Critical Reflection (final)

Throughout the whole course of this module, many aspects of academic writing have been covered. In particular, the topics on grammar, summary and the paraphrasing techniques are especially helpful in my development of the language used in academic writing, specifically in report writing. Apart from these, I have come to realize the importance of a critical reflection as it is a good measure of my personal improvement and development in many aspects of my life.

Before this module, the biggest problem I encountered was not being able to extract the main idea from complex articles, especially scientific journals. This course has taught me a few summarizing strategies such as to distinguish the main idea from supporting ideas by looking out for topic sentences in most of the cases. In this way, I can better comprehend the idea of the articles to aid in my future research studies. Other than summarizing articles, the technique of paraphrasing authors’ ideas to incorporate their findings in my own research work is very important as well. This is because plagiarism is taken very seriously when writing reports to be approved for publishing. I used to be very rigid in paraphrasing by replacing the text word for word, which might end up tweaking the meaning of the original idea. In this course, I have learnt other more useful techniques such as changing the sentence structure or the order of the ideas. Along with these, it is also very important to take note of grammatical errors so as to make my writing more coherent. Pertaining to that, the problem of redundancy used to occur frequently in my writing. I have learnt to pay more attention to this error in order to make my ideas more concise.

By critically reflecting on my own development, including the aspect of academic writing, I will be able to track my progress and continue to practise these techniques, which I believe will be very useful in my future research work. 

Final problem-solution essay: Globalization and International Migration (edited)

There is an emerging sense of “the world becoming a single place” according to Lechner (2001) and this is due to the phenomenon of globalization, which is a process through which the world becomes increasingly interconnected whether economically, politically, geographically or culturally. It involves the flow of ideas, information, goods and services transnationally, and this is usually powered by the movement of people. Such a movement results in several repercussions and one of them is international migration. In particular, it causes a brain drain on the country from which people are leaving, and it is defined as the movement of people who are proficient in their areas of expertise with the aim to pursue more favourable job opportunities (Chimboza, 2012). This poses the problem of the loss of human capital, skills and knowledge, and this will most likely hamper economic growth and development of nations. Possible solutions to this problem include deferring or limiting emigration (Cohen, 1997). Alternatively, the roll-out of government policies to provide better incentives to hold back its citizens may be feasible as well.

Ever since the onset of globalization, the speed at which people transverse the world has become alarmingly fast in the recent years. This is supported by the rising trend of the inflows of foreign population into developed countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia since 2001 (OEDC, 2013). The pursuit of higher wages, better facilities or more attractive incentives is drawing highly educated and proficiently skilled workers towards the host countries, thereby leaving their own country stagnant in its development. In order to impede the outflows of people, restrictive migration policies seem to be a possible solution to this problem. Governments in some countries place tighter controls on the outflows of its citizens through laws or even bonds such as scholarships or tuition grants offered by governments. For example in Singapore, medical students are required to undertake a service commitment for five years with the Ministry of Health upon graduation for its citizens. The method of deferring or the extreme measure of limiting emigration is however, limited in its effectiveness. The irony of restricting its citizens when there is even greater freedom of the movement of people and the plentiful choices of employment available in this globalized world will make one doubtful of the feasibility of this solution. Instead, what is more beneficial to every home country is the sharing of knowledge amongst members of this global village, thereby leading to a brain gain. For example, professional networks can be set up by organizations or universities to connect the global world in a single network such as the “Supercourse: Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health” which links scientists all over the world to share their knowledge (Dodani & LaPorte, 2005).  Rather than to enclose knowledge and skills within a country, it is wiser to share them amongst many others. In this way, not only will everyone progress, but there may also be better achievements and newer discoveries when one collaborates.

