The History of sexuality

The term sexuality had been a puzzle for many people for a long time. A lot of research has been done on the topic by many philosophers as well as historians. Among them was a French philosopher known as Michel Foucault who researched on the history of sexuality. Sexuality basically means the identification of difference in gender. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The History of sexuality specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is the main feature for the identities of people. Philosophers have before claimed that sexuality operates in an unstable manner and it is developed through social interactions. Therefore the history of sexuality can be said to have started long ago as people tried to find out more about the creation of God. Research shows that not every person understands all about sexuality. Different people and cultures have their own different perception of the term. In countries like Japan, China and Indi a the word sexuality is seen as something that is normal and no one is ashamed of talking about it. Though they keep it as a secret they find no harm in discussing the topic of sexuality. On the other hand, the western society has a different perspective about the term. They find it to be a secretive term and not to be publicly discussed. It can therefore be said that one’s understanding depends on an individual’s egotism. During the course of my study in high school I got to see how people may be confused by the term sexuality. There was one of our school mates who had male characteristics yet she had been born a female. The reason behind this was that she had been born a hermaphrodite; that is having both sexual organs. The doctors who first examined her after birth decided that it was easy chopping off the male sexual organ other than surgical procedures on the female sexual organ. With this, they did not consider anything to do with the hormones, internal organs or the reproductive cells. Since all babies are identical despite the sexuality no one was able to notice any difference. The problem arose during her high school life when her body was undergoing hormonal changes. The body started developing visible male features and characteristics such as beards, hoarse voice, no breasts and many others. Since we were in an only girl’s school, she could be easily distinguished. The issue about her sexuality greatly affected her social life and eventually academically.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It was after much consultation with her parents that she realized the mystic about her sexuality and underwent another surgery to convert her to the male sexual being she was supposed to be. The problem can be dated back to the doctors who first examined her. They did not understand that sexuality is more than just the sexual organs. Sexuality h as a lot to do with personality and many other factors which may not be visible. This was a serious mistake costing the teenage life of a person. It can therefore be concluded that sexuality is a very important issue to human beings. Ignoring and taking sexuality for granted is wrong just as described by Foucault. He says that people of the Western society suppressed the word sexuality. Considering the effects that are bound to arise because of negligence of sexuality, it calls for immediate change of state of the situation. That is, people should critically look at sexuality and begin to put more recognition on it. Doing this will create a freely interactive and sociable community. This essay on The History of sexuality was written and submitted by user Avery Y. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How to Write a Dissertation in Criminal Law Easy Guide

How to Write a Dissertation in Criminal Law Easy Guide Writing a dissertation can be a daunting task for any student, especially those who study criminal law. When writing a dissertation in criminal law, you need to meticulously examine all facts which you found during your research before you can frame any research questions. The process is rather time-consuming and you need to have the perfect knowledge of legal terms in order to appropriately use them in the text of your criminal law dissertation. But the main problem is that no dissertation can be written in a couple of weeks because it requires plenty of time for formulating a research question, doing research, planning your draft, writing, and revising. You need to stay organized while you are working on this complex project so you need guidance on how to do it right. To help you get started, we created a step-by-step guide on how to write a dissertation in criminal law which covers all essential aspects of the writing process. And if you need help with any other college project, we offer you full guides to all writing assignments out there. What Is a Dissertation in Criminal Law? As a student, you have written a variety of papers but the dissertation in criminal law is a completely new experience because this project is much larger and more independent than your previous academic work. Many scholars compare writing a dissertation to writing a book because it is a self-directed process. No one tells you what to do, you do it on your own and the writing process is much longer than when you are working on other coursework assignments. It’s a stressful but at the same time, rewarding experience because you will build valuable research and writing skills that you will use throughout your career. Dissertation in criminal law is a long project of 100 to 200 pages so you should start working on it as early as possible. And the first important step is choosing a good topic. Let’s discuss this step in detail. Choosing a Topic for a Dissertation in Criminal Law It’s important to choose your dissertation topic wisely because it’s a large project that accounts for a major part of your degree. Here are some suggestions: Pick a topic that interests you. You will work on your dissertation for many weeks. It will be easier for you to stay motivated if you like what you do. Or you may choose a topic which will be related to your future career. Try to find something unique. It’s not easy to find really original topic but you can try to