Paper on Personal Values and Ethical Standards Essay

Paper on Personal Values and Ethical Standards - Essay Example The paper will discuss issues in Human Service Profession as they relate to the code of ethics. Such issues include the legal definition of insanity and human differences. Ethics and values are an essential part of any person. These are important in that they guide a person in making decisions and they influence the behavior of any given person. They guide the person in making a choice between two options and in knowing what is acceptable to him and what is not. The values and ethics are different depending on the individual, and they are formed within the social context that one finds themselves in. there are several forces that combine to influence the values and ethics of a given person(Burger 2010). Values are those things that one considers important or valuable in his life. They are the philosophy by which one lives. One’s values are an embodiment of what one stands for, or what one believes in. The values form the basis of behavior for a person, and every person has his own set of values by which he lives on, and through which he makes his day-to-day decisions and choices. Ethics on the other hand work to guide a person on what is right or wrong, what is moral and what is immoral, what is just and what is criminal, and what is good or evil. It is the system of one’s moral principles and works to govern how one behaves. Ethics and values are unique to every individual and they are acquired in a variety of ways. Every person begins to develop their own set of values and ethical standards from earlier on in life by observing what goes on around him. As one continues to grow and mature, one begins to realize the difference that exists between right and wrong. The values and ground rules that I use to govern my life have been learned and influenced by various people and institutions. There are also several events that have happened in life that have influenced my value system. As

Cadburys Business Assignment Essay Example for Free

Cadburys Business Assignment Essay The business that I have chosen to is Cadburys I have chosen to use the product will it is a well knows product that many people know and love, I have chosen this product because it has a very wide range of target audience and Cadburys is a well known business so information will be easy to access and to gather. The nature of the business is simple it is to provide sugary treats to the public the main target audience I would say would be children I would say from the ages of 4 onwards, the customers would be every one that likes chocolate they have a wide range of products such a cream egg this would appeal more to children than adults I would say as they adverts and the angle of the marketing addresses to children’s humour and to the nature of the commercial side of the business were as the product such a a dairy milk bar would appeal to a wider range of people such as adults as its simple and has very little child like qualities. The business brings out new products quite often so this would build on the companies reputation and would also help its sales figures as new products appeal to the customers curious nature as if a new product comes out that is advertised well, will make you want to try it and see what it is like, as Cadburys have a wide range of products there is pretty much a product for every one so the target audience is vast. Because of its large product range it will have more customers and because it has been around a long time this would mean that allot of people would have known about it and there for the audience and the people that buy the product will be greater than new businesses or newer businesses such as galaxy. The business Cadburys has existed since 1842 this shows the public that the business is a reliable and trust worthy business and obviously has a good range of products. Cadburys was founded almost 200 years ago and was opened by john Cadburys on bull street in Birmingham in 1824, he started of by making drinking chocolate then expanded by making chocolate and other products. Cadburys is a plc so it is a private limited company so this means it has public shares so the public would be involved in the business. The business is not based anywhere anymore but has business every were and this would make it a world wide company. The main competitors would be businesses such as galaxy and nesquik and other chocolate and sweat manufactures. My companies corporate aims would be to be able to make a healthy profit and be able to keep the business running at a high standard. The objectives of the business would be to be making lots of good quality chocolate and to be always be improving the quality of the chocolate and the recipes, other objectives would be to make their business fully fair trade as this would help the reputation of the business. Another objective would be to expand the business to have lots of stores world wide to increase the popularity of the business, doing this the business would need to make sure that they will be able to survive the market and make it an on going business. To create chocolate that appeals to all ages of the audience they do this by making sure that all of their ingredients are all at a high quality standard this includes fair trade products this would make their products more appealable to their target audience. Due to the nature of the business i think that they should cover some of the gaps such as creating more new products and possibly placing more Cadburys shop around the less populated areas around the country. I also feel as if Cadburys aims and objective are to do with the cream egg are easy and do able and make them accessible to smaller areas and smaller businesses such as corner shops. I have chosen Cadburys Cream Egg for my product that I am researching throughout my assignments, I have chosen this product as it is a noticed and a very well known brand and this product has been out for