Practice Essay 3

In this modern century, there are still a large number of global poverty seen, especially in South Asia (World Poverty, 2015). Poverty is commonly seen in poorer countries where the people are suffering from malnutrition and diseases, and they do not have proper education as well (Cleveland, 2014). This problem is severe as countries with high poverty rates will experience low economic growth and high unemployment rates. Therefore, poverty has to be resolved and effective solutions have to be implemented before it causes more severe impact in the long run. Thus, this essay will highlight one major impact of poverty, and then discusses two suggested solutions to reduce this problem.

The major impact of poverty is negative health effects, and this is impact is severe as it involves the lives of people. Due to the poor living conditions in rural areas, people there are more likely to get diseases due to poor hygiene and lack of nutrients (Cleveland, 2014). Moreover, these people do not have money to see doctor when they fall ill. As a result, the life expectancy in poor countries are low as the people there have shorter lifespans, while their child mortality rates are high due to the high percentage of death among children age before 5 years (Cleveland, 2014). Therefore, if poverty is not resolve soon, the number of death in poor countries will increase rapidly as these people fall sick due to health issues resulted from poor living conditions.

The first suggested solution is to create more awareness of poverty issues to the world. Although the public knows that there is poverty occurring in the world, however, they may not know the severe impact of poverty. Also, they may not know how bad the living conditions are in the poorer countries. There are rich countries who believe that having poor countries can benefits them economically, however, this is in fact not accurate (World Poverty, 2015). Therefore, there should be more awareness on the impact of poverty to the public, so that the public can understand their living conditions and may be more willing to lend a helping hand such as giving donations. A way to spread awareness would be that there can be more documentary shows recorded to illustrate to the public of their poor living conditions and how poverty can also impact the rich. Hence, issues of poverty have to be broadcast to the public to create awareness and also to inform them the consequences they will be facing if it is not resolve soon.

The second suggested solution is to enforce the government to take immediate actions to reduce poverty. The government in richer countries do take actions to reduce poverty among the minority in their countries such as introducing improved minimum wage law and welfare systems, however, they actually choose who to help and the help provided is usually limited (World Poverty, 2015). Therefore, there should be more enforcement, especially when help is more needed in the poorer countries. There should be more exposure and flexibility given to private individuals who are willing to help, and more should be encouraged to help the poor. The government should also implement laws and events to create awareness of poverty and educate its people and themselves as well. Another way the government can reduce poverty would be to educate the poor so that they can find better jobs in the future. Hence, the rich should understand the living conditions of the poor and enforce more actions to be taken to help the poor.

In conclusion, there should be more awareness on poverty and though there are measures taken to resolve poverty, it still lacks enforcement. The impact of poverty is serious as it threatens the lives of many people as well as the economy. Therefore, more awareness of poverty should reach out to the public and immediate actions should be taken to reduce poverty before it cause more harm than good in the future.

References

Cleveland, H. (2014). 5 Effects of Poverty - The Borgen Project. The Borgen Project. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from http://borgenproject.org/5-effects-poverty/

World Poverty. (2015). Solutions to World Poverty. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from http://worldpoverty.org/solutionstopoverty.htm

Practice Essay 2

Deforestation is the act of clearing forest to meet human’s demands such as demand in paper, and the land may be used for future urban development as well (Greenpeace, 2015). However, deforestation has impacted the world today in a negative way despite being able to meet market demands. Therefore, it is important to implement effective solutions to minimize the impact of deforestation, so that future generations can still explore the beautiful homeland, Earth. This essay will then discuss the problem caused by deforestation, as well as suggested solutions to resolve this problem.

One of the problems caused by deforestation is air pollution. The common acts of deforestation would be slashing and burning of trees to clear land. However, when trees are burned, it will form thick layers of smoke which this will pollute the air, thus causing the air quality to be bad. Singapore is one of the country who has been experiencing bad air quality for the past years as its neighbouring countries are constantly practicing illegal acts of agriculture (Cheam, 2015). For instance, these acts are performed by the Indonesia farmers, which they slash and burn down trees, and this has caused serious air pollution as the smoke is blown to Singapore (Cheam, 2015). Therefore, this problem has to be resolved quickly as bad air quality will affect human lungs negatively.

The suggested solution to this problem would be to implement stricter law enforcement to minimize the problem from becoming worst. The government of the country involved in deforestation should implement strict laws to minimize the illegal acts. The people who are involved in the illegal acts should be heavy punished by law, and this also applies to big companies who hire workers to clear the land. The government can also create job opportunities to its people as there can be more people involved in the monitoring of illegal acts of deforestation. Therefore, by punishing people who perform illegal acts will help to minimise the problem as there will be fewer people performing harmful acts to the environment.

Another solution would be to reserve a certain area of the forest as nature reserve. This means that these areas are restricted and deforestation is not allowed. The purpose of this solution is to minimise the acts of deforestation by cutting down the size of the land area which can be cleared. Furthermore, it prevents companies from performing large amount of deforestation at one time to minimise the impact of their actions. If deforestation can be cut down, there will be fewer trees to burn and thus, lowering air pollution.

Moreover, it is important for the public to play a part to resolve this problem as well. For instance, if there are lesser demands in paper supply, the paper making companies can slow down the rate of cutting trees to produce papers and have more time to research and make environment-friendly papers. The actions that the public can take would be the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle. Therefore, this can reduce deforestation and air pollution as well.

