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#150: Watching television is bad for children. Use


Erin

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  • 4 weeks later...

Televison is one of the break through inventions of the 20th century. The benefits it has brought us is very great that is clearly shown by the continuous development of this type of broadcast media. Everybody can benefit from it and of course children are not an exception. Therefore I strongly oppose the idea that watching television is bad for children. On the contrast, it provides children joyable time, information and knowledge.

 

Watching television brings children fun. Let's look at the reaction of a crying baby when you turn on the television. This baby will stop crying and watch the television. Although he is too little to understand what is going on the screen, the colorful animated images on it draw his attention. And then he will laugh and forget the things making him cry a few minutes ago. Definitely, the television has just brought fun to the baby. To the older children, television is also a good entertainment means. Education nowadays is getting very dificult and competitive. Older children (12-18 years old) should have a means to help them escape from stress status made by school. That is not another than television. After hard study time at school, children can watch programmes especially for childen on television. These children programmes( music concerts, cartoons, comedies, etc) help these children release tiredness, worries, help them clear, refresh their mind. I have read somewhere they said that after watching comedies, children will study better.

 

Not only joyable time, television also brings children knowledge and information. Nowadays, there are many programmes for dessiminating knowledge and information to children on television. These programmes are often in the form of stories, plays,or songs. These lessons on the television are much more interesting than hard, dry lessons taught in class. Watching television, children can entertain while they still get useful knowledge and information.

 

In conclusion, watching television is very good for children. No doubt, televison is really one of the greatest inventions of humankind in the 20th century. I will frequently support and encourage parents to let their children watch television.

 

 

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Originally posted by harbinger

 

Televison is one of the break through inventions of the 20th century. The benefits it has brought us is very great that is clearly shown by the continuous development of this type of broadcast media. Everybody can benefit from it and of course children are not an exception. Therefore I strongly oppose the idea that watching television is bad for children. On the contrast, it provides children joyable time, information and knowledge.

 

Watching television brings children fun. Let's look at the reaction of a crying baby when you turn on the television. This baby will stop crying and watch the television. Although he is too little to understand what is going on the screen, the colorful animated images on it draw his attention. And then he will laugh and forget the things making him cry a few minutes ago. Definitely, the television has just brought fun to the baby. To the older children, television is also a good entertainment means. Education nowadays is getting very dificult and competitive. Older children (12-18 years old) should have a means to help them escape from stress status made by school. That is not another than television. After hard study time at school, children can watch programmes especially for childen on television. These children programmes( music concerts, cartoons, comedies, etc) help these children release tiredness, worries, help them clear, refresh their mind. I have read somewhere they said that after watching comedies, children will study better.

 

Not only joyable time, television also brings children knowledge and information. Nowadays, there are many programmes for dessiminating knowledge and information to children on television. These programmes are often in the form of stories, plays,or songs. These lessons on the television are much more interesting than hard, dry lessons taught in class. Watching television, children can entertain while they still get useful knowledge and information.

 

In conclusion, watching television is very good for children. No doubt, televison is really one of the greatest inventions of humankind in the 20th century. I will frequently support and encourage parents to let their children watch television.

 

 

 

Is it my usual grammar-master Harbinger??? I don't want to point out the grammar mistakes for it will be much better for you to correct them yourself ;).

 

The two reasons are fine but normal. Actually I expected more, like discussing about the opposite opinions.

 

Overall I think you essay looks good with the clear organization. However, you should idealize it by rearranging the length of the 2nd and 3rd para. I would give you a 5.0- for this first one.

 

PS: Please don't be suprised at my suddenly strict comments :D. I just don't want to praise my good studying buddy :). And please add the time you finish each essay so that everyone can notice your surely developing progress.

 

 

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Originally posted by vertical_horizon

Is it my usual grammar-master Harbinger??? I don't want to point out the grammar mistakes for it will be much better for you to correct them yourself ;).

