Feb 20, 2009

EXPLANATION ESSAY- step in a linear process

Are you holding a pen now? And do you have any paper on your table? If yes, take both of them, paper and pen, because I want to discuss how to write and organize an essay.

First, what should we have to write an essay? "A pen and paper!" Yes, of course! But it's not answering my question. What I mean is how we should organize an essay. Generally, a complete structured essay has three major parts which are introduction, body paragraph, and concluding paragraph.

Lets start with the introduction paragraph. This part is very crucial because here, you'll roughly introduce the general idea and what you're going to tell the readers. At the beginning of this paragraph, give the background of the issue in your essay. Then stress on your thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph. Thesis statement is the sentence that tells reader about your ultimate point and what they should expect. Here I've included an example for the introduction paragraph:


Everyday, it is estimated that 600 000 barrels of crude oil are required to meet the demands of consumers. Crude oil and natural gas are categorized as fossil fossil fuels which are currently the primary source of energy for people around the globe. However, some people contend that research into alternative energy sources is necessary. Here we will discuss whether the development of alternative sources of fossil fuels should be a global priority or not.


The second part in writing essay is the body paragraph. Begin your essay with a topic sentences or also called as major points which are the fact that you're using to prove your main point. As you finish wrote your topic sentence, follow the topic sentence by supporting details. Supporting details or supporting ideas are the examples , facts, quotations or anything that you use to explain and back up each major point. You are encouraged to summarise each body paragraph, so your essay would be neatly written and easier to be understood. This is a sample that can be shared:


Obviously we can see now, there are many reasons why additional energy sources are essential. Based on projections, fossil fuels will be used up in next 70 years. For instance, the amount of petroleum and natural gas is facing a progressive reduction nowadays. Furthermore, current alternative energy sources are not widely used and inefficient, for instance, solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal and hydro-power. These show that in some aspects, fossil fuels are not reliable as the long-term energy sources, so additional energy sources are necessary in the present day.

However, there are more pressing problems today that require greater attention than the development of additional energy sources. Moreover, usually, research comes with several drawbacks. The adverse impacts that may comes when conducting research cause some people against the effort to develop alternatives energy sources because for them, global concern should be focused on world hunger, aid to poor countries and eradicate poverty.


After you've present all of your ideas in the body paragraph, then you're supposed to conclude all your points in a concluding paragraph. So, before you end your essay, wrap up all ideas and thoughts in the
concluding paragraph. You're not advised to put any kind of new facts or in formations. Nonetheless, you can give your overall point of view and suggestions on the issue that is discussed in your essay.


As a whole, after considering all the aspects, I am convinced fossil fuels will continued to be used as the main source of energy for the following decades as technology already exist. Meanwhile, research and development for reliable energy sources should be proceed with condition that other important problem are not been neglected.


So, if you want to write an essay, you should consider on the structure of your essay to ensure your readers can understand what you wanted to convey. Just a glance recall, a good essay must has a
introduction paragraph, body paragraph and concluding paragraph.

Feb 13, 2009

It Looks Easy!!

“Hey! Lets go… we’re going to interview people today. Please get prepare!”

“Don’t worry. It’s just a simple matter. Walking around, asking people, holding a camcorder, press the red button, and say, “Thank you sir. We really appreciate your cooperation.”….that is so easy to do. Just be cool….”

This is my first impression, when we’re planning to interview the publics regarding to our topic for documentary project. I’m expecting everything would be smooth and easy to find our interviewee, as easy as we choose jeans. However, my expectation is really far than the reality. Actually, to find just a person to answer our short questions is quite hard. Some of them intended to share their opinion but when we say that it will be recorded, as fast as a light travels, they changed their mind. “Haa!! You want to record my face? Ohh…sorry, I can’t.” If we meet this kind of people, we’ve no choice. Just say, “Thanks a lot!” and start to begin another long journey to find another victim.

The challenge is not only to find people, but we’ve to be wiser in selecting a suitable place to ensure our interview record is in the best quality. What I meant by BEST QUALITY? We must consider to the sound and the surrounding condition. The place must be less noise and don’t have too much distraction like people who are passing by. Nevertheless, some of the publics were so cooperative. Although the topic that we asked to them is quite sensitive, however, they gave a very supportive response. After, two hours spent our time in One Utama Shopping Complex, finally we successfully interviewed about six people.

