Grammar and composition Pet peeve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Grammar and composition Pet peeve - Essay Example Just a few minutes will not hurt you at all. I am ___ and I will talk about my pet peeve. If you suddenly interrupt me when I am saying something, or when I am obviously concentrated on a particular task, you will get killed by poisoned arrows from my gaze or receive sarcastic responses to brainless questions. I think hard before and even as I speak. I do not throw words carelessly like crumpled paper missing the trash as its target. The thinking-before-and-while-speaking process is an arduous and sophisticated process for me. It needs and involves order, analysis, and reflection. I frequently speak because I want to say something important. Oftentimes, I want to defend my ideas or claims, or give instructions to others. These arguments and instructions are from my consciousness and subconsciousness, so it is important for these words to flow out continuously. Interruptions are the bane of my creative juices. Attention and concentration will be gone, and I will be loss for words. When I am also doing something, I devote my whole body and mind on it. I remember I was writing a complaint letter to a company, when my dear cousin interrupted me. I forgot a very important detail, which I believed was crucial to my complaint. I could not remember that lost detail up to now. And up to now, that complaint remains unresolved. Point 2: I admit that I have memory retrieval problems, so interruptions stress me to the point that my look alone will feel like arrows on your skin, or my responses to thoughtless questions will result to sarcasm. Interrupt me and arrows will come from my eyes. You will feel yourself shrinking, as I say: â€Å"Can you not wait? I am speaking and you will have your turn. Now that you have interrupted me, you twisted my sanity and dislodged me from humanity.† And then I will smile to dissipate tension. After that, I will say, â€Å"Please do not interrupt me again. What do you have to say that is

Reading Response and Thinking about Research Questions Essay

Reading Response and Thinking about Research Questions - Essay Example The read essays from the book have different titles and authors. The first essay is written by Brian O’Leary and the title of the essay is â€Å"Tools of the Digital Workflow†. The essay basically talks about how the nature, history and business of publishers vary greatly, making it hard to identify a set if preferred tools. As the content changes to a more robust digital environment, publishers need to make decisions about related services that are licensed or outsourced completely. The second essay is entitled â€Å"Why the Book and the Internet Will Merge† and is written by Hugh McGuire. In summary, there is no much incentive for publishers to change books into something that can be read on a screen. The reason for this argument is that many would not prefer reading books from screens. However, most people prefer reading books in form of books and they equally prefer spending most of their time on the internet making funny photos of cats, blogging about what t hey have done, and contributing to the world’s biggest encyclopedia (McGuire & OLeary). In the first essay, â€Å"Tools of the Digital Workflow†, it is interesting to learn that digital workflows greatly helps publishers in thinking about product planning. Even though the practice is still rare, using digital workflows can signal the start of a period of discovering work. It therefore means that event-driven publishing can change into a more continuous model. In the second essay, â€Å"Why the Book and the Internet Will Merge†, it is interesting to learn that eBooks have arrived in the market in force. Unlike in 2008 when only 1% of trade book sales in the United States were eBooks, the number had hit 20% by 2011. With this steady increase in the number of eBooks in the market, the number in expected to hit 50% by the end of 2015 (McGuire &

Penelope lively Essay Example for Free

