TOEFL® essay: Knowledge from books vs. experience

[Dancingqueen]

Not everything that is learned is contained in books. compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books.In your opinion which source is important? why. Use specific reasons to support your answer.

Learning is an ongoing and never ending. It is important to learn, understand and assimilate new things in life at every opportunity that comes our way. When we learn new things about people, places or subjects, it is categorized as knowledge creation. Learning hence is an vital tool or art of knowledge.

In my view, knowledge is not necessarily contained in texts or books. Learning from books is an age old source that has been validated over centuries. Gone are the days when the world was considered to comprise separate regions. Today with times changing fast, world is one unique global village. Knowledge in this era is created through technology transfers, expatriate knowledge sharing, learning from mergers and collaborations. Above all the onset of multimedia and internet has further defined and refined the whole meaning of learning and knowledge sharing.

To elaborate a little, I think books provide limited knowledge which could never be matched with the learning from experiences in our lives. Our life is a set of good or bad experiences. These experiences occur in our lives to make us learn what is good or bad for us and take corrective measures accordingly. Knowledge through experiences has a far deeper impact on us. It indeed penetrates our mind and our emotions like nothing else.

To add, I would like to share my own example here. I was always taught to be truthful come what may. In my early childhood years I read so much about truth in books. I always used to memorize the saying that, "truth shall prevail". However, over the years, my ideas about truth have undergone minor changes. From my experiences in life, i have learned that truth is like a hot cup of tea that not everybody can handle. To be truthful requires one to be fair, honest and have integrity. These bold words appear to be good only in books as opposed to real life situations. To be truthful one needs to keep failing and facing challenges. In this materialistic world, beinmg truthful is the begining of never ending problems. Hence I have made little changes and adopted a ploicy that a white liue that saves somebody's life is any day better than mere being hundred percent truthful. My experiences have provided me with this new knowledge.

To Conclude, knowledge gained from experiences is individualistic and not generalist approach like those suggested in the books. Knowledge through experiences may make one fall or fail. Well it is for the basic motive for us to learn to be more careful.

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of Animal Behaviour

[Gray]

A coherent argument. Just a few words away from perfection --
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To conclude
policy
lie
being

:)
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English