CLASS #12 - SUPPORTING FOOD SOVEREIGNTY. IN DEFENSE OF PEOPLE´S RIGHTS.

Language and Written Expression IV Teacher: Saubidet Oyhamburu Stella Maris Student: Perez Stefania Rocio October 2014.

Supporting food sovereignty.

         In defense of people´s rights

            Have you ever felt sick after having a meal? Most probably you did and the reasons may be plenty. However, it is certain that a great amount of the food we consume everyday has been genetically modified, which exposes people to a variety of illnesses and even to unknown health risks. In order to make a meaningful profit, multinational companies have been experimenting with lands and modifying food genetic material, exposing natural resources to several and irremediable damages, what lead people to hunger and poverty. These large private and also public corporations have been evicting people from their lands, what it is usually known as “land grabbing”. La Vía Campesina movement has been struggling against the companies which destroy nature and the health of people and has been supporting small-scale sustainable food production as a mean to encourage social justice and dignity through the adoption of food sovereignty values. You can join the action of LVC and acquire food sovereignty beliefs to work against corporations and their individualist beliefs.  

            La Via Campesina is the international, independent, pluralist movement, autonomous from any political, economic or other type of affiliation movement which assembles millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. In 1993, a group of farmers’ representatives from the four continents founded LVC in Mons, Belgium. At that time, agrarian policies and the agroindustry were becoming globalized and small agriculturalists needed to advance and struggle for the respect of their civil rights. This movement is built on a resilient sense of unity and solidarity between small and medium-scale agricultural farmers from the North and South. The main aim of the organization is to recognize food sovereignty and stop the destructive neoliberal process. It is based on the conviction that small farmers, including peasant fisher-folk, pastoralists and landless people, who combined almost half the world's people, are capable of producing food for their communities and feeding the world in a sustainable and healthy way. Thus, Food sovereignty stands for “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”. It guarantees that the rights to make use of and regulate lands, territories, water, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are the responsibility of those who produce food and not of the corporate area. Food sovereignty has six principles: focus on food for people; value of food providers; localization of food systems; rejection of corporate control; building of knowledge and skills; and, work with nature. 

            One of the concerns of La Via Campesina involves the production of GM food. In the 1990s, genetically modified food rises along with the discussions for and against the alteration processes. Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods resultant from organisms whose genetic material has been changed in a way that does not occur naturally, for example, through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. According to the companies responsible for these alterations, GM food is not harmful for people´s health and the main aim of modifying DNA is to improve the quality of the food, apart from defending lands traits and small farmers´ businesses. These corporations avoid the waste of goods thanks to GM food, what increases their incomes, enlarging the production with less material. However, the growth of arguments against genetically modified food appeared in the United Kingdom thanks to a scientist who was first hired to create a safety technique for GM food in Europe. Nevertheless, during the investigation, he discovered that rats had suffered from numerous physical changes – some precancerous – and he determined that the actual process of genetic modification headed these changes. As a support for this claim, around 2012, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) required all physicians to prescribe diets without genetically modified foods to all patients stating that “several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system”. For these, La Via Campesina focuses one of its values on the right to food which is healthy and ethnically suitable as a basic plea underlying food sovereignty.

           

Land grabbing: “describes the purchase or lease of large tracts of fertile land by public or private entities, a phenomenon that rose significantly following the 2007-2008 world food economic crisis”.

Another belief of food sovereignty regards the farmers who suffer from violence on the part of transnational corporations and governments, and emphasizes food providers’ right to live and work in dignity. Imagine that the property your family has worked for generations is abruptly stripped away from you, bought by prosperous corporations or governments to produce food or bio-fuels or simply as a lucrative investment for other people. You observe defenselessly as vast areas of land are cleared for monoculture crops and rivers are polluted with chemicals. This is a brief description of what people must undergo, particularly in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania and Eastern Europe. The term ‘land grabbing’ is used to define the purchase or inhabitancy of enormous tracts of fertile land by public or private entities, frequently illegally; a phenomenon that rose considerably around the 2007-2008 world food economic crisis. Today “land grabbing” encompasses millions of hectares, comparable to an area as big as Spain, and it continues to expand inexorably. Apart from being affected by “land grabbing”, agricultural workers bear severe abuse and even bonded labour. The working conditions are risky and, often against law. People are exploited, obliged to work restlessly, being shouted and maltreated. La Via Campesina struggle claims for accurate working conditions, respect towards people´s rights to live in dignity and to decide whether their lands should be given to corporations, and also the proper treatment to land areas.

