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GP Essay Questions on Media 6/100

GP Essay Questions on Media. Have a look at these GP Essay Questions on Media from the past papers

• To what extent should the private lives of public figures be the subject of media coverage?
• “The media can largely be blamed for the worldwide increase in violence.” To what extent do you agree?
• Can the media ever be relied upon to convey the truth?
• Should the Press be completely free?
• Consider the importance of drama in your country today. You may refer to live theatre, television and radio plays or any combination of these.
• Compare the effectiveness of any two of the following as a means of news coverage: the radio, television, newspapers.
• How far do magazines or television programmes aimed at young people in Singapore have a positive effect?
• ‘Films which have the greatest appeal are usually those which have the least value.’ By reference to specific examples, consider how far this is a fair assessment.
• In a world without books or music, what would be missing? Discuss with specific examples.
• Should advertising be restricted in any way?
• ‘A film has one purpose – to entertain.’ Using examples, consider this view.
• Advertising encourages a desire for products which people do not actually need. Discuss

The Complete List of GP Topics & Themes

Are you running out of time to prepare for your examples required for your GP essays? Are you looking to form an effective strategy to tackle your Paper1? if yes, read on and explore our recommended Thematic Essay Strategies (TES) on handling your essay paper.

1st, 12 questions will be set, of which you only answer one. This will allow GP essay exam candidates like you the chance to express an informed, critical, creative and relevant response.

Table of Contents

Most Common GP Topics for Essay Paper 1

The most common topics are: 1. Historical, social, cultural, economic, political and philosophical topics 2. Science including its history, philosophy, general principles, current developments and applications 3. Mathematical and geographical topics 4. Literature and language 5. Arts and crafts 6. Topics of local interest and global concern, as stated from the GP Syllabus (Code: 8807)

Now, the above topics is by no means exhaustive. We can easily go into subtopics for each of the main 6 topics. For example: under the General Paper topic of Literature and language, we can go deeper into Mass Media, , Music, Media, Film, etc. Or, under the topic of local interest and global concern, we can zoom into Singapore only, Gender (Women), Environmental (Animals, Water & the Sea, Land Use, Pollution), etc.

So you get the point, and that preparing by topics alone isn’t going to help a lot.

General Paper Themes for Essay Exams

What’s better than preparing by topics? Answer: You can prepare by GP themes! That is, by group several topics into a theme, you can more easily craft a relevant, creative and balanced response.

Below are sample essay questions inspired by the essay questions in this year’s prelim papers, as they have been modified. As promised, they are organised them into themes for your easy perusal and reference. The following themes are grouped and selected based on their frequency in the A Level GP exams as well as they broad enough to cover a variety of questions.

The major themes to focus on are:

a. Arts, Language & Mass Media b. Economic & Political Issues c. Science & Technology & Medicine d. Moral Dilemmas & Personal Experiences (aka Values, Philosophy or Individuals) e. Social & Economic issues f. Crime & Punishment g. General. 

In addition to grouping topics into themes for easier and effective preparation of your essay exam for GP, we can also prepare by question type. This involves your exam techniques and your experience of handling certain categories of exam questions. For example, the following list are common question types:

Type 1: Questions attempting to make a causal link between topics or themes

Some questions establish a relationship / / maybe even causality between two issues and hence you would need to identify that relationship and either agree with it or refute it. For such qu estions with 2 issues or subjects, the link between the two issues is the focus of the  essay. Do NOT have a separate discussion of the 2nd issue.

Examples: 1a: Technological advancements always bring about social equality. How far do you agree?  1b: he world would be a better place if everyone spoke the same language.’ Discuss. 1c: How prepared are we for climate change? Discuss this for your country. 1d: Medical science has been so successful that people now expect too much of it.’ Comment. 1e: Advertisements are often entertaining, but they rarely affect consumer choice.’ Do you agree? 1f: Should poorer countries develop their tourist industry when the basic needs of their own people are not being met? 1g: ‘Instead of speeding up the pace of life, we should be slowing it down.’ What do you think?

Type 2: Questions that target … ‘in your country’…

2.1: Is there value to historic sites in your society? 2.2: How prepared are we for climate change? Discuss this for your country. 2.3: ‘Freedom of expression is a luxury we cannot afford.’ How far is this true in your society? 2.4: Choose a sport and account for its popularity in your country: Golf 2.5: Choose a sport and account for its popularity in your country: Tennis 2.6. Which period in the history of your country appeals most to you? Give reasons for your choice. 2.7: Would you plan the layout of your neighbourhood differently?

Type 3: Questions that require … ‘in your opinion’…

3.1: What do you consider is a meaningful life? 3.2; What do you consider to be a rich life? 3.3: “Give me the country life, any time.” Comment. 3.4: Discuss the benefits of keeping a diary? 3.5: What factors would you consider when choosing a job? 3.6: If you were asked to set up an exhibition, what would you choose to exhibit and why? 3.7: It is better to live a short, exciting life rather than a long, uninteresting one. How far is this true?  3.8 “Leisure activities are a necessity, not a luxury.” Do you agree? 3.9 “The place for animals is in the wild, not in zoos or circuses.” Comment.

Type 4: Knowledge-based Questions

Such questions assume that students have an in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of the topic areas to be discussed in the essay. These KBQ tend to add in absolute words such as : never, solely, only, always, etc. Hence, commonplace knowledge will allow you, the GP student to pass, but obviously reflects nothing more than mediocrity. Knowledge must be showcased not just through a range of evidence but also through the differing conclusions one con draw from the some piece of evidence.

Examples: 4.1: Can the trade in weapons ever be justified? 4.2: Is sport too closely linked with money these days? 4.3: Discuss the view that too much faith is placed in statistics.

