In this essay, you will write an explication of the poem I Have B.docx

In this essay, you will write an explication of the poem "I Have
Been A Stranger in a Strange Land," by former Poet Laureate
Rita Dove (see below). This will be a fully developed essay,
with a thesis statement and supporting paragraphs. Your goal is
to explain and analyze the poem in clear, correct, and lucid
prose, and to build a case for your interpretation of the poem.
Each paragraph will develop a section of the poem and comment
on it. Use this essay to demonstrate your ability as a critical
reader and as a writer based on the skills you have learned in
this class in reading and understanding literature. There is no
"right answer" to understanding this poem; there is only the
case you make for your interpretation, using evidence from the
poem to support your assertions. This assignment tests not just
your skill as a reader but also, your skill as a writer.
Important note: No research may be used in this
assignment. Evidence that outside sources have been consulted
(apart from the website about how to explicate a poem given in
the Week Seven discussion) will result in a zero on the
assignment. This assignment is an exercise in close critical
reading and writing, not in research.
For a detailed explanation of how to write a poetry explication,
see the website we discussed in Week Seven.
I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land
It wasn't bliss. What was bliss
but the ordinary life? She'd spend hours
in patter, moving through whole days
touching, sniffing, tasting . . . exquisite
housekeeping in a charmed world.
And yet there was always
more of the same, all that happiness,
the aimless Being There.
So she wandered for a while, bush to arbor,

lingered to look through a pond's restive mirror.
He was off cataloging the universe, probably,
pretending he could organize
what was clearly someone else's chaos.
That's when she found the tree,
the dark, crabbed branches
bearing up such speechless bounty,
she knew without being told
this was forbidden. It wasn't
a question of ownership—
who could lay claim to
such maddening perfection?
And there was no voice in her head,
no whispered intelligence lurking
in the leaves—just an ache that grew
until she knew she'd already lost everything
except desire, the red heft of it
warming her outstretched palm.
By Rita Dove
Running head: MUSIC PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORK
ENVIRONMENT 1
MUSIC PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT
4
Music Productivity in the Work Environment
Donna O’Hara
Argosy University

March 9, 2016
Introduction
“Music is medicine” this saying carries a deeper meaning that is
applicable in different fields including a work environment.
Music has been considered as an activity that triumphs the
creativity of the human brain, emotions, and feelings. These
facts about music have been used in workplaces to boost the
morale of workers for the achievement of better results
(Korczynski 2003). With the inclusion of computers in today's
work environment, many workers seem to enjoy the idea of
music incorporation to optimize the tedious nature of work. The
workers play background music on their computers as they go
on with their work. The background music plays a significant
role in improving the productivity level of the workers and the
entire job output. It is not always about the type of music that is
playing, but it is about controlling the type of music being
played and the period it is being played.
Literature review
My hypothesis is an attribute to the fact that music plays a vital
role in boosting employees' morale and general performance in
various fields of work thus improving productivity in the
workplace. I also believe that music comes in with numerous
benefits and importance to both the employee and the
organization as a whole. The benefits of workers are mainly in
the form of relaxation whereas the benefits to the organization
include achievement of set goals and meeting of targets and
aims (Korczynski 2003).

There have been some prior researches conducted to support
this hypothesis as explained below:
The first research was carried out in a factory in attempts of
trying to find out whether playing music at work has a positive
impact on the employees and whether it helps to yield positive
feedback/results.
The factory depends on casual/manual laborers, and it adapted
the music to retrieve its employees from the healthy
environment which at most times is considered boring and
awful. The inclusion of music in this type of situation painted a
different picture away from the typically dull and hard one. The
absence of music in this kind of environment highly affected the
speed of work by reducing it (Robertson, Korczynski &
Pickering, 2007). The research found out that playing music in
this environment enabled workers to come up with ways of
expressing their frustrations in a relaxed manner and reducing
the hardship of the workplace environment. Some of them
would let go of their hard feelings through singing lyrics
alongside their favorite tunes as they worked. If calm music
were played; workers would work peacefully whereas if a
celebratory kind of music filled the workplace, workers would
work more energetically.
The second research focused on corporate offices as work
environments. With the provision of freedom to conduct some
tasks, corporate workers tend to break the monotonous
environment by playing music to facilitate enough
encouragement and morale to work better. This proves the fact
that music is indeed one of the beneficiaries of an already
simulated work environment. This meant that music influenced
office workers in different ways (Peffers, Tuunanen,
Rothenberger, & Chatterjee, 2007).
The research found out that music played a significant role in
boosting the creativity and inspires workers to work together
with their colleagues. Another finding was based on the fact
that music lifts up moods by helping them escape

