Debate CASE - THW offer immunity to dictators in return of leaving power

This is a case file that Minwoo and I made when preparing the EDS(English Debate Society) Interview. the motion is as below. We put soooo much effort into it, so it would be nice if you take a look at it and try to imagine what happened in the debate. Fortunately, both of us were admitted; what big relief:-) -I invested nearly two weeks into this:_-

<<THW offer immunity to dictators in return of leaving power>>

1. Setup of entire Case

I. Definition

This House: International society

Dictators: Who have ruled their countries with forcible power, severe violence, and violating human rights. And these countries apply to nations under dictatorship that are undergoing serious crisis such as ‘civil war’ or ‘revolt’, or ‘threat against the world society’. For example, a situation similar to Libya before Quadafi was murdered, or the situation of Iraq, when Hussein declared war and attacked Kuwait, or that of North Korea, where Kim Jung Il is threatening the world with developing nuclear weapons. Why? This is because dictators are likely to commit immense massacre and mass destruction at such situations, and we all want to prevent this.

II. Policy

The PROP will offer immunity to dictators who are facing inner revolt and civil war. This immunity will erase the burden of guilt thus providing amnesty. Then the dictator will be exiled from the country. But what happens if the strongman does not accept the offer? In that case, there will be outer intervention in order to alleviate the situation of civil war and revolt, because there is no other option. So we can see that intervention will only work as a last resort for the dictator.

III. Stance

=Justice

A. Value of life

B. Democracy

C. Bright future of the nation

2. Actual Arguments

2-1. Setup

Theme: Destruction

1) Value of life (The biggest of all),

2) Only feasible solution: Benefits to both nation and world (Domestic Industry, World Economy, sake of outer forces. Examples like North Korea.

Theme: Democracyvg

3) Pursuit of Democratic value (Outer forces intervention: (own interest-manipulate the new gov), a independent setup by the civil forces)(But the reason of our policy=-‘cause life is most impt.

4) Expected Tragedy of Civil war-only realistic solution-include in the rebuttals!

Pursuit of Democracy

<>Democracy in the primary and the only objective of all, every single citizen and the world in today’s debate.

-Proving that democracy of the nation can be achieved only by offering immunity is the biggest burden of proof on the proposition.

1. Independent Setup by Civil, People’s politicians

-provides an adequate environment for the People to organized their own political house

--What do we mean, by “environment”?No immense warfare going on--(Settled down) (Less time&effort to recover) Good environment-high stability among the public, preventing sudden rebellion by different political factions in different regions.

- such stabilized political environment would trigger better democratic transition

--no bloodshed, therefore faster election with time for the political leaders to draft a new constitution

-At least allows a possibility for an “Independent” regime to establish at the first place.

-1) Civil revolt—will be wiped by fighter planes and artillery of the dictator, which civil forces do not have

-2) Outer interventionㅡa puppet regime; no independency at all

2. Prevents Manipulation upon democracy

-Any type of action instead of offering immunity is inevitably to be abused

Representatively, US’s <intervention on Dictator Saddam Hussein’s Iraq>(“Stopping the bad guy Hussein from attacking Kuwait) (Which had been proven that there was room for negotiation-but Bush attacked Iraq and eventually got the thing that they wanted-oil)

Lastly, the <case of Libya> --a. extreme disorder because of uncollected weaponary and remaining soldiers of the unorganized civil rebel army b. repetitive attempt by western countries, trying to plant people of their side into the new regime and taking away important industrial rights(France took the right to develop oil power



-The reason why manipulation occurs, and what happens if it occurs

-1) Outer intervention: Countries are not charity: they cannot participate in wars for nothing but the name of “justice”,which actually is not, of course

:need compensation not to face severe disagreement upon the people-the voters

: And they, struggle to snatch many privileges from the nation as possible, and attempt to make the new established government as their puppet regime—severely deters democracy

2) Civil revolt

-2-1unorganized, no strong leader

-2-2weak army=beg for help to nearby countries—trade off weaponary and training for senator seats in the future government and privileges after the revolt has succeeded(happened in Libya)—severely deters democracy

What is the “Change” that people crave for? It is democracy, of-for-by the people. At the end of the day, I have proven to you that only the proposition can satisfy this ultimate goal.

