7.10: Summary
- Angel investors
-
Individual investors or groups of experienced investors who provide financing for start-up businesses by investing their own funds.
- Business plan
-
A formal written statement that describes in detail the idea for a new business and how it will be carried out; includes a general description of the company, the qualifications of the owner(s), a description of the product or service, an analysis of the market, and a financial plan.
- Debt
-
A form of business financing consisting of borrowed funds that must be repaid with interest over a stated time period.
- Entrepreneurs
-
People with vision, drive, and creativity who are willing to take the risk of starting and managing a business to make a profit, or greatly changing the scope and direction of an existing firm.
- Equity
-
A form of business financing consisting of funds raised through the sale of stock (i.e., ownership) in a business.
- Intrapreneurs
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Entrepreneurs who apply their creativity, vision, and risk-taking within a large corporation, rather than starting a company of their own.
- Small business
-
A business with under 500 employees that is independently managed, is owned by an individual or a small group of investors, is based locally, and is not a dominant company in its industry.
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
-
A government agency that speaks on behalf of small business; specifically it helps people start and manage small businesses, advises them in the areas of finance and management, and helps them win federal contracts.
- Small Business Investment Company (SBIC)
-
Privately owned and managed investment companies that are licensed by the Small Business Administration and provide long-term financing for small businesses.
- Venture Capital
-
Financing obtained from venture capitalists, investment firms that specialize in financing small, high-growth companies and receive an ownership interest and a voice in management in return for their money.
Summary of Learning Outcomes
7.2 Entrepreneurship
1. Why do people become entrepreneurs, and what are the different types of entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurs are innovators who take the risk of starting and managing a business to make a profit. Most want to develop a company that will grow into a major corporation. People become entrepreneurs for four main reasons: the opportunity for profit, independence, personal satisfaction, and lifestyle. Classic entrepreneurs may be micropreneurs, who plan to keep their businesses small, or growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Multipreneurs start multiple companies, while intrapreneurs work within large corporations.
7.3 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
2. What characteristics do successful entrepreneurs share?
Successful entrepreneurs are ambitious, independent, self-confident, creative, energetic, passionate, and committed. They have a high need for achievement and a willingness to take moderate risks. Good managerial, interpersonal, and communication skills, as well as technical knowledge are important for entrepreneurial success.
7.4 Small Business
3. How do small businesses contribute to the U.S. economy?
Small businesses play an important role in the economy. They account for over 99 percent of all employer firms and produce about half of U.S. economic output. Most new private-sector jobs created in the United States over the past decade were in small firms. The Small Business Administration defines a small business as independently owned and operated, with a local base of operations, and not dominant in its field. It also defines small business by size, according to its industry. Small businesses are found in every field, but they dominate the service, construction, wholesale, and retail categories.
7.5 Start Your Own Business
4. What are the first steps to take if you are starting your own business?
After finding an idea that satisfies a market need, the small-business owner should choose a form of business organization. Preparing a formal business plan helps the business owner analyze the feasibility of his or her idea. The written plan describes in detail the idea for the business and how it will be implemented and operated. The plan also helps the owner obtain both debt and equity financing for the new business.
7.6 Managing a Small Business
5. Why does managing a small business present special challenges for the owner?
At first, small-business owners are involved in all aspects of the firm’s operations. Hiring and retaining key employees and the wise use of outside consultants can free up an owner’s time to focus on planning, strategizing, and monitoring market conditions, in addition to overseeing day-to-day operations. Expanding into global markets can be a profitable growth strategy for a small business.
7.7 The Large Impact of Small Business
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages facing owners of small businesses?
Because of their streamlined staffing and structure, small businesses can be efficiently operated. They have the flexibility to respond to changing market conditions. Small firms can serve specialized markets more profitably than large firms, and they provide a higher level of personal service. Disadvantages include limited managerial skill, difficulty in raising capital needed for start-up or expansion, the burden of complying with increasing levels of government regulation, and the major personal commitment that is required by the owner.
7.8 The Small Business Administration
7. How does the Small Business Administration help small businesses?
The Small Business Administration is the main federal agency serving small businesses. It provides guarantees of private-lender loans for small businesses. The SBA also offers a wide range of management assistance services, including courses, publications, and consulting. It has special programs for women, minorities, and veterans.
7.9 Trends in Entrepreneurship and Small-Business Ownership
8. What trends are shaping entrepreneurship and small-business ownership?
Changes in demographics, society, and technology are shaping the future of entrepreneurship and small business in America. More than ever, opportunities exist for entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds. The numbers of women and minority business owners continues to rise, and older entrepreneurs are changing the small-business landscape. Catering to the needs of an older population and a surge in web-based companies fuel continues technology growth. Entrepreneurs typically follow the money and set up shop in places where there is venture capital money easily available.
- What are the differences between classic, multipreneurs, and intrapreneurs?
- What differentiates an entrepreneur from a small-business owner?
- What are some major factors that motivate entrepreneurs to start businesses?
- How can potential business owners find new business ideas?
- Why is it important to develop a business plan? What should such a plan include?
- What financing options do small-business owners have? What risks do they face?
- How do the small-business owner’s and entrepreneur’s roles change over time?
- What are the benefits to small firms of doing business internationally, and what steps can small businesses take to explore their options?
- Describe the financial and management assistance programs offered by the SBA.
- What significant trends are occurring in the small-business arena?
- How is entrepreneurial diversity impacting small business and the economy?
- How do ethics impact decision-making with small-business owners?
Management Skills Application Exercises
- After working in software development with a major food company for 12 years, you are becoming impatient with corporate “red tape” (regulations and routines). You have an idea for a new snack product for nutrition-conscious consumers and are thinking of starting your own company. What entrepreneurial characteristics do you need to succeed? What other factors should you consider before quitting your job? Working with a partner, choose one to be the entrepreneurial employee and one to play the role of his current boss. Develop notes for a script. The employee will focus on why this is a good idea—reasons he will succeed—and the employer will play devil’s advocate to convince him that staying on at the large company is a better idea. Then switch roles and repeat the discussion.
- What does it really take to become an entrepreneur? Find out by interviewing a local entrepreneur or researching an entrepreneur you’ve read about in this chapter or in the business press. Get answers to the following questions, as well as any others you’d like to ask:
◦ How did you research the feasibility of your idea?
◦ How did you develop your vision for the company?
◦ How long did it take you to prepare your business plan?
◦ Where did you obtain financing for the company?
◦ Where did you learn the business skills you needed to run and grow the company?
◦ What are the most important entrepreneurial characteristics that helped you succeed?
◦ What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?
◦ What are the most important lessons you learned by starting this company?
◦ What advice do you have for would-be entrepreneurs?
3. Your class decides to participate in a local business plan competition. Divide the class into small groups, and choose one of the following ideas:
◦ A new computer game based on the stock market
◦ A company with an innovative design for a skateboard
◦ Travel services for college and high school student
Prepare a detailed outline for the business plan, including the objectives for the business and the types of information you would need to develop product, marketing, and financing strategies. Each group will then present its outline for the class to critique.
Managerial Decision Exercises
- A small catering business in your city is for sale for $250,000. The company specializes in business luncheons and small social events. The owner has been running the business for four years from her home but is expecting her first child and wants to sell. You will need outside investors to help you purchase the business. Develop questions to ask the owner about the business and its prospects, as well as a list of documents you want to see. What other types of information would you need before making a decision to buy this company? Summarize your findings in a memo to a potential investor that explains the appeal of the business for you and how you plan to investigate the feasibility of the purchase.
- As the owner of a small factory that makes plastic sheeting, you are constantly seeking ways to increase profits. As the new year begins, one of your goals is to find additional funds to offer annual productivity and/or merit bonuses to your loyal, hardworking employees. Then a letter from a large national manufacturer of shower curtains seems to provide an answer. As part of a new “supplier diversity” program it is putting in place, the manufacturer is offering substantial purchase contracts to minorityowned suppliers. Even though the letter clearly states that the business must be minority owned to qualify for the program, you convince yourself to apply for it based on the fact that all your employees are Latino. You justify your decision by deciding they will benefit from the increased revenue a larger contract will bring, some of which you plan to pass on to them in the form of bonuses later in the year. Using a web search tool, locate articles about this topic, and then write responses to the following question. Be sure to support your arguments and cite your sources.
a. Is it wrong for this business owner to apply for this program even though it will end up benefiting his employees as well as his business?
Critical Thinking Case
Fostering Entrepreneurship in Unlikely Places
Vic Ahmed is no stranger to business start-ups; he’s been involved in at least 15 or 20. But his latest venture is a start-up … for start-ups. Ahmed founded Innovation Pavilion, a business incubator in Centennial, Colorado (Denver’s Tech Center), in 2011. A typical business incubator provides start-up companies with workspace, mentoring, training, and sometimes a path to funding, but Innovation Pavilion goes further.
Innovation Pavilion (IP) is an 80,000 square foot “entrepreneurial ecosystem,” housing dozens of start-ups and renting out desks, office space, and event space. But it also hosts meetups, educational workshops, and a Toastmasters group designed specifically for entrepreneurs. It contains a makerspace (a workspace providing shared tools and manufacturing equipment for prototyping products) and encourages the growth of niche entrepreneurial communities based on specific industries. For example, IP has a space for IoT (the Internet of Things), one for health care, and another for aerospace. These communities bring together people in an industry to learn from and collaborate with each other.
While IP has a traditional incubator program, with companies housed within the IP campus, it has a semi-virtual hypergrowth accelerator program for more mature firms, too, which is open to companies around the country. It also seeks out educational partnerships, working with the Highland’s Ranch STEM program, for instance, and has its own educational spin-off, Xuno Innovative Learning, designed to help companies train their staff and find new employees with the skills they need. IP operates its own streaming TV service, filming educational events and interviews with entrepreneurs.
Innovation Pavilion has national expansion plans—and several signed agreements with specific cities—targeting not the giant metropolitan areas but also second tier and “ring” cities across the country, such as Joliet, Illinois, and Olathe, Kansas, smaller cities that don’t get the attention of the larger cities yet have plenty of educated and creative people.
