Of Mice and Menn †this novel is all about The American Dream Essay

The Novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ was written in 1937 by John Steinbeck. It is the most touching tale about the relationship of two men, George and Lennie who are faced with difficult situations at times which are Steinbeck’s aspects of his life seeing as there are the main characters of the novel. On the other hand Steinbeck highlights in the novel the social conflicts of the time period, such as the climate change cause by drought and the financial collapse of 1929, which had affected the increase of unemployment and poverty throughout the United States of America. Of mice and men is a novel set on a ranch in the Salinas valet in California during the great depression of the 1930s. The main characters of the novel are Lennie and George. Lennie is described as a large guy who doesn’t know his own strength, but also unable to gauge other people’s weaknesses. Lennie is best described as childlike; he embodies the best characteristics of a childish mentality. He is trustworthy and a nice guy although he is mentally disabled, Lennie is simplistic and docile. He gets distracted very easily and is obsessed over simple sensory pleasures, finding great joy in touching soft things, whether a cotton dress or a soft puppy. Although he lacks in capacity on controlling himself physically, he has a great protective instinct, especially when it comes to his friend, George. George is a bright and healthy looking guy who isn’t suffering from any diseases like Lennie is. George is like a guardian to Lennie by always look down to him making sure he is well and happy. George is small, wiry, quick-witted man, however a loving and caring person, he struggles at times as Lennie has ruined everything but he still stays with him. It’s not normal for two people to work together travelling ranch to ranch as they do; this shows how strong their relationship really is. George promotes moral responsibility unlike Lennie or Curley’s wife. He also has interesting physical characteristics such as restless eyes, strong small hands, thin arms, and a bony nose. His need in a companion (Lennie) exceeds the generally accepted traditional remedies for loneliness. Throughout the story, George isn’t very lonely since he has got Lennie with him but in the end, when Lennie dies, he becomes lonely as he does not have anyone with him anymore. This novel is all about â€Å"The American Dream† you’ve noticed that no one in the book is truly happy. Everyone’s missing something. Except the boss, none of them own there own land or home. The only thing that anyone in the ranch has is a dream. People who work on the ranches have a low chance of going anywhere in life as it is tough with the low income they receive. In theory, anyone could become successful. Trouble is, in practice, most people need to be born rich to make it but George and Lennie dream of a better life and are different to everyone else as they got hope in themselves that they don’t want to work on ranches every day until they die. George and Lennie both have interesting and exciting dreams about how successful there futures will be. Lennie dreams with George of having a small piece of land; he is obsessed with one aspect of this dream: having a small rabbit hutch where he can tend rabbits. Lennie is incapable of making decisions by himself which is why he relies on George entirely. But truthfully it was never going to happen! Steinbeck says â€Å"each mind was popped into the future when this lovely thing should come about.† This shows that it’s all in a pretend future. The quote â€Å"I got to thinking maybe we would†, George says to Lennie because he might of liked hearing it not realizing the truth with his childish mentality. You could spot a sign of loneliness which exists in George’s mind. He knows that there is no future for them and he doesn’t want Lennie to feel sad or upset, so by telling Lennie this lie, it will keep him happy and motivated on moving on. Steinbeck is trying to show us that there is no meaning of life if you fall into working in ranches and travelling. One of the main aspects that are attached with most of the characters of the novel is loneliness. Steinbeck has purposely named the town ‘Soledad’ because in Spanish, ‘Soledad’ means loneliness. This relates to the town being lonely and how the people living in it are also lonely and it also gives us a clue that the novel is mainly about loneliness. Loneliness encourages characters to seek an alternate way of life. You can notice how most of the important characters from the start end up being separated from each other, such as Candy and his dog, George and Lennie and Curley and his wife. There is much confusion and difficult situations where things don’t go as well or mistakes are made. There have been over one thousand migrant workers who came from different locations in America such as California. The men who decided to travel alone migrated from ranch to ranch in short-term. They were paid very little and there weren’t many options as no one would take them in. Lennie and George were the type who migrate from ranch to ranch together looking for work and this wasn’t very easy for them as they both were in difficult situations at times and had to leave for many reasons such as Lennie would do something wrong in a place as he is not as bright and gets distracted easily. This made both George and Lennie run away and come to Soledad from the town Weed where Lennie had petted a girl’s dress which made them lose their job. The bunkhouse was described as a rectangular building, which was dark and dull from the inside. Every man’s bunk was identical to each others (8 bunks in total). All of the bunks had a little shelf to put there belongings on. They also had a square table in the middle of the room were everyone had played cards. Everyone on the ranch was lonely because all the men in the bunkhouse were single and they had no companion to share there feelings with like George and Lennie did. When George says â€Å"they got no family† this explains that they are like orphans who have nobody in life but themselves. This shows a sign of loneliness and isolation from others because all this time he hasn’t really known the real meaning of life until he met Lennie. The men in the bunkhouse have nothing to look forward to except working on ranches for the rest of their lives. People like Slim and others find it strange how George and Lennie’s relationship is really strong and how they travel together working as a team. This is because most of the ranch hands tend to travel alone. This also shows that having company is unusual and being lonely is now seen as normal for the people living on the ranches. Curley’s wife is a young loving person who is fed up and wants some recognition, attention, her own identity and her own life. She is a very lonely character as she has nobody except her husband who she doesn’t love and also doesn’t receive love from him as well. Really she doesn’t have her own identity as she is seen as just someone’s wife, this is because Steinbeck has not given her an actual name by calling her â€Å"Curley’s wife† to show us that she doesn’t really have an identity. Also without Curley, she would be nothing as her life would have been so much different and harder with the social conflicts at the time period. Steinbeck purposely had done this which shows a sign of loneliness in her character. Curley doesn’t spend enough time with his wife, leading failure to satisfy her, either emotionally or physically. The lack of communication has pushed her into continuously looking for companionship, the quote â€Å"Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?† shows a sign of loneliness. She is isolated from the other ranch workers because they try avoiding her and not speaking with her as a fear of upsetting the boss’s son (Curley), this clearly explains that Curley does not give her the attention she craves and desires. Her relationship isn’t going really well as she has been looking for pleasure and flirting with other men. Curley isn’t someone who is always there for her nor loving. Another character who is very lonely is Candy. The old Handyman, aging away and is reduced to cleaning the Bunkhouse after losing his hand in an accident at work. Occasionally, Candy worries that the boss will soon declare him useless and demand that he leave the ranch. He was the person who welcomed George and Lennie to the farm, showing them where there beds were. He also has a similar dream to Lennie and George to share his own land and animals also some economic values. He offers them all his compensation money in return for a share in his and Lennie’s dream. Only meeting them on the first day shows how desperate he was. His life is the total opposite of his name because the name ‘Candy’ gives us an impression of sweet things but the character Candy is the total opposite. Finally, the most important thing in his life was his dog which was his best friend, who kept Candy company and has been in his life for a very long time. The quote â€Å"I had him ever since he was a pup,† shows that that the dog was someone he was able to care for which provided him with more than just friendship but family. The death of Candy’s Dog made a big impact in the reflection of attitudes to his life, being isolated and insecure as he loses the only thing that mattered to him in his life. He has no family or friends, resulting in failure to understand the human attachments and relationships with others. Also the character â€Å"Carlson† tries to pressure candy into shooting the struggling old dog. Candy had very strong, loving feelings for him and couldn’t preside. In the end because of peer pressure he agrees to let Carlson shoot the dog. You can see from the quote â€Å"Why’nt you shoot him Candy?† This shows that Carlson isn’t very sympathetic and he can’t understand how strong the bond is between Candy and his dog because he has a lack of understanding human attachm ents and relationships. The most unequal character in the novel is Crooks. He is isolated due to the colour of his skin because people look at him differently and give him no respect. He is the only black man in the book and at that time, America was a very racist, unpleasant place as Crooks were victimized. Crooks is a black stable-hand who is lively, sharp-witted and proud. He got his name from his crooked back. He also admits that he is extremely lonely, like most of the characters in the novel. He was referred to as â€Å"stable buck†, â€Å"nigger† or â€Å"crooks† and he was never referred to by his actual name which suggests that no one actually is bothered to get to know him. Crooks lives alone away from everybody else. He is isolated in his own room in the barn, instead of being with the other hands in the bunkroom. Isolating him from the other ranch workers purely because colour of his skin. The quote â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody† suggests that he had literally gone insane from loneliness and low self esteem. On the other hand, it is clear that he craves companionship from the shocking reaction when Lennie comes over to his room. At first he rejected him hoping to prove a point, as why should a black man welcome a white man when he who isn’t welcome in a white man’s house. Lastly he couldn’t take it from his desire for company so he invites him over to sit with him. Crooks doesn’t stop talking, showing us that he yearns for company as he is terribly lonely. In his room Crooks has the California code which is meant to protect his rights of black people in America, but in reality the symbol means nothing as for men like crooks, who is unable to socialise or be accepted as who he is just because of the colour of his skin. The character Curley is the boss’s son and is rather a two-dimensional villain. He gains his respect from others by picking fights with larger men. He is a little, mean and bitter bloke who is very aggressive and boastful to others. Rumours been said that Curley is a champion prize-fighter. Candy says that he is â€Å"handy† quoting that he fights well. He came in the finals for the Golden Glove boxing competition, this shows us that he likes fighting and is committed to it. No one likes Curley because he doesn’t deserve the respect with how he treats people. He is a married man and his wife isn’t very happy with him as she thinks that he has missed many opportunities to spend some time with her and bond together like couples do. The only time Curley shows up with his wife is when his wife was found dead. He doesn’t realize the fact he needs to think about others then just himself. In Conclusion, Steinbeck has successfully presented all the characters to some degree of loneliness, which was the main theme. He has perfectly explained the different aspects of how their lives on the ranches can be very lonely even if you’re still around each other. The way Steinbeck’s style of writing makes you feel sympathy for the characters. Also you experience the people’s lives were like at that time. The novel goes full circles, the situation ending basically the same as it began, at the same place. I really think the book â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is a really interesting story and have enjoyed it, I really recommend reading it!