 

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Intro Updated

Well, greetings to everybody who has visited my blog. I hope you enjoy the contents that I uploaded.

My name is Jong Myong Rhee: just call me Jason, if comfortable.

I'm currently a student of the 18th wave of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, and I'm in class no.5 of the eleven 10th grade classes.

Daily newspapers are the best. I was kinda addicted to them for the last several years. It doesn't really matter whether if it's conservative or progressive. It's a great way of gaining political perspective.

Debate is the thing that I'm most confident at. Kicking others' butts aren't so fun. But I like debate because it allows me to increase my analytic skills and uhh.. a wide perspective of deeming things.

I want to become a business consultant in the future, if possible. Analying the client and offering a capable solution is what a consultant basically does, and I thing that it fits me pretty much.

So...uh..enough of all these lame stuff.

It's gotten quite a bit long, but all I want to say to you guys is "may the force be with you". And with me.

P.S. I want to tell you guys "my goals" for this semester.

1. How

=I want to improve my writing through this class(well duh..:-) ). And as an additional effort, I'm currently reading mobile nyt via my smart phone. "The best way to write is to read"-that's my motto, and I'm pretty sure that this is a true statement. So I want to improve writing not only by actively pariticipating in this class, but also reading a lot: nyt, the economist, and many other classic books.

2. What

=I do not fully know what is problematic in my writing style right now. However, I do want to be more fluent in applying right words at the right place. Having a smooth rhythm in my essay is my ultimate goal.

 

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Personal Narrative 1

Recalling the moment I saw the school debate tournament registration paper, it was a real coincidence. In plain interest as a first-grader, I was flipping pages of the classroom document file, which included papers about upcoming school events. I wanted to give it a try, so I made a team consisting of two of my friends and me. We didn’t expect much, but as we moved to the next match on and on, our team was like a gust of wind. In the final round, I became a member of the school debate team along with two other seniors, with the 3^rd highest speaker point.

All that happened in June, and the city debate tournament was scheduled in the end of July. Since both seniors were preparing for high school admission, less than a month was left for us. We didn’t have much time. So we agreed to prepare at the school library from 9AM to 12AM, and 6PM to 8PM except Sundays. I had to ask my mom to pack lunch and dinner every day, which I feel sorry to her even now. Thankfully, several graduates who were studying at Daewon and other foreign language high schools volunteered to help us out. That was the single good condition we encountered.

The summer of 2010 was unusually hot and humid. In the library where the air conditioner did not work, I borrowed every possible book related to the motion. I read papers about why Fukushima’s nuclear power plant blew up. Sometimes, I went too extreme. For instance, I even studied Hegel’s <Theory of dialectics>, which I still cannot understand. However, I felt that I was gaining some new knowledge and logic as I read books of various fields.

Often, we debated against “team graduate”. While my teammates were busy and went home early to prepare high school admission, I comparably had a lot of time. Thus I grabbed the graduates who were about to go home. The skills of debate, how to organize my logic, and the way to reform my speech style was just a tiny part I learned at the dark school hallway . I actually learned much more from the graduates’ attitude when teaching me. I realized that doing my best in every present moment is what counts. And those brothers and sisters were exemplary in showing this lesson. Having to prepare college admission, they weren’t obliged to come to this damp library and help a 12-year-old kid who had nothing but an eagerness to challenge. Instead, they could write college essays in Starbucks Wifi zone, drinking some coffee. But they did not. Assumedly, the atmosphere they created must have had a big impact on this 12-year-old kid. After the first day, I started to come an hour earlier and went home an hour later to spend time with them and prepare the tournament.

Even now, I cannot forget the days back then. I did receive a gold medal, but that prize is not what matters to me now, undoubtedly. As Saint Exupery states in <The little Prince>, “the most important thing is not to be seen.” The passion that the graduate brothers and sisters showed me was very remarkable. The roaring fire of ardor that I experienced in the summer of 2010 will be remembered forever. After that city debate contest, I challenged myself in a number of other fields, such as KMLA admission. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes I wasn’t. However, I always give it a try, no matter what. I do my best in every single precious moment. Perhaps that hot, humid summer of 2010 changed my whole life after all.

