Financial Analysis For A Company s Performance - 1203 Words

Charles_T._Horngren (2005) stated that â€Å"people perform financial analysis for different reasons, Supplier want to see if a customer can afford a price hike, Customers want to know if a company will still be around in a year to honor a warranty, Managers, creditors, investors, and the CEO’s all have their reasons for reading the statements, regardless of your interest in the company. Financial statement analysis involves using financial data to assess some aspect of a company’s performance† Horngren added †Although many analysis methods exist, the cornerstone of financial statement analysis is the use of ratios† Financial ratios analysis can measure the firm liquidity, solvency, profitability and market prospect Eljelly (2004) elucidate, that† efficient liquidity management involves planning and controlling current assets and current liabilities in such a manner that eliminates the risk of inability to meet due short-term obligations and avoids excessive investment in these assets. The study found that the cash conversion cycle was of more importance as a measure of liquidity than the current ratio that affects profitability†. Liquidity ratios measure the company’s ability to meet its maturing short-term obligations. In other words, can a company quickly convert its current assets to cash to meet its short-term obligations? 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Hybrid Process Model Creation and Evolution †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Hybrid Process Model Creation and Evolution. Answer: Introduction: The article under review in this essay is titled Case Analytics Workbench: Platform for Hybrid Process Model Creation and Evolution. This article was presented by Yu, X; Li, X; Liu, H; Mei, J; Mukhi, N; Ishakian, V; Xie, G; Lakshmanan, G.T. and Marin, M. during the 13th International Conference on Business Process Management. The article discusses a new approach of creating and developing an effective hybrid process model that combines both declarative and imperative business modeling processes. The importance of business process modeling in business process management cannot be overemphasized. For a business to thrive in a competitive environment, it must have properly structured models that make it easier to execute, analyze and improve various processes of the business. This review will be discussed by describing the content and intension of the article, analyzing the discussion and conclusions made by the authors, identifying issues highlighted by the authors about the model deve loped, discussing the relevance of the model created in business process management and writing a conclusion of the entire article. This article discusses a new approach of creating and developing hybrid process models called Case Analytics Workbench. According to the authors of the article, this is an end-to-end system that accelerates the process of creating and developing hybrid process models through combination of imperative and declarative process mining, human interaction through a cloud environment and event log clustering. Most of business modeling processes have been either imperative or declarative. Imperative modeling processes include XPDL (XML process definition language), BPMN (business process model and notation and web services BPEL (business process execution language). These processes apply imperative paradigm where only allowed activity flows are captured and any unspecified flow is rejected implicitly thus limiting many BPM applications(De Giacomo, et al., 2015). Declarative modeling processes include SCIFF, Declare and DCR. These processes allow all activity flows as long as specified constr aints are not violated(Goedertier, et al., 2015). But as a result of changing business environments, customer demands, economic factors and technologies, many businesses nowadays have knowledge-intensive processes that cannot be efficiently met with either declarative or imperative modeling process. The knowledge-intensive processes largely depend on knowledge and expertise of workers who perform different interrelated knowledge-intensive executive tasks that are centered on large volumes of data and information and need greater flexibility. Both the imperative and declarative modeling process have their own strengths and weaknesses using each of these processes individually is not enough to meet the current business process modeling requirements(Caron Vanthienen, 2016). To overcome this challenge, authors of this article decided to develop an approach that combines both the declarative and imperative business modeling processes. Hybrid models improve service quality of clients off ered by BPM companies, consultants or specialists(Parody, et al., 2016); (Wang, et al., 2013). Therefore the purpose of this article is to examine a new approach of creating and developing an effective hybrid process model called case analytics workbench, which combines both declarative and imperative business modeling approaches. The hybrid modeling approach is able to modeling all processes of the business. Looking at it from human effort perspective, creating and refining a hybrid business process model for knowledge-intensive processes is a demanding task. To begin with, the modeler must visualize the process model so as to have a picture of the final product. This gets more challenging as the complexity and structure of the business