Please help to grade my essay

champj
Thu, 26 Feb 2015 15:23:38 +0000

Hi all,

Please help to grade my essay. I am experiencing with examples that I have made up to see what the effect it will have on the essay. Took slightly more than 25 minutes though and only managed to come up with 2 examples.

Do be brutally honest. Thanks!

“A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Alexander Pope

Assignment:
Do we learn more from finding out that we have made mistakes or from our successful actions? Plan your response, and then write an essay…

We learn from the outcome of a matter that we were involved in, be it failure or success. Our successes are based on the experiences that we have got. These experiences come from our past, in particular, mistakes that we have made before. We can imitate the success of other, but everyone of us are different and the circumstances surrounding us are different too. When we make mistakes, it is something that we experience, hence we tend to remember and learn from as it leaves a lasting impression on us. This is shown in several examples from history and past events.

I recall reading a biography about this particular official from ancient China by the name of Chi Mi. In Mei province of China, floods are a common occurrence. Emperor Tang Tsun Zong, one of the Ming dynasty emperors, tried to search for a solution but could not find any. Chi Mi suggested to him that they could imitate the previous dynasty and build floodwalls near potential flood points to stop the flood. His suggestion was accepted and he was placed in charge of the project. Under his charge, the project went smoothly and without much delay. However, when the flood came, the floodwalls did not withstand the impact and collapse. Emperor Tang ordered an investigation into the matter and found out that Chi Mi’s subordinate did not check for the authenticity of the source of the materials used and got materials that were not fit for the impact of the flood. The subordinate was punished and Chi Mi was ordered to rebuild the floodwalls. This time, he personally source for the materials, making sure that the materials were authentic and fit for the task. This shows that learning from past success is not adequate, we should instead learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.

Another example that strongly suggests that past mistakes help shape our learning is the Singapore People’s Action Party. The Party has been elected as the government for decades due to a lack of credible and strong opposition parties. During the previous election in 2007, the People’s Action Party used threat to threaten voters into voting for them. They stated that in the event that they do not get elected, public resources will diminish, and those constituencies that votes for the opposition will not be prioritize when they are eligible for upgrades. In this particular election, they lost one of their important constituencies, and because of that, two of their candidates that were ministers previously, were not elected. It is to note that because of the scare tactic, the citizen got extremely upset with them and they decided to get back at them during the election. Then, in the 2011 election, the Party adopted a new approach. Before the election, they gave out packages such as Pioneer’s Package to reward the elderly and free transportation for all before 7am in the morning. This is a tactic to buy votes and it work as they managed to gather a substantial amount of votes to get elected to Parliament. In this example, we can see that the People’s Action Party learnt from the mistakes more than their success as it had helped them in a substantial way. Initially, they thought that they could use the same scare tactic that employed in the past to scare the citizen into voting them, but it failed them and cost them dearly. From the failure, they adopted a new approach and it got them what they wanted.

All in all, from the two examples cited above, we can see that past mistakes are more valuable lessons than past successes. Past successes are goals we want to replicate, but our past failures or mistakes guide us to our goals and prevent us from sidetracking.

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