IP is in discussions with 20 cities around the nation, with the goal of building 200,000-square-foot campuses providing incubator services, office space, makerspace, education and training, outreach to young entrepreneurs, conference centers, retail space, and even housing. Entrepreneurs will be able to live and work in a space with everything they need, providing a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem in smaller cities across the nation.
Steve Case, the cofounder of America Online (AOL), shares Vic Ahmed’s vision for entrepreneurship in mid-America. His “Rise of the Rest” bus tour has traveled 8,000 miles over the last three years, investing in local start-ups in 33 cities across the country. Case hosts a pitch competition with the best start-ups in each city, and one lucky winner receives a $100,000 investment from Case.
Media attention has focused on the entrepreneurial engines of America’s coastal cities, but Ahmed and Case have a more expansive entrepreneurial vision, in which smaller cities throughout the nation rise up alongside larger, start-up hot spots.
Critical Thinking Questions
- What characteristics made Vic Ahmed a successful entrepreneurs?
- How did their Ahmed and Steven Case’s partnership and shared vision of “Rise of the Rest” serve their business goals?
- Is focusing on smaller cities rather than areas like silicon valley a good strategy, why?
Sources: Innovation Pavilion website http://www.innovationpavilion.com/ accessed February, 13, 2018; Tamara Chuang, Centennial incubator plans coworking office expansion to Illinois, complete with STEM school, housing,” Denver Post, August 1, 2017, www.denverpost.com/2017/08/0...noisexpansion/; Jan Wondra, Innovation Pavilion Expands Base,” The Villager, November 29, 2017, villagerpublishing.com/innov...ographic-base/.


10.1: R and databases
There are many interfaces which connect R with different database management software and there is even package sqldf which allows to work with R data frames through commands from SQL language. However, the R core also can work in the database-like way, even without serious extension. The Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows the correspondence between SQL operators and commands of R .
| SELECT | [, subset() |
| JOIN | merge() |
| GROUP BY | aggregate(), tapply() |
| DISTINCT | unique(), duplicated() |
| ORDER BY | order(), sort(), rev() |
| WHERE | which(), %in%, == |
| LIKE | grep() |
| INSERT | rbind() |
| EXCEPT | ! and - |
Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) Approximate correspondence between SQL operators and R functions.
One of the most significant disadvantages there is that many of these R commands (like merge() ) are slow. Below are examples of the user functions which work much faster:
Code \(\PageIndex{1}\) (R):
Now we can operate with multiple data frames as with one. This is important if data is organized hierarchically. For example, if we are measuring plants in different regions, we might want to have two tables: the first with regional data, and the second with results of measurements. To connect these two tables, we need a key , the same column which presents in both tables:
Code \(\PageIndex{2}\) (R):
Here was shown how to work with two related tables and Recode() command. First table contains locations, the second—measurements. Species names are only in the first table. If we want to know the correspondence between species and characters, we might want to merge these tables. The key is N.POP column (location ID).
The recode.r collection of R functions distributed with this book contains ready-to-use Recode() function and related useful tools.
There is another feature related with databasing: quite frequently, there is a need to convert “text to columns”. This is especially important when data contains pieces of text instead of single words:
Code \(\PageIndex{3}\) (R):
(Vectorized function call do.call() constructs a function call its arguments.)
There is also the data encoding operation which converts categorical data into binary (0/1) form. Several ways are possible:
Code \(\PageIndex{4}\) (R):
R and TeX are friendly software so it is possible to make them work together in order to automate book processing. Such books will be “semi-static” where starting data comes from the regularly updated database, and then R scripts and TeX work to create typographically complicated documents.
Flora and fauna manuals and checklists are perfect candidates for these semi-static manuals. This book supplements contain the archived folder manual.zip which illustrates how this approach works on example of imaginary “kubricks” (see above).


1.4: What is the Connection Between Art and Morality?
This chapter explores some problems that arise when one considers the relation between art and morality. [1]
The first section questions whether it is possible for the artistic value and the moral value of an artwork to interact. [2] Some have denied that this is the case: while an artwork may well be correctly judged as being moral or immoral, this judgment has no bearing on the evaluation of the artistic merit of the artwork. Other philosophers disagree: they think they can show ways in which the moral flaws of an artwork negatively affect its artistic value, and some even believe they can show how moral flaws may at times enhance the artistic value of a work.
The second section of this chapter examines whether and how artworks may further our moral knowledge and understanding. Some philosophers have been sceptical about this possibility, as it is unclear what sort of knowledge could be communicated by a novel or a painting. Others have challenged this view, questioning the assumption that we acquire moral knowledge in the same way in which we learn truths in other areas.
Interaction between Artistic and Moral Value
Anti-Interactionist Views: Radical and Moderate Autonomism
We start by examining two anti-interactionist positions. They are anti-interactionist in that they deny that an artwork’s moral value, if it exists, could have a bearing on its artistic value.
The first is radical autonomism, that is, the idea that artworks cannot be judged in moral terms. “Autonomism” refers to the separation of artistic and moral value, as these are considered as independent domains. The adjective “radical” further specifies that the artistic and moral sphere are completely independent—not only do they never affect each other, but it doesn’t even make sense to evaluate an artistic object in moral terms.
A way to flesh out the radical autonomist view relies on the idea of a category mistake. A category mistake occurs when a property is attributed to an object belonging to a category that does not support such properties. For instance, it would be a category mistake to say that the number three is smelly, as smelliness is not a property numbers (as abstract objects) could possibly have. The radical autonomist claims that attributing ethical properties to artworks is a category mistake, as artworks do not support the attribution of such properties.
Richard Posner concedes that art may represent all sorts of morally good or bad acts but argues that this is insufficient to show that art may be moral or immoral. These represented acts and attitudes are simply part of an artwork’s raw material (Posner 1997, 7). He holds that art may be evaluated from an ethical point of view only if it can educate morally, as this would show that art in fact may impact people’s sense of what is right and wrong, and thus be worthy of ethical assessment. However, Posner firmly denies that art may contribute to moral education. He is therefore committed to a form of radical autonomism. [3]
Radical autonomism seems implausible, as there are many cases in which critics and lay people alike express moral judgments regarding artworks. Radical autonomism would need a theory that could explain why we erroneously and systematically describe artworks in ethical terms if they should not be so described.
Moderate autonomism avoids this problem by adopting a more defensible view. It accepts that artworks may be assessed for their ethical value, but also holds that this evaluation never bears on artistic value. In other words, moderate autonomism concedes that we may describe artworks as wicked or virtuous, while still judging them to be artistic accomplishments of the highest order, because the two evaluations do not interact.
This view is more compatible with the way people usually talk about art, as it makes sense of the cases in which we praise an artwork for its artistic merits despite our reservation for the moral attitude it displays. For instance, people may still consider Wagner’s Ring Cycle a great work of art, while at the same time condemning its implicit anti-Semitism. These examples are taken by the moderate autonomist as a reason to keep artistic and ethical evaluation separate.
Anti-interactionism, in the form of moderate autonomism, remains a popular position, although it has to face some objections. For one thing, moderate autonomism still seems incompatible with much art criticism, in which ethical considerations often figure in the evaluation of an artwork’s artistic merits. Moreover, moderate autonomism would contradict intuitions artists sometimes have on the relation between the morality of their work and its artistic value. A cartoonist may think that part of her artistic success depends on moral features of her work: if her cartoons are based on easy irony targeting disadvantaged groups, the resulting product will not just be morally problematic, but also artistically defective.
In addition to these objections, moderate autonomism is threatened by any successful argument that shows how an artwork’s moral value may impact its artistic value. The next section explores arguments of this sort. [4]
Interactionist Views: Moderate Moralism, Ethicism, and Immoralism
Over the past three decades, philosophers have produced powerful rejections of the anti-interactionist positions we have just examined. These philosophers think they can show how the moral character of an artwork may have an impact on its artistic value.
Interactionist views try to make sense of ethical criticism, that is, the practice of bringing ethical judgments concerning artworks to bear on their artistic evaluation. What follows is a presentation of some notable interactionist proposals.
Moderate Moralism
Noël Carroll holds an interactionist view he terms “moderate moralism” (Carroll 1996). This position is committed to the idea that sometimes ethical flaws are artistic flaws and sometimes ethical virtues are artistic virtues.
Carroll’s main argument for moderate moralism is the “uptake argument”. Artworks often require emotional uptake, in that they aim at arousing emotional responses in their audience. The moral character of the figures and events represented in the artwork are important to secure the audience’s uptake. Carroll draws this observation from Aristotle, who, in the Poetics , had observed how a tragic hero could not be a completely flawless character, otherwise we would react to her fate with outrage, rather than with pity. In these cases, an author’s ability in designing an appropriate character or event may affect emotional uptake by a morally sensitive audience. [5] Now, a failure to produce the relevant uptake occurs sometimes because the author fails to understand the appropriate ethical response to a certain character. This is an ethical failure: the author cannot understand the response that is appropriate to the character she presents. But it is at the same time a failure in designing an appropriate character, that is, a character that would provoke the intended response, and so it is also an artistic failure.
Carroll exemplifies his view with an interpretation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho (1991). This work was intended as a satire of capitalistic society and attempted to pursue this goal by presenting a serial killer engaging in brutal murders and other morally repulsive acts—the point being perhaps that capitalism promotes a view of human beings as disposable commodities. Carroll observes how many readers are unable to get past the shocking brutality of the facts related by the novel. As a result, they fail to appreciate the underlying satirical intent. According to Carroll, Ellis’s strategy rests on an ethical mistake, namely that of underestimating the effect of gratuitous violent murders on the audience’s emotional response. In turn, this mistake undermines the novel’s satirical intent, and thereby its artistic value.
We shall now consider two objections against the uptake argument, both due to Berys Gaut (2007, 228–30). A first problem is Carroll’s appeal to a morally sensitive audience. Carroll needs this concept because it is perfectly conceivable to imagine a morally perverted audience that would have no uptake issues with an immoral work.