look at a popular research topic from another angle. Be objective with your research topic. Analyze the idea you like from the outsider’s perspective and try to understand the scope of your topic. Don’t choose too broad topic. If your idea is too broad, you won’t be able to explore it in a given word count and come to convincing conclusions. Don’t pick a topic if it’s too narrow. You won’t be able to expand your argument and meet requirement for a certain word count. Still not sure how to come up with a good topic for a dissertation in criminal law? Here are some interesting ideas for your inspiration: Causes of College Violence; Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony in Court; Scope of Capital Punishment in Law; Criminal Insanity and Mental Health; Domestic Abuse Legislation; The #MeToo Movement vs the Presumption of Innocence; Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard; Anti-abortion Legislation in US; Gun Control Debate; Illegal Drug Trade in Colombia; Harvey Weinstein Sexual Abuse Allegations; Prostitution and Human Trafficking in India; False Confessions and Wrongfully Convicted; Cybercrimes and National Security; Anti-terrorism Legislation. Writing a Research Proposal for Your Dissertation in Criminal Law After you choose and topic and narrow it down, it’s time to start a formal research. That’s why you need a research proposal. The purpose of writing a research proposal is to show that you have an expertise to conduct your proposed area of research. It’s an important document that gives a concise and logical summary of your proposed research and demonstrates its originality. Your research proposal should be about 2,500 – 3,500 words in length and include the following basic parts: Title should include the key question of your proposed research; Background: issues of the research you propose, review of existing literature, brief summary of key debates in the field; Research question – explain what issues you want to explore and why they are important; Methodology section should explain your choice of specific methods for doing research; Plan of work – outline stages of your research with corresponding time lines; Bibliography – you need to include a list of articles that you discuss in your proposal and a list of resources that are appropriate for your research. Keep in mind that before you start doing a research, you need to formulate your research questions that have not been answered in the previous research. For example, if the topic of your dissertation in criminal law is sentencing trends in environmental crimes, your research question may look like this one: ‘What are criminal sentence variations for environmental crimes according to data from EPA Criminal Online databases?’ How to Structure a Dissertation in Criminal Law There are specific conventions that determine the general structure of a dissertation in each discipline. A typical dissertation may consist of the following essential parts: Abstract gives a summary of your dissertation findings; Introduction sets the context of your criminal law dissertation and explains what issues you are going to investigate and why; Literature review provides theoretical foundation for your approach, establishes gaps in existing research, and connects your research question with the gaps; Methodology section tells about methods that you will use for gathering data; Findings show the data you have gathered during the investigation; Discussion interprets and analyzes the collected data; Conclusion answers the question â€Å"so what?† and tell about the significance of your investigation. Steps in Writing a Draft of Your Dissertation in Criminal Law After your topic has been approved by the committee, you need to start working on your project. First you should start doing research and collecting data and document your findings as you proceed. When the research stage is over, the writing process begins. It can be divided into several steps and each step requires considerable work so the key factor to succeed is time management. You should write chapter after chapter and submit them to your mentor for approval. Let’s discuss the content of different chapters in detail. Introduction This is the first chapter so it has to provide background information for your research, describe the research problem, and provides reasoning behind it. You should speak about the significance of the problem, include theoretical definitions of important terms, identify research questions and hypothesis, and speak about the limitations of your study. The chapter may be about 600-700 words in length although for some topics, the introduction can be longer Literature review Literature review sets the context of your study. Your task is to describe the current state of research in your field area, and determine an existing gap where you think further research may solve the existing problems. You should also explain how you are going to address the existing gap. This can help in formulating problems or/and research questions you will be exploring in your criminal law dissertation. You can present your literature review in the form of classification, critical analysis or comparison. This chapter should justify the purpose of your research and your research question. The length of this chapter may be 3,000-4,000 words. Methodology First, state the objectives of your research. Then you need to introduce the methods you have chosen for doing research and tell about the philosophy behind each method. Every time you choose a new method or technique, you need to explain why you made this choice and why you rejected other methods. The length of this chapter should be about 1,000-2,000 words. In the sections of this chapter, you may write about participants, materials, procedure, and analysis. You should also provide a general description of research design in accepted terminology. Findings The chapter presents results of your research and analyses. Keep in mind that you should present the results without interpretation because you will interpret them in the next chapter. You should present data as answers to research questions and hypothesis and organize the material into table and figures. Don’t forget to reference all your