 

HI vertical_horizon, yes it is me, harbinger. Very nice to meet you here? :)how are you? and how about your application process? I guess you took toefl to apply to some universities in the US? is it right? have you gotten any admissions?

 

Oh Vertical_horizon, I am definitely not a master on Grammar . Please point out any grammatical mistakes in my essays to me. :) Thanks

 

The two reasons are fine but normal. Actually I expected more, like discussing about the opposite opinions.

 

Overall I think you essay looks good with the clear organization. However, you should idealize it by rearranging the length of the 2nd and 3rd para. I would give you a 5.0- for this first one.

 

PS: Please don't be suprised at my suddenly strict comments :D. I just don't want to praise my good studying buddy :). And please add the time you finish each essay so that everyone can notice your surely developing progress.

 

 

 

Yes, I agree with you. the 3rd para is short compared to the second one. The reason is that 30 minutes was not enough for me to write the essay. Next time I would try to speed up my writing . Hope that it will be better.

 

Thank you very much Vertical_horizon. See you in my next essay.:)

 

Harbinger

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  • 2 months later...

Hi, everyone.

I want my essay evaluated by more companies.

So far, some of my essay have remained unevaluated on this site.

Hopefully, will anyone give some comments on them, too.:o

 

 

#150: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Watching television is bad for children. Use specific details and examples to support your answer.

 

This phrase has been frequently heard of for many years with the plevalence of TV. For myself, I have growned told not to watch too much television. In my view, TV can be beneficial or detrimental to children according to the programs and the way children are watching on TV.

 

There are diverse programs and channels on TV such as educational, news, entertainment, and cartoon. The first two bring more easily-formed and instantenous information to us than books, newspapers. These facts have allowed children, even little infants, ready to acquire knowledge, and today most children become more informed of everything in the world, which I am convinced is among the benefits television have to offer. Yet, the average child loves watching senseless cartoon or entertainemt, some of which can induce the bad behavior of children, better than educatonal and informative ones. Thus I suggest that parents should have their children watch such programs on careful selection or restriction.

 

As I mentioned above, watching TV can do good to children when the programs are well singled out. Moreover, I must note that special care also should be taken of how children are watching TV. I have often seen children watching TV too close or long, which not just ruins the eyes but tends to make them indifferent toward anything else. Addionally, in part because of the continual commercials of soft drinks, candy bars, and fast-food between the program, almost no children ask for healthy-food while sitting in fron of television. It probably be a main cause of the fact that in rich countries more children are suffering from obesity than ever. Therefore I find it desirable that parents should firmly take charge also in these respects.

 

Summing up, watching TV itself is not especially bad for children. The point is what or how children are watching on television, most of which I think depends on whether their parents have good control on their children. Thus I may say I disagree to the statement with reservation.

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  • 8 months later...

Ooooooookay, the second essay I post here. I'd be very grateful for any comments, and I'll just keep posting the things I write while the test draws near...

 

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Watching television is bad for children. Use specific details and examples to support your answer.

 

The question whether watching television is bad for children or not comes up frequently, for example in connection with acts of violence at schools, and with health problems.

 

There are two major points to consider: The mental and the physical health of children. For both, you have to take account of the importance television plays in a child’s life.

 

As with most things, watching television can be bad if you overdo it. When a child sits in front of the television all day and does not leave the house to play outside or meet friends, there is a high chance of a lack in social contacts and physical activity. I do think that, in addition to the nutrition habits, a major reason for coordination deficites and overweight in children is the fact that many children prefer television or computers to playing outside, especially in urban areas where there are only few playgrounds and parks.

 

It is also undeniable that there is lots of physical violence and bad language in the media. Children are confronted with it in hundreds of shows, from cartoons to talk shows and the news. The border between what can be talked about or shown to the public has shifted a lot in the last decades, so that many things that would not have been seen before midnight ten years ago are now in the afternoon programmes. Whereas they would not harm a grown-up person, they may give children wrong ideas about what is „right“ or „normal“, and about what you can do without hurting someone badly. For example, if a cartoon character or a superhero is being shot at, of course he will survive even with a few holes in his chest. A playmate or younger sibling may not, if he gets hurt while playing with dangerous things like knives, or even guns, as it happens quite often in countries where gun control laws are lax.

