An influential event

All of us have lots of influential events in our lives that make who we are today. When we talk about influential event, we always associate it with life transition like entering university or getting married. If I have to choose one influential event to share, it must be migrating to Singapore. It is the most significant event that changed my life entirely.

My parents think that Singapore’s education system is much better compared to Taiwan. Thus, they decided to bring my sister and I to Singapore for a more holistic education. I moved to Singapore immediately after I graduated from primary school, when I was twelve. It was the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I would say that it was really a tough time for me. I came to an entirely new environment; I had to pick up a new language, adapt to new education system and make new friends.

I first entered a language school to prepare for admission to local schools. It was really problematic to enter a local school. I went to at least five schools to take their admission exams and attended two other joint admission exams. The process of applying and going for admission made me exhausted. To make things worse, my results were really lousy. I got less than ten percent for my English and around thirty percent for Mathematics. The problem was that I could not even understand the questions during exams. I felt defeated.

After several exams, I was finally admitted to Normal Academic stream of a neighborhood school. I constantly set goals for myself to achieve. The first goal was to promote to Express stream in my secondary school. Then I wished to enter a junior college nearby my house. Finally, I made it to National University of Singapore, one of the top universities in the world. It is something that none of my family member could imagine, including myself. If I never move to Singapore, I would not have the opportunity to enroll in such outstanding university to pursue my dream for psychology. This is the most significant and influential in my life.

(359 words)

Draft 3- Reader Response

Parker-Pope (2015) mentions in her article “Writing Your Way to Happiness” that expressive writing improves physical and mental health. Expressive writing involves writing and re-writing of personal experience, and it changes one’s perception of life positively and makes him happier. Studies mentioned by Parker-Pope shows that American students who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows one to identify life obstacles and tackle them.

Parker-Pope suggests that expressive writing allows individuals to reconstruct their perception of the world. This leads them to live a happier and healthier life. The author’s arguments are logical and convincing. From a psychological perspective, mental health, physical health and cognition are interlinked. This interconnection supports the argument that expressive writing leads to better life.

Cognitive therapy is commonly used in treating psychological disorders like phobia and anorexia nervosa in mental health setting. Scientific researches reveal that changing one’s cognition can influence his mental health to a great extent. Clark and colleagues (2005) conducted experiment to find out the effectiveness of cognitive therapy, they concluded that cognitive therapy has the most significant effect in treating phobia compared to other forms of treatment. Similarly, re-writing helps individuals to see life events in a totally different perspective, this changes their perceptions and cognitions. Hence, expressive writing improves their mental health and makes them happier.

The author argues that expressive writing “reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits…” Indeed, mental health improves one’s physical health and vice versa. According to Grohol (2009), mental health and physical health are strongly connected to each other. For example, people who have anger management problems are at higher risks of getting heart arrhythmias compared to those without such problems. Individuals who engage in expressive writing change their negative views about the world, and become more mentally stable. This implies that they will have a better physical health due to their mental wellness.

However, it is too simplistic to say that those who identify their life obstacles through expressive writing will act upon them. Parker-Pope mentioned in her article that Siri, who failed to achieve better fitness because she thought she did not have time to work on her fitness. Siri later found out that her true obstacles are dislike exercising and neglect importance of fitness instead of insufficient time to improve her fitness after writing down her true thoughts. However, not all individuals who engage in expressive writing take action to change their behaviours. My sister Sharon, who always wanted to lose weight, noted down her daily diets but still failed to change her eating behaviour and did not achieve her ideal weight. Therefore, expressive writing is not always an effective way to tackle life obstacles. Parker-Pope did not give sufficient evidence to show how behavioural changes will come about followed expressive writing. 

In conclusion, expressive writing allows individuals to have a clearer mind by writing down thoughts. It changes the writers’ perception and cognition, leads to happier and healthier life. However, after engaging in expressive writing, one may not necessary takes action to change his behaviour or tackle his problems.

(535 words)

Reference:

Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., Waddington, L., Wild, J. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 74(3), 568-578

Grohol, J. (2009). The Connection Between Mental & Physical Health. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 9, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/02/25/the-connection-between-mental-physical-health/

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing Your Way to Happiness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Draft 2- Reader Response

Parker-Pope (2015) mentions in her article “Writing Your Way to Happiness” that expressive writing improves physical and mental health. Expressive writing involves writing and re-writing of personal experience, it changes one’s perception of life positively and makes him happier. Studies mentioned by Parker-Pope shows that American students who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows one to identify life obstacles and tackle them.

Parker-Pope suggests that expressive writing allows individuals to reconstruct their perception of the world. This leads them to live a happier and healthier life. The author’s arguments are logical and convincing. From a psychological perspective, mental health, physical health and cognition are interlinked, this supports the argument that expressive writing leads to better life.

Cognitive therapy is commonly used in treating psychological disorders like phobia and anorexia nervosa in mental health setting. Scientific researches reveal that changing one’s cognition can influence his mental health to a great extent. Clark and colleagues (2005) conducted experiment to find out the effectiveness of cognitive therapy, they concluded that cognitive therapy has the most significant effect in treating phobia compared to other forms of treatment. Similarly, re-writing helps individuals to see life events in a totally different perspective, this changes their perceptions and cognitions. Hence, expressive writing improves their mental health and makes them happier.

The author argues that expressive writing “reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits…” Indeed, mental health improves one’s physical health and vice versa. According to Grohol (2009), mental health and physical health are strongly connected to each other. For example, people who have anger management problems are at higher risks of getting heart arrhythmias compared to those without such problems. Individuals who engage in expressive writing change their negative views about the world, and become more mentally stable. This implies that they will have a better physical health due to their mental wellness.