Penelope lively Essay All 3 of the short stories carry a similar main theme, a theme which derives from the classic tale of Hansel and Grethal by the Brothers Grimm. A theme of disregard, procurement of the nieve and coincidentally, murder. The first of these stories is The darkness out there by Penelope lively. This story doesnt follow the theme as strictly as the others but it is loosely based upon it. The time set is not at first overly apparent. But it soon becomes clear that it was set not long after world war two, late 40s early 50s. Probably in Kent or some other country side place. The narrative is a story of generosity, which is shattered by evil. The goodness is symbolised by the children and the evil by the old woman. The crime is one of murder and the turning point is when the boy realises how evil the old woman is. In the next story, the lost hearts by M R James, the time set is a lot earlier around the time of 1811. Its a ghost story as opposed to the darkness out there, which is a 20th century fairy tale. Its is set in a mansion in Lincolnshire called Aswarby hall, a typical house in the reign of Anne. By the way of language structure, this story uses some colloquial language with generally longer, more complex sentences and metaphorical language than the first story, A lot of the vocabulary used would be classed as archaic or old fashioned. The narative carries a simular feel as the first story, the child trusting the witch character, and be procured into a trap. But the ending differed from the first as the criminal is punished. Leaving the story on a much higher note than the first. The final story is The landlady by Roahl Dahl. More a horror story than a fairytale, but there is still an element of procurement. Set in a picturesque town called Bath, more than likely in the 1950s. There are only two main characters in this story, there is a one Billy weaver, who plays the part of the innocent victim and there is a seemingly sweet old woman, who plays the witch character. The use of English is, in the main, standard and the colloquial language of the time would be considered as standard to a younger generation. When signing the guest book, Billy realises that something foal was afoot. He recognises seeing both the names in the paper under a murder column, this is the turning point. At the end of the story, we are made to believe that he is also poisoned, but this is not confirmed by the cliff-hanger ending. The darkness out there and the landlady are both set in the 20th century, This is made clear in the darkness out there by many lines, the main giveaway being a German plane came down there in the war, I am sure that we are all aware that German planes would not have came down in England, in the 19th century. And the time set is proven in the landlady by the line probably lost a son in the war. This point of proof could be arguable, there have been wars in both centauries which she could have lost her son in, but only the wars in the 20th century which stated compulsory enrolment. The lost hearts is set in the 19th century, there is much proof of this and it is apparent right from the beginning. The line in September of the year 1811 makes the time setting of the 1800s unarguable. There is of course further evidence to suggest this, the post chaise in line 4 and of course the more archaic language used such as as far as I can ascertain and tinged with the sort of melancholy. Both the C20 stories carry the same style as far as the use of Standard English with a little colloquial language of the time. They are both written in a more modern style, with shorter and less complex sentences than more classical pieces of writing; And a big chest, jutted under washed out jerseys. Of the modern story, rather than It was as far as I can ascertain, in September of the year 1811 that a post-chaise drew up before the the door of Aswarby Hall, in the heart of Lincolnshire. If a theme had to be assigned to the stories, the theme would be procurement in each story, but if it was to be a style that would be assigned, the styles would vary. The darkness out there would be a murder/ thriller story. The landlady would defiantly be a 20th century fairytale. And the lost hearts would be more difficult to determine. It is a style of murder, fairytale and horror, with a hint of science fiction. I have touched on the archaic language used by James in a previous paragraph. He uses verbs and adjectives that would not be used so much today such as congruous, acquaintance and afore. Some of the language used in the other stories could also be described as now archaic. Words like spinney and lodgings. I feel that the only reason Liveleys and Dahls use of description appears quite simple compared to that of James, is because it uses adjectives we are far more familiar with such as fairly, wide, pretty and plump. Rather than adjectives such as purer and gently beating. As I have previously stated, all 3 stories carry a general theme of procurement, a theme which derives from the Grimms fairytale Hanzel und Grethel. It is clear in each story who plays the role of the wicked witch and who plays that of the innocent children. In the darkness out there, old Mrs Rutter plays thw witch character whilst the children play the innocent victims of procurement.