In conclusion, the act of deforestation will cause a severe impact on Earth, and it has to be quickly minimized and resolved with the help of everyone. The government should implement strict laws to monitor and control deforestation, the companies should not perform illegal acts and the public should do their part to save the environment. Hence, the problem of air pollution can be minimized as the acts of deforestation decreases. Therefore, it is important for everyone to play a part in reducing deforestation and saving the environment.

References 

Greenpeace. (2015). The problems of deforestation in Asia. Retrieved 2 November 2015, from http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/forests/problems/

Cheam, J. (2015). New strategy needed to end haze problem. The Straits Times. Retrieved 2 November 2015, from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/new-strategy-needed-to-end-haze-problem

Practice Essay 1

Internet piracy is defined as the distribution of other's’ work which allows the public to download online materials (Beynon, 2015). This leads us to the present where information nowadays can be easily found from the Internet, and there are many cases of people downloading data online. This action is commonly seen anywhere, especially in Singapore (Lay, 2014). However, the action of downloading online materials is not a rightful act. Unfortunately, the action is deemed illegal as the consequences are serious, and a worse-case scenario would be jail sentence up to two years (Beynon, 2015). Therefore, immediate actions have to be taken to minimize the number of downloaders and to protect the rights of the original authors. This essay will then discuss the problem of internet piracy and its current solutions, as well as provide possible suggestions to resolve the problem.

Internet piracy is a serious matter as downloading of online content is considered as illegal in the current society. This is because protection from internet piracy is an important matter to the authors as they have the rights to protect their own work from being copied or distributed unknowingly. According to Lay’s article (2014), Tower Records and Gramophone, two famous brand name music retail chains in Singapore, have closed-down their businesses due to poor sales. Thus, this shows that the impact of the problem is serious as if most contents can be easily downloaded free online, it will result in more businesses to close-down and lost of originality.

The first solution taken is to make changes to the Copyright Act where users will be blocked from accessing certain sites (Lay, 2014). However, according to Lay’s article (2014), this solution is not effective as there is still a large number of illegal downloaders. This is because the newcomers to internet piracy do not feel that it is wrong to download contents online since everyone is doing it as well. Therefore, blocking users from accessing certain sites is not effective as users will still be able to access other new sites that allow illegal download and also since they do not feel that it is wrong to download contents online.

The possible solution to resolve internet piracy is to have stricter law enforcement to minimise this illegal act. The government has to be firmed in the implementation of new and stricter laws such as increasing the number of years of jail sentences for online piracy from two years to ten years, and take strong actions to punish the people who performed internet piracy (Beynon, 2015). However, since internet piracy is performed online which is not physically seen, it is almost impossible to capture everyone who is involved in this illegal act (Beynon, 2015). Therefore, if severe punishment is given to the people who are caught in the act, this can create an image that people who are doing this act will be heavily punished. Thus, this will create an online fear that internet piracy is illegal as stricter laws and actions are enforcement.

In conclusion, immediate actions have to be taken to minimize the number of downloaders and to protect the rights of the original authors. Despite that there is laws implemented to control internet piracy, these laws lack enforcement, thus causing the public to continue their illegal act. Thus, the originality of the author’s work can be protected as internet piracy can be resolve.

Reference

Lay, B. (2014). Site-blocking wont be a panacea for online piracy. Retrieved 28 October 2015, from http://www.ipscommons.sg/site-blocking-wont-be-a-panacea-for-online-piracy/

Beynon, W. (2015). The Piracy Problem - The Hunt for an Effective Solution. The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 28 October 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/wayne-beynon/online-piracy_b_7880522.html

Critical Reflection: My Academic Writing

As mentioned in the first reflection, titled “My English Language Learning Journey Reflection”, I have always been weak in English Language and I will continue to seek for better improvements. And so, my learning journey continues when I took up the ES1102 module. Before taking this module, I had wondered how would this module be able to help me to improve my English Language since the topics taught in ES1102 are different from what was taught back in secondary school. As I was taking this module, I realized that it has helped me in many areas, especially in the area of writing.

This module has motivated and helped me to improve my English Language. I feel that this module is useful as it has equipped me with the skills set needed to write better essays. Throughout this module, there is a lot of reading involved as we have to find articles to support the contents in our essays, and this process of bulk reading has actually encouraged me to read more. Also, the class interactions and teacher’s consultations are really useful and beneficial, as the class interactions allow peers to review each other's work by identifying mistakes when the writer himself is unable to, while the consultations allow the student to get one-to-one discussion with the teacher to get constructive feedback.

Moreover, I will try to apply everything that I have learnt in ES1102 to prepare for the final exam. I think the most important step to take in improving writing skills would be to practice more. It is also important to review the writing repeatedly by myself to check language errors and the flow of events as well, and it can also be reviewed by my peers for a second opinion. For the language component, I have to take note of the tenses and verbs I used, and use appropriate linking words to link my sentences. Furthermore, I feel that planning the outline of the essay from the beginning is necessary so that it will be much easier to write the whole essay later on.

In conclusion, I had an enriching and memorable time in ES1102 class, as I have made new improvements and met new friends as well. I am thankful to my teacher, Ms. Toh, who is always willing to go an extra mile to help me to improve on my writing skills. Also, I felt that I have gained much more confidence in writing after this module. In addition, I will continue this learning journey and constantly seeking for improvements in my English Language. From now onwards, the next step to take would be to continue to improve the area that I am weak in, which is the language component during writing.