Marketing Metrics for Essex Property Trust Essay Example for Free

Marketing Metrics for Essex Property Trust Essay Via analyzing and discussing the interrelated financial ratios over these three years, the performance and developing trend of Essex Property Trust Inc. Will be measured and understood. Moreover, this study illustrates what the two rivals BRE Properties and Brandywine Realty Trust’s positioning were in property industry. 1. 3 Methodology The companies’ official website has comprehensive information like histories and backgrounds of company, internal and external environment that influencing business running, every detail of financial data and even critical issues. Therefore, it is the most critical resource. In addition, there are other useful methods such as academic reports, journal articles, books and electronic database that provide theoretical knowledge’s about each metric. 1. 4 Limitations However this report has some vital limitations because it is based on the financial statements which reflected historical facts are open to human accruals, error, interpretation and estimation like refunds accounts and depreciation accounts. In order to attract more investors, the economic performance can be inflated by intentionally manipulating figures on inancial reports (Dennis, 2010). Furthermore, besides the financial factors in financial reports, other several elements including economic, social, and environment can also influence an enterprise’s financial position. Thus, due to ignorance of other factors, the financial position disclosed by accountants may be inaccurate. Last but not the least, the financial statement only took quantitative factors into account but fails to disclose information like integrity of management, prestige and reputation of the business with public, customer’s satisfaction, employees’ loyalty and efficiency, etc. hat also impacts business decision making (Dennis, 2010). 2. Real estate investment trust (REIT) Industry and company’s historical background George M. Marcus as the real estate entrepreneur formed Essex Property Corporation in 1971 and after 23years the company became Essex Property Trust, Inc. when it gained the portfolio of 16 multifamily communities. Essex is a self-managed and self-administered integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) in West Coast of America. In 1960, REITs created by congress is a type of real estate firm that provides opportunities for all Americans to invest in income-producing real estate not just for affluent. The method of this investment is similar to the bonds and stocks investments through mutual funds by many Americans (REIT, 2012). Essex develops, manages and acquires multifamily residential properties in the specific provinces like the San Francisco, Southern California and the Seattle metropolitan area and Essex relates to land and its appreciation on it like offices, apartments and hotels. Essex’s Property Portfolio so far Multi-family: [pic] Office: [pic] Retail: other unclassified [pic] Specialty: unclassified [pic] According to the above table charts published by Essex in March of 2013, there are 166 communities comprising 29,506 apartment units and total approximately 315,900 square feet of four commercial buildings which are located in major regions of California and Washington under the property portfolio. Besides the existing markets, Essex intended to evaluate some new markets by identifying new areas and developing new unconsolidated joint venture projects. . Conceptual framework Marketing metric can be defined as a measuring framework which quantifies a dynamic, trend, or characteristic and also can be used by practitioners in marketing monitoring and business planning to explain diagnose causes, phenomena, project the results of future events and share findings in order to justify marketing programs, decide on financial allocations and evaluate their marketing performance (Farris et al. 2010). It’s more effective to use a portfolio of metrics because it can assist managers with maintenance of productive focus on markets and customers and identification of weaknesses and strengths in both execution and strategies (Bazley et al. 2004). [pic] There are seven specific metrics adapt to measure Essex company’s performance and analyze competitors’ positions. According to the above figure, they are return on equity (ROE), Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA), year-on-year growth revenue, return on investment, profitability metrics, efficiency calculations and capital structure ratios. Gross profit margin, net profit margin and cash flow to sales ratio are three critical basic figures that will be used to measure entity’s profitability (Bazley et al. 2004). Then, in order to identify company’s business efficiency, Return on asset and asset turnover ratio will be calculated as well. Finally, there are three capital structure ratios including equity ratio, debt ratio and debt equity ratio(Mcdonald and Mouncey, 2009). The most vital reason to choose those metrics is that they can maximize the accuracy of measurement about an entity’s heath and estimation on the basis of other data. Moreover, they are also interrelated to each other (Birt et al. 2010). 4. Marketing metrics Briefly, The critical purposes of using following particular metrics are judging business performance, evaluating plans, quantifying market opportunities, identifying leverage points for improvement for Essex and recognizing its peers’ threats for the past three years and predict the trend in near future(Farris et al. 010). 4. 1 Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) As an alternative for a cash-based profit measure, EBITDA can be also defined as the profit before interest, taxation and depreciation and amortization expense. Because it excludes financing and tax charge besides asset diminution, its main aim is to measure entity’s raw operating earnings compare and analyze prof itability between companies (Birt et al. 2010). Figures in US$ and ‘000 |2010 |2011 |2012 | |Essex |277,861 |338,679 |456,888 | |BRE |228,219 |255,066 |306,542 | |Brandywine |370,880 |379,556 |383,484 | Based on the above chart, it apparently illustrates that both of them tried to raise their EBITDA and therefore decline their operating cost. Among them, Essex had the most dramatic increasing trend in EBITDA by changing amount of US$179,027,000 during three years. 4. 2 Profitability metrics Under this category, there are three basic metrics: gross profit margin, net profit margin and cash flow to sales ratio to calculate entity’s profit. Gross profit margin refers to the percentage of sales revenue that results in gross profit which measures profitability in selling, producing and buying goods before other expenses are taken into account (Birt et al. 2010). Higher value means better likelihood of success to divide more satisfactory return to owners and cover more other expenses (Atrill et al. 2008). Net profit margin reveals the proportion of sales revenue results in profit before interest and tax (Birt et al. 2010). This ratio is the most appropriate measure of profit from trading operations which is before took any costs of servicing long-term finance into account (Atrill et al. 2008). Cash flow to sales ratio reflects a proportion of cash flow from operating activities compared to its net sales revenue can be used to measure an entity ability to convert its sales into cash. Higher value means more efficient productivity and creditworthiness and indicates the firm has more ability to grow (Business Dictionary, 2012).

