The Scarlet Letter Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays

The Scarlet Letter Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delivers a powerful novel invoked with symbolism. Centered on Hester, a woman branded with a scarlet A as a mark for adultery, much of the Scarlet Letters symbolism grows from the cruel, and shameful letter. The A symbolizes the walking emblem of shame. (Hawthorne 6). Throughout the novel, the brand of disgust evolves around the characters influenced by Hester, including her illegitimate child Pearl. Even Pearl is subject to the shame her mother has bore, and is also shunned from the strict Puritan society. The close of the novel reveals that the symbol has given Hester strength to redeem her sin, rather then brake her spirits. The adulterous mark is almost replaced by the community as able due to Hesters deeds to the community. Scarlet Letter also uses nature's flowers as a way to symbolize growth in the novel. The opening chapter describes a rosebush growing by the prison. It shows how even a beautiful flower like the rose can be judged as sacrificial, with its petals near the jail. This relates to Hester, as her beautiful character is judged by sin, not by actions. Later in the novel, Chillingworth, Hesters husband, expresses to let the black flower blossom as it may. (Hawthorne 14). This reoccurrence of the flower shows how Chillingworth accepts his tortuous soul. The flower's bloom is a direct symbol for the growth of character in Scarlet Letter. Clothing is a final source Hawthorne uses to symbolize. In chapter 7, Pearl is dressed in a red gown, with gold trim. The dress of Pearl is almost identical to the brand Hester must endure, with her scarlet brand. Chillington is dressed in black, which gives an insight into his sinister character, as revealed in chapter 14. Also, the use of bright color, like red, and gold expresses how different Hester and Pearl are viewed by the Puritan society, which mainly dresses in plain, emotionless colors. The brand of sin is reflected in all the aspects of Hesters life, which show how clothing in Scarlet Letter drastically reflects situation, and character. Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter gives a tremendous impression on the reader, filled with oppression, and historical opinion of the Puritans. Unfortunately, as the novel appears to mirror reality, situations in the storyline leave the reader skeptical about the actual ability to perform these actions. Hesters sudden removal of the scarlet brand bestowed upon her seems very unrealistic, considering it took seven years to remove it so quickly, and carefree. It almost makes the symbol of the scarlet letter obsolete at the end of the chapter 18, leaving insinuation that the letter did not have as much influence as formerly expressed. The Scarlet Letter also confuses the reader during chapters after 20. The final pages of the novel give a completely different perspective. Generally focused on the main characters, during chapter 21, and 22, the market gives a more broad insight into the community. While it makes for interesting reading, the sudden change of perspective leaves the reader strayed from the main characters, like Hester, and Pearl. The Scarlet Letter is a very intriguing novel, for anyone looking to find a tale of Puritan life, and the harsh reality of the times. Overall, the Scarlet Letter delivers an exciting, and interesting view for all readers.

Government Reforms in Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Government Reforms in Brazil - Essay Example Again Brazil is not alone in this condition. Most countries in Latin and South America that were once ran by the military have abandoned this system in favor of democracy, the same way countries in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Communist Bloc are now embracing the democratic way of life as the better path to progress and peace. For these countries, there is greater pressure to institute these democratic reforms. The reform agenda enunciated by the Da Silva government in 2002 sought to tinker with the Constitution by amending its provisions on public administration, taxation, social security and ownership of energy and communications facilities. Da Silva's predecessor pushed these very same reforms but succeeded only in introducing new procedures in public administration. These reforms were also implemented on an ad hoc basis unaccompanied by meaningful structural changes. (Bresser-Pereira, L., 2003) Civil service reforms were placed high on the list because Brazil is known for its inefficient bureaucracy. Even progressive countries like UK and those in the OECD bloc are streamlining their bureaucracy in the increasing realization that structural inefficiencies in public administration are one of the main causes of the fiscal crisis and the budget deficit. (MARE-Brazil) The bureaucratic reforms pursued in Brazil were thus patterned after the UK model that is also popular in other OECD countries. Its main features call for the decentralization of government functions and services, providing more autonomy, more public accountability and separating policy formulation from execution. Part of the reforms was getting government out of business. This is the same policy carried out in UK, which has already privatized most public utilities. Brazil also turned over to non-government organizations the ownership and management of social and scientific activities. For example, 12 previously state-run