美式论文与报告写作技巧.doc

美式论文、报告写作技巧 编者按：美式教育的特点即是课程内容强调学生参与及创新运用，因此，报告便成了常见的考核学生学习成果的方式，比如实验报告、学期报告、专题报告、研究报告及论文（含毕业论文）等。研究生presentation 及 seminar 的机会更是占很大的比重，有些甚至占学期成绩很大比例。如何完成报告、论文同时得到良好的成绩，是本文提供给有志留学的有心人参考的目的。 美国大学生由於自小已养成自动寻找答案习惯，在启发式的教育环境下，写报告、论文对他们来说比较不陌生，虽然专业知识上美国学生不见得比外籍学生强，但是表达能力由於自小培养，加上英语能力的优势，常比外籍学生在报告、论文方面有较隹的利基。反之中国学生比较缺乏报告写作的训练，因此如果在留学过程中无法适应美式教育会比较辛苦，其实论文、报告的写作要领其实不难，只要把握技巧就可水到渠成。 通常论文由篇首(Preliminaries)，本文(Texts)以及参考资料(References)三部分构成；而这三大部分各自内容如下： (一) 篇首： 封面(Title) 序言(Preface) 谢词(Acknowledge) 提要(Summary) 目录(Tables and Appendixes) (二) 本文： 引言(Introduction) 主体，含篇(Part)、章(Chapter)、节(Section) 、以及注释 (Footnotes) (三)参考资料： 参考书目(References or Bibliography) 附录资料(Appendix)。 进行论文或报告写作之前，先要确定想要表达的主题，主题确定后，将其具体表达，即为题目。题目可以提供研究者： 一.研究的方向 二.研究的范围 三.资料搜集的范围 四.预期研究成果 通常在确定题目之後就开始找资料从事研究，建议在找资料之前最好去问教授有哪些参考资料来源可供参考引用。构思为确定写作大纲或 Proposal 的先前步骤， 大纲是论文、报告的骨干， Proposal 是研究的架构、流程及范围的说明书。如何构思大纲或Proposal为论文、报告写作前的必要准备工作。好的论文或研究报告，要基于在完整、详实的资料上，而参考资料除了和教授商借之外，最主要的来源就是图书馆了，一般参考资料来源可分成教科书或手册、政府机构的报告、科技或商业方面的杂志，及会议性质的资料。此外现代的电脑资料库也可帮助收集资料，在国外可利用学校的电脑连线资料库寻找自己需要的资料。当一切准备就绪，即可开始着手写报告，一般报告还分大报告如期末、专题等报告，及小报告如 Seminar 式的报告。 就算是小报告，也至少应含 (一)TITLE PAGES ：包含主题名称、作者、日期 (二)Summary： 即主要的结论 (三)Introduction：包括理论背景及内容 (四)Technical Sections：是论文的主体，为最重要的部份应再细分为 几个片断。 (五)Conclusions：即扼要的结论 (六)Appendixes：复杂公式的导引及叁考资料和电脑程式的报表可附加在 此项 美式报告的撰写通常要打字，两行式，行间若有未拼完的字要以音节来连接。写报告通常需要用到电脑，如有计算数字统计图表的需求，也常会用到程式软体如PASCAL、LOTUS，统计分析软体如SAS，也是不可或缺的，电脑绘图在今日已成为工商界及学术界的重要工具，文书处理更是最基本的要求，因此Word for Window、Powerpoint、Excel便成了颇受欢迎的工具。此外在英文语法、文法上的润饰与修改，如能请老美帮忙会比较好。 论文、报告完成后有时会需要做解说(Presentation)，用英文来讲演对中国人来说算是一大挑战，通常课堂讲演时间为十五分钟到三十分钟，若是论文囗试则至少一小时。投影机及麦克风的使用对讲演的效果有很大帮助，正式讲演前多预习几次，时间宜控制适中，上台时忌讳低头拿着报告照念，需留意听众的反应，切中主题，避免太多数字的导引。 The Management Of The Hotel In the hotel,the front Office is the most visible area with the greatest amount of guest contact.The inportance of the Front Office can not be over-emphasized.It is the hotels never center and a liaison between the guest and the hotel.The first direct contact many guests have with hotel employees is with members of the Front Office staff.The Front Office is the focus of guest requests for information and service as well as the profit center of room sales. The major functions performed by the Front Office is (1) to sell guest rooms, which includes the acceptance of reservations, the handing of walk-in guests, the completion of the registration procedure, and the assingnment of rooms,Since guest rooms tend to geneate the highest profit margin winthin the hotel, this primary function becomes crucial to hotel profitability. No other hotel department is held more accountable for a particutlar days occupancy than the Front Office .(2) to provide services which on one hand concerns internal hotel services such as the handing mails telegrams and m essages for guests special attractions or events .(3) to coordinate guest services. It is a liaison between front of the house and back of the house areas and the center of handing guest problems and community, (4) to chart room sstatus reports to coordinate roon sales and housekeeping.(5) to maintain guest accounts, deter.omt credites ,render bills ,receive payments, and provide preparing guest statement ,reconciliation folio and performing the checkout procedure.And to construct guest history fole for future references.Nowadays, the Front Office generally includes several departments as follows:Reservation-The main responsibility of this department is the proper and prompt handing of guest reservations, maintenance of the reservation and forecasting of room revenue and room aoccupancy.Front Desk-It is the most obviously cisiggle segment of the Front Office,since this area is located in the lobby with which guests have first and last contact during their accounts on departure,The Front Desk provides guests a place that they can turn to with problems or inquities.ropService Staff-Employees such as doormen,luggage clerks and the concierges are members of this group.Their objective is to help the guests settle in the room and to provide information about local attractions, entertainment or travel.Although Front Office departments deal primarily with guests,they also cooperate with other departments of the hotel so as to create a home away from home for all guests and contribute to the finan-ciak success of the hotel itself.Hotel properties range from tiny to huge in size. Although large properties such as Chicagos ton and Towers or the