Journal

Here are some of the kinds of writing I have done, In and out of school, during the past year (check all those that apply). 0 Essays about literature CLC Book reports Emails for work or to friends Journal entries Personal narratives 0 Short stories Speeches for special occasions 0 Research papers Ã'Ëœ Job applications 0 Letters for business purposes 0 Notes too teacher Summaries Persuasive essays Deflations Diary entries Descriptions 0 Songs Poems Newspaper articles 0 Letters to friends or family Ã'Ëœ Postcards 0 Thank-you notes Text messages Any others you can think of:Click here to enter text. 2. Of the items on my list, I most liked writing personal narratives and research papers because I enjoy telling personal stories and learning about new subjects. 3. I least enjoyed writing poems and speeches because writing poems isn't one of my strengths and I don't enjoy talking in front of a large group of people; especially strangers. 4. When I am given a writing assignment, I usually fo llow this process: I create a chart of my Ideas along with reasons, write a rough draft, have someone read It, I make corrections, and then I write the final draft. And overall structure. 6.I think that the area of my writing most needing work is broadening my vocabulary. 7. The types of writing that I will probably do in my college courses are persuasive, analytical, and argumentative; in my possible career, analytical and argumentative; in my personal life descriptions. 8. In the past, my experiences with writing courses have been great. 9. My writing goals for this course are to broaden my vocabulary and to learn new writing styles. 10. My thoughts and concerns as I begin this course are not knowing my grades on my papers and assignments really frightens me. Other than that, I cannot wait to begin growing as a writer. Journal Headquartered in Los Angels, California, the company offers consumers over 250 quality and affordable arsenal care products. The Product Dry. Fresh makes Bianca brand nativity fluoride toothpaste. We offer a peppermint flavor which is preferable to our target audience and offers cavity protection, fresh breath and strengthens teeth. Active ingredient is sodium nonprofessionals (0. 76%) is an nativity with a series of inactive ingredients. The Market Target market includes low income individuals, students, head of household, and elderly.The projected loss for our product in the current fiscal year is predicted $50,000 net loss. Variable costs to obtain a product and store in our warehouse is $0. 50 per unit. This variable cost cannot be reduced any further and will remain constant for the next two years regardless of volume. We have a unique advantage that our production can instantly vary to any output without increasing fixed costs or inventory costs. Our annual fixed costs are $250 ,000 annually including salaries, benefits, office supplies, warehouse space and our other product related expenses.This does not include any promotion like advertising, public relations or personal selling. Company overview Our mission is to provide innovative, high quality and affordable personal care products that exceed consumer expectations. The mission includes being the leader in the oral care category through fully understanding and addressing consumer needs. Our companies' SOOT Analysis includes our strength to offer a low price, have an effective product, and a good price to feature ratio.We offer multiple oral healthcare products which increase customer susceptibility to our product. Bianca has had previous advertising in movies, and television which help our product recognition. Our weaknesses include lack of brand recognition and are unknown, lack of features including whitening, tartar control, sensitivity and also fluoride, low promotion edged, subpart quality and we offer smaller quantities than competitors for the of our product through retailers. Company opportunities include easy sales to wholesalers because of price.We can offer to convenience stores and also vending machines to increase sales without extra cost. We also have the opportunity to advertise to dentist offices and to get support. Threats include name brand competitors, other low cost entrants, supplier power, buyer power, rivalry between other low cost competitors, and also threat of substitute products affect our business. 95% of our sales are at the price point of $1. 15 through wholesalers. The wholesalers sell to retailers, who sell our product at $1. 61 per unit.The other 5% of sales occur over the internet at $1. 49 each. We show a fixed cost of 250,000 + (. 50 per unit PVC *units). We are selling at this price and are estimated to lose $50,000 this year. In order to market this toothpaste, and achieve a goal of $50,000 profitability a year we must sell 400,000 units. In order to hit this strategic goal we must attain more market share. The overall oral healthcare market is worth 10. 9 billion. Colgate holds 52% of the overall market. HULL holds 22%. Dabber has 14% We hold . 05% with other brands with 1 1. 5%. Current market trends it indicate whitening is a strong factor in increasing sales. Market Segments We have broken our market down into the following segments: Students (Students are on tight budgets, but still need to clean their teeth effectively because their diets are typically not conducive to oral health in the first place. ) Low Income Families (Lower income families need to buy lots of toothpaste, but can't afford expensive name brands. ) Value Shoppers (Some individuals/families simply look to get the most value for their money. Each of our market segments have similar characteristics. Most of all, they are looking o get the best oral care product on a limited budget. They are typically value driven, and will buy a specific brand out of habit and convenience rather than any specific medical desires in their product. Their needs in a toothpaste include cleaning their teeth, preventing tooth decay, freshening breath, and preventing plaque and tartar build up in their mouth. Primary Target Market Our primary target market is value shoppers.Our customers in rural areas are looking for a combination of features and convenience. Customers entail value shoppers, low income shoppers, students, households, low cost value proposition. We segment through Geographic (Rural and Urban), Behavioral ( Normal use, Whitening, Complete Care), Demographic (customer type) and other methods. Company Analysis Our goals include selling the best toothpaste at the best price. Through aggressive price techniques we offer a quality product at a low price. We sell most of our product to retailers and a slim margin over the internet.Company culture includes giving employees fair chance to speak their mind and voice concerns to management. Th rough respecting catheter and fostering innovation we have been able to sell our other products very successfully. Internal strengths we have include our differentiation of products. We offer Bianca mouth freshening spray, toothbrushes, floss and other oral health products. A weakness we have internally is that we do not currently offer any whitening products, and with the current trend it is hurting our growth.Opportunities that we have include a whitening pre brush rinse solution. We also can develop mouthwash and produce different flavors of our breath freshening spray. The oral healthcare market is increasing due to people's reliance on vanity. Threats from other companies are hurting our sales due to competitor capitalization n the whitening, and feature/ luxury branding. Our low price toothpaste formula is not going to make your teeth any brighter, or remove layers of plaque that cause yellowing.Our product simply removes surface bacteria and doesn't get in deep like other com petitor products. Market share is a growing concern for us, we hold half a percent of the total market, and our competitor Colgate holds 52% of the overall market. We have a lot of room for growth inside our current market and huge incentives. Overall we are going to suffer a loss this quarter. We are going through some changes currently in our marketing ND management staff and are predicting a rise next year. We have more than adequate production methods and inventory warehousing.We anticipate being able to handle sales at a much higher volume. We are coming up with a new marketing scheme to make our product more appealing to our target market. We need to think creatively and bring in some fresh ideas and interns. Stock pence 2. 50 BASE (August 1st 2013) Competitor Analysis Our top three competitors are The Procter and Gamble Company Philips Oral Healthcare Inc I. Market position The consumer product conglomerate focused on toothpaste, toothbrushes and other oral care products. The position of the quality toothpaste could be niche or mainstream.The decision to position the new toothpaste on retail shelves is another important aspect of our sales positioning. Colgate toothpaste places the toothpaste in between one of the existing products and a competitor's product. It. Strengths – Colgate Optic white and Colgate sensitive pro- Relief toothpastes and the re launch of Colgate total toothpaste contributed to their strength in the oral care market. – Collage's strength in manual toothbrushes also continued in the U. S, driven by the success of Colgate 360 degree optic white, Colgate 360 degree Sensitive Pro- Relief ND Colgate 360 degree Surround. ‘. Weaknesses Colgate brand directly compete with P Oral-B company toothpastes which are globally known for their high functional properties, including sensitivity and teeth whitening. The company also increased its advertising expenditures by 31% in the two quarters of 2013. It has resulted in an ove rall market share gain in toothpaste and has growth from 52% in 2012 to 56% presently. Colgate has to worry about the innovative new products that could compete with their current quality toothpaste. Iii.Market Shares Colgate has been able to stay ahead of the market; it has one of the widest networks, caching 4. 5 million retail outlets in India. Collage's sustained distribution strength, coupled with product innovation and creation of sub-categories such as mouthwash and sensitive oral care have helped it drive growth aggressively. They are always coming up with new ideas to push the barrier and capture new market shares. Promoting healthier lives, improving community oral health care, expanding their current â€Å"Bright Smile, Bright Futures† program all ATA low cost.They ensure that ingredients continue to meet safety, quality and environmental compliance and biodegradability. They have also been environmentally responsible through educing the environmental impact of Col gate products and packages by 20% increasing the use of sustainable materials and recycled content. Value Chain Partners Supply chain partners consist of primarily a manufacturing company (Dry. Fresh) in India. The factory produces the toothpaste, packages the paste into tubes, and seals and prints the tubes and boxes the final product.Large shipments leave the factory by means of distribution. A distributor moves the product from the factory to Wholesalers Warehouses Shipping yards Wholesaler's mark up the product and sell the product in bulk to tillers. Wholesalers are responsible for distribution of the product after they purchase the product from the factory. Warehouses store the product until demand for the toothpaste is reached. At this point the product is removed and sold to different partners Shipping yards are usually located where a sea port meets a railroad.The trucks can drop off product for easy transportation over 1) ocean through massive commercial ships and 2) railw ay where trains transport goods efficiently 3) Trucks drop off their trailers and are easily navigated to new locations by other drivers. Once the goods are delivered to their final location it is usually at a retailer. Retailers purchase the goods from the wholesaler, offer a markup on the product and arrange the product on the shelves where it is ultimately bought by customers. When the product is sold directly over the internet a lot of the process is cut down.The internet protocol is much more simple. A supply chain partner is through the website design and maintenance teams in order to process orders and receive accurate shipping information, as well as process payment. When an order is paid for and set up for delivery, the company uses a mail company such as faded or SSP to deliver the final package to the customer. Climate Reducing global impact on the climate and environment plays an important role in associated with the manufacture and distribution of products it plays a la rge role in our manufacturing process.We try to reduce waste sent to landfills as well as request that all of our key suppliers measure and disclose the climate change information. Through the economic climate we are reducing the amount of water consumed in the manufacture and consumption of our products. Reducing the amount of water associated with our products saves a lot of money. Through working tit local and global organizations to promote access to clean water we promote water conservation awareness across the world. We reduce our environmental impact of products and packages by up to 20% by increasing the use of sustainable materials and recycled content.Social and cultural environment includes the increase of sustainability profile in our new products and in the balance of our portfolio. We ensure ingredients meet or exceed all recognized standards for safety, quality, and environmental compliance and biodegradability. Political and legal environment is included in promoting health and wellness and to reduce employee employee health risks. We have achieved a 5% reduction in costs and improvements in early diagnosis of chronic and treatable disease. We are focusing on safety to achieve the goal of zero lost time incidents.Other political impacts are the standards set to monitor our product and ensure public health. Technological environment by reducing our waste through technological upgrades we have been able to increase effectiveness and efficiency with lower waste. New methods allow for the reduction of water used in production and distributing so that we can control costs and provide the best product available. Insight driven innovation provides value added products and our marketing strategy shows that in order to ensure high standards we must have the essential technology to make it happen. Journal Proposals, persuasive messages, classroom practices Introduction: Given that students are enthusiastic about social media or even have expertise in some social media tools, the author decided to design a class project in her Writing for Careers (Business Communication) class that integrates social media in terms of content and project management.This article intends to describe such a class reject design as well as the working process; reflect on such a practice by reviewing students' feedback, examining the final products, and assessing the learning outcomes; and finally provide suggestions on how to improve this project. Methods: This article describes the project design as well as the working process and reflects on this practice by reviewing students' feedback, examining the final products, and assessing the learning outcomes.In concluding, the article provides suggestions for Improvement, Students were excited about the project because It was related to social media; however som e students were confused because they didn't understand how such a project could be related to business management. Different books, articles, websites, movies, and/or TV shows were assigned to help with the project (ex. Get Connected: The Social Networking Toolkit for Business, the Oscar-winning movie The Social Network, Conic's The Backbone Obsession, Barack Beam's Social Media Lessons for Business. Also a few articles (Tangelo, 2010: Greenland, 2010; Jones & Degree, 2011).Results: The few students who disliked social media or were very elucidate to get onto social media had an opportunity to learn something new. Those who were familiar with some social media tools learned new aspects and features. This project gave students the opportunity to practice and utilize a variety of skills: critical thinking, problem solving, audience analysis, persuasion, and document design. The process-based teaching enhanced their understanding and application of what they learned in class and also made it possible to customize the teaching. Discussion: Throughout the project several social media tools were discussed.Students were challenged to communicate not only their mastery of digital communication skills, especially social media skills, but also their understanding of the potential for using these skills in professional settings to target audience. In addition they had to demonstrate their rhetorical skills In persuading their audience in considering or adopting social media. This example of client-based, student- centered learning empowered students and increased student autonomy. Criticism: the goal of the project even after repeated instructor explanations.Their overconfidence and overestimation of their own social media skills also hindered their completion of the project satisfactorily. Instead of figuring out what the business or organization needs to communicate constantly and effectively with their customers, these students insisted on getting the opinion of the teacher or the client had to tell them what to do. These students spent time creating a profile page instead of Justifying why they had selected that particular social media tool. During the project; time was spent teaching social media tools, especially the ones students that lacked familiarity with social media. Journal The Picture for Men: Superhero or Slacker, Stefan Bach's The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kid's Movies and Amanda Marmoset's The Shocking Radicalism of Brave all expresses a tone of opposition to the Issue of gender gap. They specifically focus on the media especially In movies and cartoons where men are most times the prevailing character and superheroes while women are helpmates and trophies to be won by them.This is an obvious trend and I indisputably agree with this resentment. Sesame Panda in his article mentions that â€Å"The attributes that are most valuable today-social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus-are, at a minimum, not predominantly male. † (Panda, 201). He also mentions that â€Å"boys who remained close to their mothers, siblings, and peers did not act as tough or shut down emotionally.However, close relationships tit fathers encouraged greater autonomy and detachment from friendships. † This shows that the fathe rs of these boys have been brought up in a like manner and always has been a trend In the past. Society teaches girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. Girls are allowed to have ambition and aim to be successful but not too successful otherwise the men will be threatened. Does the society actually see women as a lesser Identity?If boys are taught to be tough, autonomous and stoic, what role would the girls play? Maids, perhaps. Also, Stefan Bach's article throws more light to the devastating issue of gender gap. She considers the role of female protagonists in animated children's films. Using Disney and Paxar as a case study, she fairly criticizes Disney films for being sexist and mentions that â€Å"A pretty big percentage of the female leads in Disney musicals seem to have only one goal- to get Journal Save your journal entry as a Microsoft Word file and submit it using the appropriate link in the Session 2 folder. Follow all the directions, adhere to the rules of Standard Written English, and submit by the deadline. 1 . Contrasts can evoke strong emotions and images in creative writing. Re- read Yeses Gunnysack's poem â€Å"Facing It† (page 42). Make note of the ways Communally contrasts ideas and images: white and black, night and morning stone and flesh, solid and air, movement and stasis, reality and reflection, cast and present.These contrasts create a sense of confusion and tension. Write two paragraphs of your own in which you describe a brief fictional scene that is full Of contrasts. Make the contrasts meaningful to the character in your scene. 2. A stanza is a group of lines in poetry. (Billy Collins' poem â€Å"Snow Day' on page 41 is eight five-line stanzas, for example. ) Write a poem of three-line stanzas that follows this pattern: The first line consists of a n abstraction, plus a verb, plus a place; the second line describes attire; and the third line of each Tanta summarizes an action.Let it flow. Each stanza should make sense by itself; all together the poem does not have to make absolute sense. See the examples on page 24 of Imaginative Writing. Your completed poem should be at least eight stanzas. 3. Quickly list as many clickd metaphors as you can think of: the path of life, eyes like pools, crazy as a bedbug, nose to the grindstone, and so forth. Provide the list. Then switch half a dozen of the comparisons: eyes like bedbugs, nose to the path, the grindstone of life. Then, write a brief poem (at