a while so there would be information to follow up on and to research about, this will be helpful with completing my assignments that I have been given, I have managed to find out allot about this business and this product so I am pleased with my decision. I am going to be finding out about the general aims and objectives for my chosen product that the business has set, I will also be discovering the SMART rule and I will be providing the basis for my marketing plan. I will be introducing this by using sections of the brief to make my plan, also researching the business. Cadburys used to be a family business and was running smoothly until the company went bankrupt in march 2010, since this Cadbury was acquired by Kraft Foods in March 2010. Kraft foods is an American based company that specializes in food such as chocolate and beverages. Kraft foods is a exceedingly good business earning around 1 billion dollars each year, and sells to over 170 different countries. Kraft foods is a public limited company. An aim is where the business wants to go in the future, its goals. It is a statement of purpose, e.g. we want to grow the business. A business aim is the goal a business wants to achieve. A primary aim for all business organizations is to add value and in the private sector this involves making a profit. More strategic aims include expansion, market leadership and brand building. A business o Objectives within an organization are established at a number of levels from top level corporate objectives, down to team objectives and individual objectives that create a framework for operational activities. These are often translated into targets which help to motivate staff in reaching short-term goals. Objectives therefore provide a clear structure for all of the various activities that an organization carries out. By measuring how well an objective has or has not been achieved, managers can make necessary changes to their activities to ensure progress and achievement of the stated objectives are made within the timescale allocated objective is a detailed picture of a step you plan to take in order to achieve a stated aim. A way to create this would to use the SMART rule.. Specific clear and easy to understand. Measurable i.e. able to be quantified. Achievable possible to be attained. Realistic not pie in the sky. Time bound associated with a specific time period For example. The aims of Cadburys are 1. Improving farmer incomes by helping farms to increase their yields and produce top quality beans. 2. Introducing new sources of rural income through microfinance and business support to kick start new rural businesses and introduce additional income streams such as growing other crops. Developing communities by helping them meet their own goals and improve rural life. For example, by supporting health through building wells for clean, safe water; education, through schools and libraries; and the environment through bio-diversity projects. 4. Working in partnership a pioneering model led from the grass roots. Farmers, governments, NGOs and international agencies work together to decide how the funding is spent and work with local organizations to turn plans into action. Cadbury is an international company that make, market and sell exclusive brands chocolate. Cadbury have achieved this effectively for over 200 years. The reason they are so successful is because they have a apparent and a clear understanding of the requirements and needs of their consumers, customers and other stakeholders. SMART stands for .. †¢Specific †¢Measurable †¢Achievable †¢Realistic †¢Timed Smart means objectives- they break up the aim into small do able task’s to make the job easier and achievable. Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve, For example a soft drinks company may want to achieve 3% market share in 12 months. Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not to continue to run your business in a organised and professional manor, for example a market share over 12 months means that each month market share targets can be measured against a specific goal. Achievable Are the objectives you set, achievable to be able to carry on your business plan, an example for this would be over a period of time such as one year 12 months you need to be able to know does the company have the resources, man power and finances to achieve the goal. Realistic Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have such as space finance and staff and equipment, and does the company need more time than 1 mouths to get to the standard that the owner want. Time- this would mean when you want to set a time for the objectives and aims that you have set yourself and the marketing there need to be a date and able to make it specific and achievable, such as some business set a 12 month business plan to achieve these goals. Marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy for example if the business id doing well and the sales increase by 15% in the last year then you should set a business plan that will help boost encourage the market sales further for example leading out a new product or different advertising to appeal more the customers. This should follow the SMART rules. For Cadburys cream egg i would need to use SMART to make my business plan specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed, for example mine would be to boost market sales by 20% in 6 months by April 1st, i will do this by creating a new angle for the cream egg and make the advertising the product in a new way and maybe reshaping the product, for example such as Kellogg’s Special K they reinvented this product by advertising it so it would be a new slimming product it was targeted at women middle aged women as these area of people are the most likely to buy the product, this was effective and is now a top seller cereal. This is Realistic as i will have the eight resources and the finances to do this goal, this objective will be finished in 6 months time on the 1st of April 2012.