Excalibur in Las Vegas catch the publicimagination, the majority of properties offer between100and 200 units. Surprisingly enough, most properties perform basically the same functions, but the way in which they accomplish them varies with the property size.A large property may employ a general manager under whom an executive as sistant manager assumes responsibility for day-to-day operations.There is often a resident manager who supervises several department on his or her side of the house ,and a food and beverage manager who reports to the exec. On the other hand, in the 100 unit inn ,the general manager or respomsible-with an executive hiusekeeper and perhaps an assistant manager responsible for food and beverage. The executive staff may vary from two or three persons supported by a few department heads and key employees in a small property, to a substantial bureaucratic organization made of the many layers of authority necessary to operate a large complex property It is important to note that a smaller property may have functional area but no true department heads. The restaurant in a small inn may be run by a restaurant manager who directly supervises all the employees with help from lead employees in each functional area on each shift. For instance, the hostesses for the day and evening shifts may ptovide leadership to the dining room staff. The manager may be responsible for hiring and discipline on both shifts, usually along with someone designated as an assistant when the manager is off duty .This arrangement is economical and convenient in small properties as long as the restaurant manager delegates enough responsibility to avoid becoming over committed Room rental is a hotels main business and its major source of profit .The day-to-day operations of the typical rooms department yield a department yield a departmental income of 70 percent or more, compared with 15to 20 percent for the food and beverage depattment Thus, the people on the room side of the side of the house are crucial to the operations financial success. More than any other group, the desk clerks represent the hotel to its guests. They greet the guests on their arrival and make them welcome.If something goes wrong, most guests will complain first to the front desk. And when the guests leave, the desk clerk checks them out .If anything has gone wrong, this will be a good time to catch it. Although the duties of the desk overlap, they will differ with the work shift. Most properties now have computerized reservation systems that keep track of the balance between rooms available and reservation Systems that keep track of the balance between rooms available and reservation requests. The morning clerk and he or his supervisor, the guest services manager (or front office manager),monitor this process and block any special reservation requests.In a property that does nor have a computerized reservation system,they will block the days reservations. The computer program or programs that emboby the PMS(Property Managemen System)prompt the clerk to follow an appropriate work sequence for every task . For instance , when a guest checks into the hotel, the clerk indicates if the guest has a reservation or not .If the guest has a reservation, thelclerk need only type in the name and the computer ell retrieve the reservation and automatically print out the necessary recordss.In most cases, the guest is simply asked to sign his or her name .If the guest doesnt have a reservation, the clerk gets the necessary information, following the rormat on the front-desk computer screen.When the guest checks out , the computer once again presents a screen with prompts that will help the cletk to move through the appropriate sequence, verifying the balance with the guest , posting any late charges, and accepting payment by credit card or cash or billing the account directly if prior arrangements have been made .Where the front-desk computer is interffaced to other systems, such as restaurant and bar point-of-sales (POS)terminals and a housekeeping-department terminal, front-office clerical routines are further simplified . When guests settle a dinner or bar check by charging it to their room number, the cashie in the food or beverage (F&B) outlet posts this entry on their POS, and that posting is automatically entered on the guests bill at the front-office terminal . Manual posting is required for any charges that