Showing posts with label transition expressions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transition expressions. Show all posts

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Elephant as Eco-friendly Papermaker


Lunch munched...
At the elephant orphanage…
Neil: Process. First, the trees are cut down. Next, they are cut into chips at the mill. Then, the chips are mixed with water and chemicals to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is heated and dried and pressed to become paper.

For scratch pad
Anil: Elephants are more eco-friendly. First, they eat leaves and branches. Next, we collect their dung and wash it to reduce it to fiber. Then, the fiber is mixed with water to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is dried in the sun and pressed to become paper. No fossil fuels, no electricity, no chemicals.

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Voice-over
Neil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves oil-using saws, trucks, and factories.
Anil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves no fuel-driven machinery, only elephants and sunshine.
A sustainable Sri Lankan solution.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Investment model

Emergency meeting in an investment brokerage. Chief of trading, Altman, requests help from chief of research, Zbigniew, but differences in communication are revealed between them.

...

Altman: These are weird times. There are so many sell orders some traders are saying go short on futures. Yet prices are so cheap, others are taking long positions. We lack guidance.

Zbigniew: You need a new model.

Altman: We do. What factors were you thinking of including?

Zbigniew: Investors sell their shares, they buy gold, they sell their houses and rent a place to live.

Altman: OK. Model needs all those things. The traders want an interface, too.

Zbigniew: So you need a new program. Coding takes time and testing.

Altman: Can I suggest these steps. First, a new model taking account of the changed economic climate. Second, a new instrument for traders to interface with. Snazzy graphics to impress their cutomers. And third, a testing period to see if the thing works and we can tell the future and make some money.

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Voiceover

There are several ways to express ideas clearly. Zbigniew, the researcher, is a clear thinker, offers his bulleted suggestions in a list. He gleans ideas from data and is used to writing pithy reports. His talk is like a visual display.

Altman’s job is managing traders. He has to talk clearly. In an oral context, linkage (transition devices like first, second, third) map the road the ideas stand on. And causation expressions (to interface, to impress, to test) answer the whys.

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