tables and figures in the text. Discussion Now it’s time to interpret results in the light of research questions and discuss how they relate to the existing literature. It would be a mistake to analyze data that are interesting in a general way but are not linked to original hypothesis and research questions. You can include that data into an appendix. You need to apply your analytical and critical thinking skills and highlight where your data differ from the literature or is similar to it. Conclusion Use the evidence from your dissertation to form conclusions but don’t use any new material. Make sure that all the claims you make here are supported by evidence that you presented in the previous chapters. This chapter should also include suggestions for further research but you should also speak about limitations. Abstract Write an abstract of about 250-300 words to give a brief summary of your findings. This section allows people to learn about your research without reading the full paper. You need to include information about your research objectives, methods you used, your key findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Revise, Edit, and Proofread Your Dissertation in Criminal Law When you finish your dissertation in criminal law, you need to put it aside for a couple of days and then revise it and improve the content and logic by adding or deleting some material or making changes. Editing and proofreading are often neglected but in fact, good writing is actually the results of good editing so you should devote substantial amount of time to ensure that your project is clear, concise, and error-free. First, you read your dissertation aloud and should focus on a big picture to improve logic, flow, and sentence structure, eliminate wordiness and inappropriately elevated language, and make sure you use precise words (use thesaurus and a good dictionary for that). After that, you can start fixing grammar and words in separate sentences. You should look for confused or misused words, typos and misspelling, minor grammar mistakes. Finally, you should your formatting for consistent use of the same citation style. Useful Tips for Writing Consistently Now you know what to do and have created a schedule but when you sit down to write, you can’t write a single word. Here are some tips on what you should do when you don’t feel like writing. Create a list of little things you need to do for a specific section of your criminal law dissertation. When you feel that you don’t want to work on your arguments during the scheduled time, you can do something from that list. Freewrite about how tired you are of your project. Expressing your emotions will help you overcome the writers’ block and find some creative solution. Work on your acknowledgements section. Think about all people who helped you and you may feel more inclined to work on your project. It’s the independence of work that makes a dissertation in criminal law a daunting and stressful project but you are sure to cope with it if you follow our guidelines. Know that you are contributing new knowledge to the field of criminal law and that will help you stay motivated.

Electronic nursing documentation and patient safety Essay

Electronic nursing documentation and patient safety - Essay Example A currently happening intensely serious and dangerous nursing shortfall can be meliorated in a number of ways. One method of them is to reduce or extinguish work life dissatisfactory for nurses of which one is the current cumbrous type of nursing documentation of patient care. According to routine or established practice, nurses spend approx 15 to 25% of their working day in documenting patient care, and in some cases this ratio is substantially more than that. This is not an problem as such, but perceptions by nurses that much of this documentation is unneeded or superfluous and above all that it takes away from their ability to deal with direct patient care, have made it a substantial matter for practicing nurses and issues about nursing documentation of patient care important to nurses and consequently to everyone. A recent and popular trend in nursing practice is the institution of electronic documentation. Uptil now, not much is known about this crucial trend or its effects on n ursing documentation subjects (Gugert et al 2007). This purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of electronic nursing documentation and the standards developed for them. The majority of healthcare agencies have anticipated implementing some type of electronic health records (EHR) and electronic documentation systems. A model with standards to be used in various EHR demonstration projects has been suggested. Up to now, the EHR model has had many important consequences or implications on the entire healthcare community, ranging from huge enterprises to private practices, with many states forming planning board to formulate or develop strategies regarding how EHRs can be implemented comprehensively. The Health Information and Management Systems Society has formulated a definitional model that details eight properties and crucial requirements for an EHR, from the need for insure records that can be got at in real time to records that can facilitate and support clinical tes ts. All healthcare facilities are anticipated to have EHRs in place in the almost future to assure safety and improved documentation of care. For many reasons, the switch to a paper less healthcare record is an intimidating and costly venture for healthcare agencies, and not everybody is keen to the use of EHRs. Hence, acceptance rates have deviated widely from region to region. Many of the troubles discovered in implementation of EHRs are both behavioral and organizational, and may be assigned to attitudes towards the consumption of electronic technology or failure of the implementers to look for stimulus from potential users (Moody et al 2004). Electronic documentation and health records are believed to better the quality of care and service rendered to hospitalized patients. The use of electronic documentation sources has become extremely relevant for nurses as they can find the majority of essential patient information thereby. Currently the majority of U.S.