are not automatically handled by the system, such as a guest paid out .Where F&B is not interfaced,the F&B charges are posted manually at the front office. In much the same way , when housekeeping is interfaced , at the time the guest checks out the room shows up as vacant and ready to make up on the housekeeping terminal.Where housekeeping is not interfaced, list of “on change”and “ready-to-rent” rooms are usually communicated back and forth by phone. More and more properties interface their front office not only with other departments but also with their chain or franchise groups central reservation system ically from the individual property.This is an important time-saver for front-office staff and helps maximize the usefulness of the CRS to the individual property .The PMS can also be used to automate and intergrate a number of other functions in the hotel. Traditionally the hotel industry has looked at occupancy as a measure of success . Another indicator of operational success that we have always consulted is the average rate per rented room (the average daily , or ADR).Yield management puts these two together and ,using forecasting based on the history of past sales, sets out to get the best combination of occupancy and ADR .Yield management,then,involves varying room rates according to the demand for rooms in any given time period.The argument is that when the hotel is going to be full, it makes no sense to sell any rooms at special discount rates. On the other hand , on a night when the hotel is definitely not going to fill,selling a room at a discounted price is better than not selling it at all. Going beyond maximizing rate,Holiday Inns are using yield management to take more multiple night (instead of single night )reservations during busy periods on the theory that a multiple night reservation offers less proportionate risk of avacant room following check out. In practice, there are many situations between a fulll house and very low occupancy that need decisions about rates.In addition , there is the decesion to overbook ,that is,to take more reservations than there are rooms available based omaa “no-show”factor that can be built into the yield management system on a seasonal and daily basis. While the staff at some properties operates its own yield management system, increasingly companies use computer programs specially designed to take account of a property history of demand for rooms and of forecast demand and adjust rares as demand shifts from period to period . Increasingly central reservations systems ate building yield management capabilities into their programs. Yield management does pose management problems. The first is the potential for guest comfusion-and resentment-when comfronted with different rates for the same services , depending on when a reservation is made.While customers are accustomed to variable rates on airfares, they may resent them with hotels.The airline industry comprises a small number of major competitors,and customers seldom have much choice.Hotels,on the other hand,have numerous competitors.Another problem is employee morale.Yield management systems take the guesswork out of how many rooms to sell at which price but they also take some of the judgment responsibilities out of reservationists and front desk workersjobs . If a yield management system is not structured to allow workers some latitude to use their judgement , the people who have to use it might grow to resent the system.As with so much in hotel operations , careful employee training is essential to secure an effective yield management system that is operated in a way that will not offend guests .To illustrate , an employee who is not well trained or who resents the system might say,sorry ,were going to fill that night so youll have to pay the full rate. Aproperly trained employee might answer the same request, Im afraid we ve sold out all of the rooms inn that rate class, but we have some very nice poolside rooms available. The guest reaction to the two apptoaches would make quite a difference in future patronageWhile yield management is new to lodging ,it can also be used in a number of other industries, Yield management is new to lodging ,it can also be used in a number of other industries.widely used in the airline industry but can also be used in selling car rentals ,theme park admissioms, seats at sports events ,cruises, hospital facolities,advertising