            People around the world contribute to this international movement joining the action. It is not only necessary to assist the movement with currency, but also it is essential that people take part by supporting the principles and joining the demonstrations, usually performed on the 8^th of March, in which La Via Campesina joints “women movements and social movements from around the world to demand equal rights for women”, especially farmer women. Also, the 17^th of April, to celebrate the International Day of Peasant's struggle, people organize hundreds of direct actions, cultural activities, conferences, film screenings, community debates and rallies. And the 10^th of September, the International Struggle Day against the WTO (World Trade Organization), to commemorate Mr. Lee Kun Hae, a Korean farmer who stabbed himself to death during a mass protest against the WTO in Cancun, Mexico in 2003. He was holding a banner saying “WTO Kills Farmers”. If your beliefs about food sovereignty are similar to the ones that inspire La Via Campesina, you can collaborate the movement by making contact with the representatives of your region, looking for available information in the web.

References

·         Ackerman, Jennifer. "Food: How Altered?" National Geographic. National Geographic Magazine. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/food-how-altered/

·         Ayres, Bill. "The Food Sovereignty Prize 2014: A Focus on People & Agroecology." Huff Post Green. Bill Ayres, 14 Oct. 2014. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ayres/the-food-sovereignty-priz_b_5976632.html

·         "Food, Genetically Modified." WHO; World Health Organization. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/

·         "Grassroots International." Grassroots International. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.grassrootsonline.org/

·         "Land Grabbing." Slow Food. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.slowfood.com/landgrabbing

·         Mercola, Joseph. "First Super Weeds, Now Super Insects -- Thanks to Monsanto." Nation of Change. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.nationofchange.org/first-super-weeds-now-super-insects-thanks-monsanto-1338362046

·         Murnaghan, Ian. "What Are Genetically Modified Foods?" Genetically Modified Foods. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk/what-are-genetically-modified-foods.html

·         "Transforming Our Food System. The Movement for Food Sovereignty." World Development Movement. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.wdm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Food%20sovereignty%20briefing_10.12_WEB.pdf

·         "What Is Food Sovereignty?" USFSA » US Food Sovereignty Alliance. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/what-is-food-sovereignty/

·         "What Is Food Sovereignty?" World Development Movement. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-sovereignty

·         "What Is La Via Campesina?" La Via Campesina. International Peasant´s Movement. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/organisation-mainmenu-44/what-is-la-via-campesina-mainmenu-45

·         “Who we are”. Monsanto. Retrieved in October, 2014. Available at http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/pages/our-commitments.aspx

             

           

CLASS #10 - THE SHARED DREAM

ISFD 41 - LANGUAGE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION IV

Teacher: Stella Maris Saubidet Oyhaburu

Student: Stefania Rocio Perez

The shared dream

            The Israel and Palestine conflict began in the early 20th Century and still continues increasing, due to the fight for the ownership of land and because of political and social decisions. This battle has left uncountable deaths and injured people, apart from the homeless and orphan ones, devastation and uncertainty, facts that have called the attention of the whole world. People from several countries have seen this horror and have tried to do something in order to halt the conflict. This is the case of the pianist and orchestra conductor Daniel Barenboim who has decided he would show to the world, especially to the countries in conflict that everybody can coexist in the same land, despite the idiosyncratic, religious and political differences. In 1999, Barenboim agreed with his friend Edward Said, a Palestinian author and scholar, to create an orchestra in which musicians from several and very different countries have the opportunity to play together so that they could demonstrate mutual acceptance and empathy and to fight against the war and mainly, against ignorance.

