IKEA Company

Values- Based Service Brand

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Introduction

            On creation of values based on stakeholders and customers, A lot of keen interest has been taken by IKEA. This will help in the promotion of environmental and development of the company and the social responsibility that will assist the stakeholders and customers in accordance to the company’s success (Colvin, 2008). To promote attributes to satisfy stakeholders and customers’ needs, IKEA has ventured or taken a lot of attention on marketing. This papers demonstrates and discusses the marketing, intangible products, performance measures, customers, and Strategy of IKEA consisting Value Chain

IKEA’s Marketing

To know and understand the needs of the customers, marketing has become the main attribute that lead the company. Marketing ensures that the customers receive the wants they require for the in order to satisfy the sustainability of the stakeholders and that of the customers as well. These contribute in company development and it also ensures that the customer is totally and well taken care of by making available all the resources they require.

            Marketing assist the company to value the stakeholders of the company and the customers. This is achieved by presenting the importance of customers and stakeholders to the company. It puts more concentration on the environment as one of the important values as it values since the environment deal with most of the issues affecting the company in the world of management ((Joseph, 2002). Environment is the employees and company there and it illustrates whether they handle their customers well for the company and make them feel more comfortable make them feel more happy and contented when they are buying.

            They ensure that there are various development and assist in the company’s growth in the world of competition. Due to the income earned from the customers, economy becomes the other value which ensures the development as they ensure company’s growth in the competition world. The company is assisted by economy to make it fit in the growing economy of the world and ensures that the confidences of the customers are intact in the company as a result of its economy.

            The behaviors of the employees in the company are showed by the social values. It ensures the happiness and comfortably in the company as they work for them so that they can relate well the customers. The key that most people ensure that they have so that they can get the normal understanding of the development and show important points on how they recount/relate to the customers in their working area is communication. Communication is therefore an important attribute as it ensures that the employees and the customers have good working relationship in the company (Dr. Mark, 2007).

IKEA’s strategy

Value Chain

            In the IKEA Company, there are three value chains. They help in understanding, in the income earned and widely in company development. One of the values that promote the development of the company is economics. This is because economics promotes income generation is not out of force and is much related to the world growing economy. These are so because to the needs of the customers are known to the company management since they ensure that the needs of the customers are accomplished and that of the stakeholders as well. Social value is referred to as the community and that the people involved in these values are the customers. This also helps to develop the company farther as it ensure that there is good relationship between the customers and the employees of the company.

            The most preserved to that of the products’ nature and how they affect the customers and the employees are the environmental value (Joseph, 2002). It takes the great choice and value of the customers as they consider the environment and how they are treated whenever they come to the company.

Intangible Products

            The IKEA intangible products are designed by the company in such a way that they affect the customer, suppliers and the employees and it has interfered with the nature of the sakes of the products. Sometimes it is a benefit to the customers since they help them in identifying the value of the products and also assist them in understanding the products’ value.

            Suppliers benefit from the means of transportation of the products depending on the nature if goods that reach the customers. In all these, it also helps the company to be in position of understanding the strength of and values of their goods ((Dr. Mark, 2007). Those who are majorly affected by this are the employees since they are the ones who experience several difficulties as a result of these intangible products.

            The barriers ensures that the products produced or made are different from their competitors as they warrants that the customers get a view of various product even if they pay a visit to their competitive companies. This also certifies that the company is valued because of the fact that there is great assistance in developing world economy.

            To all the customers, employees and even the suppliers, these intangible products are of value to them since they have exceptional common nature in the market as results of the goods they supply. The benefits of the tangible products assist the company in the idea on how to enjoy good product of value and this assist in boosting the economy of the company and ensures that the development flow among the workers are maintained (Colvin, 2008). This therefore, enables the company to fit well in the world economy since they have several customers which increases the profit that is earned annually.  

