Critical Reflection: My Academic Writing

My journey of ES1102 had been useful, from taking my QET to writing this final exercise. Upon knowing this module is burdening but helpful, I tried my very best during the QET and obtained a band 2. Thankfully, I do not need to take the previous module but ES1102 is unavoidable. I came to the lesson knowing that it was an extra workload but still I wanted to improve my English.

On the first lesson, we do not know who was our tutor. My friend told me that his tutor from previous semester was good which coincidentally became my tutor as well. Ms Toh is really friendly and she wanted us to bond with each other. Surprisingly, our class only consists of males. We went around knowing more about our classmates and introducing ourselves while sharing some of our interesting happenings. I find that this was a good start as it was not like those typical class where students come because they needed to. Besides that, I was "lucky" when I picked my favorite number and was selected to be the Monitor.

English used to be one of my weakest subject, but when I attended ES1102, I really picked up more knowledge to improve my English. During the class, I have learn about grammars, verbs, writing peer reviews, assessing my own essay, citations and many more. Writing the readers's response was one of the interesting exercise as we get to read an essay and give our review on it. Unlike writing Facebook or Twitter comments, this was a good experience to learn and write a professional review. Next,we have our first essay writing. During the journey, my tutor gave us feedback on how we can improve on our essays and I feel that it is really helpful.

I have learn that to be able to write a good essay, firstly we cannot start writing without planning what to write. It is similar to programming, you cannot start coding without planning the algorithm. The problem solution essay taught me to do an essay outline. We start by writing down our ideas and then try to focus on the main idea as much as possible instead of adding new minor ideas. Then we separate them into different paragraphs then try to link them so they could flow smoothly. First paragraph must consist of a brief idea of the essay and the thesis statement. The subsequent paragraphs must consist of a topic sentence to get the readers to understand what this paragraph will be talking about. The concluding paragraph will be a brief summary of the whole essay and restate your stand or give your opinion on what is the possible outcome.

After we wrote finish our essays, we exchange with another classmate for peer evaluation. My partner who was very good in English evaluated me. I wondered why is he in this class. He gave me quite a number of feedback which are concise and understandable. I learn from my evaluation and improved my essay. I feel that peer evaluation allowed me to learn from my peers and also get to socialize with more people.

In my opinion, my strengths are able to write my essay in a proper structure, good citations and reference list. My weakness would be grammars, vocabulary and word choices. There may be more strengths or weaknesses but evaluation is needed. My plan for improving my English writing is to read more books,articles,essays to learn from the professional writers. I will also need to practice writing on more essays myself even if it was a short essay.

Words of wisdom - Practice , practice and practice more. Seek help from tutors to evaluate and give feedback is the way to improve and prepare for any assignments and final exam.

My journey of ES1102 is coming to an end, I have learn a lot from my tutor and my peers. Even though this module offers 0 module credits, it is still worthwhile. Being pushed into this module does not mean I am lousy, it just means that I needed a guide to go on a better path. Lastly, I would like to thank Ms Anita Toh for guiding us throughout this module.

Problem Solution Essay Final

Globalisation is defined as the increase in trades and services around the world which allows the country to gain profits (WHO, n.d.). China is one such country that makes use of the advantages from globalisation to promote their market in increasing their gross domestic product (GDP). Although globalisation has aided China in overcoming the economic downturn, it has also created several forms of inequalities. Zhang and Kevin (2010) has also stated that globalisation has contributed in income and regional inequality. The most common form of inequality would be the income inequality. This essay will discuss how globalisation leads to income inequality, the impacts on China and the existing measures taken together with proposed solutions to tackle the growing income gap.