            The war between Arab countries and Israel had its origins during the Zionist (Jewish nationalist movement) immigration to the Land of Israel, beginning in the 1880s and reaching the highest point in the 1930s and 40s, with the flight of Jews from the Holocaust. After the Second World War, European countries conferred Great Britain the right to decide over Palestine´s destiny which determined that this country should be divided into two separate states, Arabs (from 22 different Arab-speaking countries of the Arab League) and Jewish (from Israel), what triggered the civil war between these two states because of the sovereignty of the land. A United Nations attempt to solve the problem was to give each group part of the property, however it was unsuccessful and therefore Israel and the surrounding Arab nations continued fighting several wars over the territory. Up to now, no certain solution has been found, and thus those who believe in a peaceful future for the dwellers of that area have decided to do something in order to restore reconciliation.

The Argentinian-Israeli musician Daniel Barenboim´s idea of peace in Palestine generated agreements with other musicians and authors to create a multinational orchestra as a sample of how dissimilar people can live together. By 1999, Barenboim and his friend Said decided to organize the Western-eastern Divan Orchestra composed by young musicians from Israel, Palestine and Arab countries in order to “…promote coexistence and intercultural dialogue”. Barenboim is aware of the difficulties in dialogue and is also aware of the injustice both states went through all the past years, yet he still considers that a solution is possible so he united international musicians to show knowledge and acceptance. He believes and supports that we are all equal in music since if these musicians can coexist, discuss, play the same music and inhabit the same land when they are working in the orchestra, why others cannot. The main goal of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is to pave the way to knowledge, understanding and acceptance of people´s rights.

Undoubtedly, not everything is summed up in good desires but also in controversial actions. After creating this orchestra, Barenboim has played different musicians, like Beethoven, Schumann, Stravinsky and Wagner, the latter triggering a discussion about Barenboim´s message and what he tries to convey through playing such a debatable artist. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a great composer and an anti-Semite, who after his death was known as Hitler's favourite musician and usually connected to the Nazi regime, and therefore his music has been informally banned in Israel as public performance is concerned. Despite this fact, Barenboim decided to play his music in 2001 in Israel during one of his concerts although he had been already asked not to do it. The conductor said he would play the piece and “suggested that those who were offended could leave”. This action turned some of his Israeli supporters against Barenboim and the traditional Israeli people suggested boycott to the pianist because his cause had anti-Semite symbols apart from being discriminative. On the other hand, Barenboim strongly defends his idea of having a country where peace is attained through music because “In music”, as he explained, “one had to be aware not only of oneself but also of the other, so that music is in this case not an expression of what life is, but an expression of what life could be, or what it could become”, considering this “utopia” another reason for the creation of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

All in all, Daniel Barenboim has developed a career based on equality in which music has gone into the depths of politics in order to reach an agreement of thought so that the situation in Palestine could change. He looks at himself as a politician whose power relies mainly on the musicians of his orchestra, without whom he would not be able to be what he is; having as a desire the realization that the power  to change does not depend on the representatives of the governments but on the hands of the citizens. He expects that the orchestra demonstrates that the sharing of a land is not impossible, that everybody is able to coexist with someone who might be different in religion and beliefs but that he is still a respectable and unique person.