Customers

Since customers help in the main development of the company, they are considered the main stakeholders. They are the ones who ensure that they very much comfortable with the IKEA values. The flow of profit and income earned is determined by the customers and the company can possibly loose the customers if they do not develop the values and these can result to the collapse or fall of the company.

Though customers maximize the profit that IKAE make in one year, they can also minimize that profit as it can result to the fall in the income. The products also determine the commitment of the customers since sometimes they may not feel contented with the kind of products being offered to them by the company. It is the customers that determine the operations of the premises.

Sometimes when customers are not pleased with the products supplied to them by the suppliers, they can reject them and this may lead to the fall of the company affecting the economy of the entire country. When the products are in good state or the products are in perfect condition, the demand of those products rises and this makes the employees and the suppliers to work extra time to meet the demand by the customers (Van, Hogan & Kaiser, 2008). This high demand boosts the country’s economy and develops the company further but the employees are affected since they don’t have time to develop their life due to lots of job that is offered to them.

Performance Measures

            It is the nature of the organization that determines the performance. These are the customers, managers and employees. One of the measures that determine performance is the attendance of the employees and the customers since it reflects the income flow. Communication is also very important measure at it promptly assist in the supervision of the taken in a certain work and the time wasted.

The commitment of a person to work is determined by regular attendance that is appointed to that particular person in the company. Focusing on customers help the customers in product nature that is offered since it also helps in resource development and still contributes in nature development. Customer service is also another measure of performance. The company may have high buying power from the customers depending on how they are introduced to the available products.

The nature of the negotiations between the customers and the company and how they relate and come up with the product is another measure of performance (Dr. Mark, 2007). Customers also contribute in boosting or raising their confidence and in solving their problem.

Interpersonal relations are also another important measure. The relationship between the management and the employees must be perfect and in good condition to motivate the customers. This will help the way employees view at themselves and the customers too and if the company is worth their services.

In the matters of development, the actions of the employees are very important and matters a lot as they view knowledge and acceptance of the employees. Responsibility is also one of the significant measures which most people lack. Both the employees and the customers should understand that the organization exists because of them. Therefore, they should have the responsibility of developing the company and raising the economy of the country (Ku, 2008).

Recommendations

            In my own view, I can recommend that IKAE should increase the number of workers/employees so that whenever there is high demand of the product, employees can be in shift. Some will be working on day shifts while others will be working on night shifts. This will make the company has a rising flow of profit.

Conclusion

Due to the different fantastic styles used by IKAE in designing and the values offered to customers, IKAE has become the largest company. This has made them to post a major challenge to their competitors hence ensuring a continuous growth of the economy and the country at large.

References

Journals

Ku, G. (2008). Learning to de-escalate: The effects of regret in escalation of commitment.

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105(2), 221-232.

Van Vugt, M., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2008). Leadership, followership, and evolution:

Some lessons from the past. American Psychologist, 63(3), 182-196.

Colvin, G. (2008, July 21). Information worth billions. Fortune, 158(2), 73-79.

Articles

Citizen Engineers: Leaders in Building a Sustainable World

Joseph “Bud” Ahearn. (2002). SVP CH2M Hill, Denver, Colorado

Turn Your Values into Value

Dr. Mark S. Albion. (2007). Co-Founder, Net Impact, San Francisco, California

3^rd Entry – Fight for Freedom.  Consider Douglass’s speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”  What logic does he use to make his point?  His speech contains a lot of emotion, including anger.  His anger is certainly justified, but does his anger take away from the effectiveness from his argument?  Describe a time when you argued a position you were angry about.  Were you able to make an effective argument?  Why or why not?

Week 3 (One entry this week)

4^th Entry – Rationalization.  Consider Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  A common (mis)interpretation of the poem is that it’s about taking the nontraditional path.  However, it seems to be more about a poem about rationalizing one’s actions, as described in the video below.  After reviewing the video, comment on this tendency of humans to rationalize actions.  Why would this narrator tell a story where he/she clearly alters events? 