Globalisation which has widen the income gap therefore causing income inequality. The salary of the workers in the rural areas is lower due to lack of skill while the ones in urban area were higher because of their higher skillset thus it shows the presence of bias that leads to income disparity. Li Shi (n.d.) stated that the policies implemented by China tends to be more biased towards the urban areas which caused the income inequality between the urban and rural. Therefore, leads to unequal education system between areas. Residents from rural areas were more inclined to have lesser skills and education as compared to the urban residents. This can be support from Li Gan (2013), who states that lower-income households are likely to have lower education levels. The education gap among rural areas leads to consequential income disparity.

The existing measure in China to tackle the income inequality among urban and rural areas is the taxation payable by its people. In this case, China’s income growth was able to stay at the top because of its focus on the higher growth rates. China was able to have a faster income growth because the rich was given preferential treatment so they will not resent the government while the poor was neglected due to their incompetence (Cevik and Correa cited from Talley (2015)). Therefore, raising the taxes on the rich could help narrow the income gap. However this should not be based on earning money but rather used to fund education, health care and other social services. The Government need to attempt to increase the skills of this population to better bridge the income disparity gap.

Education is a good way to improve skills of the people because both urban and rural areas could develop more skilful people therefore bridging the income disparity gap. However with consideration on how large the population is in China, it is difficult for most people to be able to afford higher education. Therefore, education became a form of investment rather than a necessity. By having higher education attainment could lead to more opportunities of having a decent paying job. Hence, this would help to contribute to society and hence leading to higher economy. However, the poor would not be able to afford education as easily as the rich. Therefore, funding from the government is another possible way to aid the poor. Additionally, increasing the amount of educated people would not only assist China in reducing the income gap but also raising the income growth. According to Ning (2010), encouraging more people to be educated would be beneficial in reducing inequality. However with more educated people could lead to corruption problem due to greed and will attempt to corrupt its economy for their own benefits.

Gupta et al. (1998) states that income distribution will be affected by corruption. China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping has been tackling the problem persistently (Ting Shi, 2016). The Government has adopted policies such as the anti-corruption measures that aided in educating their officials aiming to prevent corruption at its roots. However, the credibility of the Government was not strong as it is difficult for the Government to supervise the large amount of the probable corrupted officials (Qian & Wen, 2015). Hence, in order for the Government to give assurances to its people, they must have no tolerance to its corrupted officials as argued by Reuters (2014), stating that the Government has adopted zero tolerance approach to corruption. Consequently reducing the income disparity that was brought on by the corruption.

Nonetheless, the solution of balancing the taxes payable for the higher and lower income people, it could help improve the regional income inequality however it may not be accepted by everyone. Increasing the skillsets of people could also help balance the inequality however the affordability is still a problem. However with these solutions, corruption could still continue to worsen the inequality if the Government does not tighten their state.

Word Count (excluding cover, references and other texts): 780

References

Gan, L. D. (2013, August). Income Inequality and Consumption, 1-20. Retrieved from http://international.uiowa.edu/files/international.uiowa.edu/files/file_uploads/incomeinequalityinchina.pdf

Gupta, S., Davoodi, H., & Alonso-Terme, R. (1998). Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty? Fiscal Affairs Department. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9876.pdf

Li, S. (n.d.). Changes in income inequality in China in the last three decades. Institute of Income Distribution, Beijing. Retrieved from http://uschinacenter.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/32612/Li_shi_paper.pdf

Ning, G. J. (2010). Can Educational Expansion Improve Income Inequality in China? Evidences from the CHNS. Nankai University and IZA. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp5148.pdf

Qian, N., & Wen, J. (2015). The Impact of Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign on Luxury Imports in China. Retrieved from http://aida.wss.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/QianWen_20150403.pdf

REUTERS. (2014, Febuary 23). China's premier unveils more measures to tackle corruption. (M. Perry, Ed.) Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-premier-unveils-more-measures-to-tackle-corruption-2014-23?IR=T&r=US&IR=T

Shi, T. (2016). Xi Calls for a China in 2016 Where `Nobody Dares to Be Corrupt'. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/xi-calls-for-a-china-in-2016-where-nobody-dares-to-be-corrupt-