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Is "The Tell Tale Heart" a piece of Gothic Literature?

Gothic was what supporters of romanticism craved for starting from the 18^th century.

Apart from Classicism, Gothic focused on feelings and true human nature. These were

 described in a highly excited tone to sound as emotional as possible. Edgar Allan Poe

 was one of the pioneers of Gothic in American literature. Inevitably, “The Tell-Tale

Heart”has four major characteristics of Gothic literature: romantic, mystery, thriller, and

horror.

Fundamentally, Gothic literature consists of romanticism characteristics. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is no exception. Exclamation marks and emotional adjectives are frequently used in this novel, and there are many other illustrations that may provoke great excitement among readers. Personally, the beginning and the ending part especially seemed to be all about this. In the first and the second paragraph, the narrative does not logically explain why he is so nervous. He does not tell readers a single thing about why he killed the poor old man. Instead, he repetitively gives unorganized excuses that overflow with strong feelings. So is the ending scene, when the narrative expresses the heartbeats of the dead old man. The entire story is illustrated without any “formal” structure. The sentences do not have an end; they make no point. But they do covey one thing –the narrative is extremely honest to his own feelings.

Due to its romantic aspects, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is full of mysteries. To emphasize abrupt, emotional expressions, Poe intentionally and continuously omitted the "cause" in the cause-and-effect model. As a result, the outcomes of events create a remarkably big impact, whereas the reason why they happened is unclear. For instance, there are no implications about why the narrative feels hatred to the old man's eye. Why didn't the old man react to the narrative if his eyes were open? Why do the heartbeats suddenly pound upon the narrative? Readers have no idea about these mysterious events. Who is the narrative, to begin with? Even this is not implied at all. This triggers huge interest among readers and allows them to understand the story based on mere intuition and their own "feelings". Combined with the romantic illustrations, this enabled Poe to realize Gothic in this novel.

As already shown in previous works such as "The Black Cat", Edgar Allen Poe did not write stories for innocent children. As an advocator of Gothic arts, Poe was highly interested in the “outburst” of agitated feelings: horror and thrill. His illustration of the narrative entering the old man’s room for seven days and killing him on the eighth day literally gave me “goose bumps”. The immersion and terror of readers reach the climax when it is found that the old man had been awake all along. Similarly, the moment when heartbeats of the dead man pound on the narrative-making him terrified and scream-evokes tremendous thrill and horror. Undoubtedly, the horrifying plot did its job. However, the tone, vocabulary, and proper usage of exclamation marks also arouse a great deal of thrill and horror. This makes “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a fine piece of Gothic literature.

Gothic was highly favored by romanticists because it promoted diversity and freedom. But Edgar Allen Poe was neglected by the mainstream of American literature when he was alive, and we do not even know where he is buried. His life was full of tragedies and mysteries. Maybe he wanted to escape the reality in his little ideal world. Perhaps this is why his literatures are not about pleasant topics, but seem to have a free spirit in themselves.

 

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WSDC VIDEO 2

This is the 2011 WSDC Quarter Finals, New Zealand VS Singapore

Having had an uncomfortable relationship,(I'm not sure if they are still unfriendly)

this debate was also fierce and engaging.

Other than the contents, it was refreshing but difficult for me to understand English humor, unlike American humor or Korean. But the composure that these debaters exhibited was awesome.

Watch!

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Things Fall Apart-Book Report

 

This is a book that I read years before. But I read it again, and wrote an essay about a theme that I pondered on. Yes, this is the essay, and I also applied this to the ManKyung Book Essay contest. Since I have put some effort in this...comments please! :-)

Interestingly, Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” has a theme that makes sense not only in Africa, but Korea as well. Japan colonized Joseon and aimed to move on to the Asian continent, and the fate of Umofia was just as tragic. But this book does not merely portray the beginning and the progress of invasion. Ironically, it also infers a way how to stop things “from falling apart.” Unfortunately, Okonkwo fails to utilize this, and so did many nations. Accordingly, that is why many properous nations like Joseon met a miserable end like Okonkwo, who was once the greatest warrior of a powerful tribe. Thus, the dissolution of the Umofian tribe and the solution that Achebe implied suggests a parallel to the colonization of Joseon and the strategy that Koreans have utilized.