Embedded Video Player: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

Week 4 (Two entries this week)

5^th Entry – Creative Nonfiction: In the preface to nonfiction (p. 2803 of your text), the editors tell us that creative nonfiction illustrates that “no direct duplication of reality is possible in language, that all writing is affected by the author’s point of view” (Baym et al, 2014, p. 2803).  Do you think that is true?  Can there such a thing as a truly reliable narrator?  Consider the excerpt from Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying that you read this week as you prepare a response to this question.  How is this point made (or not) in Danticat’s writing?

6^th Entry – Conclusion: Write a summary and evaluation of how well you met the goals you set for yourself in the first week of class.

What Should Jim Do?

Please refer to “Case Study A – Discrimina V. Defense Plants” in Course Materials. Study and answer Problem 1 at the end of the case. It is reprinted for you here:

Problem 1. Employment Contracts and Wrongful Discharge

Mr. Discrimina, through Eunice, requests that his employee Jim Arbor sign what he calls a confidentiality agreement. He offers to “consider profit sharing and salary increases” if Jim signs, but does not put profit sharing and wage increases in writing. Jim asks to read the paper before he signs and finds that it also contains a non-competition agreement not allowing Jim to do any machining, mechanical engineering or any work on industrial parts for a period of five years after leaving the company, anywhere in the world. Jim feels that he is being taken advantage of, but does not know what to do. He has been threatened with discharge if he doesn’t sign.

Questions

1. Analyze Jim Arbor’s situation. Does he have an employment contract now? What is it? Should he ask for the salary increase to be in writing? Why or why not?
2. Is it fair for Eunice to take advantage of the fact that Jim does not know why his invention and services have suddenly become more valuable? Explain. Is it fair for her to be the one to approach him, given their personal relationship? Explain.
    
    
    
   Below is the case study to answer the above to questions
    
    
    

   This is Case Study A

    