time and freight shipments.Managements problem is not just to protect the guest; the question of high damage and ots security for the guests person and property .With this overview in hand, the hotel management can take the steps necessary to exercise its reasonable care. Actions range from installing new locks , increasing lighting in parking lots and guest areas, uniformed guards and the that they may be under surveillance. In some cases, dummy cameras are mixed with the real thing in a security system to enhance the impression of surveillance.Housekeeping, that less than glamorous but essential department is as much a production department of a hotel as the front desk .It is clear that wighout chean rooms to rent, a hotel would have to close. For this reason, the management should always pay close attention to morale factors such as pay and worker cecogniton in the housekeeping department .The housekeeping ffs today department is usually headed by an executive housekeeper . In a smaller property, a linen room assistant and seceral supervisors, generally houdemen take responsibility for cleaning the halls and heavy work such as moving their own laundries often assign the hotels with theor own laundries often assign the supercision of that atra to the housekeeoing departments.Generallu a working laundry supervisor or lead worker jandles routine siervision under the executive housekeeper general direction.In luxury hotels, the concierge offers the guests imcportant services. He or she is expert in giving directions to local attractions, securing tickets to shows, and re commending tours and other entertainment. The concierge kiows about localtransportation, tours and other entertainment and nearly any other information a tourist might want .The concierge concept is unique to luxury hotels, the front desk and bellstaff generally share the work that the concierge does in the luxury property ,although the decreasing size of most bell staffs today restricrts this service .Nevertheless, it is important to see that the guest has some place in the hotel to turn for information, he or she is likely to need up to date information about airport limousine schedules ;the hours of religious services and the locations of churches; and such entertainment possibilities as sporting events ,moving, and the theater, some hotels give employees special training in how to give directions and provide lists of lccal attraction. Originally the hotel restaurant was a designed to give a traveler in a stranger city a place to eat where the food would be good or at least palatable and safe to eat . in recent years ,however, the restaurant industry has growth both in diversity of concept and more location ,making restaurant food service readily available .many successful chain restaurant food service readily available .many successful chain restaurants carry well kown , brand names to which travelers are accustomed,in the face of stiffening restaurant competition for the hotel guest s food and beverage patronage, some hoteliers have developed hotels ,such as the economy and all suite properties that offer only very limited food service usually a complimentary breakfast and , in full service operation continues to be not only a vital serbice but a key competitive weapon. many full-service hotel have several quite different food outlets . this extends the services available to the guest and helps keep the guests food business in the hotel. while well run restaurant and banquet departments are vital to full service hotels, they are not by any means an easy thing to deliver. in fact, theres an old saying among hotel people that “if you are run the food ,the hotel will run itself .” like most folkore , this exaggeration carries more than just a grain of truth.Some large prshaoperties off a catering department headed by a catering manager who books and sells banquets .smaller properties include by a catering manager who books and sells properties draw banquet service staffs .smaller properties draw banquet service personnel their regular crew and often supplement them with part time employees. banquet are often profitable but ,once again ,in many properties the banquet menus and banquet rooms are meat principally to serve the room s department , thus ,a meeting may occupy one conference room all days .properties the hotel supplies a coffee break and a luncheon in another room . it pro