Electronic Medical records Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Electronic Medical records - Assignment Example The present study would focus on the electronic medical records are computerized records. They are introduced in the medical world to replace the tedious paper based records. Paper based mode of recording is the most used by many hospitals. Most medical practitioners find it cheap and easy to use this method. Regardless of the cost, paper based records, require a lot of storage space unlike computerized records that only take the space of a hard disk or any other storage device. Electronic media records can be easily located in case of reference according to HIMSS. This is quite not the case with paper-based records where a lot of room is required to store up the paper work. Trying to locate paper-based records is time consuming and at times results to inaccurate information or lack of it generally. Electronic Media Records are known to be cost effective, thus improving the quality of service, cost and general wellbeing of the patients in the long run. This eventually leads to a redu ction in the cost of hospitalization for patients and improves the overall safety of the patient. Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital’s aim behind the institution of the EMR was to improve efficiency in record keeping, operations and patient care. The successful implementation of a project depends largely on its planning and efficiency of the project team as noted by HIMSS. According to the General Manager of the hospital, it was important for the hospital to roll out a planning development strategy on the implementation of the Electronic Media Records. ... Resources for and Constraints to the Implementation of the EMR System Estimating the cost of a project is important if the same has to be successfully implemented according to Whitehead (2003). This was the greatest determinant as to whether the EMR system would be successfully implemented. The hospital organized its board members and come up with a reliable source of funds for the implementation of the EMR. Fortunately, the hospital had most of the required resources in terms of funds, skilled personnel, Internet connectivity, and a well networked set of computers. The main constraint was that the hospital needed better firewall software considering the need to protect personal and confidential records from illegal intrusion and hacking. The hospital also needed an effective EMR software. It was noted that for the effective functioning of the system, a more powerful server would be needed together with more powerful network devices. One main issue that relates to the application of the EMS in hospitals is privacy. Indeed the issue of patient privacy is as weight an issue as patient autonomy. Considering that the EMS makes part of patients’ records accessible to over 500,000 payers, care providers, insurance firms and other organizations, the project team working with the hospital’s management had to establish a privacy policy to be applied by the hospital in handling patient records. This would ensure that chances of privacy infringement were as much as possible minimized. Impact of the Technology According to the general manager of the hospital, the institution would expect a lower mortality rate due to cut down on medication errors with the implementation of the electronic media records system. The hospital also expected to save close to one

Analysis of The Empirical Phase Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis of The Empirical Phase - Essay Example Throughout this careful structure, Grob argues that Wordsworth’s purpose was to challenge the present social order that was focused on the â€Å"disorganized and directionless† (19) mode of existence found in â€Å"the fretful stir / Unprofitable, and the fever of the world† (Wordsworth, 52-53) and present a more favorable development. Grob’s argument rests not so much upon the actual words in the poem as it does upon the way in which Wordsworth presents his case, progressing from the simple ease with which mankind connects with nature to the stabilizing influence it has even when lost in the â€Å"fever of the world† and demonstrating how this natural development was not unique just to him, but can be universally applied to others as well. In presenting his case, Grob suggests that Wordsworth’s poem can be basically divided into three main concerns beginning with the natural connection that occurs between man and nature. â€Å"As a vehicle for symbolic discourse, the landscape of Tintern Abbey possesses a latent multiplicity of reference so that almost every ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical judgment rendered later in the poem seems latent in its initial image† (14). This is started within the very first stanza as the poet describes the scenery before him, imbuing it with â€Å"a deep and abiding calm and a coalescence of particulars into a single, interlocking and indivisible pattern of harmony† (14). This image includes not only the untouched natural wonder that surrounds him but also the human effects that have taken place within it, such as the hedgerows, cottage-grounds and orchard tufts. After having linked the efforts of mankind into the overall splendor of the natural environment, Wordsworth moves on to discuss the essential internal interconnectedness of man and nature.  Ã‚  

MARKETING - Brands cannot be expected to last forever Essay

MARKETING - Brands cannot be expected to last forever - Essay Example The ability of brand to capture the market determines the term of its survival. Several factors play crucial roles in determining the life span of a brand. Raymond Vernon (as cited in Steers & Nardon, 2006, p.36) has developed a product or brand life cycle theory that clearly illustrates different phases in the life span of a brand, they are; product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. It is the first phase of a brand life cycle and the company carries out design, production, and research in this phase in order to ensure that the proposed idea would meet customer needs effectively. According to Kotler, Keller, Koshy, and Jha (2009, p.550), the management team usually conducts some market surveys to identify current market trends. Subsequently the company makes further modifications to the product in the light of obtained market responses. During this phase, the designed product is introduced into the market under a certain brand name. As it is a new brand in the market, consumers may not have adequate knowledge about it. Hence, marketers launch some public campaigns to promote the specific features of the products and thereby to popularize the brand. During this phase, the branded product would build its foundation in the market. The launched public campaigns and promotional techniques would begin to show its outcomes. However, the company still works with its advertising efforts so as to expand the brand image in the market. The branded product would have maximum market shares and have reached its peak of sales. In the opinion of Kotler et al (2009, p.304), during the maturity phase, growth gradually begins to slow down. The term of the maturity phase may vary from product to product according to the value of brand image. According to Meissner (2010), in the decline phase, brand awareness would be high even though sales are on the decline. Price falls, weakness in competitiveness, and emergence of rival would be other common

Article from Marketing Journals Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

From Marketing Journals - Article Example The process adds to the product's final cost, convenience, and customer acceptance. A process may be streamlined to reduce costs and diminish consumer options, or the product may be customized, which adds to the total cost of the product but offers the consumer a greater number of alternatives. The article contended that the two major measurable and manageable characteristics of any process are complexity and divergence. It is the challenge of the manager to find the most effective balance of these important components of the process. Complexity refers to the "number and intricacy of the steps required" to perform the process (35). A laboratory that performs DNA testing could be said to be more complex than checking the air pressure in a tire. Divergence is the "degree of freedom allowed or inherent in a process step or sequence" (35). Processes that require analyzation, assimilating data, and judgment are said to be highly divergent, such as a doctor performing surgery. By blueprinting a service into a schematically represented diagram, or flow chart, the degree of complexity and divergence can be readily and visually available. The complexity and divergence can then be adjusted to fit a marketing, cost, manufacturing, or consumer need. Altering the complexity and divergence of the service process can have a significant impa... For example, a gasoline outlet may decide to offer only 2 grades of gasoline instead of 4. This will save costs by reducing inventory requirements and overhead costs. However, the customer has been offered fewer options. Alternatively, the station may decide to carry 6 grades of gasoline and add kerosene and diesel fuel. This strategy can result in a niche market with lower volume and greater margins, as it increases the divergence and positions the station differently in the market. Complexity also dictates the market position as well as consumer perception. A mechanic's garage may opt to reduce their complexity and limit their work to muffler and brake systems. This specialization strategy can be risky when competing with more broad based and full service alternatives (38). However, increasing complexity runs the risk of poor quality or customer confusion. Customers may be unaware that a garage that offers automobile detailing, inspections, body and paint, and mechanical work, also does quality brake work. The manager must look for the market position that will maximize the opportunities with the least risk. In conclusion, visualizing the complexity and divergence of the service processes can help to understand the current market position and help plan for repositioning. The process that goods or services are subjected to is a raw material that can be manipulated and formed. This structured approach can reveal the characteristics that "not only affect market position, but also can be deliberately and strategically managed for positioning purposes" (42). Blueprinting and diagramming gives the manager a greater understanding and more control over the processes that affect cost, quality, deliverability, and consumer perception. Works Cited Shostack, G L.