Huckleberry Finn and The Modern Classroom :: essays papers

Huckleberry Finn and The Modern Classroom Mark Twain’s story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a racist, immoral book that should not be taught in American High Schools. As a children’s story, Finn is an exciting tale of a boy and a runaway slave riding a raft to freedom. As a book to be taught to 16-year-old English students, it is a novel that incorporates serious racist issues conveniently hidden among it’s many scattered plots. From the beginning we are warned â€Å"persons attempting to find a plot will be shot,†(Notice) suggesting that, as analyzing novels is a central theme in English classrooms, Finn may not be the best choice. The protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, is a 14-year-old white boy growing up in Missouri, who lives his life running away from his problems, lying to everyone, stealing, and using everyone he comes across. He fakes his own death very convincingly, and all with the cool, level-headedness not akin to young boys. â€Å"Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks in it, -all I could drag,-and I started it from the pig and dragged it to the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and down it sunk, out of sight. You could easy see that something had been dragged over the ground. I did wish Tom Sawyer was there, I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as that.†(Ch. 7) This character isn’t probably what the youth of America needs to be learning about. His ability to remorselessly lie to people to get what he wants, is a frightening characteristic, which isn’t one that should be taught to impressionable students. He has taken the pretense of his own death and, in his mine, placed it in the category of the imaginary robbers and thieves games he used to play with Tom Sawyer. Huck’s companion on his trip down the river is Jim, an uneducated adult, black slave who has run away hoping to make it to a free state. The way that Huck treats Jim at times, lying to him or belittling him is racist and wrong.

Fred Maiorino Case Study Essay

Overview Fred Maiorino began his career at Schering-Plough in 1958 at the age of 28. He had been a successful sales representative till Jim Reed took over the position of General Sales Manager for South Jersey sales district in 1987. In 1988, Fred received his lowest ever performance evaluation of â€Å"Good† which was lower than any other sales representatives’ in the district. In fact, Fred’s salary increase at the end of the quarter was less than half of the average of other sales representatives who were at least 20 years younger to him. When Reed first came to New Jersey sales district, he turned to Fred for help and leadership. He implemented a new performance evaluation measuring system which rated salesmen according to two different measures. This new system included evaluations based on product market share gains and critical incidents of effective and ineffective salesmen actions recorded during joint calls made by district managers and sales reps. Moreover, Reed began coaching his subordinates and providing them with medical journals to help improve sales pitches. Unfortunately, even after working at Schering-Plough for over three decades as a highly successful salesman, Fred was terminated over coffee with Jim Reed at a local diner. This paper discusses why the different initiatives taken by Schering-Plough to motivate Fred Maiorino had failed. It also examines Reed’s role in the alleged breach of psychological contract and, contributions to the injustice and discrimination against Fred. Finally, this paper will provide recommendations for alternative coaching, goal-setting and leadership approaches that Schering-Plough could have adopted instead to ensure employee retention and loyalty. Breach of Psychological Contract At the beginning of their relationship, Jim Reed informed Fred that he would require Fred’s help in leadership. Although Reed may have made the remark in a casual manner, Fred took it seriously as he was able to recall the conversation even after a few years. Older employees tend to enjoy collaborative tasks through social interactions more than competitive tasks (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004, p. 441). In fact, employees in their midlife  respond more positively to managerial strategies that promote cooperation instead of competition (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). In this case, it is fairly logical to think that Fred may have assumed that he would be promoted or provided with a salary hike if he was successful in helping Reed design a leadership plan for the district. In fact, this particular conversation with Reed may have led him to believe that Reed would acknowledge his hard work and loyalty by actually taking Fred’s advice or letting him help with the new strategy thereby , creating a psychological contract between the two parties involved. A