Lesson on SEQ writing and weighing of 2 factors for Type II essays

Social Studies SEQ

Type I SEQ

Explain how having more immigrants [Given Factor] will help Singapore overcome our low population growth. [Issue to be explained]

Levels of Response Marking [LORMs]

Levels	Details	Marks
L1	Write about issue without  focus	1
L2	Describe given factor	2-3
L3	How the given factor à explains the Issue Add 1 mark for details and examples	4-5

GIVEN factor	Issue to be explained
Bring in immigrants or foreigners	How does this increase the population or solve Singapore’s low birth rate problem.
Citizen’s feedback / Role of the people	a)Ensuring Singapore’s growth and prosperity b) Why is it an important principle of governance à Improvement in life of citizens à Singapore’s growth & prosperity.

  Type II SEQ

Levels of Response Marking [LORMs]

Levels	Details	Marks
L1	Describe the given factor	1
L2	How the given factor à explains the Issue	2-3
L3	Provide details of your explanation for GF1	4-5
L4	Explain GF1 + Describe Given Factor 2	6-7
L5	Explain GF1 and GF2	8-9
L6	L5 + Weigh/compare GF1 and GF2 and explain which is more important	10

2 other factors Q. There are other principles of governance such as Meritocracy (GF1) and the people feedback is to be valued(GF2). Which do you think is the more important principle? Explain your answer. Q. Name 2 other principles of governance and explain which one is more critical to lead to Singapore’s success. Explain your answer. Note: To be able to write the weighing paragraph, you should be able to determine a common criterion to compare the 2 Given Factors. Without a common criterion, weighing and comparing which 2 given factors is more important as in this case is not possible because depending on the perspective you take, either one of the given factors could be viewed as more important than the other. Thus, using a common criterion to compare the weighing paragraph is necessary.

1 paragraph to explain GF1 1 paragraph to explain GF2 1 paragraph to compare GF1 and GF2 Compare GF1 and GF2 to show which is more important. (Common Criterion) à Which POG will lead to Singapore being more bonded or united? In conclusion, for Singapore to succeed and do well, it is important that Singapore is bonded and united and so the more important principle of governance must be the one that ensures this better. In my opinion, it would be the people’s feedback being valued because when this happens, all citizens will feel more connected to Singapore and be loyal since their views are valued. However, not everyone may benefit from meritocracy and so those who do benefit will have a connection to Singapore while those who do not get rewarded will feel less so.

 

Structure of an SEQ

Structure of SEQ

1. Introduction

Stand and explain your stand.

2. Explain the given factor

Point

Explanation

Explain the examples

Link back to stand

3. Explain other factor(s) x 2 paragraphs

Point

Explanation

Explain the examples

Link back to stand

4. Conclusion.

Restate your stand and do a weighing of given factor’s importance with the other factors and explain.

Compare the given and 2 other factors using a common basis of comparison.

Always answer the question!!

Comments

In answering any SEQ or SBQ, give the examiner what he wants - an answer that addresses the question. One simple way of doing this is NOT to spit out your notes but to USE key words from the question in your answer to show that you are addressing the question and then in YOUR PLAN adjust the knowledge you have penned down into your draft before forming paragraphs.


For example:
Membership in regional organisations is one of the best ways for Singapore to conduct diplomacy. EYA.

Ans:
One of the best ways to conduct diplomacy for Singapore is membership in regional organisations. One such exmaple would be Singapore's membership in ASEAN.......


See? I am using the words from the question in my answer and showing that I understand the question and am addressing it.

Comments on Essays - Areas for improvement

Comments on essay: Rise of Venice

Question: Here are 3 factors that contributed to the rise of Venice from the 9^th Century

v      Strategic Location

v      Sound political system

v      Venetian Adventurous spirit

Which do you think was the most important? Explain your answer.

Strategic location – The issue of ships safety for both foreign trade ships and Venetian trade ships should be stated due to sheltered lagoons and deep waters with no strong currents. The deep waters ensured that large ships could anchor at Venice without running aground while the absence of strong currents meant that the ships would be damaged as they anchored there. This allowed for trade ships to unload their cargoes safely.

Salt marshes – The salt marshes were valuable to Venice in the early years but since the question covers the period after the 9^th Century, the salt marshes were less of a reason for Venice’s rise.

Here a decent paragraph would be:

Venice’s strategic location à Sheltered lagoons, no strong currents à trade ships both foreign and Venetian could anchor safely at Venice and conduct their business uninterrupted and without concern that they would be affected by poor water conditions à ships and cargo would be safe.

Deep waters around Venice allowed for large Venetian galleys to sail in and out without running aground à ships laden with cargo could also come into Venetian waters à this allowed for trade to take place in large volumes since many ships could dock at Venice at any one time. The deep waters also supported the ship building industry that needed deep waters in its dockyards in order to build and repair the Venetian galleys.