Formal Assignment #4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Formal Assignment #4 - Essay Example These changes relate to US demographics, including age, gender and ethnic composition. The changes in the labor market can affect both the native and immigrant populations. This paper discusses changes in the US labor market over the past few decades. The paper assumes that the same changes were in New York since it is part of US. One of the most important changes in New York and U.S. labor market is the increased labor force participation of women (Ricardo, Kristie and Michael 50). The past several decades recorded a steady increase in the number of women participating in the labor market. Since 1999, the labor-force participation rate of these women remained steady. Another important demographic change that is affecting the labor force is the evolution of the population’s age distribution. Over the past several years, age is playing an important role in determining labor force participation in New York as well the U.S. most of the working population belongs to the baby-boom generation (Ricardo, Kristie and Michael 53). These are people born between 1946 and 1964. However, this may have negative effects on the overall labor force participation rate since most of these people are growing older. The effect of age on the national economy may result from a reduction in the labor-force participation rate c aused by aging of the baby-boom generation. Racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population is another important demographic change that affects labor force participation. Ethnic diversity may be because of social, economic, or political factors. However, it is clear that this diversity affects the labor market in one way or another. Over the past two decades, there is a significant difference in labor force participation among different races. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of immigrant populations in the US labor market increased. The number of immigrant population employed was also very high. The number grew by about 50 percent during that

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 4 CBT) Essay

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 4 CBT) - Essay Example ation of chosen parameters from that of the ‘best’ group from all groups under study and is generally calculated in terms of adverse events wherever possible. Thus a higher percentage generally implies a comparatively more adverse situation. Health indicators for American Indian or Alaska Native Population were the best with regard to exposure to ozone, lowest number of deaths due to stroke and occurrence of hepatitis, diabetes, tuberculosis, gonorrhea and syphilis. But in areas as health insurance coverage among persons under age 65, new AIDS cases, infant deaths and deaths of persons aged 15 to 24 years the situation twice as worse as the best group. Data are available for the combined Asian or Pacific Islander population reveal that the group has best rates in death due to cancer, injury and violence prevention and, maternal, infant, and child health. However, this group is twice as worse than the best group in HIV testing among tuberculosis patients aged 25 to 44 years and congenital syphilis. The Hispanic population was the best in nutrition, tobacco use and injuries related to violence. But this group was twice as worst as the best group in health insurance coverage among persons under age 65 years, source of ongoing care, new AIDS cases and HIV infection deaths, new cases of tuberculosis, congenital syphilis and primary and secondary syphilis. (Midcourse Review: Healthy People 2010, 2007) Though biologic and genetic characteristics of American Indian or Alaska Native Population, Asian or Pacific Islander population or Hispanic population do not provide any categorical indication, major health disparities are observed between these groups and the white, non-Hispanic population in the United States leading one to conclude that race and ethnicity do play a significant role in health indicator disparities. Income and education, on the other hand are more ostensibly related to health indicator diversities. Generally, populations that are the poorest and

Torture And Obtaining Confessions From Terror Suspects Essay Example for Free

Torture And Obtaining Confessions From Terror Suspects Essay Terrorism merely stands for any violence or crime. Usually any destructive and dangerous acts executed by an individual or by group famously known as terrorist. Basically, it is not simply just bringing destruction to community is what they intend for but these groups also aspire for political or ideological goals. Emerging of various terrorist groups with a variety of missions is becoming rampant. Al-Qaeda meaning the base, an international militant terrorist group led and founded by Osama bin Laden has also its goal to unite all Muslim’s nations and aims to dominate globally(Pike, 2005). The well known tragic terrorist attack executed by Al-Qaeda which was still fresh in memories of the world and had done a very massive destruction was the September 11 tragedy in New York, USA. These attack cause death to hundreds of people, victims and AL-Qaeda terrorist. By these acts and operations of such terrorist groups, the world seems to have been troubled and challenged on how to prevent or totally bring it to an end. The government is taking plans on how to contest this kind of situations even though it looks as if terrorism becomes rampant all throughout the humankind. In addition to these terrorisms, issues on tension on fighting terrorist acts and protection on civil liberties are being undertaken. This is a tough challenge for the government to combat terrorism and to balance civil liberties in line with the achievement of global peace and order. As to longing to end up with peace and order in the world, the government took hard and inflexible time to arrest, investigate and put into jail terrorist or even put into death. Different governments had been exercising varieties of operations and tactics. Governments establish foreign and local investigation partners by coordinating with other agencies and countries. Government also uses new ways of detecting terror plans by means of Law Enforcement tools (DOJ, 2006) . Just to ensure a great war on terrorism, some uses the dissimilar trends of tactics which ignores and violates the human rights of suspects and all other concerned individuals. In search for terrorist or groups of terrorist, government sometimes abuses his power and authority. Abusing represents disrespect and dishonor to the community even the individual’s rights and liberties. Subjective arrest and detentions were implemented by some government. Individuals are arrested by force even though without any evidences against them. Tortures and any other inhuman treatments just like physically maltreating the prisoner by not providing any foods were also practiced and also sometimes suspects are beaten by any hard materials which may lead to too much force and extrajudicial action. Tortures were exercised to make sure that suspects would admit and confess for the violence. Many exercised this torture since they can easily make suspects confess. Government has been implementing it and believes this is a great approach to solve crimes effortlessly. Other governments transport their prisoners in a secret detention place like in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram for US custodies(International, 2006). These actions taken by the government in combating crime and violence is extremely harsh and merely signifies violation of human rights. All actions done by the government should always be fair to the suspects and prisoners. Different civil liberties and human rights organizations must look after these actions to guarantee that civil liberties and human rights of suspects and prisoners are valued. In this rigid combating campaign against terrorism, does government should be able to mind for civil liberties of individuals? Should the government be able to protect it? Even though the government has expanded powers to pursue their fight against terrorism, some says that those civil liberties or the freedoms that totally protect every individual from the government shall be not dishonored or violated. These civil liberties are the ones which sets the limitations for the government such as not to misuse its authority. Most probably in war against violence and crime, as government given an extended power, civil liberties like human rights are most likely to be violated. For these reasons, critics as well as human rights organizations focus primarily on the matters that concerns protection and promotion of human rights during campaign against terrorist attacks. Â  Promotion of human rights and civil liberties were being under encouraged by these groups. Protect the community, being the one of the major concerns of the law must not be set aside nor violated instead must be acted upon by (Herald, 2004). In any time or instance, even if its time for combat against terrorism, the law must be the principal protector and promoter of human rights and civil liberties. Rights and liberties are for every human being no matter how dreadful or harmful he was. Every prisoner, may it be terrorist or not, do also has his rights and liberties like every normal citizens have. A prisoner has the right to be fair trial, not treated as animals, and also right to eat meals. They should not be punished in customs that not according to the law, as law is said to be the protector of individuals. Having the authority to make and the power to enforce the law, the government, must not just only focus on one of its mission. The government must be capable and responsible to act upon on its tasks for the society and also for its citizens. Every tasks or missions designated to the government are of equivalent significance, no mission is more significant than the other. In combating terrorism, though it is recognized as a tough mission for the government, other missions shall not be set aside for. Likewise for the mission of government to protect and respect the civil liberties and human rights, this plain mission put to one side. Treating missions evenly will lessen the burden of tension between civil liberties and terrorism will be lessen or even eradicated. References: DOJ. (2006). Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Anti-Terrorism Efforts Since Sept. 11, Â  2001. Herald, T. S. M. (2004). Standing up for liberties. International, A. (2006). Pakistan Working to stop human rights violations in the war on terror. Pike, J. (2005). al-Qaida (The Base) Qa‘idat al-Jihad Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and CrusadersIslamic Salvation Foundation Usama bin Laden Network.

My Sisters Keeper Essay Example for Free

My Sisters Keeper Essay In My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult weaves a gripping tale of pathos, humor, and love. As thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald struggles to define herself as a person apart from her sister Kate, Picoult exposes the universal truths of human relationships. Life is full of choices and consequences. Love demands risks and sacrifice; self-examination and sharing. As the characters unfold, in their own words, the importance of communication emerges as a unifying theme. Kate Fitzgerald is dying of acute promyelocytic leukemia. A kidney transplant is her only hope. Anna’s parents assume without question, that she will offer her kidney. Aware that she was conceived to be a genetic match, and ongoing donor for Kate, Anna wants a chance to live her own life. Though she loves her sister dearly, Anna retains Campbell Alexander, seeking medical emancipation, knowing that without the surgery Kate will die. Thus begins the saga of seven lives intertwined in ways none could ever have imagined. Anna forces a legal confrontation that compels each character to examine the relationships in their lives. Sara Fitzgerald has focused obsessively on Kate’s medical needs, unwittingly ignoring the needs of other family members. Brian, a firefighter, finds respite from his family’s ills on the job, and in the stars, which become a metaphor for life. Jesse, eighteen, is the family misfit. Unable to help Kate, he is wracked by guilt. A rebel, he becomes an unlikely healing force. As the court proceedings swirl around Anna, all involved are forced to reckon with the ghosts of their pasts and the paths they have chosen. Picoult addresses the ethics of the situation only tangentially. The ending is superbly crafted, literally pulling the reader into the text. This is a cosmic tale about relationships and endurance, and the ability of love to change lives forever.