Consider Leni Riefenstahl’s movie Triumph of th e Will (1935), a propaganda documentary for the Nazi regime. We may guess that many of the original viewers of Riefenstahl’s film did not have any problem with a work celebrating Hitler. In cases like this, the work’s perspective, however immoral, would not result in a failure of uptake, and so would not diminish the artistic value of the work. The uptake argument only works if one is committed to the idea that an artwork’s artistic value must be assessed from the standpoint of a morally sensitive audience, but Carroll does not offer any argument in support of this claim.
The second objection goes as follows. According to Carroll, failure of uptake results in an artistic flaw because it prevents the artwork from absorbing the viewer’s attention and engaging her emotions. Now, even granting that absorption is a general goal of artworks, nothing prevents us from imagining a case in which a work’s morally flawed perspective would sustain such an absorption and emotional engagement. So it does not seem that a moral flaw is always going to hinder uptake and sustained engagement. As Gaut observes, one may be absorbed by The Triumph of the Will precisely on the grounds of the warped moral outlook it displays (2007, 228).
Ethicism
Gaut believes he has a better interactionist strategy than Carroll’s uptake argument, the so-called “merited response argument”. This argument is similar to Carroll’s uptake argument, although it results in a considerably stronger position, ethicism. This is a bolder position than moderate moralism, which is simply committed to the idea that moral flaws/virtues sometimes decrease/increase artistic value. Ethicism holds that if an artwork possesses an artistically relevant moral flaw/virtue, this will always count also as an artistic flaw/virtue.
The merited response argument can be summarised as follows. Artworks typically attempt to provoke certain responses to those who appreciate them. One can say that artworks prescribe certain responses; in other words, they invite us to have such responses. For example, horror movies prescribe a fear response when they employ suspenseful music before a jump scare. Artworks may be more or less successful in prescribing these responses. Some horror movies may set up jump scares in such a way that they systematically fail in arousing fear in the audience. In this case, the prescribed response is unmerited; it is undeserved, as the artwork doesn’t quite do what it takes for the intended response to occur. Sometimes a prescribed response is unmerited because of aesthetic reasons—the music may have been bad or the acting unconvincing. On other occasions, however, the prescribed response is unmerited on ethical grounds. For instance, some of Gainsborough’s portraits of wealthy landowners may prescribe admiration and respect for individuals who have attained their status in morally unacceptable manners. This response is unmerited, not because of artistic or technical shortcomings of the painting, but rather because the object of admiration is in fact morally repulsive. In these cases, the artwork is artistically lacking because of its flawed moral perspective. Note that this strategy does not require an appeal to the ideal sensitive moral audience needed by Carroll’s uptake argument. The claim here is simply that the artistic value of the work is compromised because it relies on a response that should not be adopted, as it is not merited on ethical grounds.
Ethicism is also committed to the idea that a work’s morally commendable perspective is going to enhance the work’s artistic value. Gaut thinks that the merited response argument can prove this too, as a work’s ethically commendable attitude provides reasons to adopt the response prescribed by the work.
A criticism of ethicism is that it appears to construe moral value as a constituent of artistic value (McGregor 2014, 454). A morally appropriate attitude or prescribed response is thus part of what may render a work artistically valuable. The problem with this is that ethicism would turn into the uninteresting claim according to which moral value, as a subset of artistic value, has an impact on artistic value.
Another objection against ethicism questions the idea that attitudes manifested by artworks may be ethically assessable. [6] If these attitudes are directed towards imaginary objects, as opposed to real ones, it would seem inappropriate to regard them as morally commendable or reproachable. Gaut rejects this point, as he holds that even attitudes towards imaginary objects may be ethically assessable. For instance, we would certainly consider someone’s sexual fantasies as blameworthy if they were entirely constituted by rape fantasies involving imaginary women. Of course, this example only shows that some attitudes to imaginary objects are ethically assessable; it remains to show that that all are, and this is a contentious point.
It is important to stress that ethicism is not committed to the idea that a morally flawed/praiseworthy work is always going to be artistically defective/accomplished overall . Ethicism is simply committed to the idea that the attitudes expressed in the work count towards the work’s artistic evaluation. A work manifesting an immoral attitude may then still be artistically praiseworthy because of some redeeming features. For instance, according to ethicism, Titian’s Rape of Europa may still be a great work of art despite the sexist attitude it promotes (see Box 1).
Box 1: Ethical flaws and artistic achievement: Titian’s Rape of Europa
Titian’s Rape of Europa (1560–62) is often praised as an artistic achievement of the highest order, as it showcases many of the features that make Titian a towering figure in the history of Western art.
Anne W. Eaton (2003) argues that these artistic merits are partly marred by an ethical flaw in the painting. She argues that Titian’s work does not simply represent rape, but eroticises it, depicting Europa as if she is taking pleasure in the act, while still clearly presenting her abduction by Jupiter as unwanted and forced. By doing so, Titian’s painting displays the ethically flawed view according to which women may in fact enjoy sexual abuse, despite their apparent resistance.
Eaton holds that the artistic value of the painting is diminished by the fact that so many of its artistically valuable features depend on our acceptance of an ethically flawed perspective. She observes how several of the painting’s notable features contribute to the attitude it manifests concerning Europa’s rape. The colours are joyous, and the painting’s atmosphere serene; Europa’s expression is often interpreted as betraying ecstasy more than pain or fear, and the painting’s composition directs our gaze to her pubic region.
Immoralism
We have seen how some authors have proposed explanations of how an artwork’s moral flaws may diminish its artistic value. But is it possible to conceive of cases in which a work’s flawed moral perspective actually enhances its artistic value? The view held by those who answer these questions positively is generally named “immoralism.” It holds that sometimes a moral flaw may enhance the artistic value of an artwork.
Daniel Jacobson supports a form of immoralism in observing that morally reprehensible art may be considered artistically successful precisely because it gets us to respond to its content in the way we think we should not respond (1997, 187). For instance, a caricature or political cartoon may show an individual or a group as deserving a response that we think is morally undeserved, and it may do this so well that our moral considerations are overridden. This is a moral flaw of the caricature, yet it is also an artistic merit. Commentators agree that Jacobson fails in providing compelling examples in support of his immoralist view, and that he is generally vague regarding its details. [7]
Matthew Kieran has advanced a position he terms “cognitive immoralism.” His view is that some works of art present us with obviously immoral attitudes but do so in order to teach something with regard to those attitudes (2006, 138). An example is the Belgian pseudo-documentary movie Man Bites Dog , in which the everyday routine of a serial killer is related in an atmosphere of surreal and dark humour, abruptly dispelled by a scene in which the camera crew becomes involved in a brutal rape. After this, it becomes impossible for most viewers to maintain the same kind of amused response that they deemed appropriate to the rest of the movie. According to Kieran, this twist in the narrative highlights how far we can get in the representation of extreme violence whilst still being able to laugh at it. Thus, the film makes a moral point through its immoral character, as it gets us to think critically about our responses to violence in fiction. How does this support the interactionist thesis? According to Kieran, Man Bites Dog works because it gets us to respond to brutal murders with a response that is ethically problematic, but it redeems itself artistically because it is in virtue of its capacity to provoke and sustain unmerited responses that it allows us to learn an important moral lesson.
An objection to cognitive immoralism is that the immorality of the artwork in these cases is merely apparent, as the ultimate attitude the work takes on its subject matter is a morally commendable one. If this is true, then cognitive immoralism would have failed to show that immoral art can be artistically valuable in virtue of its immorality (Eaton 2012, 289).
Anne W. Eaton has developed an ingenious case for immoralism based on the figure of the “rough hero” (Eaton 2012). A rough hero is a deeply and intrinsically flawed character who is also presented as sympathetic, likeable, and even admirable. Eaton’s example of choice is that of Tony from the television series The Sop ranos . Tony is a mobster and has a number of serious moral flaws, yet he typically gets the audience’s sympathy. This is puzzling, as normally a morally flawed character generates some degree of imaginative resistance, that is, a reluctance and difficulty in the audience to follow along and adopt an attitude that is deemed unethical.
However, a successful rough hero figure is endowed with features that would normally motivate imaginative resistance, while at the same time being presented in such a way that this resistance is ultimately partly abandoned. In this way, fictions containing a rough hero manifest an artistic achievement, as they tread the fine line between imaginative resistance and positive responses. In appreciating fictions containing a rough hero, we feel tempted by both reactions, and the success of these fictions is partly in their capacity to keep this tension going.
If this is an artistic achievement, then it is one that depends essentially on the morally flawed attitude of the work towards the rough hero, where the flaw in the work’s attitude resides in its presentation of a morally repulsive figure as likeable and admirable. [8]
It is important to stress that immoralism does not rule out the possibility, explored by moderate moralism and ethicism, of moral flaws that impact negatively the artistic value of a work. Immoralism is simply committed to the additional claim that sometimes a moral flaw may enhance the artistic value of a work of art.
Art and Moral Knowledge
In the preceding sections we assumed that artworks mandate certain responses, some of which are related to our moral attitudes. We also saw how an artwork can manifest an attitude towards objects or events it represents, and thus may have a moral perspective on such things.
Given these rather strong connections between art and morality, some philosophers have wondered whether it is also possible for artworks to teach us something about morality. It is rather uncontroversial that life events may develop our sense for what is right and wrong. Whether the fictional world of a work of art could do the same is open to question, but we have already seen that some of the interactionist arguments presented above relied on the alleged capacity of art to teach us moral lessons.
As noted earlier, Posner denies that art may educate morally. He observes that it just seems false that art has a great impact on the morality of those who appreciate it. We find good and bad characters among the uneducated crowds just as often as we do among the finest art critics (Posner 1997, 5). Moreover, even if we concede that we learn psychological truths from art, it would not follow from this that we also learn the disposition to act justly upon those truths, which is required for genuine moral advancement (10).