Why All New Buildings Should Be Eco-Friendly Essay

Why All New Buildings Should Be Eco-Friendly - Essay Example Besides, there is a general perception that developing eco-friendly building means disregard for aesthetic values. As a result, eco-friendly buildings are still not so widespread. The costs of developing an eco-friendly building vary from building to building; most of them are more costly than conventional buildings. For instance, in order to minimise the effects on environment, the risk mitigation fee of eco-friendly buildings is near three times higher than it is of conventional ones, as well as the overheads during construction are up to four times more (Newell 2008). Beside these costly inputs, the chief obstacle which causes investors are costly home and commercial property integration of energy efficient technologies which do not offer returns to the investors. Obviously, the owners will save their energy fee from these technologies but the builders can only balance these inputs by selling in higher prices which may cause losing the potential customers consequently. Another problem related to cost efficiency is that the market perceives the cost of capital and construction of eco-friendly building increase significantly as standards are established. Bef ore a new eco-friendly building could be put on the market, it has to be scrutinized by rigid criterion to be qualified as eco-friendly; this entails more money spending on building maintenance. For example, in Australia, it takes more than one year to be certified as â€Å"Green Star† which is a standard launched by Green Building Council Australia (GBCA), and about 8 percent of total financial investment have to be paid for advertising, management and equipments maintaining during this period (Newell 2008). However, in the long run, the return of eco-friendly buildings will out performs the cost invested (Kozlowski 2003 in Miller and Buys 2008).

Prolix Initiative - Care workers case study Essay Example for Free

Prolix Initiative Care workers case study Essay Kevin Pudney and Malcolm Rose have worked in the care sector for over 20 years. Their most recent job is part of a European project aimed at improving training and development in business and speeding the time to competency. More information on the research project is available on the Prolix website (www.prolixproject.org). The project was conducted in partnership with Social Care Institute of Excellence. The social care sector in UK was chosen to test the new systems developed as part of the project. The researcher spent 3 years in Suffolk working with 6 care homes owned by The Partnership In Care (TPIC) group. The Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) [1] is responsible for this social care test-bed and will assess the impact of the project. Whats the problem? Statistics from the Labour Force Survey show that Care Assistants and Home Carers report higher than average levels of stress related illness caused or made worse by the work they do. The PROLIX project aimed to develop systems that would help improve working lives of managers and staff at the homes. The project was not about work related stress, but the researchers recognised that there were factors present that can be associated with cases of work related stress. Staff turnover was about average for a sector that has a generally high turn over rate at around 25%. However, it was particularly high in one home after management problems, where analysis showed turnover in the previous two years of 57%. As skilled staff are replaced by unskilled staff, it increases the training demands on management. It is well established that people who need help with social care want the same carer to care for them consistently; especially those who need help with washing, dressing etc. Where homes have a high turn over rate or rely on temporary or ‘bank’ staff they struggle to offer this consistency of care to the people who live at the home. Other issues identified as part of the testing included; low pay, high job demands, low staffing levels, IT issues and needs of residents as being key issues for staff. Job demands included: 1. The care needs of residents 2. Requirements to record information on care given 3. Required skills and knowledge in over a dozen mandatory areas of competence. Control issues included: 1. The care needs of residents 2. Lack of control over how work is carried out 3. Lack of control over when work is carried out What did they do about it? The initiative focused on improving the management of training and development in order to give staff the skills they need to do the job and satisfy the legal requirements set by Care Quality Commission (CQC). The aim of the work was to help managers understand the issues faced by staff and for Care Assistants to get the training they need so that they could be more skilled and perform better, stay in the role longer and give residents the care that the are looking for. The general study involved all staff and managers at The Partnership in Care homes, and subsets of staff for particular areas of research. One area involved asking care staff to rate themselves on a scale of 1-10 for a set of 17 areas of competency. These areas were based on the requirements set out by CQC and other areas identified as important by the local training manager. Managers were then asked to rate each of their staff in the same competency areas. They had not seen the results from their staff when they did their assessment. This exercise helped staff identify their own Areas For Improvement (AFI) and managers to identify AFIs for staff. It also allowed comparison between staff and managers. This enabled the training manager to identify areas where members