becomes more complex. Second, the model should identify and follow an appropriate learning curve so as to learn the latest hybrid modeling guidelines and languages. Third, the modeler must ensure that his hybrid model is up-to-date by running various process mining approaches and explaining the results comprehensively so as to improve it. Last but not least, it is important for the modeler to check other analytics approaches so as to customize his model even better. There are five main features that make case analytics workbench a better business process modeling method. First, this method combines mining results obtained from both imperative and declarative processes and extract evidences backed by data then uses an original hybrid model to synthetize the evidences automatically. Second, it applies a hybrid modeling approach that is acceptable in the industry by modeling declarative parts and imperative parts using CMMN and BPMN respectively, and considering their extendibility and applicability. Third, it uses event log clustering for customizing the business process model created. Fourth, it provides better and state-of-the-art interfaces that improves users visualization and interactions when creating and developing a business process model. Fifth, it is integrated with IMB Case Manager (IBM) a case management product(Yu, et al., 2015). The case analytics workbench comprises of four main modules: case model management module, data management module, process mining module, and evidence management module, as shown in Figure 1 below. Case model management module is the most fundamental module and it comprises of three components: case model storage, case model manager and case model editor. This module provides users with a platform for interacting with a case model and allow them to create, edit, save and transform business models(Yu, et al., 2015). Data management module handles different process execution logs or records, convert them to approved event record formats or layouts, and process them further with clustering. Process mining module uses data management modules event logs to run imperative and declarative process mining methods. Evidence management module obtains mining results from process mining module and presents it to the user for value-added understanding and insight. This model is also used to store, visualize, filter and synthesize evidences. In terms of organization, the workbench is divided into two segments. The first is the server-side components that are set out in the cloud, and the second is the client-side components that acts as an interface for users to execute their actions and also maintains business logic. To demonstrate the capability of case analytics workbench on creating and developing a business process model that has been created in this article, the authors performed two practical case studies, one from insurance industry and another from healthcare industry. The first case study was used to show how different components of the case analytics workbench are arranged and synchronized to help the modeler create and develop an underwriting model more conveniently. The second case study was about improving a complex hybrid model. In the first case study, 4300 execution logs of underwriting process were collected from an insurance company. Data presentation component of the workbench was used to transform the data to formal event logs. Event log cluttering was used to generate two clusters: cluster 0 with 2038 auto insurance underwriting cases and cluster 1 with 2267 property insurance underwriting cases. Declarative process mining method was used to generate visualization results in a Dendrogram. The results were presented in bars with different colors, lengths, black line position (showing support and goal correlation), as shown in Figure 2 below. The results provided very meaningful and reasonable elements that were not well-defined in raw data, such as additional tasks and constraints. Imperative process-mining method is also used to mine sensible sub-processes for various tasks then transformed them to evidences, as shown in Figure 3 below, which also contains evidences transformed from results of declarative process-mining method. Before evidence synthesis engine was automatically run, a filter was used to select strong evidences with support and goal correlation greater than 0.3 and 0.5 respectively. Recommendations for model improvement were provided by evidence synthesizer component, after which the user selected and confirmed the improvements in order to create the final process model, which is shown in Figure 4 below. Therefore this case study demonstrated data collection, preparation and clustering; process mining; and evidence analysis and synthesis processes of case analytics workbench. The second case study was used to show care pathway improvement. In medical context, a care pathway refers to a standardized process comprising of several care stages that correspond to various conditions of disease progression, and each stage has its different clinical tasks and unique constraints. Care pathways are usually complex and therefore the authors of this article were optimistic that a hybrid process model would be an effective solution to the problem. In this case study, the workbench was used to build a case model of initial care pathway derived from clinical guide for managing cognitive heart failure. The authors used real electronic medical records to mine