Clothing, Culture & Character - Part 1

Now this question has actually been taken from the general training module rather than the academic module probably most of the questions in the schools for the academic Mungiu but there are some general training questions in here as well and what you should notice is that they’re very similar. Really that’s why the task to course is applicable to both the academic Mungiu and the general training module. The topics in general training look at slightly more everyday issues less academic less intellectual perhaps but the very similar particularly in the way the questions are structured. They all still mostly meet those four question types. So this one here a general training question and let’s identify the question type. We’ve got some people say that it is possible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes. Do you agree or disagree. What kind of question is this. Of course it’s an opinion question. It’s not to what extent do you agree or disagree. Notice that kind of important we’ve got. Do you agree or disagree. So identify the question side which is an opinion essay. Step two in our preparation procedure is to identify and highlight those key words key expressions. So what are we thinking. Take a moment maybe pause the video just to consider when you think are the key words in OK now. I believe that there are a few key words here. Some of them more important than others. It is possible. I think that’s quite important. To tell a lot this part here clearly this part here a lot. I think that’s very important for reasons that I will discuss in on. And then we’ve got a person’s culture and character person’s culture and character from. And of course is the really the main theme of the essay that choice of clothes. So a short title for a task but quite a lot included in. And then do you agree or disagree. So we have our question type and we’ve identified our key words we need to write a plan now. First of all we want to maybe think about how we feel. What is our opinion on this question. Well we return to our key words. I think that’s always a good place to start. It is possible to tell a lot about culture and character from clothing. Now my instinct here says that I disagree. But I think it’s possible to tell a lot particularly if I focus on that word a lot. You can’t tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes. But if we just take a moment to think about all of the key words here then we may have a different feeling. A lot of people who would not highlight it is possible as a key word. They may not even think about it that much but he is why it is important. OK. I disagree that you can tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes. Let’s flip that around and reword it. Basically what I’m saying then is it is him possible impossible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes. In other words and no time and in no case at no point in recorded history even Has anybody been able to work out a lot of information about someone’s culture and character from their choice of clothes. And when you put it like that it actually sounds quite far fetched. It sounds rather ridiculous of course it actually is possible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from the choice of close. Now that is Bearman that’s an opinion but it’s an opinion that is much easier to justify. It’s harder to justify an impossibility than it is to justify a possibility. So when you see a task that has a word like expression like it is possible pause don’t gleam over it don’t rush over it. That’s very important because I still on the whole will disagree. I disagree. You can frequently tell a lot about a person’s culture but I have to be forced to say that I agree that it is possible. So my essay is actually going to be constructed from two parts. You can often do that with a Do you agree or disagree because I so strongly feel that most of the time you can’t. That’s what I’m going to put forward but I’m also going to say that it is possible because that’s in the task language. I’m spending a lot of time on this and I hope I’m not boring you with it but it’s a very important thing to take into consideration. It is possible it is impossible. Watch out for words like those. OK. So what bearing does that have on how I’m going to construct my essay. Well let’s think about how we would split up our two body paragraphs. Again we want a central theme for each one and you can probably guess what the central theme for each one is going to be. I’m going to have a paragraph where I explain why it is possible. And then I’m going to have a paragraph where I explain that it’s not frequently possible and it actually might be some problems with thinking so. So first paragraph is going to explain why it is possible. Now this is actually a little bit different to the way I usually do it. I usually say that we should end with the side that we agree with most strongly. There is a weird thing going on here though in that yes I actually have to I’m almost forced to agree with this question. This does this view sorry but I have strong feelings of disagreement as well and those stronger feelings are going to come in the second paragraph. That’s what I use you say strong feelings and the second one. So it’s a little bit different. So this first paragraph is going to explain how it is possible. A key word there possible. And the second paragraph is going to explain how there are usually limits so limited it’s not impossible. There are usually limits and that’s where we’re focusing on the key word ALAT lot. OK. So it’s possible to tell a lot but usually you can’t. There are usually limits having titled body paragraphs giving me a clear theme with which to work let’s jump in to how we’re going to present that immediately in the form of a topic sentence so that the reader knows what the paragraph was about. Basically we just want to say that. Why is it possible to tell a lot. And for me I think that’s because usually or not even usually but some of the time. Meaning it’s possible culture and character and all that sort of stuff. Your choice of clothes reflects that. Some of the time so the dress sense. It can be a nice collocation to you but in terms of clothing dress sense is reflective of your culture and character. Some of the time reflective quite a nice adjective to use in this case. Why. Well this is kind of simple particularly when we think about culture certain cultures. Everybody dresses in a similar way. There’s often a particular code for how to dress appropriately. I was just going to write that in. It’s probably a better way we can put that. Don’t over think it in the plan. Dump all we don’t even have to think about religious coaches we can think about things like business cultures. As soon as I say that I bet you have an image in your mind of a man wearing a suit because that’s what we think about when we think about business. So men wearing suits perhaps something like that. We know that they are steeped in business culture. Now these are an example of so few symbols. I think we can probably fit that word into the next sentence. And I’m going to treat it in a way like a result sentence like that logical conclusion. So it’s due to these social symbols or as a result of these