Causes of the absence of a sense of community and measures

Individuals and families who work hand in hand toward the progress of their locality have always been ubiquitous in many different areas, especially in our close-knit Philippine society. However, as an effect of urbanization and other factors such as urban migration; cities flourished but were stripped off their sense of community. A lot of people in these city dwellings become nameless and faceless; thus, widening the disparity among its constituents. This essay will discuss the causes of this trend and possible solutions to alleviate the problem.

The lack of communication among neighbors is one of the main reasons behind the absence of community. People fail to talk to each other or even wave or smile because they are too busy with their own lives. Some are busy with work or are looking for jobs; therefore, they have very little time left for small talk with neighbors. If they do have time left, most would be bent over doing other activities that they believe would be beneficial. Consequently, this lack of face to face interactions makes people strangers to each other, who could not care less about each other.

In the Southern area of the Philippines, conflicts often arise between Moslems and Christians –some even leading to violence and mortalities. Although not necessarily as violent, groups in cities are also disparate, not only because of religious beliefs, but also because of cultural differences. A lot of people do not understand why certain people act like a certain way; thus, the stereotypical comments that certain regional groups are stingy, garrulous, quarrelsome and the like. This is compounded by urban migration as a lot of people from many different places start to settle in these so-called “melting pots”. Indeed, different beliefs play a huge role in the conflict between locals.

The prosperity of an area depends on how united its residents are. Therefore, everyone should be working towards alleviating this ever-growing problem. Gatherings should be encouraged in order to allow everyone to take some time off their busy lives and talk to each other. Activities such as parties, sports festivals and the like may also spark interest in these get-togethers. Also, respect is the key. We may not be able to fully understand each other’s habits and preferences; but if we respect our neighbor’s inherent dignity, no issues will arise.

The absence of community will continue to persist unless we do something about it. Our religion and culture might be different; but if we only take time to be proactive, instead of being reactive, we could catalyze change.

NONFICTION vs FICTION (DISCUSS BOTH VIEWS AND GIVE YOUR OPINION)

The realm of entertainment has evolved dramatically to meet the changing tastes of audiences from changing times. Tear-jerking and heartwarming stories that remind us of our personal challenges have never gone out of most people's preferences. However, vivid narratives from the filament of the storyteller's imagination have captivated the people who would like to free themselves from daily worries and enter a whole new world.

The realistic view that non-fiction stories provide is precisely the reason why these are able to catch the interest of the readers or viewers. The fact that people can relate with the characters or the plot may have a cathartic effect People feel that they are not alone, hence find comfort in watching or reading stories similar to their lives. The true-to-life context of anecdotes also make them less baffling and easier to understand. These have no hidden and covert complexities--just what plainly meets the eye.

On the other hand, the artistic creations of the human mind expressed through stories also lures people into appreciating fiction stories. These take the spectators into breathtaking places that they have never been to and pulls them into understanding iconic characters that they have never heard of. Some people find that they are reliving childhood fantasies through these stories--giving them a break from the stressful reality.

In my opinion, both types of stories satisfy the need of people to be entertained. Ultimately, the variations in what we expose ourselves to that matters, as we would be able to grow with these stories/ True-to-life anecdotes remind us of our humanity, while fictitious stories remind us of the depth and breadth of the human imagination.

Viewership or readership is important for a story to continue. These provide faculties for introspection and contemplation. Whatever stories people prefer, it is important to continue communicating ideas, may it be factual, or imagined.

VOCAL WARM UP FOR PRONUNCIATION

Pronouncing properly is indeed important in every affair where your speaking skills are needed. The following is a vocal warm-up in order for you to practice vowel sounds, consonant sounds and commonly confused sounds. Make sure to record yourself so that you could point out your mistakes and monitor your progress. Enjoy. :D

Eat each green pea. Aim straight at the game. Ed said get ready.

It  is in Italy. I tried  my  kite. Oaks grow slowly.

Father was calm as he threw  the bomb on the dock.

An awed audience applauded Claude.

Go slow Joe, you’re stepping on my toe.

Sauce makes the goose more succulent.

Up the bluff, Bud runs with a cup of love.

Red led  men to the heifer that fell in the dell

Maimed animals may become mean.

It’s time to buy a nice limeade for a dime

Oil soils doilies.

Flip a coin roy, you have the choice of oysters or poi.

Sheep shears should be sharp

At her leisure, she used rouge to camouflage her features.

There’s your cue, the curfew is due.

It was the student’s duty to deliver the Tuesday newspaper.

He feels keen as he schemes and dreams

Much of the flood comes from under the hutch.

Boots and shoes lose newness soon.

Ruth was rude to the new recruit

Vivid, Livid, vivifying. Vivid experiences were lived vicariously.

Oddly, the ominous octopus remained calm.

