5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present Tense

5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present Tense 5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present Tense 5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present Tense By Mark Nichol Writers often fall into a tense trap and don’t even notice. A tense trap is not a trap that makes you tense; it’s when you get stuck in past tense when the phenomena you are describing is perpetual or at least valid to the present moment. Here are some sample tense traps and their simple fixes: 1. â€Å"Bush lost me as a supporter when he said that outsourcing American jobs was a good thing.† This sentence from a newspaper column correctly reports in the past tense at the beginning of the sentence. But Bush likely said something like this: â€Å"Outsourcing American jobs is a good thing.† Even in paraphrase, the writer should retain the present tense: â€Å"Bush lost me as a supporter when he said that outsourcing American jobs is a good thing.† 2. â€Å"The two men chimed right in with their own stories about what wonderful people Jack and Margaret were.† Because this sentence is taken out of context, you have no idea whether Jack and Margaret were still alive at the time they were being discussed. To your credit, though, that thought occurred to you but it didn’t occur to the person who referred to the still-alive-and-kicking couple in the past tense. Unless Jack and Margaret later suffered from a personality disorder that transformed their natures, the writer should have made the observation in the present tense: â€Å"The two men chimed right in with their own stories about what wonderful people Jack and Margaret are.† 3. â€Å"These remarks infuriated French president Jacques Chirac, who declared that his country loved Jews and was not at all anti-Semitic.† Methinks Monsieur is suffering pied-en-bouche disease when he clumsily protests France’s apparently nonabiding affection for Semitic peoples. But it’s not his fault; the paraphrase should support the intent of his sentiment by using the present tense: â€Å"These remarks infuriated French president Jacques Chirac, who declared that his country loves Jews and is not at all anti-Semitic.† 4. â€Å"He wanted to know: Did it really do all the things people said it did?† Assuming you know that the product in question is extant and that its operating features are persistent, reference to it should be in the present tense regardless of the framing tense: â€Å"He wanted to know: Does it really do all the things people say it does?† 5. â€Å"Even when he was young, Dali was fascinated by and disturbed about how ants ate animal carcasses.† Because ants (disregarding the fact that Dali remains neither a youth nor alive) still eat animal carcasses, the verb should appear in the present tense: â€Å"Even when he was young, Dali was fascinated by and disturbed about how ants eat animal carcasses.† But look at this sentence from the same article: â€Å"This experience convinced the late artist that it was useless to represent reality in his painting.† This statement is correct as is. Knowing, as we do, that the artist is no longer alive and that the sentiment refers specifically to him, the point is no longer valid, so past tense here is proper. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Slang Terms for MoneyCapitalization Rules for the Names of GamesA "Diploma" is not a "Degree"

