Thursday, March 19, 2020

Samuel Sewall and William Byrd II essays

Samuel Sewall and William Byrd II essays The most important period or time of life for Samuel Sewall and William Byrd II is during the age forty to fifty for each mans life. It is at this time that each man makes his largest influential mark in history. For Sewall the time period from which I will taking most of my information is 1692, it is at this time that Sewall becomes a judge and takes part in the Salem witch trials. For Byrd I will be using information from 1714, it is at this time that Byrd is fighting with England and trying to become a governor. The themes of which I will be writing are comparing and contrasting the activities of each man, what each did as an occupation and the major contributions of each man to society. Samuel Sewall was born at Bishop Stoke in Hampshire, England on March 28, 1652. In 1661, Sewall came with his family to settle in Newbury, Massachusetts. At the age of 15 he was excepted into Harvard. Sewall married Hannah Hull, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the colony in 1676 and began a career as a merchant. In 1681 Sewall was appointed by the General Council to run a Boston printing press. Sewall used his position to publish articles of his own and achieve greater notoriety. From 1691 to 1725 Sewall served on the Governor's Council. Governor Phips appointed Sewall to the Court of Oyer and Terminer on May 27, 1692. Sewell's diary provides important information about the Salem witch trials. It is these trials for which Sewall is most famously known.# The diary entries reveal little personal reservations or remorse concerning his own role in the conduct of the trials. In December 1696, however, Sewall wrote a proclamation for a day of fast and penance and reparation by the government for the sins of the witchcraft trials. Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the trials. Each year after 1697 Sewall set aside a day in which he fasted and prayed for forgiveness for his sins in the Salem trials. Though his role in the Salem...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Improve Business Writing Skills to Increase Productivity and Revenue

Improve Business Writing Skills to Increase Productivity and Revenue Current Business Writing Skills Scenario Your employees’ abilities to write and rewrite, clearly and concisely, goes a long way in establishing a competitive advantage for your business. If you want to make the best first impression on all your customers, clients, vendors, other transacting parties, and anyone who comes in contact with your business, then your employees need to master the art of effective business writing skills. Because most employees spend a substantial part of each workday writing whether it's email, reports, briefings, presentations, or requirements summaries improving business writing skills willsave your company money and increase employee productivity. Good writing skills lead to improved productivity and cost savings for the business. When employees spend a lot of time writing reports and end up producing error-prone documents, your business is likely to lose goodwill. Another issue with poor business writing skills is that it leads to wasted hours of editing and proofreading. This negatively affects your business productivity, since the time spent to make corrections could have been utilized for profit-making activities. Additionally, you might need to hire experienced editors orproofreaders for key business documents, adding more expense to your payroll. Drasticallyimprove your employees’ business writing skills by conducting business writing training. This will lead to improved productivity and by reducingthe average time spent on a single business writing task. Here is empirical proof: Current Business Writing Skills Scenario Suppose that your organization has a work unit of 30 workers. Each worker earns $60,000 per year. Similarly, each writer spends 3.2 hours a day on writing. Within an average 40-hour working week, 40% of the time is therefore devoted towards writing. Current Costs to your Company Under the current scenario, your company is paying $1,800,000 ($60,000*30) to workers on an annual basis. As already mentioned, each worker spends 40% of his or her time every day in writing. This means that, currently, your business is spending $720,000 ($1,800,000*40%) on an annual basis on youremployees’ business writing efforts. Assuming that there are 240 working days in a year, the total annual employee writing hours are 23040 (240days* 3.2 hours/day* 30 workers). This means that you are currently paying $31.25 per hour ($720,000/23040 hours) as the average annual costs per hour on business writing. Staff Training - Revised Scenario Now, let’s consider an alternative. Suppose you train your staff how to improve their business writing skills. Through our 6-step proven business writing methodology, you can reduce your staff’s average time spent on writing by 30%. Keeping all other factors constant, it means that each writer now spends 2.24 hours a day (3.2 hours* 70%) on writing. Revised Costs to your Company Even from a quick glance, you can clearly see that improving your staff’s business writing skills will have a strong positive impact on time and money saved. Keeping the number of employees (30), the total annual salary ($1,800,000) and the total working days per year (240) constant, here are new results: Total employee writing costs for the year will reduce to $504,000 (1,800,000*28%) Total annual employee writing hours will decrease to 16,128 (240 days* 2.24 hours* 30 workers) These simple empirical calculations prove that you can save on your total writing costs by more than $100,000 and total writing hours by 6,912 hours annually. The resources saved can be invested in other business activities to generate profits. The benefits of an effective business writing skills improvement program are far reaching. They lead to improved information flow, better coordination, and manyother growth and branding incentives for a business. To learn more about the power of business writing and how to improve business writing skills for your employees, download my guide, Four Ways to improve your Team’s Business Writing Skillstoday!