psychological contact emerges when an employee believes that a promise of future benefit or return has been made in return for his contributions and, an obligation has been created for the employer (Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994). In other words, a psychological contract refers to the belief or perception of mutual obligations of an employee (Rousseau, 1989). Unfortunately, the assigned case does not indicate that Reed lived up to his promise of taking Fred’s help in motivating, mentoring and training new employees. According to Humphrey (2003) such acts can be deflating as the motivational benefits of bottom-up empowerment are forgone or lost. Moreover, violation of psychological contracts may lead to lower motivation and increased intentions to quit (Raja, Johns & Bilgrami, 2011). Thus, breach of such emotional contracts in the workplace may give rise to distrust, dissatisfaction and in extreme cases dissolution of the relationship between an employee and his employer (Roehling, 1997). In fact, breach of the psychological contracts lead to behaviors that undermine organizational effectiveness and efficiency (Lemire & Rouillard, 2005). Reed’s behavior increased Fred’s state of vigilance to the point where he began to actively monitor how well Schering-Plough was meeting the terms of their psychological contract. Moreover, in Fred’s eyes, Schering-Plough has breached the psychological contract with Fred. Fred had dedicated over 35 years of him life to the company only to find out it had made plans to make him retire early. Furthermore, Fred began to lose his faith in Schering-Plough when he realized that younger salespersons were being hired to replace long-term hard-working employees like him. In addition, Reed referred Fred’s decision to decline the early retirement plan as a foolish act. According to Zagenczyk, Gibney, Kiewitz, and Restubog (2009), supervisors’ supportiveness/discouragement strengthens/weakens the  relationship between employers and employees. A study that included 297 responses from 31 organizations confirmed a relationship between the existence of psychological contract and employee commitment. In fact, those with relational psychological contract exhibited more commitment to the workplace than those with transactional contracts (Chiang, Liao, Klein & Jiang, 2012). Violation of Procedural Justice Reed’s evaluation and spying on Fred resulted in the latter being suspended without pay for two days. This led to an increase in Fred’s feelings of injustice and violation. Additionally, Fred and Reed held different views of the measurement of Fred’s performance at work, flexibility, goal-setting and the purpose of coaching. In fact, Reed’s communication of matching market share goals and what was expected of Fred was highly complex and ambiguous. Such behavior on Reed’s part raised questions about procedural justice at Schering-Plough. Procedural justice is determined on the basis of the quality of what is being communicated an employee. In other words, procedural justice is based on the extent to which an employee feels whether his employer communicated crucial decisions in a sensitive and ethical manner (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). In other words, how a decision is made and communicated is what counts most (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). Unfortunate ly, Reed’s behavior implied that he regarded Fred as someone worthy of respect. This was further attested when Reed felt that it was not important to let Fred know the dates when he saw Fred’s company car parked in his driveway during work hours. Moreover, the new performance evaluation system implemented by Reed showed that Fred was doing â€Å"very good†. However, Reed decided to focus more on the least desirable component of Fred’s evaluation and give Fred and overall â€Å"good†. The results of the evaluation were humiliating for Fred as it was his lowest ever rating and was certainly lower than all other new hires who were at least 20 years younger to him. The assigned case study does not tell us how exactly Reed communicated his evaluations of Fred’s performance to Fred, but it does tell us that he evaluated Fred the very same way the second time. This time he sent Fred a memo letting him know that he was capable of doing better. The procedures involved in decision-making and the method of communication used affect employ ee behavior at work (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). Ineffective  Performance Appraisals and Goal-Setting Systems Right after Reed informed Fred that he would need the latter’s help, he implemented a new appraisal system that evaluated employees based on new criteria. However, this new system seemed to worsen his relationship with Fred. Job relatedness, formalization, reliability, open communication, trained appraisers, ease of use, employee accessibility and appeal procedures are among some of the characteristics of