Role of Debt in Capital Structure of Firms

Role of Debt in Capital Structure of Firms Capital structure has got importance in the literature of corporate finance. It provides insight about the role of debt in the capital structure of a firm. It is believed that firm endeavors to uphold optimal capital structure. In existing literature, however, there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. The main objective of a firm is to maximize its profit and to give maximum return to its shareholders. For this purpose the company should use Optimal Capital Structure so as to achieve the desired targets, but usually when the time comes for the generation of capital, firms go with the more easiest way. The study investigates the relationship between the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) with Debt / Equity ratio of the firms in the Fertilizer Sector through , cross sectional analysis for the financial year 2010. The present study depicts that firms always keep in mind the tax shield. They usually prefer debt due to tax shield but some firms go with the more easiest way to raise capital, and the concept of optimal capital structure is set aside. In Pakistan, the interest rates are usually high as compared to developed countries. That is why, big firms usually prefer to raise funds through equity instead of debt. Since, financial institutions offer loans to profitable firms, at low rate keeping in view their credit rating and riskiness of operations, so these firms like fertilizer companies also include debt in their capital structure. The results are constructed with the literate review concluding that there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of stock return for different firms is debatable. Introduction Capital structure theories provide insights about the role of debt in the capital structure of a firm. In corporate finance literature, it is believed that firm endeavor to uphold optimal capital structure. In existing literature, however, there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of stock return for different firms is debatable. Various decisions taken by management include operating, financial and non- financial decisions. Financial structure (capital structure) decisions have gained importance in corporate finance, strategic management and financial economics literature. These decisions have implication for shareholders value. Capital structure comprises of debt and equity, the choice of which is associated with different levels of benefit and controls. There have always been controversies among the researchers about the optimal capital structure of the firm because of significant variation with regard to capital structure of the firm because if significant variations with regard to capital structure existing in different industries and among firm within the same industry. Further, the different proxies may be used to measure the same attribute of a variable. Selection of these proxies may create biasness. Conventional determinants of capital structure in existing literature include collateral value of ass et, non-debt tax shield, growth, uniqueness, industry classification, size volatility, and profitability. Use of debt in capital structure of a firm acts as a monitoring device over managerial actions. Use of debt puts pressure on managers to enhance the performance of a firm so that sufficient cash flows are generated to retire loan obligations. The main objective of business firm is to maximize the wealth of shareholders in the long run, the management should only invest in projects which give are turn in excess of cost of funds invested in the projects of the business. The difficulty will arise in determination of cost of funds, if it raised from different sources and different quantums. The various sources of funds to the company are in the form of equity and debt. The cost of capital is the rate of return the company has to pay to various suppliers of funds in the company. There are variations in the cost of capital due to the fact that different kinds of investment carry different levels of risk which is compensated for by different levels of return on the investment. There are two main sources of capital for a company: shareholders and lenders usually debenture holders and financial institutions. The cost of equity and cost of debt are the rates of return that need too be offered to these two groups of suppliers of capital in order to attract funds from them. The cost of capital consist of four elements: Cost of Equity (Ke), Cost of Retained Earning (Kr), Cost of Preferred Capital (Kp) and Cost of Debt( Kd).The funds required for the project are raised from the equity shareholders which are of permanent nature. These funds need not be repayable during the life time of the organization. Hence its a permanent source of funds. The equity shareholders are the owners of the company. The main objective of the firm is to maximize the wealth of the equity shareholders. Equity share capital is the risk capital of the company. If the companys business is doing well the ultimate beneficiaries are the equity shareholders who will get the return in the form of dividends from the company and the capital appreciation for their investment. If the company comes for liquidation due to losses, the ultimate and worst sufferers are the equity shareholders. Sometimes they may not get their investment back during the liquidation process. The following methods are used in calculation of cost of equity. First is Dividend Yield Method. The Dividend per share is expected on the current market price per share. As per this method, the cost of capital is defined as â€Å"the discount rate that equates the present value of all expected future dividends per share with the net proceeds of the sales (or the current market price) of a share. This method is based on the assumption that market value of shares is directly related to the future dividends on the shares. Another assumption is that the future dividend per shares is expected to be constant and the company is expected to earn at least this yield to keep the shareholders content. Second method is Dividend growth Model in which shareholders will normally expect to increase year after year and not to remain constant in perpetuity. In this method, an allowance for future growth in dividend is added to the current dividend yield. It is recognized that the current market price of a share reflect expected future dividends. The dividend growth model is also called as â€Å"Gordon dividend growth model. Third model is Price Earning Method which takes into consideration the Earning per share(EPS) and the market price of the share. It is based on the assumption that the investors capitalize the stream of future earnings of the share and the earnings of a share need not be in the form of dividend and also it need not be disbursed to the shareholders. It based on the argument that even if the earning are not disbursed as dividends, it is kept in the retained earnings and it causes future growth in the earnings of capital, the earning per share is divided by the current market price. Forth model is Capital Asset Pricing Model which divides the cost of equity into two components, the near risk-free return available on investing in government bonds and an addition risk premium for investing in a particular share or investment. This risk premium in turn comprises the average return on the overall market portfolio and the beta factor (or risk) of the particular investment. Putting this all together the CAPM assesses the cost of equity for an investment. Literature Review The empirical study done by Modigliani and Miller (1958) depicts the basis of capital structure. Under the assumption of market perfection, they argued that the value of firm is independent from its mode or source of financing. They believe that cost of capital had no influence on the capital structure, so according to them there exists no capital structure. The level of leverage may be different in the firm or within the same industry. In their point of view, the value of firm is not determined by however, the firm finances its assets but by the real assets possession is the actual value of a firm. Researchers have relaxed the unrealistic assumptions in Modigliani and Miller proposition. In real life there exists information asymmetry. Debt payments are subject to tax shield. Agency costs reflect a tradeoff model where decrease in agency cost of equity will cause an increase in agency cost of debt Jensen and Meckling (1976) They argue that agency costs, however, reduce because use of debt restricts issuance of equity, which in turn strengthens managerial ownership. It helps to reduce agency conflicts. Myers and Majluf (1984) argue that use of debt reduces agency problems. Further, leverage also bring its own agency cost that generates a conflict between agency cost of debt and equity. Jensen (1986) argues that use of debt constrains the free cash flow explanations give birth to its fixed nature of obligations. Since managerial compensation had controlled the positively related firms to grow, therefore, investors may invest available cash flows optimally or utilizes the available cash flows to pay dividends or profits. When profits are paid at low rate due to some reason, it extremely impacts the shares market price. Use of debt generate limits to the managerial discretion to use such cash flows fully because of non-payment of profit on debt may take a firm bankruptcy. Further, firms that use debt faces extreme scanning by debt holders. These facts indulge managers to utilize their resources optimally which ultimately enriches firm value. The theoretical framework of capital structure begins with the seminal paper of Modigliani and Miller (1958) who postulate that capital structure of a firm is irrelevant in perfect capital markets. By using net operating income approach, they argue that the overall capitalization rate remain constant for any level of financial leverage. That is, the total risk of security holders of a firm remains unaffected for any change in capital structure. Therefore, value of a firm is independent of the capital structure of a firm. Their theory is based on unrealistic assumptions of no income taxes, no transaction costs, no information asymmetry, no bankruptcy and agency cost etc. They believe in the conservation of investment value. The researchers have relaxed the assumption of perfect capital market assumed by Modigliani and Miller. Following theories explain the relevance of capital structure under different market imperfection. Trade off theory relaxes the assumption of bankruptcy costs. It considers the cost of financial distress (bankruptcy cost, reorganization cost and non-bankruptcy cost). It elaborates the impact of financing cost and tax shield on debt. According to trade-off theory, increase in debt is positively related to marginal cost of debt and negatively related to marginal benefit of increase in debt. A firm focuses on trade-off between marginal benefit and cost of debt while deciding about the proportion of debt and equity in its capital structure with a view to optimize the overall value of the firm. A firm should borrow until the marginal tax advantage of additional debt is offset by the increase in present value of the expected costs of financial distress. This theory has been criticized by researchers on different grounds. For instance, Miller (1977) argues that firms pay large taxes frequently, whereas occurrence of bankruptcy is not recurring in nature. So, low weights are assigned to b ankruptcy cost. Further, in reality, firms do not have higher weightage of debt in their capital structure. Pecking Order theory of capital structure is based on the costs of asymmetric information. It assumes relevance of asymmetric information only for external financing. It describes the sequence (internal financing to external financing) that a firm uses to finance its capital expenditures. According to pecking order, a firm having sufficient profits and cash flows use internal funds first. It will go for external financing if internal funds are not sufficient. While deciding about external financing, a firm will issue the safest security like bonds; debenture or term-finance certificates and equity will be used as the last option. Further, in case the internally generated cash flows exceed the capital investment requirements, these excessive cash flows will be utilized to repay debt instead of buying back equity. Milton and Artur (1991) discussed the theory of capital structure grounded on four basic factors. Firstly, agency cost that shows conflicts among managers, equity holders and debt holders. Secondly, there is asymmetric information and it explains the possible capital structure. Thirdly, it is centered on the product/input market interactions with Capital structure. Fourthly, it describes theories driven by co-operate control consideration it shows the linkage between the market for co-operate control and for Capital structure. Peter and Gordon (2005) have discussed the importance of industry to firm-level financing and real its decisions. The findings of this paper were financial structure that depends on a firms position within its industry and In competitive industry, a firms financial control depends on its natural hedge the activities of other firms in this industry, and its status as entrant, current performance, or exiting firm. Financial control is higher and less discrete in concentrated industries, where strategic debt interactions are stronger, but a firms natural hedge is not significant. Our finding shows that financial structure, technology, and risk are jointly determined within industries. These findings are reliable with recent industry equilibrium models of financial structure. The analysis made by Laurence et al (2001), discusses the Capital Structures in developing countries uses a new set of data to assess whether capital structure theory is transferable across countries with different influential structures or not. In this analysis they used 10 developing countries and provided evidence that these decisions are affected by the same factors as in developed countries. However, there are persistent differences across countries, indicating that specific country factors are at work. their findings suggests that although some of the insights from modern finance theory are transferable across countries and much remains to be done to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices. This paper affirms the arguments on the tax shield valuation as it remains a hot issue in the financial literature. Basically, two methods have been projected to incorporate the tax benefit of debt in the present value computation: The adjusted present value (APV), and the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). This note clarifies the correlation between these two apparently different approaches by offering a formula for the WACC. Firms interest expenses are tax deductible. Therefore, debt increases the cash flows available to stockholders and bondholders by the amount of the tax reduction. Joseph Ignacio (2005), discusses the cost of debt is the market rate or unsubsidized rate for which an investor is willing to pay. In further detail debt creates and sustain its value when tax shield is applied and the rate is sustainable but if the rate of repayment is high then form the loan and at a low market rate then loan will be preferable as it is subsidized