4.4: To what extent are small businesses preferable to large ones? Inevitably this question appealed to candidates who studied Economics. but it also proved to be a discriminator in identifying candidates who could make effective use of their General Paper skills and those who merely regurgitated theoretical arguments and unexplained Economics jargon, such as ‘economies of scale’ and ‘merit goods”.

Abbreviated forms, such as SBEs (Small Business Enterprises) and MNCs (Multinational Corporations) were not uncommon. These must be explained. Furthermore, very tortuous attempts were often made in the introduction to define small and large businesses.

4.5: Can small countries have a significant voice in world affairs Focus on the following: Switzerland, Vatican City, Luxemburg & Singapore

4.6: Is effective farming possible without science? Candidates drew upon the distinction between subsistence farming and that which was more of an industry, often tailored to meet modern demands of population and choice. Similarly, there was an awareness of organic farming, with its benefits and drawbacks. A good range of examples was incorporated to illustrate the impact of science on agriculture: the development of seeds, fertilisers, alternative means of producing crops and so on.

Sample Set A Paper 1 for general paper (Essay Questions)

1. How far should the actions of leaders be determined by public opinion? (Political issue)

2. Which factors currently pose serious threats to the development of your country and which provide exciting opportunities? (Economic, Environmental, Social, Cultural, ‘In-Your-Country’, etc)

3. Why are increasing numbers of people turning to religion in both less developed and developed countries? (Social, Economic, etc)

4. Can we be too concerned about safety and hygiene? (Science, Environmental, etc)

5. In your opinion, are most scientific research is conducted in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons? (Science, Social, Economic, ‘In-Your-Opinion’,)

6. Has commercialism ruined film as an art form? (Mass media, Arts, Economic, ‘Causal-link’)

7. Do you agree that aid should never be given to countries with poor human rights records? (Global issue, Economic, Political, etc)

8. ‘Gambling is a vice which should never be condoned in any civilised society. What are your views? (Social, Economic, Philosophy)

9. “We are overfed with information, but starved of wisdom.” Is this a valid assessment of modern technology’s impact on mankind? (Technology, Mass Media, Social, etc)

10. “Education is the best vaccine for violence.” Do you agree? (Social, Arts, Language, Mass Media, etc)

11. Is the United Nations still a relevant organisation? (Global issue, politics, Economic, etc)

12. Does history really repeat itself? (History, Social, Environmental, Economics, Political, etc, aka General Question)

Sample Set B Paper 1 for general paper (Essay Questions)

1. Give the public what it wants.” How far should the media be guided by this motto? (Mass Media, Social, etc)

2.Why does children’s literature appeal to readers of all ages? (Social, Langauge, Economics, The Arts, etc)

3. Have ceremonies and rituals lost their meaning in your society? (Economic, Religion, Social, Cultural, ‘In-Your-Country’, etc)

4. “Along with great power comes great responsibility.” Discuss the relevance of this observation to the roles and responsibilities of scientists today. (Science, Social, Economic, etc,)

5. To what extent, if any, should works of art be subjected to censorship? (Social, Arts, Language, Mass Media, etc)

6. In your opinion, what can be done to make the citizens of your country more politically aware and active? (Political, Youth, Social, etc)

7. Is a world without poverty an impossible dream? (Global issue, Economic, Environmental, etc)

8. ”No pain, no gain.’ How far is this true of life in general? (Philosophy, Personal Experience, Value, Economic, Language, etc)

9. ‘Politics is the art of compromise.’ Discuss. (Political, Global, Regional & Local issues, Social, etc)

10. Do we place too much faith in technology? (Technology, Environmental, Science, Economics, etc)

11. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Comment on this assessment of the last century. (Political, Global, Regional & Local issues, Social, Economic, etc, aka General Question)

12. What purposes should prisons serve in an educated and enlightened society? (Social, Language, Crime, etc)

As you can see from the i) list of topics, ii) the combination of topics into themes, iii) the questions types, as well as the iv) sample question paper, the essay exam paper can be set in many ways.

So what’s your strategy? Our recommendation: prepare a bit of each!!

Specifically: make you you have solid content knowledge with relevant and updated examples on 2-3 TOPICS . In this way, in term so the content marks, you will score a high one. Next, make sure that the topics you pick they are bale to merge into further themes, so that no matter how the Cambridge examiners mix and match the topics, you have enough scope and depth to provide a sound, elaborate and balanced answer. Finally, do an extra preparation with one that targets just Singapore (“ in your country “) and/ or offers you the opportunity to go deep in your opinion . 

Need more help? Let our GP revision pack boost your score with lesser effort now. Click here to accelerate your GP success .

Happy revision!

GP Samples Essays – Moral Values & Truth

by ASH | Aug 22, 2021 | GP Essay , GP Exam Skills

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Moral Values & Truth? Are you going to prepare this sub-topic of social issues, philosophy, etc as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP examinations? A good choice, as this...

GP Samples Essays – Longevity & Health

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Longevity & Health? Are you going to prepare this sub-topic of Science & Technology, etc, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP examinations.   We at Ace...

GP Samples Essays – Marriage & Women

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Marriage & Women? Aiming to prepare this sub-topic of Social Issues, Roles of Women, etc, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP assessments? Bookmark this page, so that you...

GP Samples Essays – Women & Human Rights

by ASH | Aug 20, 2021 | GP Essay , GP Exam Skills

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Women & Human Rights? Aiming to prepare this sub-topic of Social Issues, Roles of Women, as well as Human Rights, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP exam, and is seeking...