psychologically torturing activities associated with work
environments. Playing music in the computer background is
more efficient with significant economic benefits to the
workplace and propelling of workers to the achievement of
increased productivity.
Other Findings
The following were the findings from the two types of research
conducted:
· There was a difference in work performance with some
employees feeling that music acted as a destructor and not a
motivator while they were working.
· Some of the workers seemed to enjoy the music but focused
more on avoiding portraying traits that would ruin their
personal image to their bosses and even colleagues.
· Other employees, on the other hand, displayed caring traits by
taking into consideration the difficulties of their colleagues in
working under an environment with music in the background.
· Different workers also preferred different kinds of music as
compared to their colleagues, and this resulted in various
reactions when a different type of music was being played.
Methods section
Participants
The numbers of participants in this study were twenty, and they
were above twenty-one years, with ten from each gender type
with well-mannered traits and no exclusion characteristics. All
of them will be subjected to different conditions of working and
at long last, their productivity assessed at different levels.
Instruments
This section mainly focused on the sampling bit of the type of
population. The research employed the use of random sampling
to ensure that a unit sample is chosen by chance. This will help
to reduce the possibility of biases in the sampling. By doing so,
I will have avoided the common possibility of selecting a
sample that is most likely supposed to represent the general
population.

Procedure
Variables which include age, sex and education among others
will be measured by taking success counts among workers that
have worked in different areas with and without music being
played to them. The results, on the other hand, will be collected
and confirmed using observational techniques, critical method
and also using questionnaires and carrying out a series of
interviews (Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger, & Chatterjee,
2007).
Ethical issues
Workplace ethics is a crucial part as far as employment is
concerned since it assists the company in its efforts to be
profitable. This means that one has to uphold the ethics of a
workplace environment to facilitate the success of the
organization or company. It builds high morale and teamwork.
Ethical issues constitute of laws and rules that employees
should follow. The moral questions to be avoided here is the
releasing of information to participants to make them aware that
they are being used for research to avoid litigation.
These issues can be addressed by making it very clear to the
people conducting the research that it is illegal for them to let
the people being used for the research know that they are being
used to do research. There should also be a set of rules that
dictates a disciplinary action for those who will not follow
established rules.
Conclusion
The paper focuses on the important parts of the entire topic and
gives relevant information accompanied with reasonable facts
that enable one to understand the relevance of music in the work
environment. Through its given examples, the paper
unanimously agrees that indeed music plays a significant role in
boosting the morale of workers in different fields in a
workplace environment.
References

Neuman, W. L. (2005). Social research methods: Quantitative
and qualitative approaches (Vol. 13, pp. 26-28). Boston, MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., & Chatterjee,
S. (2007). A design science research methodology for
information systems research.Journal of management
information systems, 24(3), 45-77.
Korczynski M. (2003). Music at Work: Towards a Historical
Overview. Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1356585
?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/pqcentral
Robertson E., Korczynski M. & Pickering M. (2007).
Harmonious relations? Music at Work in the Rowntree and
Cadbury factories. Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/ehost/detail/detai
l?sid=cdc43a35-c680-4c66-b381-
16113b64c57b%40sessionmgr112&vid=0&hid=101&bdata=JnN
pdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=24232933&db=bth
Running Head:RESEARCH METHODS
1
RESEARCH METHODS
2

Research Methods
RESEARCH METHODS
1. What is your research question?
What is the influence of music on worker’s productivity?
2. What is your hypothesis or hypotheses? What is the null
hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a shrewd guess, an assumption, explanation, an
informed judgment or inference that is professionally adopted to
explain facts or conditions or to guide one on how to attack the
problem. A hypothesis helps the study in suggesting prediction,
explaining outcome and in guiding the investigation to provide
a focus. There are two types of hypotheses commonly used in
research namely Alternative hypothesis and Null hypothesis. An
alternative hypothesis is stated in the positive form indicating
the direction or kind of relationship expected. It is concept
oriented. For this research the alternative hypothesis is:
· Music improves productivity in the work environment.
The null hypothesis is justified where prior knowledge or
findings are lacking, and where there is no basis for predicting
the probable direction or relationship. It is a negative form of
the hypothesis that the phenomenon has occurred out of chance,
hence non-directional. In this research the null hypothesis is:
· Music does not improve productivity in the workplace.
3. How many participants would you like to use and why? What
are the inclusion characteristics, i.e., what must they have in
order to be included in your study (for example, gender,
diagnosis, age, personality traits, etc.)? Are there any exclusion
characteristics, i.e. are there certain characteristics that would