debt and no tax is applied, the firm would be a benefited with debt financing, and the unlevered and levered values of the cash flows would be unequal. And the optimal rate of return and WACC can be achieved if a firm follows the rules and take into account all sources of financing. Tom and Timothy (2004) assumes that the use of weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is better then the use of any other calculation because either it may be riskier or will not depict the true picture of the financial performance or the position of the firm. This paper encourages the usage of WACC in all the firms although it is difficult to calculate and had some mathematical complexities but after that it depicts a clear picture of the firm, as by using spreadsheets it is easy to present the findings of the company to its managers, clients, colleagues and shareholders. The WACC is a fundamental concept in corporate finance. Its basic definition is averaging the cost of capital coming from both the equity and the debt by Farber at el (2006) and it looks simple. But the fact is its practical implementation which has raised several questions, they are most likely the distinction between book value and the market value. This paper addresses more in depth the tax shield valuation and establishes a general formula that remains valid for any debt structure. In this context, there contribution allows not only to compare the usual WACC computation in a more rigorous way but also less synthetic one, and helps the firms to adapt the WACC approach to any chosen tax shield valuation model. In this sense, the WACC appears as a powerful and very adaptable concept. Greg (2004), discusses what is WACC and what are there components and how these components are calculated and are helpful in the calculation of WACC. The paper further discusses that what should be the minimum discount rate that make intuitive sense to invest or to add a firm in portfolio. It also explains that what is the cost of debt, cost of financing and the components of cost of financing. Myers and majluf (1984), argues that the use of debt reduces agency problems and further leverage also brings its own agency cost thats generates a conflict between agency cost debt and equity. Jenson (1986), states that the use of debt will restrict the cash flow projections due to its fixed rules. Since marginal benefits and control its positively related to firm development. Therefore management may invest available resources to obtain cash flows. When dividend are paid but at a low rate its adversely affect the share price in the market. The usage of debt limits the firm to invest else-where because the non-payment of the debt leads to bankruptcy. Lakshmi (1994), differentiates between the traditional capital structure models and the new pecking order theory model of the corporate financing. The basics of pecking order theory model assumes that the debt financing driven by the internal financing, has much more time series explanatory power than a static trade of model, which predicts that each firm adjusts gradually toward an optimal debt ratio. And had shown in their results that the power to reject the pecking order against trade of theory. The model of (CAPM) given by William and John (1964,1965), gives evidence of the birth of asset pricing theory for which noble prize was given to sharpe in 1990. Forty years later CAPM is now publically used in estimating the cost of capital of the industry and evaluating the esteem to have the maximum profits from the portfolio invested in. The attractiveness in estimation of CAPM is that it offers a wide pleasing range of predictions about how to measure and ensure the risk and the relation between expected returns and risk. Unfortunately, some problems of CAPMs may reflect the theory may fails at some times, the result of many not be as per assumptions. But they may be caused by difficulties in implementation of valid tests to the model. Dan at el (2005) examine the entire associations between leverage, corporate and personal taxes, and the firms cost of equity to generate capital. Expanding the theory of Modigliani and Miller (1958, 1963), the cost of equity capital can be expressed as an impact of leverage and corporate and level taxes. The predictions that the equity cost will increase in leverage, but that corporate taxes shifts from leverage related risk premium, while the personal tax disadvantage of burden of debt reduces the profit. They examined the findings by using implied equity cost estimation system of the firms corporate tax rate and the personal tax gives a big advantage of debt. Their result suggests that the premium equity risk is linked with the profit, and if the entire profit is decreasing the corporate tax generates benefit. They also marked evidence that the premium equity risk has relations with leverage, and increase in entire profit may give a results in increased in personal tax. Rodolfo (2008) sets forth the contribution to this long lasting debate on cost of capital, firstly by introducing the multiplicative model that helps to calculate the rate of WACC. Secondly, by making adjustments in the rate of governance risk. The older approach says that the cost of capital might be calculated by means of a weighted average of debt and capital. But this is not a correct way of calculation and that might bring misappropriation, whereas the multiplicative model not only calculate the linear approximation but also the joint outcome of expected costs of debt and stock, and its proportion in the capital structure of that firm. Nevins (1967), explains in reference to Modigliani and millers discussion that how leverage can be effective and efficient to increase the entire cost of capital of the industry or the firm. He also discusses in detail that when the account is taken of risk and is ruin an increasing cost of capital is perfectly the same with little arbitrage operations. Giving ways to the chances of bankruptcy is tantamount to relax the that entire stream of operating earnings Is independent from the entire capital structure. Robert (1988), argues the effect of corporate and personal taxes on the firms optimal capital structure and financing decisions under uncertain defined conditions. It further more discussion they discussed the entire capital structure model by categorizing them entire firms important investments decisions. The results suggests that when investment was allowed to adjust optimally the existing assumptions about the relationship between investment and debt related tax shields must be changed. Secondly, they discussed that the increases in investment related tax shields changes due to corporate tax code are not necessarily linked with reductions in profits at the individual and companys level. In cross sectional analysis, firms with bigger investment tax shield. Need not to have lower debt tax shields unless all the market utilize the same mechanism. Differences in production technologies in the entire market may query questions that why the empirical results cross-sectional analysis do not meet the expectations of the researchers. Alan reviewed the financial consumption and behavior of the company to increase their profits and wealth of their existing shareholders. They mainly focuses on the impact of personal income and capital gains and taxes, and discovered that in the presence of different taxation systems of dividends and capital gains, wealth maximization does not imply maximization of firm market value and the source of equity financing is not irrelevant. The approximate cost of capital in the presence of income taxes does not depend directly on either the dividend payout rate or the tax on dividends paid. Equity shares have a market value lower than the difference between the production cost of a companys assets and the current market value of its debt obligations. Because of this capitalization, it need not be true that an economy without taking risks and uncertainty there would have no financing. The Hypothesis The detail literature review enabled us to construct the following hypothesis. H0: The firm with high debt/ equity ratio should have less cost of capital. H1: The firm with lower debt/ equity ratio should have higher cost of capital.. Research Methodology This chapter describes the methodology to investigate research problems in order to draw conclusion for the present study. Research methodology comprises of research method employed identification to the problem criteria for sample selection methods for data collection and construction for measuring instruments. It comprises of the brief description of variables and proxies used to measure those variables. It also describers research limitation and ethical concerns. 3.1 Research design and data description As stated earlier, the objective of the study is to explore the relationship between the Debt / Asset Ratio and the weighted average cost of capital. For this purpose we have targeted four companies of fertilizer sector from Pakistan into year 2010. Basically there are four companies in the Fertilizer sector listed under the roof of Karachi Stock Exchange, but three of them are selected at random. Therefore, the sample size comprises of almost cover 75% of the fertilizer sector. 3.2 Model Description As stated earlier the study has been under taken to investigate the relationship of Debt / Equity Ratio and weighted cost of capital in the industry. Following models are used to calculate the cost of capital. 3.2.1 Cost of debt The capital structure of a firm normally include the debt component. The debt may be in the form of Debentures, Bonds, Term Loans from Financial Institutions and Banks etc. The debt carries a fix rate of interest, irrespective of the profitability of the company. Because the coupon rate is fixed, the firm increases its earning through debt financing. Then after payment of fixed interest charges more surplus is available for equity shareholders, and hence EPS will increase. An important point to be remembered that dividends payable to equity shareholders and preference shareholders is an appropriation of profit, whereas the interest payable to debt is charged against profit. Therefore, any payment towards interest will reduce the profit and ultimately the companys tax liability will decrease. The phenomenon is called as tax shield. The tax shield is viewed as a benefit that accrues to the company which is geared. 3.2.2 Price Earning Method This method takes into consideration the Earning per share(EPS) and the market price of the share. It is based on the assumption that the investors capitalize the stream of future earnings of the share and the earnings of a share need not be in the form of dividend and also it need not be disbursed to the shareholders. It based on the argument that even if the earning are not disbursed as dividends, it is kept in the retained earnings and it causes future growth in the earnings of capital, the earning per share is divided by the current market price. We have selected price earning method as this method provides us the required results. Although there are various methods to calculate the cost of Equity but there are some limitations applied on them. 3.2.3 Debt / Equity Ratio The debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) is a financial ratio indicating the relative proportion of shareholders equity and debt used to raise the companys capital. It is also known as Risk, Gearing or Leverage Ratio. The two components are often taken from the firms balance sheet or statement of financial position, but the ratio may also be calculated using market values for both, if the companys debt and equity are publicly traded, or using a combination of book value for debt and market value for equity financially. =Long Term Interests Bearing Debt/ Total Equity 3.3 Companies Included in the Study Following companies are included in this study from the Fertilizer sector for detailed analysis. Fauji Fertilizer Limited. (FFC) Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited. (FFBL) Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited. (DAWH) 3.4 Limitations of The Study Although there are various methods to calculate the Cost of Equity but there are some limitations. For instance, Gordon Growth Model cannot be applied because the firms in Pakistan do not pay dividends at perpetual constant growth rate. The other technique Capital Asset Pricing Model of calculating the Cost of Equity will create biasness due to real adjustment of inflation premium in real rate of interest to calculate the risk free rate of return. Further, the return on market portfolio requires a detailed analysis of stock returns with other financial indicators. Therefore, the study uses Price Earning Method due to availability of actual and exact data. Empirical Study Of Fertilizer Sector This chapter includes the descriptive results and detailed analysis. The detailed analysis of Fertilizer sector is given below. It includes Cost of Debt KD, Cost of Equity KE, the WACC and Debt / Equity Ratio of the three companies which fall in the fertilizer sector. Analysis The present study empirically investigates the relationship between the Weighted Average Cost Of Capital and Return On Assets. We have chosen three fertilizer companies listed in Karachi Stock Exchange. Name of Company WACC Debt/ Equity Ratio Fauji Fertilizer Limited 12.77% 24.72% Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited 9.18% 37.16% Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited 10.98% 20.91% After the detailed analysis, the study concludes that Fauji fertilizer has low debt / equity ratio as compared to Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited and higher WACC. Which is consistent with our hypothesis that H0: The firm with high debt/ equity ratio should have less cost of capital. In the case of Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited it has higher Debt / Equity ratio as compared to Dawood Hercules. So accordingly, its WACC is less than Dawood Hercules which is consistent with our Hypothesis. Further, when we compared Dawood Hercules with Fauji Fertilizer the study concludes that, though the debt / equity ratio of Fauji Fertilizer has greater Debt / Equity Ratio than of Dawood Hercules, but the WACC of Fauji Fertilizer is higher than Dawood Hercules. Which is not favorable according to hypothesis. This conclusion leads to the conclusion that while deciding about the capital structure, the firms always do not keep in mind the optimal capital structure which is subject to the availabil ity of funds. Conclusion The present study depicts that firms always keep in mind the tax shield. They usually prefer debt due to tax shield but some firms go with the more easiest way to raise capital, and the concept of optimal capital structure is set aside. In Pakistan, the interest rates are usually high as compared to developed countries. That is why, big firms usually prefer to raise funds through equity instead of debt. Since, financial institutions offer loans to profitable firms, at low rate keeping in view their credit rating and riskiness of operations, so these firms like fertilizer companies also include debt in their capital structure. The results are constructed with the literate review concluding that there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of s tock return for different firms is debatable. Role of Debt in Capital Structure of Firms Role of Debt in Capital Structure of Firms Capital structure has got