of staff did not feel confident in their role or where managers did not feel confident that staff had the necessary skills. It also allowed the training manager to look for trends within teams, for example where there were differences between the ratings given by staff and a manager. It could also identify where people may be over-confident or where they needed more support. The general findings from this competency exercise were shared with staff and managers in a supported environment to help them identify issues and properly interpret data, where training was needed and where staff felt there could be an improvement in the services offered to residents. The detailed individual results were treated as confidential and discussed further in supervision. The final results of the project research were delivered to staff and managers at each home in a day-long session at the end of the project. This enabled the consultant to explain the exercises and the results and spend time with staff and managers to give them support in receiving and delivering the results. It also enabled them to explain how these results would be fed into the development needs of the people who had taken part. There are some 600-800 person training units to be delivered per home to skill all staff to a basic level, with a significant proportion repeated annually as ‘refreshers’ and for new unskilled staff. The organisation owns 6 homes, making this a huge and time consuming activity. The Partnership in Care group has a full time training manager who is responsible for arranging and delivering these training units. Kevin and Malcolm worked with the training manager to help develop a spreadsheet that would enable trainers and managers to see at a glance who had the training they needed, what training was outstanding and when refresher training was due. The training system has helped us see at a glance what training is outstanding and made sure that we can get people trained when they need it and nobody is missed out. Care home manager What else could have been done? They feel that one of the things they would do differently is to help the organisation try to identify suitable people at interview stage. This would help The Partnership In Care group to identify staff development needs at an early stage and invest in those people who have the desire to forge a career or vocation in social care from the beginning of their employment. This would help keep them with the organisation. How can it prevent stress related ill health? It must be made clear that this exercise was not put in place with work related stress in mind. The objective was to help improve the organisation and delivery of training and development within the company. However, demands and control issues were identified as part of this study. By improving the levels of competence of staff and managers and in helping them think about the skills they need to be successful in their work and improve the lives of the people who rely upon them, the work has helped address some of these demand and control issues.

The Victims Essay -- Analysis, Sharon Olds

The process of addressing memories of private suffering within â€Å"The Victims† by Sharon Olds is implied through contradictive perspectives. In the poem there is a shift in focus and tone during line 17. The poem addresses issues of suffering from two distinct perspectives, the first coming from a little girl and the second a grown woman. The narrative, imagery and diction are different in the two contrasting parts of the poem, and the second half carefully qualifies the first, as if to illustrate the more mature and established attitudes of the narrator in her older years – a stipulation of the easy imitation of the earlier years, when the mother’s views dominated and set the tone. Change has governed the poems structure here; differences in age and attitude are supported by an entirely different point of view and frame of reference. The change in the tone of the stylistic elements used by Sharon Olds implicitly portrays the impact that suffering has on the f amily sphere; the complex emotions that arise because of divorce are conveyed through past and present perspectives, comparative imagery and a significant shift in tone. The change in perspective of the narrative, from past to present, portrays the father in two different lights. The poem is told from the point of view of the daughter of a couple who experience marriage problems. The beginning of â€Å"The Victims† illustrates the memories that the woman is recalling nostalgically of her childhood. From lines 1 to 17 the narrator evokes her father, with the repetition of â€Å"you†, (1, 3) who had acted terribly during the narrator’s youth and who was abruptly kicked out and divorced by the mother. The narrator describes her father who, to his daughter, lived a luxurious and insensitive... ...Olds to portray to the reader, through diction, the image of a drowning person. This image, after being taken, analyzed and dissected, reveals deeper connections with the narrator, the narrator’s father and society as a whole. In conclusion, â€Å"The Victims† concerns real purposes and themes that enhance the overall text. When perceiving the term victim many people immediately think of a target of violence or abuse. In the poem â€Å"The Victims†, Olds portrays the sufferers as victims of an experience, rather than a physical scar. As a child, Sharon Olds’ parents divorced. So who is the victim in â€Å"The Victims†? As the narrative, imagery and diction evolve, from the first half to the second half of the poem, so does the classification of victim. Throughout the poem the mother, children and father are all victimized, but also made out to be the culprits.