How Does A Web Server Works Information Technology Essay

How Does A Web Server Works Information Technology Essay Web Servers are programs or computers with a connection to the Internet that will deliver the web pages to the web users. By using client/server model and the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) over the World Wide Web (www), Web Server will deliver the web pages to the web users as well as other files to the web-based application. (Wikipedia, 2010) How does a Web Server works? When a personal computer connected to the internet, Internet Service Provider (ISP) will assign a unique IP address to the computer so that, the other computer will know where to find it on the vast network. This IP address will identify the computers location on the network. The responsibility for a Web Server is to store and exchange the information with other. Because of this reason, at least two parties are required while the process is happening. The two parties are client which characteristic is requested the information and a server which characteristic is to stores the request. (Smith, n.d.) For client they need software like web browser such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox to exchange the information. For server, the software that able to run is depends on the Operating System (OS) that chosen for the server. For example: Apache Web Server or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). Normally the client will communicate with the Web Server by using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Case #1 of the client-server architecture Client requests for static HTML pages Figure 1.1 Based on Figure 1.1, it shows the basic operation of web-server. While the user opens a web browser and type in the URL, browser will separate the URL into three parts which are protocol, server name and the files name. For example: the URL that user key in is http://www.seminar.com/web-server.htm, http will be the protocol, www.seminar.com will be the server name and the web-server.htm will be the file name. After the browser determines which protocol should be used, then the browser will use the DNS system to translate the server name www.seminar.com into an IP Address, which is use to connect to the server machine. When the browser connects to the correct server, the HTTP protocol will send a GET request to the server and request for the file web-server.htm. While the server gets the web-server.htm file, the server will send back the HTML text for the Web page to the browser. Web browser will format the page onto the screen to the user. (Marshall, B., 2000) If the server cannot allocate the file, an error message will send back to the client and inform the client to retry. After the browser get the response from the server, the browser will translates the data to HTML and display for the client in graphic form. (Smith, ud.) Apache Web Server According to the research from Web-Hosting-Top.com, Apache Web Server is the most popular Web Server in the world. Apache Web Server also can be named as Apache HTTP Server is a most popular web server on the world and it provides access to most of the web sites on the internet. Part of the reason for the public widely use for the Apache HTTP Server is because it is freely available. Besides that, it is reliable and easy to set up and configure. The most important thing is, it can provide most of the requirement for a web site. (Young, 1999) Apache is developed by a group of about 20 volunteer programmers, called the Apache Group. The first version of Apache Server which developed by the Apache Group is based on the NCSA HTTPd (National Center for Supercomputing Application). Most of the people will think that, this web server will called Apache is because it was developed from the existing NCSA code and several of patchy, so it name is called a patchy server or Apache Server. (QuinStreet Inc, 2010) Apache is an open-source web server platform. Apache Server application is available for a widely popular modern web platforms/operating systems such as UNIX, Microsoft Windows, LINUX, Mac OS X and etc. Internet Information Server (IIS) Web-Hosting-Top.com also states that, IIS is the second most popular web server which is just behind of the industry leader Apache HTTP Server. IIS can be a web server in your computer which can help you to develop a dynamic website and you can publish the website on your own server. Different with the Apache, IIS is only used to run on Windows platform which is comes to bundled with Windows NT platforms and above version. Internet Information Services (IIS) has a low system administration cost to help an organization to increase Web site and application availability. (Kranthi KumarVerroju, 2006). Besides that, by using IIS, a set of programs for building and administering Web sites, a search engine, and support for writing Web-based applications that access database will be included by Microsoft. (Dodge, 1999) In the process of IIS, it is similar with other process of web