Jerome Stolnitz also defends a sceptical position on the matter. He argues that the truths that art is supposed to teach us do not possess the distinctive features possessed by truths of the more indubitable sort, such as scientific or common-sense truths. For one thing, the truths gleaned from art seem curiously immune to contradiction (Stolnitz 1992, 196). William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus (1888) holds that “I am the master of my fate;/ I am the captain of my soul.” Henley seems to be saying that people, or at least some people, are in complete control of their lives. Greek tragedies, on the other hand, seem to hold that people can never control their fate. According to Stolnitz, we are undisturbed by these formal contradictions because we are not dealing with propositions aimed at truth.
Secondly, truths need some kind of confirmation, some evidence in their support. But confirmation eludes the truths we find expressed in great works of art, as many of their alleged moral lessons behave like bad generalizations when applied to a broader set of cases taken from the real world (Stolnitz 1992, 196–97). For instance, Pride and Prejudice may be interpreted as a story of how “stubborn pride and ignorant prejudice keep attractive people apart” (193). But is this anything that one may generalise and apply with some confidence to any other context? Stolnitz thinks that the answer to this is negative.
Martha C. Nussbaum firmly rejects many of the presuppositions on which views such as Stolnitz’s are grounded. Stolnitz assumes that moral knowledge is something like a list of true propositions, or a set of general rules. Nussbaum, following Aristotle, believes that moral knowledge is much broader than that, as it includes emotional and volitional activity, that is, emotional responses, feeling, desires, and the like (1992, 40). Relatedly, she denies that general rules may exhaust our ethical knowledge, as this rests crucially on our capacity to react appropriately in the context of very specific situations (153). Because of this, some novels may in fact be just as important for our understanding of morality as standard works in ethics. These typically discuss far-fetched and simplified cases in order to draw general conclusions, whereas novels avoid idealised and regularised features, and present instead highly particularised scenarios.
I conclude by noting some ways in which the possibility of gaining moral knowledge from art may impact the debate examined in the first section of this chapter. As a first example, think of Nussbaum’s claim that we may gain moral knowledge from some novels. As we have just seen, the capacity novels have to develop our moral sensibility is strictly tied to the style and content of the novel in question, as it is dependent on a perceptive presentation of highly particularised scenarios. This may suggest that the moral value of a work may enhance its artistic value. The work’s artistically valuable features acquire part of their value from their unique capacity of providing moral insight. If all of this is true, then it may lend support to interactionist views such as moderate moralism.
Secondly, some of the views considered above explicitly rely on art’s capacity to provide moral knowledge (or lack thereof). Posner’s defense of radical autonomism is partly supported by his denial that works educate morally. Kieran’s defense of cognitive immoralism rests on the claim that artworks adopting immoral perspectives may enhance our moral understanding, and Gaut’s cognitive argument for ethicism relies on a similar assumption.
Box 2: Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters and moral knowledge
Matthew Kieran considers Vincent Van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters (1885) an illustration of how artworks have the capacity to further our moral education (1996, 344–46). The painting represents poor peasants gathered for their meagre meal. In a letter, Van Gogh expressed the view that pictures of peasants painted in a rough style, without the charming quality that is often found in depictions of the rural world, might give people a better sense of the harshness of that lifestyle—compare Van Gogh’s work with peasant paintings by Jean-Batiste-Camille Corot to understand the sort of charming quality that Van Gogh considered inappropriate. According to Kieran, this painting’s capacity to enhance our moral understanding depends on the fact that Van Gogh is prescribing us to imagine what it is like to be poor peasants who, in spite of their harsh material conditions, lead their lives with dignity and mutual respect. These prescribed imaginings would be hindered, Kieran observes, by a highly polished pictorial style, which would romanticise the picture and perhaps make us oblivious to the struggles of the people represented in it.
Lastly, but perhaps most interestingly, Cynthia Freeland notes that, if we grant that art may change our moral outlook, then we should be open to the possibility that our judgment as to the moral character of the artwork is itself going to be impacted by the artwork’s effect on our moral sensibility (1997, 18). This point might be dismissed in the case of single artworks—after all, how much could a work possibly change our moral compass? However, Freeland’s suggestion gains relevance if we think of cases in which our evaluation bears on various works, all sharing the same outlook. Imagine a series of highly aestheticised propaganda documentaries. On our first encounter, the documentaries’ problematic agenda results in a failure of uptake, in Carroll’s sense: because of the work’s moral perspective, we fail to respond to it in the way intended by its author. However, this initial failure may be overcome by the capacity these documentaries have to get us to buy into their moral universe once we are sufficiently exposed to them. And once the uptake is successful, the work’s moral perspective is no more an obstacle to its artistic appreciation. This would not of course be enough to show that the uptake argument fails; rather, it would show that uptake is influenced by a work’s effect on our moral sensibility. [9]
Conclusion
This chapter has presented some philosophical views on the connection between art and morality. Most importantly, we have considered the possibility of evaluating artworks along moral lines, as well the possible connection of this evaluation to their artistic value. This is not the only sense in which moral matters may be brought to bear on artistic evaluation. A question that has attracted a good deal of public attention in recent years is whether an artist’s personal moral failings are relevant to the evaluation of their art. [10] The investigation of the connection between art and morality remains therefore an open and productive field of philosophical research.
references
Bartel, Christopher. 2019. “Ordinary Monsters: Ethical Criticism and the Lives of Artists.” Contemporary Aesthetics 17. https://contempaesthetics.org/2019/11/08/article-869/
Conolly, Oliver. 2000. “Ethicism and Moderate Moralism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 40, no. 3: 302–316.
Carroll, Noël. 1996. “Moderate Moralism.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 36 no. 3: 223–239.
Carroll, Noël. 2013. “Aesthetics and Ethics.” In The International Encyclopedia of Ethics , edited by Hugh LaFollette, 101–109. Maldon, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444367072.
Clavel‐Vazquez, Adriana. 2018. “Rethinking Autonomism: Beauty in a World of Moral Anarchy.” Philosophy Compass : e12501. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12501.
Eaton, Anne W. 2003. “Where Ethics and Aesthetics Meet: Titian’s Rape of Europa.” Hypatia 18, no. 4: 159–188.
Eaton, Anne W. 2012. “Robust Immoralism.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70, no. 3: 281–292.
Ellis, Bret Easton. 1991. American Psycho . New York: Vintage.
Freeland, Cynthia A. 1997. “Art and Moral Knowledge.” Philosophical Topics 25, no.1: 11–36.
Gaut, Berys. 2007. Art, Emotion and Ethics . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harold, James. 2020. Dangerous Art: On Moral Criticism of Artworks . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobson, Daniel. 1997. “In Praise of Immoral Art.” Philosophical Topics 25, no.1: 155–199.
Kieran, Matthew. 1996. “Art, Imagination, and the Cultivation of Morals.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54, no. 4: 337–351.
Kieran, Matthew. 2006. “Art, Morality and Ethics: On the (Im)Moral Character of Art Works and Inter‐Relations to Artistic Value.” Philosophy Compass 1, no. 2: 129–143.
McGregor, Rafe. 2014. “A Critique of the Value Interaction Debate.” British Journal of Aesthetics 54, no. 4: 449–466.
Nussbaum, Martha C. 1992. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Peng, Feng. 2016. “Li Yu’s Theory of Drama: A Moderate Moralism.” Philosophy East and West 66, no. 1: 73–91.
Posner, Richard. 1997. “Against Ethical Criticism.” Philosophy and Literature 21, no.1: 1–27.
Riefenstahl, Leni, dir. 1935. Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) . Reichsparteitag-Film.
Song, Moonyoung. 2018. “The Nature of the Interaction between Moral and Artistic Value.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76, no. 3: 285–295.
Stolnitz, Jerome. 1992. “On the Cognitive Triviality of Art.” The British Journal of Aesthetics 32, no. 3: 191–200.
Wills, Bernard, and Jason Holt. 2017. “Art by Jerks.” Contemporary Aesthetics 15. https://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=807.
- This chapter discusses the value interaction debate as it is found in contemporary analytic aesthetics. For an overview of a similar debate in Chinese aesthetics, see Peng (2016). ↵
- In the literature one finds both the expressions “artistic value” and “aesthetic value.” For the sake of consistency, I have chosen to use “artistic value” throughout this chapter. ↵
- See the section on Art and Moral Knowledge, below, for Posner’s view on why art cannot educate morally. ↵
- For a general assessment of autonomist positions, see Clavel-Vazquez (2018). ↵
- A morally sensitive audience is something like an audience composed of people with a standard sense of morality. We shall see, however, that this concept may cause some issues for Carroll’s argument. ↵
- For discussion of this objection, see Conolly (2000, 309–312). ↵
- See Eaton (2012, 290) and Carroll (2013, 7). Eaton’s defence of immoralism, presented below, may be considered a refinement of Jacobson’s. ↵
- Eaton’s immoralism has been recently criticised by Song (2018, 290–92). ↵
- Note how Gaut’s first objection to Carroll’s argument questioned exactly Carroll’s reliance on an idealised and fixed response by a morally sensitive audience. ↵
- Principled answers to this question have been offered by Wills and Holt (2017), Bartel (2019), and Harold (2020, Chapter 3). ↵


1: Exploring Your Data
Hello everyone, and welcome to the first chapter of the University of Southern Queensland’s online, Open Access Textbook: Statistics for Research Students: An Open Access Resource with Self-Tests and Illustrative Examples
This book aims to help you understand and navigate statistical concepts and the main types of statistical analyses essential for research students. The aim of the first part of the book is to go over some of the basic concepts related to statistics and data analysis. These basic ideas include the core statistical concepts of descriptive statistics , basic checks for normality , and graphing data . As you progress through the book, you will see each chapter is broken into several sections.
There are some slides that appear via links within most chapters, and you should look for these as you review the current chapter.
Please proceed to the next section to get started.


10.1: Add and Subtract Polynomials
- Identify polynomials, monomials, binomials, and trinomials
- Determine the degree of polynomials
- Add and subtract monomials
- Add and subtract polynomials
- Evaluate a polynomial for a given value
Before you get started, take this readiness quiz.