importance in the literature of corporate finance. It provides insight about the role of debt in the capital structure of a firm. It is believed that firm endeavors to uphold optimal capital structure. In existing literature, however, there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. The main objective of a firm is to maximize its profit and to give maximum return to its shareholders. For this purpose the company should use Optimal Capital Structure so as to achieve the desired targets, but usually when the time comes for the generation of capital, firms go with the more easiest way. The study investigates the relationship between the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) with Debt / Equity ratio of the firms in the Fertilizer Sector through , cross sectional analysis for the financial year 2010. The present study depicts that firms always keep in mind the tax shield. They usually prefer debt due to tax shield but some firms go with the more easiest way to raise capital, and the concept of optimal capital structure is set aside. In Pakistan, the interest rates are usually high as compared to developed countries. That is why, big firms usually prefer to raise funds through equity instead of debt. Since, financial institutions offer loans to profitable firms, at low rate keeping in view their credit rating and riskiness of operations, so these firms like fertilizer companies also include debt in their capital structure. The results are constructed with the literate review concluding that there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of stock return for different firms is debatable. Introduction Capital structure theories provide insights about the role of debt in the capital structure of a firm. In corporate finance literature, it is believed that firm endeavor to uphold optimal capital structure. In existing literature, however, there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of stock return for different firms is debatable. Various decisions taken by management include operating, financial and non- financial decisions. Financial structure (capital structure) decisions have gained importance in corporate finance, strategic management and financial economics literature. These decisions have implication for shareholders value. Capital structure comprises of debt and equity, the choice of which is associated with different levels of benefit and controls. There have always been controversies among the researchers about the optimal capital structure of the firm because of significant variation with regard to capital structure of the firm because if significant variations with regard to capital structure existing in different industries and among firm within the same industry. Further, the different proxies may be used to measure the same attribute of a variable. Selection of these proxies may create biasness. Conventional determinants of capital structure in existing literature include collateral value of ass et, non-debt tax shield, growth, uniqueness, industry classification, size volatility, and profitability. Use of debt in capital structure of a firm acts as a monitoring device over managerial actions. Use of debt puts pressure on managers to enhance the performance of a firm so that sufficient cash flows are generated to retire loan obligations. The main objective of business firm is to maximize the wealth of shareholders in the long run, the management should only invest in projects which give are turn in excess of cost of funds invested in the projects of the business. The difficulty will arise in determination of cost of funds, if it raised from different sources and different quantums. The various sources of funds to the company are in the form of equity and debt. The cost of capital is the rate of return the company has to pay to various suppliers of funds in the company. There are variations in the cost of capital due to the fact that different kinds of investment carry different levels of risk which is compensated for by different levels of return on the investment. There are two main sources of capital for a company: shareholders and lenders usually debenture holders and financial institutions. The cost of equity and cost of debt are the rates of return that need too be offered to these two groups of suppliers of capital in order to attract funds from them. The cost of capital consist of four elements: Cost of Equity (Ke), Cost of Retained Earning (Kr), Cost of Preferred Capital (Kp) and Cost of Debt( Kd).The funds required for the project are raised from the equity shareholders which are of permanent nature. These funds need not be repayable during the life time of the organization. Hence its a permanent source of funds. The equity shareholders are the owners of the company. The main objective of the firm is to maximize the wealth of the equity shareholders. Equity share capital is the risk capital of the company. If the companys business is doing well the ultimate beneficiaries are the equity shareholders who will get the return in the form of dividends from the company and the capital appreciation for their investment. If the company comes for liquidation due to losses, the ultimate and worst sufferers are the equity shareholders. Sometimes they may not get their investment back during the liquidation process. The following methods are used in calculation of cost of equity. First is Dividend Yield Method. The Dividend per share is expected on the current market price per share. As per this method, the cost of capital is defined as â€Å"the discount rate that equates the present value of all expected future dividends per share with the net proceeds of the sales (or the current market price) of a share. This method is based on the assumption that market value of shares is directly related to the future dividends on the shares. Another assumption is that the future dividend per shares is expected to be constant and the company is expected to earn at least this yield to keep the shareholders content. Second method is Dividend growth Model in which shareholders will normally expect to increase year after year and not to remain constant in perpetuity. In this method, an allowance for future growth in dividend is added to the current dividend yield. It is recognized that the current market price of a share reflect expected future dividends. The dividend growth model is also called as â€Å"Gordon dividend growth model. Third model is Price Earning Method which takes into consideration the Earning per share(EPS) and the market price of the share. It is based on the assumption that the investors capitalize the stream of future earnings of the share and the earnings of a share need not be in the form of dividend and also it need not be disbursed to the shareholders. It based on the argument that even if the earning are not disbursed as dividends, it is kept in the retained earnings and it causes future growth in the earnings of capital, the earning per share is divided by the current market price. Forth model is Capital Asset Pricing Model which divides the cost of equity into two components, the near risk-free return available on investing in government bonds and an addition risk premium for investing in a particular share or investment. This risk premium in turn comprises the average return on the overall market portfolio and the beta factor (or risk) of the particular investment. Putting this all together the CAPM assesses the cost of equity for an investment. Literature Review The empirical study done by Modigliani and Miller (1958) depicts the basis of capital structure. Under the assumption of market perfection, they argued that the value of firm is independent from its mode or source of financing. They believe that cost of capital had no influence on the capital structure, so according to them there exists no capital structure. The level of leverage may be different in the firm or within the same industry. In their point of view, the value of firm is not determined by however, the firm finances its assets but by the real assets possession is the actual value of a firm. Researchers have relaxed the unrealistic assumptions in Modigliani and Miller proposition. In real life there exists information asymmetry. Debt payments are subject to tax shield. Agency costs reflect a tradeoff model where decrease in agency cost of equity will cause an increase in agency cost of debt Jensen and Meckling (1976) They argue that agency costs, however, reduce because use of debt restricts issuance of equity, which in turn strengthens managerial ownership. It helps to reduce agency conflicts. Myers and Majluf (1984) argue that use of debt reduces agency problems. Further, leverage also bring its own agency cost that generates a conflict between agency cost of debt and equity. Jensen (1986) argues that use of debt constrains the free cash flow explanations give birth to its fixed nature of obligations. Since managerial compensation had controlled the positively related firms to grow, therefore, investors may invest available cash flows optimally or utilizes the available cash flows to pay dividends or profits. When profits are paid at low rate due to some reason, it extremely impacts the shares market price. Use of debt generate limits to the managerial discretion to use such cash flows fully because of non-payment of profit on debt may take a firm bankruptcy. Further, firms that use debt faces extreme scanning by debt holders. These facts indulge managers to utilize their resources optimally which ultimately enriches firm value. The theoretical framework of capital structure begins with the seminal paper of Modigliani and Miller (1958) who postulate that capital structure of a firm is irrelevant in perfect capital markets. By using net operating income approach, they argue that the overall capitalization rate remain constant for any level of financial leverage. That is, the total risk of security holders of a firm remains unaffected for any change in capital structure. Therefore, value of a firm is independent of the capital structure of a firm. Their theory is based on unrealistic assumptions of no income taxes, no transaction costs, no information asymmetry, no bankruptcy and agency cost etc. They believe in the conservation of investment value. The researchers have relaxed the assumption of perfect capital market assumed by Modigliani and Miller. Following theories explain the relevance of capital structure under different market imperfection. Trade off theory relaxes the assumption of bankruptcy costs. It considers the cost of financial distress (bankruptcy cost, reorganization cost and non-bankruptcy cost). It elaborates the impact of financing cost and tax shield on debt. According to trade-off theory, increase in debt is positively related to marginal cost of debt and negatively related to marginal benefit of increase in debt. A firm focuses on trade-off between marginal benefit and cost of debt while deciding about the proportion of debt and equity in its capital structure with a view to optimize the overall value of the firm. A firm should borrow until the marginal tax advantage of additional debt is offset by the increase in present value of the expected costs of financial distress. This theory has been criticized by researchers on different grounds. For instance, Miller (1977) argues that firms pay large taxes frequently, whereas occurrence of bankruptcy is not recurring in nature. So, low weights are assigned to b ankruptcy cost. Further, in reality, firms do not have higher weightage of debt in their capital structure. Pecking Order theory of capital structure is based on the costs of asymmetric information. It assumes relevance of asymmetric information only for external financing. It describes the sequence (internal financing to external financing) that a firm uses to finance its capital expenditures. According to pecking order, a firm having sufficient profits and cash flows use internal funds first. It will go for external financing if internal funds are not sufficient. While deciding about external financing, a firm will issue the safest security like bonds; debenture or term-finance certificates and equity will be used as the last option. Further, in case the internally generated cash flows exceed the capital investment requirements, these excessive cash flows will be utilized to repay debt instead of buying back equity. Milton and Artur (1991) discussed the theory of capital structure grounded on four basic factors. Firstly, agency cost that shows conflicts among managers, equity holders and debt holders. Secondly, there is asymmetric information and it explains the possible capital structure. Thirdly, it is centered on the product/input market interactions with Capital structure. Fourthly, it describes theories driven by co-operate control consideration it shows the linkage between the market for co-operate control and for Capital structure. Peter and Gordon (2005) have discussed the importance of industry to firm-level financing and real its decisions. The findings of this paper were financial structure that depends on a firms position within its industry and In competitive industry, a firms financial control depends on its natural hedge the activities of other firms in this industry, and its status as entrant, current performance, or exiting firm. Financial control is higher and less discrete in concentrated industries, where strategic debt interactions are stronger, but a firms natural hedge is not significant. Our finding shows that financial structure, technology, and risk are jointly determined within industries. These findings are reliable with recent industry equilibrium models of financial structure. The analysis made by Laurence et al (2001), discusses the Capital Structures in developing countries uses a new set of data to assess whether capital structure theory is transferable across countries with different influential structures or not. In this analysis they used 10 developing countries and provided evidence that these decisions are affected by the same factors as in developed countries. However, there are persistent differences across countries, indicating that specific country factors are at work. their findings suggests that although some of the insights from modern finance theory are transferable across countries and much remains to be done to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices. This paper affirms the arguments on the tax shield valuation as it remains a hot issue in the financial literature. Basically, two methods have been projected to incorporate the tax benefit of debt in the present value computation: The adjusted present value (APV), and the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). This note clarifies the correlation between these two apparently different approaches by offering a formula for the WACC. Firms interest expenses are tax deductible. Therefore, debt increases the cash flows available to stockholders and bondholders by the amount of the tax reduction. Joseph Ignacio (2005), discusses the cost of debt is the market rate or unsubsidized rate for which an investor is willing to pay. In further detail debt creates and sustain its value when tax shield is applied and the rate is sustainable but if the rate of repayment is high then form the loan and at a low market rate then loan will be preferable as it is subsidized debt and no tax is applied, the firm would be a benefited with debt financing, and the unlevered and levered values of