The pod will rot if  left on the rock

Look, you could put your foot on the hood and push.

Nat nailed the new sign on the door of the diner.

Dale’s dad died in the stampede for gold.

Thoughtful thinkers think things through.
Engineer Ethelbert wrecked  the express at the end of Elm street.

Be patient. :D

REFLECTIONS ON TASK 2

Whenever I say "essay writing is easy", I get a lot of cynical, unappeased stares from my students. Indeed, essay writing has evolved as one of the biggest fears of most people; which, in my own opinion, is completely unnecessary. I mean, I would rather write an essay than memorize history, or mathematical equations, or worse, the conversion values of English to metric systems.  However, I also understand the quandary. In a world where pretty much everything is "dumbed down", hardly anyone ever appreciates the simple joy of writing. Upon checking hundreds of essays throughout my career, I have noticed chronic and common challenges among my dearest "essayists".


There is ALWAYS a lack of confidence among my students whenever I check their tasks. Most would recite their own version of  a "my work is not good enough" spiel--and that's when the problem arises. What a lot of people don't understand is that they DO NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT-- they just need to see to it that they are understood. I think that they try to compare their works to my examples or the examples from our orange book. Of course these would never be the same! But it doesn't mean that these essays are bad. However,  the fact that they are trying extremely hard to copy the styles makes them mindless drones bound by "ideals". So instead of using their brilliant ideas, they often end up parroting other ideas in a "not-so-good-enough-way".  Here's a secret: there is no ideal way of making an essay. There isn't. So don't stress yourself out, it's like copying the clothes of a movie star and saying that the piece of clothing does not look good on you. Don't copy their clothing, get inspired. Show your individuality. In the same way, don't mindlessly copy model essays, get inspired by them so that you could come up with your own idea. Trust yourself, all ideas are great only when you get to build them.

Another common faux pas is NOT ANSWERING the question. This is sad. There are times when I have to explain the question before my student understands it. The questions are painfully simple, but the poor student was not able to evaluate correctly. Again, it is the lack of thought (or too much of it) that leads them to destruction. So before you even scribble on your papers, take time to understand the question. Breathe. Don't rush. Try to rephrase the question. Make it simple. No one wants you to fail. If you can't understand the question, you can't write about it.

If you don't edit your work, you will never get it done. A lot of my students fail to proofread. This is a crucial part of writing essays (and writing for that matter) as we are not native English speakers. We make errors.  We have to recognize them and correct them. Silly spelling mistakes, subject verb agreement, tense, capitalization and punctuations are just among what you need to double check. Leave time for editing.

Sure, not everybody can be Shakespeare. I understand that very clearly. But this is not creative writing. It is INFORMATIVE writing. Explain your thoughts clearly and cohesively. Remember: make every thought count. :)

PS
(On my next blogs, I will be sharing practical tips to write better essays)

MOCK 1 TASK2

Serving as vivid repositories of our culture, museums have always been temples where minds are fed with information. Traditionally, these are places where knowledge and information can be sought. However, as technology evolved, these places also blossomed into visual, auditory and kinaesthetic stimulators that entertain the public.

Museums have always held a vast array of exhibits that are always visually pleasing. Customarily, people go to museums as part of educational field trips. A tour guide feeds more information about the relics displayed, thus facilitating learning among scholars. There are different kinds of museums which foster varied themes, not the least of which are culture and history. Many students relish at the vast detail provided by museums that facilitate their learning. For instance, instead of listening to saturating and exhaustive lectures in class or pouring over books, they could easily appreciate historical events or the richness of our traditions and customs with the collection of displays parading the museums.

On the other hand, not all museums reflect history, science or culture. Some display art or are becoming increasingly innovated that allows seeing, hearing and even feeling the exhibits. A lot of people flock these places, not just to get informed, but also to have quality leisure time. As an example, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum does not display historical artefacts but wax figures of iconic people. A lot of visitors enter its halls every year, feeling happy and content as they leave this building that reflects pop culture.

In my opinion, a museum made to entertain people is not a bad idea; neither is building one to educate people. Also, I believe that it is hard to separate both as we could learn a lot from even the most mundane things. It is then possible to merge learning with entertainment, which is practically the rudiment of effective learning.  After all, the learning process does not need to be very rigid and serious.

Museums house the past, present, and future and adding the element of fun does not defeat its purpose. Although the original purpose of these glorious structures is to archive history, it also needs to grow, change, and evolve.  

MOCK 1 ACAD1

The illustrations lucidly reveal statistics related to courses provided by a large company to its employees. The pie chart depicts the hours of training in a year; whereas, the bar graph reflects the responses of two groups of workers to these trainings.  Overall, there are 5 types of training provided by the big financial company which vary with regard to hours allotted. The responses of managers and secretaries to the training are also mostly unequivocal.