Tokyo City: Architecture and Agriculture

Tokyo City: Architecture and Agriculture Kostof Essay Tokyo city The archaic capitals of Japan, such as Fujiwara-Kyà ´ (694-710 AD), Nara (710-784 AD), and Kyoto (AD 794-1868) conformed to Tangs capital grid-planning. However, grounds of defence, the devisers of Tokyo shunned the grid, preferring instead an irregular network of streets encompassing the Edo Castle grounds. Afterwards, several parts of Tokyo were grid-planned. The history of Tokyo played a significant role in the present architecture of Tokyo city. Tokyo faced two major destructions in its history; first by Great Kanto earthquake and firebomb during the pacific war. After the pacific war Japanese government was bankrupt could not execute citywide redevelopment to support the economy. Instead it embarked on infrastructural development leaving residential and commercial urban development in the hands o local actors. As a result unplanned cities sprang up despite deliberate efforts by the government to plan the city. The city planning and zoning act of 1968 aimed to create a separation between urban and agricultural lands. Despite the government of Japan adopting the city planning and zoning act of 1968 with an intention of separation between urban and agricultural lands, this has not been fully realised.. Since the Meiji restoration Japanese cities have eagerly been trying to apply western planning concepts which set a clear demarcation between urban and rural land use. Despite efforts to pursue this goal, urban periphery landscapes with an apposition of segmented agricultural lands and urban land uses has lived through the history of Japanese cities including Tokyo. Agro-activities take place in Tokyo in more than 900ha of land. Setagaya is one of the most agriculturally active Tokyo wards. Some agro-activities take place at the heart of Tokyo city. Presence of agricultural land in Tokyo city interferes with grid-planning of the city. Some parts of the city are grid-planned while others are not. Le Corbusier likens grid planning to the way a human being walks. Human beings walk on a straight line since they have a goal and know where he is ending to. Man also turns at right angles when he needs to.  [1]  Therefore the oftenness of cross streets is his own decision with topography having little to do with it especially if it is a flat site. It is stepping the land with streets at right angles with each other is the opening move in settlement planning. The grid is the most common pattern of urban planning in history although its use was not uninterrupted through history. The grid is recommended as the standard scheme urban solution for different sites. It is also a means for equitable distribution of land as well as easy allocation of land for trading of real estate. Straight through-streets provide defence. The concentration of buildings into blocks as in grid-planning provides defence too. One common feature with all grids is their orthogonal street pattern. This does not make grids immutable but on the contrary they can curve around irregularities on the ground without betraying its basic logic. In orthogonal street pattern, long streets are straight with short streets joining the long streets at right angle. Structures in Tokyo are organized along wide road and rail network. This is also repeated in the residential areas though in a smaller scale. In the residential areas houses are organized along long lanes (roji) where small shops and restaurants can be found. These lanes are hardly accessible to vehicles. Existence of coordinated array of town does not ensure and orderly extension of the town grids into the surrounding territories. Town grids can only be extended to the surrounding territory only if the city authorities had the power to oversee development in the suburban regions. As mentioned earlier, after the devastating calamities of Great Kant earthquake and the bombing in the Second World War left Japan government bankrupt. As a result, the government was concerned with infrastructural development leaving the urban development in the hands of local actors. Tokyos shimokitazawa neighbourhood is an example of citys incremental urban development. It emerged from a combination of local liberty and an infrastructural retrofitting by the Japanese government. It grew from a village with rice fields in the periphery of Edo to become and a modern urban cultural and commercial hub. Today shimokitazawa has a village and ancient Tokyo atmosphere. The typology of Shimokitazawa is characteriz ed by little low-rise constructions along a complex network mainly of pedestrian streets, busy ground market activity, and tight community networks. Shimokitazawa is one of the areas of Tokyo city that presents deformed grid. Organic city Some parts of Tokyo city can be referred to as organic city. Organic cities grow spontaneously adhering to no master plan, do not enjoy benefit of designers. Alternatively organic citys growth is dependent on passage of time, the lay of land and the day to day lives of the citizens. The result of these forces is irregular non-geometric with incidences of crooked and curved streets and randomly defined open spaces.  [2]  Organic city emerges when development is left in the hands of individuals without a governing body subdividing the land before disposing it off to the people. Spiro agrees with the fact that people have different opinions about organic cities. Some people might chose to find fault with organic city or celebrate its action-packed topography, forthcoming and flexible development of its form, and its culture characterized by communal living. He does not seem to oppose organic cities. He asserts that even planned cities present features characteristic of organic cities. The extent of life in terms of the buildings mass and varying height of buildings marshalled like troops along a city grid can result to picturesque characteristic of unplanned city. Spiro also argues that even the geometrical irregularity of unplanned city is a matter of grade. The streets curve frequently but not canonical. What looks like in orderly arrangement is often a matter of straight streets sections intersecting at random angles, and their linear elements broken with frequent angulated bends.  [3]   According to Spiro planned and organic cities exist side by side e.g. Tokyo and Shimokitazawa most historic towns, mainly those of metropolitan size are puzzles of premeditated and self-generated segments, diversely juxtaposed or interlocked.  [4]  Organic cities may start as shantytowns on unoccupied land at the remote edges of town, or in centrally located areas that are difficult to build up such as steep slopes, canyons, or garbage dumps. Shimokitazawa has many narrow passages that are inaccessible to vehicles which give a true sense of adventure as one explores the town on foot. Second hand clothes shops selling miscellaneous items from the 70s and old animated themed toys are popular. Various cultural festivals are held in Shimokitazawa which showcase the cultural wealth of the town. In the month of February, the town of Shimokitazawa if full of festivity. Various plays are performed in eight small theatres during the month long Shimokitazawa theatre festival. The Tengu-Matsuri festival held at the end of January or early February gives a serene and friendly appeal of Shimokitazawa. The lively Mikoshi-Matsuri festival otherwise called the portable shrine festival is held early September. Organic cities lay both conceptually physically and in the middle of slums and contemporary planned cities. They are a budding environment that increased gradually and spontaneously evolved over generations. Often organic cities are culturally vibrant and creative dependent on local skills and cultural capital. They can provide solutions to challenges facing modern cities such as population density. Organic city are able to support high population density in an environmentally and socially sustainable way. With increase in number of poor people living in degraded urban environments organic cities have potential to shift the paradigm of urbanism. Therefore organic cities should be recognized as a legitimate urban form and developing it from within. The grand manner The tree planted streets of Tokyo city as well as its parks contribute to the citys plan grand manner. Side walks and parkways in the streets of Tokyo city are amazing. The tree- planted sidewalks and parkways give the city a sense of serenity. Some avenues have double rows of trees depending on the width of the sidewalks. For example, on Grand Avenue in South Park where an average 24 inch sidewalk are required, a double row of trees are planted. Road tree in Japan is thought to date back as the middle of the eighth century when trees were planted along the roads for the welfare of travellers. However, only after Japan opened its frontiers that it started to overhaul and thus turning trees to be part of urban landscapes. Black pine, cherry, maple and other species were planted in Tokyo on Ginza Street in 1873. Exotic trees were first used to line the city streets in 1875 when a black locust tree was planted in Tokyo. However because of poor care most of them dried up. In 1907 the government of Japan embarked on a big project of planting trees along city streets of Tokyo. Ten fast growing trees were selected which included among others Trident maple, Plane tree and Ginkgos. Ginkgos was planted in front of Tokyos city hall thus was marked as a street tree in Japan. However this project suffered two major setbacks; the Great Kanto Earthquake that resulted into fires that destroyed more than half the street trees, and bombing of Japan during the Second World War. Tree planting in city streets was part of Tokyos reconstruction process. Even to date Ginkgos remains the preferred street tree in Tokyo. Large number of evergreen trees are planted in wide and high-speed expressways to reduce traffic noise in the surrounding residential areas. Trees creating harmony are preferred for expressways passing through undeveloped areas like mountain foothills. Ginkgo tree has been utilized mainly in designs that c omprise western landscape characteristics. Tokyo National Showa Memorial Park was created in 1983, and sits on a 450-acre parcel of land and Ginkgos forms its allee. The park was created to mark the fifteenth anniversary ascension of Emperor Showa. The place having been occupied by United States Tachikawa military base, the buildings were