This is going to be an essay plan built for an essay titled: How True Is It That Sport Divides More Than It Unites? Like all essay plans, this is merely a basic framework for the essay. That means detail and examples will be sparse, to ensure that content points stand out clearly.

• Stand: True to some extent.
  Elaboration: Sports events often become a show of power or superiority for certain countries, as well as the arena for them to compete for glory.
  Examples: Consider the all-dominating nations, United States and China. Both regularly top the charts in major sporting events, such as the Olympics.

Content Points:

1. Competition to host world-class sporting events tends to foster animosity between competing countries
   Elaboration: After all, these events are a source of both prestige and money for the winning (host) country. It is not surprising that the governments of losing nations would harbor some sort of animosity towards the winning nation.
   Examples: Although China was once vying to host the olympics, the Olympics Committee gave it to Sydney.
2. International sporting events bring out and exacerbate political differences between competing countries
   Elaboration: Assasinations of athletes and violent retaliations are not uncommon due to political differences.
   Examples: Take for example the assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Games and the Soviets, in retaliation to the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games, boycotted the 1984 Games during the Cold War period. The Soviet Union with Cuba, East Germany and 14 other countries boycotted the Olympics when the US was hosting it.
3. Differences between countries and athletes arise when biased judging occurs
   Elaboration: Sporting results that are deemed partial or unfair can cause differences between nations to arise.
   Examples: At the Athens Olympics, supporters had to be appeased when Alexi Nemov was given a low score for a spectacular gymnastics routine. A South Korean gymnasts, a clear winner, also lost the gold medal to his US counterpart.

Counter Points:

1. Sport plays a role in uniting individual countries.
   Elaboration: A sporting achievement can rouse a nation’s people together, especially a multi-racial nation.
   Examples: The matches by Singapore’s table tennis player, Li Jia Wei, at the Athens Olympics, brought Singaporeans together as one people and brought out the pride of the people for the country.
2. International live telecasts have helped to connect viewers from all over the world
   Elaboration: Satellites have brought about a global viewership for sporting events. People of all nations and races now watch the same event at the same time - a feat unprecedented before the advent of live telecasts. This is a wonderful expression of unity between people of all nations.
   Examples: Live telecasts of the World Cup and the Olympics have helped to connect viewers from all over the world - characterized by differences, division, competition and hostility.

Given that each content and counter point can be used to fill one paragraph, the total paragraph count for an essay written using this plan should be seven - 1 introduction, 1 conclusion and 5 content and counter paragraphs. This essay plan, therefore, should be most suitable for short essays, like those written for ‘A’-Level General Studies or General Paper examinations.

A strong family is defined as one that is united in the face of adversity and provides for the basic needs of its component members. Examples of these needs include financial support for those who require it, moral support and emotional support. On the other hand, a family is weak when it either serves no purpose that cannot be provided by any other institution or when it fosters negative emotion in the hearts of its members. Recently we have heard of various occurrences of family violence, divorce and other negative incidents concerning the family from mass media sources. Naturally, the majority would have the perception that the family institution is on the decline. However, we believe that this is just an unfair generalization and that the family is just simply changing or evolving not deteriorating.
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In 2001, the world had 6.1 billion inhabitants. Compare this with the approximated 300 million inhabitants in A.D. 1, and the population growth rate is self-evident: 2000% in merely two millennia. Throughout the past 50 years, world population has grown faster than it has ever done before. Perhaps for this reason, we have seen advocates of population control among even the more conservative world leaders. Clearly, their arguments would hold water. The increasing world population has brought with it environmental degradation while the decreasing stockpile of Earth’s limited resources is worrying. Both coupled together imply a decreasing standard of living, especially in areas where the population growth rate is a high positive. By contrast, arguments from the opposition appear less tangible. It is argued that population control is not needed at all; that the world’s escalating population size is sustainable through more efficient utilisation of Mother Earth’s scarce resources. There is then also the view that the sanctity of life is untouchable while the more economic-minded maintain that the funding for population control could be better utilised.
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