Talley, I. (2015). China Is One of the Most Unequal Countries in the World, IMF Paper Says. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/03/26/china-is-one-of-most-unequal-countries-in-the-world-imf-paper-says/

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Trade, foreign policy, diplomacy and health. Retrieved from WHO: http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story043/en/

Xiaobo, Z., & Kevin H., Z. (2003). How Does Globalisation Affect Regional Inequality within A Developing Country? Evidence from China. The Journal of Development Studies, 39:4, 47-67. doi:10.1080/713869425

Xue, J. J., Luo, C. L., & Li, S. (2014, Febuary 11). GLOBALIZATION, LIBERALIZATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY: THE CASE IN CHINA. The Singapore Economic Review, 59(1), 1-21. doi:10.1142/S0217590814500027

Problem Solution Essay Draft 2

Globalisation is defined as the increase in trades and services around the world which allows the country to gain profits (WHO, n.d.). China is one such country that makes use of the advantages from globalisation to promote their market in increasing their gross domestic product (GDP). However, with globalisation, China has been presented problem inequality. Although globalisation has aided China in overcoming the economic downturn, it has also created several forms of inequalities. Zhang and Kevin (2010) has also stated that income and regional inequality were contributed by globalisation. The most common form of inequality would be the income inequality of which will be the main focus point in this paper. This essay will discuss on the how globalisation leads to income inequality, the impacts on China and the existing measures taken together with proposed solutions to tackle the growing income gap. This has been a growing issue in China, though hard to eradicate, requires a sustainable amount of measures to reduce the impact of inequality.

China being one of the fastest growing economy for three decades, tolerated a side-effect from globalisation which has widen the gap of income distribution therefore causing income inequality. The salary of the lower-skilled workers decreases while higher-skilled workers increased thus shows the presence of biasness that leads to income disparity. Li Shi (N.D.) discussed that the policies implemented by China tends to be more biased towards the urban areas which caused the income disparity between the urban and rural. Income disparity also leads to unequal education system between the urban and rural areas. Residents from rural areas were more inclined to have lesser skills and education as compared to the urban residents. This can be support from Li Gan (2013), who states that lower-income households are likely to have lower education levels. The education gap among rural areas leads to consequential income disparity. Furthermore, the situation has worsened when corruption was found amongst bureaucrats, and the area impacted. Xue Jinjun et al. (2014) noted that corruption has a strong impact on the equality and integrity of China’s income distribution.

The existing measure in China to tackle the income disparity among urban and rural areas is the taxation payable by its people. In this case, China’s income growth was able to stay at the top because of its focus on the higher growth rates. Evidence from Talley (2015), who quoted from two economists, Cevik and Correa stated that China was able to have a faster income growth because they were targeting more among the rich and neglecting the poor. Therefore, raising the taxes on the rich could help narrow the income gap. However this should not be based on earning money but rather used to fund education, health care and other social services. Additionally, China could also lower the labour taxes from the low and middle income families. In addition to providing more for families with lower income, the Government should attempt to increase the skills of this population to better bridge the income disparity gap.

Education will be more beneficial for the higher income residents than the lower income residents due to the affordability. Although education could be a solution to these problems, it is difficult to sustain for a larger population. With consideration on how large the population is in China, it is difficult for most people to be able to afford higher education. Therefore, education became a form of investment rather than a necessity. By having higher education attainment could lead to more opportunities of having a decent paying job. Hence, this would help to contribute to society and hence leading to higher economy. However, the poor would not be able to afford education as easily as the rich. Therefore, funding from the government is another possible way to aid the poor. Additionally, increasing the amount of educated people would not only assist China in reducing the income gap but also raising the income growth. According to Ning (2010), encouraging more people to be educated would be beneficial in reducing inequality. However with more educated people could lead to corruption problem due to greed and will attempt to corrupt its economy for their own benefits.

The impact of corruption as supported by Gupta et al. (1998) states that income distribution will be affected by corruption. This therefore leads to an increased disbelief in the Government. However China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping has been tackling the problem persistently (Ting Shi, 2016). The Government has adopted policies such as the anti-corruption measures that aided in educating their officials aiming to prevent corruption at its roots. However, the credibility of the Government was not strong as it is difficult for the Government to supervise the large amount of the probable corrupted officials (Qian & Wen, 2015). Hence, in order for the Government to give assurances to its people, they must have no tolerance to its corrupted officials as argued by Reuters (2014), stating that the Government has adopted zero tolerance approach to corruption. Consequently reducing the income disparity that was brought on by the corruption.

Nonetheless, globalisation has its merit in helping China but could also trigger the unnecessary inequalities. The issues are possible to mitigate but would not be completely eradicated. Even though the measures could be sustainable, the disparity in income gap among the urban and rural areas could only be reduced. The limitation in providing education remains and corruption would be an interminable hurdle.

Word Count (excluding cover, references and other texts): 889

References

Gan, L. D. (2013, August). Income Inequality and Consumption, 1-20. Retrieved from http://international.uiowa.edu/files/international.uiowa.edu/files/file_uploads/incomeinequalityinchina.pdf

Gupta, S., Davoodi, H., & Alonso-Terme, R. (1998). Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty? Fiscal Affairs Department. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9876.pdf

Li, S. (n.d.). Changes in income inequality in China in the last three decades. Institute of Income Distribution, Beijing. Retrieved from http://uschinacenter.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/32612/Li_shi_paper.pdf

Ning, G. J. (2010). Can Educational Expansion Improve Income Inequality in China? Evidences from the CHNS. Nankai University and IZA. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp5148.pdf

Qian, N., & Wen, J. (2015). The Impact of Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign on Luxury Imports in China. Retrieved from http://aida.wss.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/QianWen_20150403.pdf

REUTERS. (2014, Febuary 23). China's premier unveils more measures to tackle corruption. (M. Perry, Ed.) Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-premier-unveils-more-measures-to-tackle-corruption-2014-23?IR=T&r=US&IR=T

Shi, T. (2016). Xi Calls for a China in 2016 Where `Nobody Dares to Be Corrupt'. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/xi-calls-for-a-china-in-2016-where-nobody-dares-to-be-corrupt-

Talley, I. (2015). China Is One of the Most Unequal Countries in the World, IMF Paper Says. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/03/26/china-is-one-of-most-unequal-countries-in-the-world-imf-paper-says/

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Trade, foreign policy, diplomacy and health. Retrieved from WHO: http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story043/en/

Xiaobo, Z., & Kevin H., Z. (2003). How Does Globalisation Affect Regional Inequality within A Developing Country? Evidence from China. The Journal of Development Studies, 39:4, 47-67. doi:10.1080/713869425

Xue, J. J., Luo, C. L., & Li, S. (2014, Febuary 11). GLOBALIZATION, LIBERALIZATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY: THE CASE IN CHINA. The Singapore Economic Review, 59(1), 1-21. doi:10.1142/S0217590814500027

Essay Outline

Introduction

·       Briefly introduce the income inequality arising from globalisation in China

·       Briefly explain what the impacts are.

o   Income disparity

o   Corruption

o   Agriculture

·       Existing solutions

o   Openness to global economy

Thesis statement(my stand)

Body paragraph 1

·       Income disparity

o   Gini coefficients

o   Urban and rural areas

·       Proposing solution with support

o   Tax wealth

o   Warren Buffett(EITC)