hospitals in Sao Paulo are now in the hands of NGOs. (Bresser-Pereira, L., 1999) Another phase of the bureaucratic reforms serves to democratize entry to government employment by eliminating the policy that sets a single labor standard for civil servants. The government also put a cap on the salaries of employees in the judicial and legislative branches and adopted the total quality management approach to managerial activities in government service. (CLAD, 1998) Business and Tax Reforms Tax reform is high on the political agenda as part of the effort to encourage the informal business sector to go formal to increase the government's tax collection. The informal economy in Brazil is so large it is not limited to small and medium scale enterprises but extends to large concerns in the retail and construction industries. In the process, the government misses out on taxes that could run into billions of reals. To encourage the informal business sector to formalize their operations, the government uses the carrot and stick approach to persuade the companies concerned to register their businesses. It is emphasized that going formal gives these companies access to financing and technology assistance. (OECD,

The straightforward claim 'I broke the law but there would have been Essay

The straightforward claim 'I broke the law but there would have been worse consequences had I obeyed the law will not in itself lead to an acquittal(Quayle [2 - Essay Example ce (1) the Court of Appeal held that, a persons consent is irrelevant and cannot prevent criminal liability for an offence if actual bodily harm was intended and/or caused, subject to some exceptions. This strict rule was based on the view that it is not in the public interest that people should try to cause, or should cause, each other actual bodily harm for no good reason. The Court of Appeals views were applied the House of Lords in R v Brown and Others (2). There are some exceptions to this defense like reasonable surgical interference, a properly conducted game or sport, and tattooing and ear-piercing. A person can validly consent to the risk of being unintentionally harmed. In R v Aitkin and Others (3) the victims participation in practical jokes played on RAF companions was accepted as evidence suggesting that he too could become a victim and consented to this. The definition of the Duress well mentioned in the case Attorney-General v Whelan (4) that the threats of immediate death or serious personal violence so great as to overbear the ordinary powers of human resistance should be accepted as a justification for acts which would otherwise be criminal. The defense must be based on threats to kill or do serious bodily harm. If the threats are less terrible they should be matters of mitigation only . In DPP for N. Ireland v Lynch (5), it was held that the law would not regard threats to a persons property as a sufficient basis for the defense. Here the immediate threat should be in such a nature that it is to be operated upon the accused at the time that the crime was committed. In R v Hudson and Taylor (6), it was held that it was always open to the crown to shown that the defendants had not availed themselves of some opportunity to neutralize the threats, and that this might negate the immediacy of the threat, regard had to be had to the age and circumstances of the accused. But it is to be remembered that a defendant who joins a criminal

An analysis on understanding of successful knowledge management Research Proposal

An analysis on understanding of successful knowledge management techniques implemented within microfinancial institutes in India - Research Proposal Example In an organisational context, knowledge management refers to the activities concerned with capturing, processing and diffusion of knowledge for the purpose of decision making and forward planning by management. The present study examines how effective is the knowledge management in an organisation to foster innovation and enhance labour productivity within the organization. Organisations have no chance of success and growth without knowledge management in the modern information-driven economy. Today organisations are trying to become more and more innovative and competitive than their rivals in regard to their knowledge gathering and dissemination. Irrespective of the type, size and nature, organisations have acknowledged the fact that knowledge management enhances the possibilities of employee learning and productivity. It has been observed by experts that learning environment is vital in modern organisations to survive and success and knowledge management gives a platform for learning opportunities and innovative thinking. It has been proved by experts (Gibbons, 1994; Nonaka et al., 1995 and 2000; and Howells, 1996) that the very basis of innovation is knowledge sharing activities. An interactive and cooperative organisational environment is very conducive for knowledge transfer and sharing that foster employee learning and productivity (Gold et al., 2001). With this background, the present study attempts to evaluate how effective is the knowledge management system in micro-financial institutions to help in employee learning and increased productivity. Despite there are endless efforts to implement knowledge management across organisations of small as well as large among both public and private organisations, little effort has been made so far to introduce the same in the micro financial institutions in India.