Indisputably, the collision between the African lives and the Western Civilization soon turned into a unilateral relationship. At first, Africans were very reluctant against western culture, but people soon become very amused in these. The convenience was hard to resist. Of course, villagers did not know that Africa’s wealth enriched Europe in proportion to their spending. Neither did Koreans in the colonial era. It drained off the Korean economy, immobilizing the entire nation. For instance, since Joseon’s wealth was entirely lost, Joseon did not have the military power to fight off Japan. It neither had the minimum budget to help the numerous poor sustain their lives. Consequently, Japan takes all the political power and diplomatic rights in order to colonize Joseon. (Protectorate Treaty, 1905) But Koreans could do nothing about it; they were powerless. Likewise, the six representative Umofians are treated under inhumane conditions by intruders. Unfortunately, Umofia can do nothing but to pay a ransom and ask them to release the six. According to these six, “our sons and our men joined the new religion…..they help to uphold the new government.”

What was the problem of Umofia, and various other nations back then? Most importantly, they did not prioritize what they had to. While their belief had a few irrational customs, they still had to protect their own culture and spiritual bond, which is their “religion”. Completely accepting foreign religion that contains cultures of Europeans was a bad idea. But they did the complete opposite. Additionally, a few blacks take part in courts that punish Africans, and Father Brown establishes a school to make children become like them. Perhaps those Umofian students are the Japanese colonists, who surrendered to Americans and then invaded Asian nations. Considering that the Japanese island was a part of Korea before, they actually slaughtered those who had the same blood. As Brown states, “leaders of the future would be educated men.” The big difference between Joseon and Japan was the time when facing western civilizations and became“educated.” Of course, “educated” Japan had become a notorious boss of Asia indeed.

Especially in the chapters which illustrate his exile years, Achebe actually provides a possible method for every colony that could overthrow the colonists and the government. It is nationalism but it is “religion” in Umofia where the only bond that can unite different tribes is not nationalism, but religion. To express this, Uchendu gives some clues when he makes a speech in front of Okonkwo. “But when there is sorrow and bitterness, a man finds refugee in his mother land…..his mother is always there to help you.”(98) The author means “motherland” as a mental bond that every son and mother shares in common. In “Things fall Apart”, there are uncountable “religion-related”scenes that illustrate people feeling catharsis and mental “connection” towards others. For example, all of the villagers go against Okonkwo when he committed a crime that opposes with the tribe’s religion. Although Okonkwo had the physical power to fight against them, he does not resist. This proves that there is some kind of religious empathy within the people that is more powerful than a sword. To a son, his mother’s love is the strongest power which enables him to do anything. While his mother seems weak on the outside, the power of the bond that her sons share together is incomparable to that of a man’s plain physical ability. In Joseon’s case, it was the same except “religion” was replaced by “nationalism”. The common spirit of Koreans was underestimated by the Japanese. They thought that the concept of “nation” did not exist in Joseon’s caste system. Unfortunately it was not enough, but this enabled Joseon to get closer to independence. Also seen from the comparison between Joseon, Achebe insists that an immobilized colony should integrate the people by using the ideology of nationalism that are inherent deep inside of them. Mahatma Ghandi and BaekBum KimKu are the few who have succeeded in doing this. “Motherland” is an instrument that the writer used in order to infer that the theme is racialism since these two are both unbreakable mental bonds. Thus, this is the way that Okonkwo should have taken. But even after exile years, he still doesn’t fully believe in “Motherland.” Later, he hangs himself, which makes Achebe’s assertion seem more significant and persuasive.

“Take a leaf out of a wise man’s book.” Countries that succeeded in this thus having integrated their people with a strong bond must have been able to break out of colonialism. But none were successful, thus almost none ceased the colonial years with their own power. Now, it is the time to carefully read the wise man’s book, “Things Fall Apart.” Perhaps the bond, the racial spirit that the North and the South shared as a son of a same mother may do the trick.

