INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is often considered the most core period of a person's life, especially with many
changes and challenges. At this stage, young people's thoughts and actions tend to be mainly
influenced by family and friends. As a result, whether parents or friends are more influential on
adolescents has always been a controversial topic among researchers.
BODY
- Parents:
Positive:
+ Parents who continue to communicate with their teens, even with conflicts,
maintain a closer relationship
+ Sense of identity and belongingness
+ The family’s role is critical and well documented in shaping the health behavior
of adolescents’ early life
Negative:
+ Family structure can affect adolescent health and health behavior negatively

Families can be vastly beneficial, yet, they can also bring downsides that need to be mentioned in
their impact on adolescence. To commence with, parents who continue to communicate with
their teens, even with conflicts, often maintain a closer relationship with them in a lifetime.
Despite the fact that it might seem futile to talk to teens when it leads to antagonism, most
juveniles continue to report having an open line of communication with their parents, and as
mentioned earlier, they still report them as being a significant influence on their lives. Moreover,
research has shown that families play a major key in helping juveniles put a name to their
identity and belongingness. A positive sense of identity is crucial to the development of self-
esteem and confidence. A healthy sense of identity also helps teens to be more open to people
from other backgrounds because they are less likely to fear differences or put other peers down
to feel better about themselves. Last but not least, the family's role throughout early life in
shaping the health behavior of adolescents is critical and well documented. According to findings
from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), the physical presence
of a parent in the home at key times, as well as parental connectedness (feelings of warmth, love,
and caring from parents) and parental expectations are associated with adolescent health
 behavior. Specifically, high parental expectations were an important predictor of adolescents' not
engaging in violence, while the physical presence of a parent in the home reduced the risk of
substance use.

Parental influence, on the other hand, can be harmful to adolescents at times. Instability and
family disruption prior to divorce may be more influential than eventual separations and divorce.
However, family stability, marital disruption, and family composition are associated with
cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems in children. For example, a study by Moore et al.
reported that disruption of parents' marriage and living with a single parent are related to the
early onset of sexual behavior. Similarly, research has also shown that adolescents from one-
parent families are more likely to demonstrate increased substance and alcohol use as well as
more emotional problems, such as depression and loneliness, compared to those in intact
families.

No Checklist Students’ response

The whole essay
1 How long is the essay? Please count the words.
2 Is there a reference (works cited) list at the end of the essay?
3 How many works are there in the reference list?
Are all the works in the reference list written in compliance
4
with APA documentation style?
5 Does the essay follow the required format (line spacing, tc.)?
6 What is the organizational pattern of the essay?
7 How many paragraphs are there in the essay?
Introductory paragraph
Do the building sentences lead logically to the thesis
9
statement?
a. Underline the thesis statement in your essay.
10 b. Does the thesis statement include the topic and the
writer’s argument?
Body paragraphs
Do the topics of the body paragraphs appear in the same
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order as in the thesis statement?
a. Mark the topic sentence of all body paragraphs with a
“TS”.
12
b. Circle the topic in each topic sentence.
c. Underline the controlling idea in each topic sentence.
13 In which paragraph(s) is ALL the information relevant to the
 controlling idea of the topic sentence?
14 In which paragraph(s) are ideas arranged in a logical order?
Concluding paragraph
In what way(s) is the essay concluded (thesis restatement,
15
summary of main ideas, prediction, etc.)?
16 Is the conclusion logically linked to the whole essay?
17 Are new ideas avoided in the conclusion?
Coherence
a. Mark all the transitional expressions with a “TE”.
b. Categorize the transitional expressions used into 3 groups:

- Basic and high-frequency linking words (and, but, because,

first of all, finally)

- More complicated linking words and phrases (e.g. it may

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appear, as a result)

- Reference and substitution (e.g. pronouns, articles,

synonyms, comparative reference)

c. Which transitional expressions are used incorrectly?

(specify the paragraph in which they occur)

Citation
19 Mark all the citations with a “C”.
20 How many works are cited in the essay (in-text citation)?
21 How many quotations are there in the essay?
22 How many paraphrases and/or summaries are there in the
essay?
23 Cross out any citation which does not effectively support a
point.
24 Double underline all reporting verbs in the essay.

List different reporting verbs used in the essay

25

26 Are all the in-text citations consistent in style (APA style)?

27 Do the sources in the list match those cited in the main text?
Vocabulary/Grammar (may list on a separate page if lack of space)
28 List less common vocabulary in the essay
 List collocations of the following types :

a. Verb + Noun:

29 b. Verb + adverb:

c. Adverb + adjective:

30 List inaccurate word form and spelling (if any).

31 List unsuccessful word choice (if any)

32 Where could hedging language be added?

33 Are pronouns used correctly and clearly?

34 Are there both simple and complex structures in the essay?

35 Mark complex structures in the essay with “CS”.
36 How many different complex structures are there in the
essay (passives, relatives, conditionals, parallel structures,
adverbial clauses, impersonal structures, etc.)? Please briefly
note down.
37 Highlight incorrect complex structures in the essay.
38 Are the other sentences grammatically correct?
39 Is the style of writing appropriate for an academic essay?