Critical Review Determination Of Accounting Standards Accounting Essay

Critical Review Determination Of Accounting Standards Accounting Essay Ross L. Watts and Jerold L. Zimmerman explore factors that motivate companies in lobbying on accounting standards and examine whether their opinion on certain standards are associated with their size. They use data from the companies which submit comments to the FASBs Discussion Memorandum on General Price Level Adjustment. The empirical evidence supports the argument that the firms tend to choose accounting standards which report lower earnings due to political and regulatory considerations. Their findings also confirm that big firms are more likely to be subjected to governmental interference. However, the paper might not be based on strong theoretical foundations. Moreover, some assumptions used in the paper could decrease the external validity of the research. I. Introduction Ross L. Watts and Jerold L. Zimmerman have written a remarkable paper in accounting research which attempt to provide positive theory about factors influencing companies in lobbying on accounting standards. The paper also discuss the question whether the size of the companies affect their opinion on certain standards. This paper is important because it makes contribution to the positive accounting theory development. It might be the first paper which attempt to provide empirical evidence on positive accounting theory about factors influencing management attitude on certain accounting standards. The data and the issues discussed were new in that period. It contributes to a literature that has uncovered empirical regularities in accounting practice (Holthausen and Leftwich, 1983 and Watts and Zimmerman, 1986 as discussed in Watts and Zimmerman, 1990 p 131). The literature has been developing since the publication of this paper in 1978 (Watts and Zimmerman, 1990 p 132). Though, the pape r also brought considerable debate among researchers. This essay intends provide critical review and highlights some important points from the paper by reviewing in four main areas: (i) research paradigm, (ii) theoretical framework, (iii) methodology, and (iv) research findings. The following section discusses about research paradigm used in the paper. The next section explores criticisms on the theoretical framework of the research. Section four reviews the methodology used in the research. Section five examines important finding from this paper. Finally, the last section presents some conclusion about the paper. II. Research Paradigm The researchers discussed an interesting topic in accounting theory. They use positivism paradigm in the research. This paradigm gets many criticisms when it is used in the social science research. According to Collis and Hussey (2009), positivism is criticized based on five main arguments. First, it is impossible to separate people from the social context in which they exist. Second, people cannot be understood without examining the perceptions they have of their own activities. Third, a highly structured research design imposes constrains on the results and may ignore other relevant findings. Fourth, researchers are not subjective, but part of what they observe. They bring their own interests and values to the research. Fifth, capturing complex phenomena in a single measure is misleading(Collis and Hussey, 2009, p. 56). Furthermore, Sterling (1990, p. 98) argued that Instead of trying to determine how to improve the present state of accounting we are told to try to determine the pr esent state of accounting. However, Watts and Zimmerman argued that they adopted the label positive from economics where it was used to distinguish research aimed at explanation and prediction from research whose objective was prescription (Watts and Zimmerman, 1990, p.148). Therefore, the evidence generated from researches using this paradigm will improve the development of accounting theory by providing explanations and predictions for normative research. Moreover, positivism as one of paradigm in research is used for many researches in social science today (Collis and Hussy, 2009). This paradigm is underpinned by the belief that reality is independent of us and the goal is the discovery of theories, based on empirical research (Collis and Hussy, 2009). III. Theoretical Framework The paper starts with the discussion about factors determining management attitudes toward financial accounting standards. The discussion based on two assumptions. First, individuals act to maximize their own utility(Watts and Zimmerman, 1978, p.113). This assumption means that management attitudes on certain accounting standards are based on its interest to maximize its own utility. Second, managements utility is a positive function of the expected compensation in the future periods (or wealth) and a negative function of the dispersion of future compensation (or wealth) (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978, p.114). The expected forms of compensation for management that are used in this research are incentive compensation and share price increase. The discussion then continues with the description of factors affecting management wealth. Those factors are taxes, regulation, political costs, information production costs, and management compensation plans. Each factor gives different impact on the way management chooses accounting standards. The researchers