server. IIS will receive the request from the client and executes the required file and send result back to the client. Besides that, IIS server also provides the services of SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) and FrontPage server extension. The client can use to send the email and use the dynamic feather like form handler of FrontPage extension. (WikiAnswer, n.d.) Application of Apache HTTP Server and IIS Web Server Advantages and Disadvantages of Apache Web Server and IIS Web Server Advantages for Apache Web Server Open Source The reason why Apache Web Server will become the top one web server as per the research in Web-Hosting-Top.com in the world is because it is open source software and it is free to download for everyone in the world. Programmers can download the Apache Web Server from the relevant website, view or edit it. The programmer can create a custom solution based on the core Apache program, or add on some feather and function to suit to the business requirement. Besides that, programmers who are come from worldwide will constantly contribute to improve the Apache Web Server which is available to use by everyone. Every improvement for the Apache will be upgrade in the official website and the version of the Apache will be updated. User may not need to wait for the full version of the software to be released; it can be installed in its official website as soon as they are available. Support Different with others Web Server which having the user support at only one location, Apache Web Server had a large user support community who is spread throughout multiple locations, companies and forums. While you are facing the problem with the feathers of the Apache Web Server, you can post your problem in the relevant webpage or forums, the programmers who are from all around the world will leave you the comment or suggestion to help you to solve your problem. By using this kind of communication, user can obtain the answer from the technician as soon as possible, no matter where they are located. Portability Apache Web Server is portable software. It can be run on various operating system include Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and etc. (Arie, 2010) Disadvantages for Apache Web Server Compare and Contrast of Apache Web Server and IIS Web Server Features Performances Stability OS Support Conclusion

Why is Frankenstein such a popular text? Essay -- English Literature

Why is Frankenstein such a popular text? Frankenstein is a science fiction novel written by Mary Shelley during the time of the Romantic Movement. It has remained popular ever since it was first published and still sells well today, with many reprints of the book since the first edition. One of the main characters of the story and probably the most (in)famous, Frankenstein's monster, has become an icon of all that is monstrous and wrong. The story has been adapted and interpreted many times all in different ways, causing the monster and the stereotypical view of him to become intertextual. The most popular and well recognised representation of the monster and the one that most people would attempt to draw for you if you asked them what he looked like, is that of a huge green man with bolts coming out of the side of his neck and a flat, broad head. This was created for film by Boris Karloff as his interpretation of what the monster should look like. He would typically move very laboriously, with his arms outstretched as if chasing something. His speech is slow and primitive. This, however, is not the true Frankenstein's monster as described in the book, but one created for television and primarily the cinema, as the book centred more on the issues and moral conflicts when dealing with such a creature, whereas cinema and the media tend to concentrate more on the action and thrilling sides of the story. Various other representations of the monster, including characters in television films such as "The Adams Family" and "The Munsters", as well in comics such as "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Fantastic Four", have occurred throughout the twentieth century, causing the image of the "real" monster to becom... ...xtent of what the is doing as sees that the lengths he is willing to go to are not acceptable or justified at all. This culminates two stories, that of Frankenstein's adventure and Captain Walton's giving the reader an increased feeling of cathagy. In conclusion, the two reasons I believe to be why Frankenstein has remained such a popular text are: a. That the central theme of the story and the issues and situations the arise throughout it are becoming more and more relevant in everyday society so people can relate to the story and b. That it is the first true science fiction story ever and so has been promoted as such that it has grabbed everyone's attention. There are probably a number of stories quite similar and perhaps of even better quality than Mary Shelley's work but few people have heard of them and so they remain in Frankenstein's shadow.

