Assignment 4

Grades in Primary School Is Feedback - Not Punishment

Swedish children have suffered enough from SAP and their Marxist allies' ideas of education, namely branding every individual equal in all aspects, including their intelligence and academic potential. This is not good for the children, rather the opposite as numerous gifted children does not receive enough attention and assistance at the early stages of life which in turn leads to a decline in how much the child actually cares about her/his education. Now if the average gifted child got told she/he is exceptionally intelligent or particularly good at something at an early stage it would be safe to say that she/he would feel acknowledged and that her/his achievements are appreciated; which in turn leads to increased focus and effort concerning her/his studies.

Sweden is a part of the European Union, which means that we are cooperating with other countries within specific fields such as trying to combat and control international criminality and certain issues concerning the environment. Now would it be good to profile Sweden within the European Union as a developing country when it comes to education? It is safe to admit that this is nothing which would be of benefit for Sweden, its citizens or Sweden's international credibility as a country where we care for our children's education and future. However this is exactly what is happening at this very moment, as the other countries within the European Union do grade their students at much earlier stages in school.

There are critics of this reform, however their major argument is that children should be allowed to be children as long as possible; an argument which sounds quite reactionary. These critics are more often than not partisans of SAP and its allies, which ironically has housed a couple of questionable figures in Swedish politics such as Gudrun Schyman. This lady has been caught red-handed stating rash ideas such as "every child should receive an Acceptable grade by default"; the support of this statement was ironically that children should not feel any stress or pressure concerning school. This support undermines itself though; the fabricated story of pressured and stressed children where grades would further fuel their misery is comfortably dismissed by the fact that today's children have very much spare time and some of that spare time could easily be spent on studies without breaking the children.

To conclude this it would be appropriate to state that children would benefit from receiving grades in Primary School, as it would encourage future efforts and academic achievements. This reform would help profile Sweden as a pushing country in the European Union, which matters as the European Union is becoming more and more important in the long run.

Assignment 3

Powerthirst deserves to be Christmas Gift of the Year 2010!

"What if everything you've ever wanted... came in a ROCKET CAN?" This catchy phrase sets off the commercial of Powerthirst Rocket Edition, arguably one of the best energy drinks ever produced. This neat product is sure to set the energy back into drink, and is the obvious Christmas Gift of the Year for many reasons. Some critics might argue that Powerthirst may argue that Powerthirst is not suitable as the Christmas Gift of the Year 2010 because of it's so called dangerous ingredients. Critics could not possibly be any further away from the truth; with the past years Christmas Gift of the Year often being unnecessary trinkets and merely a reason to hype up the Christmas trade the time has finally come for a new era of Christmas Gifts. An era of energy, concentration, success and happiness.

Time is an important factor in today's society; everything is measured in efficiency such as time divided by cost, and what then is more important than keeping up the focus and concentration levels? This is why Powerthirst is such a good product because it will grant you the extra energy required for a specific task such as winning "everything forever"; with the energy gained from Powerthirst you will become an unstoppable force in every single field. From sports and activities such as arts, running, football, irony, studying, bear blasting (the sport you will invent because you will be too energetic for normal sports) and spawning babies, no one will be able to outperform you.

With ingredients and tastes such as Manana (a mix of a man and a banana), Rawberry (the manly, mutated version of strawberry), Electrical Storm, Chocolate, Methamphetamine and Gun, you are guaranteed to feel like a fighter jet made of biceps. With so much energy you will be perfectly able to deal with every single task presented, and still have energy left to spend elsewhere. You will most likely impress your boss to such an extent that he will concede his job in favour for you, but do not worry; the energy grated through Powerthirst will easily be enough to cower two full time jobs at the same time. The fact that Christmas 2010 is months away does not stop Powerthirst consumers; a year of energy goes by in no time thus Christmas is always impending.

Critics may question the declaration of contents of Powerthirst, thus implying that mutated plants, natural phenomenon and drugs are not healthy and might cause serious damage to your brain and body. This is fully possible of course, however Powerthirst has been tested on numerous laboratory animals and humans, and according to Dr. Dick Head the tests shows no signs of danger. However this has not been proven as stated earlier, and the declaration of contents clearly states that side effects might include glowing sweat (and perhaps addiction and nervous breakdowns) which you can use to fuel rave parties and other sweaty activities. At Powerthirst we like to believe that you can create something positive out of anything that is negative, and with that in mind we deserve a reputation as a respectable company and our newest product deserves to be the Christmas Gift of the Year 2010.

Laziness should never pay off - High Taxes on Junk Food a Matter of Course

Please note that this is the first draft, and can and may be changed until Sunday. Also please note that it seems impossible to use 1.5 line spacing here, thus resulting in very cluster-like paragraphs. I seem unable to use indentation here on top of that. :(

Junk food is threatening our society in several ways, both principal and economical. In an ideal situation no one would prefer junk food over real, and healthy, food simply because junk food is harmful in several ways. Overweight children are getting bullied on regular basis, often because their ignorant and irresponsible parents feed them with junk food rather than cooking a proper mean, thus resulting in an unwanted fain of weight of the child. The free healthcare system in Sweden is both positive and negative depending on the situation; however when it comes to health problems related to junk food we can all agree that the current system is something negative. Junk food in addition to other activities or rather lack of activities often seen at junk food consumers such as not working out and consuming other unwholesome things such as sweets and coke will eventually result in increased blood pressure and perhaps even thrombosis or diabetes. This problem can be halted, or even prevented, by drastically raising the taxes on junk food and at the same time lowering the taxes of plain and healthy food.