argue that management tend to choose accounting standards which report lower earnings (thereby increasing cashflows, firm value and their welfare) due to tax, political, and regulatory considerations than to choose accounting standard which report higher earnings and, thereby, increase their incentive compensation(Watts and Zimmerman, 1978, p.118). They also argue that this prediction depend on the political pressure on the firms and whether they are regulated or not. Another consideration that management should consider is the cost of information production as a consequence of the implementation of new standards. Based on the combination of factors affecting management wealth, they created two models that describe two possible conditions. The first model depicts the condition when the change in accounting standards will decrease the earnings of the firms and the second model depicts the condition when the earnings are increase. In short, the theory pronounces that there are three possible attitudes of the companies when the change in accounting standards decreases their earnings: submit favorable opinion, submit unfavorable opinion, or do no submit opinion. On the other hand, only two possible attitudes of the companies if the change in accounting standards increases their earnings: submit unfavorable opinion or do no submit opinion. The choice taken by the companies depends on the size of the companies. One of the important points explained in the paper is that the researchers omit some variables in developing the theory. Two of them are described in their paper. First, they realized that, generally, the factors influencing the regulation cost of utility companies is not only net income but also operating earnings. Second, they omit political sensitivity of the firms industry because there is no underlying theory to discuss this factor at that time. The theories used on this research got many criticisms. It needs verification and replication (Holthausen and Leftwitch, 1983 p. 100). The researchers should be able to understand and explained it well before conducting their research (Christenson, 1983 p. 20). Hines (1988 p. 661) suggested clarifying whether their theories were universal or probabilistic, and if the latter, explained on what conceptual grounds they should be held to be so. Therefore, it is better to test the theories first using another hypothesis before analyzing data using the theories (Hines. 1988 p. 661). However, Watts and Zimmerman argue that although the criticisms are relevant, those criticisms placed unreasonable demand on study (Watts and Zimmerman, 1990, p.149). In addition, their theories provide theoretical basis for other researches in accounting. For instance, Milne (2002, p.371) argued the theories provide the stated theoretical basis for a number of social disclosure studies. Moreover, this paper was probably the only paper which predicts corporate lobbying behavior as a function of firm-specific factors' (Holthausen and Leftwitch, 1983 p. 95). Another important point in the paper is that the researchers only focus on shareholders, creditors, and government in explaining some factors influencing management accounting choice. In fact, there are many users of financial statements have not discussed thoroughly in the paper. Those are employee, analyst-adviser, supplier and trade creditor, customer, competitors, and the public. The public includes taxpayers, consumers and other community and special interest groups, such as political parties, consumer and environmental protection societies and regional pressure groups. Each user has different interest on the firms. Therefore, they might influence the accounting choice. For instance, the accounting choice taken by the firm which has a significant impact on increasing its earnings will stimulate employees to ask for bonuses or even increase in their salaries. Conversely, if the accounting choice taken by firm has a significant impact on decreasing its earnings, it will make emplo yees worry about their job security. Then, it might increase employee the turnover in the firm. Finally, it would be interesting if the paper also discuss cultural differences between companies. It could be one important factor influencing management accounting choice. Each firm consists of groups of people who share their culture based on their top managements policies. This culture will also determine the firm accounting choice. The link between accounting value and cultural value (Alexander et all. (2009) discussed research by Gray (1988) based on Hofstede (1984) classification scheme) could be used to analyze the accounting choice of the firm. For instance, some firms might choose a more conservative accounting choice because their cultural characteristic is uncertainty avoidance. It might also explain why some big size companies did not submit their opinion on the discussion memorandum. IV. Methodology The researchers used voluntary disclosure regarding GPLA Statements for some companies that published such disclosure to predict the position of the companies on the new standard. For the others companies, they used the studies from Davidson and Weil (1975) and Davidson, Stickney, and Weil (1976) who develop an adjusting procedure which relies solely on published financial statements and GNP deflators. Furthermore, they also constructed proxy variables based on unadjusted depreciation and net monetary