 

I do not think that the points I have listed present a real danger to children, if their families or babysitters take the time to explain to them what happens on television, and avoid showing them shows that display violence or highly offensive language. If there is the choice between letting a child watch television unattended or not at all, I would decide against the television. But there is a responsible way of dealing with the media. Parents can make sure what programmes the child watches, and if they are not sure about a new show, they can sit down together with the child and simply switch the television off if they have to. This way, they see if something has been upsetting, and can help their child deal with it. Additionally, they should make sure that if the child wants to watch television, he or she has enough time to do homework and see friends, too.

 

The last thing I want to mention is the fact that there are many television programmes that can actually help a child understand the world and awaken the interest in things like science, music or art and sports at an early age. There is one show in Germany that regularly explains things like how stripes get into toothpaste, or how footballs are made, and that has already fascinated me more than fifteen years ago. And then there are the childrens‘ films and cartoons I would not want to miss, like Mary Poppins or The Last Unicorn. Films like these are very entertaining for children, and also teach them in a playful way about what it is like to be a child, to grow up and to take some responsibilities.

 

So all in all, I think that the amount of entertainment and information a child can gain from watching television does by far surmount the negative aspects. However, noone should just „dump“ their children in front of the television without supervising them just to have more time to himself. But in this case, I think it is more the lack of attention than the television that harms the children.

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Hello, Tiggerwoman. I would like to comment on your essay. Honestly, I think you did a great job! I just wanna point out a couple of mistakes. Here we go.

 

The question whether watching television is bad for children or not comes up frequently, for example in connection with acts of violence at schools, and with health problems.

 

There are two major points to consider: The mental and the physical health of children. For both, you have to take account of the importance (to take in account the importance) television plays in a child’s life.

 

I omit the next paragraph, since I havn't found any mistake in it.

 

It is also undeniable that there is lots of physical violence and bad language in the media. Children are confronted with it in hundreds of shows, from cartoons to talk shows and the news. The border between what can be talked about or shown to the public has shifted a lot in the last decades, so that many things that would not have been seen before midnight ten years ago are now in the afternoon programmes. (This sentence looks incomplete to me. The border between what and what? I think you wanted to say: The border of what can be...... has shifted. Am I right?). Whereas they would not harm a grown-up person, they may give children wrong ideas about what is „right“ or „normal“, and about what you can do without hurting someone badly.

 

The next two paragraphs are OK from the grammatical point of view.

 

So all in all, I think that the amount of entertainment and information a child can gain from watching television does by far surmount the negative aspects. However, noone (none) should just „dump“ their children in front of the television without supervising them just to have more time to himself. But in this case, I think it is more the lack of attention than the television that harms the children.

 

I also think that you should join the first two paragraphs into one, then you'll have a complete introduction.

You are slipping of the topic in the fifth para ;)! We see an explanation of how the parents should supervise their kids watching TV. That's not what the essay about! In the first support par I would write about violence, explicit language, drugs and so on on TV, and then just add one sentence on the subject of supervising.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. You MUST state your point of view in the introduction! In your case it would be: supervised TV is good and vice versa.

Overall, it's a very good essay, great job (now, I'm repeating myself, it means, time to say bye-bye). See you on TestMagic.

 

 

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And thanks again, Tanya! :)

 

You're right that my "take account of..." was wrong... I missed that when I read over the essay after writing it! But the correct version would be "take into account", not "in account". Why the h*** didn't I write this in the first place...? :o

 

The "noone" was meant to be no-one (as in nobody), not none, even though that would fit, too...

 

Well, what can I say! Thanks a lot, you've been the only one so far to help me with this stuff, so I'm going to take revenge on your essays now :D:p:D

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