daisys contribution to the great gatsby :: essays research papers

In one of the greatest works of the Twentieth Century, "The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald, there are many dynamic and round characters which greatly add to the story's theme. One character, Daisy Fay Buchannon, is made essential by way of her relation to the theme. With her multi-dimensional personality and relation to the conflicts, she becomes needed in order to convey the meaning. Not only this, but she is also an important part of the plot. Daisy Buchannon is a round and dynamic character with many different sides to her personality. Early on in the book, she is portayed as sweet and innocent. Her white and seemingly floating dress appeals to Nick in this way. She grew up as "the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville." Even then she dressed in white. Daisy also keeps a daughter around as a show toy. Whenever company comes over, she beckons for the little girl to come and put on a little act for everyone. This is signifies her life. She is kept in the closet until it's time to show off for company. Daisy becomes radiant and personable. When everyone has gone, she is a bored housewife, of no importance to the world wondering aloud what she is going to do with the rest of her life. She appears to be bored yet innocent and harmless. Yet her innocense is false. Simply a materialistic young girl and has little mind of her own is underneath all of that covering. Daisy rediscovers her love with Gatsby because of his nice shirts and large house. Daisy has been well trained in a rich family. She has grown up with all of the best. When Gatsby failed to contact her, she went off and married another man, without evening having heard word from Gatsby. All of these many and round characteristics add complications to the plot and dimension to the meaning she adds to the book. The afore mentioned characteristics also help to create some of the main conflicts. Daisy was involved in the conflict between her and Tom. Tom had a mistress and Daisy was upset by it. Another conlfict is her love affair with Gatsby. Her appearent sweetness and innocence allow Gatsby to fall in love with her. But her impatience and ingorance of true love or the meaning of truth or compassion allow her to flawlessly marry Tom, without a sober thought of Gatsby. He falls for her, which leads up to the futher conflict. The conflict is, whether or not she will fall in love with Gatsby. Gatsby is still in love with her

Health and Diet Essay -- essays research papers

Health and Diet Abstract: With my personal life experience I'd like to clarify that a healthy diet and physical exercises help to lose weight. This passage introduces some scientific means to keep fit and, from both sides, indicates the effection that it may have brought along. Another point is that one should choose an appropriate way according to his personal case. Frustration and troubles are often met, but how to deal with them depend on ourselves. What is cricial is about persistence, optimism and rationalism.  ¢Ãƒ ±.Introduction £Ã‚ ºKeeping-fit is sweeping us while some irrational ideas, rather than appropriate ways to lose fat are penetrating into our life. Most people don't employ scientific ways so that body was badly damaged, even never repaired automatically. We recommend appropriate ways which not only perform the function of losing weight, also continue to help to establish personal confidence. One could enjoy the whole process rather than sense some burden. This passage wants to tell us the importance of scientific means to keep fit and take some focus on emotional change when dieting.  ¢Ãƒ ².Body: Keeping fit, at any present time, may fill up your mind. Dieting and sports have come by, playing the theme of the life. Now our focus is on which way to be the best way for you to keep fit. In my grade 3 of senior high school, I weighed 80 KG. I had been embarrassed to be of that kind of figure, when looking at myself, let alone when accepting others ¡Ã‚ ¯ unusual sight and ...