References

• Barenboim, Daniel. "'Music Gives Me Hope'" The Guardian. The Guardian, 14 May 2008. Retrieved from  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/14/israelandthepalestinians.classicalmusic
• Beauchamp, Zack. "Why Israel Is at War in Gaza, Explained in Less than 3 Minutes." Vox. Vox, 21 July 2014. Retrieved from http://www.vox.com/2014/7/21/5923261/why-israel-is-at-war-in-gaza-explained-in-2-minutes
• Beckles Willson, Rachel. "Whose Utopia? Perspectives on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra." Music & Politics. 1 Jan. 2009. Retrieved from http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2009-2/beckles_willson.html
• Briggs, Paddy. "Barenboim and His West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Proms." PADDY'S ARTS REVIEWS. PADDY BRIGGS, 21 Aug. 2014. Retrieved from: http://paddysartsreviews.blogspot.com.ar/2014/08/barenboim-and-his-west-eastern-divan.html
• Daniel, Barenboim, and Edward Said. "West-eastern Divan Orchestra." West-eastern Divan Orchestra. Retrieved from http://www.west-eastern-divan.org/
• Daniel, Baremboim. "Podemos Vivir Juntos." El Pais. El Pais, 25 July 2014. Retrieved from http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/07/24/opinion/1406197588_709219.html
• Ruiz Mantilla, Jesus. "Barenboim: “En Oriente Próximo Solo Impera La Terquedad”." El Pais Semanal. El Pais Semanal, 25 Aug. 2014. Retrieved from http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/08/22/eps/1408722038_548535.html
• Said, Edward. "Barenboim and the Wagner Taboo." Al-Ahram Weekly Online. AL-AHRAM, 22 Aug. 2001. Retrieved from http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/547/cu1.htm

CLASS #9 - REPORT - READING SKILL

ISFD 41

Language and Written Expression IV

Teacher: Stella Maris Saubidet Oyhamburu

Student: Stefania Perez

Reading skill - Report

          The reading skill is a combination of very different cognitive strategies that people put into practice, usually unconsciously, when reading. This meant a lot of work when trying to explain what it is to read and how it affects real life situations, even more when we had to take into account that this assignment contained specific rules that we had to follow unavoidably. To start with, working in a group of around 7 students was a bit complicated beacuse of personal issues and obligations; however, we managed to organize. Secondly, it was necessary to read the whole text, which explined the other 3 macro-skills, in order to understand and be able to summarize the explanation of the reading skill. So, when reading our part, we had a broaden idea of what it means to read. Therefore, another problem arose, at least for me, because there was a need to limit the concepts and having in mind so much ideas was a bit confusing. Then, the fact that one of the goals of the presentation was to make the class interactive brought another objective to think about, since we are not really used to setting a task when delivering lessons to our own classmates. Thus, I strongly believe that this is one of the most challenging assignments we had to do this year, what justifies such effort. 

CLASS #7 - COMFORT WOMEN - JAPANESE DENIAL

ISFD 41
Language and Written Expression IV
Teacher: Stella Saubidet
Student: Stefania Perez

Comfort Women - Japanese Denial

Violence against women refers to any violent act whose target is specifically women because of their gender and to “the crucial mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared to men” (UN Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women)­, and has from intermediate to long-term physical, sexual and mental consequences, not only on women but also on their families and communities. During military conflicts, women are the ones who must face destructive forms of violence, displayed to reach military or political objectives, terrorizing people, destroying families and communities. For centuries, the rape of women during war times has been taken as unavoidable and not regarded as a war crime despite the suffering of the abused women and the evidences of the consequences it has. In Japan, during World War II, military forces established brothels where “Comfort Women” were kept against their will and forced into sexual slavery by soldiers; nevertheless, the Japanese government claimed no military responsibility over the comfort women centres, has refused their existence as such and denied giving official apologies and support.

            Up to 200,000 women worked in the brothels arranged by the Japanese army during the Second World War, most of them were from Korea, China and other Asian countries occupied by Japan. The girls were 11, 12, 13, and 14 years old when they were kidnapped and trafficked to “comfort stations”, where they were abused uncountable times each day, apart from being beaten, threatened, attacked with knives by soldiers and even forced to have home-made abortions if they become pregnant. The women were not allowed to leave the stations, some of them were given garments and make up but some others were given nothing in compensation for their suffering. Consequently, numerous women died because of infections and sexually transmitted diseases; others committed suicide and several were killed by the soldiers compelling other women to watch the punishment. Some surviving women obtained freedom when the War ended and then returned to their countries; however, most of them felt it was impossible to go back home because of the visible and invisible consequences of being a comfort women, so they stayed in the country where they had unwillingly worked as prostitutes, and even died there. “Comfort Women” are still waiting for acknowledgement and ask Japan to recognize that they have been obliged and abused by its soldiers.