This experience has taught me, how difficult a career as a reporter is. If I compare the interview task with the real job as a reporter, I’m realized it is too different to be compared. I salute to those who are working in a broadcasting field especially the reporters. It looks easy but not as easy as what we saw by our two ball-like shape camera. To collect information, ones should be very patient, responsible and eager to convey what they’re going to do. Karam Singh Walia is one of the news reporter who I really adore and respect. Though people would laugh when see him in the television because of his “moving hand” trademark, but if we conscientiously see what he had done to Malaysian and our country, we would be astounded by his credibility. Personally I think, he is not just a reporter but also an environmentalist. He always try to educate people to be aware to any problems related to the environment like pollutions and landslide. I think he has achieved his goal in nurturing the publics’ attitude.



So, what I can conclude here is no matter what we are doing, expect beyond the possibilities. Because the further we can think would help us to get prepare with any obstacles that would coming. But always put yourself in reality not fantasy. Don’t be like Captain Hardcastle when he said, “…men are your enemy and young boys are insects…”. Don’t he realized that he also a man and used to be a young boy? He is a weird man! Don’t you think so?

Feb 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

This week I have watched a quite “fascinating” and “enjoyable” movie (If you notice my tone, it might sound sarcastic, haha.. But don’t worry I’ll try to love it!). Hmm… what is the title? I know you already know about it, so I don’t want to talk about it. Okay, let me continue what I’m going to write here. Those are the answers for the first four questions that are given to me. We haven’t discussed about it yet in class.

1) Describe the physical appearance and mannerisms of Sandy and Tachibanna. Do they reinforce or challenge the stereotype of males and females of a particular nationality?

Answer: Sandy and Tachibanna have a lot of differences whether in their physical appearance or mannerism. Sandy is a western woman, has a white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. She likes to wear casual attires. In the sense of mannerisms, she is a talkative woman and straight forward when saying something. Although she curses a lot, she wasn’t particular about table manner. Sandy also seems to look like a stubborn and aggressive woman as been said by Tachibanna. Furthermore, she has a bad habit which is smoking. She smokes a lot.
On the contrary, Tachibanna has a different physical appearance and behaviour . He is an eastern male with yellowish skin, black short hair and skinny. He is a Japanese who loves to wear a formal clothes and almost of his clothes in this movie were black in colour. As an eastern society, his attitude is more courteous. He is quite reserved and he avoid to say no because in Japanese culture, saying no is considered as rude. This showed his upbringing. Tachibanna was quite obsessed in practicing the Japanese tradition. He would bows and shows his named card to introduce himself to others. At first he came to Australia, he likes to sit at back of car and preferred to listen to Japanese music rather than rock songs.
When Sandy and Tachibanna met for the first time, Sandy felt uncomfortable with how Tachibanna behaved. She thought that the Japanese culture is awkward. However, as they knew closer to each other, finally Sandy can accepted the ridiculousness of the Japanese culture when she showed her interest to learn Japanese language and culture.


2) Sandy’s mother is quite morbid as she likes to cut out and collect obituaries. Sandy accuses her mother of being sick as she is interested in Death. Her mother retorts, “There’s nothing sick about death. It’s part of being alive.” This statement is a premonition that prepares the viewer for the climax of the story. What is this climax?

Answer: The climax of the story is the Tachibanna’s death. He died after dived into a river and unfortunately his neck was broken.

3) Tachibanna is impressed by the vastness of the mine, the machinery and the open space of the desert as compared to the enclosed space in Japan?
“In Australia there is a lot of space and no people, in Japan there is a lot of people and no space. There’s nothing out there. It scares me.”
Is the setting important in the plot of this movie?

Answer: Absolutely, because the setting of the open space of the desert shows how Tachibanna and Sandy’s attitude changed. When Tachibanna said that Australia has a lot of space and no people, and Japan IS vice versa, this means that both of the countries have apparent differences where there is more freedom in Australia and people in this country tend to live in their own life without concern to others because the distance between two towns in Australian desert are very far. Otherwise, in Japan, its society is controlled by their customs and because of that they are closer to each other.
Almost of the plot in this movie occurred in the desert. At first they arrived at the desert, both of them didn’t have a mutual understanding. Sandy always felt sick to the Tachibanna’s behaviour . She felt uncomfortable to see Tachibanna snapping photos while she drove the car and also when she listen Tachibanna converse using mobile phone especially when he used Japanese language. However, the incident of being stuck in the bog had changed their personal opinion to each other. They became more amiable and did everything together.


4) How has the misadventure of being stuck in the bog affected their relationship?

Answer: Since then, they started become closer and become tolerant to one another. At first, they always quarrel because Tachibanna didn’t try to help Sandy when they were stuck in the bog. Nevertheless, after Tachibanna is scolded by Sandy, he started to lend a hand. They became intimate friends after successfully escaped from the desert. This incident also was a starting point where Sandy started to fall in love with Tachibanna.

Tachibanna ??