the cash flows would be unequal. And the optimal rate of return and WACC can be achieved if a firm follows the rules and take into account all sources of financing. Tom and Timothy (2004) assumes that the use of weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is better then the use of any other calculation because either it may be riskier or will not depict the true picture of the financial performance or the position of the firm. This paper encourages the usage of WACC in all the firms although it is difficult to calculate and had some mathematical complexities but after that it depicts a clear picture of the firm, as by using spreadsheets it is easy to present the findings of the company to its managers, clients, colleagues and shareholders. The WACC is a fundamental concept in corporate finance. Its basic definition is averaging the cost of capital coming from both the equity and the debt by Farber at el (2006) and it looks simple. But the fact is its practical implementation which has raised several questions, they are most likely the distinction between book value and the market value. This paper addresses more in depth the tax shield valuation and establishes a general formula that remains valid for any debt structure. In this context, there contribution allows not only to compare the usual WACC computation in a more rigorous way but also less synthetic one, and helps the firms to adapt the WACC approach to any chosen tax shield valuation model. In this sense, the WACC appears as a powerful and very adaptable concept. Greg (2004), discusses what is WACC and what are there components and how these components are calculated and are helpful in the calculation of WACC. The paper further discusses that what should be the minimum discount rate that make intuitive sense to invest or to add a firm in portfolio. It also explains that what is the cost of debt, cost of financing and the components of cost of financing. Myers and majluf (1984), argues that the use of debt reduces agency problems and further leverage also brings its own agency cost thats generates a conflict between agency cost debt and equity. Jenson (1986), states that the use of debt will restrict the cash flow projections due to its fixed rules. Since marginal benefits and control its positively related to firm development. Therefore management may invest available resources to obtain cash flows. When dividend are paid but at a low rate its adversely affect the share price in the market. The usage of debt limits the firm to invest else-where because the non-payment of the debt leads to bankruptcy. Lakshmi (1994), differentiates between the traditional capital structure models and the new pecking order theory model of the corporate financing. The basics of pecking order theory model assumes that the debt financing driven by the internal financing, has much more time series explanatory power than a static trade of model, which predicts that each firm adjusts gradually toward an optimal debt ratio. And had shown in their results that the power to reject the pecking order against trade of theory. The model of (CAPM) given by William and John (1964,1965), gives evidence of the birth of asset pricing theory for which noble prize was given to sharpe in 1990. Forty years later CAPM is now publically used in estimating the cost of capital of the industry and evaluating the esteem to have the maximum profits from the portfolio invested in. The attractiveness in estimation of CAPM is that it offers a wide pleasing range of predictions about how to measure and ensure the risk and the relation between expected returns and risk. Unfortunately, some problems of CAPMs may reflect the theory may fails at some times, the result of many not be as per assumptions. But they may be caused by difficulties in implementation of valid tests to the model. Dan at el (2005) examine the entire associations between leverage, corporate and personal taxes, and the firms cost of equity to generate capital. Expanding the theory of Modigliani and Miller (1958, 1963), the cost of equity capital can be expressed as an impact of leverage and corporate and level taxes. The predictions that the equity cost will increase in leverage, but that corporate taxes shifts from leverage related risk premium, while the personal tax disadvantage of burden of debt reduces the profit. They examined the findings by using implied equity cost estimation system of the firms corporate tax rate and the personal tax gives a big advantage of debt. Their result suggests that the premium equity risk is linked with the profit, and if the entire profit is decreasing the corporate tax generates benefit. They also marked evidence that the premium equity risk has relations with leverage, and increase in entire profit may give a results in increased in personal tax. Rodolfo (2008) sets forth the contribution to this long lasting debate on cost of capital, firstly by introducing the multiplicative model that helps to calculate the rate of WACC. Secondly, by making adjustments in the rate of governance risk. The older approach says that the cost of capital might be calculated by means of a weighted average of debt and capital. But this is not a correct way of calculation and that might bring misappropriation, whereas the multiplicative model not only calculate the linear approximation but also the joint outcome of expected costs of debt and stock, and its proportion in the capital structure of that firm. Nevins (1967), explains in reference to Modigliani and millers discussion that how leverage can be effective and efficient to increase the entire cost of capital of the industry or the firm. He also discusses in detail that when the account is taken of risk and is ruin an increasing cost of capital is perfectly the same with little arbitrage operations. Giving ways to the chances of bankruptcy is tantamount to relax the that entire stream of operating earnings Is independent from the entire capital structure. Robert (1988), argues the effect of corporate and personal taxes on the firms optimal capital structure and financing decisions under uncertain defined conditions. It further more discussion they discussed the entire capital structure model by categorizing them entire firms important investments decisions. The results suggests that when investment was allowed to adjust optimally the existing assumptions about the relationship between investment and debt related tax shields must be changed. Secondly, they discussed that the increases in investment related tax shields changes due to corporate tax code are not necessarily linked with reductions in profits at the individual and companys level. In cross sectional analysis, firms with bigger investment tax shield. Need not to have lower debt tax shields unless all the market utilize the same mechanism. Differences in production technologies in the entire market may query questions that why the empirical results cross-sectional analysis do not meet the expectations of the researchers. Alan reviewed the financial consumption and behavior of the company to increase their profits and wealth of their existing shareholders. They mainly focuses on the impact of personal income and capital gains and taxes, and discovered that in the presence of different taxation systems of dividends and capital gains, wealth maximization does not imply maximization of firm market value and the source of equity financing is not irrelevant. The approximate cost of capital in the presence of income taxes does not depend directly on either the dividend payout rate or the tax on dividends paid. Equity shares have a market value lower than the difference between the production cost of a companys assets and the current market value of its debt obligations. Because of this capitalization, it need not be true that an economy without taking risks and uncertainty there would have no financing. The Hypothesis The detail literature review enabled us to construct the following hypothesis. H0: The firm with high debt/ equity ratio should have less cost of capital. H1: The firm with lower debt/ equity ratio should have higher cost of capital.. Research Methodology This chapter describes the methodology to investigate research problems in order to draw conclusion for the present study. Research methodology comprises of research method employed identification to the problem criteria for sample selection methods for data collection and construction for measuring instruments. It comprises of the brief description of variables and proxies used to measure those variables. It also describers research limitation and ethical concerns. 3.1 Research design and data description As stated earlier, the objective of the study is to explore the relationship between the Debt / Asset Ratio and the weighted average cost of capital. For this purpose we have targeted four companies of fertilizer sector from Pakistan into year 2010. Basically there are four companies in the Fertilizer sector listed under the roof of Karachi Stock Exchange, but three of them are selected at random. Therefore, the sample size comprises of almost cover 75% of the fertilizer sector. 3.2 Model Description As stated earlier the study has been under taken to investigate the relationship of Debt / Equity Ratio and weighted cost of capital in the industry. Following models are used to calculate the cost of capital. 3.2.1 Cost of debt The capital structure of a firm normally include the debt component. The debt may be in the form of Debentures, Bonds, Term Loans from Financial Institutions and Banks etc. The debt carries a fix rate of interest, irrespective of the profitability of the company. Because the coupon rate is fixed, the firm increases its earning through debt financing. Then after payment of fixed interest charges more surplus is available for equity shareholders, and hence EPS will increase. An important point to be remembered that dividends payable to equity shareholders and preference shareholders is an appropriation of profit, whereas the interest payable to debt is charged against profit. Therefore, any payment towards interest will reduce the profit and ultimately the companys tax liability will decrease. The phenomenon is called as tax shield. The tax shield is viewed as a benefit that accrues to the company which is geared. 3.2.2 Price Earning Method This method takes into consideration the Earning per share(EPS) and the market price of the share. It is based on the assumption that the investors capitalize the stream of future earnings of the share and the earnings of a share need not be in the form of dividend and also it need not be disbursed to the shareholders. It based on the argument that even if the earning are not disbursed as dividends, it is kept in the retained earnings and it causes future growth in the earnings of capital, the earning per share is divided by the current market price. We have selected price earning method as this method provides us the required results. Although there are various methods to calculate the cost of Equity but there are some limitations applied on them. 3.2.3 Debt / Equity Ratio The debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) is a financial ratio indicating the relative proportion of shareholders equity and debt used to raise the companys capital. It is also known as Risk, Gearing or Leverage Ratio. The two components are often taken from the firms balance sheet or statement of financial position, but the ratio may also be calculated using market values for both, if the companys debt and equity are publicly traded, or using a combination of book value for debt and market value for equity financially. =Long Term Interests Bearing Debt/ Total Equity 3.3 Companies Included in the Study Following companies are included in this study from the Fertilizer sector for detailed analysis. Fauji Fertilizer Limited. (FFC) Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited. (FFBL) Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited. (DAWH) 3.4 Limitations of The Study Although there are various methods to calculate the Cost of Equity but there are some limitations. For instance, Gordon Growth Model cannot be applied because the firms in Pakistan do not pay dividends at perpetual constant growth rate. The other technique Capital Asset Pricing Model of calculating the Cost of Equity will create biasness due to real adjustment of inflation premium in real rate of interest to calculate the risk free rate of return. Further, the return on market portfolio requires a detailed analysis of stock returns with other financial indicators. Therefore, the study uses Price Earning Method due to availability of actual and exact data. Empirical Study Of Fertilizer Sector This chapter includes the descriptive results and detailed analysis. The detailed analysis of Fertilizer sector is given below. It includes Cost of Debt KD, Cost of Equity KE, the WACC and Debt / Equity Ratio of the three companies which fall in the fertilizer sector. Analysis The present study empirically investigates the relationship between the Weighted Average Cost Of Capital and Return On Assets. We have chosen three fertilizer companies listed in Karachi Stock Exchange. Name of Company WACC Debt/ Equity Ratio Fauji Fertilizer Limited 12.77% 24.72% Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited 9.18% 37.16% Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited 10.98% 20.91% After the detailed analysis, the study concludes that Fauji fertilizer has low debt / equity ratio as compared to Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited and higher WACC. Which is consistent with our hypothesis that H0: The firm with high debt/ equity ratio should have less cost of capital. In the case of Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited it has higher Debt / Equity ratio as compared to Dawood Hercules. So accordingly, its WACC is less than Dawood Hercules which is consistent with our Hypothesis. Further, when we compared Dawood Hercules with Fauji Fertilizer the study concludes that, though the debt / equity ratio of Fauji Fertilizer has greater Debt / Equity Ratio than of Dawood Hercules, but the WACC of Fauji Fertilizer is higher than Dawood Hercules. Which is not favorable according to hypothesis. This conclusion leads to the conclusion that while deciding about the capital structure, the firms always do not keep in mind the optimal capital structure which is subject to the availabil ity of funds. Conclusion The present study depicts that firms always keep in mind the tax shield. They usually prefer debt due to tax shield but some firms go with the more easiest way to raise capital, and the concept of optimal capital structure is set aside. In Pakistan, the interest rates are usually high as compared to developed countries. That is why, big firms usually prefer to raise funds through equity instead of debt. Since, financial institutions offer loans to profitable firms, at low rate keeping in view their credit rating and riskiness of operations, so these firms like fertilizer companies also include debt in their capital structure. The results are constructed with the literate review concluding that there is no consensus among researchers about the level of optimal capital structure because of variation in proxies used to measure the same attribute, variation in industry norms (size, location and technology), agency cost (management ownership and competence) etc. Further, maximization of s tock return for different firms is debatable.