All along, many countries have embraced globalization due to its extensive advantages. While it has benefitted the majority economically, some others are being left behind in this inevitable race. One of the reasons accountable for this is a brain drain where a shortage of skilled workers stifles the economic growth, since it is widely understood that a country’s economy is being propelled by its people. An alternative solution to this problem, other than the aforementioned, is the provision of better incentives by the government. However, what seems to be a solution to the root cause of the problem is also futile. This is due to the increment of wages and the potential lowering of standards in the hope of retaining the citizens, which may create yet another set of labour problems. Furthermore, the wage differences will probably not be significant enough to reverse the situation. Hence, rather than to spend the government funds on increasing wages or providing better incentives, it would be more justly spent on providing higher standards of education for its people, which would in turn raise the overall standards of the majority of the citizens. In this way, the rate at which migration flows out of the country will slacken given that the proportion of highly educated and skilled citizens increases. The result may be the eventual slowing down of the situation.

All in all, although globalization causes several repercussions, it will be unwise to retard this process given the advantages that it brings. A brain drain as a result of international migration can eventually be converted to a brain gain if international corporations or organizations work together to create the conducive global environment for the sharing of knowledge for the betterment of all global citizens. In order to tackle the problem at its root, the provision of high standards of education would be a long-term solution. This is to create a larger pool of highly skilled citizens, so as to minimize the impact of the brain drain. In this way, more people of this globalized world will be able to benefit hugely from this phenomenon.

References

Chimboza A., 2012. From Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Addressing Human Capital Needs for Post Crisis Zimbabwe’s Capacity Building. Master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States. Retreived from ScholarlyCommons database, http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=od_theses_mp.  

Cohen R., 1997. Brain Drain Migration. South African Commission on International Migration. Retreived from http://www.queensu.ca/samp/transform/Cohen1.htm.

Dodani S. & LaPorte R. E., 2005. Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted into wisdom gain? J R Soc Med. 2005 November; 98(11): 487–491.

Lechner F., 2001. World Culture Theory. The Globalization Website. Retrieved from http://sociology.emory.edu/faculty/globalization/theories03.html

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2013. Statistics for Migration. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/statistics/. 

Critical Reflection

Throughout the whole course of this module, many aspects of academic writing have been covered. In particular, the topics on grammar, summary and the paraphrasing techniques are especially helpful in my development of English language used in academic writing, specifically in report writing. Apart from these, doing timely critical reflection is a good measure of my personal improvement and development in many aspects of my life.

Before this module, the biggest problem I encounter was not being able to extract the main idea from complex articles, especially scientific journals. This course has taught me a few summarizing strategies such as to distinguish the main idea from supporting ideas by looking out for topic sentences in most of the cases. In this way, I can better comprehend the idea of the articles to aid in my future research studies. Other than summarizing articles, the technique of paraphrasing authors’ ideas to incorporate their findings in my own research work is very important as well. This is because plagiarism is taken very seriously when writing reports to be approved for publishing. I used to be very rigid in paraphrasing by replacing the text word for word, which might end up tweaking the meaning of the original idea. In this course, I have learnt other more useful techniques such as changing the sentence structure or the order of the ideas. Along with these, it is also very important to take note of grammatical errors so as to make my writing more coherent. Pertaining to that, the problem of redundancy used to occur frequently in my writing. I have learnt to pay more attention to this error in order to make my ideas more concise.

By critically reflecting on my own development, including the aspect of academic writing, I will be able to keep my progress in check and continue to practise these techniques, which I believe would be very useful in my future research works. 

Final problem-solution essay: Globalization and International Migration

There is an emerging sense of “the world becoming a single place” according to Lechner (2001) and this is due to the phenomenon of globalization, which is a process through which the world becomes increasingly interconnected whether economically, politically, geographically or culturally. It involves the flow of ideas, information, goods and services transnationally, and this is usually powered by the movement of people. Such a movement results in several repercussions and one of them is international migration. In particular, it causes brain drain on the country from which people are leaving, and it is defined as the movement of people who are proficient in their areas of expertise with the aim to pursue more favourable job opportunities (Chimboza, 2012). This poses the problem of the loss of human capital, skills and knowledge, and this will most likely hamper economic growth and development of nations. Possible solutions to this problem include deferring or limiting emigration (Cohen, 1997). Alternatively, the roll-out of government policies to provide better incentives to hold back its citizens may be feasible as well.

