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Monday, May 24, 2010

When Is Father's Day 2010 in Malaysia?

To answer the above question...

Father's Day 2010 in Malaysia will be celebrated on Sunday June 20.

and I found this website

http://www.fathersdaycelebration.com/

very interesting, it has beautiful wishes for Father's Day, so if you are out of ideas what to write in your Father's Day card, you might want to visit that site. It gives great Father's Day gift ideas too..

Monday, May 17, 2010

Beside or Besides?

Beside/besides.

This following excerpt appeared in The Star, April 26, page N39: “…Wan Aishah was resplendent besides her hus­­band….” The wrong word was used. It should have been beside (a preposition meaning “at the side of, next to”) – not besides (an adverb meaning ”in addition to, apart from”).

source

Friday, May 14, 2010

A Confession of an Unhappy Professor: Essay Writing

“Here we go again”, I think every time that a new pile of turned in essay papers falls onto my table. I’ve been teaching English in this university for ten years, and still there are only a few students that surprised me with their essay writings. The rest of them seems to discover new and extremely exiting ways to irritate me and turn essay paper reading into a nightmare.

I take the first paper. Go thought it. No, I’m not reading yet. The reason I’m not doing it is because it’s not labeled. I mean, there is not even a small attempt to tell me who this unknown author is, what class he belongs to, and what his topic is. And I’m sitting here, staring confused at the paper…. I start feeling like that Greek hero trying to solve Sphinx’s puzzle. If you want to get an unsatisfactory grade, this is the perfect beginning for it. I’m not even going to read this paper. It’s not like something is going to pop up to make me understand who the ultimate genius of this eternal writing is.

I take another essay paper and realize that my happy essay checking evening has only just begun. A wonderful mixture of fancy typefaces looks right at me, and there is no way I’m going to understand something (or at least a heading) from all these italics and bolds. I bet that even Picasso’s paintings are easier to comprehend. Whatever this essay paper is about, I don’t feel like pretending to be Sherlock Holmes: “It’s simple, Watson! This essay paper is about monkeys that love bananas. How did I come up with such a smart conclusion? Because I’m one smart guy”. Give me a break.

Even though I gave this paper a chance, it failed on the next stage – plagiarism check. And this is something I’m not able to forgive under any circumstances. Every student has a chance to make several essay drafts. Is it so hard to come up with something that can be called “personal opinion”? Why do so many students prefer to take quotations, but don’t feel like providing references? And here’s one more thing about quotations – an essay paper that is made of them on more than a half can not impress any professor. I’m not an exception.

Next essay paper goes to a trash bin, too. No, not because I’m “cute and cuddly”, but because it is full of slang and contractions. Never, please, never use contractions and slang (the last one especially) in your academic writing. Do I look like a jolly uncle that comes to visit and asks his nephews about their trip to Rollercoaster Park? If I do, than… I don’t know what to say.

And here’s one more thing that makes me want to cross an essay paper over with a red marker. A page-long Introduction that is written to impress me and make an essay paper look bigger is worse than bad breath and republicans. If you don’t know what to write about to fit into my requirements for amount of words, try to use your head for a change.

Similar to long Introductions are vague explanations. You probably wanted to make a point. But after that you felt tired, or had to go and water the flowers, or you work as a Superman and have to save the world at nights instead of writing essays for my class… whatever it is that stopped you from writing good explanations, it doesn’t make me feel happy. Maybe, your intentions were different, but I got it this way, and this is the way I grade it.

Why do students want to use the word “believe” instead of “agree”, or “think”? Believe means to have faith, to hold something true on the basis of feelings, without evidence. You are writing as a scientist, so you think, argue, accept, and hold on the basis of some evidence. The rest concerns your religion and believes.

Another thing that irritates me is using “we” instead of “I”. Did Madonna help you on writing this essay, and you feel like giving credit to her? Unless it is a group activity, please use “I”.

And finally – why do you use “its” as possessive, when you mean “it’s” in the meaning it is (which is a contraction, remember)? Can’t you be just a little more attentive?

With respect,

Your grumpy professor.

Jennifer Burns is the head of customer care center at Custom-Writing.org, help essay. Having completed a number of academic assignments himself, Jennifer uses her knowledge to provide individualized customer support to students, who order academic essay and essays writing

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Beauty Contest

Beauty contest/beautiful contest.

The usual expression is beauty contest, where the noun beauty is a modifier (in this example a noun functioning as an adjective).