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TOEFL Essay #1

Exorcism is a removal of evil spirits from a person or a place throughout a unique ritual. It is performed with a request of a subject person who suffers from the spirits of the dead. The exorcist arrives at the subject's house with request. Throughout a sacred process, the exorcist drives the spirits away from the house. Meanwhile, the subject prepares a great feast, which works as a compensation for the spirits. All of this only makes sense in Korea's exorcism. To sum up, Korea's tradtitional exorcim relieves wicked spirits and brings back peace. Korea has a very long history of its own traditional exorcism, and this custom enhances the situation of both individual and community. In fact, it consoles the subject and promotes the community’s solidarity at once. This is why I would like people from other countries to adopt this custom peculiar to Korea.

Most importantly, Korea’s traditional exorcism consoles living people and enables them to overcome harsh situations. Generally, exorcism focuses on comforting the dead and wicked spirits. Interestingly, the objective of a Korean exorcist is far behind this. During the ritual, the exorcist constantly attempts to relieve the subject by saying that the evil spirit is driven out. It does not end on merely kicking out the spirit. Trusting the exorcist, the subject relaxes and gains hope to get over with the tough condition. For instance, these rituals were frequently held in years of famine in the Chosun Dynasty. People who were suffering from poor harvest desperately longed for these rituals. Of course, these did not promise the subject an entirely better future. In fact, Korean exorcism opens the “possibility” of the situation becoming better. This possibility relies on the effort of the subject. Perhaps this aspect is why Korean exorcism equips people with power to fight with difficult circumstances. On the other hand, many other types of exorcism irresponsibly promise people a bright tomorrow. This makes the people lack the will to overcome the present.

Indifference to neighbors can be resolved by Korean traditional exorcism. In the modern society, people do not know who is living next door. They do not even bother. What this world need is something that every community member can participate in. Not everyone can play sports or computer games. Actually, this custom of Korea is something that fits into this criterion. The ritual itself only concentrates on the subject and the wicked spirit. However, what happens after it is what contributes to alleviate indifference. In Korean exorcism, the subject prepares a huge feast which is “The Last Supper” for the evil spirit. But are these foods put into the trash can when the ritual is over? No. They are given to the community people who have prayed together for the subject. The subject happily shares the food because prays of other people helps the spirit go far away from the neighborhood. Consequently, a warm bond is formed between every single person of the neighborhood. Therefore, Korea’s exorcism is more than praying and eating. It solves the most severe problem that the modern society has: indifference.

Not every person in the world wants to be consoled or become friendlier with neighbors. But surely, numerous individuals do; they just do not have the opportunity. And those who are negative to consolation or bond with the community are the ones who must be urgently treated with the traditional Korean exorcism. Unfortunately, people living in other countries probably never even heard of this traditional custom. That is exactly why I want them to adopt this custom, letting them gain hope in life and close relationships with next door families.

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I enjoy watching debate videos. How the debate flows is fun indeed, but..c'mon!! These kinds of stuff are additional reasons-the wit and humor that these world-class debaters show is awesome.

For instance, the Leader of Opp:"the boys from England are here to show that the bigger is not always the better." While the Opp. members seem quite tall and big!

Anyways, I hope you like this-at least the "bigger" part.

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"Ganggangsullae", Korean Beauty

 

