Companies rule the world - big n' international

During the coming weeks, you will write an essay about an English based company. You will have to do some research to find facts about the company, its history, stocks and different products.

Take a look around you, everyone in the classroom will own and have something that is produced by a company that is not Swedish. We just need to go back 100 years to have a look at a classroom and realize that everything back then was produced locally. There has been a big change in our society related to how we shop and buy things. Back then, we had to go to the closest market in order to buy everything that was necessary for our survival. Nowadays, we can buy it from our homes through the internet.

             Because you all are attending the Economical program, I thought that we would take a look into English companies to illuminate that there are an enormous number of famous and huge companies founded and still located in English speaking countries. During the following three weeks, you will write a 3-page essay. You will have to refer and quote your sources as well as being critical against them. Each week and lesson, I will give you questions that you have to answer. You all have to write in Sharepoint, and you will hand it in through Unikum.

          Below, you will find some questions that can help and guide you through the process of writing the essay. Furthermore, I will give you a “go-to-guide” of referring and quoting sources. You will also find some rules that you have to follow and some things that you HAVE to include in your essay. Remember, I want you to try to write as objectively as possible, do not include any of your own opinions when writing the facts.

-         - When was your company founded? Where, by who, how? What was the first product?

-         - Any important events that resulted into the company expanding and growing? Lack of the product on the market? Government funded?

-         - One or two important and famous product(s) that the company has invented? According to you and perhaps the internet? Something that we use in today’s society?

-         - An important person who founded or created the company or a product? Who is (s)he? What did they do? How important was that person?

-         - Take a look at the stock-market. How is their stock today? Are they considered high or low? Try to take a look at the history of the stocks as well, what was the all-time high record?

-         - How does the company look today? Are its products used today? How, in what way?

These are some questions that will help you write the essay. Try to include as many as possible and in the order I have written them (by doing that you will get a nice and coherent structure). As stated earlier, you have to write at least or around 3 pages, use Times New Roman (or similar), 12 points and 1½ spacing. The 3 pages should therefore be around 1800 words.

 

When writing, try to be as formal as possible. You can be that by following these rules (especially important for the ones who are aiming for the higher grades):

-         -  No contractions. With this I mean; instead of writing “I’m, He’s, She’s, I’ll” you need to write “I am, He is, She is, I will”. Contractions are seen as being quite informal!

-         -  Try to use as many “linking words” as you can. You will receive a list a several linking words. However, do not overuse them. Linking words will help you structure the text as well as adding to the formality.

-         -  This part is two folded. First, try to vary your language, do not use the same word over and over and over and over and over. Second, try to use more “fancy-pantsy” words, can be quite hard to do. What you can do is to use synonyms for words (just make sure that it still makes sense).

Läroplansmål

Centralt innehåll

• Konkreta och abstrakta ämnesområden med anknytning till elevernas utbildning samt samhälls- och arbetsliv; aktuella ämnesområden; tankar, åsikter, idéer, erfarenheter och känslor; etiska och existentiella frågor.
• Levnadsvillkor, attityder, värderingar, traditioner, samhällsfrågor samt kulturella, historiska, politiska och sociala förhållanden i olika sammanhang och delar av världen där engelska används.
• Talat språk, även med social och dialektal färgning, och texter, även komplexa och formella, som är berättande, diskuterande, argumenterande, rapporterande och redogörande, även via film och andra medier.
• Sammanhängande talat språk och samtal av olika slag, till exempel debatter, föredrag och intervjuer.
• Texter av olika slag och med olika syften, till exempel formella brev, populärvetenskapliga texter och recensioner.
• Strategier för källkritiskt förhållningssätt när man lyssnar till och läser framställningar från olika källor och i olika medier.
• Strategier för att söka relevant information i större textmängder eller längre sekvenser av talat språk och för att uppfatta perspektiv och underförstådd betydelse.
• Muntlig och skriftlig produktion och interaktion i olika situationer och med olika syften, där eleverna argumenterar, rapporterar, ansöker, resonerar, sammanfattar, kommenterar, värderar och motiverar sina åsikter.
• Bearbetning av språk och struktur i egna och andras muntliga och skriftliga framställningar, även i formella sammanhang. Anpassning till genre, situation och syfte.