hmm. phy paper 3 today, could do it better than paper 2. woo hooo. left with cse n phy paper 1 and its party time!!!! ping pong or soccer on fri. marathon on the 5th dec, prom on the 6th dec. well, enough of the random rambling ranting. (ps 3rs. *wink wink*) lol random idea ( pss that is another r). okay okay enough of that. hmm, write a short article on how to write essays for wei zhang today and i decided to post it here for memory' s sake. here it goes:
Anyway, from what I see, an essay at its very basic level, is a means to convince other people about what you think. And you do this most of the time in your life. You can choose not to agree with what I say but that is your side of the story. Its YOUR view AND there is no reason why it should come into MY essay. So don't get too stressed up if people don't like you essay or say its lousy. By the way, a bonus part when you write an essay would be that the reader, initially of a different view, turns around and side with you after reading your essay. That is why step 5 down there is VERY VERY VERY VERY important. Don't try to come up with some lousy excuse like there is more agree points than disagree and that is why I agree. IT SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT YOU WILL DEFEND STRONGLY. Example la, er, lets say you like playing basketball a lot. but then this punk come along 1 day and tell u basketball sucks. He is insulting the love of your life. So you should defend your stand on why u like basketball. So, your topic sentence would be something like basketball is a sport where one can know oneself better. This is because one's physical limits are tested when one plays basketball. For example you have to keep sprinting across the court to defend and attack. And therefore, it pushes you to your physical limits. Thus, it shows that basketball is indeed a sport where one can understand oneself better and that is why you like basketball
That is an example of a paragraph. In a more familiar structure;
M - basketball is a sport where one can know oneself better.
E - This is because one's physical limits are tested when one plays basketball.
A - For example you have to keep sprinting across the court to defend and attack.
L - And therefore, it pushes you to your physical limits.
L -Thus, it shows that basketball is indeed a sport where one can understand oneself better and that is why you like basketball the last part and that is why you like basketball is important. The link to the question.
For me personally, I like having 2 links. The first orange link is the link for the example to the explanation while the second red link is the overall link. I know it sounds very naggy but that how i keep myself on track and not digress.
Oh ya, for dualism within each paragraph, usually, I would make it such that it only rebuts the topic sentence. But for the opposition, if possible, i will rebut the topic sentence, and use the rebutted topic sentence as support for my thesis. refer below on corruption. Quite a stretch sometimes.
So that is what you need to start writing an essay.
Next, you brain-storm your essay using the steps below
PS: steps 1-5 are for the introduction
Step 1: Assumption of question/ Restate question
Step 2 : Identify dualism
Step 3: Come up with reasons for dualism
Step 4: Take a Stand
Step 5: Evaluation/ reasons why u take that stand
Step 6: Choose an approach to answer the question
Step 7: Choose a structure
Step 8: Craft topic sentence for every point
Step 9: Updated examples
Step 10: Link back to question
Step 11: Add some of your feelings into the conclusion that you might have thought about when writing the body
Further explanations
Step 3: Come up with reasons for dualism
Very often, this you need to use logic to think. Let's say a question is asking "CCP is losing its legitimacy fast." A/D ?
For this right, the dualism which is easily identified, would be yes, its losing and not, its not.
For yes, it could be due to the increase in social unrest, rampant corruption or due to a rising vocal middle class that does not agree with CCP's legitimacy
For no, it could be due to the high economic needs that are met or the promotion of nationalism which translates to love for CCP
Usually, it is written in the introduction as it allows you to bring in the dualism easily. It does show understanding of the question also.
Step 4: Take a Stand
It is very simple for this step. 2 C 1. lol. But take note. You choose the side which you think that the reasons above is the most logical to you as a person. However, in some cases, there a so-called easier choice to pick and in this case there is. In this case, the easier choice would be that CCP has NOT lost its legitimacy. I mean if it has lost it, then why is it still governing china?
Step 5: Evaluation/ reasons why u take that stand
Hmm, evaluation is a little tricky. For evaluation right, it would be better if u bring in the 16 evaluative perspective in GP. This is also known as the use of dependent factors. Also known as using of qualifiers.
It is also more like a reason as to why you choose the stand based on whatever you understand about the question.
For me, there are like 2 styles of evaluation and each depends on my mood that day and how the question is set
1) I give the anti-thesis its credit but I say that my thesis outweighs the anti-thesis
Eg: CCP's rule is still strong as (provide reasons above). No doubt, there are challenges like (provide anti-thesis reasons), these challenges are being managed by CCP to ensure its legitimacy is strong.
Highlighted in red is a very important link/reason that you must think of before using this evaluation method. Better still if you got evidence to support. If don't have, don't fret. just try to smoke your way.
2) I can also qualify the situations based on the question (used for GP more but you can use this in the body paragraph evaluation also)
Some common criteria to evaluate factors
- Degree of government control ---> if the government can control this crisis or has much control over an issue, this issue/ crisis is largely tilted in favor towards the government.
- Area of Effect ---> how much people does it affect. The more it affects, the greater the problem.
- Long term vs Short term
- Political, Economic, Social COST vs any possible BENEFITS
Step 6: Choose an approach to answer the question
1) Assess the causes for the topic and the effectiveness of measures done.
For example, in this case, CCP legitimacy is dependent on 5 factors
- Civil Governance ---> how well it governs the country. Are problems like corruption solved?
- Nationalism
- Domestic Stability/ Economic Development
- Populism ---> how popular is CCP.
- Ideological Modification ---> changing of ideology to suit changing times BUT not contradicting the traditional Mao ZeDong Thought
That means you got 5 body paragraph and in each u assess each factor and see to what extent has CCP lost its legitimacy.
Although you might say it has lousy civil governance due to rampant corruption, I can also say that measures are put into place that combat corruption. So, in that sense, it is trying to regain its legitimacy and hence not losing its legitimacy. THIS WOULD BE IN LINE WITH MY THESIS ABOVE THAT IS CCP HAS NOT LOSE ITS LEGITIMACY.
If you disagree with my thesis, you can further rebut my stand like what Mr Shermann used to teach us. The measures to combat corruption although implemented, they are still inefficient. Then u come up with some statistics. If you are feeling a bit more lucky, you can even say that these measures could in turn cause more corruption and that is why china's civil governance is lousy to the max.
2) SPERM
In this case, you can talk about firstly how social problems faced causes CCP to lose its legitimacy and then in the same paragraph, talk about what CCP is doing. Second paragraph could be on political problems and so on.
It need not be fixed as in you use approach 1 only or 2 only. Its alright to mix both approaches. The main idea although is NOT to come up with the same points and write them differently as 2 paragraph.
Step 7: Choose a structure
The structure naturally depends on the approach you are taking.
Approach 1 would mean that each paragraph encompasses evaluation as you are talking about the CAUSES for the question and evaluation is needed naturally. It would be hard not to give reasons why CCP is doing bad in 1 factor and good in the other.
Approach 2 would mean that the essay is becoming quite GP-ish.
NOTE: for any paragraph you write, include MEAL as shown above
Step 11: Add some of your feelings into the conclusion that you might have thought about when writing the body
This is a bit difficult to think about at the last minute. Er, Mr Chan has a lot of these. lol. Every time he says "China will do this do that because they must get this" are the insights u need. There is no need to bomb too much also. After all, you only got 45 minutes.
Actually, what I keep in mind is the first paragraph when I write an essay. In humanities, its all about choices and why you make that choice. Is it logical for you to make that choice? What factors allow u to believe that China is like that and not the other way. Is it because there are governmental policies? But are they effective in the first place? Are the people receptive to it?
In essence, cse, like what Mr Chan says, its all about an issue and how effective the government has tackled it or an obstacle and how severe is it.
Of course, to come up with all that in 45 min including writing is horrendous. That is why you need to have a READY stand when u go in the exam hall.
One Child Policy, is it more harmful or beneficial?
Income inequality, environmental degradation or negative relations with foreign countries would pose as a greater threat to China's sustained economic development?
Your points can come from cross themes, it does not matter. All that matters is what you perceive to be true as to why this thing is happening now.
An essay is really about YOUR views about a certain topic. Needless to say, facts are required. If you don't have any facts, just whack any survey values. Hong Hui did this essay without facts and Mr Chan gave him 18. lol. And he wrote for every paragraph "where are your facts?" Facts are a requirement in a sense because they give credibility as to what you write. Because China set up the Shanghai-Cooperation Organization (SCO), we can believe that China is able to lead and ....
I think I have been typing this for quite some time and it contains like what all the teachers have told me about essay writing, from Mr Shermann, Mrs Leong, Mr Ivan Lim, Mr Lim Chin Kuan, Mr Lester Lim and Mr William Chan. Credits and kudos to them.I ts 1.40 am liao. Ciao.
hey! its in pretty good english i think. wrote it like a formal thing, woopie. snsd time. LOL! and i just spent quite some time in editing the html codes to ensure the black words dont show up black on the webpage. zzz
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