Read widely – read,
read, read … and take notes of what you have read
Once you have chosen your area of
specialisation (your themes or related topics that you will specialise in for
your GP essay), read a lot around the themes, topics, or subjects and take copious
notes.
For me, for example, I love to read about modern
European history, especially events and developments from the French
Revolution in 1789, to the First and Second World Wars, all the way to Europe’s
context and situation today, including the excitement around Greece’s economy,
the possible Grexit, recession in Europe, and arguments that the pro-EU
camp make against the Euro-sceptics, and how the Euro-sceptics incite … well,
incite scepticism.
However, I am also interested in international
history, which is innately interesting, and the history of Singapore, since after all I do love my beautiful
sunny little island, set in the sea.
I read up a lot on these topics and history
is something that makes me (academically speaking) happy.
Read, read, read, and find out more. Be an
active reader.
In addition to “what happened”, I also focus on
the “so what?” to learn about the impact, significance, and meaning of the
various events, facts, and contexts. Remember, that it is important not just to
learn facts, but also to learn about the meaning of the facts and to examine their
impacts or significance.
Fundamentally, you have to read really widely
around your chosen themes, and not just a few magazine articles for preparation.
You could read a range of materials or sources, beyond books and the Internet, such as:
- This wonderful blog, JC General Paper Essays (absolutely no bias here! :p)
- Newsweek
- The Economist
- Forbes
- Harvard Business Review
- Reader’s Digest
- National Geographic
- The New Yorker
- Huffington Post (online and print)
- Time magazine
- Newspapers
Please don’t read Glamour, Sports Illustrated, and
8 Days, or even Roy Ngerng's really flawed or poorly-researched Heart Truths, to prepare for your GP essays; read these for leisure or entertainment instead.
Beyond reading widely around your themes, you
have to be disciplined and collate and write up notes on what you have read,
taking care to be clear, concise, yet accurate about what you have read. Some
students are not very accurate about what they have read, and this makes for
sloppy and unclear thinking and writing.
You could do a lot to ensure your success in
assimilating information.
Highlight the key facts, dates, information,
quotes and phrases. What do these mean? What is the impact or significance? Write
these down.
Can you express the idea in your own words? Are you certain that is what was being said?
On vocabulary, you could learn a lot of words. What are the words that you do not yet know, but will know soon? What are the words that you thought you knew but you now realise that the word has many other connotations and meanings? Write these down too.
Can you express the idea in your own words? Are you certain that is what was being said?
On vocabulary, you could learn a lot of words. What are the words that you do not yet know, but will know soon? What are the words that you thought you knew but you now realise that the word has many other connotations and meanings? Write these down too.
Surely when you read the article you did not know everything. What do you not know? What do you need to find
out, and who can you ask? Can you find the information online, and is it
credible and relevant?
Think about your subject or theme or topic here too. What have you really learnt here?
Think about your subject or theme or topic here too. What have you really learnt here?
If you can think about
an issue carefully, you can write about it carefully.
When you learn a lot about a certain theme, and
start to build some solid foundation on few related themes, you can start to do
some theme-weaving, which means to make sense of your notes and consolidate
them into a coherent whole. Beyond reading and taking notes, you need to have
some synthesis.
Make your notes flow and draw linkages between
what you have read. Write out or draw a mind-map or a set of additional notes,
or an outline of the theme or topic. How do the different readings or articles
help you?
For instance, what has the intellectual history
of economics, for instance, have to do with the history of Europe? Is economics
as a discipline really Eurocentric in nature? Perhaps the industrial revolution
had a lot to do with the history of the world and might have led to colonialism
and trade, or other such thoughts and ideas such as the White Man’s Burden.
In conclusion, just remember:
Once you have chosen your area of
specialisation (your themes or related topics that you will specialise in),
read a lot around your themes, topics, or subjects and take copious notes, so
that you can really make the material your own by absorbing it.
JC General Paper
Essays – how to prepare for GP