Gac Compare and Contrast Essay
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GAC008 Assessment Event 4: Academic Research Essay
Compare and Contrast:
Places Where
People Live and Work
Student’s Name: Teresa Ding
Student ID#: SHSA23052
Teacher: La Roi Williams
Due Date: 15th April 2013
Word Count: 1041
Question: Compare and Contrast attitudes toward students taking a gap year in your country and in U.K.
Use specific examples and provide appropriate evidence to explain your answer.
To take a gap year or not to take a gap year? Now, this question has gained more attention than it used to be. A gap year is a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake activities such as traveling, volunteering or internships, it is often taken between high school and college. In this special period of time, students can do whatever they want and enjoy complete freedom. However, they may also lose precious time. Many students in the U.K. choose to take a gap year after their high school graduation. However, a majority of Chinese students enter the universities immediately. People in the U.K. are more open to taking a gap year as opposed to people in China.
If one compares the attitudes of parents regarding taking a gap year, British parents are more supportive than Chinese parents. According to British Parents’ opinions about gap years (Gap year advice: Are they a good thing? Rachel Gallagher, 20th Aug 2010) parents in Britain encourage their children to take a gap year because they think this can offer students a precious opportunity to learn new skills like decision-making and financial-planning, which can help students to develop into well-rounded people who can deal with challenges they are going to meet in the future. Additionally, British parents believe their children learn to live in, adapt and appreciate new cultures, work in a whole new community and experience another life
GAC008 Assessment Event 4: Academic Research Essay
Compare and Contrast:
Places Where
People Live and Work
Student’s Name: Teresa Ding
Student ID#: SHSA23052
Teacher: La Roi Williams
Due Date: 15th April 2013
Word Count: 1041
Question: Compare and Contrast attitudes toward students taking a gap year in your country and in U.K.
Use specific examples and provide appropriate evidence to explain your answer.
To take a gap year or not to take a gap year? Now, this question has gained more attention than it used to be. A gap year is a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake activities such as traveling, volunteering or internships, it is often taken between high school and college. In this special period of time, students can do whatever they want and enjoy complete freedom. However, they may also lose precious time. Many students in the U.K. choose to take a gap year after their high school graduation. However, a majority of Chinese students enter the universities immediately. People in the U.K. are more open to taking a gap year as opposed to people in China.
If one compares the attitudes of parents regarding taking a gap year, British parents are more supportive than Chinese parents. According to British Parents’ opinions about gap years (Gap year advice: Are they a good thing? Rachel Gallagher, 20th Aug 2010) parents in Britain encourage their children to take a gap year because they think this can offer students a precious opportunity to learn new skills like decision-making and financial-planning, which can help students to develop into well-rounded people who can deal with challenges they are going to meet in the future. Additionally, British parents believe their children learn to live in, adapt and appreciate new cultures, work in a whole new community and experience another life
References: Advice about taking a gap year - How to make gap years work for you ( Oct 28, 2011) Mike Barnard [online] Available at http://www.gapyear.com/articles/185395/how-to-make-your-gap-year-work-for-you/1460 [ Accessed at April, 2013] Advice about taking a gap year - Volunteering (Jan, 2013) Anna Cleays [online] Available at http://www.gapyear.com/articles/189162/virtuous-volunteering-or-clueless-colonialism/1447 [Accessed April, 2013] Advice from Harvard students [online] Available at http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/visitors/gapyear.htm [Accessed April, 2013] Benefits of taking a gap year (Jan 2011) A meaningful gap year [online] Available at http://www.lattitude.org.uk/parents-information/a-meaningful-gap-year/ [Accessed April, 2013] British student’s attitudes about taking a gap year (Mon 24th Jul 2006)Message Boards/Diaries/Adam Solan [online] Available at http://www.gapyear.com/boards/viewforum/181/ [Accessed April, 2013] Cambridge - supportive of gap year depending on which major the student will be studying [online] Available at http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/prospective/year10and11s/gapyear.html [Accessed April, 2013] China universities gap year program [online] Available at http://www.nextstepchina.org/gap-year-programs/ [Accessed April, 2013] M.I.T admission officers’ opinion about taking a gap year [online] Available at http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/consider_a_gap_year [ Accessed at April, 2013] UK Universities: Oxford - very supportive of gap year and offers a variety of gap year programs [online] Available at http://www.oxintstudycentre.com/programmes/gap-year-programmes.html [Accessed April, 2013]