- Simplify: 8x + 3x. If you missed this problem, review Example 2.3.10 .
- Subtract: (5n + 8) − (2n − 1). If you missed this problem, review Example 7.4.13 .
- Evaluate: 4y 2 when y = 5 If you missed this problem, review Example 2.3.6 .
Identify Polynomials, Monomials, Binomials, and Trinomials
In Evaluate, Simplify, and Translate Expressions , you learned that a term is a constant or the product of a constant and one or more variables. When it is of the form ax m , where a is a constant and m is a whole number, it is called a monomial. A monomial, or a sum and/or difference of monomials, is called a polynomial.
polynomial — A monomial, or two or more monomials, combined by addition or subtraction
monomial — A polynomial with exactly one term
binomial — A polynomial with exactly two terms
trinomial — A polynomial with exactly three terms
Notice the roots:
- poly - means many
- mono - means one
- bi - means two
- tri - means three
Here are some examples of polynomials:
| Polynomial | b + 1 | 4y 2 − 7y + 2 | 5x 5 − 4x 4 + x 3 + 8x 2 − 9x + 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monomial | 5 | 4b 2 | -9x 3 |
| Binomial | 3a - 7 | y 2 - 9 | 17x 3 + 14x 2 |
| Trinomial | x 2 - 5x + 6 | 4y 2 - 7y + 2 | 5a 4 - 3a 3 + a |
Notice that every monomial, binomial, and trinomial is also a polynomial. They are special members of the family of polynomials and so they have special names. We use the words ‘monomial’, ‘binomial’, and ‘trinomial’ when referring to these special polynomials and just call all the rest ‘polynomials’.
Determine whether each polynomial is a monomial, binomial, trinomial, or other polynomial: (a) 8x 2 − 7x − 9 (b) −5a 4 (c) x 4 − 7x 3 − 6x 2 + 5x + 2 (d) 11 − 4y 3 (e) n
Solution
| Polynomial | Number of terms | Type |
|---|---|---|
| (a) 8x 2 − 7x − 9 | 3 | Trinomial |
| (b) −5a 4 | 1 | Monomial |
| (c) x 4 − 7x 3 − 6x 2 + 5x + 2 | 5 | Polynomial |
| (d) 11 − 4y 3 | 2 | Binomial |
| (e) n | 1 | Monomial |
Determine whether each polynomial is a monomial, binomial, trinomial, or other polynomial. (a) z (b) 2x 3 − 4x 2 − x − 8 (c) 6x 2 − 4x + 1 (d) 9 − 4y 2 (e) 3x 7
- Answer a
-
monomial
- Answer b
-
polynomial
- Answer c
-
trinomial
- Answer d
-
binomial
- Answer e
-
monomial
Determine whether each polynomial is a monomial, binomial, trinomial, or other polynomial. (a) y 3 − 8 (b) 9x 3 − 5x 2 − x (c) x 4 − 3x 2 − 4x − 7 (d) −y 4 (e) w
- Answer a
-
binomial
- Answer b
-
trinomial
- Answer c
-
polynomial
- Answer d
-
monomial
- Answer e
-
monomial
Determine the Degree of Polynomials
In this section, we will work with polynomials that have only one variable in each term. The degree of a polynomial and the degree of its terms are determined by the exponents of the variable.
A monomial that has no variable, just a constant, is a special case. The degree of a constant is 0 —it has no variable.
The degree of a term is the exponent of its variable.
The degree of a constant is 0.
The degree of a polynomial is the highest degree of all its terms.
Let's see how this works by looking at several polynomials. We'll take it step by step, starting with monomials, and then progressing to polynomials with more terms.
Remember: Any base written without an exponent has an implied exponent of 1.
Find the degree of the following polynomials: (a) 4x (b) 3x 3 − 5x + 7 (c) −11 (d) −6x 2 + 9x − 3 (e) 8x + 2
Solution
(a) 4x
| The exponent of x is one. x = x 1 | The degree is 1. |
(b) 3x 3 − 5x + 7
| The highest degree of all the terms is 3. | The degree is 3. |
(c) −11
| The degree of a constant is 0. | The degree is 0. |
(d) −6x 2 + 9x − 3
| The highest degree of all the terms is 2. | The degree is 2. |
(e) 8x + 2
| The highest degree of all the terms is 1. | The degree is 1. |
Find the degree of the following polynomials: (a) −6y (b) 4x − 1 (c) 3x 4 + 4x 2 − 8 (d) 2y 2 + 3y + 9 (e) −18
- Answer a
-
1
- Answer b
-
1
- Answer c
-
4
- Answer d
-
2
- Answer e
-
0
Find the degree of the following polynomials: (a) 47 (b) 2x 2 − 8x + 2 (c) x 4 − 16 (d) y 5 − 5y 3 + y (e) 9a 3
- Answer a
-
0
- Answer b
-
2
- Answer c
-
4
- Answer d
-
5
- Answer e
-
3
Working with polynomials is easier when you list the terms in descending order of degrees. When a polynomial is written this way, it is said to be in standard form . Look back at the polynomials in Example 10.2. Notice that they are all written in standard form. Get in the habit of writing the term with the highest degree first.
Add and Subtract Monomials
In The Language of Algebra , you simplified expressions by combining like terms. Adding and subtracting monomials is the same as combining like terms. Like terms must have the same variable with the same exponent. Recall that when combining like terms only the coefficients are combined, never the exponents.
Add: 17x 2 + 6x 2 .
Solution
| Combine like terms. | 23x 2 |
Add: 12x 2 + 5x 2 .
- Answer
-
17x 2
Add: −11y 2 + 8y 2 .
- Answer
-
-3y 2
Subtract: 11n − (−8n).
Solution
| Combine like terms. | 19n |
Subtract: 9n − (−5n).
- Answer
-
14n
Subtract: −7a 3 − (−5a 3 ).
- Answer
-
-2a 3
Simplify: a 2 + 4b 2 − 7a 2 .
Solution
| Combine like terms. | −6a 2 + 4b 2 |
Remember, −6a 2 and 4b 2 are not like terms. The variables are not the same.
Add: 3x 2 + 3y 2 − 5x 2 .
- Answer
-
-2x 2 + 3y 2
Add: 2a 2 + b 2 − 4a 2 .
- Answer
-
-2a 2 + b 2
Add and Subtract Polynomials
Adding and subtracting polynomials can be thought of as just adding and subtracting like terms. Look for like terms—those with the same variables with the same exponent. The Commutative Property allows us to rearrange the terms to put like terms together. It may also be helpful to underline, circle, or box like terms.
Find the sum: (4x 2 − 5x + 1) + (3x 2 − 8x − 9)
Solution
| Identify like terms. | |
| Rearrange to get the like terms together. | |
| Combine like terms. |
Find the sum: (3x 2 − 2x + 8) + (x 2 − 6x + 2).
- Answer
-
4x 2 - 8x + 10
Find the sum: (7y 2 + 4y − 6) + (4y 2 + 5y + 1)
- Answer
-
11y 2 + 9y - 5
Parentheses are grouping symbols. When we add polynomials as we did in Example 10.6, we can rewrite the expression without parentheses and then combine like terms. But when we subtract polynomials, we must be very careful with the signs.
Find the difference: (7u 2 − 5u + 3) − (4u 2 − 2).
Solution
| Distribute and identify like terms. | |
| Rearrange the terms. | |
| Combine like terms. |
Find the difference: (6y 2 + 3y − 1) − (3y 2 − 4).
- Answer
-
3y 2 + 3y + 3
Find the difference: (8u 2 − 7u − 2) − (5u 2 − 6u − 4).
- Answer
-
3u 2 - u + 2
Subtract: (m 2 − 3m + 8) from (9m 2 − 7m + 4).
Solution
| Distribute and identify like terms. | |
| Rearrange the terms. | |
| Combine like terms. |
Subtract: (4n 2 − 7n − 3) from (8n 2 + 5n − 3).
- Answer
-
4n 2 + 12n
Subtract: (a 2 − 4a − 9) from (6a 2 + 4a − 1).
- Answer
-
5a 2 + 8a + 8
Evaluate a Polynomial for a Given Value
In The Language of Algebra we evaluated expressions. Since polynomials are expressions, we'll follow the same procedures to evaluate polynomials—substitute the given value for the variable into the polynomial, and then simplify.
Evaluate 3x 2 − 9x + 7 when (a) x = 3 (b) x = −1
Solution
(a) x = 3
| Substitute 3 for x. | 3(3) 2 − 9(3) + 7 |
| Simplify the expression with the exponent. | 3 • 9 − 9(3) + 7 |
| Multiply. | 27 − 27 + 7 |
| Simplify. | 7 |
(b) x = −1
| Substitute -1 for x. | 3(-1) 2 − 9(-1) + 7 |
| Simplify the expression with the exponent. | 3 • 1 − 9(-1) + 7 |
| Multiply. | 3 + 9 + 7 |
| Simplify. | 19 |
Evaluate: 2x 2 + 4x − 3 when (a) x = 2 (b) x = −3
- Answer a
-
13
- Answer b
-
3
Evaluate: 7y 2 − y − 2 when (a) y = −4 (b) y = 0
- Answer a
-
114
- Answer b
-
-2
The polynomial −16t 2 + 300 gives the height of an object t seconds after it is dropped from a 300 foot tall bridge. Find the height after t = 3 seconds.
Solution
| Substitute 3 for t. | -16(3) 2 + 300 |
| Simplify the expression with the exponent. | -16 • 9 + 300 |
| Multiply. | -144 + 300 |
| Simplify. | 156 |
The polynomial −8t 2 + 24t + 4 gives the height, in feet, of a ball t seconds after it is tossed into the air, from an initial height of 4 feet. Find the height after t = 3 seconds.
- Answer
-
4 feet
The polynomial −8t 2 + 24t + 4 gives the height, in feet, of a ball x seconds after it is tossed into the air, from an initial height of 4 feet. Find the height after t = 2 seconds.