GP Samples Essays – Moral Issues & Abortion

Searching for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Moral Issues & Abortion? Aiming to prepare this sub-topic of Social Issues, Roles of Women, as well as Human Rights, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP exam, and is seeking for...

GP Samples Essays – Science & Health

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Science & Health? Aiming to prepare this sub-topic of Science & Technology, etc, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP exam, and is seeking for complete full length...

GP Model Essays – Film & Media

by ASH | Aug 11, 2021 | GP Essay , GP Exam Skills

Looking for JC General Paper model essays on film and media? Are you trying to write full length answers for this GP topic, but has difficulties finding good real-life examples to apply for Film and Media? Use our well-written model essay for this GP topic on Film...

GP Samples Essays – Governance

by ASH | Aug 10, 2021 | GP Essay , GP Exam Skills

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Governance? Aiming to prepare this sub-topic of Political issues, Government, International Affairs, etc, as one of your main content topic for your upcoming GP exam, and is seeking for...

GP Model Essays – Sports

by ASH | Aug 10, 2021 | GP Essay

Have you been looking for good General Paper sample essays on the topic of Sports? Still need help to craft an answer that is at least 36 out of 50 marks? See more of our model Sports essay examples here.   Q1: Why do countries place so much emphasis on sport?...

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FREE General Paper Essays By Top Students

Find the best General Paper model essays written by students from top Junior College in Singapore.

Wide Collection of Quality GP Essays

You can expect to find a extensive collection of GP model essays across a wide range of themes, such as social media, politics, governance, environment, education, nuclear energy and so much more. Easily find the theme that you are interested in and focus for your GP  exams. Moreover, our essays are written by top students from the best JCs in Singapore who have consistently scored well for their GP examination.

Frequently Updated Essays

Using relevant and updated examples are essential for an exemplary essay. With our GP model essays, not only can you learn how to apply the examples and support your argument well, you can also access to a wide range of recent examples that makes your GP essay stand out among the rest.

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In Singapore's educational landscape, answering General Paper (GP) essay questions is a significant challenge for many students. The unpredictability and time constraints during exams amplify this difficulty.

Join us as we unfold the strategies for confidently tackling these intricate questions. Let us explore the path to excellence in GP essays together, ensuring students are well-prepared and poised for success in their exams.

What Makes GP Essays Challenging?

GP essay questions often probe into complex, multifaceted issues, leaving students grappling with where to start, misinterpreting the core query, and inadvertently going tangent in their responses.

Different questions carry distinct expectations and criteria students must adeptly navigate and meet. The extensive topics covered require students to comprehensively grasp various subjects, such as current affairs, societal issues, global trends, and historical contexts.

This complexity of GP essay questions makes tackling them a formidable challenge for many, testing their knowledge and analytical, critical thinking, and essay-writing skills.

Answering GP Essay Questions Strategically

Approach GP essay complexities with these essential writing tips. These strategies will guide students in effectively navigating the essay writing process, increasing their chances of scoring an A for their GP .

1. Dissect the Question

Carefully read the GP essay question multiple times for a thorough understanding. Pay special attention to keywords and phrases, highlighting or underlining them for clarity. Break down the question into manageable parts, identifying the main issues and sub-issues it addresses. This focused approach ensures that students grasp the question's essence, allowing for a targeted and relevant response.

2. Identify Question Type

Determine the nature of the GP essay question: Is it issue-based, analytical, argumentative, reflective, or conceptual? Adapt the approach for each. For analytical queries, dissect the issue into various perspectives and dimensions. Argumentative questions demand a clear, defensible stance. Recognising the question type guides the planning and writing, ensuring the essay effectively meets the specific expectations and criteria.

3. Plan the Essay

Swiftly but surely, consolidate thoughts into a clear, actionable outline. List down the main arguments and corresponding subpoints. Prioritise them to ensure significant arguments receive adequate attention and detail in the GP essay. This structured approach aids in navigating through the essay seamlessly, ensuring a comprehensive and coherent discussion within the constrained exam duration.

4. Structure the GP Essay

When structuring the essay, follow a clear GP essay format. Start with an introduction that can pique the reader’s interest, then present 2-3 well-developed main arguments and a counterargument, if necessary, to offer a balanced perspective. Avoid merely listing points; elaborate on each area and conclude by summarising the points and reaffirming the stance.

5. Craft Compelling Arguments

Construct the arguments by incorporating logical reasoning and relevant examples. Ensure each argument is clear, concise, and directly related to the question. Enhance the arguments by providing examples, ensuring they add substantial value and depth to the discussion.

6. Address Counterarguments

Recognise and address opposing views in the GP essay question. Improve the argument by presenting potential scenarios and their outcomes. This precise and analytical method bolsters the main argument and demonstrates a thorough and nuanced understanding of the topic, contributing to the essay’s overall effectiveness.

7. Strong Conclusion

When writing conclusions, be sure to bring fresh insight into the section, avoiding the repetition of previously stated points. This approach leaves a lasting impression, effectively wrapping up the comprehensive discussion.

Common Mistakes Students Make When Answering GP Essay Questions

Explore the common mistakes students make when talking GP Essays , and strategies to avoid these pitfalls:

• Not Structuring the Essay: Not following a proper GP essay format can result in a disorganised and ineffective essay. Adhere to a structured format with an opening, main points, opposing arguments, and a closing to boost the essay's clarity and organisation.
• Going into the GP Essay Question Unprepared: Lack of preparation leads to insufficient quotable evidence. Keep abreast with the latest in current events, politics, and societal issues to bolster the reliability of the essay.
• Beating Around the Bush: Focus on the question's significance to ensure the essay is straightforward and tackles the main idea.
• Describing Rather Than Explaining: Avoid turning GP papers into descriptive essays. Ensure examples are relevant and contribute to effectively answering the question.
• Skipping Counterarguments and Rebuttals: Incorporating a robust counterargument and rebuttal showcases a student's capability to evaluate contrasting viewpoints, solidifying their position effectively and critically.

These prevalent errors often blur the clarity and impact of essays. Learn how to study for GP essays effectively by enrolling in a reputable GP tuition today .

Embark on the Journey to GP Essay Excellence with illum.education

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How to Write an Effective Introduction for GP Essays

Writing an impressive introduction paragraph for your GP Essays is simple.

My clear-cut, time-saving steps help you do away with the mythical "inspiration" you need to start writing.

Firstly, you need to understand:

What makes an introduction effective?

1. Good context

From the get-go, you need to demonstrate an excellent general awareness of the topic on a global level. This shows the examiner that you know what you are talking about.

Next, you also need to engage with the specific question keywords. This shows the examiner that you are immediately focused on answering the question fully.

2. A clear stand

This goes without saying. Without a clear stand, can you really persuade your examiner to buy into your argument?

Learn to use explicit keywords to indicate your position on the question. Follow the phrasing of the question and leave no room for ambiguity when it comes to your stand.

Finally, always remember to be balanced in your view. Just because you AGREE with the question, does not mean that all points for the DISAGREE camp are invalid. It just means that you have more reasons and arguments to swing to the AGREE camp. Thus, do demonstrate that you perfectly respect the validity of the opposing view, and that you have chosen your stand because it is BETTER, not because you believe it to be the only argument that is true.

3. A good overview of arguments

Like a good menu for a restaurant, your introduction must establish expectations and clearly state what you are offering your reader right from the start.

Nobody likes to be blindly led from one argument to the next, without knowing what direction they are going in or what 'surprises' are in store.

In order to allow your examiner to grade you effectively, set clear expectations. From the start, lay out all the arguments you intend to address. As they read on, they will then know what to look out for and how to evaluate your answer better.

4. Great vocabulary

At the end of the day, GP is a language paper. Many students get so stressed out and preoccupied with memorising examples and following formats, that they forget to write with enjoyment and persuasion.

Your examiner is human after all. They are not immune to the reading pleasure of a well-crafted, interesting argument. Going a step further to weave in literary references to famous works or mythology, as well as using figurative phrasing and less commonly-heard words and phrases, will help you grab their attention and appreciation. This will extraordinarily boost your language score.

Let me show you what I mean, using this step-by-step method:

1. General context.

2. Specific context.

3. It is undeniable that.. Opposing Argument 1 (OA).

4. However, Your stand

5. because Supporting Argument 1 (SA1) and because Supporting Argument 2 (SA2).

‘The mass media is to be blamed for perpetuating stereotypes.’ Do you agree?

General context: The mass media

Specific context: Is the mass media really responsible for reinforcing and spreading stereotypes that may be harmful? (*Note, 'blame' has a negative connotation. It would thus be reasonable to assume that stereotypes in this case are harmful.)

Stand: Agree to a large extent

OA: No, because increasingly, it corrects stereotypes and spreads empowering messages in society.

SA1: However, it has a long and undeniable history of playing a major role in entrenching gender stereotypes.

SA2: Additionally, it also has a significant hand in creating harmful racial bias in society.

​ Full introduction:

The mass media is a powerful and omnipresent entity, capable of communicating ideas and messages that captivate billions on an unprecedented scale in real-time. Yet, can this powerful medium really be held accountable for reinforcing and spreading stereotypes that may be harmful to society? It is undeniable that in the current epoch, traditional and new media are both beginning to correct stereotypes and spread empowering messages more and more. However , I would agree to a large extent that the mass media is still to be blamed for perpetuating stereotypes because it has a long and undeniable history of playing a major role in entrenching gender stereotypes, as well as because it has a significant hand in creating harmful racial bias in society.

Voila! These steps will help make your essay planning and writing remarkably easy and effective. Writing an introduction paragraph never needs to be painful again!

Essay On Advertisement

500 words essay on advertisement.

We all are living in the age of advertisements. When you step out, just take a quick look around and you will lay eyes upon at least one advertisement in whichever form. In today’s modern world of trade and business, advertisement plays an essential role. All traders, big and small, make use of it to advertise their goods and services. Through essay on advertisement, we will go through the advantages and ways of advertisements.

The Various Ways Of Advertisement

Advertisements help people become aware of any product or service through the use of commercial methods. This kind of publicity helps to endorse a specific interest of a person for product sale.

As the world is becoming more competitive now, everyone wants to be ahead in the competition. Thus, the advertisement also comes under the same category. Advertising is done in a lot of ways.

There is an employment column which lists down job vacancies that is beneficial for unemployed candidates. Similarly, matrimonial advertisement help people find a bride or groom for marriageable prospects.

Further, advertising also happens to find lost people, shops, plots, good and more. Through this, people get to know about a nearby shop is on sale or the availability of a new tutor or coaching centre.

Nowadays, advertisements have evolved from newspapers to the internet. Earlier there were advertisements in movie theatres, magazines, building walls. But now, we have the television and internet which advertises goods and services.

As a large section of society spends a lot of time on the internet, people are targeting their ads towards it. A single ad posting on the internet reaches to millions of people within a matter of few seconds. Thus, advertising in any form is effective.

Benefits of Advertisements

As advertisements are everywhere, for some magazines and newspapers, it is their main source of income generation. It not only benefit the producer but also the consumer. It is because producers get sales and consumer gets the right product.

Moreover, the models who act in the advertisements also earn a handsome amount of money . When we look at technology, we learn that advertising is critical for establishing contact between seller and buyer.

This medium helps the customers to learn about the existence and use of such goods which are ready to avail in the market. Moreover, advertisement manages to reach the nooks and corners of the world to target their potential customers.

Therefore, it benefits a lot of people. Through advertising, people also become aware of the price difference and quality in the market. This allows them to make good choices and not fall to scams.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Essay On Advertisement

All in all, advertisements are very useful but they can also be damaging. Thus, it is upon us to use them with sense and ensure they are entertaining and educative. None of us can escape advertisements as we are already at this age. But, what we can do is use our intelligence for weeding out the bad ones and benefitting from the right ones.

FAQ on Essay On Advertisement

Question 1: What is the importance of advertisement in our life?

Answer 1: Advertising is the best way to communicate with customers. It helps informs the customers about the brands available in the market and the variety of products which can be useful to them.

Question 2: What are the advantages of advertising?

Answer 2: The advantages of advertising are that firstly, it introduces a new product in the market. Thus, it helps in expanding the market. As a result, sales also increase. Consumers become aware of and receive better quality products.

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5 Tips for Writing a General Paper Essay that Will Score You an 'A'

Students often fall into two camps when it comes to how they approach the General Paper (GP) essay. The first group believes religiously in spotting questions and the power of the memorised template essay. However, tweaks to familiar questions by crafty examiners can negate the template’s effectiveness, and what if the spotted questions fail to turn up altogether? The second group is the opposite, and regard GP as a subject they can breeze through without much studying. Just choose any question that looks easy or interesting, write what comes to mind and hope for the best, right? Sadly, the best is rarely achieved. You have probably been in one or even both of these groups at some point. Neither approach is entirely wrong or correct - they wouldn’t exist if they didn’t work to some extent. However, if your goal is to write a GP essay that will score you an A, then you will need more than an approach that works to some extent. 

Here are 5 tips from The Learning Lab that will help you improve your writing and your chance at an A for the General Paper. 

1. Read the Questions Carefully

You get a total of 12 questions to choose from for your GP essay. Take a moment to read all of them carefully. While you should choose a topic that you are familiar with or passionate about (e.g. tech, government legislation, foreign affairs, generation gaps), avoid choosing a question immediately just because it seems familiar. As your teachers would have told you, some questions are traps! You may have studied the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union in A-Level History, but that doesn’t mean you have the arguments and examples to adequately answer if communism is dead today. 

Conversely, you may find that some of the general knowledge you have absorbed in preparation for the exam can be applied to a question on a less familiar topic, and provides the breadth of examples that markers look for. A good practice is to shortlist two or three questions before you start planning, just in case you hit a snag when formulating your argument and need an alternative.

2. Plan Out Your Essay

Planning out your essay is essential for many reasons. Firstly, it helps you avoid the perils of jumping straight in with a template argument or no argument at all, only to realise after an hour that you haven’t really been answering the question. The subject may be called General Paper, yet your essay should be anything but. This is also when you spot the trap questions and steer clear. Secondly, it allows you to structure your points and counterpoints in a logical flow to best support your thesis statement and overall argument. Thirdly, planning enables you to take stock of the examples you have to back up your points.

Ask yourself:

Do you have enough to substantiate each point? 

Which example is better used for which point?

 Are there obvious gaps that you can’t think of a way to fill, and should you quickly go and look at another question instead?

3. A Clear and Concise Introduction is Better than a Stylish One

A good introduction in a GP essay does its job and quickly moves both you (the writer) and the reader on to the meat of the essay. It sets up your argument clearly and provides a preview of what is to come. Under timed conditions, style that piques the reader’s attention is a bonus. Remember that a complete essay with all points substantiated and a conclusion will always score better than an incomplete essay with an impressive and memorable introduction.

You should also avoid giving too detailed a description of your points in the introduction. A good rule is to keep the introduction as short as possible: you should not write much more than an opening sentence, a thesis statement, and a sentence to link your introduction to your first point. 

4. Link Your Arguments Together and Stay on Point

This is often the difference between an average essay and a good one, and between a good essay and an excellent one. The highest-scoring GP essays are not the ones with the most distinctive style or the most flowery language, but the ones with the tightest arguments and structure. Everything you write should aim to answer the question, so that your thesis statement, points, and examples mutually reinforce each other and your overall argument. Signposting is your best friend: leave the examiner in no doubt of which piece of evidence supports which point and why, and use keywords from the question and your thesis statement repeatedly. 

If a favourite example of yours doesn’t quite fit the argument you are crafting, cut it. Unlike Mathematics or the Science subjects where plonking down some calculations or facts could earn you some marks, in GP, it’s better to keep your examples on point rather than try to show everything you know.

5. Pay Attention to Grammar and Spelling 

While you don’t have to be Shakespeare to ace the General Paper exam, you do need to communicate what you have to say clearly. If you have followed the previous 4 tips to the letter, the last thing you want is to distract your marker from your compelling argument with basic spelling or punctuation errors. Writing essays under exam conditions can often be a mad rush, but it’s wise to slow down a little to make sure you don’t spell words wrongly or leave them out by mistake. And of course, if you happen to have time to spare after finishing, do read through your essay again!

Nurturing Independent Thinkers and Writers 

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How to craft a good essay introduction?

The GP Essay – Writing the introduction

Like every other piece of writing, a GP essay begins with an introduction. Personally, I find the introduction the hardest part to write. Even as I type this little advice column, you would never have guessed how long I took to draft this one, tiny paragraph.

Now why do I say the introduction is the hardest part? Because most experienced GP markers can tell if a student’s essay is yay or nay based on the introduction alone. To understand this, one needs to know the functions of a GP essay introduction, which are:

• To set the context of your essay (background information)
• To define the question (definition of terms)
• To state your stand and address the task (thesis statement)

Thus, if you mess up or fail to do any of the above, the marker roughly knows that the rest of your essay would be –to put it bluntly— crap.

To help you avoid such a situation, here is a simple guide to writing a decent introduction.

1. Provide background information

Most students struggle with two problems in this area:

• What to write?
• How much to write?

To address the first problem, providing background information can be done in several ways:

• Facts and figures
• Quotes or idioms
• Anecdotes a.k.a. experiences and short stories

Do note that your introduction also serves to attract your reader to read on so if possible, think of a good hook i.e. interesting background information. If you really cannot think of one, abandon the idea and deliver the cold, mundane facts to avoid wasting any more precious time. For example:

A picture is always more powerful than mere words. What is your view? (2006)

Introduction with a hook:

Approximately 500 years ago, explorers in France stumbled on some cave paintings depicting life scenes in the Palaeolithic era. Fast forward to today, one can find graffiti on city walls and brightly-coloured advertisements advocating how one should live one’s life. Thus, it is without question that for over centuries, pictures have been the mode of choice for conveying messages rather than words…

Introduction without a hook:

“A picture is worth a thousand words”. In the world of advertising, this expression is as good as law. How often do we see books, brands and even election campaigns that are void of illustrations? Indeed, many people …

Regarding how much background information to write, a good length would be between 3-4 lines. This is ENOUGH. Any longer and you are spamming.

2. Define the question

This part is easy because it only requires you to paraphrase the question. However be warned that a marker can tell how well a student understands the question based on his/her paraphrasing so choose your words carefully. Only paraphrase key words in the question.

Now here comes the problem. When GP teachers tell you to define the key words, some students end up doing this:

Can space research be justified nowadays? (2011)

Space research is the development of rockets, satellites or probes for space exploration. Some people think space research is unnecessary in today’s world.

Students make the mistake of mechanically defining key terms. Not only is this boring, but it disrupts the flow of your introduction. Only include this type of definition if it is absolutely necessary in helping the reader understand the context. If not, save it for your essay body.

Instead, you should be subtle when defining the key terms, for example:

Some people would argue that probing the universe for extraterrestrial life or sending rockets into space is a waste of time and resources in the present era.

Look at how much better the language flows in the second example.

3. Write your thesis statement

A thesis statement states your stand (if the question demands it) and tells the reader what he/she is going to read about in the next few paragraphs. A simple thesis statement can look something like this:

The key to good health is lifestyle rather than medicine. How far do you agree? (2010)

I agree to a large extent that lifestyle plays a more significant role than medicine in determining good health. I will now present reasons to justify my stand in the following paragraphs.

To sum up, your whole introduction should be about 7-8 lines. The goal is to keep it short and sweet; like an appetiser to tantalise your reader. Remember that a bad introduction is like a bad first impression and as objective as markers try to be, their outlook towards your essay is inevitably affected by your introduction. Thus if I were you, I would start working on perfecting that first impression.

[…] How to craft a good essay introduction? […]

[…] essay that will get you an A? 9. How to tackle GP Summary (1) 10. How to tackle GP Summary (2) 11. How to write a good essay Introduction? 12. How to craft a good essay body paragraph? 13. How to write a good essay conclusion? 14. […]

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[A Level] Beware of GP Model Essay site

I don't usually post on Reddit pages but I realised that many JC students here do buy notes online and may fall for potentially misleading ads/sellers. I came across this promoted website https://gpessays.sg/ on Reddit and Carousell. It highlights that the (model) essays were made by students from RI and HCI.

However, after getting a subscription (for my daughter) and reading through the essays, I realised

The essays were only written by RI students, despite being (falsefully) marketed as model essays written by both RI and HCI students.

Based on my research, there is a positive review written on the website which is likely written by the owner himself/herself. There is only one review on the website itself. This can really mislead buyers into getting them.

There is no prove that these essays are "model essays" as the writer/owner just claims that the many essays are "A" grade. To add on to the suspicion, many essays were written on 2020, as stated on the website. As JC as has started, I wonder who gave the A grades to the many essays from the same few people.

Some of the arguments presented in the essay were hastily developed and contained weakly substantiated points to be model essays, when you compare them with like KSBULL. However, kindly note that this point here is very subjective.

All in all, I hope this information can encourage you to be more careful (of unethical sellers/marketing) when you are making note purchases to prepare for your studies. Ask more questions to the sellers and do more research before making purchases.

I have contacted the seller as I felt cheated and I am awaiting for a reponse. Hopefully the seller can rectify the issue at hand. If the seller does not reply, is there any way to escalate/resolve the matter? Would like to hear your thoughts about it.

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General Paper notes: Essay Introductions

The opening paragraph or introduction to a GP essay is one of the most important parts of the essay.

GP students should aim to begin their essay in a manner which accomplishes three main things:

• Introducing and clarifying the key ideas so as to let the reader know what the essay is going to be about
• Effectively signalling the direction in which the essay is heading. This is usually achieved by a clear thesis statement that uses the key ideas discussed earlier as leverage.
• And as a bonus, to get the interest of the reader. From a reader’s perspective (and from our teaching experience), an essay that has a interesting start is a sheer delight after marking dozens of bland openings!

Each of these components have specific strategies. This will be elaborated later under a dedicated “Writing Introductions” GP tuition lesson.

Yet very often, GP students do none of these things. Instead they resort to rather odd techniques to get started. Here are a few.

Mistake no. 1 The “Encyclopedia or Dictionary definition” opening – Some students go overboard in beginning their essay by defining every term in the question,  whether the terms need explanations or not. To begin an essay with: “The internet can be defined as a network of computers . . .” or “War is defined as armed conflict between nations” is both unnecessary and an insult to the reader. You can assume that the marker of your GP essay knows what ‘war’ or ‘internet’ is,  despite how you might think of your GP tutor! 🙂 Worse, you spend needless time and effort that will get you no marks and might even penalise the overall impression. Do Note! Definitions do have  a place in the introductions but not when they are defining the obvious!

Mistake no. 2 Beating around the bush – the circular and irrelevant opening Some students seemingly cannot bring themselves to address the question in the opening paragraph. Instead, they waffle vaguely, going on for many tedious sentences, before finally writing what is really in their introduction by paragraph 2. This is a terrible start. First you frustrate the reader and risk losing their interest(remember our point of having dozens of other essays to mark?). Second and more importantly, your inability to get to the point probably leads to your inability to have an effective and clear thesis statement – a key component of your introduction. Furthermore . . .

Mistake no. 3 Abusing the use of rhetoric questions aka “The bombarding reader with questions” opening – Interestingly, during GP tuition, some students believe that an effective opening consists of a string of questions such as, “Is the environment truly doomed? Do industries and consumers put self interests before the greater good? Can we get our act together or has the failure of key environmental summits support this pessimism?” etc etc. While the occasional rhetorical question in the body of an essay may be appropriate and indeed, effective, a string of questions is not. Worse, more often than not, students end up repeating the essay question…without answering it!! Students should take note that . . .

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• 28 August 2024

Exclusive: the papers that most heavily cite retracted studies

• Richard Van Noorden &
• Miryam Naddaf

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

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In January, a review paper 1 about ways to detect human illnesses by examining the eye appeared in a conference proceedings published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in New York City. But neither its authors nor its editors noticed that 60% of the papers it cited had already been retracted.

The case is one of the most extreme spotted by a giant project to find papers whose results might be in question because they cite retracted or problematic research. The project’s creator, computer scientist Guillaume Cabanac at the University of Toulouse in France, shared his data with Nature ’s news team, which analysed them to find the papers that most heavily cite retracted work yet haven’t themselves been withdrawn (see ‘Retracted references’).

Chain retraction: how to stop bad science propagating through the literature

“We are not accusing anybody of doing something wrong. We are just observing that in some bibliographies, the references have been retracted or withdrawn, meaning that the paper may be unreliable,” Cabanac says. He calls his tool a Feet of Clay Detector, referring to an analogy, originally from the Bible, about statues or edifices that collapse because of their weak clay foundations.

The IEEE paper is the second-highest on the list assembled by Nature , with 18 of the 30 studies it cites withdrawn. Its authors didn’t respond to requests for comment, but IEEE integrity director Luigi Longobardi says that the publisher didn’t know about the issue until Nature asked, and that it is investigating.

Cabanac, a research-integrity sleuth, has already created software to flag thousands of problematic papers in the literature for issues such as computer-written text or disguised plagiarism . He hopes that his latest detector, which he has been developing over the past two years and describes this week in a Comment article in Nature , will provide another way to stop bad research propagating through the scientific literature — some of it fake work created by ‘papermill’ firms .

Further scrutiny

Cabanac lists the detector’s findings on his website , but elsewhere online — on the paper-review site PubPeer and on social media — he has explicitly flagged more than 1,700 papers that caught his eye because of their reliance on retracted work. Some authors have thanked Cabanac for alerting them to problems in their references. Others argue that it’s unfair to effectively cast aspersions on their work because of retractions made after publication that, they say, don’t affect their paper.

Scientific sleuths spot dishonest ChatGPT use in papers

Retracted references don’t definitively show that a paper is problematic, notes Tamara Welschot, part of the research-integrity team at Springer Nature in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, but they are a useful sign that a paper might benefit from further scrutiny. ( Nature ’s news team is independent of its publisher, Springer Nature.)

Some researchers argue that retraction of references in a narrative review — which describes the state of research in a field — doesn’t necessarily invalidate the original paper. But when studies assessed by a systematic review or meta-analysis are withdrawn, the results of that review should always be recalculated to keep the literature up to date, says epidemiologist Isabelle Boutron at Paris City University.

Retracted references

These studies have the highest proportion of retracted papers in their reference lists, according to Nature ’s analysis of articles flagged by the Feet of Clay Detector.

Source: Nature analysis of data from the Feet of Clay Detector . Figures for references and retractions were hand-checked and altered where necessary; detector data sources do not always give accurate counts.

Picking up fraudsters

Some of the papers that cite high proportions of retracted work are authored by known academic fraudsters who have had many of their own papers retracted.

These include engineering researcher Ali Nazari, who was dismissed from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, in 2019, after a university misconduct investigation into his activities. He previously worked at Islamic Azad University in Saveh, Iran, and his current whereabouts are unclear. After Nature told publishers about his extant papers 2 , 3 topping Cabanac’s lists — including Elsevier and Fap-Unifesp, a non-profit foundation that supports the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil — they said that they would look into the articles. One of the relevant journals was discontinued in 2013, Elsevier noted.

Cabanac’s detector also flags papers 4 by Chen-Yuan Chen, a computer scientist who worked at the National Pingtung University of Education in Taiwan until 2014. He was behind a syndicate that faked peer review and boosted citations, which came to light in 2014 after an investigation by the publisher SAGE. Some of Chen’s papers that are still in the literature were published by Springer Nature, which says it hadn’t been aware of the issue but is now investigating. Neither Chen nor Nazari responded to Nature ’s requests for comment.

Another flagged study 5 is by Ahmad Salar Elahi, a physicist affiliated with the Islamic Azad University in Tehran who has already had dozens of his papers retracted, in many cases because of excessive self-citation and instances of faked peer review. In 2018, the website Retraction Watch (which also wrote about the Nazari and Chen cases) reported that according to Mahmoud Ghoranneviss, then-director of the Plasma Physics Research Centre where Elahi worked, Elahi was likely to be dismissed from the university. Now, Ghoranneviss — who has retired — says that Elahi was barred only from that centre and not the rest of the university. Elahi continues to publish papers, sometimes listing co-authors including Ghoranneviss, who says he wasn’t aware of this. Neither Elahi nor the university responded to Nature ’s queries. The IEEE and Springer Nature, publishers of the journals that ran the Elahi papers, say they’re investigating.

Unhappy authors

Some authors are unhappy about Cabanac’s work. In May 2024, editors of the journal Clinical and Translational Oncology placed an expression of concern on a 2019 review paper 6 about RNA and childhood cancers, warning that it might not be reliable because it cited “a number of articles that have been retracted”. The journal’s publishing editor, Ying Jia at Springer Nature in Washington DC, says the team was alerted by one of Cabanac’s posts on social media last year.

Computer scientist Guillaume Cabanac has flagged more than 1,700 papers that caught his eye because of their reliance on retracted work. Credit: Fred Scheiber/SIPA/Shutterstock

Cabanac’s analysis finds that just under 10% of the article’s 637 references have been retracted — almost all after the review was published. However, the paper’s corresponding author, María Sol Brassesco, a biologist at the University of São Paulo, says that removing these references doesn’t change the conclusions of the review, and that she has sent the journal an updated version, which it hasn’t published. Because the cited works were retracted after publication, the expression of concern “felt like we were being punished for something that we could not see ahead”, she says. Jia says that editors felt that adding the notice was the most appropriate action.

In other cases, authors disagree about what to do. Nature examined three papers 7 , 8 , 9 in which between 5 and 16% of the references have now been retracted, all co-authored by Mohammad Taheri, a genetics PhD student at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. He says that criticisms of his work on PubPeer “lack solid scientific basis”. Yet, in May, a co-author of two of those works, Marcel Dinger, dean of science at the University of Sydney in Australia, told Retraction Watch that he was reassessing review papers that cited retracted articles. He now says that his team has submitted corrections for the works, but Frontiers, which published one paper, says it hasn’t received the correspondence and will investigate. Elsevier — which published the other two papers — also says that it is examining the issue.

Catching problems early

Examples in which papers cite already-retracted work suggest that publishers could do a better job of screening manuscripts. For instance, 20 studies cited by a 2023 review paper 10 about RNA and gynaecological cancers in Frontiers in Oncology had been retracted before the article was submitted. Review co-author Maryam Mahjoubin-Tehran, a pharmacist at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran, told Nature that her team didn’t know about the retractions, and does not plan to update or withdraw the paper. The publisher, Frontiers, says it is investigating.

Until recently, publishers have not flagged citations to retracted papers in submitted manuscripts. However, many publishers say they are aware of Cabanac’s tool and monitor issues he raises, and some are bringing in similar screening tools.

Last year, Wiley announced it was checking Retraction Watch’s database of retracted articles to flag issues in reference lists, and Elsevier says it is also rolling out a tool that assesses manuscripts for red flags such as self-citations and references to retracted work. Springer Nature is piloting an in-house tool to look for retracted papers in manuscript citations and Longobardi says the IEEE is considering including Feet of Clay or similar solutions in its workflow. A working group for the STM Integrity Hub — a collaboration between publishers — has also tested the Feet of Clay Detector and “found it useful”, says Welschot.

Medical trend

Medical reviews that cite studies in areas later shown to be affected by fraud are a recurring theme in Cabanac’s findings.

In theory, meta-analyses or systematic reviews should be withdrawn or corrected if work they have cited goes on to be retracted, according to a policy issued in 2021 by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group known for its gold-standard reviews of medical treatments .

Boutron, who directs Cochrane France in Paris, is using Cabanac’s tool to identify systematic reviews that cite retracted work, and to assess the impact the retracted studies had on the overall results.

However, a 2022 study 11 suggests that authors are often reluctant to update reviews, even when they are told the papers cite retracted work. Researchers e-mailed the authors of 88 systematic reviews that cited now-retracted studies in bone health by a Japanese fraudster, Yoshihiro Sato . Only 11 of the reviews were updated, the authors told Nature last year.

Retraction alerts

Authors aren’t routinely alerted if work cited in their past papers is withdrawn — although in recent years, paper-management tools for researchers such as Zotero and EndNote have incorporated Retraction Watch’s open database of retracted papers and have begun to flag papers that have been taken down. Cabanac thinks publishers might use tools like his to create similar alerts.

In 2016, researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, began developing a tool called RetractoBot , which automatically notifies authors by e-mail when a study that they have previously cited has been retracted. The software currently monitors 20,000 retracted papers and about 400,000 papers, published after 2000, that cite them. The team behind it is running a randomized trial to see whether papers flagged by RetractoBot are subsequently cited less than those not flagged by the tool, and will publish its results next year, says project lead Nicholas DeVito, a integrity researcher at Oxford.

The team has alerted more than 100,000 researchers so far. DeVito says that a minority of authors are annoyed about being contacted, but that others are grateful. “We are merely trying to provide a service to the community to reduce this practice from happening,” he says.

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Donald J. Trump intends to bring independent regulatory agencies under direct presidential control. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

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By Jonathan Swan Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

• Published July 17, 2023 Updated July 18, 2023

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”

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