Sound political system. Terms like this need to be defined in a way that helps you answer the question. If you wish to discuss the inclusiveness of the reformed Venetian government system and the check and balance or the specialization of duties being characteristics of sound political system, then a definition of what a sound political system is will be required.

A sound political system is a government system that improves itself to meet the needs of the country, is designed to be flexible enough to adapt to meet a country’s needs and remain relevant and to be effective.

Hence, we can write the paragraph as such:

A sound political system was one of the reasons for Venice’s rise as Venice’s political system was well-designed enough to adapt to meet the citizens and country’s needs to remain effective. One way was through the specialization of duties. This allowed for government officials to become very good at what they were doing. For example, the senate was created to specialize in areas of foreign relations and the operation of Venetian fleets. Hence, in doing so, these officials became experts at what they were doing and thus efficient and effective. By becoming experts the quality of work produced and the quality of decisions made also improved and this all benefited Venice and led to its rise.

Adventurous spirit

In discussing the adventurous spirit of the Venetians, do note that unnecessary information not regarding the Venetian risk-taking ability is not needed. You should stick information about Venetians being risk-takers and venturing beyond their region to look for new trading opportunities and use Marco Polo as your example. Do not discuss ship building or their Maritime technology because that is NOT part of the answer!! 

Q7. To what extent is membership in a regional organization the best diplomatic strategy for Singapore to follow? Explain.

Comments:

The key to doing well in this question is in addressing the question and show how and why Singapore benefits because of the different methods of diplomacy used. The degree of benefit makes each approach a good strategy.

Key areas for improvement

Instead of discussing Singapore’s membership in a regional organization, students jumped in to discuss regional relations instead of tweaking the facts to answer the question.

It is good to use ASEAN as an example and discuss how membership in a regional grouping gives Singapore the platform to settle differences it may have with states in the region peacefully and WHY this is beneficial for Singapore.

Key point is that by having membership in a regional grouping have several benefits:

e.g. Singapore is able to negotiate as part of the regional grouping from a position of strength with larger states à larger states more willing to listen to the regional grouping like ASEAN and offer better terms in the negotiations to the regional grouping than to Singapore alone à regional grouping has more diplomatic influence/clout à Singapore as part of the regional grouping enjoys these better terms which may not have attained by Singapore if it had negotiated on its own with states like India, China and Russia. 

For international relations, it must also be clear HOW Singapore benefits from such a form of diplomacy.

e.g. Building international relations via membership in international organizations give Singapore the chance to raise its profile when it can play a useful role à For example Singapore chaired the Law of the Sea Conference that decided how states would be given ownership over sea lanes and territorial waters à Singapore also has participated actively in peacekeeping operations by the UN such as in Afghanistan and East Timor à such contributions show Singapore to be a good member of the international community à helps Singapore become better known in the world à good for Singapore’s reputation à more nations may want to do business and trade with Singapore.   

British Healthcare - SEQ

In British Healthcare, we will be looking at the question of which is the best way to manage the National Health Services ( NHS ) in the UK.

To answer this, we need to understand the background of the NHS and also define ( as always ) what it means by "best way" and " manage".

Note also there are 3 factors:
1. Raise productivity
2. Increase spending
3. Improve quality

Typical question:
"The most effective/best way to help manage the National Health Services ( NHS) is through increasing productivity." How far do you agree? Explain.

Homework 9: SEQ: What is the best way to ensure that healthcare is kept affordable in Singapore?

Please work in your pairs to discuss and answer in SEQ format the following question:

"The best way to ensure that healthcare in Singapore remains affordable is through self-reliance." How far do you agree? Explain.

Format
Stand
Explain given factor
Explain other factor 1
Explain other factor 2
Weighing

NB: Define "best way"

Read page 62 to 79 to help you.

Deadline: This Wed 22nd September 9pm.

Today's lesson - solutions for an ageing population

What we revised
1. "Managed an ageing population" = Effectively address/reduce the negative impact of an ageing population
2. We also learnt that an ageing population leads to 4 negative consequences:
- Loss of competitiveness
- Increased expenditure on healthcare and nursing care at the national level
- Increased strain on the working population
- A weakened Defence Force

3. Hence, in a question like:
"The best way to manage an ageing population is through community support." How far do you agree? Explain your answer.

You job is to explain how each factor:
- Helps address/reduce the negative impact of an ageing population
- by lessening or removing the negative impact.

The factors we have explained so far are:
1.Family Support
2.Community Support
3. Individual Responsibility through leading a healthy lifestyle.

Remember to:
1. READ YOUR NOTES on the same day you are taught!

Next Lesson:
1. Last factor: Government support - Read up your textbook ( Last page of chpt 2)
2.  Individual Responsibility through personal financial planning.

Homework 7: Impact of an ageing population

Deadline: 5pm Sunday.



