作者：北美考试教学中心 托福写作组 曹优优
How to choose student leaders is never a tough decision for me because I always trust the might of printed words. Hence, in my view, reading articles about potential student leaders is a better method than listening to candidates' speeches or teachers' recommendations.
Some people may contend that speeches or interviews from candidates are trustworthy because generally nobody will risk losing credibility and break his or her previous statement. However, it is not uncommon to read reports about politicians who veer from their manifestos after being elected, and neither is it unusual to see many entrepreneurs break their promises in advertising and commit fraud for more profits. Since young people are not mature enough and lack the vision, it is possible they are no exception. Thus, I deem that public speaking cannot be strong evidence of one's competence at all, and this makes listening to applicants' public comments on important issues invalid.
Indeed, recommendations from teachers and information from newspaper, different from empty talk, seem to have the effectiveness. Nevertheless, it is not the case. To a great extent, teachers' judgment is often based on students' performance in classrooms, which means teachers might be misled and deceived, without knowing the whole picture. In contrast, articles are more informative and reliable since journalists are extremely good at detecting details. For example, a straight-A but selfish student will leave a deep impression on his teacher easily, thereby winning the recommendation of becoming a student leader. However, his roommates may expose his true character to the school newspaper journalists. Therefore, I am convinced that school newspaper is the most reliable source of information.
To sum up, considering the miserable results of trusting lies in speeches, I will suggest choosing other alternatives. Since teachers’ opinions are not comprehensive, I hold that the best way to inform us of students who want to be leaders is to collect information from newspaper articles.