However, it is too simplistic to say that those who identify their life obstacles through expressive writing will act upon them. Parker-Pope mentioned in her article that Siri, who failed to achieve better fitness because she thought she did not have time to work on her fitness. Siri later found out that her true obstacles are dislike exercising and neglect importance of fitness instead of insufficient time to improve her fitness after writing down her true thoughts. However, not all individuals who engage in expressive writing take action to change their behaviours. My sister Sharon, who always wanted to lose weight, noted down her daily diets but still failed to change her eating behaviour and did not achieve her ideal weight. Therefore, expressive writing is not always an effective way to tackle life obstacles. Parker-Pope did not give sufficient evidence to show how behavioural changes will come about followed expressive writing. 

In conclusion, expressive writing allows individuals to have a clearer mind by writing down thoughts. It changes the writers’ perception and cognition, leads to happier and healthier life. However, after engage in expressive writing, one may not necessary takes action to change his behaviour or tackle his problems.

(533 words)

Reference:

Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., Waddington, L., Wild, J. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 74(3), 568-578

Grohol, J. (2009). The Connection Between Mental & Physical Health. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 9, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/02/25/the-connection-between-mental-physical-health/

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing Your Way to Happiness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Draft 1- Reader Response

Parker-Pope (2015) mentions in her article “Writing Your Way to Happiness” that expressive writing improves physical and mental health. Expressive writing can change one’s perception of life positively and make them happier. Studies have proven that American students who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows one to identify life obstacles and tackle them. For example, after Siri wrote down her thoughts, she realised that she disliked exercising and did not value her health enough instead of had no time to work on her fitness.

Parker-Pope suggests that writing and re-writing past experience allows individuals to reconstruct their perception of the world. This leads them to live a happier and healthier life. I found that the author’s arguments are logical and convincing. From a psychological perspective, mental health, physical health and cognition are interlinked, this supports the argument that expressive writing leads to better life.

Cognitive therapy is commonly used in treating psychological disorders like phobia and anorexia nervosa in mental health setting. Scientific researches prove that changing one’s cognition can influence his mental health to a great extent. Clark and colleagues (2005) conducted experiment to find out the effectiveness of cognitive therapy, they concluded that cognitive therapy has the most significant effect in treating phobia compared to other forms of treatment. Similarly, re-writing helps individuals to see life events in a totally different perspective, this changes their perceptions and cognitions. Hence, expressive writing improves their mental health and makes them happier.

The author argues that expressive writing “reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits…” Indeed, mental health improves one’s physical health and vice versa. According to Grohol (2009), mental health and physical health are strongly connected to each other. For example, people who have anger management problems are at higher risks of getting heart arrhythmias compared to those without such problems. Individuals who engage in expressive writing change their negative views about the world, and become more mentally stable. This implies that they will have a better physical health due to their mental wellness.

However, it is too simplistic to say that those who identify their life obstacles through expressive writing will act upon them. For example, Siri found out that her true obstacles are dislike exercising and not valuing her fitness enough, may not necessary take action to change such behaviours. Therefore, expressive writing is not always an effective way to tackle life obstacles. Parker-Pope did not give sufficient evidence to show how behavioural changes will come about followed expressive writing. 

In conclusion, expressive writing can change one’s perception and cognition which leads to happier and healthier life. However, after engage in expressive writing, one may not necessary takes action to change his behaviour or tackle his problems. 

(475 words)

Reference:

Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., McManus, F., Fennell, M., Grey, N., Waddington, L., Wild, J. (2006). Cognitive therapy versus exposure and applied relaxation in social phobia: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 74(3), 568-578

Grohol, J. (2009). The Connection Between Mental & Physical Health. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 9, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/02/25/the-connection-between-mental-physical-health/

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing Your Way to Happiness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Draft 1- Summary

Parker-pope (2015) mentioned in her article “Writing Your Way to Happiness” that expressive writing improves physical and mental health. Expressive writing can change one’s perception of life positively which will make them happier. Studies have proven that American students who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows one to identify life obstacles and tackle them. For example, Siri failed to improve her fitness thinking she had no time only to realise that she dislike exercising and did not value her health enough after she began writing down her thoughts.

100 words

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing Your Way to Happiness. [Web log post]          Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

My English Language Learning Journey

Before I talk about my English learning journey, I would like to do a short introduction of myself. I am a Taiwanese. My family migrated to Singapore in 2006, when I was thirteen. My parents realized the importance of having good English skills, and Singapore is definite an ideal place for my sister and I to study English. Therefore, I am here.


Unlike most Singaporeans, my English learning journey only started when I was studying in the Primary school. My English learning journey can be divided into three stages. First stage, when I was learning basic English in Primary school in Taiwan. Second stage, when I moved to Singapore and started to learn basic sentence structure in Secondary school. Lastly, when I learned to write critically in Junior College.


When Brad talked about how Japanese university students struggled with English, I could totally feel the same pain of those Japanese students. Although there was increasing emphasis placed on English education in Taiwan, reality just do not match the expectation. I only learned simple vocabulary and grammar when I was in Primary school. Singapore students could write short essays when they graduated from Primary school. However, Taiwanese students could not even construct a proper sentence without the guidance of a teacher. That is how poor my English skill was when I graduated from Primary school.


I am lucky to move to Singapore for a better learning environment. When I entered local Secondary school, I could barely speak a sentence of proper English. However, I worked extremely hard to catch the standard of local students. I had never pass English exams in Secondary school. Fortunately, I obtained C6 for English during GCE "O" level, this enabled me to promote to local Junior College.


I learned English in a totally different perspective in JC. When I was still struggling with writing essays in proper English, critical writing skill was introduced in English class. Now, I had to master both writing and critical thinking at the same time. My English skills were always inferior to that of local students. However, I feel that I am luck to pass my General Paper. I am looking forward that I can further improve my English skills in ES1102.