Do you best.


We went through the impact of a declining population in class. However, when a population ages, there are also negative consequences[Impacts] on Singapore.
Word of advice : Make sure you answer the question and show how each factor leads to a serious consequnce - has a negative impact on Singapore in some way. The negative nature of the outcome must be explained properly. Think....

Work in your pairs to draft a good explanation for this question:


There are 4 serious consequences of an ageing population for Singapore:
(a) Loss of competitiveness by Singapore.
(b) A weakened defence force
(c) Strain on the working population
(d) Increased demand for healthcare and nursing care for the elderly.


Explain how each of these factors about can impact Singapore in a negative manner.


Weigh all the factors and by defining the term "serious", explain also which is the most serious consequence of all and why.

Structure of answer:
Stand + definition of "serious" in the context of the question.

4 paragraphs - 1 paragraph per factor to show how each factor is a serious consequence of an ageing population.

AND

1 weighing paragraph

Essay 2: Population Policy - Impact of Population Policy

"The most serious impact of the population decline is a weakened defence force." How far do you agree? Explain.

Definition of weighing phrase - serious impact = damaging to Singapore's survival and future.

Factor 3: Serious impact 3 that affects Singapore's survival and future
An ageing population -->A population where the proportion of elderly people is greater than young people--> In Singapore there are increasingly more elderly people-->fewer young people below 65 years who are economically productive--> There are fewer younger people supporting the older economically unproductive people in each family and across the nation.

In each family-->there are fewer children looking after 2 elderly parents. E.g. in a 1 child family, that 1 child must support 2 elderly parents --> Financial strain on the younger person as he has to care for the financial, medical and other needs of his parents who may be dependent on him/her.

At the national level, with fewer younger people--> government collects lesser and lesser tax such as income tax since there are fewer and fewer young people who are employed--> the elderly and mostly retired and do not pay income tax anymore --> since less tax is collected--> govt. has less money to spend on national needs like defence, education and healthcare --> the quality of these public services will fall--> overall quality of life in Singapore will deteriorate --> Singapore will become a backward nation.

Homework 6: Post weighing paragraph for population policy here

Post your weighing paragraph here for the following question:

"The most effective way to increase the population in Singapore is by attracting foreign talent." How far do you agree? Explain.

Population Policy - How can we increase the Singapore population? Video

Test Results - Traffic Flow Management SEQ

All essays have been graded.

The following 2 pupils achieved a perfect score of 12/12
1. KHOO LI TING JOESEPHINE
2. KOH YI FANG YVONNE

11/12
3. WONG TSE QI HILLARY
4. MUHAMMAD HAIQAL

Areas for improvement
1. Explanation of Park and Ride and how it reduces traffic flow could be better in some cases. Those of you who scored 6/12 marks were those got the 2 other factors explained well but did not explain the given factor of Park and Ride well. This was the part of the explanation for park and ride which these pupils could have written:

Answer: As these drivers take public transport such as the MRT or buses into the CDB, the roads leading to and from the CBD will be less congested. Public transport like MRT trains and buses take up less or even no space or roads as compared to the large amount of road space that is taken up by the number of cars needed to transport an equivalent number of people into and out of the CDB.

Note: The comparison of the space on the roads taken up by public transport vs the number of cars that would be needed to ferry the same number of people had to be made clear. It is not just that public transport can transport more people than a single car.

On the other hand, some of you made very good explanations and were credited for it.

2. A number of pupils for the Park and Ride essay, discussed the historical impact of park and ride and that in was initially unsuccessful and thus used this to explain that it was ineffective. I accepted this answer as an explanation BUT you needed to also explain how Park and Ride works today and how it is now quite well accepted by the public and thus how it helps to effectively manage traffic flow problems in and around the CBD.
3. Some of you are still not defining the weighing word "effective" and ended up being unable to make your arguement clear. Room for improvement for these pupils.
4. For the explanation for VQS, pupils who did not score on this factor were unclear about how VQS works. essentially VQS has 4 parts:
- COE issuing and hence the ability to control COE issuing
- Scrapping of cars after 10 years - this also reduces car population and controls its growth
- bidding and costly nature of COEs - deters potential drivers from buying a car or owning too many cars since COEs add to the cost of owning a car.
- By limiting the number of COEs and issuing fewer COEs than cars scrapped, the government can directly reduce the car population at will if there was a need to do so, thereby effectively reducing car population throughout Singapore and hence cutting down on congestion.

Again, some of you did very well in your explanation.

Homework 3:SEQ The best way to increase the population in Singapore

Deadline is by SUNDAY 5pm 8th August. Do it properly.

Work individually to write out the answers to this question.
"The most effective measure in ensuring population growth is by attracting foriegners to Singapore." How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [13 marks]

Definition of effective measure:
You may define effective as - the method that can guarantee results in terms of increasing the population OR as the method that can increase the population most quickly OR the method that can lead to a permenant increase in the population.