an effective appraisal system (Caruth & Humphreys, 2008). The newly implemented system barely met any of the above categories. General guidelines instead of comprehensive policies and written instructions were used by the company. It is important to use appraisal systems that encourage improvement and are not regarded as threats to be feared by employees (Hammer, 2007). As such, performance evaluations should be followed by accurate description and diagnosis of the ratings so that employees are able to discuss, understand and prevent future problems (Lee, 2005). This was lacking in Reed’s appraisal system. Moreover, recording and monitoring employee behavior during joint calls may have led Fred to be more cautious and nervous during client interactions. According to Gray (2002) such systems do not encourage competency or loyalty as they are distorted by evaluator bias. Fred never thought his performance rating was fair – in fact, he resisted it because older workers are more likely to avoid situations that put them at a disadvantage when compared to younger employees (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). The following paragraphs discuss what Reed could and should have done better to improve Fred’s situation and circumstances. Improving Leadership Style One of the major issues that led to Fred’s decision to take Schering-Plough to court was Reed’s ineffective leadership style. It is important for managers to know what behaviors promote achievement of results and what behaviors are plain ineffective (Lindbom, 2007). In fact, one of the most important job duties of a manager is to improve his followers’ performances. This meant, Reed should have communicated better with Fred. In fact, he should have asked Fred about his problems and listened to him instead of simply pushing him and sending him memos for poor performance. Continuous feedback and dialog would have allowed Reed to understand Fred’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses better while building a stronger bond with him.  Once this bond was built, it would have been much easier for Reed to alter Fred’s behavior according to the interest of the organization. An effective manager is attuned to individual followers and takes the right decision at the right time (Buzady, 2011). This allows the manager or leader to interact and alter workloads during difficult times. Transformational leaders focus on matching behaviors and communication instead of goals and skills (Humphreys & Einstein, 2004). Therefore, Reed could have improved Fred’s motivation and performance by communicating in a way that would have been easy for Fred to understand and relate to. Moreover, a leader must encourage and understand the ideals and values that his followers share. In order to come to a common ground with followers, an effective leader must think less about himself and more for others (Kerfoot, 2004). Congruency can only be reached when a leader looks beyond himself and more toward the opportunities for advancement of his followers. Leaders should ensure that challenging work that is valued is provided to subordinates while considering the followers ability. He should always consider the followers self-esteem and self-concept, communicate goals clearly and understand the relationship between paying attention to individual followers and job satisfaction (Isaac, Zerbe & Pitt, 2011). Moreover, it is recommended that sales leaders employ a more active style of leadership in order to improv e participation and performance. Therefore, Reed should have considered adopting transformational leadership style (Bass, 1993). Transformational leaders are those who are able to develop the ability within their subordinates to look beyond their own self interests and align their goals with that of the organization. Although transactional leadership style is more popular among sales managers and is believed to induce desired responses in employees, transformational leadership has been found to produce higher such results (Dubinsky, Yammarino, Jolson & Spanger, 2001). Transformational leader hold deep personal value systems that allow them to unite their followers while modifying their goals (Bass,1999). Moreover, transformational leader demonstrate individual consideration, charisma and inspirational motivation – all of which were lacking in Reed from Fred’s point of view. Improving Coaching Furthermore, Reed needed to change his way of coaching his subordinates.  