In Pursuit of Scholarly Writing for ENNF 103

Hi 2 all,

Great to know that you're checking the blogosphere for updates. Yupp:) The reading-response essay is around the corner, and I'm sure each and every one of you inspiring and budding writers is busy reading, debating and writing, something, somewhere, somehow.

The miracle about reading is the indispensable wisdom and values we collate over the years. Better still, some of us can memorize some wonderful lines and phrases, some shocking statistics,picking up some expressions enhancing the effectiveness of of our writing initiative...Hmmm...

Points to ponder:

1. If you want to make your paragraph interesting and attractive to the readers, a masterpiece they can relate to almost immediately - try inserting one famous quotation or two. Hopefully it's not a cliche. Try quoting big contemporary names, renowned events, or so.

2. If you want to elevate your writing and make it more scholarly, you'll need some extent of research. Here, you will have to use in-text citations in your paragraph to mention the ideas taken from your literature review or reading articles. In other words, you have to convince your readers that you are not only immersed and engrossed in your own world with your high-flying ideas, but you also read other researchers' works and acknowledge their kind contribution to the said field.

p.s. check the pages on in-text citation in Chapter 3 to know what I mean.

To start the ball rolling in this blogosphere, perhaps somebody can start sharing thoughts, criticisms, or observation, on this fantastic topic : ROBOTS ***remember to include in-text citations!

So, till we meet next week for the assessment, please read and digest chapter 3 for reference to "in-text citation and reference page." Practice - quoting internet articles, newspaper articles,.....

In the Spirit of MERDEKA

To all Friends and Beloved Students who are reading this blog, Happy Merdeka Day:) I shall first and foremost perform my social obligation to the university by promoting our event tomorrow - D'Ambang Merdeka. The celebration will be launched by the Vice Chancellor Y Bhg Prof Ir Dato' Dr Mashkuri bin Yaakob. You are all cordially invited to : event : D'Ambang Merdeka date : 29th August 2008 ( Friday) venue : Library concourse & lobby time : 8.00 a.m. - 10.00 a.m. What to expect? 1. Aerobics Exercise with Puan Mastura 2. Merdeka Poetry Recital 3. Merdeka exhibition 4. etc. So, let's get together and show our support for our university event in conjunction with Merdeka. I promise to capture some snapshots of the ENNF 103 community, as I see them , tomorrow and cramp them in this blog....hmmmm. with love, Pn Zue

and here's PART 2: Surprise:) The ENNF 103 Merdeka Day Brigade made a mark with their red shirts and stunning march pass. Wow! They should really get A's for Kor UNITEN elective paper...yah...Guess I was d only photographer who came so near to the batalion...to get papparazzi snapshots, of course..and GOTCHA:) Shazwan and Hasliza posed for the camera...as for Bernard and Fitri ...hmmm...that's pretty cool. As promised, here are some of the best photos I wish to share with all of you.

in their Merdeka spirit:)


Actually, we had "aerobicton" in the morning with three instructors - kak Mas, Mardian, and Ali...oh my God! but I'm used to the regime, so I really enjoyed it. SOme of my colleagues had to just watch some rigorous and energetic steps..like the "skipping" and "kickboxing". Otherwise, I guess the aerobics which went on for one hour is a fantastic idea to start our day and reminisce good old memories with those evergreen Merdeka songs..ha..ha.. What else did we have...yupp:) We also had Wani (MURNI President) and Fana (Final Year MURNIan) on stage. They really did all MURNIans proud with their SAJAK Merdeka. They had loads of compliments from Prof Yem, Dr Nash, Pn Mas, Mr Mardian, and almost everybody. Good job gurlz. Hmm...keep practising with those drama and vocal effects. We'll have MURNI Merdeka Nite Celebration '08 next week. p.s. Nadia and Farah will recite "pantun Merdeka"..he..he..Here are pictures of Wani, Fana, Iza (MURNI-Resident Fellow, Lilie-my friend), and Wani, Fana and Dr Nash. My photo??? he..he..I was d photographer, remember...