   Course Materials

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   The following case study features problems and issues related to employment law. The case is fictional yet realistic to illustrate points in the lecture and text and to provide problems within legal cases to solve. This case and Case Study B will be used for a number of weeks. Important Note: Your weekly class assignments will notify you when to work on this case. A small corporation, Discrimina, Inc. is a small parts machining shop owned by Hank Discrimina and his daughter, Eunice Discrimina. Discrimina, Inc. makes high quality agricultural parts for some of the agricultural implement manufacturers. Mr. Discrimina is thinking of retiring and has considered selling out for about $1.2 million.  His machine shop has only 15 employees and is appraised at only $600,000.00 including the steel building, grounds, machines, parts, and going business value. Defense Plants, Inc. has just offered to acquire the entire company for $1 million, and Hank Discrimina is allowing them to check out his company to see why they want to pay so much for a small machine shop.  The agreement at this point gives both parties full rights to back out and allows Defense Plants executives to check out the place. Defense Plants, Inc. has large government contracts and also does work for private individuals. They sell ammunition for military and sporting uses. Because of their large contracts with the government, Defense Plants, Inc. has a group of people whose sole job is to comply with government regulations. Defense Plants also has an excellent human resources department that has developed a policy for nearly everything likely to come up in the area of employment disputes. The company is non-union. In contrast, Discrimina, Inc. is the alter ego of one man and to a lesser extent, his daughter. The company does not comply with employment laws. Up until recently, Discrimina was regulated mostly by state law, but recent expansions have put them into federal jurisdiction in a number of areas. During the tour of his plant, Mr. Discrimina asks his visitors from Defense Plants what military purpose his small machine shop could possibly have.  Dave from Defense Plants politely declines to answer the question.   A uniformed Navy officer appears the next day and asks Mr. Discrimina to sign a secrecy agreement. Mr. Discrimina recognizes the officer’s voice from calls made from a small implement manufacturer in another state. He puts two and two together and concludes that the whole reason the government and the other machine company are cooperating on this whole deal is to obtain access to the one specific machined part that has a military use. He also realizes that only one specific employee is qualified to machine the specific part. In fact, the employee, Jim Arbor, his best machinist, was the one who invented the part. Jim had come to work for Discrimina because he had needed to stay in the area for domestic reasons. One more important detail is that Jim is dating Eunice Discrimina. Mr. Discrimina is now considering selling the part directly to the government instead of selling his business. But there are employment law problems to solve before he can qualify as a government contractor. One problem has to do with terminating employees. The Discrimina, Inc. handbook says, “If you are a good employee and keep up with your work, I won’t fire you. But, if I want to close the plant, I can immediately fire everyone. I can also change this manual any time I want.”   During the past six months, without updating the manual, Mr. Discrimina has fired three employees, all without logging any problems into Discrimina’s employment records. When asked, Mr. Discrimina says the three employees were harassing Rita Land, his bookkeeper, and he does not tolerate that at his company. The men consider Rita part of management because she works mostly in the office annex. Rita considers herself an ordinary employee, even though she is frequently in on confidential business planning with Hank Discrimina and his daughter, Eunice, the Vice President. If the company becomes a government contractor, Discrimina would have to have a health plan and would have to raise wages. There is no health plan now, due to increased costs resulting from the illnesses of the oldest employee, Frank Oldburr. Case Study A Problems Problem 1. Employment contracts and wrongful discharge Mr. Discrimina, through Eunice, requests that his employee Jim Arbor sign what he calls a confidentiality agreement. He offers to “consider profit sharing and salary increases” if Jim signs, but does not put profit sharing and wage increases in writing. Jim asks to read the paper before he signs and finds that it also contains a non-competition agreement not allowing Jim to do any machining, mechanical engineering or any work on industrial parts for a period of five years after leaving the company, anywhere in the world. Jim feels that he is being taken advantage of, but does not know what to do. He has been threatened with discharge if he doesn’t sign. Questions Analyze Jim Arbor’s situation. Does he have an employment contract now? What is it? Should he ask for the salary increase to be in writing? Why or why not? Is it fair for Eunice to take advantage of the fact that Jim does not know why his invention and services have suddenly become more valuable? Explain. Is it fair for her to be the one to approach him, given their personal relationship? Explain. Problem 2. Lack of minority hiring, evidence of discrimination There are no minority or foreign born employees at Discrimina, Inc, even though the local community consists of many newly arrived people of Mexican extraction. For years, the ads for new employees all contained the phrase, “must have solid ties to the community and top English communication skills.” For that reason, few Mexican people have ever applied for work at Discrimina.  Assignment Rewrite the ad, in a way that will attract, rather than repel, Mexican or other foreign born applications. Then prepare a memo to the executives at Discrimina, Inc. advising them of why they should use your version of the ad. Problem 3. Hostile atmosphere for one gender The atmosphere at Discrimina, due more to the influence of a few employees, not the owner himself, is markedly hostile to women. Rita Land and Shirley Baker are the only two women employees in the plant. Rita, who does billing and bookkeeping, needs to go onto the plant floor to tally up parts and make sure items have been shipped. She has warned Shirley Baker not to even go onto the shop floor. Unless the owner is present, Rita is at risk of being harassed with rude or suggestive comments. Rita maintains a tough exterior, but she has had to pay over $5,000.00 for counseling and medication to overcome the depression and fear that her doctor says is caused by the harassment. Questions Review Rita’s problem in the light of Sexual Harassment laws and related cases. Next go over the legal case “Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc.,” 510 U.S. 17 (1993). In a Word document, evaluate whether Discrimina, Inc. would likely be held liable in court for Rita Land’s counseling and medication expenses if she sues. Problem 4.  