-tier North American Football League.

Words "Content"	250
Clauses	16
Lexical Density	15,6

The text lexical density is strong because it is a written text. The text was written in an Arabic newspaper by an Arabic writer. The field of this text shows specific social content. It is addressing Arab audience and presenting the information they want to listen to. Its communicative purpose is to inform Arab people about David Beckham who the Arabs in the Gulf area admire and wait for his news. The writer tells news from a source he did not mention referred to as a "source" which imposes on the reader uncertainty feelings which confirms the writer has read the text in another newspaper and rewrite it, the writer did not use the pronoun "he" to refer to David but used pronouns as his, they, we to express not being responsible for the information. The mode in this text represents lack of knowledge about the event which makes the reader refer to other texts in native newspaper, vocabulary were used in a formal way that shows how the writer is not native such as : retired, investors, declined, single sentence paragraphs and using capital letters, fitting and using "to be +p.p" many times.  The text's tenor is clear through the implicit messages to be sent to the readers through expressions like "The only professional team in the area is the Fort Lauderdale Strikers' which expresses the writer's opinion and tries to convince the reader with such opinion. The text lacks coherence as it seems to be of not connected sentences.

Text2

Clauses are underlined

  Washington post

Person with knowledge of situation to AP: Beckham picks Miami for MLS franchise ownership

By Associated Press, Published: October 29 

LONDON — With his playing career over, former England captain David Beckham has decided his next move: starting a Major League Soccer team in Miami.

Since leaving the Los Angeles Galaxy in December, and retiring from the game after a subsequent five-month stint at Paris Saint-Germain, Beckham has been mulling over the location for his MLS franchise.

Beckham has now made up his mind and he would pay a discounted rate of $25 million to start an MLS expansion team in Miami, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because plans for the team aren’t being publicly discussed yet.

The option of becoming a team owner was included in the MLS contract Beckham signed when joining the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007.

“We know that Miami is one of the most passionate soccer markets in North America,” MLS Executive Vice President Dan Courtemanche told the AP. “We have met with David Beckham regarding ownership of an expansion team, and we look forward to David one day owning an MLS club.”

There are currently 19 MLS teams, and league commissioner Don Garber hopes to expand to 24 teams by the 2020 season. A 20th team is already in place to begin playing in 2015 after Premier League club Manchester City and its partner, the New York Yankees, paid an expansion fee of $100 million to launch New York City FC.

The MLS still has to give Beckham the go-ahead to make Miami the location of the franchise.

Beckham is looking to raise several hundred million dollars of investment to fund the setup costs, including putting together the squad of players and building a stadium.

Beckham’s business partner Simon Fuller, the “American Idol” creator who is the driving force in franchise negotiations, will be a significant shareholder, the person familiar with the situation said.Beckham is looking to sell stakes in the team to other investors, and has already had expressions of interest from businessmen globally.

Beckham hopes the team to debut in three years, which would likely require the franchise to initially play in an existing venue.

In June, Beckham toured the Sun Life and Florida International University stadiums and met with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

University officials delivered a presentation to Beckham and Marcelo Claure, president and CEO of Brightstar Corp. and a member of the FIU Board of Trustees, explaining the draw of a professional team in Miami.

Before deciding on Miami as the franchise location, Beckham explored options in other cities, including Montreal, San Diego and Orlando, the person said.

Miami has had a Major League Soccer team before. The Miami Fusion held matches in Fort Lauderdale from 1998 to 2001, before shutting down because of poor attendance.

As a former Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan midfielder, Beckham hopes his star power will make a team work there.

Beckham’s management team said it is not ready yet to make an announcement about Beckham’s franchise ownership option.

Words "Content"	275
Clauses	19
Lexical Density	14,4

Text2 density is less than the density of text 1. Number of relative clauses are little. The field here is representing a social content which find it easy to deal with such information and the subject matter is all about the sports event not only the player. The text is informative and vocabulary are more suitable for the topic. The writer is certain from the information source, the pronoun "he" is used many times to refer to Beckham whom the activity is all about. Experience of the writer is all clear within expressions such as : "retiring from the game after a subsequent five-month stint at Paris Saint-Germain." The mode here depends on noun phrases rich with information and specific details that tell the writer has much information about the event. The language is flowing which ensures the writer is native. Examples: move, mull over, team owner, soccer markets. Its communicative purpose is to state some sports event related to USA. Grammatical contexts are not complicated as relative clauses use is not too much, using the passive voice is simplifying the text and there are not many quotations in the text. The tenor is representing coherent text with American style ,the writer didn't impose his own opinions so the readers are free in their decisions on the event. Information is stated truly with confidence. As the writer is addressing American audience, he used simple grammar and vocabulary used in everyday speech such as :discounted rate, retiring from the game, shutting down and poor attendance.

Task3

In this task you should compare the two editorial texts suggesting reasons for, and effects of, the differences (i.e. differences in views, ideas, positions, attitudes, assessment, etc. of the same event/topic).