evidences that were then used to refine the created model so as to generate one that met the needs of a specific group of patients. The evidences obtained from the imperative and declarative process-mining engines were meaningful and played a key role in refining the care pathway model, which is shown in Figure 5 bel ow. The case analytics workbench demonstrated in this article by its authors is evidently an efficient, flexible and reliable method of creating and developing a business process model. Nevertheless, the authors have highlighted some issues that must be considered to make the process successful or even better. One of these issues is the human effort needed when creating a business process model using the workbench. This process is knowledge intensive and requires the modeler to visualize the entire process and final product at the start, learn the latest hybrid modeling guidelines and languages any time they are released, continuously update the model being created and find out what other modelers are creating so as to improve and customize his model. Another issue is the cost of decoupling. If the volume of data being used is too large, it becomes relatively burdensome for the network to transmit the data between different modules of the model. Therefore advanced methods of data transmi ssion are necessary. The authors have also highlighted the need for empirical evaluation aimed at enabling different modelers create a hybrid process model integrally. This will enable the methods developed to run models that have already been generated instead of just being used as modeling tools. The case studies presented in this article have demonstrated the capability of case analytics workbench to create a hybrid business process model. This approach is cloud-based and has coherent interface that enables users to interact with case models and check analysis results absolutely hassle-free. This cloud-based architecture has numerous advantages including extendibility and versatility. In this article, it has been proven to be very useful and efficient for use in healthcare and insurance industries. The fact that hybrid process model combines declarative and imperative process-mining approaches makes it better than discrete models such as BPMN model. The hybrid process model created in this article is applicable in a wide range of fields of BPM and it has been accepted by BPM product developers and managers, BPM specialists, business process administrators, clinical physicians, etc. The key advantages highlighted by its users include: combination of imperative and declarative process-mining methods; involvement of clustering technique; and improvement of user interaction. Still there is room for improving the hybrid process modelling and more focus should be put on empirical evaluation so that different modelers can create a hybrid model integrally and use it to run already generated models. The authors of this article have comprehensively presented a solution of creating a cloud-based, end-to-end system that combines imperative and declarative process mining to create a hybrid business process model. Case analytics workbench, as it has been called, is an advanced, flexible, user friendly and versatile hybrid business process model that is can be used to solve a variety of business process management problems. The authors have successfully demonstrated application of this model in healthcare and insurance industries. Even though this hybrid model has numerous advantages over other models that use either imperative or declarative process-mining methods, there is still great room for improvement. Some of the suggested researches include: further empirical evaluation aimed at enabling different modelers to create a hybrid process model integrally; improvement of data transmission mechanisms; and reduction of decoupling cost. All in all, results obtained using the case analy tic workbench developed and presented by authors of this article were impressive and accepted by various specialists, including BPM specialists, business process administrators, BPM product developers and managers and clinical physicians. Therefore hybrid business process models such as case analytics benchmark have great potential of improving business process management. References Caron, F. Vanthienen, J., 2016. Exploring business process modelling paradigms and design-time to run-time transitions. Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, 10(7), pp. 790-813. De Giacomo, G., Dumas, M., Maggi, F. Montali, M., 2015. Declarative Process Modeling in BPMN. In: Z. J, K. M J. P, eds. Advanced Information Systems Engineering . Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 84-100. Goedertier, S., Vanthienen, J. F, C., 2015. Declarative business process modelling: principles and modelling languages. Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, 9(2), pp. 161-185. Parody, L., Gomez-Lopez, M. Gasca, R., 2016. Hybrid business process modeling for the optimization of outcome data. Journal of Information and Software Technology, 70(C), pp. 140-154. Wang, Y., Huang, L. Guo, Y., 2013. Intgrating declarative and imperative approach to model logistics service processes. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 6(1), pp. 237-248. Yu, X. et al., 2015. Case Analytics Workbench: Platform for Hybrid Process Model Creation and Evolution. Innsbruck, Austria, 13th International Conference on Business Process Management.