- Answer
-
20 feet
Adding Polynomials
Subtracting Polynomials
Practice Makes Perfect
Identify Polynomials, Monomials, Binomials and Trinomials
In the following exercises, determine if each of the polynomials is a monomial, binomial, trinomial, or other polynomial.
- 5x + 2
- z 2 − 5z − 6
- a 2 + 9a + 18
- −12p 4
- y 3 − 8y 2 + 2y − 16
- 10 − 9x
- 23y 2
- m 4 + 4m 3 + 6m 2 + 4m + 1
Determine the Degree of Polynomials
In the following exercises, determine the degree of each polynomial.
- 8a 5 − 2a 3 + 1
- 5c 3 + 11c 2 − c − 8
- 3x − 12
- 4y + 17
- −13
- −22
Add and Subtract Monomials
In the following exercises, add or subtract the monomials.
- 6x 2 + 9x 2
- 4y 3 + 6y 3
- −12u + 4u
- −3m + 9m
- 5a + 7b
- 8y + 6z
- Add: 4a, − 3b, − 8a
- Add: 4x, 3y, − 3x
- 18x − 2x
- 13a − 3a
- Subtract 5x 6 from − 12x 6
- Subtract 2p 4 from − 7p 4
Add and Subtract Polynomials
In the following exercises, add or subtract the polynomials.
- (4y 2 + 10y + 3) + (8y 2 − 6y + 5)
- (7x 2 − 9x + 2) + (6x 2 − 4x + 3)
- (x 2 + 6x + 8) + (−4x 2 + 11x − 9)
- (y 2 + 9y + 4) + (−2y 2 − 5y − 1)
- (3a 2 + 7) + (a 2 − 7a − 18)
- (p 2 − 5p − 11) + (3p 2 + 9)
- (6m 2 − 9m − 3) − (2m 2 + m − 5)
- (3n 2 − 4n + 1) − (4n 2 − n − 2)
- (z 2 + 8z + 9) − (z 2 − 3z + 1)
- (z 2 − 7z + 5) − (z 2 − 8z + 6)
- (12s 2 − 15s) − (s − 9)
- (10r 2 − 20r) − (r − 8)
- Find the sum of (2p 3 − 8) and (p 2 + 9p + 18)
- Find the sum of (q 2 + 4q + 13) and (7q 3 − 3)
- Subtract (7x 2 − 4x + 2) from (8x 2 − x + 6)
- Subtract (5x 2 − x + 12) from (9x 2 − 6x − 20)
- Find the difference of (w 2 + w − 42) and (w 2 − 10w + 24)
- Find the difference of (z 2 − 3z − 18) and (z 2 + 5z − 20)
Evaluate a Polynomial for a Given Value
In the following exercises, evaluate each polynomial for the given value.
-
Evaluate 8y
2
− 3y + 2
- y = 5
- y = −2
- y = 0
-
Evaluate 5y
2
− y − 7 when:
- y = −4
- y = 1
- y = 0
-
Evaluate 4 − 36x when:
- x = 3
- x = 0
- x = −1
-
Evaluate 16 − 36x
2
when:
- x = −1
- x = 0
- x = 2
- A window washer drops a squeegee from a platform 275 feet high. The polynomial −16t 2 + 275 gives the height of the squeegee t seconds after it was dropped. Find the height after t = 4 seconds.
- A manufacturer of microwave ovens has found that the revenue received from selling microwaves at a cost of p dollars each is given by the polynomial −5p 2 + 350p. Find the revenue received when p = 50 dollars.
Everyday Math
- Fuel Efficiency The fuel efficiency (in miles per gallon) of a bus going at a speed of x miles per hour is given by the polynomial \(− \dfrac{1}{160} x^{2} + \dfrac{1}{2} x\). Find the fuel efficiency when x = 40 mph.
- Stopping Distance The number of feet it takes for a car traveling at x miles per hour to stop on dry, level concrete is given by the polynomial 0.06x 2 + 1.1x. Find the stopping distance when x = 60 mph.
Writing Exercises
- Using your own words, explain the difference between a monomial, a binomial, and a trinomial.
- Eloise thinks the sum 5x 2 + 3x 4 is 8x 6 . What is wrong with her reasoning?
Self Check
(a) After completing the exercises, use this checklist to evaluate your mastery of the objectives of this section.
(b) If most of your checks were:
…confidently. Congratulations! You have achieved the objectives in this section. Reflect on the study skills you used so that you can continue to use them. What did you do to become confident of your ability to do these things? Be specific.
…with some help. This must be addressed quickly because topics you do not master become potholes in your road to success. In math, every topic builds upon previous work. It is important to make sure you have a strong foundation before you move on.
Who can you ask for help? Your fellow classmates and instructor are good resources. Is there a place on campus where math tutors are available? Can your study skills be improved?
…no—I don’t get it! This is a warning sign and you must not ignore it. You should get help right away or you will quickly be overwhelmed. See your instructor as soon as you can to discuss your situation. Together you can come up with a plan to get you the help you need.
Contributors and Attributions
-
Lynn Marecek (Santa Ana College) and MaryAnne Anthony-Smith (Formerly of Santa Ana College). This content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0 "Download for free at<EMAIL_ADDRESS>."


6.6: Exercises
Throughout, write all permutations using disjoint cycle notation , and write all dihedral group elements in standard form .
- Let \(\sigma=(134)\text{,}\) \(\tau=(23)(145)\text{,}\) \(\rho=(56)(78)\text{,}\) and \(\alpha=(12)(145)\) in \(S_8\text{.}\) Compute the following.
- \(\sigma \tau\)
- \(\tau \sigma\)
- \(\tau^2\)
- \(\tau^{-1}\)
- \(o(\tau)\)
- \(o(\rho)\)
- \(o(\alpha)\)
- \(\langle \tau\rangle\)
2. Prove Lemma 6.3.4.
3. Prove that \(A_n\) is a subgroup of \(S_n\text{.}\)
4. Prove or disprove: The set of all odd permutations in \(S_n\) is a subgroup of \(S_n\text{.}\)
5. Let \(n\) be an integer greater than 2. \(m \in \{1,2,\ldots,n\}\text{,}\) and let \(H=\{\sigma\in S_n\,:\,\sigma(m)=m\}\) (in other words, \(H\) is the set of all permutations in \(S_n\) that fix \(m\)).
- Prove that \(H\leq S_n\text{.}\)
- Identify a familiar group to which \(H\) is isomorphic. (You do not need to show any work.)
6. Write \(rfr^2frfr\) in \(D_5\) in standard form.
7. Prove or disprove: \(D_6\simeq S_6\text{.}\)
8. Which elements of \(D_4\) (if any)
- have order \(2\)?
- have order \(3\text{?}\)
9. Let \(n\) be an even integer that's greater than or equal to \(4\). Prove that \(r^{n/2}\in Z(D_n)\text{:}\) that is, prove that \(r^{n/2}\) commutes with every element of \(D_n\text{.}\) (Do NOT simply refer to the last statement in Theorem \(6.5.4\); that is the statement you are proving here.)


1.30: Digging deeper- improving health communication with patients
At the end of this activity, students will be able to:
- Identify five theories and models that can be used to facilitate the patient-provider health communication process
- Describe opportunities to optimize communication with patients in healthcare settings
- Apply health communication theories within patient care, providing specific approaches and language to utilize
Introduction
Effective communication is a critical component of healthcare. At a broader scale, it can help disseminate important public health messages, such as frequent handwashing or consistently wearing masks, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. On an interpersonal level, effective communication helps healthcare professionals establish rapport with patients, increase patient understanding of their health, and encourage healthy behaviors. The communication that occurs between patients and healthcare professionals includes written, verbal, and nonverbal information and is impacted by health literacy. The prominence of health communication has been widely recognized and is included in the Healthy People 2030 goals. 1 Overall, the ability to communicate effectively is essential to enhancing health and well-being.
The consequences of poor or inadequate health communication can impact patient care and health outcomes. When information is complex and difficult to understand, patients may become disengaged. For example, if a healthcare professional uses medical jargon to explain the mechanism of action of chemotherapy, patients may stop engaging because they do not understand the information presented. Patients may not always ask for clarification or may unknowingly misinterpret the information that was communicated. Additionally, when patients are not properly engaged, healthcare professionals may miss opportunities to learn about important health beliefs of the patient that are impactful to the patient’s care but seldomly volunteered. For example, patients may have spiritual beliefs that influence the medications or other therapies they are willing to take/receive (i.e., gelatin in capsules, blood products), or they may prefer alternative methods to Western medicine.  Effective communication can also be used to empower patients to make lifestyle changes. These missed opportunities can result in incorrectly labeling patients who are resistant to adopting lifestyle changes and/or are non-adherent to their medications as “stubborn,” “difficult,” “forgetful,” or “negligent.” Communication is not a one-way interaction and should allow for shared decision making, patient-centered care, and patient empowerment. 2-5
Health communication models and theories have been developed to improve communication among healthcare professionals, patients, and populations on micro and macro levels. These include, but are not limited to the Health Belief Model, motivational interviewing, the Transtheoretical Model, the Patient Explanatory Model, and the HOPE questions. A specific goal under Healthy People 2030 (Health Communication objectives) is to “ increase the proportion of adults who report their health care provider always asked them to describe how they will follow instructions .” 1 This goal highlights the importance of ensuring patient understanding, and for providers to proactively confirm this understanding with patients. One of the recommended strategies is the teach-back method, which asks patients to describe how they will follow the instructions provided. 6 Other Healthy People 2030 Health Communication objectives include to “ decrease the proportion of adults who report poor communication with their health care provider ” and “ increase the proportion of adults whose health care providers involved them in decisions as much as they wanted .” 1 These two goals may require knowing and applying these health behavior theories and models to facilitate health communication in practice. These strategies or techniques enhance patient-professional interactions by engaging patients in their care.
Case
You are a student pharmacist who works at the dispensary of a community-based health center.

Patient: TS is a 68-year-old white female (64 in, 78 kg) who arrives at the dispensary today to pick up her medication for pain.