demolished and hills rebuilt, tree planted and grasses sown to make forests and fields. The relationship of city to its natural environment Urbanization process has led to reduction in green spaces and loss of public spaces. He present urban regeneration projects in Tokyo are aimed at converting ex-industry land and shifting land to high rise building areas. These areas relate weakly with the encompassing city areas. Currently nature scarcely exists in Tokyo. During the Edo Period, samurai residential areas were situated on the high land of the Musashi plateau, while abodes of low caste samurai and tradesmen were situated in the valleys below, making a life space for a variety of living and working areas according to the contour of the land. The Tokyo Bay was visible at a distant from the roads going down from the high land. There were also many places where people could relish the sight of Mount Fuji. Protecting view points of various centres of attraction such as Mt. Fuji is not an important factor in Tokyo city planning. On the contrary emphasis has inclined towards universality rather than the features of the place, and the result is stereotype city space. Like many historical cities, Tokyo is developed close to the rivers and canals. Presently, the rivers are separated from the town by perpendicular embankments, with the buildings having their backs to the polluted rivers. Originally the ideal sites for city architecture were river banks with straight access to the water transportation system. Relationship of the man-made to the natural context The relationship between manmade and the natural in Tokyo can be described as chaotic. The city plan does not give emphasis to visibility of natural features such as Mt. Fuji. Unlike London, where protecting the perspective of Saint Pauls Cathedral from several main points across the city is a key guideline for the city planning, Tokyo does not give much consideration to the view of its esteemed feature in the city. Save for a few parks at the centre of Tokyo, parks and open spaces have reduced compared to those of ancient Edo (Tokyo). Even some of the parks cannot provide the relaxation they were intended because of noise pollution. For example, Uchibori-dori Avenue cuts across the Outer Garden of the Imperial Palace which is next to Hibiya Park. The car noise creates a restless atmosphere within the park. Putting Uchibori-dori Avenue underground, and planting of Japanese black pines would create a large open space area about thirty hectares conducive for events, outdoor stage or sporting events. This would in turn revive the business area in the core of the city which has since lost popularity on holidays. Urban fabric and monuments Tokyo city is a unique in that western or modern and ancient city planning is intertwined in the development of the city. Agricultural land is seen in the city as it is historic of Asian cities. Some people view this kind of coexistence as chaotic mainly because Japan government adopted the western style of city planning that makes a clear demarcation between urban and rural areas which Japan has not been able accomplished. However when looked from historic and cultural perspective, it can be understood as serving an important role in the Japanese cities and specifically in Tokyo. The agricultural land sustains their surrounding population. The urban fabric of Tokyo is often made of a soft residential core, qualified by low-rise and thickly built houses, encircled by a hard shell of taller and larger buildings along broad roads or railways. A new generation of needs has led to changes in building types. For example, apartments are seen to be small and their narrow staircase not providing adequate access. This has made people to migrate form apartments for better housing. The originally neat, modern parks and greenways of the apartments have now become jungles of vegetation. Now efforts are directed towards redeveloping the apartments to attract new residents. Tokyo city has several ancient and modern monuments. In some cases modern and ancient monuments are juxtaposed depicting western and ancient architecture evident in Tokyo city. They also depict the co-existence of western and ancient cultures. An example is Zojoji Temple located next to the Tokyo Tower. In summary Tokyo city can be described as combining grid and organic city in its urban fabric. The city planning and zoning act of 1968 intended to create a separation between urban and agricultural lands. However this attempt has failed to produce the desired results as agricultural lands are still evident in Tokyo city. This makes Asian cities which have borrowed the European way of urban planning, including Tokyo look disorderly. As a result of combining western and ancient styles of city planning, some parts of Tokyo city are grid planned whereas others not. Although the city may look chaotic it has still been able to maintain a grand manner in its streets and open space. Tree planting along the sidewalks and parkways as well as parks such as Ueno contribute to the citys grand manner. Also contributing to the uniqueness of Tokyo city is its monuments some of which are juxtaposed both modern and ancient e.g. Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower.

