Hello!
How are you? Today I will introduce our 3rd writing assignment - comparing and contrasting educational systems between Japan and another country.
While I have given all of you the handout about this assignment, I will post it here as another way to remind all of you about what you can do for this assignment.
Topic
As I mentioned above, in this topic compare and contrast
similarities and differences in educational systems between Japan and another
country.
Choices within the topic
While the topic is fixed, you can choose any
country to compare and contrast with Japan. While I showed you the videos on the blogpost before this one on education in Finland, India, and South Korea, you do not have to limit yourself on education in those countries - in fact, I encourage you to find other videos and readings on educational systems in other countries.
Similarly, you can choose any level of education as your point of comparison and contrast – elementary, junior high school and high school, and university. (Please remember to compare and contrast the same levels of education – for example, elementary school in Japan with elementary school in Germany, or high school in Japan with high school in Russia).
In addition, you can choose the organizational style you make your comparison and contrast with – a block method, or point-by-point method. (Just remember – if you want to show more how two things contrast, the block method would be better. If you want to show how two things compare, then the point-by-point method is better).
Similarly, you can choose any level of education as your point of comparison and contrast – elementary, junior high school and high school, and university. (Please remember to compare and contrast the same levels of education – for example, elementary school in Japan with elementary school in Germany, or high school in Japan with high school in Russia).
In addition, you can choose the organizational style you make your comparison and contrast with – a block method, or point-by-point method. (Just remember – if you want to show more how two things contrast, the block method would be better. If you want to show how two things compare, then the point-by-point method is better).
How much to write
I would like you to write around 3-4 paragraphs' worth
of writing – though I would also like to see you write with as many points of
comparison and contrast as you can. This might make your paper longer – say,
4-5 paragraphs’ worth, or maybe even a little longer – but for a topic like
this, the longer, the better.
Deadline (締め切り)
It will be October 23rd (10/23). Bring in a first
draft (下書き) next week on October 16th,
in your notebooks in pencil - with an article about an educational system in another country you want to compare with the same level in Japan. I will then go around and talk to as
many of you as I can to review your work, and you can change things about the
draft as you need to, then type up your final version on a Word document and
turn in your work on October 23rd.
I will show you the format for what I want the typed final version to
look like on October 16th.
Good luck with this! We will begin to write a little more
extensively, this time with final versions typed up.
I will post about this assignment on my blog to remind you of what you
can write about.
I look
forward to reading your great writing on this topic! See you next time!
Image: Personal illustration. All rights reserved.
