Monday, March 30, 2009

School Promotes “Correctness” over “Creativity”.

I certainly do not agree with this statement. First, I would like to justify the two key terms "correctness" and "creativity". For "correctness", basically it means to get everything corrects, which implies getting perfect score in the exam. For "creativity", I mean the ability to invent something new, be it an idea or an invention. It contains the element of innovation. Nowadays schools often instil in students the mindset that we need to get everything correct to be successful in life. Failing in the exam would mean that a person is stupid and useless.
Though, in this modern society, people no longer think that scoring perfect score in the exam, which justifies "correctness", is the best thing to do. This is because there are far too many people who obtain this perfect score. If you are an interviewer for a prestigious university admission, you would definitely not judge the students' ability by examining how many correct answers they achieve in the exam as this will eventually cause your university to be filled with tonnes of new students. Modern people often stress the important of creativity over correctness. Anyway there is no definite correctness in this world. What we think is correct today might be doubted by people centuries later, like the Geocentric Theory, an old ideas of science being overthrow by Heliocentric, a new ideas of science. Therefore, school should equip students with the ability to think using their reason, instead of accepting blindly whatever that is dubbed "correct".
Creativity is one of the main driving force behind many new ideas of science and invention. Very long time ago, it was mere creativity which allowed Democritus to proposed the atomic therory. He did not have any prove for that, nor did he observe the atoms by his eyes. Though reason incited him to think and creativity aroused which caused him to devise the atomic theory. This causes many of his successors to research on the atoms, which ultimately lays foundation for the chemistry that we study today. The successes of many multi-millionaires such as Bill Gates and the rising prodigy Mark Zuckerberg are also based on the creativity that they possess. Bill Gates did not learn about Windows in school. Mark Zuckerberg did not get the ideas of Facebook in school either. It was the creativity that propelled them to develop something revolutionary to the world, such as the Windows and the Facebook. Western countries are started to realize the importance of creativity in the society. Their education systems, especially the United States stress the students' ability to come out with their own ideas, instead of following the textbooks all the time. Their exam is seen by us to be relatively easier compared to the Asian societies. Though, why successful people mostly arise from the West? This is because "correctness" does not work anymore in this modern world. Society can only improve when people doubt the authority. This term seems to be a bit harsh but it is true. Nothing in this world is totally correct. We just assume something to be "correct" in our everyday life because everyone thinks so. On the contrary, having creativity does not necessarily mean we need to get everything to be correct but just something useful to ourselves or the society.
Hence, I think school should promote "creativity" over "correctness".

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What is an Exposition?

Exposition is basically a type if essay where the author set forth facts or ideas. It should expound detailed explanation. The aim of this type of essay is to convince people to support a specific idea or opinion. It is also to inform people about certain facts or new knowledge or to explain certain processes. The style of the essay is more like talking to the reader rather than a piece of normal writing. Hence, an expository writing is very powerful if it is written well and can have effects in our society. The structure of an expository essay should have an introduction which states what the author stance is and the idea should not be too broad or too specific so that the it can be developed effectively. There are a few type of methods of development of the essay:
1)Compare and Contrast-This is to juxtaposition a few ideas so show the reader which one is
better.
2)Cause and Effect-This is to show the consequences of certain ideas to show that whether it is
good or bad.
3)Classification-This is to classify all your ideas accordingly and in chronological order so that it makes sense and engages the reader.
Every paragraph in the expository essay which constitutes one argument should be supported by examples and evidence and in the end link back to the main idea which is the author's stance. Therefore, expository writing is actually a piece of argument. The author's point of view can be wrong but he argues well, it will be a good expository essay.