No parents would like to see their children bullied at school, and no children would possible enjoy the experience of being bullied. This is one reason why junk food is such a menace at this very moment, as more and more children are being bullied because of their unnatural weight. Naturally this is not only the case for children, grown-ups are experiencing the same problem. One simple solution to this issue is for parents to take their responsibility of letting their children grow up without having to fear harassment and persecution at any time. By refusing to feed their children with junk food, and at the same time making sure their children get the recommended amount of physical exercise for their current age is one step in the right direction regarding this issue. This is merely common sense, and surely people wonder why this is still happening on such a large scale.

The reasons for this maltreatment of children have been looked at before, and concluded to be nothing but laziness and weakness of the parents. Junk food is quite cheap, and creates a fake sense of stilling hunger since the food often contains so much fat and salt and at the same time often tastes sweet (a taste which children are especially vulnerable to), which may be the reason why it is so popular. However normal food does not have to be very complicated and expensive, which is common bias against it; with some effort the average person can cook a very good and healthy meal in less time than one hour, which every parent should be able to spare for their children if they care about their health and future well being. Plain food does not have to taste badly, however children often have a negative attitude towards new food, something which can only be overcome by having the child trying the food and analysing what the child does not like about it. The problem may be either the smell, the consistency or a specific taste you can overcome by applying a sauce or even different spicing to the food. The big problem identified here is the weakness of many parents and their negative attitude towards taking strong stands on various matters regarding their children. In other words, many children can and will bend the line of their weak-minded parents to get their wish through (in this case not eating the food served and perhaps getting something else to eat instead).

Growing an obsession with junk food at an early stage is extremely dangerous and it is one of the biggest reasons we have so many overweight children and teenagers at this day. Not only may the child face harassment and other children at school or elsewhere, but the very health of the child when he/she grows up is at stake. The risk of encountering various blood and heart related illnesses are so much higher if you have high blood pressure and an abnormal amount of of fat in your veins, which may develop to a thrombosis. Living in Sweden, this is not only the concern of actual victim of the illness, but also for all taxpayers. The healthcare is largely paid by the Swedish state with money from taxes and seeing your tax money vanish in thin air is never pleasant and thus it is for the best of every citizen if this problem can be halted, or even prevented before anything happens, which is easiest done at an early stage. At the same time living in a Capitalist society where money plays a huge role in most decisions, simply raising the taxes of junk food and other non-healthy food and sweets drastically will force people to look for a cheaper source of food. If you at the same time reduce the taxes of plain and healthy food the change is implemented, and the majority of people will not eat as much junk food, or stop eating junk food completely, and an ideal situation is created. Fewer children will have issues related to their weight, thus reducing the chance of being harassed and bullied because of their appearance. At the same time overweight grown-ups will not face same risk of catching illnesses related to their blood pressure and illnesses and diseases related to abnormal intake of sugar, salt and fat.

To conclude this we can state that everyone, except the fast food producers and the chains of fast food restaurants, will benefit in one way or another by raising the taxes of junk food and reducing the taxes of plain and healthy food. Children will grow up in a much safer and healthier environment, facing less risk of catching nasty diseases and illnesses related, in one way or another, to junk food and also less likely to fall victim of bullies and other harassment related to their weight. The people already living a healthy life will benefit and rejoice by seeing the nation develop in several areas such as education and science as a result of the state not having to throw tax money on non-existent or very uncommon diseases and illnesses. This in particular would help profiling Sweden, and other countries having free healthcare, as a nation where science and education is regarded important enough to use most of the tax money on.

3. Write two very short texts (5-10 sentences) on the same topic, using [.........]

First text is written in informal language and the second text is written in formal language.

"Hi, long time no see. I was kinda wondering if you need any more personnel for this summer? You see, I need a summer job and since I did my APU* at your company 2 months ago I thought I should ask you before I go all out checking with every company in town! :))) Anyway I hope you answer me asap.

//// Victor"

"Dear Mrs. Anderson

My name is Victor Borgfors and I had my APU* take place at your company two months ago. I have since then finished school and have my mind set on studying International Relations at the University of Salisbury this autumn. However I have found myself in a intolerable economic situation and thus looking for a summer job. I sincerely hope we can agree that my stay at your company was beneficial for both parties, and that your impression of my performance was positive.
Having said that, I will attach my CV to this mail and bid you to write back when you have come to a conclusion regarding the situation of summer jobs at your company. With that said I bid you a continued pleasant week.

Sincerely,

Victor Borgfors"


*APU is a Swedish acronym for "Arbetsplatsbelagd Utbildning" which is something that is mandatory for students at many vocationally-oriented programs at upper secondary school, such as the industry programme or the business and service programme.

2. Find a piece of formal writing and a piece of informal writing, compare the two and list [.....]

An example of a piece of Formal Writing:

"This is to inform you that your book has been rejected by our publishing company as it was not up to the required standard. In case you would like us to reconsider it, we would suggest that you go over it and make some necessary changes." (http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Formal-and-Informal-Writing&id=594208)

And an example of Informal Writing:

"You know that book I wrote? Well, the publishing company rejected it. They thought it was awful. But hey, I did the best I could, and I think it was great. I'm not gonna redo it the way they said I should." (http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Formal-and-Informal-Writing&id=594208)

The main differences between these two texts are the choice of words and sentence structure. The person who wrote the text in the first example chose to not put emphasis on the company that rejected the book, instead they put the emphasis on the book that was rejected (by the company, which functions as the agent here) thus making the sentence passive. However in the second example, which could be a conversation between two friends, the emphasis is put on the company that rejected the book thus making the sentence active.
Going back to the sentences we can clearly see that the formal example is making use of longer, more complex, sentences whereas the informal is using short and simple sentences which is acceptable in normal everyday language.

1. Define the term "style" in the context of (academic) writing.

The term style in academic writing is the style you should apply to your text when you are writing for a specific target. The key part of the style term is adjusting your language to your audience, however you must not overdo it.

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