Reed’s concept of coaching included handing out manuals and writing memos that stated Fred was capable of doing better. Today, most organizations are determined to improve the ability of managers to coach their subordinates effectively. Many organizations shelve out millions of dollars to promote and facilitate a health coaching environment. In fact, coaching is considered a manager’s top priority in many companies. Therefore, Reed should have designed one-on-one monthly meetings with his subordinates where he could have discussed ways to improve individual sales performance. Moreover, instead of punishing Fred for products that he was selling less of, Reed should have first appreciated Fred’s top selling products. Subordinates look forward to reinforcement when they do the right things and welcome constructive criticism when they recognize their work needs improvement (Robinson & Roussea u, 1994). Improving Reward System . A sudden change in the reward systems is usually not well accepted among employees who perform consistently. Therefore, it was critical for Reed to first speak to his subordinates regarding changes in Reed used a highly ineffective reward system where the company ended up awarding Fred less than his expected salary increase. Instead, Reed should have made every effort to determine what rewards his subordinates valued and how much effort they were willing to make to attain the rewardsperformance and work with them to improve on it. Constant coaching, mentoring and one-on-one monthly individual performance evaluations would have given employees an idea of what rewards to expect from the new system. In fact, the unexpected and unprecedented reward might have actually de-motivated Fred to the point where he did not find it necessary to work on his weaknesses in selling the two major products of the company. References Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re†examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 441-462. Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1993). Transformational leadership: A response to critiques. Braun, C. (1997). Organizational infidelity: how violations of trust affect the employee-employer relationship. The Academy of Management Executive, 11(4), 94-95. Buzady, Z. & Georgiu, A. (2011). Riding the waves of the motivation cycle. OD Practitioner, 43(1), p. 35-41. Caruth, D. L. & Humphreys, J. H. (2008). Performance appraisal: essential characteristics for s strategic control. Measuring Business Excellence, 12(3), p. 24 Chiang, J. C., Liao, C., Klein, G., & Jiang, J. (2012). Consequences of psychological contract violations for IS personnel. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 52(4), 78-87. Dubinsky, A. J., Yammarino, F. J., Jolson, M. A., & Spangler, W. D. (1995). Transformational leadership: An initial investigation in sales management. The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 17-31. Hammer, M. (2007, Spring). The 7 deadly sins of performance measurement and how to avoid them. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(3), p. 19-28. Harvey, S. & Haines III, V. (2005). Employer treatment of employees during a community crisis: The role of procedural and distributive justice. Journal of Business & Psychology, 20(1), p. 53-68. Humphreys, J. H. (2003). Xenophon as leadership theorist: an early model of leader behavior and follower work motivation. Academy of Management Proceedings, D1-D6 Humphreys, J. H., & Einstein, W. O. (2004). Leadership and temperament congruence: Extending the expectancy model of work motivation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 10(4), 58-79. Isaac, R. G., Zerbe, W. J., & Pitt, D. C. (2001). Leadership and motivation: The effective application of expectancy theory. Journal of Managerial Issues, 212-226. Kanfer, R. & Ackerman, P. (2004, July). Aging, adult development, and work motivation. The Academy of Management Review, 29(3), p. 440-458. Kerfoot, K. (2004, October). The shelf life of leaders. MEDSURG Nursing, 13(5), p348-350. Lee, C. D. (2005, Autumn). Rethinking the goals of your performance-management system. Employment Relations Today, 32(3), p. 53-60 Lemire, L. & Rouillard, C. (2005). An empirical exploration of psychological contract violation and individual behaviour. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2), 150-163. Lindbom, D. (2007). A culture of coaching: The challenge of managing performance for long- term results. Organization Development Journal, 25(2), pP101-P106. Raja, U., Johns, G., & Bilgrami, S. (2011). Negative consequences of felt violations: The deeper the relationship, the stronger the reaction. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 60, 397–420. Robinson, S. L., Kraatz, M. S., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Changing obligations and the psychological contract: A longitudinal study. Academy of management Journal, 37(1), 137-152. Robinson, S. L., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of organizational behavior,15(3), 245-259. Roehling, M. V. (1997). The origins and early development of the psychological contract construct. Journal of Management History (Archive), 3(2), 204-217. Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2, 121–139. Zagenczyk, T. J., Gibney, R., Kiewitz, C., & Restubog, S. L. D. (2009). Mentors, supervisors and role models: Do they reduce the effects of psychological contract breach? Human Resource Management Journal, 19(3), p. 237-259.