Answer in the form of an SEQ. You would need to:
1. Give a stand
2. Write 3 body paragraphs:
- Explain given factor
- Explain 2 other factors
3. Write a weighing paragraph

SEQ writing techniques IV - The stand MUST match the weighing word

The stand of the essay depends on the weighing paragraph.

Example 1:
The most effective way to manage traffic flow is through ERP. How far do you agree? Explain.

NB: We know that ERP is NOT the most effective way. Hence we agree with this statement to only " a small extent.".

Example 2:
The most effective way to manage traffic flow is through VQS. How far do you agree? Explain.
NB: Since we know that VQS is the most effective way, we will agree with this statement to " a large extent."

Learning point: The stand is linked to the weighing paragraph AND you must already decide beforehand what is your peferred factor.

SEQ writing techniques III - How the weighing paragraph looks like

2 key things in weighing:
1. The choice of preferred factor MUST match the stand. Hence, you need to pre-decide your factor beforehand. You need to study and prepare!

2. The weighing paragraph consists of:
a. Defining the weighing word
b. Explain how the chosen factor meets the defiition
c. Explain how the other 2 factors are less able to meet the definition.

Model answer for traffic flow essay weighing paragraph:
In conclusion, the most effective method of mangaing traffic flow is the method that has the widest impact by controlling traffic flow throughout Singapore and at any time of the day. The VQS will be able too directly control the number of vehicles on the road by issuing fewer COEs than cars scrapped. By doing this over a few months, the overall car population will decrease and all roads will be free from jams. This will cut down the number of vehicles on all Singapore roads and therefore reduce traffic congestion across Singapore at any one time. However, ERP and Park and Ride can only control traffic at the CBD area and has no impact on traffic flow outside of the CBD area. The ERP system is also operational at only some times and thus it has no impact on taffic flow outside of these times. Hence, the method that can control traffic on all road and at all times would be the VQS.

SEQ writing techniques II - The link between the stand & the weighing paragraph

The stand must agree with the weighing paragraph which is linked to the question asked and the given factor.
Confused? Don't be!

Here is what can be done:

Take this everyday example:
100 Plus is the best canned drink. How far do you agree? Explain.

Step 1: Define "best"
Step 2: Use that definition to decide which is the "best" drink.
Step 3: If you believe the given factor is the "best" drink - your stand will be:
I agree with the statement to a large extent.
If you feel that the given factor is NOT the "best" drink - your stand will be:
I agree with the statement to a small extent.

Step 4: Write 3 paragraphs - Explaining why the given drink and 2 other drinks are good drinks.
Step 5: Write the weighing paragraph which must explain why the drink you have chosen to be the "best" drink is the best based on the criterion you have set for the comparison and why the other 2 drinks based on the criterion are not as good.

NB: Your criterion for comparison could be:
1. Nutrition level
2. Replenishes energy faster
3. Not too sweet

SEQ writing techniques I - How to do weighing

SEQ - How to do weighing.

Weighing requires:
1. Find a criterion to compare all factors.
2. Explain why based on the criterion 1 factor is superior to the other factors.

For example:
Here are 3 drinks:
1. Pokka Green Tea
2. 100 Plus
3. Coca Cola
Explain which of these 3 drinks is the best.
Questioin to chew on: Best in what way?

Here are 3 ways to control traffic flow:
1. VQS
2. ERP
3. Park and Ride
Explain which of these 3 method is the most effective way to control traffic flow.

Here are the steps to weigh well.
Step 1: Define the weighing word - how would you want to define "effective". This will be your criterion for comparison. In what way "effective"? All methods do reduce traffic flow right?


Step 2: Explain how your chosen factor is "effective" based on your definition and why the other 2 factors are not as "effective" based on your definition.

Population Policy - How can we increase the Singapore population?

Tasks
1. Spend the next few minutes thinking of the different methods to increase the population in Singapore. Discuss with your partner. Come up with 3 ideas.

2. Let us examine a question on PP:
"The most effective measure in ensuring population growth is giving financial rewards." How far do you agree? Explain.

Homework which you can do in class as well - MUST be completed Week 4

Deadline to submit:
Homework 1
Complete the following by this Thursday 29th Aug for 3E2 and 3E6.
To be submitted in class to relief teacher:
Q1. To what extent is being forward looking most important in ensuring good governance in Singapore? Explain your answer.
NOTE WELL: Good governance means a governing style that leads to benefits for a nation and its citizens. So your explanation for each factor MUST clear explain how and why each factor leads to benefits for a nation and its citizens."

Homework 2
Complete by next Monday Aug 2 for 3E2 and Aug 3 for 3E6.

Q2. How far is the park and ride scheme the most effective method in controlling traffic flow? Explain your answer.