Ever since the onset of globalization, the speed at which people transverse the world has become alarmingly fast in the recent years. This is supported by the rising trend of the inflows of foreign population into developed countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia since 2001 (OEDC, 2013). The pursuit of higher wages, better facilities or more attractive incentives is drawing highly educated and proficiently skilled workers towards the host countries, thereby leaving their own country stagnant in its development. In order to impede the outflows of people, restrictive migration policies seem to be a possible solution to this problem. Governments in some countries place tighter controls on the outflows of its citizens through laws or even bonds such as scholarships or tuition grants offered by governments. For example in Singapore, medical students are required to undertake a service commitment for five years with the Ministry of Health upon graduation for its citizens. The method of deferring or the extreme measure of limiting emigration is however, limited in its effectiveness. The irony of restricting its citizens when there is even greater freedom of the movement of people and the plentiful choices of employment available in this globalized world will make one doubtful of the feasibility of this solution. Instead, what is more beneficial to every home country is the sharing of knowledge amongst members of this global village, thereby leading to a brain gain. For example, professional networks can be set up by organizations or universities to connect the global world in a single network such as the “Supercourse: Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health” which links scientists all over the world to share their knowledge (Dodani & LaPorte, 2005).  Rather than to enclose knowledge and skills within a country, it is wiser to share them amongst many others. In this way, not only will everyone progress, but there may also be better achievements and newer discoveries when one collaborates.

All along, many countries have embraced globalization due to its extensive advantages. While it has benefitted the majority economically, some others are being left behind in this inevitable race. One of the reasons accountable for this is a brain drain where a shortage of skilled workers stifles the economic growth, since it is widely understood that a country’s economy is being propelled by its people. An alternative solution to this problem, other than the aforementioned, is the provision of better incentives by the government. However, what seems to be a solution to the root cause of the problem is also futile. This is due to the increment of wages and the potential lowering of standards in the hope of retaining the citizens, which may create yet another set of labour problems. Furthermore, the wage differences will probably not be significant enough to reverse the situation. Hence, rather than to spend the government funds on increasing wages or providing better incentives, it would be more justly spent on providing higher standards of education for its people, which would in turn raise the overall standards of the majority of the citizens. In this way, the rate at which migration flows out of the country will slacken given that the proportion of highly educated and skilled citizens increases. The result may be the eventual slowing down of the situation.

All in all, although globalization causes several repercussions, it will be unwise to retard this process given the advantages that it brings. Brain drain as a result of international migration can eventually be converted to brain gain if international corporations or organizations work together to create the conducive global environment for the sharing of knowledge for the betterment of all global citizens. In order to tackle the problem at its root, the provision of high standards of education would be a long-term solution. This is to create a larger pool of highly skilled citizens, so as to minimize the impact of brain drain. In this way, more people of this globalized world will be able to benefit hugely from this phenomenon.

References

Chimboza A., 2012. From Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Addressing Human Capital Needs for Post Crisis Zimbabwe’s Capacity Building. Master’s thesis, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States. Retreived from ScholarlyCommons database, http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=od_theses_mp.  

Cohen R., 1997. Brain Drain Migration. South African Commission on International Migration. Retreived from http://www.queensu.ca/samp/transform/Cohen1.htm.

Dodani S. & LaPorte R. E., 2005. Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted into wisdom gain? J R Soc Med. 2005 November; 98(11): 487–491.

Lechner F., 2001. World Culture Theory. The Globalization Website. Retrieved from http://sociology.emory.edu/faculty/globalization/theories03.html

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2013. Statistics for Migration. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/statistics/.