The two texts are about the same event yet there are differences between them in many points. There are differences in the opinions and views of the two writers. Writer of text1 is writing for Arab people in the Gulf so he is writing for pleasing them with news about their beloved Beckham. He also states his own opinions in the report.Text2 writer is writing for Americans so he tries to give more information about America and American players benefits. Writer of text1 seems to writing just for presenting sport information but writer of text2 seems to wish the event for the sake of America and for getting the best for American soccer teams so reasons for writing are different. Writer of text1is not giving detailed information which means that his Arabian background imposes conservative attitudes on him while writer of text2 is more free in writing with referring to his source as if the source is completely true which reflects a sense of press professionalism more than writer of text1.Text1 is more favorable for sports lovers and for those who are eager to listen to sport news but text2 could be read by any American who is interested in America's benefits and welfare, it also could be interesting for businessmen who seeks sports business which is not found in text1 as it is presented for Arabs.Text1 gives information about the social media sites like Facebook which gives a sign of Arab love and addiction to  Facebook while this is not mentioned in text2 because interest in facebook is higher in Arab areas especially for sport lovers. Text2 seems to lack trust in Beckham without businessmen from America as the writer mentioned the name of Beckham's business partner besides mentioning that he was the creator of the famous American program "American Idol" which was of no need in the context but to tell that Simon Fuller is the driving force of the Franchise negotiations. Text2 did not mention the information at all which proves that the information is not of big importance in the event as a sports event not a business one. Being not native is completely clear when writer of text1 talked about Miami and wrote many information about it as a city that is an area with Latin American population and information about 70,000 fans attended a match there between Real Madrid and Chelsea in August and other information that any native American knows. This information is not mentioned in text2 as readers are for sure not in need for this information. Ideas of second text2 are more clear with more detailed information, numbers, statistics and names of businessmen, soccer teams and soccer players. The two writers assessed the event according to the social background each is coming from, their assessments were enough but text1 was more hesitated when stating information the fact that the not native social background left its effect on the writer while writing, this will also leave its impressions on the readers of each report.

Appendix

Scheme for register analysis

Aspects of Situation	Text1	Text2
Field	Beckham is going to make business in USA	Beckham is going to do sports activities in America
Tenor	America is going to give Beckham a chance for doing good business, American businessmen help Beckham	Arabs can enjoy sports event happening in Miami and America as a beautiful country.
Mode	American feedback can present much information and details about the event	Information are little with a non- native background.

References

• Arab Open University, Reader1 and 2. Book2. Inside English: Interpreting texts.
• http://www.columbia.edu/~pm257/language/ftmweb.htm
• http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1634&context=artspapers     

Technical Terms Translation

The reasons why TermsTechnical Translation is causing problems.

1-Using general dictionaries

     Translating terms within a technical text requires special care by the translator who is professional as there must be special dictionaries chosen according to the translation type. Medical texts requires high care from the translator as their terminology is very high and specified according to each case, disease and illness stages. Many problems occur when the translation process lack the good tools needed by a translators such as specialized dictionaries, this means that using general dictionaries are not good for translating technical translation that includes terms. Commercial texts and legal ones, for example, need special commercial and legal dictionaries that could help a translator with the translation process and to avoid problems that may occur due to wrong terminology translation.

2-Lack of translators' experience

     Many translators commit errors in terms translation especially at their beginnings as beginners translators, terms technical translation requires good background and an enough amount of experience in translating terminology. Political translation needs wide space of political knowledge in the translator who does it because there are terms that could bear many meanings and choosing the meaning of the term depends on the nature of the text and the position of the term within the text, purposes of using it and ways of using it. There are terms in legal translation, for example, that cannot be found in dictionaries but they are usually used in courts, by lawyers and in legal law documents, these terms could be ordinary words for many people but using them within a legal text makes them work as terms and are known in the legal field with specific translations that mustn't be changed.

3-Using electronic translation programs

     Electronic translation programs such as Google Translate and others found free online are not useful at all in finding terms' meanings and when they are used in translating technical texts including terms, it could be a disaster and many problems could occur. A professional translator shouldn't depend on electronic programs for finding terms in any field of technical translation because this means errors and mistakes which could lead to life threatening problems when the translation is medical, legal or whatever. Electronic translation programs are not suitable for those professional translators who work in technical terms translation field.

4-Using wrong equivalences

     Some technical translation texts depends on the intelligence of a translator and how he understands the text's nature before translating it. Religious translation, for example, must be done on choosing the correct equivalence for the original language from the vocabulary and terms of the target language. A Muslim translator cannot use Islamic terms for translating the Bible, for example. Choosing the wrong equivalences leads to serious problems in business field, medical field and in any field that uses terminology which is special for that field. Hence, it is very important for a translator to take enough time in the translation process when terms are the main goal of translation and also compare the output with texts from the target language which are related to the topic of the original text. (Belenguer ET AL, 2013)

Means of Avoiding errors in technical translation

     Errors in technical translation usually occur especially when the translator is lacking experiences, is not using the proper dictionary or not exerting great efforts before delivering his work so such errors which could cause bad effects can be avoided by many means such as:

1-Practice

     Practice really makes perfect. When a good translator takes a time of training and practice before working in translating terms technical texts, there will be a chance for building up a good background of terms in the field the translator is going to work in. A translator who is well educated and have a good theoretical background about technical translation cannot be a professional translator without practice, this can be done alone or by joining a translation agency or company with a good history in technical translation, having a time for training and then being tested before doing real work in the field of terms technical translation. Applying the studied theories can also be good but this should occur in the practice time in order to have enough experience for beginning translating technical texts.

2-Choosing the proper dictionary

     It is useful to prepare a suitable dictionary for terms of a special field before beginning the translation process in order to avoid using words that give different meanings of the terms.

3-Understanding the terms within the texts not separated

     Reading the whole text before going into the translation process is very useful in terms translation as sometimes the position of the terms within the sentences, punctuation marks and grammar use turn the term from giving a specific meaning to another and this depends on a thorough reading for the text and the sentences in which the terms are found before translating them. (Larson, 1991)