·       Counter-argument

o   People without skills/tools to compete

·       Rebuttal

o   Pushes people to improve

Link to thesis and next paragraph

Body paragraph 2

·       Corruption

o   Bureaucrats

o   Lack of supervision

·       Proposing solution with support

o   Gradually replace the Government with decentralized micro-agents

·       Counter-argument

o   No reliable method to correct

·       Rebuttal

o   Democratization

Link to thesis and next paragraph

Body paragraph 3

·       Agriculture

·       Proposing solution with support

·       Counter-argument

·       Rebuttal

Link to thesis and next paragraph

Conclusion

·       Summarising all points stated and come into a conclusion

Reiterate thesis statement(my stand)

Academic Vocabulary Exercise

Problem Solution Essay Draft 1

Globalisation is defined as the increase in trades and services around the world which allows the country to gain profits. China is one such country that makes use of the advantages from globalisation to promote their market in increasing their gross domestic product (GDP). However, with globalisation, China has been presented a problem - inequality. Although globalisation has aided China in overcoming the economic downturn, it has also created several forms of inequalities. The most common form of inequality would be the income inequality of which will be the main focus point in this paper. This essay will discuss on the how globalisation leads to income inequality, the impacts on China, and the existing measures taken together with proposed solutions to tackle the growing income gap. This has been a growing issue in China, though hard to eradicate, requires a sustainable amount of measures to reduce the impact of inequality.

China being one of the fastest growing economy for three decades, tolerated a side-effect from globalisation which has widen the gap of income distribution therefore causing income inequality. The salary of the lower-skilled workers decreases while higher-skilled workers increased, thus shows the presence of biasness that leads to income disparity. Li Shi (N.D.) discussed that the policies implemented by China tends to be more biased towards the urban areas which caused the income disparity between the urban and rural. Income disparity also leads to unequal education system between the urban and rural areas. Residents from rural areas were more inclined to have lesser skills and education as compared to the urban residents. This can be support from Li Gan (2013), who states that lower-income households are likely to have lower education levels. The education gap among rural areas leads to consequential income disparity. Furthermore, the situation has worsened when corruption was found amongst bureaucrats, and the area impacted. Xue Jinjun et al. (2014) noted that corruption has a strong impact on the equality and integrity of China’s income distribution.

The existing measure in China to tackle the income disparity among urban and rural areas is the taxation payable by its people. In this case, China’s income growth was able to stay at the top because of its focus on the higher growth rates. Evidence from Talley (2015), who quoted from two economists, Cevik and Correa stated that China was able to have a faster income growth because they were targeting more among the rich and neglecting the poor. Therefore, raising the taxes on the rich could help narrow the income gap. However this should not be based on earning money but rather used to fund education, health care and other social services. Additionally, China could also lower the labour taxes from the low and middle income families. In addition to providing more for families with lower income, the Government should attempt to increase the skills of this population to better bridge the income disparity gap.

Education could also be a bridge to economic opportunity for the higher income residents but not for the lower income residents.  Although education could be a solution to these problems, it is difficult to sustain for a larger population. With consideration on how large the population is in China, it is difficult for most people to be able to afford higher education. Therefore, education should be perceived as an investment rather than a necessity. By having higher education attainment could lead to more opportunities of having a decent paying job. Hence, this would help to contribute to society and hence leading to a higher economy. However, the poor would not be able to afford education as easily as the rich. Therefore, funding from the government is another possible way to aid the poor. Additionally, increasing the amount of educated people would not only assist China in reducing the income gap but also raising the income growth. According to Ning (2010), encouraging more people to be educated would be beneficial in reducing inequality. However with more educated people could lead to corruption problems due to greed and will attempt to corrupt its economy for their own benefits.

The impact of corruption, as supported by Gupta et al. (1998), states that income distribution will be affected by corruption. This therefore leads to an increased disbelief in the Government. However China, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping has been tackling the problem persistently. The Government has adopted policies such as the anti-corruption measures that aided in educating their officials aiming to prevent corruption at its roots. However, the credibility of the Government was not strong as it is difficult for the Government to supervise the large amount of the probable corrupted officials (Qian & Wen, 2015). Hence, in order for the Government to give assurances to its people, they must have no tolerance to its corrupted officials as argued by Reuters (2014), stating that the Government has to adopt zero tolerance approach to corruption. 