Talented ladies from MURNI:)








Lastly, let's pray that Merdeka celebration on campus and nationwide will not become a mere rhetoric. The intention is noble, the spirit is patriotic. Nevertheless, the most important message should be made apparent - that this year, we aim to live up to the Merdeka Day theme - Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan! We are all MALAYSIANS, and we stand by each other to strengthen the nation. Living in this rich diversity comprising multiple racial backgrounds, religous beliefs, cultural practices, inclinations and talents, we should move steps forward by acknowledging and respectind each other. Bersatu kita TEGUH, bercerai kita Roboh. Good Luck MALAYSIANS. May this country bring all the joy, blessings, rezeki, rahmat, peace, harmony and unity to us all. Amiiiiiiiin.



Selamat Menyambut Kemerdekaan Malaysia ke 51.

My Idol - My Hero

I took my children to see WALL-E last Thursday. I was convinced of the value of the movie after hearing comments from Rifdy in class, and Vivek. Well, we gave it a shot...and hey - not disappointing at all.

Particularly to my own students, you've grown up so successful. Some may have only entered university. Others are now already doing their degree, reached final year, and some have just graduated yesterday or today at Dewan Seri Sarjana, UNITEN. My ex-students at UKM Engineering and Medical School have now contributed so much to the country, and my own ex-UNITEN students are successful engineers and business graduates. Behind your successful stories, there could perhaps be a hero, or an idol, who helps to pave your pathway to success? If it's not too much to ask, perhaps we can share some of your own thoughts and reflection here, in my blog.

For a start, my daughter Farah was wondering if she could share with all my readers her hero - WALL-E. And here it is...her entry taken from the EMFANA journoblog. Farah, for your information, is a sweet 9 year-old young lady who loves nature, reading and music. I hope you enjoy reading her short essay. Thank you...

Hi there i'm Princess Farah, ok today I want to talk about WALL-E. WALL-E is great but it's not only great - it's fantastic or really really fantastic. WALL-E lives on earth and did i tell you that the earth is so dirty and has many rubbish.People do not live on the earth anymore because it has so many rubish and it's so filthy.

WALL-E always picks trash and put it in his tummy and it becomes a square.People throw things and toys that are useful,beautiful and still new. WALL-E has a pet cockroach, and i guess that there is a million of cockroach beacause it's so dirty. And did i tell you that the people live in a spaceship and the ship is so beautiful and the ship parks at outerspace.The ship stays in space for 700 years - wow! that's so long.In the ship there is a swimming pool,cafes,juice shop and so many more.The people in the ship are so so fat, obese exactly, because they always sit and eat and drink,eat and drink.And can you imagine that the babies are fat too that is so hard to imagine.

i think this movie shows us that human are so lazy, selfish and careless. They don't care about the earth. They make the earth dirty, and when there is too much rubbish, they run away. WALL-E is the hero. He saves the earth because he cleans the earth untill people can live on earth, again. The end. Brilliant movie, thank you mom and dad. I want to see another movie like Meet Dave?! High School Musical 3 ?!!!!!!!!:)

Graduation Day at UNITEN

Superb day witnessing UNITEN graduates receiving their scrolls and pledging to contribute to a more successful community. With their knowledge, talent and commitment, they will now make us all proud -the university via ALUMNI and of course, our beloved country via employability. Most of them have got a job, somewhere, and Dr Chua from ALUMNI has promised to declare the good statistics very soon. As always, the common comment among the successful ones is that they may not get 3.5 and above, but their soft skills, particularly communication and leadership grant them their dreams:) .

With the convocation banner up for a while at Dewan Seri Sarjana, I do hope the juniors will feel inspired to study hard and qualify for the Vice Chancellor Award (3.5 and above) and complete their studies observing a good balance of hard skills and soft skills. If employability statistics can't convince our undergraduates to participate in class and campus activities, rather than merely burying themselves in tonnes of books, I don't know what else to do or say. I surely pray for the best.(notice sponge bob in our crowd??!)

I was the master of ceremony, and I felt proud helping out in making the event flow smoothly without any hiccups. Most importantly, I certainly treasure the smiles from my ex-students who have finally breathed air of satisfaction and contentment. I'm very happy for their success. Down the line were Dolah, Azlan, Daniel, Jason, etc. To commemorate the grandeur of the day, I have included here pictures of Haidir (4th place UNITEN Public Speaking Competition 2007) and on top of the article, my photo with 3 outstanding ladies from ILMU : Syanita, Shuhada, and Amy. Lastly, congratulations to all:)

17.08.08 Happy Birthday EDSoc.

English Debate Society (a group of people sharing the same interests/ enthusiasm).