A beautiful contest is rare – what with contestants jealous of one another and back-stabbing or bad-mouthing or sabotaging one another!


source

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Affect or Effect?

Affect/effect.

Affect is a verb, and effect can be a verb or a noun.

As verbs, affect and effect have very different meanings.

To affect is to influence, to “have an effect on, make a difference to” (temperature affects the viscosity of a syrup).

To effect is to “cause to happen, bring about” (to effect a change). Incident­ally, affect has another meaning: to “pretend to have or feel” (he affected a British accent when he returned home after a one-year stay in London).


source

Saturday, May 08, 2010

There is Or There are?

Here are some other examples of there is/there are use.

  • There’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic. (incorrect)
  • There are a lot of reasons…. (correct)

  • There’s two sides to every story. (incorrect)
  • There are two sides….(correct)

  • There’s several storms arriving in the West. (incorrect)
  • There are several storms arriving in the West. (correct)

  • There’s not options out there that they like at the moment. (I actually heard this one on ESPN.) (incorrect)
  • There aren’t options…. (correct)

Thursday, May 06, 2010

How To Write An Essay

Essay writing is definitely considered to be a part of academic life and essay writing requires certain skills or the part of the writer. A good written essay exhibits the skills of proper organization of ideas, good vocabulary, systematic argument and collection of relevant ideas. Fare importance should be given to diction and style used for essay writing. Certain important points to be considered while writing an essay are as follows:

1) Formulate a plan :

Get into the habit of writing a plan before starting an essay or project. A plan in hand can help you to formulate ideas and thus allows you to structure your final essay in an appropriate and logical way. Essay plans can be helpful in reminding you of important points that can be used to cover in your essay.

Your plan towards essay writing should involve using of keywords and phrases, making of notes of important references and formulating the essay in a logical order. Your planning should also consist of finding which words you may need to define and find out what you could research to make your case stronger. Try to eliminate anything that is irrelevant. In other words, make note of key things that will be relevant for the essay writing.

2) Work on your title:

It is preferable to choose and write your title with proper heading before you proceed further with the other paragraphs. Keeping the title in mind, you can write your essay in an easier manner. You will be able to write easily, once you have managed to remain focused towards your title.

3) Have a proper structured body :

The body of an essay plays an important role in the over all making of the essay. The body of the essay will consist of points for discussing, elaborating, describing and arguing about the subject. Once you structure your concerned topic for production, you can then put in your ideas within the body paragraphs.

Jack william is a freelance writer who writes about the topic of college students. Mr. william often writes about specific topics used in college such as Buy Essay.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

When Is Mother's Day?

When is Mother's Day in Malaysia?



In Malaysia, Mother's day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May every year.

Mother's Day Date

Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on different dates. Check out the exact date for Mother's Day in your country from the list of Mothers Day dates 2010 given below and start preparing for a big surprise of love for her.



Mother's Day 2010
Country
Day
Date
India
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
United States
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Australia
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Belgium
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Brazil
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Canada
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Denmark
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Finland
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Germany
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Greece
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Italy
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Japan
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
New Zealand
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Singapore
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
South Africa
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Turkey
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Sweden
Last Sunday in the month of May
May 30, 2010
Austria
First Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Hong Kong
First Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Netherlands
Second Sunday in the month of May
May 9, 2010
Taiwan
First Sunday in the month of May
May 2, 2010
Hungary
First Sunday in the month of May
May 2, 2010
Portugal
First Sunday in the month of May
May 2, 2010
Spain
First Sunday in the month of May
May 2, 2010
United Kingdom
Fourth Sunday in the month of March
March 14, 2010
Romania
First Sunday in the month of May
May 2, 2010

Monday, May 03, 2010

Why Were After If?

The word ‘were’ after ‘if’

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by FADZILAH AMIN -THE STAR


I’M A little confused on how and when to use the word “were” after the word “if”. Must “were” be used after “if” in any circumstance? The attachments were taken from newspapers here on the use of ‘if’ and ‘were’. Marc Ong

No, “were” need not be used after “if” in all circumstances, only in some. There are so many other verbs in the English language that can be used in the past tense in second conditional sentences when we are talking about an unlikely or impossible situation. Here are some examples in which the simple past tense of verbs other than “are” are used in the if-clause with “would” in the main clause:

“If I had wings, I would fly.”

“If you lost 100kg in a week, you would really be slim.”

However, in second conditional sentences beginning with “I”, “were” is usually used instead of “was”, for example in:

“If I were you, I would not buy that car.”

“If I were young again, I would try to be a professional tennis player.”

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