“Comfort Women” have given their testimony all over the world after years of silence because of fear and shame. This is the case of Chung Seo–woon and Hah Sang-suk, two Korean girls who were cheated, trafficked and abused by Japanese soldiers. Two men said to Chung Seo-woon that she would be taken to work to a Japanese textile factory, but instead she was taken to a warehouse with other thousand girls, their hair was cut and then they were taken to Indonesia. Chung Seo-woon was sterilized by a Japanese doctor and later sent to a “comfort station” where she was visited by, on average, fifty men a day and a hundred on weekends. “I was given morphine shots, whether I liked it or not”, explained Chung Seo-woon. She was only given rice, miso soup and turnip pickle to eat. She used to be hit and kicked if she resisted and water was poured all over her if she fainted. Similarly, Hah Sang-suk agreed to go to China to work in a factory, but she was taken to an inn where a doctor examined her and sent her to one of the twenty rooms of the place. “Usually, about ten to twenty men came each day”, said Hah. She and the other girls were fed by Chinese people and they were given make up and clothes but no money. Hah Sang-suk also used to be beaten and kicked, and she fought with the soldiers who refused to wear condoms. When Japan lost the war, the girls were set free; yet, owing to the shame of her body shape, Hah decided to remain in the country where she had been kept, since she was afraid of what people in her village might say or think of her. These women are still suffering the consequences of this experience and they wonder whether it is more painful to be an ex-comfort women or the fact that the Japanese government accuses them of having accepted to work as prostitutes.

“Comfort Women” are still waiting a formal apology on the part of the Japanese government who have only given sporadic unofficial apologies and whose Prime Minister still denies have taken part on this issue and claims that comfort women were willing volunteers. In 1993, a Japanese cabinet secretary recognized the existence of the so-called “comfort stations” and the role of the soldiers, and even offered an unofficial apology. However, as historian Bernd Stöver (a historian at Potsdam University) explained “the apologies were isolated occurrences; there was never a full admission of guilt nor was there any official financial compensation program”, and that is the reason why ex-comfort women have not accepted the apologies and strongly defend their history. On the other hand, by 2007, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed that “Comfort Women” were not forced sexual slaves, but instead enthusiastic volunteers. He commented to a reporter that “there was no evidence to prove there was coercion as initially suggested. That largely changes what constitutes the definition of coercion, and we have to take it from there”. As a response to this, the 78 year-old South Korean survivor Lee Yong-Soo, who was taken in 1944 by Japanese soldiers to a brothel in Taiwan, demanded that “the Japanese government must not run from its responsibilities. I want them to apologise and to admit that they took me away when I was a little girl to be a sex slave”. Lee Yong-Soo speaks on behalf of the other 200.000 similar stories of maltreatment and suffering, and asks for respect and an admission of guilt.

Approximately, three quarters of “Comfort Women” died during the Second World War and the survivors were left infertile, due to sexual trauma and sexually transmitted diseases, they have visible and invisible scars, and even after more than 70 years of the war end, as a 2011 clinical study shows, ex-comfort women are more predisposed to suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Yet, the surviving “Comfort Women” and their supporters still struggle for their rights: they have created organizations for the ex-comfort women to live, they have asked for financial support to governments and private organizations and they participate on “Wednesday Demonstrations” in front of the Japanese Embassy in the USA, among other forms of protest. “Comfort women” claim for recognition and liability on the part of the Japanese government, whose history still doubts about the existence of sexually coerced women, and they expect that the passed away comfort women be honoured by the acknowledgement of their suffering now and then.