This is a great day, one that marks a meaningful journey for oratory endeavour in UNITEN, the beginning of successful episodes for undergraduates who see the importance of persuading, convincing, and influencing via speaking. 17th August 2006, is a day to remember, indeed. The acronym EDSoc. was coigned, and it shall remain forever.

EDSoc. is more than a complete package for an undergraduate who wants to improve his speaking skills in English.

Its main aim is to put together speaking enthusiasts, English speaking undergraduates, and those who wish to see themselves as university debaters and public speakers. One of the main concerns is to ensure multi-racial population - and we've discovered this yardstick viable in UNITEN, where the language of instruction is English. Here, almost half if not all of the students are eloquent and comfortable using the English language in their everyday conversation, discussion, and presentation.

The president, Navin, and Vice President, Vivek have worked so hard, gaining strong support from all EDSocians to make it happen at EDSoc. The thrust of EDSoc. is debating. We organize debate workshops and tourneys for all to learn and appreciate debating as a skill, science and art. Debating alumnus, Yoong How, helped us run the first debate workshop. Thanks:) dear. Together, we've taken our debating teams to various platforms and places. The teams have participated in tourneys in IIUM, MMU, UITM Perlis, and they have travelled as far as NUS Singapore, to experience what debating entails in real life. Until today, the senior members have successfully formed four teams, and i must say I'm so proud of them.

Other than debating, EDSoc. also grooms telents for public speaking. We organized our first Public Speaking competition in 2007, and it was a very exciting one, indeed. The champion was Hemalan, and runner-up was Sneha. The themes were "Black is White" and "Opening Pandora's Box". This year, we shall organize a National Public Speaking Competition, and we surely hope to see huge participation from the undergraduates. Besides, we also send our members to join the Star-HSBC National Public Speaking Competition.

EDSoc. will be able to contribute to more undergraduates if we only obtain greater participation and support in terms of membership and participation. In my own class, I always take the opportunity to advise my students to make time for EDSoc. Undergraduates should realize that communicative competence is essential in today's employability challenge, and that it is not limited to the English classes. There are other avenues, like EDSoc., where undergraduates can improve their English speaking skills.

Lastly, to all EDSocians, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. To the rest, we welcome your membership and contribution. Let's all grow with EDSoc. and reap the benefits of active involvement in campus activities. Be a debater, public speaker, leader, active member, and you help to make life more colourful, successful and meaningful at UNITEN.

Let's make it happen:)

Sincerely,Puan Zue

UNITEN Rowing Invitational 2008

Hi everybody. Do you know that this is the forth time UNITEN organizes this prestigous event? Well, rowing used to be between Oxford and Cambridge universities, the two giants in the scholarly world. Now, it has come to Putrajaya, and it has not only involved local schools (SMK Putrajaya Presint 8(1), 16(1), 11(1) and SMK Alam Shah), private and public universities (UM, UTM, USIM, UIA, USM, UMS, UTHM, UNITEN, MMU, UNIKL), but also received participation from universities in Singapore (NUS), the Philippines (Ateneo), Hong Kong (HK Baptist & City U), and Japan (Shiga).

Among the VVIPs at the URI 2008 were Y Bhg Dato' Sri Che Khalib, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Y Bhg Prof Ir Dr Mashkuri, Vice Chancellor, UNITEN, His Excellency Alejandro Fernandez, Ambassador of Peru to Malaysia, and His Excellency Masahiko Horie, Ambassador of Japan to Malaysia. Like many other events, we also had entertainment from local artists, particularly Aris Ariwatan...(he also sang my favourite numbers....hmmmmm.

Were the results surprising? So...so....may be...Shiga University, Japan, for example, won so many medals until most of us thought they would win the overall championship. UNITEN has definitely improved its performance and standing at second place, and has done us proud with its accomplishments (Well done Seelan: my ex-student). Nevertheless, UTM was the overall champion, for the third time. WOW!:) They must be really strong, complete with strategies and techniques. Let's quickly learn from them, ya...

Now, how do I know about all these? Of course, I helped to emcee the event. It was a tiring, but interesting job coz I got to see the results before any of the spectators or the vvips could take a peek...he..he..i'm not sure how apt a female voice helps to set the stage, though...something less (5%) than ESPN commentators, or the Olympics in Beijing, I bet.

Comment: Proud to see UNITEN supporters there, and my very own students. Here they are, Firdaus, Anwar, and Adam, posing with the medals and winning trophies. p.s. I've got their permission to post this photo in my blog.

As for the rest, please take time to participate and support campus activities. It may take away your weekend or holidays, but experience as such will help you in so many ways, ultimately. Academic takes care of the hard-skills or content. As for soft-skills, it's something we can only polish and develop via involvement in leadership, competitions, and participation in activities, clubs and societies.

We shall meet again next year, in the 5th UNITEN Rowing Invitational 2009. Hopefully:) *** after reading the comments from anonymuos and maisarah, guess I will help to promote the event via my blog.

The 'Gen-set' Conviction

I was at Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) yesterday - 6th August 2008 to emcee a wonderful and intellectually stimulating event - Seminar on Operation and Maintenance of Electrical Supply System and Power Quality in Putrajaya-Cyberjaya.

There were two groups of experts - the TNB Engineers (General Managers, Senior Managers, Expert engineers, etc) and the expert TNB clients and customers (building owners, consultants, etc). The event was officially launched by Y Bhg Dato' Ir Aishah bt Dato' Hj Abdul Rauf, Vice President for TNB Distribution.

There were altogether seven paper presentations - so it was like an Engineering crash course!!:) to me...yupp, a simple TESL graduate pursuing PhD in organizational communication and 'powerless' language! Pretty shocking? Guess, I returned to my solace with some kind of "not so much of power trip" but a "mighty blink power dip".

So, what did i learn? That 1) there's this second route or back-up power supply to ensure smooth flow of electricity to clients and customers..you know...banks, industries, can't possibly bear with the consequences of power dips or trips...! 2) there's this device called "standby gen-set" which we resort to during power failure to mitigate the repercussions. ***of course there were many other innovative ideas..but let's stick to something close to layman applications:)

I see starking similarity between the standby 'gen-set' and mankind. Despite the fascinating technological breakthrough, some common problems do arise. In other words, although the gen-set is here to help us, it will not function accordingly if we neglect it. Negligence can be due to 3 reasons: 1) fail to set (battery, air-lock, engine jam) 2) fail to carry load (engine, generator, electrical items) 3) fail to sustain load (ring a bell???)

Likewise, man can be achievers if we don't take things for granted. If we only learn from the gen-set lesson scenario, we should be 1) ready to accept challenges 2) ready to perform and 3) consistent in our effort and attempts in all undertakings. It's always good to have Plan B, jez make sure than Plan B is viable, and that it works.

At the end of the day, I'm all the more convinced that Engineering has always fascinated me..too bad...I'm not cut for it...guess I'm d ladylike and motherly type of woman...so i've decided to enjoy the other corner of life...i shall always admire how engineers have engineered the engineering miracles and majesty. Don't ask if my children will be engineers, coz that's a very different story...

Is it about Winning?

It's good to introduce children to sports. Besides ensuring their health and fitness, sports nurtures team spirit, goodwill and competition. Having said that, does it matter if we win or lose?

My son, Emir, participated in the Smart Reader's sports day today and I saw him bonding with lots of friends. I notice two wonders: 1) they identified themselves as Blue, Yellow and Green teams, 2) they enjoyed winning, but didn't blame each other for losing. Hmmmm...something to ponder about how adults may behave, instead???

Here's a picture of us, Emir and d proud mom.

And...here's what Emir has to say about winning: "I'm the champion....." and "I've got a trophy...". This is another special thing about sports. You win a medal or a trophy everytime. Instead of hampers or goodies, we can arrange our medals and trophies in the glass cabinet and be reminded of our triumphant moments...yuppppp:) we're winners forever.

Here's a picture or Emir and friends, d Green Team from Smart Reader Kids Putrajaya Presint 15.


Now, a little coverage about Nadia. Yesterday, her school participated in a national choir competition at Istana Budaya Kuala Lumpur. The boys and girls were so excited, mainly because they were going to KL and that they were selected to represent the school. Congratulations...to all of you. My eldest daughter, Nadia, was the choir conductor. Later, I learned that they only got consolation prize. When I told them to pose under the scorching hot sun after the competition, they were smiling with pride and victory. Apparently, winning is not all about getting first or second place. It's the invaluable experience, team spirit and sweet challenge that give them the thrill and excitement. The kids have won, indeed. Take a look at this photo, and you'll know what true winning really means:)

Well, have you got some thots to share here? Please feel free to post your comments.