When Korean people think of "Ganggangsullae", they usually turn their time back to middle school history classes. Korean History teachers often teach their students that "Ganggangsullae" was orginated from Admiral Lee, Sun Jin's strategy in the war between Japan and Chosun. That's what I learned, at least.
But turns out that it's not. I found that out in the Korean New Years celebration held at my grandparents' neighborhood, GeoChang. It's famous for its rich land and agriculture, and is located at Geongsang-Namdo, by the way-which pretty much tells the fact that the tradition of "Ganggangsullae" has been passed on and on for a LONG time. Anyways, I just wanted to check out my knowledge gained from history class that "Ganggangsullae" was started from the war(1592). But the answer I heard from my grandmother was not what I expected.
"Of course not, JongMyong. It was definitely much before than that. But I don't really know when."
So that's why I googled on the way back home about this interesting topic. I researched further on, and I even recieved a prize in my school's "intro. of Korean tradition" presentation contest by this research.
Okay. So here's a brief summary of my presentation back then.
Ganggangsullae is known to have been demonstrated since the agricultural era in the Korean penninsula. Experts claim that <Haenam>(location: Julla Namdo) was the pioneer out of all regions, which later adopted this custom. Accordingly, it's true that it was used in the 1592 war.(Admiral's diary) It was held in celebrational days, mostly by women.
These are the info. that are introduced in any kind of website, like Google or Naver.
But my past presentation was not about this. It was about a topic that I was really interested in, about things "between the lines".
I think,
that
Ganggangsullae is a great example that exhibits "Korean beauty": Ambiguity.
First off, how exactly is does "weird" custom-holding hands, making a big circle, and dancing around-illustrates Korean beauty? And why is "ambiguity" a "beauty"? Let's start with the second Q. Not only Ganggangsullae, but many other traditional songs(customs) in Korea do not have a concrete format. Not only the lyrics, but even the melody evolves as time passes. But this process of "evolution" quite differs from place to place,depending on the unique spirit of each region. How ambigious is that? For ex, Geongsangdo's Arirang is about whining and overcoming hardships because the people were exhausted of taking of crops. But in Gangwondo, the melody and the lyrics are very different from that of other regions. That's because the villages were isolated from the cities, high mountains in present. From this, we can infer that each Ganggangsullae of each region represents the tradition and the spirit of the region. These cannot be seen in other things. With the unique traditions and spirits integrated together, the entire Korean spirit is reborn. While the aspects of seperate regions have nothing in common although it's the same Ganggangsullae, together; they have impact. They are beautiful. This is why I find Ganggangsullae a Korean beauty.
P.S. Here's the different lyrics of Ganggangsullae in different regions. Pay attention to how it resembles the spirit of the region itself.
Julla do's
Over there, under the mountains-Ganggangsullae~
Look at the girls, picking some camellia flowers-Ganggangsullae~
Turn the faces, let me see them-Ganggangsullae~
Look at their bodies-Ganggangsullae~
So afraid that others will take her-Ganggangsullae~
Still afraid that others will know me loving her-Ganggangsullae~
Two of us working-Ganggangsullae~
Then the sunset, who knows what will happen-Ganggangsullae~
The standardized(probably Seoul's or GyeongGi Do's)
Mountains, mountains, you are so lovely and pretty-Ganggangsullae~
Blossoming flowers and greeny leaves-Ganggangsullae~
When you fall, I will fall-Ganggangsullae~
I will always be with you-Ganggangsullae~

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Brief Introduction

Well, greetings to everybody who has visited my blog. I hope you enjoy the contents that I uploaded.

My name is Jong Myong Rhee: just call me Jason, if comfortable.

I'm currently a student of the 18th wave of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, and I'm in class no.5 of the eleven 10th grade classes.

Daily newspapers are the best. I was kinda addicted to them for the last several years. It doesn't really matter whether if it's conservative or progressive. It's a great way of gaining political perspective.

Debate is the thing that I'm most confident at. Kicking others' butts aren't so fun. But I like debate because it allows me to increase my analytic skills and uhh.. a wide perspective of deeming things.

I want to become a business consultant in the future, if possible. Analying the client and offering a capable solution is what a consultant basically does, and I thing that it fits me pretty much.

So...uh..enough of all these lame stuff.

It's gotten quite a bit long, but all I want to say to you guys is "may the force be with you". And with me.

P.S. I want to tell you guys "my goals" for this semester.

1. How

=I want to improve my writing through this class(well duh..:-) ). And as an additional effort, I'm currently reading mobile nyt via my smart phone. "The best way to write is to read"-that's my motto, and I'm pretty sure that this is a true statement. So I want to improve writing not only by actively pariticipating in this class, but also reading a lot: nyt, the economist, and many other classic books.

2. What

=I do not fully know what is problematic in my writing style right now. However, I do want to be more fluent in applying right words at the right place. Having a smooth rhythm in my essay is my ultimate goal.

 

Read More