Bibliography

·         Williamson, L. (2013). Comfort Women: South Korean Survivors of Japanese brothels. BBC News Magazine, 22680705. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22680705

·         Stop Violence against Women: “Comfort Women”. Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org.nz/files/Comfort-Women-factsheet.pdf

·         Brooks, K. (2013, November 25). The History of Comfort Women. A WWII Tragedy we can´t forget. Huffing post Arts & Culture, 4325584. Retrieved from http://www.huffingpost.com/2013/11/25/comfortwomen-wanted

·         Spritzer, K. (2014, February 25). Japan´s Lawmakers Launch Campaign against “Comfort Women” Memorials. Time. Retrieved from http://world.time.com/2014/02/25/japan-comfort-women-memorials/

·         Koh, J. (2007, January 01). Comfort Women: Human Rights of Women from Than to Present. University of Georgia School of Law, Digital Commons. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=stu_llm

·         Tull, M. (2014, May 19). Symptoms of PTSD after a Rape. Retrieved from http://ptsd.about.com/od/causesanddevelopment/a/consequencesofrape.htm

·         Ahn, C. (2014, June 24). Seeking Justice – Or at Least the Truth – for “Comfort Women”. Foreign Policy in Focus – Institute for Policy Studies. Retrieved from http://fpif.org/seeking-justice-least-truth-comfort-women/

·         Smith, N. (2008). I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies. USA, New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=_sTIibjd_JUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

·         WILPF International. (2013, May 30). “Comfort Women”: Japan is still in denial. Women´s International League for Peace and Freedom. Retrieved from http://www.wilpfinternational.org/comfort-women-japan-still-in-denial/

·         Testimonies of former “Comfort Women” from Korea. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://koreaverband.ahkorea.com/_file/trostfrauen/Testimonies_KoreanComfortWomen_english.pdf

·         Former Comfort Woman tells uncomforting story. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dw.de/former-comfort-woman-tells-uncomforting-story/a-17060384 

·         United Nations General Assembly. (1993, December 20). Declaration of Elimination of Violence against Women. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm 

CLASS #6 - ACADEMIC WRITING SUMMARY

ISFD 41. Language and Written Expression IV. Saubidet Stella.
Student: Perez Stefania.

Irvin, Lennie L. What is Academic Writing?. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 1. Ed. Charles Lowe, Pavel Zemliansky. Parlor Press. 2010. Print.

What is Academic Writing?

INTRODUCTION: THE ACADEMIC WRITING TASK

This chapter´s objective is to acquaint starter students with academic writing, its characteristics and types, and its constituents.

The Academic Writing Situation

A new writer has an unexpended perspective of the writing situation in general because writers are split from the audience in time and place, hence the necessity to create a context, which is one of the main goals of any writer: in-context communication. According to Lee Ann Carroll, in College, writers do “Literacy Tasks”, an equivalent to “Writing Assignments”, which requires researching skills(search for in-depth information, keep trace of sources), skills to read sophisticated material(reading difficult texts underlies writing accurately), discernment of main ideas(using subject´s key concepts in the task demonstrates the learning and understanding of the topic), strategies for being synthetic, analytical and critical to new information (inferring the topic, its key concepts and recognizing the connections among them).

IN COLLEGE, EVERTHING´S AN ARGUMENT: A GUIDE FOR DECODING COLLEGE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Literacy tasks begin with an argument in which a claim (thesis statement) is presented. The thesis is sustained by reasonable supporting material based on evidence. The purpose of the claim is to get the audience´s regard (even approval) of the point of view presented in it. The more evidence, the more persuaded people will be. Academic Writing is an Analysis with three characteristics: 1) open inquiry; 2) identification of subject´s parts; 3) examination of these parts separately and determination of the relationship among them. The three common types of Writing Assignments are: 1) The Close: the claim is presented explicitly, therefore the writer needs to add supporting material only; 2) The Semi-Open: the claim is implicitly planned in the task, thus, the writer needs to investigate in depth to create a thesis plus supporting material; 3) The Open: the writer chooses the topic, writes the claim and its supporting material. Investigation and limiting the topic are needs.

Three Characteristics of Academic Writing

According to Chris Thaiss and Terry Zawacki, Academic Writing has three features:

1)Persistency, open mind, and disciplined study on the part of the writer.

2) Dominance of reason over emotion.

3) Rational imagined audience.