In conclusion, Globalisation has its merit in helping China but also triggered the unnecessary inequalities. The issues are possible to mitigate but would not be completely eradicated. The disparity in income gap among the urban and rural areas could only be reduced, and education could only be given to as many people as possible and corruption would be an endless complication.

References:

·       Dr. Li Gan, 2013. “Income Inequality and Consumption in China”.
http://international.uiowa.edu/files/international.uiowa.edu/files/file_uploads/incomeinequalityinchina.pdf

·       Xue Jin Jun, Chu Liang Luo and Shi Li, 2014. “GLOBALIZATION, LIBERALIZATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY: THE CASE OF CHINA”.
http://www.worldscientific.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/doi/pdf/10.1142/S0217590814500027

·       Li Shi, N.D. “Changes in income inequality in China in the last three decades”.
http://uschinacenter.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/32612/Li_shi_paper.pdf

·       Ian Talley, IMF Paper, 2015. “China Is One of the Most Unequal Countries in the World”.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/03/26/china-is-one-of-most-unequal-countries-in-the-world-imf-paper-says/

·       Guangjie Ning, 2010. “Can Educational Expansion Improve Income Inequality in China? Evidences from the CHNS 1997 and 2006 Data”.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp5148.pdf

·       Sanjeev Gupta, Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Therme, 1998. “Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?”.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9876.pdf

·       Nancy Qian & Jaya Wen, 2015. “The Impact of Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign on Luxury Imports in China”.
http://aida.wss.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/QianWen_20150403.pdf

·       Reuter, 2014. “China's premier unveils more measures to tackle corruption”.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-premier-unveils-more-measures-to-tackle-corruption-2014-23?IR=T&r=US&IR=T

Reader Response Final

In this article, “China has almost wiped out urban poverty. Now it must tackle inequality”. Although with reduced poverty is still presented with the problem of inequality among its people. The author Stuart (2015), states that China’s poverty issue has been eradicated gradually due to the Government granting subsidies and employing more workers in the country. However they are still facing inequality problems and the measures taken need to be sustainable. Stuart (2015) also notes that the Government is still facing income inequality, gender and regional unequal treatment, and air pollution which they have yet to overcome. Indeed all these issues are problematic therefore working out a plan could be time consuming and even costly in times of economic downturn. Nonetheless these issues will still remain hence they should focus on more reliable countermeasures such as taxing on the wealthy, offering better funding and rebates, or improving the social policies.

Some of the wealthy in China tends to go underhand by transferring some of their assets overseas to avoid taxation. China could prevent companies from transferring their financial gains overseas in order to avoid paying income taxes and insist that companies pay equitable taxes (Sanders, 2016). Hence with the wealthy paying more taxes, the Government could create more working opportunities for people in rural areas. This would therefore improve the balance of income disparities. In addition China’s Government should attempt to narrow the income gap.

It would be hard to completely patch the income gap but there are ways to narrow the income gap. According to the article “Is Singapore’s income inequality gap narrowing?”, Holliday (2014) states that lower income families usually received help from the Singapore’s Government known as ‘Special Transfers’ where they gave out utilities rebate that aided in narrowing the income gap. China should adopt the policies like the Singapore’s Government giving out utilities rebates for residents with lower income reducing their financial burden. Additionally, the co-funding of wages for the workers in Singapore has also helped organizations to give more for their employees which China could follow. China could also create social policies to rebalance their economy.

Unfortunately, although creating a new policy could resolve an inequality problem but could also aggravate another. Therefore in order to create equality, in the article, “An introduction to social policy”, Spicker (2006) noted that there are three ways to focus on. Firstly, the equality of treatment, people should be treated as equals without prejudice. Secondly, giving equal opportunity, people should be given an opportunity to venture with what they seek and able to prove themselves on the same ground. Lastly, policies that promote the equality of income should be focusing on solving problems instead of raising concerns on the disadvantages. Hence with these methods, China should be able to make the measures more sustainable.