Shakespeares Comedy Vs. Tragedy Essays (974 words) -

Shakespeare's Comedy Vs. Tragedy Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare's plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of 'lovers', Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few simple changes. A tragic play is a play in which one or more characters have a moral flaw that lead to his/her downfall. A comedic play has at least one humorous character, and a successful or happy ending. Comparing these two plays is useful to find how Shakespeare uses similar character types in a variety of plays, and the versatility of the themes which he uses. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is young, not yet fourteen, and she is beautiful, and Romeo's reaction after he sees her is: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear Beauty to rich for use, for the earth too dear! Juliet is also prudent, Although I joy in thee, I have no joy in this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. She feels that because they have just met, they should abstain from sexual intercourse. Hermia is also young, and prudent. When Lysander suggests that One turf shall serve as a pillow for both of us, One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth, Hermia replies Nay, good Lysander. For my sake, my dear, Lie further off yet; do not lie so near. Although this couple has known each other for a while (Romeo and Juliet knew each other for one night when the above quote was spoken), Hermia also abstains from even sleeping near Lysander even though she believes he does not have impure intentions. Romeo's and Juliet's families are feuding. Because of these feuds, their own parents will not allow the lovers to see each other. In the a differnet way Hermia is not allowed to marry Lysander. Hermia's father Egeus says to Theseus, Duke of Athens: Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand fourth, Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child. Egeus tells the Duke that his daughter can marry Demetrius, not Lysander. Hermia replies . . . If I refuse to wed Demetrius, Egeus replies Either to die the death, or to abjure for ever the society of men. If Hermia does go against her father's wishes, and weds Lysander, she will either be put to death, or be forced to become a nun. Both pairs of lovers also seek help from another. Juliet and Romeo seek Friar Lawrence, and Lysander and Hermia seek Lysander's aunt, who lives in the woods near Athens. Both sets of youths have the same character type. They are young, their love is prohibited, both women are prudent, and both seek the help of an adult. Yet they have their subtle differences. For example, Lysander, never mentioned a love before Hermia. Romeo loved Rosaline, before he loved Juliet. Hermia's family and Lysander's family were not feuding, whereas the Montagues' and Capulets' feude was central to the plot of the play. The stories of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream are very different however. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy. Oberon, king of the fairies, sends a mischievous imp named, Puck, to play a trick on the queen of the fairies, Titania, and on a pair of Athenian youth. Puck turns Nick Bottom's head into that of an ass (Nick Bottom is the man in the play production within A Midsummer Night's Dream; he tried to play every part), and places an herb on Titania that causes her to fall in love with him. This is quite humorous. However, at the end of the play all the couples are back together, with the ones they love. Thus Lysander and Hermia do get married. If Egeus had showed up at the wedding, he could have killed her.

Free Essays on Dave Matthews Band

The Dave Matthews Band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in early 1991, when vocalist/guitarist Dave Matthews decided to put some songs he had written on tape. Instead of simply recording himself with a guitar, he opted to bring in some instrumental help to give his musical ideas more depth. Dave found assistance in drummer Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who were both accomplished jazz musicians in the local Charlottesville music scene. Based on the recommendation of distinguished local jazz guru John D’earth, 16-year-old musical prodigy Stefan Lessard came on board to play bass. Completing the band was keyboard player Peter Griesar, who left the band after a couple of years, as well as the talented and classically trained violinist, Boyd Tinsley. The first official gig for the newly conceived Dave Matthews Band was May 11, 1991, at a private rooftop party in Charlottesville. Its first public show was at the city’s 1991 Earth Day Festival. Local weekly gigs soon followed, and within a little time, word of the band’s contagious new sound spread like wildfire throughout the region. Clubs started to fill up, tours began to cover more territory, and the fan base grew at an incredible rate. On November 9, 1993, DMB released its first album, Remember Two Things, on its Bama Rags label. The album was recorded live at The Muse Music Club on Nantucket Island, in August of 1993. The album debuted on College charts as the highest independent entry, and went on to be certified gold by the RIAA a significant accomplishment for an independent album. Meanwhile, the band kept touring and its fan base continued to grow. By allowing fans to tape shows for their personal use, DMB created a highly interactive community that continues in spirit today. During the first part of 1994, Dave Matthews Band recorded its RCA debut, Under The Table and Dreaming. Just before the album’s release on September 27, 1994, Dave Matthews... Free Essays on Dave Matthews Band Free Essays on Dave Matthews Band The Dave Matthews Band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in early 1991, when vocalist/guitarist Dave Matthews decided to put some songs he had written on tape. Instead of simply recording himself with a guitar, he opted to bring in some instrumental help to give his musical ideas more depth. Dave found assistance in drummer Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who were both accomplished jazz musicians in the local Charlottesville music scene. Based on the recommendation of distinguished local jazz guru John D’earth, 16-year-old musical prodigy Stefan Lessard came on board to play bass. Completing the band was keyboard player Peter Griesar, who left the band after a couple of years, as well as the talented and classically trained violinist, Boyd Tinsley. The first official gig for the newly conceived Dave Matthews Band was May 11, 1991, at a private rooftop party in Charlottesville. Its first public show was at the city’s 1991 Earth Day Festival. Local weekly gigs soon followed, and within a little time, word of the band’s contagious new sound spread like wildfire throughout the region. Clubs started to fill up, tours began to cover more territory, and the fan base grew at an incredible rate. On November 9, 1993, DMB released its first album, Remember Two Things, on its Bama Rags label. The album was recorded live at The Muse Music Club on Nantucket Island, in August of 1993. The album debuted on College charts as the highest independent entry, and went on to be certified gold by the RIAA a significant accomplishment for an independent album. Meanwhile, the band kept touring and its fan base continued to grow. By allowing fans to tape shows for their personal use, DMB created a highly interactive community that continues in spirit today. During the first part of 1994, Dave Matthews Band recorded its RCA debut, Under The Table and Dreaming. Just before the album’s release on September 27, 1994, Dave Matthews...