The Great Levittown Impact Essay -- Urban Sprawl Urbanization Essays

The Great Levittown Impact The third listing for the definition of sprawl in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is as follows: â€Å"to spread or develop irregularly†. Unfortunately, this is the pattern, or lack thereof, with which America’s development is following. Every single day the world population rises, and these new babies have to live somewhere. Due to the fact that the birth rate is larger than that of the death rate in America (http://www.bartleby.com/151/a24.html), new homes and communities must be developed to accommodate all of the incoming people. This fundamental concept is coupled by another very powerful driving force prompting people to live in the suburbs of America, and that is greed. The economy makes available to the country a degree of ownership never before matched in our history, and people are taking advantage of it. This idea drives people to move from the congested, smoky, and frantic cities to the serenity of the countryside, where they have t he opportunity to own much more land and live a more peaceful life. For a time this worked very nicely as portrayed in the incredible success of the communities created by William Levitt. Levittown was a dream of William Levitt, which encompassed the idea that all Americans can afford a home in the country. It was a success in the time of its creation, but we are beginning to see the dangers that this type of super growth brings along with it. Urban sprawl is an issue that will require much attention in the future, to prevent the negative effects that are already taking their toll. Expansion has been the trend of human civilization developments ever since agriculture allowed man to settle into permanent communities. The cast... ...gether to create economic and environmental prosperity. Bibliography: Business 2.0, â€Å"The sultans of Sprawl†, Ed Brown, http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,4887,FF.html, 1999 Levittown at Fifty, â€Å"Growing Pains†, Geoffrey Mohan, http://www.lihistory.com/specsec/hslevtwo.htm, 2002 Bartleby.com, World Fact Book 2001, â€Å"Birth Rate†, http://www.bartleby.com/151/a24.html, 2001 Florida Sustainable Community Center, â€Å"The Historical Roots of Sprawl†, Joseph Smyth, Excerpted from "The Economic Power of Sustainable Development: Building the New American Dream", a chapter in Sustainable Cities: Concepts and Strategies for Eco-City Development, Eco-Home Media, http://sustainable.state.fl.us/fdi/fscc/news/world/rtsprawl.htm, 1998 Environmental Protection Agency OMS Fact Sheet #3, â€Å"Automobiles and Carbon Monoxide†, http://www.epa.gov/otaq/03-co.htm, 1993

The History of Puerto Ricans Migration to the United States Essay exam

The History of Puerto Ricans' Migration to the United States Immigration to the United States has been occurring for centuries now. For years people from all different parts of the globe have dreamed of living in the United States, which is known to many foreigners as the land of opportunity. There are so many ethnic groups that exist in the United States that it has become known as the melting pot of the world. The Puerto Rican's migration to the United States was not an easy process. The Puerto Ricans faced discrimination in many walks of life in the USA. They were taken advantage of because they were naive and vulnerable to this new life. Eventually, in the twentieth century, the Puerto Ricans realized that they could stand up for themselves and what started out as class politics ended up giving rise to ethnic politics. The Puerto Rican's first migrated to the United States in the1860s. It wasn't until the US domination of the island economically that the numbers of migration to the US started to grow. The Unites States found it necessary to implement a capitalistic way of life, which in turn brought about the problem of overpopulation. A way for the US to handle this situation was to ship many Puerto Ricans to the United States. Once they reached the mainland the Puerto Ricans were in need of work and willing to work for low wages. Puerto Ricans had absolutely no say in what their salary would be. They only received $.05 above the minimum wage for agricultural workers in New Jersey. For more history on Puerto Ricans and their migration to the United States read Paul Alfonso's paper. His paper describes the Puerto Rican history and struggle in migrating to the United States. Puerto Ricans also f... ...rea resented the constantly growing Puerto Rican population...at times the fights in the neighborhood bars would become serious. After the disturbances up in Harlem, this situation got even worse. Hardly a day went by that a Puerto Rican child didn't come home from school with a black eye. Mothers lived in constant fear. (Vega p.151) These organizations that were formed in the 60s and 70s helped better the life of Puerto Ricans in the United States. Puerto Ricans are now fully recognized as citizens of the United States. Although the struggle still exists Puerto Ricans have come a long way and have many people in politics that represent a strong voice for many of the Puerto Rican communities. Cruz helped stand up for ethnic politics and paved the way for many soon to be Puerto Rican-American leaders.

Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) Practices and the Performance of a Nigerian Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME).

Introduction The contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the economic growth and development has been enormous. This contribution is significant for both the developed and developing world. Many governments acknowledge the fact that SMEs play a significant role in the growth and development of their economies. Consequently, a number of government investment projects are geared towards fostering the growth and development of local SMEs. The institution of policies geared towards the facilitation and empowerment of SMEs as well as improving the performance of SMEs remains a major objective of many economic policy makers and governments. In addition, international economic and financial bodies such as the IMF, World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the International Financial Corporation (IFC) have invested heavily in making SMEs robust and vibrant in developing countries. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in developing countries such as Nigeria have employed advocacy and capacity-building campaigns to promote the growth of SMEs. Despite the importance accorded to SMEs as well as their contribution to economic growth, Onugu (2005) argues that the performance of SMEs in Nigeria has been below expectations. Unlike SMEs in other countries, the contribution of Nigerian SMEs to economic growth has not been very impressive (Onogu, 2005). Following from its independence, the Federal government of Nigeria has invested significant sums of money to promote entrepreneurial and small business development projects (Mambula, 1997, 2002). However, results from these projects have not been very impressive. In order words, most of these projects have often been unable to yield their expected returns. Despite the country’s endowment with raw materials and other natural resources, there has been little progress towards the development of the manufacturing sector, which could have increased the production of value added products thereby substituting imports, increasing exports and increasing employment (Mambula, 1997, 2002). Business failure often comes as a result of a number of factors. This could be as a result of poor customer service, poor management and poor human resource management. While the poor performance of SMEs in Nigeria can be attributed to a number of factors, human resource management could be a major factor in determining this poor performance. Human resources are a principal source of economic growth. Like other resources, human resources require effective and efficient utilisation so as to ensure maximum contribution is achieved from them. Approximately 50 per cent of people work in small and medium sized enterprises. Despite this high proportion of human resources in SMEs, most studies that study human resource management have focused on large corporations with very limited attention to SMEs. Moreover, most studies on the practices of human resource management have been carried out in the developed world with very limited attention paid to developing countries like Nigeria. This study is one of the few studies that focus on the management of human resources in SMEs in a developing country. The country that has been chosen for the study is Nigeria. The paper examines the factors that affect the practices of human resource management in an SME in Nigeria and how these practices can affect the performance of the SME in particular and its contribution to the overall growth of the economy as a whole.Objectives of the Study The objective of the study is to examine the SHRM practices of an SME in Nigeria. The study will also examine how those practices affect the performance of the SME and provide polic y implications of the findings for future strategy development.Research QuestionsThe paper will be providing answers to the following questions: What are the Strategic human resource management practices of the SME How do these practices affect the performance of the SME What are the implications for future development of strategic human resource management practices at the SMEResearch OutlineThe paper is going to follow the following areas: Section one will cover the introduction; section 2 will be dealing with the literature review; section 3 will be discussing the methodology and describing the data; section 4 will provide the results and analysis; and section 5 will present conclusions and recommendations. Literature Review Strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices refer to those activities that are specifically developed, executed and implemented on a deliberate alignment to a firm’s strategy (Huselid et al., 1997). The phrase â€Å"strategic human resource management is an indication that people in the firm are regarded as strategic resources (i.e human capital) that must be managed and leveraged when implementing and executing the strategy of the firm. In early years, efforts made to develop a conceptual framework on strategic human resource management were based on the assumption that in order to promote human behaviour that would fulfil the strategic objectives of the firm, the firm had to implement specific human resource management practices (Fisher, 1989; Schuler and Jackson, 1989; Snell, 1992). A strategic approach to human resource management is an approach that links the human resource management policies with the strategic objectives of the firm. There has been significant debate over the term SHRM as has been the case for human