INS1015

SUMMARY – CRITICAL RESPONSE ASSIGNMENT

Student’s full name: Vương Thị Hường

Student’s code: 18071119

June, 2021

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Competition between siblings is a constant problem in most families and it is

an unavoidable part of life. The article entitled “The psychology behind sibling
rivalry” (published in www.nytimes.com on Jan 13, 2021) written by Jessica – a
famous American journalist, editor, and novelist addressed the reality and duality
of sibling rivalry and some ways to minimize it. The following essay acts as a
guide to help dissect and further understand every aspect there is in the article.

From the beginning of “The psychology behind sibling rivalry”, Jessica

Grose addresses the issue of conflict between her children and her anxiety about it,
but she also points out the reality of the matter through the research of some
experts: “Competing with siblings is just a fact of life” psychologist Jeanine
Vivona said, and other studies show that sibling rivalry can occur up to eight times
every hour and sister pairs are the most closely related, while brother-sister dyads
experience the greatest conflict. According to Feinberg's research, the book of
Genesis with stories of “murderous and covetous siblings”, has opened up the
discovery of issues today, involving parental love for their children and
“triangulation of children into parental conflicts”. The rivalry of siblings is so
strong that hundreds of years ago, the mortality rate of children under 5 years of
age with siblings was higher due to infectious diseases, the mother's nutritional
level. and competition for parental attention. Nevertheless, psychologically, such
rivalry is beneficial to a child's growth, helping them to recognize differences and
shape their own interests and personalities through their siblings. Grose ends her
article by mentioning some of the experts’ suggestions for resolving sibling
conflicts.

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Jessica Grose, is a famous American journalist, editor, and novelist. Grose is

the parenting columnist for The New York Times. The article she wrote, “The
psychology behind sibling rivalry” was up and available on www.nytimes.com. For
your information, The New York Times is an American daily newspaper based
in New York City with a worldwide readership. It has won the most prizes of any
newspaper and ranked 18th largest newspaper in the world and 3rd in the U.S. Most
importantly, the newspaper has been renowned for its public trade, accuracy, and
timeliness. All things considered, there should be no questioning about the
credibility of the article.

At the beginning, the author told the competition of her own two children,
then she cited studies by experts and professors in universities about sibling rivalry
on both negative and positive sides. She didn’t particularly give any subjective
opinion on any side of the problem and let the audience evaluate for themselves
about the sibling rivalry. This is a clever objective approach to help readers have a
more multi-dimensional, correct, and convincing view of this issue. Along with
that, Jessica suggests some possible solutions by experts to deal with this problem.
In my opinion, these are good solutions although not always possible because
children are sometimes conservative and stubborn. Moreover, it depends most on
children’s individual characters and the family environment.

The language used in the article is semi-formal. The author does not use any
specific jargons and technical terms which might hinder the audience from
understanding her points. Overall, this is an easy-to-understand article, concise,
simple style with the right combination of story and facts, not flooding the reader

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with boring and confusing details. In general, the article is very useful for the
audience to read.

Similar to Jessica's article, “Sibling rivalry is good for children” by Amelia

Hill from the online newspaper www.theguardian.com, Amelia quoted Dr Claire
Hughes who has written a book on sibling rivalry, called Social Understanding and
Social Lives: "The more combative siblings are, and the more they argue and the
older child puts the younger one down, the more they are learning complex lessons
about communication and the subtleties of language,". In her report, Hill (2011)
also quotes Dr Hughes as adding: "Of course, if sibling rivalry gets out of hand, it
can be very negative. Persistent violence is a strong predictor that the aggressive
child will bully their peers." Personally, there is no right or wrong answer to this
issue, but it depends on the point of view of each person in each situation and in
different times. I do not lean towards either side of sibling rivalry and accept both
sides of the issue. Instead of wanting to terminate it, find a way to reduce it.

In conclusion, Jessica Grose’s article presents to us the reality and duality of

sibling rivalry and provides helpful expert suggestions for ways to reduce it.
Overall, she succeeded in conveying her message to the audience and her article
may attract wide readers because of its popularity in today's society.

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 784 words

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REFERENCES

Hill, A 2011, Sibling rivalry is good for children, www.theguardian.com, 7 April

2011 [Online]. Available at:
<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/apr/07/sibling-rivalry-good-for-
children> [Accessed: 12 Jun, 2021].

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Subject: ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES II

Subject Code: INS1015

FINAL TEST SCORE SHEET

Score
Marking criteria Very Good Average Poor Very
good poor
Summary of the source text ( /2.0) 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5

Evaluation of the source text ( /2.0) 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0

Appropriate reasons, evidence, or examples for the 1.5 1.2 0.9 0.6 0.3
explanation ( /2.0)
Appropriate and varied vocabulary ( /1.0) 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

Accurate grammar and varied sentence structures ( /1.0) 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
Correct spelling, capitalization and punctuation ( /0.5) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Appropriate format ( /0.5) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1

Appropriate referencing ( /0.5) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1

Synthesis ( /0.5) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1

FINAL SCORE /10

Note: if the assignment does not reach the minimum word limit or exceeds the allowed number of
words by 10%, one point will be deducted from the final score.

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