The Indian Firm CMYK Health Boutiques Research Paper

The Indian Firm CMYK Health Boutiques - Research Paper Example The Four Fountains Spa is a unique concept in the wellness industry and aims at offering a quality spa experience at affordable prices. It is currently located only at the city of Pune, India, with two centres there and is aiming to set up day spas in the top 20 towns of the country. The spa has body polishes, body wraps, facials and many other packages for men and women. In world therapies, they have the Swedish Therapy which is a deep tissue massage that uses firm but gentle pressure and is known to relax, improve circulation, ease muscle aches and tension. They even have the Harmonizing aromatherapy which is essentially done with natural oils from flowers, herbs, leaves and fruits. From the Far East, there is the Thai Meridian Therapy which is not an oil massage but takes into consideration Marma (energy) points. They also have thirty-minute massages like comforting foot reflexology and back therapy to eliminate pain in those areas. In Indian therapies, they have the Abhyangam, wh ich involves the application of herbal oils using soft and gentle strokes in the downward direction. Also, there is Shirodhara, where warm herbal oil is gently poured on the forehead. This is said to help in curing fatigue, mental exhaustion, anxiety, insomnia, headache and nervousness. They also have various facials, body polishes and body wraps (body polish plus body mask). Their special package for men is interestingly called Gentleman’s Retreat. Similarly, the one for the women is called Ladies Day Out.

Westward Hilton Hotel Competitive Advantages Case Study

Westward Hilton Hotel Competitive Advantages - Case Study Example It is evident when Enz (472) says that hotel revenue per available room rose from a rate of $66.65 to $123.10 within a period of seven years. In addition, customers could quickly locate the hotel from afar due to its strategic position made it easy to access. The competitive advantages enjoyed by Westward hotel were sustainable. The hotel had the ability to accommodate many transient travelers. Enz (456) says that the hotel was located in a 13-story building with 300 guest rooms. It is evident the hotel was spacious enough to hold a large number of businessmen and visitors at a go. The hotel management had also employed enough staff to cater for the large visitor turn out. Additionally, though transient travelers do not have a demographic preference, the hotel was strategically located for the tourists acting as an added advantage. The human practices and culture at Westward hotel were not easy to imitate for competitors. For the most competitor, time was an essential and significant component in the production. Efficient utilization of time was the primary cause of success in most hotels. Few if none could allow their members of staff to sleep while on duty. Westward was different as they tolerated some of their elderly workers to take a nap. According to Enz (471), the Westward Company was tolerant and trusted their workers. They allowed an older woman, who worked at the laundry, thirty minutes nap daily while on duty. In addition, Westward had a family environment where managers interacted closely with employees. The hotel management took good care of their employees motivating them and their families. They showered their employees with a seasonal gift during festive holidays like Christmas. Enz (471) further states that Westward gave their employees a chance to be and express themselves. In most business e nvironments, employees are expected to stick to the company rules and regulations.

