Sample essay: How effective are international efforts to ease the problem of global hunger?

Read the essay here.

What I love is the content knowledge shown. Meeting requirements might be absolutely crucial to pass, but beyond just passing, it’s solid, (relevant) content knowledge that makes me want to give you marks. Read, and remember what you read. Commit facts and examples to your memory the same way you would for any of your other subjects. Sure, I’m biased because I actually like GP and used to enjoy studying for it, but why should GP be any different? Why do so many students dismiss it as the subject that “doesn’t need to be studied for”? Why, despite not reading widely, do students keep asking, “how am I supposed to know that?” when I tell them they didn’t engage with the correct issues that the question was hinting at? And, most frustratingly, despite not studying, why do students then wonder why they never get more than 13-15 marks for content?

Fact: Solid, relevant content knowledge shows me that you are better than the average person who gives me vague, general references to what’s happening in the world. It shows me that you care enough for the subject to deserve the elusive A-grade. It makes me want to give you that A.

 

[UPDATE: 25/8/2011]

While there are a lot of students who do not study for GP, there is the other extreme – those who have tonnes of content knowledge but who use it indiscriminately. This, of course, will not help. The key assumption in the above post is that the content knowledge you display is relevant to the question.

I need help with general knowledge!

While there’s no substitute for regularly reading good newspapers and periodicals, there are several websites that provide particularly overviews of main issues, such as OneWorld.net:

OneWorld Guides
  learn about developing countries

 

    in our range of educational Guides

Aid	Environmental Activism
Capacity Building	Ocean Acidification
Child Labour	Population
Climate Change	Poverty
Food Security	Refugees
Gender	Terrorism
Globalisation	Trade and Poverty
HIV and AIDS	Tropical Forests
Human Rights	Volunteering
Migration	Water and Sanitation

 Thanks to Helen, for the link!

Task:
READ the guides, paying attention to the introductions used, for ideas on possible ways to start an essay.

On Poverty: Chicken a la carte

The Maid Trade – Singapore

Caroline (not her real name) has worked in Singapore for more than four years. Her employer only gave her a day off after two years.

“We need the day off [to] relax the mind for the hard work [we do] every day… but they didn’t give. Even when I asked, they said cannot. ‘Because you’re Indonesian’, he said. If you’re Fillipino, I think you could [take the day off]‘. What’s the difference between Indonesians and Filipinos? We’re all human.”

- Caroline, Indonesian maid working in Singapore.

Check out the video on the Maid Trade in Singapore, which centers on the plight of maids. It includes issues such as the training of maids, the differences in wages between maids of different nationalities, their living conditions, cases of abuse and the lack of avenues to turn to for help: