To rewrite or not that is the question?
By LouRhi
@LouRhi (1502)
Australia
January 13, 2008 5:28pm CST
One thing I struggle with is deciding whether an article is really at it's best or not.
Here is one example of what I mean
http://parenting.youk.uk.com/bm/general/parent-participation-in-formal-education.shtml
What are your thoughts, is there room for improvement or should I let it be?All thoughts welcomed and greatly appreciated
1 person likes this
2 responses
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
24 Jan 08
I apologize for any delay LouRhi.
I actually like this piece of work. The one thing I noted was a lack of citation. You had Reader's Digest for the first part, but most other claims could need citation or support from citation. I'm not saying you are wrong in the claims though, they are sound and valid. Parents need involvement in their children's education and the sooner it begins the better the chance a child will have with education. Providing a variety of books AND activities is also a part of education, so a child can bring out the talent from within and learn from the activities they have penchants for.
Your form is chronological and easy to discern in my opinion. You start at early childhood (which is crucial for development of children). Then you continue with school itself and various issues children could use parental involvement (classes, homework, subjects, extracirricular).
Also Rhi, you could maybe add in the negative side of your topic. For example, what happens to children without the parental action. Depending on the overall tone you want to take you might want to avoid this, but I think there is merit in having your claims and then displaying what has happened to those without parental interaction.
I like the final parts of your writing, considerably. You could cite how people (in specific countries) have a mindset that the school is supposed to do everything when it comes to their child, or at least something along those lines. You could also cite the quality of schools themselves maybe as an impetus for parents to get involved with their children's education. They could be poor schools and parents may need to teach things on the side, or perhaps opt for another school. They could be excellent schools but not teaching things to standard, or worse trying to pass off opinion as real teaching (its not). This is very important since in both instances your child could end up bored with school, or they could lack crucial skills as teens and young adults (critical thinking, hypothesizing, research, observation). Instead some kids could end up learning very little or simply believing anything a proper authority says (Well teacher said it, it must be true. Well the news said it, it must be true. Well the government said it, it must be true).
1 person likes this
@LouRhi (1502)
• Australia
5 Feb 08
Thanks as always for your comments and praise Programer.
You have given me some food for thought. I have decided to leave this article as it is but your comments have provided me with the great basis of another article so a super big thanks.
In reference to citing other works I didn't actually refer to any other than my trusty readers digest.
Generally I write about my opinion and try to make it sound authoritative (which in my mind it is!) I have enough trouble finding time to sit down and write without adding researching to the list.
Having said that though I am about to go on a reading quest, if we don't read we will never have anything to write about!