English Only? Be sure to refer to the Garcia v. Spun Steak Company case. The job ad that Discrimina created to encourage legal immigrants to apply for jobs was successful. Three new machine operators are immigrants from Mexico, all who speak some English as a second language to their Spanish. They all have Vo-Tech training and are considered excellent employees. They are Luis, Carlo, and Benito. Luis, one of the new employees, is married to Juana, an immigrant from Guatemala, who is very good with numbers. She was hired part-time to assist Eunice with inventory control and clerical tasks. After she started, Juana complained that the other two Mexican men were calling her names.  Eunice is normally the only supervisor around when the name calling takes place, and she does not speak Spanish. Juana has asked for an English only policy and Eunice thinks it might be illegal to do that. Questions How should Eunice solve this problem?  How might the case of Garcia v. Spun Steak Company provide guidelines to resolve some of the issues? Problem 5. Safety First Discrimina, Inc. recently received a number of correction orders from OSHA. The local Fire Marshall has also warned them that the welding area does not comply with the fire codes. In particular, the stairwell is not up to OSHA or state fire codes. It is an open stairs in the office annex next to the shop. The owner contends that it is not a problem, since it is not even in the same building where welding occurs, but the inspectors all say it is not up to code. Both OSHA and the fire inspector want an entirely new enclosed stairway to be built. They also want a completely fireproof wall between the shop and the office annex. The CEO has heard negative things about OSHA and doubts he needs to follow their recommendations. Question Draft a memo to the CEO explaining that OSHA compliance saves lives. Use examples from the OSHA website. http://www.osha.gov. Check out OSHA Saves Lives within the site to illustrate your point. Problem 6.  Health Care Plan Frank Oldburr is the oldest employee at Discrimina, Inc. He is now 62 and has some health problems. The company-wide health plan has been discontinued, partly due to Frank’s health problems. The premium kept going up. Some of the employees who don’t like Frank have asked Discrimina to fire him and then reinstate the health plan. Questions What is Discrimina Inc.’s legal responsibility to provide health insurance to employees? What legal options does Frank Oldburr have to get himself covered with a health plan? Is there any way to come to a win-win situation here? Explain. Problem 7.  Dollars for Waiting? Jeffrey Swift has been a messenger used by a couple of the local businesses where the Discrimina, Inc. machine shop is located. Sometimes he has done some extra errands inside the Discrimina building for a couple of hours. For the last several weeks, he has helped package items for shipment on Thursdays. Things have gone well, but Jeffrey is concerned because sometimes he has waited over two hours in the waiting room while waiting for the packaging to begin. He wouldn’t mind but Discrimina pays only for packaging time, not for waiting time. He can never be certain when the parts will be ready for packaging because final quality checking time varies wildly. Jeffrey has his own delivery business, but Discrimina has only paid him cash. Each time, Jeffrey has given the company a receipt for the cash. While he waits, he sometimes goes out for donuts for the crew. At other times, he plays games on his PDA or makes cell calls to friends. Question If Jeffrey Swift sues for the waiting time hours, what is the likely result and why? Write your answer in a Word document in 1-2 pages. Problem 8. Help Wanted! Evaluate the Want Ads below in terms of employment law. Help Wanted at Discrimina, Inc. In recent weeks, Discrimina, Inc. has advertised for the following openings. Evaluate the notices from the standpoint of employment law: New “parts man” to keep track of inventory. Must be able to go up and down numerous steps without assistance, do a dead lift of 75 pounds and read and write the English language as a native speaker. The applicant has to be polite to the ladies in the office. Female needed to do typing and light bookkeeping. Must have H.S. diploma, solid ties to the community, and be able to handle rough talk and mild teasing. Applicant should have between 2 and 5 years of experience. Applicant needs to solve any day care problems before taking job. Machinist needed. High pay for the right able bodied man (or gal!). Experience and Vo-Tech training needed. Health and retirement benefits are available after initiation period. Must be willing to work Mondays through Saturdays. Must not have disruptive attitudes or lifestyle. No religious nuts, addicts, crazies, or drunks. Junior executive position, personnel. Work with machinists and office staff. Prefer an Asian, Black, Latino, or White woman with experience in personnel matters including anti-discrimination compliance. No old white dudes, please, we are full up! Gal Friday. Go-fer and greeter in sales office, willing to run errands and do light office work. Will consider young man for this job, if willing to forgo advancement. Problem 9. Americans with Disability Act Discrimina, Inc. has no policy regarding disabled employees. The only disabled employee has the title of “inventory parts man” and is in a wheel chair. His name is Bob Yates. Bob has to go back and forth from the shop floor to the office annex. He is unable to access his computer on the second floor of the office annex without having to interrupt another employee to push him up the steps. Bob has become upset about this and several times has asked management for an elevator or for his office to be moved. He says he feels he has been treated as a second class employee. Question The EEOC has decided not to require the company to provide an elevator for Bob or to mover his office, because it would create too much of a hardship for the employer.  Bob belongs to a religion that prohibits him from “going to court,” except in extreme situations, so realistically, Discrimina doesn’t have to do anything. Nevertheless, Eunice is thinking about helping Bob. What advice can give her to help make this determination? What are the pros and cons for this decision?   Problem 10. Is alcohol abuse a disability? The employee handbook allows discharge of an employee for any Driving Under the Influence conviction, or for alcoholism, whether job related or not. This is because the owner’s sister was killed by a drunken driver. Question Is Discrimina, Inc. in compliance with laws in regard to alcohol use? Explain and cite support for your answer. Problem 11. Union organization of a small shop About 6 months ago, Arnold, one of the machinists at Discrimina, Inc., and Rita in the office, posted union signs in the shop and tried to organize the employees into the new Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Machinists Union.  Mr. Discrimina hollered and tore down the posters and said that he would burn down the place before he would allow a union to organize his shop. Question What rights do Arnold and Rita have to unionize? What are acceptable responses from the employer?