assets. They argue that these proxy variables can serve as a surrogate for the effect of GPLA earnings. One of main the problems is the dependent variable used by the researchers. They divided the responses into two categories, the companies which agree and disagree with the memorandum. This dichotomy does not represent the actual condition since some responses might consist of agreement on certain points in the memorandum but disagreement on other points (Holthausen and Leftwitch, 1983 p. 104). Another problem is the assumption that the companies which did not mention the compensation or reply the questioner assumed no compensation plans. This assumption may lead to the conclusion bias. The next important point is the use of firms size to proxy for political cost. The decision to use this method might be affected by condition at the time the paper was written. During the 1970s, oil companies dominated the largest of the US companies, and they were also subject to much public outrage and political scrutiny during and immediately following the oil crisis of 1973 (Milne, 2002, p.374). However, Hilnes suggested to avoid the use of crude proxies such as the use of firm size to operationalize the concept of political cost' (Hines. 1988 p. 661). Watts and Zimmerman (1990) as discussed by Milne (2002, p.377) finally realized that the size is too noisy as a proxy. Subsequent to their research, empirical studies have tended to use or suggest a wider range of measures to proxy for political costs (Milne, 2002, p.377). They may needs to elaborate the effect of firms stage of growth in accounting choice. The nature of managements solution (including the accounting choice) to each revolutionary period determines whether a company will move forward into its next stage of evolutionary growth (Greiner, 1972). The firm should choose the right solution (including accounting choice) in order to survive. Companies which are in the earlier stage of development will tend to maximize their profit while more mature companies will focus on sustainability issues. The focus on sustainability issues might stimulate companies to respond differently in order to survive in their environment. This argument could be an explanation why companies with different size have different respond to certain standards (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978). In terms of analysis, the focuses of the research on political cost especially on the effect of government intervention might reduce its external validity. The analyses conducted in isolation of other factors are inappropriate because accounting is used for many purposes (Fields et all. 2001, p. 300). The proposition that corporations will do anything to support the decision of accounting procedures that minimize reported earnings might not suitable for the companies with accounting-based debt covenants. The empirical evidence shows that those companies are more likely to choose income-increasing accounting methods (Begley, 1990 p. 138). Another research by Sweeney (1994) on the companies which violated debt covenants found that managers tend to do accounting change to increase the income figure in the years surrounding technical defaults. In summary, the researchers should be careful in using assumptions. They have to realize that their focus on political cost especially on the effect of government intervention might reduce external validity of the research. V. Research Findings Finally, the research provides important findings generated from this research. First, the empirical evidence supports the argument that the firms tend to choose accounting standards which report lower earnings due to political and regulatory considerations. Those firms are the firms that have contact with the government directly through regulation or indirectly through possible government intervention. Their findings also confirm that big firms are more likely to be subjected to governmental interference. The existence of costs generated by government intervention may have more fundamental and important effects on its investment-production decision if the potential costs of government interference become large. Based on this research, McKee et all. (1984. P. 658) then replicate the research using a larger sample. Unfortunately, the results from this research are not satisfactory. The evidences do not support the theories provided by this research. McKee et all. (1984. P. 647) argued that there are some problems regarding the test procedures and its underlying theories. However, the findings generated from this research are now become important consideration in conducting researches in accounting especially regarding earnings management. Research in this topic usually aims to find companies that tend to choose accounting standards which will affect their earnings. Therefore, most of researchers in this topic eliminate companies in regulated industries (utilities and financial companies) from their sample to minimize the effects of political and regulatory considerations (For example: Madhogarhia et all., 2009; Roychowdhury, 2006). Conclusion In summary, this paper is a remarkable paper in accounting research. It gives starting point in the development of positive theory in accounting. It might be the first research that investigates factors influencing management accounting choice. Though, there are some important points need to be improved in this