Math 10 Ib Porfolio

Math 10C Pre-IB Portfolio Assignment Type 1 Investigating the Quadratic Function A quadratic function is one where the highest exponent of the independent variable is 2. The quadratic function can be written in the general form of, where a, b, and c are real numbers. However, the quadratic function can also be written in the standard form of , which is sometimes more preferred, where p and q are the x and y coordinates of the vertex, respectively.The purpose of this task is to investigate the graph of a quadratic equation, the parabola, when the equation is written in the form. By analyzing p and q we can determine the vertex of the graph. Also, by increasing or decreasing the values of p or q, we can translate the parabola vertically and/or horizontally. First, if we look at the functions y=x2 ,y=x2+3, y=x2-2 we know that all 3 are in general form. To convert general to standard form you will need to use the process called â€Å"completing the square† which goes as following: Ex. y=ax+bx+cNow if we convert the three functions mentioned above, in standard form respectively they are y=x020, y=x02+3 and y=x02-2. Now if we were to graph these points, either the standard or general form would work. y=x2 , y=x020 y=x2+3 , y=x02+3 y=x2-2 , y=x02-2 Other examples of these types of graphs could be anything along the line of. An example of a parabola in the form of y=x2q with either a positive or negative q value could be y=x2+5 and y=x2-4. When we graph the two equations they are as following: y=x2+5 , y=x02+5 y=x2-4 , y=x02-4The reason I choose to convert them to standard form was to look for the vertex. By looking at the graph and the standard form of the equations we can conclude that the vertex of the graphs are (0,0) , (0,3) , (0,-2). In standard form you can also find out many other things. For example, the domain and range, the axis of symmetry. All three graphs are graphed in the same screen for comparison. From the above graph we notice that the graphs of y=x2+3 and y=x2-2 have been shifted vertically, either up or down by the q units, where the q is the number that follows the x2.By looking at the following graph, we can generalize the following: The graph of is the graph of, vertically translated q units. If q is positive, then the shift is upwards. Conversely, if q is negative, than the shift is downwards. If we look at the next following functions of y=x2 , y=x-22 , y=x+32, we can see that the functions are written in the standard form. To change standard form to general form you need to expand the function. To do this you need to do the following steps: Ex. y=x+52 When we convert the functions of y=x2 , y=x-22 , y=x+32, respectively they are y=x20x0, y=x2-4x+4, y=x2+6x+9.When we graph the following functions, we get: y=x20x0, y=x2 y=x2-4x+4, y=x-22 y=x2+6x+9, y=x+32 Furthermore, if we change the values of p in the function we can translate the graph to either the right or left. An example of this could be y=x-82 or y=x+52. Wh en graphed they should look as the following: y=x2-16x+64, y=x-82 y=x2+10x+25,y=x+52 For the first three graphs above, the vertex of them respectively are (0,0), (0,2), (0,-3). The vertex of the above graphs are (0,8), (0-5).While looking at the graphs we notice that if the value of p is changed to either a positive or negative number it depends whether the graph is shifted horizontally on the x-axis. As done previously, all three graphs have been graphed in the same screen for comparison. From the above combined graph, we notice that the graphs of y=x-22, y=x+32 have been shifted horizontally, to either the left or right by p units, where p is the number that follows after x. By looking at the above graph, we can generalize the following: The graph of is the graph of, horizontally translated p units.If p is positive, the shift is to the right. On the other hand, if p is negative, the shift is to the left. Given the trends noticed when changing p and q, we can predict the vertex of the graph. The graph ofis the graph of, vertically translated 5 units upward, and horizontally translated 4 units to the right. Since the vertex of the graph isis at (0,0), the vertex of the graph should be at (4,5). Alternatively, since we know that the vertex of the parabolic function of the form lies at (p,q), we can expect that the vertex of the graphis to be at (4,5) as p=4 and k=5.