Cultural Research Paper

Final Cultural Research Paper Throughout this course, we have learned that the primary mode of subsistence (how a culture makes a living) impacts many other aspects of cultural behavior and has been an effective way to organize thoughts and studies about culture. In order to demonstrate your understanding of subsistence modes and its impact on a culture and why a culture acts as it does, your Research Paper will require you to: 1. Select a specific culture from the following list: a. Basseri of Iran . The Batek of Malaysia c. Enga d. The Amish e. Huaorani of Ecuador f. Bedouin g. Zulu h. Kurds i. Maori j. Mbuti k. Nayar of India l. Semai m. Navajo n. Tikopia of Melanesia 2. Research this culture using the Ashford University Online Library. Please identify and use a minimum of three scholarly articles from the library in addition to the text your research. Keep in mind that most anthropological research, whether article length or book length, is either an ethnography or an ethnology.Y ou may use any combination of ethnographies or ethnologies in your paper. 3. Write a seven to eight page long research paper that does the following: a. Identifies and classifies the selected culture’s primary mode of subsistence. ( Foragers, Horticulturalists, Pastoralists, Emerging Agriculturalists, Agrarian States, or Industrialists) b. Analyzes and evaluates the impact that the primary mode of subsistence of the selected culture has on at least three of the following aspects of culture: ?Beliefs and values ?Economic organization ?Gender relations ?Kinship ?Political organization ?Sickness and healing ?Social change ?Social organization The Research Paper must be formatted according to APA style and include a title and a reference page (which does not count towards the page length). For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.In Week Three, you are required to submit an introductory paragraph, thesis statement, an outline, and your properly formatted reference page with the required sources identified. At that point, you should have chosen your culture and identified its primary mode of subsistence. Writing the Research Paper The Research Paper: 1. Must be seven to eight double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. 2. Must include a title page with the following:

Talk Show Example Script

HIGHER SCORE TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS classes for serious students How to Paraphrase Effectively Introduction â€Å"Paraphrase† is a verb which means to re-write a phrase or sentence with the same meaning but using different words. Paraphrasing is a very important skill for most English tests, including TOEFL iBT, IELTS and TOEIC Speaking and Writing. In TOEFL iBT, for instance, paraphrasing is an important skill in the reading section, in the listening section and, above all, in the speaking and writing sections of the test. Here is a quick example of paraphrasing using a phrase from the paragraph above: 1. Paraphrasing is a very important skill for most English tests. † 2. â€Å"For many tests of English, being skilful at paraphrasing is extremely important. † Notice how the paraphrased version (sentence 2) changes some vocabulary (e. g. , â€Å"extremely† for â€Å"very†), changes the word order (e. g. , â€Å"tests of English† for â€Å"Eng lish tests†) and changes the grammar (e. g. , â€Å"being skilful at paraphrasing†¦Ã¢â‚¬  for â€Å"Paraphrasing is a very important skill†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) These are the three main ways to paraphrase and by combining all of these methods, you can achieve clear and accurate paraphrased sentences.The next sections will look at these methods in more detail. Paraphrasing Method 1: Use Different Vocabulary with the Same Meaning Most students try to use this method, but actually it can be difficult to use. The reason is that although English has many synonyms such as ‘large’ or ‘big’, it is unusual for these words to have exactly the same meaning. So, if you try to use a lot of synonyms when you paraphrase, you might produce sentences that are not natural English. Unnatural sentences are likely to reduce your score more than small mistakes because the reader may not understand what you are trying to say.For example, look at this original sentence and two paraphrased equivalents: 1. â€Å"It can be difficult to choose a suitable place to study English. † 2. â€Å"It is often a challenge to pick up (x) a relevant (x) school to learn English. † 3. â€Å"It is sometimes hard to select an appropriate place to learn English. † For non-native speakers, these three sentences might look like they have the same meaning. For native speakers, however, sentence 2 is unnatural. The first problem is â€Å"pick up†. This expression does NOT have the same meaning as â€Å"choose†, so this part of the paraphrased sentence is actually wrong.The second problem is the word â€Å"relevant†. In some cases, â€Å"relevant† and â€Å"suitable† are good synonyms but in this example they are not This article is copyright Higher Score, 2007. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without permission. www. higherscore. ca [email  protected] ca HIGHER SCORE TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS clas ses for serious students How to Paraphrase Effectively close in meaning at all. Sentence 3 is a much better paraphrase of sentence 1 because all of the words have the same meaning.The best advice is to follow the â€Å"100% rule† for using synonyms: only use a synonym for a word if you are 100% certain that the new word has 100% the same meaning as the original word. If you are less than 100% certain, keep the same word and use either method two or method three to paraphrase your sentence. Paraphrasing Method 2: Change the Order of Words Changing the word order of a phrase or sentence is usually safer than using synonyms because the words are the same, so the meaning must be the same.However, it is not always easy to decide which words to move or to decide to which position the words should be moved Also, when you move a word you might need to change some other words, add some other words or cut some other words to ensure that the new sentence is grammatically correct. Here a re two suggestions for how to change the word order without making errors: a. If the original sentence has two or more clauses, change the order of the clauses. 1. â€Å"If they have some help, most people can paraphrase effectively.However, practice is important because paraphrasing is difficult. † 2. â€Å"Most people can paraphrase effectively, if they have some help. Paraphrasing is difficult, however, so practice is important. † b. If the original sentence has an adjective and noun, change the adjective into a relative clause. 1. â€Å"Writing essays can be a challenging task. † 2. â€Å"Writing essays can be a task which is challenging. † Paraphrasing Method 3: Use Different Grammar It sounds very difficult to use different grammar, but actually it is easier than changing vocabulary.In addition, if you change the grammar and make an error, usually the reader will understand what you mean. However, if you change the vocabulary and make an error, ofte n the reader will not understand what you mean. So, although changing the grammar has some advantages, it is still not easy and you should practice it as often as possible. Here are two suggestions for how to change the grammar without making errors: This article is copyright Higher Score, 2007. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without permission. www. higherscore. a [email  protected] ca HIGHER SCORE TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS classes for serious students How to Paraphrase Effectively a. Change some of the words in the original sentence into different parts of speech (you will often need to change the word order and some other words, too). 1. â€Å"The most effective way to build your English skill is to study regularly. † 2. â€Å"The most effective way of building your English skill is to do studying on a regular basis. † b. If the original sentence is in the active voice, change it to passive or vice versa. 1. To improve English, you should le arn new vocabulary on a daily basis. † 2. â€Å"To improve English, new vocabulary should be learned on a daily basis† Further Practice By using the methods and ideas given in this article, you should be able to improve your paraphrasing skill. In tests like IELTS and TOEFL iBT you will often need to paraphrase quickly, so you need to practice regularly if you are going to get better and faster. Start by practicing each method individually and then begin combining the methods until you are comfortable at using all three of them.If you want to see more examples of paraphrasing, one of the best ideas is to compare two news articles about a current event in two different newspapers. The stories will contain most of the same details, but the sentences will be different. By comparing the sentences and paragraphs you will get more ideas about how to paraphrase and see some real examples. Newspaper websites are often a good place to see two different articles without paying fo r two different newspapers. This article is copyright Higher Score, 2007. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without permission. ww. higherscore. ca [email  protected] ca HIGHER SCORE TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS classes for serious students How to Paraphrase Effectively Useful Words The following list defines some of the difficult words used in this article. A synonym is a word or phrase that has almost the same meaning as another word or phrase. For example, ‘smart', ‘clever' and ‘intelligent' are all synonyms because they have almost the same meaning. If two things are equivalent, they are equal or almost equal to each other although they might be in different places.For example, the British ‘prime minister' is equivalent to the United States ‘president' because both the ‘prime minister' and ‘president' are the most powerful politicians in their country. If somebody ensures something, the person makes sure that something is correct or true or OK. For example, if I am going on a trip, I will check my pocket to ensure that I have my passport. A clause is a grammar word that describes part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb. Most clauses also contain an object or subject complement.Some clauses are ‘reduced' which means that subject (and sometimes the auxiliary verb) are omitted. The phrase part of speech is used to describe the different types of words that are used in English. For example, ‘noun', ‘verb', ‘adjective' and ‘adverb' are four common parts of speech. The expression (and/or) vice versa is used to indicate that the opposite of something which was just mentioned is also true. For example, ‘If the book is on the shelf, put it in the box and vice versa' means ‘If the book is on the shelf, put it in the box and if the book is in the box, put it on the shelf. This article is provided as a free service to all test preparation students by Hi gher Score, Canada’s number one test preparation centre. Students are welcome to send copies of this article to other students who are taking a test. However, this article may not be distributed in any other way without the express written consent of Higher Score. This article is copyright Higher Score, 2007. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without permission. www. higherscore. ca [email  protected] ca