Southwest Airlines Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Southwest Airlines - Case Study Example Some actions required for Southwest Airline during that period were decreasing income, market share, intensifying competition, and degrading operational effectiveness. Reason In 1978, after deregulation of Airline industry in U.S. the entire airline industry become too competitive as many of the privet companies tried to grab the market share by expanding their coverage and by reducing the service price significantly. In the mean time, Shuttle by United becomes the biggest threat for Southwest Airlines. In fact, Shuttle by United competed with Southwest Airline by matching the latter’s price and services. However, suddenly United BY Shuttle decided to incorporate two major changes that left the management of Southwest airline in state of confusion. Firstly, it discontinued its services from the most wanted markets i.e. California, Oakland-Ontario. Secondly, it also increased first class coach fare by $10. State objectives To respond against intensifying competitive forces spec ifically, rivalry among the market players likes Shuttle by United. To increase the revenue through an effective promotional and pricing strategies To expand the services coverage in the most profitable market areas. To enhance the operational performance in comparison to market leaders. Market Research After the deregulation U.S. airline industry, the entire market became highly attractive and degree of competition also increased significantly. By 1994, the U.S. airline markets turned into giant sectors as all types of carriers including major, national regional was accounted more than 2 billion annual revenue per year. The big five companies excluding Southwest Airline held more than 80% market share. One the hand, with increasing completion, the industry operating performance kept enhancing. Comparing to 1974, in 1994, there had been significant growth in revenue passengers-miles, available seat-miles, load factors etc. Since, 1990 till 1994, Southwest Airlines was the best perfo rmer as it significantly enhanced its operating performance and income. Market Segmentation Southwest along with Shuttle by United used to compete directly in same markets mainly, in California regions. The news of United’s withdrawal from a major route i.e. Oakland-Ontario might indicate that low fare strategy negatively impacted operational performance and United tried to avoid such situation. However, it kept focusing on California market. Therefore, this markets was also the best suited for Southwest airline. Southwest Airline also did not offer its services in many markets of California like in San Francisco. This would have a highly profitable. Southwest Airline did not compete with Shuttle by United on basis of fare classes like first class, business and economy class. By focusing on fare classes it was possible to specify and define customers’ marker segment. Price During that period, the competition in Airline industry was also based on pricing strategy. South west Airlines started to focus on low fare pricing strategy and it emphasized on its discounting offers. Southwest airline found difficult to compete with Shuttled by United. However, in order to compete with the key rival, Southwest reduced its fare price causing diminishing yield factor. Promotion Southwest mainly focused on creative marketing and promotional activities was meant to create brand differentiation. The prime agenda for

Outline the Arguments for and against Private Equity Investment Essay

Outline the Arguments for and against Private Equity Investment - Essay Example 120). In most cases, private equity is driven by the opportunity to earn high returns from a company. Private equity funds mainly come from the private market but private equity firms can invest the funds in both the public and private companies. It is important to note that when the investment is made in a public company, the company becomes private because private investors take control of the company they have invested their money. The market for private equity has evolved significantly in the past one or two decades. This is driven by the fact that a majority of investors have identified good opportunities that reward very high returns in the private equity market. Research studies reckon that the number of expensive buyouts has been increasing every year with investors increasing the size of their investments in the private equity market. The growth of the private equity market has led to a number of concerns regarding its sustainability in the long run. However, one debate that has continued to dominate the financial market is whether private equity is a desirable investment or not. This paper sets to discuss the pros and cons associated with private equity in terms of improving company performance and benefiting the economy. Pros (1) Improving Company Performance The performance of a company is determined by a number of factors including professionalism and the use of technology. This therefore implies that a successful organization should have the best employees in terms of professionalism and also posses the most modern technologies. It is difficult for an organization to acquire the two in a situation where money is a constraint and this is where private equity comes to play an important role. Private equity ensures that investors acquire a company and place it among their portfolio. This is followed by the investors injecting funds into the operations of the company which brings along with it the concept of professionalism. Whenever an organization h as been acquired by private investors, they tend to bring new practices and this includes new people and business experience. This is motivated by the fact that private investors are driven by the desire to record very high returns from their investment into an acquired company. They would therefore spend a lot of capital in acquiring competent managers that will record high returns. When a company sales a portion of its shareholding to private investors, there results in the injection of funds which eventually improves cash reserves (Gopalakrishnan, Scillitoe, & Santoro, M., 2008, p. 1356). The company is therefore in a good position to use the invested funds to accelerate its development projects. A case in point is the takeover of Sicomed by Zentiva. Sicomed is located in Romania whereas Zentiva is located in Czech Republic. There are a number of advantages resulting from the private acquisition of Sicomed by Zentiva. The main advantage of the private equity is that there was res tructuring of and the redevelopment of the technological infrastructure of Sicomed. There was also the restructuring and redesigning of the company’s working environment starting from the management level down to the subordinate level. This can be viewed as a complete overhaul of the organizational structure of Sicomed. Sicomed used the private equity funds in acquiring new lines of production that replaced the old ones and this