THE FORMAT OF THE ACADEMIC WRITING

It is called Critical Essay by the author, and has specific textual characteristics, which are flexible:

1)  It has a claim and supporting material;

2) The thesis is disputable;

3) It is organized in an Introduction, Body and Conclusion;

4) The sources are the text (quotations needed), the assert (thesis statement) and, at least, three supports for each assert;

5)Documenting the sources (differentiation of outsider and insider information). Clarifying where the information was obtained;

6)  Transition sentences must be clear and must have a link to the thesis statement;

7) Use of MLA or APA for bibliography;

8)  Few or no grammar mistakes.

CONCLUSION

Achieving academic writing skills is based on the recognition of what is being done and the understanding of writing assignments, regarding its features and plausible steps.

Bibliography

Irvin, Lennie L., what is Academic Writing?. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 1. Ed. Charles Lowe, Pavel Zemliansky. Parlor Press. 2010. Print.

CLASS#4 - Metacognitive Reflection: Students´ failure

ISFD 41 - Language and Written Expression IV - Saubidet Stella

Areco Yesica - Perez Stefania  

June 2014

       Our assignment was not up to standard the first time because we omit important characteristics of a paragraph. First of all, we did not realize the fact that a paragraph cannot have a full stop. Also, the topic sentence was divided in two, something that contributed to miss the real point of the sentece and also made our work even more difficult because, while writing, there was no real topic to develop in the supporting sentences. In addition, cohesion was not attained at all, since some of the connectors were found in the wrong places. Another aspect has to do with the fact that many time we repeated sentences but did not clarify any idea, and so we turned around the same concept. Last but not least, we had to change some words and phrases not only to add coherence but also to add cohesion to the text. We recognized that the material we have is necessary in order to get cohesion and coherence and to develop a good paragraph. Writing a paragraph it is not as simple as it looks like.

CLASS#4 - NEW VERSION OF STUDENTS´ FAILURE

ISFD 41 – Language and Written Expression IV – Saubidet Stella                                                 

Areco Yesica – Perez Stefania                                                          

June 2014              

Students´ failure at Primary School

Students´ lack of success when they are young may be attributed to external factors concerning their life at home and at school. One of the causes is the misuse of computers because, most of the time, children use the device as game consoles but not to study or look for information. Generally, these children are not controlled by any adult. Thus a second factor recalls to parent´s absence from home, since they need to go to work and, consequently, cannot help their children to accomplish their assignments. Hence, what constitutes a third prompt of unsuccessful learning is related to students´ teachers, taking into account that if they were excessively demanding, they would give students low marks for not doing their tasks. All in all, students’ failure at school involves outer factors rather than students’ capacity of learning.

Causes that make students fail vs. causes that help students learn

All throughout Primary education, children are affected by several factors that influence their learning; some of them are concerned with their life at home and others to the role of teachers. Difficulties come to light in children who regularly spend long hours doing useless activities in the computers as they have the possibility to play online or to chat with their friends. Closely related are the figures of parents who insufficiently control their children. If a student's family is experiencing violence, unemployment, alcohol or drug use by a family member, problems with the law, or any other upsetting experience, it can be difficult to concentrate on schoolwork. Many students who are having family problems might have trouble controlling their anger and frustration at school, and they may end up in trouble because of their behaviour. Also the performance of teachers plays a considerably role. Teaching students good learning strategies would ensure that they know how to acquire new knowledge, which leads to improved learning outcomes. Learning must connect to something that the student already knows or feels. If not, it won't be absorbed. Yet, it is imperative the presence of the family during the learning process. Parents who spend vital time with their children encourage them to follow a profitable routine and make them feel safe and confident. Knowing that they have a framework when studying, they will be able to consider the computer as a tool to study and use it accordingly, not only to play or chat but also to carry out tasks or look for information. Students at risk of school failure need to be identified as early as possible in their school to receive the help they need. This task usually falls to the teacher or parents, because many students are hostile to or disconnected from the educational system and will not or do not know how to ask for help. Parents and teachers must work together to bring failing students back to school and help them to achieve goals, the reasons for school failure need to be recognized and treated.