Good Readers Good Writers V Essay Example for Free

Good Readers Good Writers V Essay â€Å"Good Readers and Good Writers† (from Lectures on Literature) Vladimir Nabokov (originally delivered in 1948) My course, among other things, is a kind of detective investigation of the mystery of literary structures. How to be a Good Reader or Kindness to Authors—something of that sort might serve to provide a subtitle for these various discussions of various authors, for my plan is to deal lovingly, in loving and lingering detail, with several European Masterpieces. A hundred years ago, Flaubert in a letter to his mistress made the following remark: Commelon serait savant si l’on  connaissait bien seulement cinq a six livres: What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books. In reading, one should notice and fondle details. There is nothing wrong about the moonshine of generalization when it comes after the sunny trifles of the book have been lovingly collected. If one begins with a readymade generalization, one begins at the wrong end and travels away from the book before one has started to understand it. Nothing is more boring or more unfair to the author than starting to read, say, Madame Bovary, with the preconceived notion that it is a denunciation of the bourgeoisie. We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge. Another question: Can we expect to glean information about places and times from a novel? Can anybody be so naive as to think he or she can learn anything about the past from those buxom  best-sellers that are hawked around by book clubs under the heading of historical novels? But what about the masterpieces? Can we rely on Jane Austen’s picture of landowning England with baronets and landscaped grounds when all she knew was a clergyman’s parlor? And Bleak House, that fantastic romance within a fantastic London, can we call it a study of London a hundred years ago? Certainly not. And the same holds for other such novels in this series. The truth is that great novels are great fairy tales—and the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales. Time and space, the colors of the seasons, the movements of muscles and minds, all these are for writers of genius (as far as we can guess and I trust we guess right) not traditional notions which may be borrowed from the circulating library of public truths but a series of unique surprises which master artists have learned to express in their own unique way. To minor authors is left the ornamentation of the commonplace: these do not bother about any reinventing of the world; they merely try to squeeze the best they can out of a given order of things, out of traditional  patterns of fiction. The various combinations these minor authors are able to produce within these set limits may be quite amusing in a mild ephemeral way because minor readers like to recognize their own ideas in a pleasing disguise. But the real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a very futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of  fiction. The material of this world may be real enough (as far as reality goes) but does not exist at all as an accepted entirety: it is chaos, and to this chaos the author says go! allowing the world to flicker and to fuse. It is now recombined in its very atoms, not merely in its visible and superficial parts. The writer is the first man to mop it and to form the natural objects it contains. Those berries there are edible. That speckled creature that bolted across my path might be tamed. That lake between those trees will be called Lake Opal or, more artistically, Dishwater  Lake. That mist is a mountain—and that mountain must be conquered. Up a trackless slope climbs the master artist, and at the top, on a windy ridge, whom do you think he meets? The panting and happy reader, and there they spontaneously embrace and are linked forever if the book lasts forever. One evening at a remote provincial college through which I happened to be jogging on a protracted lecture tour, I suggested a little quiz—ten definitions of a reader, and from these ten the students had to choose four definitions that would combine to make a good reader. I have  mislaid the list, but as far as I remember the definitions went something like this. Select four answers to the question what should a reader be to be a good reader: 1. The reader should belong to a book club. 2. The reader should identify himself or herself with the hero or heroine. 3. The reader should concentrate on the social-economic angle. 4. The reader should prefer a story with action and dialogue to one with none. 5. The reader should have seen the book in a movie. 6. The reader should be a budding author. 7. The reader should have imagination. 8. The reader should have memory. 9.  The reader should have a dictionary. 10. The reader should have some artistic sense. The students leaned heavily on emotional identification, action, and the social-economic or historical angle. Of course, as you have guessed, the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sensewhich sense I propose to develop in myself and in others whenever I have the chance. Incidentally, I use the word reader very loosely. Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic appreciation. When we look at a painting we do not have to move our eyes in a special way even if, as in a book, the picture contains elements of depth and development. The element of time does not really enter in a first contact with a painting. In reading a book, we must have time to acquaint ourselves with it. We have no physical organ (as we have the eye in regard to a painting) that takes in the whole picture and then can enjoy its details. But at a second, or third, or fourth reading we do, in a sense, behave towards a book as we do towards a painting. However, let us not confuse the physical eye, that monstrous masterpiece of evolution, with the mind, an even more monstrous achievement. A book, no matter what it is—a work of fiction or a work of science (the boundary line between the two is not as clear as is generally believed)—a book of fiction appeals first of all to the mind. The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be, the