In task 2-2, you will submit a final paper topic. You will introduce your chosen contemporary conflict and the country or region of that conflict. Specifically, assess ways your chosen country (or region) has impacted or modified the physical and/or cultural environment to its benefit or detriment. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages the chosen country (or region) has attained due to its location. Identify the major conflict the country (or region) faces. Regarding this conflict, describe potential solutions. The post should be 500 words, not including the in-text citations or a Works Cited/Bibliography of 3-5 outside resources/references. This milestone is graded with the Paper Topic Rubric.

GEO 200 Paper Topic Rubric

Requirements of submission: This paper should be a short paper of 500 words in length that is posted in the Journal section of Blackboard.

Your chosen conflict needs to be a contemporary conflict.  It will structure what you discuss in your Milestone papers.  Your information on the environment and location will be important to understand/analyze your chosen conflict. 

All papers need to have the following formatting:

500 words of text.

Proper essay organization and tone.

In-text citations and a Works Cited/Bibliography section in APA or MLA citations.  Citations/Works Cited do not count toward 500 word limit.  

Instructor Feedback: Students can find their feedback in the grade book as an attachment.

Milestone 1 help/suggestions

Posted on: Monday, March 16, 2015 12:34:24 PM EDT

Hi students,

This announcement is specifically regarding Milestone 1.  I want you to have something that you can easily reference when you go to the Announcement page. I’m going to discuss here the importance of a strong Milestone 1 paper, suggestions on choosing topics, and some help with writing this paper.  Please do read this, and if you have further questions as you work on your paper, do not hesitate to email me.

The role of Milestone 1:

Milestone 1 is a topic proposal.  This chosen contemporary conflict topic will be central not only to this milestone but also Milestone 2 and Milestone 3.  Together, these assignments are a large chunk of your course grade.  They build off of each other (with the help of comments from me) with the goal that your Milestone 3 paper is a polished analysis paper on your chosen topic. Therefore, it is quite important that you consider your contemporary conflict and do some research while putting together this paper. It is important that you give this assignment time and effort as the more refined and focused your topic is in this Milestone 1, the easier it will be for you to move onto the following milestones.