social symbols if you like. It is possible possible not for certain but possible to quickly ascertain that people who are of one way rather than another. So due to social symbols we can ascertain something ascertain figure out no work how to deduce. OK so let’s say that that is going to be four sentences that the way that I write sentences tends to be a bit longer because I have the ability to write complex sentences. I know in my course that I often recommend writing five. But if your writing is a bit stronger and you feel comfortable tying ideas together in complex sentences you actually might be better off with full sentences rather than five. Anyway let’s move to the next one. But paragraph two we are focusing on the limits that there are or the limits that they often are for how much we can discover. And we want to write that straight away. There are often going to write that usually I wouldn’t write a word like often in the plan but I think it’s crucial to part of our view here. Like yes it’s possible but often it’s not possible. So there are often limits in these regards. In the first paragraph we look to culture. We didn’t really look at character. I think that’s what’s quite useful here. Now bringing character just make sure we’re addressing all parts of the task. We could talk about character in paragraph 1 Absolutely we could have but it could have turned into quite a bloated paragraph and we’d have to prioritize with timing going back and saving time for checking for errors. So there are often limits. That’s what I’m going to write here. I just want to make that super clear. That’s my view. Yes it’s possible. But there are often limits and then we’ll bring in the idea of character especially with character perhaps. OK. Now why is that the case. Well it’s a particular idiom that we could use here that would be very useful very much but very appropriate. I wonder if you can work out what it is when we’re told not to make quick judgments about people based on the way that they look. There’s an idiom there something related to books. You know what it is we say that you should never judge a book by its cover. Very useful idiom in this case here. So it’s going to basically put that in these don’t even need to finish it. I know what I’m going to write. Never judge a book by its cover. Give an example of why that might be. Again if we think back to closing main theme of the essay somebody who dresses all in black you can immediately picture it in your mind. A woman wearing all black. What would you on first impressions imagine her character to be like. Well when we think of the color black we usually think about sadness depression death mourning grief all of these things. So we’re probably going to naturally assume now about her character. So black press momos personality so morose is an adjective that kind of just means. Billy can you have a sad outlook on life. Something to make you feel sad when you’re around. Really. So because we usually associate those feelings with that color. However however let’s continue this very same example to make the point that we can be wrong. So we’re just going to say he is going to continue in the example you can almost look at this like an alternative end result. It’s not really like that. This is more like showing the dangers of this kind of approach. So let’s think about that. This woman who was black. We think of her as depressed morose sad grieving perhaps but actually maybe she just likes wearing the color like maybe she thinks she looks good in black and in fact has a happy or cheerful nature. So it’s good in black. Really happy cheerful and I think that will turn into a nice body paragraph conclusion introduction we’re going to go out on a rainy day any plans for that. Can we can rely on our abilities in those areas thanks to previous courses like the Stukas. So let’s jump straight into that introduction. Now let’s say the introduction of what could we say. I actually I think that I’m going to need more time in the body here so I’m not going to overthink this introduction. Some people say that immediately you can paraphrase as there is a view that there is a view that if you want a quick way in and you’ve got a task that begins. Some people say things. You argue extra. There is a view that is a nice way to just jump straight and narrow. I mean to paraphrase the task language but I’m not going to do that necessarily with synonyms. I am going to use some synonyms but I want to focus more on the structure of the task language and see if I can change that. It is possible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character. What if I start with a person’s culture and character Cope’s it’s quite hard to paraphrase characters not too difficult to paraphrase personality. How could we carry on from here. So we switch the order around maybe you can just think about that for a moment. How could you continue this sentence having restructured it in this way. I mean this is something like this we can’t tell a lot. Copley told a lot of work that passive construction. There’s a good word established established simply by sitting here sort of seeing the clothes that are used to seeing little bit simple so that kind of means to see and then to sort of take in the information. Maybe recognizing a choice of clothes again thinking about the structure change those words around. If I started close and then we move choice which is now into a verb What do we have for the verb to use. There is a view that a person’s culture and personality can be established simply by recognizing the clothes they choose to wear. How do we feel about this. Well that’s a bit tricky because we’ve seen not a simple view. We want to introduce it. Regardless in my opinion make very close as you’ll. In my opinion now you can see in our paragraphs two paragraphs they really contrast against one another. So we know we are dealing with contrast. We can use a complex sentence the other. And this is key are putting out there that in a way we agree the choice of clothing can tell us what’s a synonym for a lot much we can so much as it can tell us much about the culture character. What are these. We can go and traits situation. Does it come naturally it does. We are. Connor Well there are two ways of closing can tell us much about these traits. We want to put forward their beliefs while it’s possible it’s not very regular What’s an adjective for something that’s very very irregular very infrequent beginning with our small word wrap. So simply this is very rare. You could end the introduction here but I’m just going to give a little bit more not too much but just to hint that my later argument and to bring in a clear position by using some qualifying language up to a point. So they only tell us so much. Usually in fact I’m going to bring in another frequency of up here. This is very rare as appearances are usually only informative up to a point. We’re taking a lot of care to clearly clarify our opinion but also to leave ourselves with the emergency exit saying yes. But I said usually yes. But I said rare. Yes. But I said up to a point. OK so you’re avoiding the generalization you’re making that point very clear at the same time very difficult to do both of those things. OK let’s move into the first paragraph.