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How to Improve GP Content Knowledge? (R.E.C Method)
This is the first article of 2020 to help you on your GP Journey! Stay tuned for more articles coming your way this year! Before you work at content, maybe check out this article on how to study for GP.
If you have been wondering how to improve content knowledge or why readings tons of news articles hasn’t been effective for you, this is the right article for you!
To begin, we need to first understand how to translate current affairs knowledge into actual content that can be incorporated into essay writing. Many students I know dedicate a lot of time reading news almost every other day but they still do not perform well in GP.
The reason is simple. They are unable to apply this knowledge into their writing. Reading widely can give you a lot of information about the world, but it can also overwhelm you such that nothing really comes to mind in the exams. The trick is to find a way to structure all these different issues you read about.
What better way to structure than to use the 7 major topics of GP? Click on the link for details but for a quick refresher, the topics are: Science, Arts, Politics, Media, Environment, General, Individual
In 3 simple steps, you can use the R.E.C method: Read, Extract Classify. Use R.E.C when you wish to read new articles to add to your knowledge!
1. Read (Facts)
Notice that reading isn’t the ONLY step you need to have to improve content. Many students believe that religiously reading an article every day without fail would be the secret to doing well for GP. The truth it that often doesn’t work out as expected.
Students would still find themselves struggling to generate relevant points for the essay question in the exam. They roughly remember what they have read but forget some details along the way and simply don’t have enough examples for one question.
The reason is simple, because the question in GP is often focused on 1 or 2 topics. The challenge is to distill everything you have read into one single essay. Having a lot of knowledge is awesome, but you need to know how to apply that knowledge, how to translate it into something useful. Hence, reading is merely step 1 and there are two more steps that follow.
What you should be doing in this step is of course to understand the article and extract some useful facts that will help you recall this example or event easily. Read the article and as you read, start taking note of some key facts that define the incident. You can either highlight, underline or simply write them down.
The important thing here is to simply grasp the situation and get an accurate sense of what has happened. You don’t want to extract every single fact, just pick what you think may be useful in your essay.
E.g. Hong Kong Protests: Extradition bill first triggered protests, part of the longstanding struggle for Hong Kong’s autonomy from China. Protesters feared the bill leads to China encroaching on Hong Kong’s freedom to operate its own legal and political system
-Clashes between protesters and police became increasingly frequent and violent, continued on despite withdrawal of bill. Notable incidents were protesters being shot with live rounds, a man being set on fire, protestors setting fires in subway stations, mass flight cancellations, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University being occupied by protestors
– Protesters want the Five Demands (1 of which being the withdrawal of the extradition bill has been met). Protesters and the government are both unwilling to compromise at this point, no agreement is reached on the other demands
– Xi Jinping has warned against separatism, saying any attempt to divide China would end in “bodies smashed and bones ground to powder”
– The economy suffers from the uncertainty and decrease in tourism. Small businesses have been forced to close while tourism has plunged significantly and unemployment rate in the tourism and food sectors have risen by 5%.
2. Extract (Arguments/Points)
In this step, you will start thinking about what are the potential issues, questions or arguments found in this situation. Realise that this step is also exactly what you are required to do for compre. To do well for compre, you need to be able to accurately pinpoint the author’s arguments.
It will help you not only for AQ, but also for summary and SAQ because when you identify the arguments, you begin to have a lot more clarity for the entire passage. You start to see what the author’s stand is, what reasons he/she uses to support his/her assertions, what examples are chosen to specifically illustrate, what counter-arguments are being rebutted, what comparisons are made to emphasise a point etc.
Some articles you read are quite factual (only describing the event rather than forming any judgement), but you should think about the issue and ask yourself what are some points of tension. TENSION is an important word here. Where is the tension, who are the parties involved in this tension? There will always be tension in every issue. Tension exists when there are differing opinions to an issue.
For example, the Legalizing of Gay Marriage in Taiwan in 2019: It could have been lauded by some as a huge step towards eradicating discrimination and building a progressive and inclusive society. Others may criticise how it threatens the traditional family structure or erodes certain treasured values.
Another example would be Greta Thunberg being Named Person of the Year by Time Magazine: I am sure you have heard about her for all her advocacy efforts towards the environment. Many support her for passionately championing the environmental cause, and representing the voice of the younger generation who is frustrated at the problems in the world and desperately want to make a difference. There are also those who credit her for bringing a new perspective to conservation by focusing on governments and corporations (often the main cause of emissions) rather than merely individual actions. Of course, on the other side, you have critics who claim that she is erroneously removing focus on individual action and turning the issue into a political one. Some skeptics also point out that she is being manipulated by the adults for political gain.
As you can see, there is so much tension in any issue. Understanding the different arguments present would allow you to dig deeper at an issue, to go beyond just facts and really glean what the whole issue is about and what the significance of it is. Once you see the different arguments, you can then proceed with the next step to link these arguments to potential GP topics.
3. Classify (Link to Topic)
This is the most important step in ensuring that you have actually value-added to your content repository. You MUST think about how you can apply that content to an essay question or topics. Doing this will also help enhance the knowledge within you.
At this point i am sure you will realise that quality is as important as quantity. Readings a news article each day is great but you must accompany that with close analysis. To be honest, you don’t have to read that many articles. It is probably a lot more helpful for you to be more selective in which articles you read and how you can apply them.
In this step, from the tensions generated in step 2, you can proceed to think about essay questions:
The Hong Kong protests could have led you to question the reliability of the media in covering the issue (because some support the protesters while others deride them)
- Today’s media cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. How far do you agree?
Or it could have led you to think about the relationship between the government and its citizens.
- To what extent should governments make unpopular decisions?
Greta Thunberg’s example could propel you to consider the different solutions addressing environmental degradation.
- How far is environmental protection the responsibility of the individual?
Or maybe you start questioning the impact that Thunberg is making.
- ‘Environmentalism needs heroes in order for it to be successful.’ Do you agree?
Here, i am trying to show you my thought process. Basically, after you obtained the facts and pick out the tensions, you need to link to potential topics and you can easily do that through thinking about some common questions found in GP. If you don’t have a list of questions, you may click here.
Completing this step would means that you can give yourself a pat on the back. You have successfully added to your content knowledge and acquired a new example or argument that you can use in an essay question. You can imagine the power of R.E.C if you repeat this for the same topic. After just one month, you could even become an expert for the topic of environment!
So start thinking about what topics interest you, and go out there now to R.E.C some articles!
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My closing words are that it’s real useful to start on GP earlier in the year. You should not wait until your mid-terms come back and then decide to start studying GP. I have seen this too many times from too many students and it’s just a pity because GP is so much easier if you start earlier to slowly gain content knowledge and refine your skills! If you need extra help, don’t be afraid to seek it, i am more than happy to guide you in this journey. Sign up here for a 50% discount off your first month! 😎😎😎
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