This can be very overwhelming for some students.  I have some suggestions on how to choose a topic below.  To start, please make sure that you go to Course Information and read the document on the final project AND the topic proposal.  The topic rubric is important as that’s how I will be grading your Milestone 1 assignments. The final project document shows where you want to end up in terms of your final analysis paper at the end of the term.  Once your milestones are submitted, I will review these papers.  I will be grading them with comments, and I will also say whether your topic is approved or not approved.  Then we can work together via email to make sure that your topic is refined for continued success through the following modules. 

Suggestions about choosing topics:

These conflicts must be contemporary.  That means that the conflict should be occurring right now, not something from the past.  I do not want to see, for example, proposals to write about the 1970s Iran revolution or the US Civil War and so forth.  I have exceptions to this rule in the past, and students have not succeeded in their papers as well as they could have with a contemporary conflict.  Therefore, I do not make that exception anymore.  I want you all to be as well placed as possible to succeed in these assignments.

One common issue is that people seem to be interested in proposing countries rather than conflicts.  The central part of your paper should be the conflict and then the physical and human geography and details that help us to provide context and depth to those conflicts.  You are NOT writing a research paper on, for example, China.  But rather you should propose a particular conflict in China/with China/concerning China.  There are a lot of conflicts.  For example, China has a serious issue with dealing with aging populations due to one-child policies.  China has rapid development that is based off of using coal as energy and serious pollution concerns in their cities.  Then there are international conflicts over, for example, support of North Korea.  So rather than say that you want to research China, you should be talking about what conflict you want to research and then provide information on China relative to that conflict.  

These conflicts need focus.  It’s very easy for students to see the description of 7-10 pages and then think that it’s a lot of space to deal with, for example, 50 years of conflict between Israel and Gaza.  It’s not near enough space.  So I suggest that you stay away from huge subjects like Israel (unless you can show me that you are focused on a particular conflict within the larger conflict).  Also, topics that are too large are things like deforestation in South America or ISIS as a whole. These are huge topics with many different large aspects (poverty, colonization, trade relations, etc.) for a huge region. Immigration from Mexico is, again, way too broad of a subject.  So while writing your paper, you should ask yourself if you are focused in your conflict.  What aspects of human and physical geography are important?  How do you frame this conflict?  I’ve seen some very good papers on why Ebola is so difficult to combat in Liberia, but then I’ve seen some papers on Ebola that never really focused on a region or the issues concerning the spread of Ebola and didn’t turn out well. 

The starting point is to start reading the news.  Look at some online news sites (BBC News, NPR, CNN). Is there an article that catches your eye as interesting but not front page news (ex: Costa Rica is considering building their own canal; bees are being shipped to agricultural lands)?  See what’s happening around the world.  You can also choose a local conflict, so check some community papers if that’s more of your interest to see what’s happening in your neighborhood, city, and so forth (ex: some sort of development conflict)? 

Structuring and writing your Milestone 1:

This is a paper.  Some people think that because you’re posting this assignment in the Journal section, that you are writing a blog entry or something similar.  We are looking to see an organized, cited, and well-written paper.

Organization: These papers should be in essay format.  That means that you need to have paragraphs (introduction, topics broken into appropriate paragraphs, and a conclusion).

Quotes: Using a quotation is like using salt; do so sparingly.  If there is a particularly amazing phrasing of something, then it’s okay to use a quote (not really long!).  Otherwise, I want to hear your words, your understanding of what your source is saying.

Citations: Finally, you need to make sure that you are doing a Works Cited AND in-text citations in your paper.  You can choose APA or MLA formatting, but you must do this.  If you do not do both of these, you are plagiarizing (see policies on plagiarism), and there are serious consequences to plagiarism on your grade.  500 words isn’t a ton of space, so your works cited and in-text citations do not count as going over your word limit.  If you are having some questions about how to cite, then an excellent resource is OWL Purdue (MLA and APA).  

As always, if you are having some problems or you have some questions, you can email me.  If you email me and tell me your idea (explain it rather than send me one sentence), then I’ll let you know what I think.  I do NOT want to see your full paper, however. We’re working on topics and not proofreading your paper.

Cheers,