HPI: TS infrequently visits the dispensary to pick up her medications, with months long stretches between visits. You notice that the patient has two other medications on her profile, amlodipine, and Spiriva. The patient filled each of these prescriptions one time about four months ago. She is sometimes heaving or breathing heavily as she waits for her medications.
PMH:
- Osteoarthritis (diagnosed five years ago)
- COPD (diagnosed 10 years ago)
- HTN (diagnosed 15 years ago)
FH:
- Father: deceased (MI)
- Mother: deceased (lung cancer)
- Children: two daughters (44 years old and 38 years old); alive and well
- Grandchildren: four granddaughters and two grandsons
SH:
- Drinks 1-2 alcoholic beverages per weekend
-
Smokes one pack of cigarettes per day (since 16 years old)
- Typically purchases Newport brand cigarettes but prefers menthol cigarettes
- Previously tried to quit smoking by using nicotine patches about four years ago but stopped after using them for a few days due to local itching
- Denies illicit drug use
Medications:
-
Naproxen 220 mg BID prn pain
- States this is the only medication that works for her
- Spiriva Respimat 2.5 mcg/actuation two inhalations once daily
- Amlodipine 5 mg daily
Immunization s:
- Td: three years ago
- MMR: six years ago
Allergies: NKDA
SDH: TS is widowed and has lived with one of her daughters since the loss of her husband 10 years ago. She completed high school and used to work in a factory. She is not working now but she cares for her young grandchildren several days a week. Her daughter provides her a weekly allowance, the majority of which she spends on a carton of cigarettes, which costs her about $8 per pack.
Interaction: You observe the conversation the pharmacist is having with the patient as she is picking up her medications.
- Pharmacist : “Do you need refills for your other medications, amlodipine and Spiriva?”
- TS : “No thank you, I don’t take those medications because they don’t help me.”
- Pharmacist : “What do you mean they don’t help you?”
- TS : “I just mean that I’m able to manage without the meds. Besides, I feel fine so why would I take anything that might make me feel worse?”
- Pharmacist : “You were prescribed these medications by your doctor for a reason.”
- TS : “Yeah, my doctor gave me an inhaler too, because I smoke, but I’m not planning to quit smoking, so I don’t need that either. They also said something about getting the pneumonia shot. Why would I get that? I have never gotten pneumonia and pneumonia is pretty much harmless anyways. I don’t want to put any chemicals in my body that I don’t need to. God made us without those chemicals in our bodies for a reason.”
- Pharmacist : “Alright, so you don’t want to quit smoking?”
- TS : “No way. I mean at one point I did, but I’ve been smoking for a long time, and I’ve been fine so far. My mom used to smoke too. I remember she would always have a cigarette in her hand as she cooked dinner. I guess she ended up getting lung cancer but that doesn’t happen to everyone. My friend’s been smoking for longer than I have, and she is healthier than me! I will tell you one thing; those companies sure charge a lot for a pack of smokes.
- Pharmacist : “Okay. Do you take the amlodipine?”
- TS : “Not really, they also told me I’ve got high blood pressure, but I don’t see how that’s a problem. I mean I don’t feel anything. I figure, I’m 68 years old, what can happen to me now?  It’s just the stress and being busy with the little ones that gets my pressure up. I bet if they checked my blood pressure when I don’t have the little ones running around it’d be fine. But I wouldn’t change it for the world, my grandkids are my pride and joy.”
- Pharmacist : “Okay that’s your choice… Let us know when you’re interested in quitting. Thank you for stopping by and have a great day.”
- TS : “Sure. See you next time.”
Case Questions
- Identify which of the health communication models or theories is most appropriate to use to answer each of the following questions (listed in Table 1 ):
According to TS, what did she think her health problem was? What did she think caused her health problem? How can this impact her willingness to take her medications?
- How susceptible did TS feel she was for the consequences of smoking and pneumonia? How severe did she think the consequences of smoking and pneumonia are?
- What is TS’s stage of change? What is an example of an appropriate way to approach patients at this stage of change?
- What are some ways that the pharmacist could have used motivational interviewing when TS expressed resistance to smoking cessation?
- What are ways to ask about TS’s spiritual beliefs and engage these beliefs as a source of motivation to take her medications, quit smoking and become vaccinated?
- What are ways that you could leverage social support to cue TS to action?
- What are some ways to increase TS’s self-efficacy for getting her HTN under control and quitting smoking?
Author Commentary
Pharmacists often focus on optimizing drug therapy instead of patient behavioral change. Additionally, pharmacists may overlook the patient’s perceptions of disease, susceptibility, and optimal treatment. This contributes to missed opportunities to motivate patients to make the necessary changes to improve their health and to assumptions healthcare providers make regarding patients’ health beliefs. For example, it has been reported that only 26.6% of adults reported that a healthcare provider utilized the teach-back method with them. 1 Patients who do not understand health information are known to be less likely to get preventative healthcare and more likely to have health problems. 1 Also, only 52.8% of adults reported their healthcare providers always involved them in decisions about their healthcare as much as they wanted. 1 Patients want to engage in decision-making about their health, so it is important that pharmacists attempt to engage patients using communication techniques as often as possible to improve relationships and ultimately the health of patients. 1
Beyond communicating with patients directly at the individual level, pharmacists can also impact health communication on the macro level. This includes collaboration with other healthcare providers. Having effective communication is essential for enhancing collaboration and closing the health disparities gaps that often exist due to the social determinants of health among underserved patient populations. However, behavior change cannot be sustained without recognizing the different levels of influence that impact health communication. Unfortunately, health communication alone cannot repair insufficient access to health care or unhealthy living environments. To close the gaps that cause health disparities, pharmacists should seek expansive ways to utilize health communication strategies and develop interventions that have multi-level influences. 7 Ultimately pharmacists are integral members of high-performing health care teams. Effective communication and collaboration among health care professionals and across multiple levels will help meet the goals and objectives of Healthy People 2030 .
Patient Approaches and Opportunities
Effective health communication includes patient-centered care which emphasizes the inclusion of the patient in decision-making regarding treatment. Shared decision-making allows for a discussion about the evidence for various treatment strategies and may lead to enhanced provider-patient relationships. One model of shared decision-making described by Elwyn and colleagues, 5 utilizes patient deliberation and emphasizes respect for patients’ choices and as individuals. We must tailor the therapy to individuals.
Pharmacists can motivate patients to adopt healthy behaviors by utilizing effective communication methods. Pharmacists can also assure appropriate understanding by taking the time to assess patients’ beliefs regarding their health. Patient-provider interactions should always involve a bidirectional transfer of information. Table 1 includes five theories and models that can be used in practice to improve health communication, which is necessary to establish constructive patient-pharmacist relationships.
Table 1 : Health Communication Theories and Models
| Theory/Model | Application | Examples |
|---|---|---|
|
Health Belief Model:
8
A theoretical model that is used to explain and predict changes in health behaviors. The key factors that influence health behaviors include: Perceived susceptibility Perceived severity Perceived benefits of action Perceived barriers to action Cues to action Self-efficacy |
Conduct a health needs assessment to determine who is at risk and the population that should be targeted Convey the consequences of the health issues and risk behaviors Explain how, where, and when to take action and what the potential positive results will be Offer reassurance, incentives, and assistance; correct misinformation Provide “how to” information, promote awareness, employ reminder systems Provide training and guidance in performing action; use progressive goal setting |
What is the likelihood or susceptibility of getting infected with the flu? How severe is a flu infection among this patient population? What are the potential benefits for giving pharmacists “provider status”? What are the barriers for achieving this legislative milestone for the pharmacy profession? What is the level of self-efficacy among pharmacists to assume provider status? What is the role of internal and external stakeholders in this initiative for cues to action? How does the media perceive the role of pharmacists in public health? |
|
Motivational Interviewing:
9
A technique that centers on patients’ ability to exercise free choice and change in a process of self-actualization. The five principles include: R: Roll with resistance E: Express empathy D: Develop discrepancy S: Support self-efficacy |
R: Avoid argument and direct confrontation. Adjust to patient’s resistance rather than opposing it directly E: Exercise reflective listening D: Develop discrepancy between patient’s goals or values and their current behavior S: Actively listen for patient’s strengths and values and reflect these back in an affirming manner |
Open-ended questions: Start questions with “what”, “when”, “how” instead of “do” Affirming: “Sounds like this is challenging. No wonder you feel overwhelmed.” Reflective listening: “What I hear you say is…” Summarizing: Recap what the patient said |
|
The Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change):
10
A model of intentional change that assumes that people change behavior through a continuous, cyclical process. The six stages of change include: Precontemplation : Patients do not intend to take action within the next 6 months Contemplation : Patients are intending to start the healthy behavior within the next 6 months Preparation : Patients are ready to take action in the next 30 days Action : Patients have recently started changing their behavior (within the past 6 months) Maintenance : Patients have sustained their behavior changes for more than 6 months Termination : Patients have no desire to return to their unhealthy behavior |
Raise patient’s awareness of the problem and the possibility of change without giving prescriptive advice Address ambivalence and discuss reasons and benefits for change and the consequences of inaction Help identify the best actions to take for change and support motivation Help implement a change strategy and identify available sources of support Identify triggers and develop coping strategies to prevent relapse |
Patient may deny there is a problem and see no need for change. Minimization, blaming, and resistance are likely present Patient may acknowledge that a problem exists and considers change, but also rejects it. Patient has decided to change and wants to do something about the problem Patient takes steps to change and engages in specific actions to bring about change Patient actively works on sustaining the changes made. The challenge is to prevent relapse |
|
Patient Explanatory Model:
11
Theory that individuals and groups can have vastly different notions about health and disease. Assesses patients’ health beliefs and explanation of illness. |
The eight questions include: What do you call the problem? What do you think has caused the problem? What do you think the sickness does? How does it work? How severe is the sickness? Will it have a short course? What kind of treatment do you think the patient should receive? What are the chief problems the sickness has caused? What do you fear most about the sickness? What are the most important results you hope to get from treatment? |
|
|
HOPE Questions:
12
A teaching tool developed to help incorporate a spiritual assessment into a patient interview. |
H: Source of hope, meaning, comfort, strength, connection O: Organized religion P: Personal spirituality and practices E: Effects on medical care and end-of-life issues |
H: “ What are your sources of hope, strength, comfort and peace? ” O: “ Are you part of a religious or spiritual community? Does it help you? How? ” P: “ Do you have personal spiritual beliefs that are independent of organized religion? What are they? ” E: “ Are there any specific practices or restrictions I should know about in providing your medical care? ” |
Related chapters of interest:
- Communicating health information: hidden barriers and practical approaches
- Smoke in mirrors: the continuing problem of tobacco use
- Getting to the point: importance of immunizations for public health
- Saying what you mean doesn’t always mean what you say: cross-cultural communication
- Uncrossed wires: working with non-English speaking patient populations
- Laying the foundation for public health priorities: Healthy People 2030
External resources:
-
Websites:
- Healthy People 2030 . https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/health-communication
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gateway to health communication. https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/
- Food and Drug Administration. Risk communication. https://www.fda.gov/science-research/science-and-research-special-topics/risk-communication
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The SHARE Approach – essential steps of shared decision making: quick reference guide. https://www.ahrq.gov/health-literacy/professional-training/shared-decision/tools/resource-1.html
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The SHARE Approach – a model for shared decision making. https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/publications/files/share-approach_factsheet.pdf
-
Book chapters and journal articles:
- Kahaleh AA, Youmans SL, Bresette JL, Truong HA. Health behavior theories and models: frameworks for health promotion and health education programs. In: Truong HA, Bresette JL, Sellers JA, eds. The pharmacist in public health: education, applications, and opportunities. American Pharmacists Association; 2010.