Financial Accounting 504 Final Project Essay

As noted in Wikipedia Oracle is headquartered in Redwood, California. It was founded in 1977 and is the world’s third largest soft wear developer in sales. According to Yahoo Finance Oracle is a multi-faceted operation. Oracle provides a vast amount of services for the internet and computer. It provides cloud applications, IT consulting services, licenses middleware software which includes database and database management. It has 115,000 full time employees and is run by co-founder, CEO Larry Ellison who has been the only CEO of the company since it’s inception. Also noted in Wikipedia he is the top paid CEO in the world. In 2013 Oracle currently has an operating cash flow of 13.72B with revenues of 37.15B which can be found in Yahoo Finance. Microsoft is a leading software company started by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. The company’s headquarters is located in Redmond, Washington where like Oracle it develops, licenses, manufactures and support a wide range of computing sources, as documented in Wikipedia. Yahoo finance reports that in addition to licensing and manufacturing software over the globe it also designs hardware and has recently entered into the hardware industry with it’s new tablet. It also has a entertainment division which is responsible for the manufacturing of Xbox360 gaming and consoles, Kinect for Xbox and video games among other products. It has a total of 94,000 full time employees and can be credited for creating 3 billionaires and 12 millionaires from the company’s operations. Microsoft currently has a cash flow of 73.79B with revenues of 76.01B for 2013. Interpretation and Comparison between the two companies’ ratios (Reading the Appendix of Chapter 13 will help you prepare the commentary) Oracle Corporation Microsoft Corporation Earnings per share As given in the income statement $1.69 Basic Common $2.73 Microsoft has shown to have a higher EPS than Oracle. Current ratio Current assets Current liabilities $39,174 $14,192 = 2.76 $74,918 $28,774 2.60 Oracle is showing more favorable current ratio than Microsoft. This ratio depicts for every dollar of current liabilites it has the respective amount in current assets. Gross Profit Ratio Gross profit Net Sales Gross Profit = net sales – COGS Oracle: 35,622 – 8,398 = 27,224 Microsoft: 69,943 15,577 = 54,366 $27,224 $35,622 = 76.4% $54,366 $69,943 77.7% Microsoft’s Gross Profit Ratio is slightly better than Oracle. Profit margin ratio Net Income Net Sales $8,547 $35,622 = 24.0% $23,150 $69,943 33.1% Microsoft has a better Profit Margin Ratio than Oracle. Inventory Turnover Cost of Goods Sold Average Inventory Average Inventory: 2011 + 2010/2 Oracle: 303 + 259/2 = 281 Microsoft: 1,372 + 740/2 = 1056 $8,398 $281 29.9 times $15,577 $1,056 14.8 times Oracle shows a significantly higher turnover than Microsoft. Days in Inventory 365 days Inventory turnover 365 29.9 = 12 days 365 14.8 25 days Oracle has better result than Microsoft Receivable Turnover Ratio Net credit sales Average Net Receivables Average Net Receivables: 2011 +2010/2 Oracle: 6628 + 5585/2 = 6107 Avg NR Microsoft:14987 + 13014/2 = 14001 Avg N $35,622 $6,107 = 5.8 $69,943 $14,001 5.0 Microsofts Receivable Turnover is faster than Oracle. Average Collection Period 365 Receivable Turnover Ratio 365 5.8 = 62.6 days 365 5.0 73.1 Oracle has a better result on the collection period. Assets Turnover Ratio Net Sales Average Total Assets Average Total Assets = 2011+2010/2 Oracle: 73535 + 61578/2 = 67557 Microsoft: 108704 + 86113 = 97409 $35,622 $67,557 = 0.53 $69,943 $97,409 0.72 Microsoft shows a better ratio. Return on Assets Ratio Net Income Average Total Assets $8,547 $67,557 = 12.7% $23,150 $97,409 23.8% Microsoft has a better return on their assets. Debt to Total Assets Ratio Total Liabilities Total Assets $33,290 $73,535 = 45.3% $51,621 $108,704 47.5% Microsoft is slightly higher so Oracle has a better ratio. Times Interest Earned Ratio Net Income + Int Expense + Tax Expense Interest Expense $12,219 $808 = 15.1 28,366 295 96.2 Microsoft has a much healthier ratio than Oracle. Payout ratio Cash dividend declared on common stock Net income $1,061 $8,547 = 12.4% $5,180 $23,150 22.4% Microsoft has a higher rate of dividend pay outs Return on Common Stockholders’ Equity Net income – Preferred stock dividend Average common stockholders’ equity Oracle Avg SE: 40245 + 31199/2 Microsoft