Rebuttals. Wakakakaka!

I refer to Yvonne's post titled Nothing Else But a Mixture of Disappointment and Anger.

Yvonnuna ... Why la so upset? :D Look. I agree with your premises pertaining to your conclusion that scholarships should be for the needy only. So let me tell you in what way I agree with you and rebut the points by the girl who wrote that article.

Ms/Mrs Sarojini of Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan said in the article she wrote (Unfair to discriminate against the rich in scholarships) for The Star on the 25th of March 2008:

Here, I would like to voice my opinion on the criteria used for awarding scholarships. According to the Webster's Dictionary, scholarship is defined as “the position of a student, who because of merit, needs, etcetra is granted money or other aid to pursue his studies. “

This means that if a student has worked hard and excelled in his studies, he deserves to be given a scholarship despite his financial background. This scholarship should be awarded to him as he has worked hard to earn it.

Thus, I feel that it is unfair to penalise a student and deprive him of a scholarship because he comes from a wealthy family.

Well, let me direct your attention to the part of the definition that states the word, "needs." Missed that didn't you? Now, what - may I ask - is the meaning of the word "need"? According to MSN Encarta's Dictionary, need is defined as:

Definition:

transitive and intransitive verb require something: require something in order to have success or achieve a goal Do you need any money? He told me that I didn't need to know. This shirt needs ironing. Definition: requirement: something that is a requirement or is wanted an economic system that recognizes the need for financial security His needs are few. in need 1. not having enough of things essential for an adequate standard of living children in need 2. needing something

Now I am just going to stop beating around the bush and get straight to my point. The word "needs" indicated financial support. Duh. Short of writing to The Star and pointing out her mistake, I'll just do it here, where she can't read it. :D

So now that we've established that a scholarship requires a student to be in need of financial support, now let us take a broader view of the definition: "The position of a student, who because of merit, needs, etcetra is granted money or other aid to pursue his studies." I believe the comma ( , ) is used a few times to separate the words merit, needs and etcetera. Now as I believe it, unless the words are separated by an "or", the words are mutually exclusive. Meaning you cannot have either one of them, that is to say (in this context), the student receives or is "granted money or other aid to pursue his studies" due to his "merit, needs and etcetera". Since we know and have accepted that the students has to be in need of financial support, this also proves that a scholarship is only granted to them, and them alone. This is all according to the definition of the word "scholarship" from Webster's Dictionary of course. *smiles*