- Pringle JL, Boyer A, Conklin MH, Mccullough JW, Aldridge A. The Pennsylvania Project: pharmacist intervention improved medication adherence and reduced health care costs. Health Affairs 2014;33(8):1444-52.
References
- Healthy People 2030 . Health communication. https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/health-communication . Accessed February 17, 2021.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Strategy 6I: Shared decision making. https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/quality-improvement/improvement-guide/6-strategies-for-improving/communication/strategy6i-shared-decisionmaking.html . Accessed March 21, 2021.
- NEJM Catalyst. What is patient-centered care? https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.17.0559 . Accessed March 21, 2021.
- Sindhu T. Why patient empowerment matters. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/why-patient-empowerment-matters . Accessed on March 21, 2021.
- Elwyn G, Frosch D, Thomson R, et al. Shared decision making: a model for clinical practice. J Gen Intern Med 2012;27(10):1361-1367.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Health literacy universal precautions toolkit, 2 nd edition: use the teach-back method: Tool #5. https://www.ahrq.gov/health-literacy/improve/precautions/tool5.html . Accessed February 17, 2021.
- Freimuth VS, Quinn SC. The contributions of health communication to eliminating health disparities. Am J Public Health 2004;94(12):2053-5.
- Hochbaum G, Rosenstock I, Kegels S. Health belief model . Washington, DC: US Public Health Service, 1952.
- Miller WR, Rollnick S. Motivational interviewing: preparing people to change addictive behavior . New York: Guilford Press, 1991.
- Prochaska JO, Velicer WF. The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. Am J Health Promot 1997;12(1):38-48.
- Kleinman, A, Eisenberg, L, Good, B. Culture, illness, and care: clinical lessons from anthropologic and cross-cultural research. Ann Intern Med 1978;88(2):251-8.
- Anandarajah G, Hight E. Spirituality and medical practice: using the HOPE questions as a practical tool for spiritual assessment. Am Fam Physician 2001;63(1):81-9.


Most college students work while in school. Whether you work summers only or part time or full time all year, work can have both benefits and drawbacks. The difference may result as much from the type of job you work as from the number of hours you work.
A Job Can Help or Hurt
In addition to helping pay the bills, a job or internship while in school has other benefits:
-
Experience for your résumé
-
Contacts for your later job search network
-
Employment references for your résumé
Work or internship experience related to your future career has significant value. Not all students can find such opportunities in their community, however. But even a job or volunteering outside your field can have value and say something about you to future employers. Your job may demonstrate that you have initiative, are responsible, are a team player or can work independently, and can take on financial responsibility. Potential future employers will check your work references. Having an employer from your college years say you did a good job, were always on time to work, and were honest and responsible in doing your job definitely gives you an advantage over students who graduate without having worked at all.
At the same time, some jobs contribute more to your overall college experience. Remember, you’re in college for an education and to gain a wide range of skills—not just for the degree. The best student jobs help you engage more deeply in the college experience, while the wrong kind of job gets in the way of that experience. Here are some factors to consider as you look for a job:
-
What kinds of people will you be interacting with?
Other students, instructors, researchers? Interacting with others in the world of college can broaden your college experience, help motivate you to study, and help you feel part of a shared experience. You may work with or meet people who in the future can refer you to employers in your field. On the other hand, working in a business far from campus, for example, may offer a steady paycheck but can separate you from the academic community and detract from a positive college experience.
-
Is the job flexible enough to meet a college student’s needs?
Will you be able to change your work hours during final exam week or when a special project is due? A rigid work schedule may cause difficulty at times when you really need to focus on your classes.
-
What will you be able to say about your work in your future résumé?
Does it involve any skills—including people skills or financial or managerial responsibilities—that your employer can someday praise you for? Will working this job help you get a different, better job next year?
These factors can make a job ideal for college students, but in the real world many students will have to work less-than-ideal jobs. Working at a fast food restaurant or overnight shipping company may not seem very glamorous or offer the benefits described previously, but it may be the only job available at present. Don’t despair—things can always change. Make the money you need to get by in college but don’t become complacent and stop looking for more meaningful work. Keep your eyes and ears open for other possibilities. Visit the campus student employment office frequently (or check online) for new postings. Talk to other students.
At the same time, even with a dull job, do your best and keep a good attitude. Remember that your boss or supervisor may someday be a work reference who can help (or hurt) your chances of getting a job you really want.
Student Jobs
The number of hours college students work per week varies considerably, from five to ten hours a week to full time and everywhere in between. Before deciding how much you need to work, first make a detailed budget as described later. Your goal should be to make as much as you need, and hopefully a little more to save, but first you need to know your true need. Remember your goals in college and stay focused on your education.
Where to Find a Job
Start at your campus financial aid office or student employment office. If they don’t have anything right for you at first, check back frequently for new job postings.
For off-campus jobs, check the classified ads in your local newspaper and Craigslist. Many jobs are never advertised, however, so ask friends, family members, and other students. Visit appropriate companies in your area and ask if they have openings.
If you applied for financial aid when you applied to your college, you probably already know whether you qualify for a work study program. Often these jobs are ideal because they are designed for students. If your financial circumstances change, be sure to check in with the financial aid office because your eligibility may have changed.
Many government agencies also have summer jobs or internships for college students. This work may be an ideal way to gain experience related to your chosen field. (See “Additional Resources” below for more information.)
Go to Work for Yourself
If you have energy and initiative, you can create your own work. While it may take some time to get started, flexibility and being your own boss can make up for this drawback. Students often make money in ways like these:
-
Tutor classmates in a subject you are good in.
-
Sell your technical skills to help others set up new computer hardware, teach software skills such as PowerPoint or Excel, or design Web sites.
-
Sell things you no longer need (video games, DVDs, textbooks) on eBay or Craigslist. Earn a commission by helping others sell their stuff online.
-
Provide services to faculty members and residents in the nearby community: lawn mowing, snow shoveling, housecleaning, babysitting, pet sitting, dog walking, and so on.
Additional Resources
Campus jobs and work study.
Check with your campus student employment or financial aid office.
Broad listing of links for federal government jobs and internships for students.
See www.usajobs.gov/StudentsAndGrads
Student Opportunities at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
See
epa.gov(opens in new window)
[www.epa.gov]
.
Student Opportunities at the U.S. Department of Defense.
See
godefense website(opens in new window)
[godefense.cpms.osd.mil]
.
Student Opportunities at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
See
hhs.gov(opens in new window)
[www.hhs.gov]
.
Student Opportunities at the National Science Foundation.
nsf.gov(opens in new window)
[www.nsf.gov]
.
Student Internships at the State Department.
See
careers.state.gov(opens in new window)
[careers.state.gov]
.
Balancing the Job You Have with Your Ideal Job
A growing percentage of students are working full time when they return to school, and many continue in the same jobs. If you’re in this situation, you know that balancing work and college is one of the most difficult things you’ve ever done. You’re used to working—but not used to finding time for class and studying at the same time. You likely feel harried and frustrated at times, and you may even start to wonder if you’re cut out for college. The time may come when you start thinking about dropping classes or leaving college altogether. It may be hard to stay motivated.
If you start feeling this way, focus on your big goals and don’t let the day-to-day time stresses get you down. As difficult as it may be, try to keep your priorities, and remember that while you face temporary difficulties now, a college degree is forever.
-
Acknowledge that sacrifice and compromise may be needed.
-
Reduce your expenses, if you can, so you can cut back on the number of hours you work. This may mean temporarily giving up some things you enjoy in order to reach your goals.
-
If you cannot cut your expenses and work hours and simply do not have the time to do well in your classes, you may have to cut back on how many classes you take per term. Try everything else first, but know that it’s better to succeed a little at a time than to push too hard and risk not succeeding. If you do have to cut back, keep a positive attitude: you’re still working toward your future ideal.
If you ever feel the temptation to quit, see your college counselor to explore all your options. Resources may be available that you don’t know about.
Key Takeaways
-
The best student jobs have value for your college experience and future résumé and network, while the wrong kinds of jobs may detract from your college experience.
-
How much you work should be based on a realistic budget and your financial goals and needs.
-
To find the best job for you, use all the resources available.
Checkpoint Exercises
-
What are the primary benefits of a student job on campus? (List as many as you can.)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
-
Considering your abilities and interests, what would be your ideal job while a college student?
__________________________________________________________________