jueves, 24 de noviembre de 2011

Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and Contrast Essay
Topic: Growing up in a small town vs. growing up in a city.
Point by Point Arrangement
Introduction


Paragraph 2: First difference
  •    Different points of views
-Country
-City


Paragraph 3: Second difference
  •     Healthier lifestyle
-Country
-City


Paragraph 4: Third difference
  •      Less pollution
-Country
-City


Paragraph 5: Conclusion
Country Living vs. City Living


There are many countries in the world to live in. You can be from Spain or Brazil, from England or Mexico, but one thing all countries have in common is that they all have cities and towns. Choosing whether to live in a big city or a small town, can be quite difficult to do because of  the great differences they represent. In my opinion, I would not change living in a small town for any other place. In this essay I will mention the main differences between them, like the values that each place creates, their life styles and the pollution they have and why I support country living.
First of all, people in towns grow up with more values than people that who grow up in cities. Many factors support this, like Hoodie Baron mentions, “the fact that county people are more religious and more traditional affects the way they see things.”  However, this does not mean that people in cities lack values, it is just that country people are stricter in that aspect. Since everybody knows each other in small towns, it is quite easy for your parents to know if you are doing something wrong. Word get around if you are misbehaving, something that does not occur in cities. Since there are so many people it is quite difficult for everyone to know each other. That’s why we can say that country people grow up with more values because they are obligated to do the right things otherwise it is quite easy for them to be punished by their parents.
Secondly, people living in towns have a healthier lifestyle than those living in cities. In a town, sometimes it is hard to find processed foods due to le lack of stores. However, there may be no need of them since much of the food is organic and grown right there in town. On the other hand, in cities, organic food is hard to find. You can easily go to a store and buy processed food though. But all that canned food can have bad results in your health, and those forth people in towns get more nutrients from their organic food and are healthier.
Thirdly, in comparing the amount of pollution there is, a town has less. In towns everything is close by and you can easily walk from place to place. There is no need of cars and since there are less people that live there, that helps having a clean environment. On the contrary, in cities there are a lot of cars being used, and more cars means more carbon dioxide, which is the primary pollutant. The number of people living there is also very large which means there is more garbage being produced creating a contaminated environment.
As it was mentioned, there are a lot of differences between towns and cities. The most significant are the values that each city promotes, their lifestyle and the amount of pollution that you are exposed to.  But for me, there is something peaceful about towns. They are a safer place, where you can take a walk at night and see the stars clearly. A place, comments Hoddie Baron “you can go outside and greet every person you meet.” Nevertheless, whichever place you choose to live the important thing is that you are happy there. In my case I love small towns, like where I am from, and there is no better place for me.

Bibliografía

Baron, H. (2010). Tattler Extra. Obtenido de http://tattlerextra.org/2010/05/country-living-vs-city-living/
Glassvisage. (s.f.). Hub Pages . Recuperado el 2011, de http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/hub/Country-vs-City-Life



domingo, 13 de noviembre de 2011

Argumentative Essay

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
PATTERN 3
TOPIC: Doing homework is not useful for students’ academic achievement.

INTRODUCTION
Ø  Topic sentence and supporting ideas.

PARAGRAPH I
Ø  Homework is good practicing.
Ø  Argument

PARAGRAPH II
Ø  Homework raises student’s grade.
Ø  Argument

PARAGRAPH III
Ø  Students understand the topics given in class at home with the homework they are given.
Ø  Argument

CLOSURE
Ø  Summary of all the points

Doing homework is not useful for students’ academic achievement.

 

It’s eight in the evening and you just want to go to sleep to wake up fresh and early next morning, but you still have to finish those lesson plans for Microteaching. You’ve been working on your Composition paper all afternoon long and you still have to finish a reading for Psychology, do worksheet for Comparative Grammar and then study for tomorrow’s classes. Unless you stay up all night you never finish all the homework that teachers assign. As Kamala Nair mentions in her article Too Much Homework: Bad for Kids? “Students are enthusiastic about school -- until homework starts to take over, consuming their evenings and weekends.” So, don’t you think it’s just too much homework?


Now, teachers say homework is good for students because students get to practice what they learn in school. However, I think that it’s not necessary because you really do all the learning at school. Students spend seven hours in school each day, which means they spend thirty-five hours a week in school. I think that is enough time to practice everything that they have learned. They barely spend any time at home, and if they spend three to four hours on homework that leaves them barely any time to do other things.

Teachers also say that homework can help raise a student’s grade. However I think it actually lowers there grade. Students have seven periods and they pretty much have homework for all of them. Unless they don’t sleep all night, it’s impossible for them to finish all their homework on time. The next day in class they don’t turn in their homework and that makes their grade go down. If students didn’t have any homework their grade would not be affected.

Teachers also think that homework is good for students because if students don’t understand the topic al school, they will understand it at home, but I think they are wrong. If students do not understand at school, they are definitely not going to understand the topic at home. Their parents cannot help them because it has been years since they have not been to school and they do not remember how to do it. Students would just get frustrated, lose their interest of the subject, and fail that class. This is just what Alfie Kohn mentions in his article, Rethinking Homework, “The negative effects of homework are well known.  They include children’s frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities, and possible loss of interest in learning. Instead of homework I think it would be better for students to stay afterschool and ask their teachers. It would do them a lot better that getting all confused and frustrated at home, not learning anything and failing the subject.

So, as it was mentioned, homework can actually be a bad thing for students. It can lower their grades and make them fail their classes. Most importantly it can lower their confidence because they get frustrated and they think they are not capable of doing it. It is very important to take these aspects into consideration for the academic achievement of students.

References


Kohn, A. (2007, January/February ). Rethinking Homework. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/rethinkinghomework.htm


Nair, K. (2011). Too Much Homework: Bad for Kids? Retrieved from http://www.parenting.com/article/too-much-homework-bad-for-