exclude them from being in your study? Does the sample need
to be diverse? Why or why not?
For this research, the number of participants will be twenty. Ten
men and ten women and they all must be at least 21 years and
above. These individuals will be subjected to different working
conditions and their performances observed in those different
areas. There will be no need of any exclusion characteristics
from the participants.
4. What sampling technique will be used to collect your sample?
What population does your sample generalize to?
A study may target a large area or a large group of items to be
studied. The entire group or persons or set of objects and events
to be studied is called population. The most important aspect is
that the population must possess all the characteristics
(variables) the researcher is interested in. Given that the
researcher cannot be everywhere at once or take every possible
viewpoint at the same time, the researcher needs to get to the
general population through a sample. A sample is a group of
people, or records or a number of observations from a larger
population. The process of selecting the sample for the study is
called sampling. For this research, I am going to use random
sampling. This procedure ensures that each unit of the sample is
chosen on the basis of a chance to avoid sampling bias. A
sampling bias occurs where researcher has not carefully
selected the samples that are expected to represent the general
target population, resulting in negative impact on the study
findings.
5. What are the variables in your study?
Variables are quality, properties or characteristics of persons,
things or situation that change or vary such as age, sex
(male/female), education (university, secondary, primary), size,
weight, height, etc. In research variables are classified into two
types namely:
Independent Variables: A variable that influences other
variables, i.e. the intervention performed to see change/outcome
in the variables proposed as being dependent on it. It is the

presumed effect. Provide operational definitions for each
variable. The independent variable will be music in this
research.
Dependent Variables: A variable predicted/explained. It reflects
the effects or response to the independent variable (appears,
disappears, diminishes or increases). The dependent variable in
this research will be workers’ productivity (Scandura, &
Williams, 2000).
6. How will you measure each variable? Discuss the reliability
and validity of these measures in general terms.
The variables will be measured by counting the achievement the
workers make on their works as they work in different areas
with music and without music.
7. What technique will be used for data collection (e.g.,
observation, survey, interview, archival, etc.)?
Archival and observational techniques will be used in the
research. To confirm the results, interviews and questionnaires
will also be needed.
8. What type of research design is being used?
I intend to use both qualitative and quantitative research
designs. Qualitative research is a systematic, subjective
approach used to describe life experiences and give them
meaning. Quantitative research is defined as a “formal,
objective, rigorous, systematic process for generating
information about the world” (Neuman, 2005).
9. Briefly, discuss the procedure that would be followed when
conducting the research.
· The research will be conducted as per the phases outlined
below:
· Problem identification
· Formulation of research objectives/questions
· Formulation of research hypothesis and/or assumptions
· Literature review/what has been done on the topic
· Research design: scope and methods (where, when and how)
· Data collection: instruments, measurements, sampling frame.
· Data analysis: description of results

· Data interpretation: discussions and inferences
· Conclusions: implications of research findings, conclusions,
and recommendations
10. What are some POTENTIAL ethical issues? How might they
be addressed?
Sometime when better results are needed, the participants must
not be aware that they are being used in a research, and this is
sometime unethical and may result in litigation (Creswell,
2002).
References
Neuman, W. L. (2005). Social research methods: Quantitative
and qualitative approaches (Vol. 13, pp. 26-28). Boston, MA:
Allyn and bacon.
Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., & Chatterjee,
S. (2007). A design science research methodology for
information systems research.Journal of management
information systems, 24(3), 45-77.
Scandura, T. A., & Williams, E. A. (2000). Research
methodology in management: Current practices, trends, and
implications for future research.Academy of Management
journal, 43(6), 1248-1264.
Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning,
conducting, and evaluating quantitative. New Jersey: Upper
Saddle River.
Running head: Music Productivity in the Work Environment.
1
Music Productivity in the Work Environment. 9

Music Productivity in the Work Environment
Music Productivity in the Work Environment.
l?sid=cdc43a35-c680-4c66-b381-
The harmonious article relations explains the benefits of music
in the Rowntree and Cadbury factories, and it specifically
pertains to the research regarding the explanation of breaking
the monotony in the repetitive tasks that workers in a specific
work environment have to go through.
The article mostly focuses on the application of music in Britain
in the pre-industrialization, industrialized capitalism, and the
post-industrial capitalism. This relates to the topic in that it
highlights the increased productivity of the work output through
the introduction of music to boost the worker’s morale.
The influence of distracting familiar vocal
music on cognitive performance of introverts
and extroverts.(2012). Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
http://pom.sagepub.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/search?author1=Fur
nham&fulltext=The%20Influence%20of%20Distracting%20Fam
iliar%20Vocal%20Music%20on%20Cognitive%20Performance%
20of%20Introverts%20and%20Extraverts&pubdate_year=2012&
volume=40&firstpage=&submit=yes
The article highlights the potential distractive tendencies that
music has on the introverts and the extroverts while showing
that in both arenas, the lyrics in the music interfered with the

work output by interfering with the cognitive processes of the
brain. This research relates to the research on the influence of
music in the work environment by pointing out the potential
risks that could come as a result of applying music in the work
environment.
Magnini V. P. (2009). The Psychological Effects of Music:
Implications for Hotel Firms. Retrieved on 26th February 2016,
from
17?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/pqcentral
The psychological effects of music and the implications of
music in hotel firms provides an enlightening sector where the
music can be used to increase the guests’ comfortability as well
as the guest services by the hotel patrons and employees. This
particular article highlights the positive effects of music being
introduced in the work environment and how it could potentially
increase the hotel guest relationship.
Speer S. (2011). The effect of background music, speech and
silence on office workers' selective attention. Retrieved on 26th
February 2016, from
451?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/pqdtft
Research into the effects of background music, speech and
silence on office workers on account of their selective attention
indicates that the state office workers delivered more results
when working with background music. This pertains to the
research in that it shows the positive effects of music in the
working environment as to the productivity of the workers.
Project Outline.
a. Influence of music on worker productivity in the work
environment
i. What is the effect of music in the work environment regarding
the productivity?
ii. Understanding the role of music in worker productivity by
helping us analyze if it would be advisable to introduce music
in specific work environments and the reasons why it would be

or not be prudent to introduce it in the work environment in the
first place.
iii. Music is potentially beneficial to better work productivity in
the work environment.
b. A literature review of Music in the Work Environment.
i. The relation of music to the work environment has continued
to be a crude question in the work arena especially regarding
the ethics and professionalism associated with the introduction
of such practices in the work environment. Research conducted
on the effects of music in the work environment proves that
work productivity can have different outcomes with music
playing in the background depending on the specific task that
the job description requires. (Magnini V. P. (2009). The
Psychological Effects of Music: Implications for Hotel Firms,
silence on office workers' selective attention)
ii. Background into the input of music in several work forums in
the past and their implications on the overall work output.
(Korczynski M. (2003). Music at Work: Towards a Historical
Overview, Robertson E., Korczynski M. & Pickering M. (2007).
Cadbury factories).
iii. Implications of the research for the effects of music in the
work environment. (The influence of distracting familiar vocal
music on cognitive performance of introverts and extroverts)
A sampling procedure in the research.
The sampling technique that was most suitable for the study was
the random sampling method which will cover most articles in
regards to the project and their responses to the effects of music
on the work productivity of its introduction. Randomly
sampling several areas ensured the collective perspective from
different fields hence giving an overall view and decisive
conclusions as to the applicability of the project in the long run.
The random sampling technique was also most suitable as it
provided a diverse information collection perspective without
bias while offering a wider view of the project study thus

incorporating many theories into the study based on the
different applicability principles that were gathered from the
data. This sampling technique gave an overall general
perspective on the issue of the effects of music in the work
environment representing different thoughts of various sources.
As to the inclusion criteria, despite using a random sampling
technique, the study was keen to observe the particular effects
to the workers involved in the work environment rather than the
reciprocating customers or clients as the research mostly
focused on the productivity of the workers as a whole and not
the varied input that the clients would offer towards increasing
or affecting this productivity.
The ethical implications of the collection of this information
was in regards to the authenticity of the research that was pre-
conducted on the workers and whether there was an actual
relation between the effects of music on work productivity or if
any other factors might have influenced the target groups
pertaining the study to act or respond in the mannerism in which
they did.
References.
Altom T. (2011). Are iPods in the workplace music to an
employer's ears? Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
`http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer
/pdfviewer?sid=f527dcc3-c7ca-4504-9699-
99bd10f5a0f4%40sessionmgr4005&vid=1&hid=4109
Fiore J. M. (2004). The effectiveness of a music-based
relaxation intervention and a mindfulness-based intervention
delivered online to decrease hospice workers stress and improve
professional quality of life. Retrieved on 26th February 2016,
from
Jones K. (2010). Music in factories: a twentieth-century
technique for control of the productive self. Retrieved on 26th
February 2016, from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/ehost/detail/detai
l?sid=5c3889df-93ef-43d5-ab2b-
90d68d8682ea%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4109&bdata=Jn
NpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=18622116&db=a9h
Magnini V. P. (2009). The Psychological Effects of Music:
Implications for Hotel Firms. Retrieved on 26th February 2016,
from
Prichard C., Korczynski M & Elmes M..(2005). Music at Work:
An Introduction. Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
l?sid=cdc43a35-c680-4c66-b381-
Smith M. (2008). The Effects of a Single Music Relaxation
Session on State Anxiety Levels of Adults in
a Workplace Environment. Retrieved on 26th February 2016,
from
silence on office workers' selective attention. Retrieved on 26th
February 2016, from

The influence of distracting familiar vocal
music on cognitive performance of introverts
and extroverts.(2012). Retrieved on 26th February 2016, from
http://pom.sagepub.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/search?author1=Fur
nham&fulltext=The%20Influence%20of%20Distracting%20Fam
iliar%20Vocal%20Music%20on%20Cognitive%20Performance%
20of%20Introverts%20and%20Extraverts&pubdate_year=2012&
volume=40&firstpage=&submit=yes

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