research. The most important point is the improvement in theoretical framework. Based on the discussion on the paper, it could be concluded that accounting choice is a function of internal and external influences. Internal influences comprise some factors such as culture and stages of growth of the companies while external influences comprise changes in tax, regulation, information production cost, and management compensation costs. Combination of those influences affects the attitude of the company to certain changes, including the attitude toward the change of certain accounting standards. Iin order to improve the development of the theory in this topic, Fields et all. (2001, p. 299-300) made three recommendations. First, researchers should give more efforts to investigate the nature of the implications of alternative accounting methods rather than just testing the implications. Then, the research should not focus only to one accounting issue or one goal. Even though the tasks become more complex, they will give a better contribution to the development of theoretical framework in accounting. Finally, the researchers should develop more powerful statistical techniques and improve research design (Fields et all. 2001, p. 300). References: Alexander, D., Anne B., and A. Jorissen (2009) International Financial Reporting and Analysis, Cengage Learning, Hampshire, UK. Begley, J., (1990) Debt Covenant and Accounting Choice, Journal of Accounting and Economics 12, 125-139. Christenson, C., (1983) The methodology of positive accounting, The Accounting Review, Vol.58, N0.1, pp 1-22. Collis. J., and Roger H., (2009) Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students, Palgrave Macmillan, UK. Fields, T., Lys, T., and Vincent, L., (2001) Empirical Research on Accounting Choice, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 31, pp. 255-307. Greiner, L. E., (1972) Evolution and Revolution as Organization Grow, Harvard Business Review (July-August): 37 -46. Madhogarhia, P., Ninon K. S., and Theodor K., (2009) Earnings Management Practices Among Growth and Value Firms, Applied Financial Economics, 19, 1767-1778. Hines. R. D. (1988) Poppers methodology of falsificationism and accounting research, The Accounting Review, (October): 657-662. Holthausen. R. W. and R. W. Leftwich. 1983 The economic consequences of accounting choice: Implications of costly contracting and monitoring, Journal of Accounting Economics, (August): 77-117. McKee. A. J., Jr., T. B. Bell, and J. R. Boatsman (1984) Management preferences over accounting standards: A replication and additional tests, The Accounting Review, (October):647-659. Roychowdhury, S. (2006) Earnings Management Through Real Activities Manipulation, Journal of Accounting and Economics 42, 335-370. Sterling, R., (1990), Positive accounting: An assessment, Abacus, Vol.26, pp. 97-135. Sweeney, A. P. (1994), Debt-covenant violations and managers accounting responses, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 17, 281-308. Watts, R. L. and J. L. Zimmerman, (1978), Towards a positive theory of the determination of accounting standards, The Accounting Review, (January): 112-134. Watts, R., Zimmerman, J., (1990), Positive accounting theory: A ten year perspective, The Accounting Review 65, 131-156.

Save the Whales Essay -- Environmental

Every day whales around the world are being killed. Although some whales are being killed for scientific purposes, the majority of them are killed for their meat by poachers or whalers working for different countries. Careless companies dispose of their waste incorrectly, and in today's society, people do not seem to care about anything but themselves. Arguments can be made both for saving the whales and for killing them; this is a topic that has caused much debate over the past two decades, not only in America, but worldwide. Environmentalists and international governing groups have squared off against whale poachers and countries who ignore the laws governing whales, in an attempt to stop the ongoing, unnecessary killing. All marine life is affected by careless human activity. Man-made pollution from dumps, chemical plants, power plants, and pesticides all flow and spread throughout the oceans of the world. Even low-level contamination of small, sometimes microscopic species causes highly concentrated contamination in larger marine life, specifically whales. Plankton, the main constituent of a whale's diet, is a very small organism that drifts for thousands of miles throughout the oceans, and as a result easily spreads pesticides, toxic metals, and other contaminants throughout the ocean. When the whales eat the plankton, the small amounts of contamination become highly concentrated in the whales systems. Pollution, although deadly over long periods of time, is not the main source of unnecessary whale death worldwide. A recent technology developed by the US Navy emits the most powerful sound known to man straight into the ocean waters. This newly developed technology, called low frequency active sonar (LFA), was d... ...a> http://files.hsus.org/web-files//PDF/SWNW_IWCFctsht.pdf Defenders of Wildlife: http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/marine/whales/climate.html Save the Whales: http://www.savethewhales.org Humane Society of the U.S.: http://www.hsus.org/ace/19943 WhaleNet Population Study: http://whale.wheelock.edu/whalenet-stuff/ser_population.html Pro-Whaling Nations: http://files.hsus.org/web-files//PDF/SWNW_ProWhalingFctsht.pdf