The ideal outcome comes from the Government as well as the people of the country. Be it the rich or the poor, everyone should be given the same treatment and opportunities to create a better future for their country.

References:

1.       Bernie Sanders(2016). Income and wealth inequality from https://berniesanders.com/issues/income-and-wealth-inequality/

2.       Katie Holliday(2014) Retrieved 7 Aug 2014 from Is Singapore income inequality gap narrowing?  http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/07/is-singapores-income-inequality-gap-narrowing.html

3.       Paul Spicker(2006) An introduction to social policy from http://www.spicker.uk/social-policy/equality.htm#Gender%20and%20social%20policy

Error Correction

1.       I feel that he adopts a very utilitarian approach. Self-acknowledgement and not convincing
His approach appears utilitarian.

2.       I agree with Stuart’s suggestion. Self-acknowledgement and what is the suggestion?

Stuart makes a convincing case for/a compelling/persuasive argument for..

3.       I acknowledge that… self-acknowledgement
It is true that..

4.       Indeed, there is much evidence to show that attempts have been made to solve the problem of income disparity in China…

5.       Gender inequality remains unresolved. Gender equality starts with family planning.

6.       The gender gap will(can/will likely/hopufully) minimized.

7.       The Government needs to take immediate action.

8.       There are(is) also evidence that…

9.       Females still (loses) out to males.

10.   Gender inequality are(is)…

11.   Discuss about(talk about), seek for, mention on

12.   Females are stereotyped as a housewife.

13.   Women and househusband…
Different subject, women & men, housewife & househusband

14.   Indeed with family planning, women have more opportunities to seek employment instead of looking after children at home. Though women have more opportunities to work, gender inequality still persists. Women still lose out compared to their male counterparts as they tend to be at the bottom of the corporate world. The income difference and the gender distribution in the corporate world shows that gender inequality continue to persist even with family planning.

15.   According to the article, the government uses financial aid for the residents living in urban areas so that they are able to afford more necessities. In the short term this would allow the people to be able to move out of their poverty zone, but in the long run it will not be feasible for the government to continue with their measures.

16.   Thesis statement:

However, it is important to note that equality starts from educating both the individual, and the government. 

Body paragraph 1:

It has always been a norm that women do the housework and stay at home, while men make the money to support the family. Till today, where there are families with career-minded women and househusbands, capable women are unwilling to acknowledge that their husbands are the one taking care of the house. “But the power moms with the stay-at-home husbands are just as uneasy, often more embarrassed than proud that they’ve upset the traditional order” (Chen, 2013). Hence it is important that we educate the individuals to think otherwise, accept changes in the traditional norms and view women the same as men.

Reader Response Draft 1

In this article, “China has almost wiped out urban poverty. Now it must tackle inequality”. From this we are able to understand that China, although with reduced poverty is still presented with the problem of inequality within its people. The author Stuart (2015), states that China’s poverty issue has been eradicated gradually due to the Government granting subsidies and employing more workers in the country. However they are still facing inequality problems and the measures taken were not entirely sustainable. She further supported with evidence from the China Household Income Project (CHIP), that the subsidy had raised the income of urban dwellers which lifted more people out of poverty, therefore alleviating the inequality within China (Stuart, 2015). Stuart (2015) also notes that the Government is still facing income imbalance, gender and regional unequal treatment, and pollution which they have yet to overcome. Indeed all these issues are problematic therefore working out a plan could be time consuming and even costly in times of economic downturn. Nonetheless these issues will still remain hence we should focus on more reliable countermeasures such as focusing on the wealthy, offering better funding and rebates, or improving the social policies.

