Writing a General Paper essay depends on Knowledge.
You may present your knowledge in terms of content and opinions.
Basically, this would be the core of your essay.
The way you source your content depends on you.
Do you want to include international news or local?
And your opinions in the General Paper should be based on the presentation of these.
Now, let us get back to your content.
All content should depend heavily on the way you apply news and work which has been written before.
The more you know, the better, naturally.
All right. The evidence which you use to present your content must be applicable to the question, it should be from a credible news source and it should be verifiable.
I am going to discuss Powerful Techniques in applying Statistics on yourGeneral Paper.
This will be a quick guide on the do’s and don’ts and applying statistics.
#1 – Content that matches the question
Ok. You must be wondering why I mentioned this.
Should this not be automatic?
Not all statistics match the question as students simply place this there for the sake of the evidence. Please refrain from doing this.
Rule number one is to ascertain the Applicability of the statistic to the General Paper question.
#2 – Credible news source
A credible news source would be the news agencies used by credible newspapers such as The Straits Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, etc.
All of them have credible news sources and are accountable for what they write.
You may look up newspaper archives to research news from an earlier date if it relates to ongoing news.
This is a really good way to make sure that your evidence is rock solid in theGeneral Paper.
#3 – Verifiable
You may do your own check on the verification.
There is a lot of news online which cannot be verified.
Make sure that you check whatever news you want to present by verifying it against the accredited news source or checking who mentioned it.
Was it from a well-known source? A CEO of a company?
It can still be used as evidence as long as you know he mentioned it.
#4 – Latest news because it is easy to source
The latest news sources are always the best.
The best statistics can be gained from tv news sources.
CNA, CNN, BBC, SkyNews to name a few are easy to access as these news channels operate 24/7.
Just watch it while doing other work.
Multitask by all means and make sure that this runs in the background.
I find there is always something from tv news sources that I can supplement in myGeneral Paper essays.
It is easy to understand and there is no problem with verification.
#5 – Older news but very applicable
Older news sources provide statistics too and these are from books by well-known authors.
Biographies and documentaries provide applicable news sources.
For example, the documentary on the assassination of John F Kennedy provided footage on the lack of security given to the late American president.
He was being driven in an open-air convertible.
There are several such statistics available such as the Human Genome Project where the documentary traced the beginning of mankind to the first man in Africa.
It was an astounding piece of evidence that astounded the entire world.
Ongoing documentaries such as ‘Becoming Human’ featured by CNA is a documentary about Artificial Intelligence. It attempts to tackle the incursion of AI into our world in a ground-breaking way.
A great way to include statistics for technology topics in theGeneral Paper.
#6 – News from unverifiable accounts but well-known
I would rather that you did not do this. I know people tend to.
The problem with writing unverified news that you may have partly made up is that it is not always believable.
If it sounds too flimsy, you will run the risk of having marks deducted.
#7 – Statistics from lore, ancient texts
This is a source that is almost always neglected. It makes a great source for statistics.
What about statistics from the Iron Age 12th – 8th centuries BCE, Persian chronicles 6th century BCE?
What about the Trojan war accounts from the Iliad and Odyssey from the 8th century BCE?
These contain well-known accounts of heroes which may offer statistics about how a war was won and about heroism.
A rather unusual source for news but let’s face it.
You may be one of a few to use these statistics and that will mean you will have a truly uniqueGeneral Paper essay.
Let us not discount every kind of news source. Popular or not, it should be sound and it should work for you.
All right, let’s look at the news, shall we?