The one-sentence truth: A familiar Singapore example is not automatically a good AQ example; it must reveal something about the passage argument.
JC2 students should evaluate local evidence using the same standards they apply elsewhere: relevance, scope, representativeness, causal mechanism and significance.
Relevance
Does the example test the exact passage claim? A transport policy is not automatically useful in an essay about sustainability unless the environmental mechanism is explained.
Representativeness
One school, one viral incident or one public controversy may illustrate a possibility without representing Singapore broadly. Calibrate the claim.
Mechanism
Explain why the example supports or challenges the writer. If public housing is relevant to social mixing, identify the institutional mechanism rather than merely naming housing estates.
Significance
Is the example central or marginal to the local context? How many people are affected? How durable is the effect? Does it change the final judgement?
Comparison
The strongest AQ examples often become meaningful through contrast: Singapore’s density, state capacity or economic structure may produce a different outcome from the passage context.
Evidence language
Use illustrates for a case, suggests for limited support, is consistent with for compatible evidence, corroborates where independent evidence aligns, and qualifies where the example narrows the claim.
Example audit
- What proposition does this example support?
- What mechanism does it show?
- How representative is it?
- What is its evidential weight?
- Does it confirm, qualify or challenge?
Continue the JC2 GP vocabulary system
Return to General Paper Vocabulary Year 2 (JC2) and Vocabulary for Junior College (JC1–JC2).
Final thought
The example is not the evidence until you explain what it is evidence of.