Avg SE: 57083 + 46175/2 8,547 35,722.00 = 23.9% $23,150 $51,629 44.8% Microsoft earned more on the dollar of their net income for each dollar of the stockholder’s equity. Free cash flow Cash provided by operations minus capital expenditures minus cash dividends paid $9,703 = $9,703 $19,459 $ Microsoft has a considerable amount more Free cash 19,459 flow than Oracle Current cash debt coverage ratio Cash provided by operations Average current liabilities $11,214 $14,442 = 0.78 $26,994 $27,461 0.98 Microsoft has a better ratio of paying debt within the year. Cash debt coverage ratio Cash provided by operations Average total liabilities $11,214 $31,835 = 0.35 $26,994 $45,780 0.59 Microsoft has a better ratio. Price/Earnings ratio Market price as of 06/30/2011 EPS as of 06/30/2011 $34.22 $1.69 = 20 $26.87 $2.73 10 Oracle fairs better than Microsoft with the investor’s projection of the strength of future earnings Liquidity: Overall Oracle has shown to a better liquidity ratio than Microsoft. Some areas the two companies are relatively close in liquidity performance as depicted in the current ratio. In other areas Oracle proves to have much better performance than Microsoft as depicted in the inventory and days in inventory ratios however and current ratio. Oracle also has a faster collection period than Microsoft as reflected in the average collection period ratio. I would declare Oracle as having a better liquidity standing than Microsoft. Solvency: Microsoft is superior to Oracle in this ratio category. Although Microsoft has a little more risk than Oracle in the debt to current assest ratio which means that if necessary Oracle has a better opportunity to convert assets in to cash with a 45.3% while Microsoft is at 47.5% however; this is the only ratio that Oracle is more favorable than Microsoft. With Microsoft’s free cash flow of $19,459 billion versus Oracle’s $9,703, Microsoft is least likely to have the need to liquidate their assets. Free cash flow ratio gives insight to a company’s acquisition power, ability to eliminate or minimize debt and allows for a higher dividend payout. Microsoft has a better current cash debt to current liability ratio as well. For evey $1 in liability Microsoft as .98 cash from operating activities while Oracle has .78 from operating activities for every $1 of current liability. Given these analysis Microsoft has a better overall solvency status than Oracle. Profitability: This category of ratios is the more focused one by investors  because it gives the most accurate prognosis of a company’s most gain out of investmens from investors. Beginning with Gross Profit ratio the two companies are very close with Microsoft showing a 77.7% and Oracle showing a 76.4% they both fair pretty well in gross profits. Microsoft has an advantage over Oracle in all ratios in this category except for Price earning sharing ratio. The payout ratio and the return on common stockholder’s equity ratio are significantly higher than Oracle’s but Oracle has a higer price earnings per share ratio as stated earlier which signifies that investors believe that Oracle’s stock is going to increase over a period of time. Conclusion: Although based on the ratios Oracle seems to be a safer investment and deemed by investors for the fiscal year of 2011 to have higher potential in the market and as noted by Eddie Beverage in an online article on Five Capital website Oracle has shown consistency over the past decade than Microsoft with trending increases. However; given that Microsoft has a substantially higher payout and higher return on stockholder’s equity I would take the risk and go with Microsoft. Beverage, E. (2011, Oct 21). Microsoft V Oracle: You know you want one. Retrieved from Seeking Alpha. Oracle Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation Weygandt, J., Kimmel, & Kleso, D. (2011). Financial Accounting. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Yahoo Finance. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2013, from Yahoo: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ORCL Yahoo Finance. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2013, from Yahoo: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MSFT Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2013, from Microsoft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft Wikipedia Oracle Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2013, from Wikipedia: