Critical Reflection - Essay Writing (Updated)

Writing essays used to be a breeze, back in my secondary school days. All I wrote then were narratives and personal recounts which do not require much variation in the tenses. Furthermore it was a style of writing that I was familiar with. However when it came to writing expository or argumentative essays, the different nuances of the language due to the uses of different tenses confused me greatly. It was only after taking the Qualifying English Test (QET) that I realized I had to do something about it.

After going through a few lessons of ES1102, I finally realized that I have been making many careless grammatical mistakes when writing. Several sessions of proofreading and conscientious checking showed that simple grammatical mistakes peppered the summaries and essays that I wrote for the module. The numerous drafts also made me more aware of such mistakes. As a result, I am paying more attention to the words used in my essay. Furthermore, my vocabulary has increased with the need to avoid repetition of words and that forces me to look up for alternative synonyms. However, there is still much room for improvement as I still tend to make plenty of errors while writing. One way to improve will be by asking a friend to proofread my essays as it can help me spot mistakes that I have missed. Reading more newspaper articles or books will also beneficial as it will allow me to see how different words are used in the expression of different ideas as well as the contrasting styles of writing. Thus, by learning to adapt them into my writing can give my essays more depth and variety.

Nevertheless, I believe that the essay writing skills that I have learnt from this module will be beneficial when I write reports or essays for my other modules as they help me to frame my sentences and thoughts in a more coherent manner, such that I can put my ideas across clearly.

(Updated) Essay Prompt: Globalisation can be defined as the increasing cross-border interaction and integration of various aspects of human activity

Globalization is the process of integration of different countries due to increased cross-border interactions, allowing for an increased exchange of ideas and trade.  However, one of the problems caused by globalization is the widening income gap between developing and developed countries (Birdsall, 1999). It can be said that the main reason for this is due to third world countries lacking the capital and skills to contest in the global market.

Developing countries tend to lose out in the case of global market competition as they lack the skill and capital to compete against countries that are much richer and more resourceful than them (Ohno, 1999). Thus, citizens often end up in the low paying, labour intensive factory jobs. Pro-globalization activists often state that the outsourcing of labour by developed countries has created new job opportunities and reduced the overall unemployment rate, thus mitigating the problem of poverty.  Evidence of this can be seen in China, India and Indonesia, where the number of people living below the poverty line has decreased significantly. However, these employees work in unhealthy environments as they are often mistreated at their workplace (Bardhan, 2006). Furthermore, the highly educated individuals from the third world countries prefer to work in developed countries as these richer countries provides them with more opportunities to properly utilize their skills. World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that in the healthcare sector, most nurses and doctors come from third world countries due to the better working environments and higher salaries as compared to working in their own countries. This migration of talent from the developing countries results in a ‘brain drain’ where the developed countries reap the benefits of such educated individuals and the underdeveloped countries becoming poorer with its talent pool being drawn away (Shah, 2006). This makes it difficult for them to compete with their more developed counterparts.

 Ensuring that citizens undergo proper education would help to break the country free from poverty. With the global information age, the need for education is paramount and benefits can be attributed to mandatory primary and secondary education. It offers students with poorer financial backgrounds a way to break the poverty cycle by giving them the tools to secure higher paying jobs in society. In Singapore, the government invested heavily in education during the country’s developing years, showing the importance of education for its citizens, especially for a developing nation (Stiglitz, 2013). However, it can become another financial burden for poorer families, thus providing free education for the citizens could be a way to solve this problem. However, this requires the help from other countries. INJAZ al-Maghrib “committed to training 26155 Moroccan students in entrepreneurship over three years” (Clinton, 2013), where 70 corporations send volunteers to mentor and teach students in the creation and management of their own businesses. Thus it can be seen that although education may become another financial burden for a family, it can lead to benefits in the long run to help the families escape from poverty.

Another strategy to alleviate poverty would be via the implementation of a community led savings model would help the community by encouraging individuals to save regularly. Loans could also be made to members for the fund. One example can be seen in a project in Africa known as “Banking on Change”, whose partnership includes Barclays, CARE International U.K. and Plan U.K. It provides small loans for aspiring entrepreneurs and helps in the expansion of small businesses which benefits the lives of many families (Clinton, 2013). However this initiative requires the cooperation of many parties, and thus it can be difficult to implement. Furthermore, with many families in poverty living from hand to mouth, it would be difficult for them to put away a certain amount of their salary as savings. Some incentives could be given to encourage the participants of the plan to invest in this community savings model, and eventually the savings can be used to start up a business or finance the education of their children.

Thus it can be seen that for developing countries to break free of poverty, cooperation with developed countries is needed to provide logistical and financial support until they become self-sustainable enough to implement their own policies to reduce the poverty in their country.

References:

Bardhan, P. (2006) Does globalization help or hurt the world's poor? Scientific American, 294, 84-91. Retrieved from http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/bardhan/papers/BardhanDoesGlobalizationHelp.pdf

Birdsall, N. (1999, March). Globalization and the Developing Countries: The Inequality Risk. Paper presented at the Overseas Development Council Conference, Making Globalization Work, International Trade Centre, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.econ.yale.edu/alumni/reunion99/birdsall.htm

Clinton, B. (2013, September 30) It Takes a Village. Time, p. 44

Ohno, M. (1999). Latecomer Countries and the Global Market Economy: The risk of premature international integration disrupting the development process. Asian Development Bank Institute: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. Retrieved from: http://www.grips.ac.jp/vietnam/KOarchives/doc/EP01_Sekai.pdf

Shah, A. (2006). Brain Drain of Workers from Poor to Rich Countries. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/599/brain-drain-of-workers-from-poor-to-rich-countries

Stiglitz, J. E. (2013). Singapore’s Lessons for an Unequal America. The New York Times: The Opinion Pages. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/singapores-lessons-for-an-unequal-america/?_r=0

Reader Response - 'The Double Edge of Globalization

The article ‘The Double Edge of Globalization” written by Nayan Chanda (2007) addresses the issue of globalization and the environmental harm that occurs as a result of it. Expanding trade due to globalization has led to massive deforestation, overfishing as well as the increase of pollutants which overall economic and social disruptions may rival those of major global events. Though the disadvantages of globalization may seem very overwhelming, it has aided the world to become more interconnected, such that information about environmental issues can quickly disseminate across the entire globe, thus increasing awareness of the current environmental situation.

Although the United Nations (UN) has shown its inability to curb the global issues, it can be said that the main cause of the failure was due to the reluctance of the other countries to take the initiative to stop the environmental problems due to several reasons, such as the governing bodies of countries being typically more interested in their own needs as well as countries not having the support they need in order to put environmental sustainable policies in to place.

For example, signing the Kyoto Protocol would severely limit the growth of many industries with the limitations placed on the emissions of greenhouse gases. When faced with this difficult decision, some countries choose to make the trade-off of having economic benefits and sacrificing environmental sustainability. Though this may be selfish, it is unavoidable as countries are always racing to increase its standings in the world, whether economically or technologically and this requires the use of resources that are sometimes harmful to the environment. This is especially so in developing countries, whose inability to commit adequate resources for environmental sustainability caused it to receive much criticism from the rest of the world.

One such example can be China. In current years, China has been accused to be one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses, the reason being the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities. Being the ‘factory of the world’ makes it even more difficult to put restrictions upon their factories. Any limits placed upon the factories to rectify the issue of excessive pollution may incur detrimental economic effects that can be felt across several other countries due to the trading with many other countries. Thus it has always been a struggle on finding the best balance between pursuing economic growth and the sustainability of the environment.

This shows the difficult decisions that some countries face in order to practice environmental sustainability. Despite this, it is clear that people are willing to experiment with new methods to help protect the environment to halt the worsening of the global situation, where developed countries would lend a hand to aid the developing countries to reverse the effects of global warming, so one should remain optimistic about the improvements that may be done in the state of the current global situation.

The Double Edge of Globalization

Globalization has been largely blamed for causing many environmental problems, which is mainly the result of expanding trade between countries. This has led to massive deforestation, overfishing as well as the increase of pollutants which overall economic and social disruptions may rival those of major global events. On the other hand, globalization allows the world to become increasingly interconnected thus people around the world can easily gain knowledge of the effects of globalization and as a result increasing awareness of the global situation. Despite that, countries are unwilling to work together to solve global issues and that will curb the United Nations' ability to act upon them.

108 words

Summary for Scary Oil

The most pressing issue faced by the global economy is rising oil prices. Though the demand for oil has decreased, the inflation of oil prices is due to unrest in the Middle East. Sanctions had been put on Iran to prevent the construction of nuclear warheads, but because of that Iran has retaliated by causing conflict on the Gulf, where it has already launched several attacks on the Israeli embassies. Should  the sanctions fail, the US will be forced to conduct military action against Iran and that will result a further increase of oil prices.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrasing exercise

In this short excerpt from David Crystal’s English as a Global Language, take note of the way that power relationships rather than the number of speakers influenced Latin language use.

“Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful.” 

Paraphrase: Latin came to be the international language in the Roman Empire as their power enabled them to conquer many countries.

As you paraphrase the following paragraph, present the “expected” general features of the nuclear reactors from Declan Butler’s “Nuclear power’s new dawn,” taken from Nature, 20 May, 2004 (Vol. 429, p. 238).

“These new reactors would all operate at high temperatures, improving their efficiency.  And they would include simplified safety features that do not rely on sophisticated backup systems or experienced operators — all are, in principle, ‘meltdown proof’ and can cool themselves down in the event of an accident with minimal, if any, human intervention. . . . Experts agree that reactors will need to be a lot cheaper to run. And to sway a nuclear-averse public, the next generation of reactors will need to produce much less radioactive waste at terrorist-proof facilities.” 

Paraphrase: Being able to work at higher temperatures and not producing much radioactive waste would aid in improving the efficiency of nuclear reactors. In the case of an accident, they require little human intervention with the improved safety features. 

Summarizing Exercise

“In any one nation, there are both very wealthy and very poor individuals and families. When sociologists conduct research on these disparities, they frequently analyze secondary data that originally were collected by the World Bank and the United Nations. These data focus on quality-of-life indicators such as wealth; income; life expectancy; health; sanitation; the treatment of women; and education for high-income, middle-income and low income nations.”

Source: Kendall, D. (2004). Social problems in a diverse society (3^rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Summary: Sociologists research on the uneven distribution of wealth via the data collected by the World Bank and the United Nations of quality of life indicators.

“Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful. And later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power – the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism.”

Source: Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summary: There are several ways for a language to become an international language, and that can be by conquest and the spread of religion.

 Summarise the effect of spending too much time on Facebook in one or two sentences, using the underlined information, which needs to be expressed in your own words.         

       

Summary: Research has shown that daily users of Facebook suffered from lower grades due to the amount of time spent on that website.