resource management (HRM). Many researchers argue that SHRM lacks conceptual clarity (e.g., Bamberger and Meshoulam, 2000). Three competing frameworks on SHRM have emerged: the contingency, universal and configurational perspectives (Miles and Snow, 1984; Schuler and Jackson, 1987; Delery and Doty, 1996; Pfeffer, 1998; Youndt et al., 1996; Boxall and Purcell, 2000, 2008). According to the universal perspective, all HR practices in all firms have a positive impact on firm performance (Delery and Doty, 1996). The configurational perspective suggests that firm performance depends on unique HR practices while the contingency perspective suggests that a firm’s HR practices are a function of its strategy (Miles and Snow, 1984; Schuler and Jackso n, 1987). A number of studies have tested the different frameworks and found contradictory results. For example, Youndt et al. (1996); and Chang and Huang (2005) argue in favour of the contingency perspective while Tackeuchi et al. (2003) favour the configurational perspective. The frameworks suggested above are mostly relevant for large organisations. Little effort has been devoted towards the development of SHRM in SMEs. For example, Saini and Budhwar (2008) in a study of SHRM practices in SMEs in India argue that bounded rationality tends to constrain the willingness to implement innovative HR practices in SMEs in India because most owners of SMEs tend to believe that they are doing their utmost best. Barber et al (1999) observe that HRM practices that work well in large organisations do not work properly in small firms. As a result, Heneman and Tansky (2002) stresses the need to develop different HRM models for SMEs rather than simply extending existing models that are suitable for large organisations to SMEs. The literature on Human resource management in SMEs suggests that a strategic approach to HRM in SMEs is yet to be developed. Conceptual models that relate human resource management practices in SMEs to the strategic capabilities of these organisa tions need to be developed in order to enable SMEs achieve the full benefits of their human resources. As can be observed, most of the studies of HRM practices in SMEs have been limited to SMEs in Western Europe, U.S.A and India with very limited attention given to Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. In the light of the above limitations, this study aims at contributing to the literature by studying the SHRM practices of SMEs in Nigeria. The study does not intend to test any hypothesis. Rather it intends to focus on providing an in-depth analysis and discussion of the HRM practices of a Nigerian SME. Research Methods and Data Research Methods are the approaches taken to achieve the objectives of a research project (Saunders et al., 2009). There are two main approaches to research including the inductive and deductive approaches. The inductive approach is an approach that aims at developing testable hypotheses while the deductive approach focuses on testing existing hypotheses. The inductive approach can use a single case study to multiple case studies while the deductive approach depends on the use of multiple cases. Moreover, the inductive approach can use either qualitative or quantitative methods whereas the deductive approach relies heavily on the use of large data sets and quantitative research methods. The inductive approach is advantageous over the deductive approach in that it does not generalise its results to all cases. It aims at providing an in-depth analysis of a small number of cases. Therefore, it is the approach that will be used in this study. In other to achieve the objective of this study, this paper will use a case study approach. In order to do this, a Nigerian-based SME will be selected. An in-depth analysis of its SHRM practices will be examined and related to its performance. In order to gain detailed understanding of the approaches, the â€Å"Interpretative phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to gain an in-depth analysis of the HRM practices of the SME. The Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is an experimental qualitative approach to research in psychology and the human, health and social sciences (Smith et al., 2009). The human resource practices that will be investigated include recruitment, selection, training, remuneration, leave of absence, interpersonal communication, sick pay, and promotion. The practices of these variables will be analysed and an evaluation of how they affect the performance of the SME will be conducted. The performance measures that will be used include profitability , liquidity, management efficiency and leverage ratios. The ratios will be analysed in relation to the SHRM practices identified along with the Nigerian economic environment in which the SME is based. Data The research will use both primary and secondary data. Data for the SHRM practices will mainly be primary data. This data will be collected using survey questionnaires issued to the employees of the SME and interviews conducted with key management staff. Performance data will be collected from the financial records of the SME. Data on the performance measures will be gathered from the financial records of the SME. References Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2000). Strategic human resource management: Where have we come from and where should we be goingInternational Journal of Management Reviews, 2(2), 183?203. Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2008). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. Chang,W. J. 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