 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ONLINE SHOPPING Essay

Just year before, online shopping was not popular as it is today. But nowadays online shopping is the one of the best method considered for shopping. Now it allows the buyer to buy anything by just a click of mouse. Now online shopping offers a variety of products and services, as it allows us to buy clothing, airlines tickets, a car and even your grocery to shop. Websites like amazon.com, ebay.com are among the list of most popular websites being used these days. This essay will discuss advantages; (comparison shopping and save time) and disadvantages; (additional costs and waiting time and insecure shopping). One of the main advantage of online shopping is; comparison shopping in which products can be compared and contrast on the basis of their prices and multiple outlets. Today everybody wants the freedom of choice, so the marketers have to present the variety of product to choose from. Read more: Importance of English language essay There are number of online shopping websites, for example ebay.com, amazon.com, ozsale.com etc. that offer variety of products and services with different offers based on prices. This allows us the freedom of price flexibility and choice. So in that way, it makes easier to select and discard the product with his own choice. Many consumers like to explore before purchasing any particular product from different websites which offers different prices and different offers from other website at the same time. Comparison shopping affects the buyer’s trend to buy any product. The trend of comparison shopping is influenced by the ‘dimensions of decision-making style’ of the consumers (Park, Y. A., & Gretzel, U. 2010). The comparison shopping also become beneficial for the buyer as it allows the consumer to save money as well. Another main advantage of the online shopping is that it saves time. Today’s in this fast pace world everybody expects the work to be done fa ster. So, if anybody have busy life who have no time to buy the grocery are using online shopping as a way to fulfill their basic needs. Online shopping doesn’t require visiting the shopping places as you can do online shopping by sitting at home or anywhere. Online shopping services are available to anyone throughout the day, which it allows us to use these services anytime of the day. Online shopping websites are available on every day of the year, public holidays as well. So  availability of online shopping makes it convenient for everyone to use. Online shopping is considered as a convenient method to find those things which are hard to find made it a ‘time saving method’ (Horrigan, J. 2008). The other most important disadvantage of the online shopping is the additional cost and waiting time that Company’s takes to deliver the product. . The additional cost for delivering the product is also an important reason why people used to buy from their local outlets. A product can take up to weeks to deliver the product which make it the most frustrating factor for online shopping. The online shopping can be frustrating factor for those who don’t have patience and time to wait. So it becomes better for the buyer to buy the product from local shops instantly. The price on online store is usually low but delivery charges of the product make the charges similar or higher than local outlets. The main disadvantage of online shopping i s insecure shopping. Insecure shopping means the scams and frauds by gaining the personal and financial details of the buyers and utilize it in a bad way. If someone obtain your details regarding your personal and financial information, that can harm your personality (respect) and on other hand it can become a cause for the loss of the money. Online shopping is widely used for shopping but has ‘worries about sending their financial details’ such as credit cards (Horrigan, J. 2008). There are number of scam and fraud websites that offer very attracting offers but websites like this can loot you. So scam websites make online shopping a chaos for the user. It can be concluded that online shopping have advantages but have disadvantages as well. Online shopping provides us variation that means comparison shopping but on other hand online shopping companies charge extra for delivering. It saves times on shopping but takes time on delivering. It is available every time but have insecurity of being scammed and looted. But in last it can be easily concluded that if buyer have time for waiting they can use online shopping from registered and legal website which can decrease the fear of online shopping frauds. So, it can be easily concluded that online shopping can be a best method for shopping. REFERENCING Horrigan, J. (2008). Online shopping. Pew Internet & American Life Project Report, 36. Lee, G. G., & Lin, H. F. (2005). Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 33(2), 161-176. Lester, D. H., Forman, A. M., & Loyd, D. (2006). Internet shopping and buying behavior of college students. Services Marketing Quarterly, 27(2), 123-138. Park, Y. A., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Influence of consumers’ online decision-making style on comparison shopping proneness and perceived usefulness of comparison shopping tools. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 11(4), 342-354.