Firstly, China could prevent companies from transferring their financial gains overseas in order to avoid paying income taxes and insist that companies pay equitable taxes (Sanders, 2016). Hence with the additional resources gained from the taxes, the Government could create more working opportunities for people in rural areas. This would therefore improve the balance of income disparities. In addition China’s Government should attempt to narrow the income gap.

According to the article “Is Singapore’s income inequality gap narrowing?”, Holliday (2014) states that lower income families received help from the Singapore’s Government known as ‘Special Transfers’ where the Government gave out utilities rebate that aided in narrowing the income gap. The Government gave out utilities rebates for residents with lower income reducing their financial burden. Furthermore, the co-funding of wages for the workers in Singapore has also helped organizations to give more for their employees. The Government also could create social policies to rebalance China’s economy.

Creating a new policy could resolve an inequality problem but aggravate another. Therefore in order to create equality, in the article, “An introduction to social policy”, Spicker (2006) noted that there are three ways to focus on. Firstly, the equality of treatment, people should be treated as equals without prejudice. Secondly, giving equal opportunity, people should be given an opportunity to venture with what they seek and able to proof themselves on the same ground. Lastly, equality of outcome, regardless of the outcome, the policies should be focusing on solving problems instead of raising concerns on the disadvantages. Hence with these methods, China should be able to make the measures more sustainable.

The ideal outcome comes from the Government as well as the people of the country. Be it the rich or the poor, everyone should be given the same treatment and opportunities to create a better future for their country.

My English Language Learning Journey

I was born in a Mandarin speaking family where usage of English is hardly around. I learn how to speak and write English during the school periods but i could not make use of them at home. The only time when I get to use them was with my friends because they are English-spoken people, apart from that I practice them by reading books.

I recall thinking that I am actually pretty good in English but I actually failed to understand them fully. There are lots of things that I still need to improve like Grammar, Vocabulary ,usage of past tenses etc. I thought that English was so simple that I can just practice by reading essays and stories then go for exams. But my result confirms that I did not fully understand English and I failed my O's English. I was panic because English is very important for my future studies. In order to get in certain courses, passing English is a necessity.

Thankfully, I got accepted into the Polytechnic and course that I wanted but my worries did not subsides. I am afraid that I could not get into the University that I wanted but I did not give up, during the time in Polytechnic, I get to know people who has the same situation as me and get to know how they overcome their fear and that leads me to try very hard in scoring well for my English during Polytechnic and eventually I managed to pass it.

I did well for my Polytechnic and got into the University that I wanted but English learning never ends, I took a qualifying English test before admission and although I did not fully passed it, in exchange I get to attend an English class which it can help me improve my English even further. I am hoping to learn as much as possible.

About Me

My name is Junsheng, i am 23 years old this year. If i looked back now i could see how much i have changed. From Primary school being a naughty boy who always did not do well for his exams and hid his report book from his parents to Secondary school being a marginal result student but still wants to have fun with his friend instead of studying. I recalled i actually worked my best for my O levels and managed to get into Nanyang Polytechnic doing Diploma of Multimedia & Infocomm Technology. I never would have thought that i will score well in polytechnic but i am glad i did. I am satisfied of my result but i still continue to work harder to improve myself, and i graduated with diploma with merits. I applied for three universities and all three accepted me, but i need to reject two of them, so in the end i chose National University of Singapore doing Computer Engineering.

Enough of my "boring" milestones, what was my hobby? I wonder if i should consider this as a hobby but i love taking photos of the sky. I could even hold my camera for a very long time to video those beautiful thunder and lightning. I have a wish which is to see a real life tornado or supercell(super huge tornado) but of course i would not want them to hurt anybody just for me to see how magnificent they are. I also owned a private blog to write down those important day of my life. I am still a typical guy who plays computer games, watch lots of dramas/movies and love to do adventurous thing like hiking and night cycling.

Here's an important question.. am i single? Well.. the answer is ..sorry no, i am attached! =D