only instrument used upon a book. Now, this being so, we should ponder the question how does the mind work when the sullen reader is confronted by the sunny book. First, the sullen mood melts away, and for better or worse the reader enters into the spirit of the game. The effort to begin a book, especially if it is praised by people whom the young reader secretly deems to be too old-fashioned or too serious, this effort is often difficult to make; but once it is made, rewards are various and abundant. Since the master artist used his imagination in creating his book, it is natural and fair that the consumer of a book should use his imagination too. There are, however, at least two varieties of imagination in the reader’s case. So let us see which one of the two is the right one to use in reading a book. First, there is the comparatively lowly kind which turns for support to the simple emotions and is of a definitely personal nature. (There are various subvarieties here, in this first section of emotional reading. ) A situation in a book is intensely felt because it reminds us of something that happened to us or to someone we  know or knew. Or, again, a reader treasures a book mainly because it evokes a country, a landscape, a mode of living which he nostalgically recalls as part of his own past. Or, and this is the worst thing a reader can do, he identifies himself with a character in the book. This lowly variety is not the kind of imagination I would like readers to use. So what is the authentic instrument to be used by the reader? It is impersonal imagination and artistic delight. What should be established, I think, is an artistic harmonious balance between the reader’s mind and the author’s mind. We ought to remain a little aloof and take pleasure in this aloofness while at the same time we keenly enjoy—passionately enjoy, enjoy with tears and shivers—the inner weave of a given masterpiece. To be quite objective in these matters is of course impossible. Everything that is worthwhile is to some extent subjective. For instance, you sitting there may be merely my dream, and I may be your nightmare. But what I mean is that the reader must know when and where to curb his imagination and this he does by trying to get clear the specific world the author places at his disposal. We must see things and hear things, we must visualize the rooms, the clothes, the manners of an author’s people. The color of Fanny Price’s eyes in Mansfield Park and the furnishing of her cold little room are important. We all have different temperaments, and I can tell you right now that the best temperament for a reader to have, or to develop, is a combination of the artistic and the scientific one. The enthusiastic artist alone is apt to be too subjective in his attitude towards a book, and so a scientific coolness of judgment will temper the intuitive heat. If, however, a would-be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience—of an artist’s passion and a scientist’s patience—he will hardly enjoy great literature. Literature was born not the day when a boy crying wolf, wolf came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born on the day when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him. That the poor little fellow because he lied too often was finally eaten up by a real beast is quite incidental. But here is what is important. Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering  go-between. That go-between, that prism, is the art of literature. Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth. Every great writer is a great deceiver, but so is that arch-cheat Nature. Nature always deceives. From the simple deception of propagation to the prodigiously sophisticated illusion of protective colors in butterflies or birds, there is in Nature a marvelous system of spells and wiles. The writer of fiction only follows Nature’s lead. Going back for a moment to our wolf-crying woodland little woolly fellow, we may put it this  way: the magic of art was in the shadow of the wolf that he deliberately invented, his dream of the wolf; then the story of his tricks made a good story. When he perished at last, the story told about him acquired a good lesson in the dark around the campfire. But he was the little magician. He was the inventor. There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a teacher, and as an enchanter. A major writer combines these three—storyteller, teacher, enchanter—but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major  writer. To the storyteller we turn for entertainment, for mental excitement of the simplest kind, for emotional participation, for the pleasure of traveling in some remote region in space or time. A slightly different though not necessarily higher mind looks for the teacher in the writer. Propagandist, moralist, prophet—this is the rising sequence. We may go to the teacher not only for moral education but also for direct knowledge, for simple facts. Alas, I have known people whose purpose in reading the French and Russian novelists was to learn something about life in gay Paree or in sad Russia. Finally, and above all, a great writer is always a great enchanter, and it is here that we come to the really exciting part when we try to grasp the individual magic of his genius and to study the style, the imagery, the pattern of his novels or poems. The three facets of the great writer—magic, story, lesson—are prone to blend in one impression of unified and unique radiance, since the magic of art may be present in the very bones of the story, in the very marrow of thought. There are masterpieces of dry, limpid, organized thought which provoke in us an artistic quiver quite as strongly as a novel like Mansfield Park does or as  any rich flow of Dickensian sensual imagery. It seems to me that a good formula to test the quality of a novel is, in the long run, a merging of the precision of poetry and the intuition of science. In order to bask in that magic a wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading. Then with a pleasure which is both sensual and intellectual we shall watch the artist build his castle of cards and watch the castle of cards become a castle of beautiful steel and glass.