How to be a good citizen?

Definition of citizenship
Citizenship is a sacred honor, a plaque we carry proudly on our chests and a
burden pressing hard on our backs. A citizen is a member of a country. He has the
right and the duty to protect it and obey its laws and rules. In other words,
citizenship is the relationship between an individual and a state in which the
individual belongs, and owes allegiance to the state and in turn is entitled to its
protection.
Fortunately, being a good citizen doesn’t stop at the exchange of rights and duties,
it requires a lot of civilized behavior, and responsible acts.

Simple acts to do in your daily life

All the members of our community, from the youngest to the eldest, have to
cooperate. By cooperating, I don’t mean giving huge efforts. Simple acts and easy
behavior can help us ameliorate our level of life. As citizens, and students in
particular, all we have to do are the steps below:
 Start with your own home, clean it regularly, and take care of your front door
area.
 Being a good neighbor by caring about others.
 Don’t overuse water and electricity.
 Respect your neighbors, help them if necessary, and act politely.
 Don’t litter, or throw trash in the street.
 Don’t spit in the street, it doesn’t only bother the other passers-by, but it’s also
very far from being civilized.
 Try to cross the street in the crossing passage. The town will look organized,
and it lowers the level of accidents.
 Let’s try to walk in the sidewalk, or the pavement, because it causes fewer
difficulties to drivers in the city.
 Respect your school, especially its doors, walls and windows. They are not
yours; you only borrow them for a year or more.
 Being a citizen is a source of pride. Don’t try to ignore your origins in front of
foreigners. Have you ever seen any of them deny being who s/he really is?
 Act nicely with tourists. If we want our country to receive millions of tourists,
try to be nice.
 If you can study about your country, it would be great. See the extreme
diversity you have (the desert, the sea, the mountains, the different dialects, the
traditions, the traditional clothes).
 If you don’t vote, who will? A simple act can place the right person in the right
place.
 In emergencies, don’t be afraid. Help the people in need. (Blood donations, call
the police, the ambulance, and help a lady in the street…) Imagine you were in
their place; wouldn’t you like to have other people standing by your side?
When you become a parent, teach this to your children. Citizenship starts from
childhood, and only ends by the time you die. It’s only by practicing those really
simple acts that our daily life can get better. I hope this will help us understand
another meaning of good citizenship.

Sylvia Beach

How to be a good citizen? (From the post on the English page

(www.myenglishpages.com))

Sylvia Beach is an American writer, publisher, bookstore owner, and one of the
biggest literary figures in Paris between the First and Second World Wars. She is
known for her Paris bookstore, «Shakespeare and Company», where she
published James Joyce's book, Ulysses (1922), and encouraged the publication of
and sold copies of Hemingway's first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923).
In the text «How to be a good citizen? » she raised a problem of good manners
and upbringing. She gave some pieces of advice what people should do to make
their country better. As it was written in the time of big changes in the world, such
as world wars, this text was very popular and actual.

All the elements of the plot of the article (exposition, conflict, complicating action,
climax, falling action and denouement) serve to expose this theme. In the
exposition we get to know the definition of citizenship. The author tries to tell
importance of being a conscious citizen.

The main idea of the text is to improve the level of society. This text is expected to
have a good effect on the people who read it. This theme is directly stated, and can
be traced in every sentence.

The mood of the story is unemotional. The tone is dry and matter-of-fact but also
emotional. The text is written in an imperative tone. The author gives us steps that
he strongly recommends to use in everyday life.

Since the text is written in a dry tone, there are clearly three parts. The first is an
exposition, an introduction to the topic. We can understand this from the definition
as well as from the author's appeal and explanation of why we need to listen to
these steps. «Іt requires a lot of civilized behavior», «All the members of our
community… have to cooperate».

Тhe middle of the text - the main part, is the main contextual purpose of the text.
It is in this part that we see what the author wanted to convey to us. The ending is
the conclusion and the final word of the author.

Plot technique is Circular pattern – closing event of the story returns the reader to
the introducing part. In the end we can read the conclusion of the whole text so this
means that we are back to the beginning.

The narrative method of this text is a 1st-person narration. The author choose this
variant of writing because it`s the easiest way to tell about something. In our case
author tells about citizenship and problems of being a good citizen.

The type of informationally marked contexts is homogeneous (one kind of

information is given, one compositional form is used). The author tells the whole
story in one style. So we can`t see any differences between parts.

Тhe text is written in plain simple language. Content - storytelling and

encouragement of people, as well as advice on how to be a good citizen. Nobody
thought in detail about the title of the text, because the title is hidden in the purpose
of the text «How to be a good citizen? ».

Аllegory : sacred honor, a plaque we carry proudly on our chests and a burden
pressing hard on our backs

Epithets: good neighbor, good citizen, civilized behavior, responsible acts, huge
efforts, extreme diversity, simple act, right person, right place, daily life.

Rhetorical questions: If you don’t vote, who will? Have you ever seen any of them
deny being who s/he really is? Imagine you were in their place; wouldn’t you like
to have other people standing by your side?

There are no main characters and conflicts between them in this text. The author
talks to the reader, and try to communicate with him through different language
techniques. Who is a citizen? We all are citizens, good or bad, it does not matter,
so the text is directed to every of us. The atmosphere of this text is simple and easy
to understand for the reader of any age.