It is noteworthy that technical training takes up half of the hours spent on training in a year. Career development, on the other hand, is a far second with 25% of the total hours. Only half of this percentage is spent on the number of hours allotted to train workers to deal with peers and colleagues. Lastly, seminars concerning health settle at the bottom of the list, only occupying 5% of the chart—a huge disparity compared to the amount of time spent for technical training.

Managers and secretaries have an almost similar trend with respect to their perceptions towards company-facilitated seminars and workshops. A stark majority of both parties stand by the importance of such trainings to their job, as almost 90% of managers responded affirmatively and secretaries only about 5% short. The second most common response of managers is that training is good for networking at 60% while more than 60% of their counterparts believe that this is a good excuse to catalyze change. There is an exchange of places between managers’ and secretaries’ third response, with the assistants having 40% of respondents agreeing with the former reason while about 15% of managers agreeing with the latter reason. Finally, very few respondents claim that training is just a waste of time with 5% and 10% for managers and secretaries respectively.

In conclusion, technical training possesses a sizeable number of hours allotted for training in contrast to health history training which has the least.  Most managers and secretaries accommodate the trainings positively, as they believe that it is important for their work, while very few respondents claim that it is a waste of time.

  

MOCK 1 GT1 SAMPLE

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am a student at University of Cambridge, located at northern England and I am writing to inquire about procuring a new passport, as my old one has been stolen.

During the 8^th of October, around 10:20 in the morning; while I was walking along East Street, Leeds Bus Station, a man approached me to ask for directions to the London Eye. However, he pulled me into a small alley and with a gun pointed at me, he asked for my bag and other belongings. I had no choice but to give him my bag as I was extremely frightened. My bag contained several valuables including my passport. I immediately went to the nearest police station after the incident to report what transpired.  They advised me to write to your office and provided the police reference number CX 24 if you require any further details.

I need my passport immediately so that I could enrol at the university three weeks from now. From what I could remember, my passport number is A4847009x. This was issued to me in February 28 1972 and is about to expire in February 27, 2002.  I would like to know how I could get a passport the soonest possible time. I would be very grateful if you could send me the requirements and I will promptly mail these back to your office or drop by in person.

I apologize for the inconvenience that this may cause you and I am hoping to hear from you with some good news at the soonest possible time. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to call me at 044-098-0000. Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,

Mari Joan Bandiola

Student

Writing Task 1 process B

WRITING TASK 1 Process B

Mari Joan M. Salvador-Bandiola,RN

N.B. Please make sure that you have attended my lectures first before you copy and paste any of these. I am only counting on your honesty. Thanks. :D

The PROCESS B

processes that have an end

•        flow chart

•        map

•        diagrams

•        illustrations of how something works/created

INTRODUCTION

•        GUIDELINES:

–       1-2 sentences

–       Present the overview of the topic

–       Paraphrase the TASK DESCRIPTION

–       Introduce the content in your own words.

–       Use the present tense

SAMPLE INTRODUCTION:

•        One of the most versatile materials used for writing, drawing, and many other purposes; the pencil is indeed indispensable as it is handy. The process distinctly shows how a pencil is manufactured and showcases the stages it will go through to become a pencil can be used for different purposes.

SPECIFIC DETAILS

•        Always use the present tense (unless the time element is present)

•        Determine your approach.

•        Be descriptive. Make good use of the information and illustrations provided.

•        Use connecting words.

•        Describe the information by following the sequence of events.

•        Do not use verbs/adjectives/nouns that denote a beginning or an end.

SAMPLE SPECIFICS:

•        Graphite, a black mineral; is ground and mixed with clay and water resulting to the raw graphite dough. The dough is then placed inside a machine known as the forming press in order to form the inside functional part of the pencil--a graphite rod. These thin, cylindrical, black rods are cut just about the size of a pencil to form the pencil leads. These leads are dried in order to harden. After a certain period, the dried leads are placed inside an oven heated to about 800 ‘C. On the other hand, the wooden cases enclosing each lead is made out of lumber; which are cut to  form slats. Each slat is further cut to form grooves where the lead could fit. Another set is made to make up the other half of the group to entirely cover the pencil lead. Each pair of grooved wooden slat is glued on top of each other with the lead at the middle; resembling a sandwich. The slats are further cut into rough cylindrical pieces. In order to form the smoothened final product, the pieces are fitted into a shaping machine.

OVERVIEW:

•        Make use of at least 2 sentences.

•        Present tense

•        Indicate the last step or stage in the process

•        Summarize the process into a thesis statement.

SAMPLE OVERVIEW

•        With the use of the following materials: a mixture of ground graphite, clay, and water, and a block of wood, the ordinary pencil will be formed. Although the diminutive pencil appears simple, it undergoes a tedious process in order to be completed. After fitting each raw pencil into a shaping machine; the resultant smooth, finished pencil is ready to be used.