Cabaran mengajar karangan BM

Cuba anda baca karangan ini. Longhat atau dialek negeri manakah agaknya bunyi bahasa dalam karangan ini? Apakah pelajar ini pelajar sekolah rendah atau sekolah menengah? Bagaimanakah agaknya cara yang sesuai bagi guru kepada pelajar tersebut untuk tangani hal berkenaan? Ini baru satu pelajar. Apa jadi bila ada ramai pelajar yang menulis begini?

Sumber grafik dari FB Syzana

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Computer-assisted writing tool

Writing an essay can be a difficult task to some students. Persuasive Essay Builder, a form of computer-assisted writing tool,  may be a good tool for students to follow a step-by-step process to write an essay.  However,  before students this tool, perhaps the best thing to do is to outline their ideas or to create a mind map of their ideas about the essay. Then, doing a freewriting exercise of the sketchy essay would help them to use this tool more effectively.

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Guidelines on how to write a research proposal, thesis/dissertation

Each section in a research proposal or thesis requires certain conventions that we need to prepare. We also need to know the structure of the content, the flow of the arguments, and level of adequacy for the content in each section. The amount of the content may vary from one research another and the length of the paper too may vary from one study to another. However, there are certain expectations that you need to meet. Examples:

• A research proposal for MA or Ph.D.15-30 pages
• Undergraduate thesis 90-150 pages
• MA thesis 180-250 pages
• Ph.D. thesis 250-400 pages
• In general, a thesis will have 5 chapters. However, depending on the nature of the research, a thesis may have 6 or 7 chapters

Different universities may have different formats in terms of main headings and sub headings, numbering system, and referencing format. Consult our own university graduate school’s requirement for the correct format.

For more tips, please these sitess:

• Comprehensive guidelines http://www.dissertationwriting.com/
• Very good tips at http://dissertation-service.co.uk/blog/
• How to write a Ph.D thesis http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html#structure
• How to write a research proposal http://pendidikanislam.net/index.php/kuliah/52-writing-iv-2010/369-how-to-write-introduction-chapter
• Writing a thesis http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/thesis.shtml
• Quite comprehensive http://www.learnerassociates.net/dissthes/
• Download this guideline http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/pub/HowToWriteAThesis.pdf
• Brief outline/content http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~martins/sen_sem/thesis_org.html
• Short and sweet http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jason/advice/how-to-write-a-thesis.html
• Brief yet helpful http://www.dissertationadvisors.com/articles/how-to-write-a-dissertation.shtml
• Bed time reading http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html
• Tips on writing proposals.  http://www.usistf.org/download/RFP/Universal/Proposal_writing_tips.pdf
• How to write a research proposal http://www.meaning.ca/archives/archive/art_how_to_write_P_Wong.htm
• more to come…if you have a few good ones, please share them here.

Sample research proposals:

• Dissertation research: Ethnic identity switching among Latinos in Queens, NY. http://gravlee.org/ang5091/proposals/Negron_NSF.pdf
• Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Implications of Economic and Social Mobility for Transnational West African Migrants in Spain. http://gravlee.org/ang5091/proposals/stjacques_nsf.pdf
• Culture and Individual Adaptation http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/dressler/Dressler%20Brazil%20NSF.pdf

Sample review of  the proposals

http://gravlee.org/ang5091/proposals/wutich_reviews.pdf

Proposal forFullbright Scholar

• Research proposal  http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/ProjectStatement_Sample_I.htm

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Writing tips: recall some grammar rules

Visit these excellent sites to learn, relearn and/or recall some of the grammar rules and mechanics of writing to polish up your essay.

• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
• http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/free-online-grammar.html
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar

more to come….

MS Word offers spell checker and grammar checker to check your writing. However, there are other grammar checker software that are available forfree for a certain period of time. One of them is “Ginger Software” at

• http://www.gingersoftware.com/download_premium.

You can download and install it in your computer, and use it to check your writing. Another grammar tool is:

• http://www.whitesmoke.com/free-online-checker

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How to start writing?

Some people just don’t know how and where  to start writing when they are asked to write a paper  or about a topic. Their mind goes blank. They become speechless. They are not sure what to write. They are confused, scared, angry, guilty, and helpless.  When they write, they do pre-mature editing in between sentences and paragraphs. This is what we called writer’s block or writing apprehension. How to overcome this apprehension so that we can still produce something in our writing? Besides, outlining, mind mapping, and brainstorming, we can start with FREEWRITING. What is freewriting? Watch these videos.

What is the next step after you do freewriting?

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Writing MLA, APA, Chicago format

When your write your term paper or thesis or research paper, you need to follow certain formats: MLA, AP, or Chicago. UKM has its own specific format. Please refer to the “GayaUKM”, a book published by Graduate Management Center (PPS). The format for the reference section may slightly vary from APA.

APA style: http://inspekawriting.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/apa-format-citations-references/

MLA style: http://supyanphd.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/mla-format-citations-and-references/

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You can refer to some other sites for sample organization of essays, terms papers, and research papers. You can download some of the papers for your reference but REMEMBER! PLAGIARISM is an academic offense.

 

• http://bedfordstmartins.com/researchroom/
• http://www.erraticimpact.com/cyberedit/termpapers.asp
• http://termpaper-blog.com/our-samples
• http://www.superior-termpapers.com/samples.htm
• http://www.essaysample.com/

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How to review literature and write literature review?

Many students have problems with how to do literature review and how to write literature review.  Some tips:

• What to look for? journals, books, seminar papers, thesis, monographs, technical research reports
• Where to look for? online and offline; e-library and library
• How old is the literature? The rule of thumb says it should be less than 10 years old, but for technology related papers, it should be less than 5 years old. Classical materials should be more 20-30 years of age.
• How to write? The review should be divided into 2 parts: theoretical discussion (theories, models, approaches) and past studies (research reports)

You can watch following videos for further understanding of these 2 issues

An overview of Literature Review

Part 1 Writing literature review

Part 2 Writing literature review

Part 3 Writing literature review

Part 1 Writing literature review

Part 2 Writing literature review

Part 3 Writing literature review

Do’s and Don’t in Literature Review

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How to write references and bibliographies?

What is the difference between “references” and “bibliographies”?

In “reference”, we list all sources that we cited in our paper; whereas in “bibliogaphies”, we can list additional sources that we refered to as our background reading but these sources are not cited in our paper.

APA format

MLS format

Check a few more websites here

http://www.thewritesource.com/mla/

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html

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How to write a report?

Report writing may vary from one another, depending on the purpose and the type.

If you want to see a few samples of report writing, please visit

• http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/reports.htm
• http://www.who.int/surgery/Report_Ethioipia_workshop.pdf
• http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/report/index.xml
• http://www.howtobooks.co.uk/business/reports/  

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How to edit and proofread papers?

Do you know when to use these punctuation marks:

• full stop
• coma
• semi-colon
• colon
• question mark
• exclamation mark

and do you know you cannot have a space before the marks but you must have a space after the marks?

Do you know that:

1. ; means “and”?
2. : means “that is” or i.e.?

Do you know you cannot start the sentence with But, And, and So?

Do you know there are certain conventions and rules (rituals) you have to follow when you write a reference item?

Watch these video and learn how to edit and proofread your essays.

Sentence structure

Fix Run-Ons and Fragments

Coherence

Poor word choice

Punctuations

Dangers of using spell checker

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