Young people should be more considerate towards the elderly

Argumentative Essay Practice 13 Question: “Young people should be more considerate towards the elderly.” What are your views? Step 1: Defining your key terms Young people: ages 18-29? Teenagers? Students? Make sure to give an idea which exact group of people you are referring to when you say “young people” Elderly: By standard definition (from governments, etc.): it is people who are 65 years and older – but in broader ways, elderly can be also regarded as people who are more senior than you Considerate: Don’t have to define what it means to be “considerate” in full – but think about what are the ways to be “considerate” to others? Giving up seats on public transport? Being polite to others? Thinking about the welfare and interests of others? What it means to be “considerate” for you will eventually show up in your examples. More: Does the question imply that young people now are not as considerate as they should be to the elderly? Step 2: Setting your conditions – do we have to set conditions at all? Ask yourself: 1. Is this an absolute question? (Are there absolute terms such as “definitely”, “always”, “constantly”, “will”, etc.) 2. Does it require that you set conditions for when something would happen? 3. If no, let us consider some questions about this. These questions will guide you in formulating your arguments, putting in insight into your conclusion, and think about how you want to start your introduction. Q1) What are some infamous incidents that has happened recently that might have prompted someone to ask this question? Are more people being inconsiderate to the elderly? - Toa Payoh coffeeshop case: couple slamming elderly man who asked to share a table? - Cases of financial abuse by children in old age becoming increasingly common - 2013 neighbour abusing elderly in lift lobby - Woman pushing down elderly cyclist Q2) What reasons do you think teenagers might have when they are inconsiderate to the elderly? Do you think they do it on purpose? - Many times the extreme cases of violence done to elderly seem to be a result of personal issues such as psychological and emotional instability - Being inconsiderate could be unintentional and because of ignorance

- However, there are cases that such inconsideration is deliberate and done despite knowing how much it will hurt the elderly Q3) Should all elderly persons be respected regardless of how they treat younger ones? Should we respect someone else simply because they are older than us? - Many would agree that respect needs to be “earned” from others – we deserve respect by treating others kindly first - As the saying goes “Do unto others as others unto you” – one should not inflict pain/cause harm to others when we don’t want it to happen to ourselves - There are admittedly certain elderly persons who are extremely rude and offensive to younger people, or others in public and they do not absolutely deserve respect simply bec